Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Highlights 2007 - Community outreach

http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/documents/opprimary.ppt

Staff of the Veterinary Science Library visited a local school (Onderstepoort Primary Schoool) to take a large donation of story books, colouring-in books, colour pencils and crayons and toothbrushes and toothpaste received from a group of veterinarians in Vermont, USA and their dental technician friend. The books were donated by 2 schools in Vermont.

This kind action from concerned people in the USA helped us to play a more active role in our local school community, which we hope to develop further.

Click on the URL above for a photo tour of the event.

List of donors:
Veterinarians from Vermont, USA
Julie Moenter, DVM
Marv Greenberg, DVM
Laura Lyndes, DVM

Margaret Pierce Teitelbaum (dental technician, Vermont)

Russell Memorial Library, Monkton, Vermont
Lawrence Memorial Library, Bristol, Vermont

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Highlights 2007


STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS

- 4 staff members presented a paper at the IFLA conference in Durban on 18 August. This was at the Satellite Session of the Health and Biosciences Section. The title of the presentation:
Disasters and Diseases in Africa: Information Support for Animal and Human Health. Tertia Coetsee, Antoinette Lourens, Marguerite Nel and Erica van der Westhuizen
(http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/ifla/iflapap.htm)

- Amelia Breytenbach, the Library Services' metadata specialist, presented a paper on metadata at the IGBIS section of LIASA at a meeting held in Pretoria.

- Amelia Breytenbach enrolled for the online course on metadata for digital collections presented by the University of Wisconsin:Milwaukee, USA in November.

- Erica van der Westhuizen completed the editing of the Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists.

- Antoinette Lourens was responsible for the layout of the above Proceedings and final preparation to enable the publication to be printed by the University of Illinois in November.

- Erica van der Westhuizen was asked to write the history of the Veterinary Science Library for publication in the special Centenary Book about the Faculty and the Institute (OVI) in 2008.

MARKETING

- UPSpace collections were marketed during Faculty Day in September. A special display was mounted and the collections could be viewed online at the display stand. The focus was The Elephant illustrations of the Christine Seegers Biomedical Illustrations collection.

- The Library's role in the Faculty was emphasised during the function held to celebrate the 20 years that the library has been in the Sir Arnold Theiler building. (http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/quilt.htm)

This was a marketing opportunity, enhancing communication with the Dean and Departmental Heads in particular. A special issue of the library newsletter, Infomania, focused on the history of the library and its services and products during the past 20 years. It can be viewed electronically at http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/infomania/infomania17/infoma17.htm

The making of the special commemorative quilt improved team spirit and it is a beautiful addition to the original art collection in the library.
Special mention must be made of Barbara Kellermann who designed the quilt and ensured a professional end-product.

Highlights 2007 continued

PHYSICAL SPACE / FACILITIES

Circulation desk : the old cumbersome one was dismantled in July and the new streamlined one installed.

Carpets: new carpets were laid in the area surrounding the Circulation desk including the Reserved Collection area.

Shelves : additional shelves were installed on the upper level for the expanding book collection, as well as downstairs in the Reserved Collection. This has helped to improve access to books and facilitate their correct placement on the shelves.

These improvements have helped to increase staff morale leading to improved output as well as job satisfaction!

VIRTUAL SPACE

There were 3 notable developments in our Virtual information environment in 2007:

- UPSpace collection added, namely the Christine Seegers Biomedical Illustrations : The Elephant (https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/handle/2263/1971)

This is an example of the successful collaboration of the information specialist / metadata specialist, the lecturer who described the illustrations, and the artist.

- New Web Portals created: a) Disasters and Emergencies (http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/disaster/)

b) Poisonous plants (http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/poison/)

- the creation and management of the South African National Veterinary Repository - a collaborative effort of the Veterinary Science Library, University of Pretoria (UP) and the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (OVI) (https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/handle/2263/3809)
with metadata supplied by Emeritus Professor Roy Tustin and digitised slides from the collections of the OVI and the Dept of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, UP

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

2006 OVERVIEW

Achievements during 2006 included UPSpace developments (Theiler Collection), Training, Marketing, E-books, WIKIs and Blogs, revamped Web pages and the bi-annual visit from the SA Vet Council.

UPSpace

DIGITAL THEILER UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
(for background info: http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/infomania/infomania14/infoma14.htm)

The Veterinary Science Library participated once again in Faculty Day at Onderstepoort with a hands-on display of one of its growing UPSpace communities, the Theiler Collection. (UPSpace is the electronic institutional research repository on the web of the University of Pretoria for digitised items). (https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/)

Ably assisted by Ria Groenewald, the AIS digital expert, and Amelia Breytenbach (our library’s digital expert and main force driving the project) we were able to show our clients and visitors what a powerful tool such a digital collection is, enabling access to historical documents including rare photographs of ARNOLD THEILER, founder of the Faculty in 1920, and of his colleagues, friends and family.
Ria made an excellent scanned copy of his thesis presented at Berne University in Switzerland in 1901 (Die Malaria des Pferdes) and it is included in the Collection for all the world to read. I wish I had been there in 1901 to tell him that the future would give him even greater exposure than he had in Pres. Paul Kruger’s time! (https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/172/2/atphd1901.pdf)

FUTURE DIGITAL PROJECTS

Diseases of production animals are of importance worldwide, but Africa has a special abundance of diseases and therefore attracts interest from various research bodies internationally. Most of the early research reports on Africa’s animal diseases appear in our local veterinary or animal science journals. The need to digitise these early works is imperative. Theiler’s report on Lamsiekte (Parabotulism) in cattle in South Africa, published in 1927, is being studied now by a Research group in Germany – we provided the material which was unobtainable in any library in that country.
We are holding thumbs that they will help us with funding to digitise these early publications.

Marketing

SA VETERINARY & PARAVETERINARY CONGRESS, DURBAN, 6 – 9 JUNE 2006

Every two years the South African veterinary profession holds a congress where members share knowledge and expertise with colleagues from all over the country.

The Library was very grateful to be able to share the Faculty’s stand so that we could market our products and services to help the practising veterinarian, veterinary nurse and veterinary technician to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in their fields.

As Continuing Professional Development is now compulsory for every practitioner
the Library certainly has a role in helping him to achieve this.

To quote from an article which appeared in the British publication Veterinary Practice ( Nelson, Mike. (2006) The Nelson Touch; RCVS Council heralds some mandatory CPD . Veterinary Practice 38 (1) : 2)

”No one who wishes to keep abreast of the advances in veterinary science can afford to neglect the regular reading of the professional journals. They record for him, and thus enable him to benefit by the results of the experiences and researchers of others, at home and abroad.”

We held 2 lucky draws to win a book bag plus one year’s free subscription to our Journal Contents Pages / Article Service.

The winners were Dr Cedric Tutt from the Veterinary Dentistry and Oro-Facial Surgery Clinic in Cape Town and Dr Leith Meyer from Wits University.

NOTE: COMPETITIONS ARE A GREAT WAY TO MARKET YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

CONVERSATIONS WITH SIR ARNOLD


Sir Arnold Theiler was the founder of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria in 1920.

This feature was started in 2006 to inform users about products and services of the library. It appears as a regular column in the library's newsletter, Infomania.
(http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/infomania/infomania14/infoma14.htm
http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/infomania/infomania15/infoma15.htm

Evaluation

SOUTH AFRICAN VETERINARY COUNCIL VISIT FACULTY AND LIBRARY

They interviewed library staff, students and faculty members and made the following suggestions:
1. All Departmental CD’s and discs should be available to students in the library.
2. Improve internet access speed of computers in the library.
3. Increase hostel internet connections with satisfactory speed in order to improve student’s access to the internet and intranet.
4. Use library staff more to develop curricula and to train students in learning data retrieval and analysis.

Training

1.TRAINING COURSES TO PROMOTE INFORMATION LITERACY

Our most popular course! It should be presented earlier in the undergraduate curriculum.

INFORMATION LITERACY TRAINING

BVSC V / VI

1 a.OPTIMAL USE OF THE INTERNET FOR VETERINARY INFORMATION

Presented by Information Specialists of the Academic Information Service, 2006

These training sessions will show you the most effective ways of searching for information on the Web. The skills and techniques that you will learn will enable you to keep up-to-date as veterinary practitioners once you complete your studies at Onderstepoort.

The following aspects will be covered:

Search tips
Search tools

subject gateways
web directories
search engines / Google / Google Scholar

Subject tools for animal health (freely available on the Web)

- CONSULTANT (Cornell University, College of Vet Med)
- DATABASES : Agricola and PubMed
- Electronic Zoo (NetVet)
- FAO (Food and Agric. Organisation)
- Intute: health & life sciences (formerly called BIOME)
- Intute: health & life sciences: Veterinary (formerly called Vetgate)
- IVIS (International Veterinary Information Service)
- OIE (World Animal Health Organisation)
- Tutorials for practitioners
- Vetscite (for Current awareness)
- WHO (World Health Organisation)
- Zoonoses websites

Evaluating web resources

How to cite web resources

Creating personal databases (Reference Manager)

Tertia Coetsee
Antoinette Lourens
Erica van der Westhuizen
www.ais.up.ac.za/vet

1 b. Veterinary Public Health group tasks for 5th year students (Tertia Coetsee) - successful example of what can be achieved if lecturer is involved and students are motivated!

2. Workshops for Information Specialists -

Metadata and Dublin Core for DSpace (Amelia Breytenbach)

Blogs (Antoinette Lourens)


Improving the work environment

DESIGNING NEW CIRCULATION DESK

The plans drawn up by the UP architect were finally approved by the staff involved, and tenders were sent out in December 2006. So we look forward to an ergonomically satisfactory working environment in 2007.

Enhancing Communication

BLOGS AND WIKIS for improved communication with library staff and users

Blogs for our library: http://knowledgeflows.blogspot.com (5ICAHIS conference)

http://uniekevet.blogspot.com (all about our activities)

http://aisebooks.blogspot.com (all about the e-book collections, run by Amelia Breytenbach)

WIKIS : http://vetstrategies.pbwiki.com (for strategic aspects of relevance to our library)

Electronic resources

E-BOOKS COLLECTION

The E-book collection for veterinary and related subject fields was compiled in 2006 enabling our users to peruse electronic books with the click of the mouse.
http://www.ais.up.ac.za/ebooks/collmain.htm
There are now 96 titles in the collection.

Community project

VET BOOKS FOR AFRICA

Through our community project, Vet Books for Africa, run by the Veterinary Science Library, we help to improve the information sources collections of veterinary faculty libraries in other African countries. At the end of November 7 students from our Faculty travelled by road to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, taking donated books, journals and CDs to their libraries. Most of these donations are sent to us by veterinary practitioners in the USA.

Re-vamping our Web Pages

NEW WEB PAGE FOR VET LIBRARY

Implementation of the new Web page for the Veterinary Science Library -
(http://www.ais.up.ac.za/vet/index.htm). Antoinette Lourens, our Web Specialist, converted or redesigned 136 web pages with appropriate images highlighting activities at this Library and Faculty. These web pages provide access to all relevant information sources for our clients.