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With the University of the Free State (UFS) academic programme suspended and following guidelines by the UFS Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) Task Team to minimise the gathering of people in one place, all UFS libraries will be closed from Friday 20 March to Monday 13 April 2020.
During this time, staff and students will not have any access to the following campus and branch libraries of the UFS Library and Information Services:
• Sasol Library (Bloemfontein Campus)
• Neville Alexander Library (South Campus)
• TK Mopeli Library (Qwaqwa Campus)
• Frik Scott Medical Library (Bloemfontein Campus)
• Music Library (Bloemfontein Campus)
The university community is advised as follows:
• Use Wednesday (18 March) and Thursday (19 March) to borrow books you might need during the long recess. During these two days, students are advised to take precautionary measures and avoid sitting in groups that might compromise their health.
• During this time, all due dates for borrowed material will be automatically extended, no late fines will be charged, and patrons can return material when libraries reopen.
• Please make use of the ‘Ask-a-Librarian’ service for any assistance you might require (go to the UFS Library and Information Services website – click Library Services – click Ask-a-Librarian); OR use the UFS Library social media.
• The UFS Library and Information Services will also be available on a new ‘LiveChat’ service accessible here (listed under Resources – LibGuides). With this service, you can connect ‘live’ with your information librarian.
• All planned activities for the South African Library Week are postponed until further notice.
UFS shares expertise in Sign Language
2009-05-07
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The University of the Free State (UFS) is continuing in its commitment to reach out to other universities on the African continent. Mr Philemon Akach (pictured), a senior lecturer in the Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice, recently visited the University of Ghana to share his expertise and assist in the introduction of the Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) as an academic course in that institution. The course will first be piloted as an “elective course” and if successful it will be a permanent feature of the University of Ghana's calendar.
Mr Akach has been instrumental in the development of GSL since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sent him on a fact-finding mission regarding the education of deaf children in Ghana in 1993. Since then he has trained interpreters as well as parents and teachers of deaf children in Ghana in using the South African Sign Language multimedia grammar teaching materials. He has also guided the GSL Dictionary Project. The University of Ghana will use his books as the basis for the teaching of the GSL. This session was a follow-up to the one he had with that university in February this year.
The UFS is widely regarded as a beacon of light in the teaching of sign language on the continent and, together with the University of Witwatersrand, are the only universities in South Africa that offer sign language as an academic course.
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe |