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03 February 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp
Charlie Molepo, Deputy Director: Research and Scholarly Communications in Library and Information Services

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) division in the University of the Free State Department of Library and Information Services has been recognised by a global library cooperative, OCLC. 

Peter Collins, Director of Resource Sharing at OCLC, says they chose to enrol the UFS Sasol Library in the OCLC’s Express Digital Delivery Programme because of the exceptional work of the staff in the ILL division.

This American non-profit cooperative organisation supports thousands of libraries in making information more accessible and useful to people around the world. 

Users prioritised for receiving service

According to Charlie Maphuntshane Molepo, Deputy Director: Research and Scholarly Communications in Library and Information Services, ILL staff members Jonas Mogopodi and Shaneulia Nel played a big role in ensuring the consistent delivery of articles and other digital resources within 18 hours or less through OCLC’s WorldShare ILL network.

The university’s ILL division, providing a service to academics and postgraduate students, is one of 1 100 institutions worldwide to participate in the Express Digital Delivery Programme. Only four South African universities have been included in this elite service (including the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, the University of KwaZulu Natal, and the UFS).

“This means that our users will be prioritised when they request articles delivered in an electronic format, receiving their requested information within 18 hours as part of the elite institutions. The normal turnaround time for requesting/receiving items from other institutions is three to seven days for electronic resources, says Molepo.

Shift to virtual learning

Collins explains that the Express Digital Delivery Programme was developed to help libraries respond to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, tighter budgets, and the shift to more virtual learning. “It will provide the fastest available solution to issue requested articles to your library's users with your current resource-sharing service,” he says.

The service is also provided at no extra cost to the universities as it is included in the current ILL subscription.

Collins believes that no other resource-sharing service can match the speed, reliability, or breadth of materials available through this programme.

Enrolling the UFS Sasol Library’s ILL system in the OCLC’s Express Digital Delivery programme recognises that the UFS library is delivering a world-class service to its users and other partner libraries. It has always been the library's vision to differentiate itself in the service it delivers to the university community,” says Molepo.

News Archive

Kovsies in top four in Global Business Challenge
2015-05-06

Photo: Mark Steenbok (Bloemfontein Courant) 

 

Christiaan Paulsen (team leader), Sias Conradie, Jannie de Wet and Frikkie Jacobs.

Four Kovsies in the Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Sciences are one of the top four teams in the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants’ (CIMA) Global Business Challenge. 178 teams registered to participate in the competition.

 

Team Bernoulli from the UFS will compete against two teams: one from the University of Pretoria and one from the Chartered Accountant Training Institute in Sandton. The winning team will win a trip to Poland, Europe to represent their university and country at the 2015 global final.

 

This international business competition is for undergraduates around the world, designed to bring out the best in the young business leaders of tomorrow.

 

Team leader, Christiaan Paulsen, said: “We are overjoyed to be in the final. However, our true success is in what we learned along the way”.

 

The team has to present a business case study, showcasing their talent in business management. During this competition, the team has

  • learned to analyse and solve a real-life business case study;
  • -obtained first-hand experience of the skills required to be a business leader;
  • enhanced their team building skills; and 
  • developed their presentation skills.  

Students from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Ireland, GCC, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Phillipines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Zambia are taking part in the competition.

 

This competition is organised by CIMA in conjunction with Barclays.

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