Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Seminar on Open Science, 12 May 2022

28 April 2022

Publishing academic content behind a paywall not only limits access to scholarly work, but also prevents research output from being visible and making maximum impact. Researchers are paying to publish their research output, and libraries are paying to access it in what is known as double-dipping by publishers, leading to what we term ‘serial crisis’. Research institutions pay twice and still do not see their research widely available to be read.

By signing the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in 2012, the University of the Free State (UFS) committed itself to supporting open access to its research outputs. National initiatives by research institutions and the government make research outputs freely available via national site licensing. The UFS supports this initiative via the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) as an interim transformative agreement with publishers, allowing research outputs to be open access, without the additional publication charges.

What do we do about publishers who are unwilling to transform? Do we still pay their massive subscription and publication fees? What do we need to do to ensure that all UFS research outputs are accessible to all?

Topic: Should the UFS continue to subscribe to academic journals that are behind a paywall?
Thursday 12 May 2022
12:00-13:30
Microsoft Teams
RSVP: Elma Viljoen, viljoene@ufs.ac.za (link will be provided)

Join the following top experts for what promises to be an insightful discussion:

Colleen Campbell
Coordinator: Open Access 2020 Initiative
Max Planck Digital Library, Munich, Germany

Ellen Tise
Senior Director: Library and Information Services, Stellenbosch University
Glenn Truran
Director: South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC)

Charlie Molepo
Deputy Director, UFS Library Service

The welcoming and introduction to the webinar will be conducted by Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research.

Bios of speakers

Colleen Campbell leads external engagement in the open access transition at the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) in Munich, Germany. There, she coordinates the Open Access 2020 Initiative, a global alliance of research organisations and their libraries that are driving the transition of today’s scholarly journals to open-access publishing models, and the ESAC Initiative, an international community of practice dedicated to optimising open-access workflows and processes. She is a member of the LIBER Open Access Working Group, serves on the Managing Board of EIFL, a not-for-profit organisation that works with libraries to enable access to knowledge in developing and transition economy countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America, and contributes to the advisory groups of a number of other scholarly communication initiatives.

Ellen Tise has been the Senior Director of Library and Information Services at Stellenbosch University (SU) since January 2006. She previously held the positions of University Librarian at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Deputy University Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand. She holds a BBibl Honours degree from the UWC and an MPhil in Science and Technology Studies from SU. Among other notable leadership roles, Ms Tise served as the first President of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) from 1998 to 2002, and President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, known as IFLA, for the years 2009 through 2011. She also served as Chair of the Board of the National Library of South Africa (2012-2015), and on the OCLC Board of Trustees (2014-2018). She has just started a second two-year term as Chair of the Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Advisory Committee of IFLA. She is the recipient of several awards for distinguished leadership and outstanding contributions to librarianship, including honorary membership of LIASA and an honorary IFLA fellowship. She has published various articles in professional journals and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences, seminars, symposia, etc.

Glenn Truran has been the Director of the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) since 2014 and works from home in Cape Town. After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with a BA and HDipEd (PG), he worked briefly as an educator in South Africa and England. Subsequently, he completed a diploma in Public Policy and Development Administration at Wits and received his MBA from the University of Cape Town in 2003. Before joining SANLiC, he worked in several educational and poverty alleviation non-profit organisations in Gauteng and Cape Town. He has been actively involved in SANLiC’s Open Access Transformational Agreements task team.

Charlie Molepo has been the Deputy Director at the UFS Sasol Library responsible for Research and Scholarly Communications since 2015. He represents the non-academic staff on the University Council and serves on its Finance and Human Resources Committees. Before joining the UFS, he worked at Vista University, the University of Natal, the University of Johannesburg, the University of KwaZulu-Natal Libraries, and Dawson Books UK (Betrams) as the International Account Director for Africa. He serves as President-Elect (2022-2023) in the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA).

News Archive

Historians must place African history on world stage – Dr Zeleza

2017-05-30

From the left: Panellists Rev Henry Jackson,
Prof Irikidzayi Manase and Arno Van Niekerk at a book
launch and panel discussion on Africa Day hosted by the
UFS Sasol Library.
Photo: Mamosa Makaya

“African historians must take seriously the challenge of placing African history in world history, and in the history of our species, Homo sapiens.”

With these words, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Vice Chancellor of the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed the continent’s challenge.

According to him the contest should continue to recover and reconstruct Africa’s long history. Liberating African knowledges can be done by: “Provincialising Europe that has monopolised universality, universalising Africa beyond its Eurocentric provincialisation, and engaging histories of other continents on their own terms.”

University celebrates Africa Month in various ways
Dr Zeleza delivered the ninth Africa Day Memorial Lecture, titled The Decolonisation of African Knowledges, at the University of the Free State (UFS). The lecture, hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), took place on 24 May 2017 in the Equitas Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus and was one of the ways in which the UFS celebrated Africa Month.

Scholars should immerse themselves in these thoughts
Dr Zeleza focused on two issues, which he said were interconnected. They were the unfinished project of decolonising African knowledges and the continent's positioning in global knowledge production.

He said Africa’s scholars and students should “immerse themselves in the rich traditions of African social thought going back millennia”. According to him the continent’s research profile still remains weak in global terms.

“It is imperative that the various key stakeholders in African higher education from governments to the general public to parents, and to students, faculty, staff, and administrators in the academic institutions themselves, raise the value proposition of African higher education for 21st century African societies, economies, and polities.”

“Colonialism is associated with injustice
and inequality, but what happens when
our liberators become our oppressors?”

Library celebrates with panel discussion and book launch
The UFS Sasol Library celebrated Africa Day by presenting a book launch and panel discussion on 25 May 2017, on the pertinent and current political theme of land redistribution with a comparative basis of land invasions in Zimbabwe.

Prof Irikidzayi Manase discussed his book White Narratives: The Depiction of Post-2000 Land Invasions in Zimbabwe, accompanied by Rev Henry Jackson who wrote Another Farm in Africa. A perspective of the economic implications of land redistribution in South Africa was discussed by panellist Arno Van Niekerk: Senior Lecturer of Economics at the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Inequality still an African problem
The content of the books are a stark reminder of the burning issues of inequality and loss of identity of those who lost their farms in Zimbabwe, a collection of memoirs by white farmers and their families. Rev Jackson gave a religious perspective on reconciliation, forgiveness and the question of land ownership, saying that healing of injustice begins with forgiveness of past transgressions.

Van Niekerk highlighted that while land issues were important, “social cohesion is affected by the economic decisions that will be made”. In closing, Prof Manase called for serious consideration of what the future may hold. “Colonialism is associated with injustice and inequality, but what happens when our liberators become our oppressors?”

The panel discussion was attended by staff and students of the university, and was lit up by robust discussions on possible historical and future solutions to the question of land, decolonisation and political power struggles in Southern Africa and lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe.

UFS celebrates Africa Month (24 May 2017)

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept