[Scholar] SUNScholar News 24/12/2009 - SUNScholar Nuus 24/12/2009
Smith, Ina <ismith@sun.ac.za>
ismith at sun.ac.za
Thu Dec 24 13:41:22 SAST 2009
*Please note: this e-mail is posted in English only since it is such a long e-mail. If you struggle following it, please let me know and I will gladly assist.*
Dear all
When coming to the end of a year, it is good to take stock and reflect on what happened, what were achieved, what were not achieved, and how can we further stretch ourselves to achieve our goals. The same applies to SUNScholar, and I would like to share a couple of highlights, things we are busy with, and things we would like to achieve in the new year. Some of the things are a bit technical, but never the less – we regard it all as achievements.
Highlights so far
- Stellenbosch University, in collaboration with the University of Pretoria, the Durban University of Technology and @Mire (a Belgium firm specializing in DSpace), hosted a very successful DSpace Technical Workshop (http://www.lib.sun.ac.za/dspace/workshop/ )
- A new support web page for submitting theses & dissertations at SU was compiled (http://library.sun.ac.za/etd/index.htm ). This website will change to a more user-centric portal type of internet service in line with portal policy of the IT dept.
- SUNScholar was successfully deployed on the production server (https://scholar.sun.ac.za/ ).
- It was decided that we will refer to “SUNScholar” as the official name for our repository at SU.
- The hierarchy/ structure in SUNScholar has been aligned with the faculty and departmental structure used at SU. See https://scholar.sun.ac.za/community-list
- We had a very exciting spur of the moment brainstorming session with colleagues from SU, UP and @Mire in Belgium via Skype, trying to establish a proper Afrikaans term for “repository”. It was decided that we will refer to it as “digitale navorsingsbewaarplek” and in English: “digital research repository”.
- SUNScholar is currently running in beta mode, and we have submitted one dissertation and numerous inaugural addresses. This also assisted in establishing possible needs, and sorting out the metadata – all part of the evaluation process.
- SUNScholar is also visible on Twitter and Facebook, and clients can contact us via Skype for immediate support. Skype offers excellent opportunities for online teaching/ learning. Our Skype name: usscholar
- An institutional repository wiki was implemented, and all activities, guidelines, policies and research are carefully documented by Hilton Gibson (http://ir.sun.ac.za/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ). This wiki is also very popular amongst other institutions worldwide and frequently visited according to the statistics from this page. From feedback received colleagues working on repositories find it a very useful resource.
- The SUNScholar sitemap is now being crawled by Google.
- Three mailing lists were created. scholar at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:scholar at lists.lib.sun.ac.za> is used to communicate open access, digitization, e-copyright, metadata and repository related info. irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za> is a national and international mailing list hosted by the Stellenbosch University, and is used by all to share information and help one another in the spirit of open access to information. duraspace at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:duraspace at lists.lib.sun.ac.za> is of more technical nature, and is used by the technical people to resolve technical issues on DSpace. You are all welcome to join any of these lists.
- Stock was taken of digitization equipment available at the library, and more information is available at http://ir.sun.ac.za/wiki/index.php/Digitisation#Equipment_used_at_the_Stellenbosch_University.2C_South_Africa
- The “handle” (unique URL for each item in SUNScholar) was sorted out and is now fully operational.
- A security certificate was obtained for SUNScholar and successfully implemented.
- Paulette Talliard was appointed as assistant within the repository office. We will share her with the e-resources division as of from January 2010.
- A manual was compiled for the student library assistants to help find all research articles published by researchers at SU, and they were trained in doing so.
- We have made contact with the US Archives, Research Office as well as the Marketing Office, and are looking forward to close collaboration with them in future.
- A meeting was held with the cataloguers, which will be followed up with training in the new year.
- We were represented at the ACA2K<http://www.aca2k.org/> meeting held at UCT. They are doing excellent work re negotiating change in the copyright act on national level.
- We re-established contact with important international role players, such as Tim Donahue (DuraSpace), @Mire (DSpace experts), Iryna Kuchma (eIFL.net), etc.
- SU was represented at two workhops: 1. We participated in a panel discussion in an ASIST workshop in Canada (http://vtext.valdosta.edu/xmlui//handle/10428/429<http://vtext.valdosta.edu/xmlui/handle/10428/429> ). 2. We participated in a workshop presented at the Malawi University, together with eIFL.net.
- A very special highlight: The CIB has kindly made available funds to purchase 3 DSpace add-on’s. A special thanks to Karla Coombe-Davis for her role in this, her enthusiasm and her involvement in this project.
Web 2.0 Highlights
http://staff.lib.sun.ac.za was created to foster collaboration amongst librarians and their clients. It is envisaged that library staff maintain blogs and social networks here.
http://neo.bib.sun.ac.za was created to devlelop, test and train on new internet technologies. Only available on campus.
http://services.lib.sun.ac.za was created to provide a one-stop-shop for library services.
http://bib.sun.ac.za was created as a collaborative self-help wiki for librarians and clients. Only available on campus.
Work in progress
- Compiling guidelines for best practises re digitization, and documenting it on the wiki
- Compiling metadata guidelines for the cataloguers, and documenting it on the wiki
- Discussions re digitization and the Carnegie Project
- Student assistants are in the process of downloading research articles published by researchers at SU according to what has been listed in the Research Reports
- We are trying to get hold of all inaugural addresses and the presentations delivered during the first SU Boschfees, and also host it on SUNScholar
We are looking forward to …
- Register SUNScholar with all international harvesters
- Give an overview to library staff of what repositories are all about, and what it is we want to achieve with SUNScholar (Happy Hour). This will be followed by smaller sessions with the various groups in the library, e.g. FB’s, Cataloguers, ILL staff, etc.
- Training cataloguers to use SUNScholar and edit metadata
- Completely change the look and feel of SUNScholar with the help of Henno Gous. Many thanks to Ellen for making available the necessary funds for this first phase in changing the look and feel. We will attend to the look and feel for the CIB collections as well as soon as the money has been made available.
- Investigate the hosting of an open journal platform (the gold route to open access; repositories represent the green road, but the golden route is the ideal)
- Migrating all theses, dissertations and assignments, as well as the CIB Collection to SUNScholar in order to centralize all research output.
- Get SUNeTD to feed data into SUNScholar
- Get SUNScholar to feed data into the RIMS system
- Upgrade SUNScholar to DSpace version 1.6
- Improve on the statistical and citation futures offered by DSpace
- Be ranked by Webometrics by the end of 2010
- Participate in Open Access Week during 2010
- Work with the various marketing divisions on campus and our library to compile a SUNScholar marketing plan
- Meeting with Dr Hans Heese (US Archives)
- Conduct an audit of digitization projects going on on campus
- Negotiate with publishers in SA re policies on self-archiving within institutional repositories, and also update them on what open access is all about
- Hosting the Antarctic Project (Karla Coombe-Davis)
- Introducing faculties, departments and individuals to SUNScholar
- Archiving all types of research output e.g. conference papers and presentations, public lectures, research articles, images and many more!
- And last but not the least …. we are looking forward to work with YOU and have all of you involved …. We can’t achieve the above without your help, support etc. Please help us make a success of all – not only for the sake of the library, but also for the sake of your clients and the Stellenbosch University … This is a team effort, and I am very thankful for the role various people have played so far to make a success of it, although we’ve only been working on it for a very short period of time. Many thanks to each one of you – you know who you are ….
Enjoy the festive holiday season, rest well, and we are looking forward to continue and built on the work done so far.
With kind regards
Ina (on behalf of the SUNScholar-team)
Ina Smith
E-Repository Manager
Library and Information Service
Tel: +27 21 808 9139
Fax: +27 21 808 3723
University of Stellenbosch
Private Bag X5037, 7599
South Africa
Office hours: Mo-Fr: 08h00-16h30
Skype: smith.ina
E-mail: ismith at sun.ac.za<mailto:ismith at sun.ac.za>
Web: http://library.sun.ac.za<http://library.sun.ac.za/>
<http://rs.sun.ac.za/rs/otxG_q>
Ina Smith
E-Pakhuisbestuurder
Biblioteek- en Inligtingsdiens
Tel: +27 21 808 9139
Faks: +27 21 808 3723
Universiteit van Stellenbosch
Privaatsak X5037, 7599
Suid-Afrika
Kantoorure: Ma-Vr: 08h00-16h30
Skype: smith.ina
E-pos: ismith at sun.ac.za<mailto:ismith at sun.ac.za>
Web: http://library.sun.ac.za<http://library.sun.ac.za/>
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