Module 2, Session 1: Library resources and support

[CPC Admin]

#358

Share what resources and support your institution’s library offers.

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[Christopher Odhiambo]

#1645

These are the resources that my institutions library offers as well as those that it does not offer.
1. What relationship do you and your students have with the library?
A very good working relationship as the library staff try as much as possible to ensure that my students get access to material they need both from the physical library and through online services. The
2. What kinds of library support services are there for your postgraduate students? Provide details.
The library gives orientation to my postgraduate on how to use the library services. The library also gives priority to the PG students on the use of certain spaces especially private carrels and a section called the National Collections that is reserved for Post graduate students and faculty. The library also offers e-library services to the students at all levels. The library through special requisition, puts on reserve or short loan rare material for my PG students. The use of catalogue both manual and digitize. The library also subscribes for journals that PG students can access online or from the shelves.
3. How do you access your own library’s holdings?
One must been a registered user and can borrow books if they are available on the open shelf or on reserve & short loan or through e/library. If a book is out then the library will recall it and put it on short loan and then one can borrow.
4. How do you keep up with the latest research in your field?
I usually use internet search. There are so many sites on the internet and also get alerts from Academia amongst others.
5. What online databases does your institution use?
There are about 32. To mention a few: JSTOR, Emerald, PROJECT MUSE, OXFORD, Lexis Nexis Law, AGORA, African Journey Online, Google Scholar, HINARI, PubMED, UNESCO publications, World Bank Library, OARE, E-bray, Directory of Open Access Journals etc.
6. Which referencing software does your institution provide? (For example: Endnote, Refworks, Zotero, Mandeley and Paperpile) None
7. What are the procedures that you need to follow to use your institution’s interlibrary loan system? This doesn’t work effectively and efficiently as it used to be in the past. Presently, one must just walk to the particular library physically and borrow the book one needs. One fills in a form and the book is brought to the library where the application is made. But because of the E-library and books, this is getting out of vogue.
8. What referencing and style guides are available to you online at your institution? Currently none. But there is a physical APA manual availed to PG students.
9. What is an open access is Open access? This refers to the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available online to anyone interested in reading it. I am made to understand that there are two different versions—gratis and libre.
Gratis is where research material is available for others to use without having to pay for it. However, it does not grant the user the right to make copies, distribute, or modify the work in any way beyond fair use. Libre is where research material is available free of charge and also allows more liberty in regards to usage.
10. Do you know how to create a search alert? Go to google.com/alerts in your browser.
–Enter a search term for the topic you want to track. …
–Choose Show Options to narrow the alert to a specific source, language, and/or region. …
–Select Create Alert.

[Christopher Odhiambo]

#1648

The key lessons for me from this session is the fact that sometimes, as established scholars and supervisors, we take for granted a lot of things when it comes to issues regarding the information landscape. We do assume that all post graduate students know how to use library, different references styles and data management irrespective of their backgrounds. This assumption has been disabused from my encounter with this session. A number of PG students are sometimes not aware of the vastness of material that is available online. Though all new student go through library orientation, the exposure to information landscape and data management is usually not sufficient. But the flipside is that a number of the old experienced generation of scholars are also averse to the new online “informationscape”. I would suggest that the course on library/information landscape be fully integrated in the course on research methodology and be facilitated by experts on library science. Similarly, more workshops to be conducted for supervisors on the potentials and use of online/ virtual library.

[Damiannah Kieti]

#1671

1. What relationship do you and your students have with the library? Very good as library staff are friendly and always ready to guide and support
2. What kinds of library support services are there for your postgraduate students? Provide details. Upon admission, the postgraduate students are taken through an orientation programme where they are exposed to the various sections of the library; how they can access both print and online materials; how to locate books and other reading material from the bookshelves; procedures for borrowing books and other reading materials; requirements for one to access library materials etc.
3. How do you access your own library’s holdings? Through borrowing either on short term basis (short loan), which lasts for a few hours or on long term basis, which may run for a couple of days.
4. How do you keep up with the latest research in your field?: Reading regular publications by both national and international bodies in my field of interest such as UNWTO and WTTC; engaging on discussions in various platforms of professional bodies in my field of study, searching latest information from internet, research gate, attending conferences and workshops.
5. What online databases does your institution use? My institution uses the following: JSTOR; International Monetary Fund (IMF) e library; Taylor and Francis eBooks; African Journals Online; EBSCO Host Research Databases; Emerald Group Publishing; Sage Publications Online; Taylor & Francis Online Journals; World Bank e-library; World Bank Open Knowledge Repository; AGORA, OARE, etc
6. Which referencing software does your institution provide? (For example: Endnote, Refworks, Zotero, Mandeley and Paperpile)- None
7. What are the procedures that you need to follow to use your institution’s interlibrary loan system? Inter library services are not available at the moment
8. What referencing and style guides are available to you online at your institution? None but the institution uses a manual for APA style of referencing
9. What is an open access site? It is unrestricted location where one can access research publications, including journals and books free of charge.
10. Do you know how to create a search alert? Yes

[Rox]

#1685

Before answering this questionnaire, I used to feel quite satisfied with my understanding on how the library at Rhodes works, yet the questions made aware that there are number of elements that I still do not know. For instance, I do not have any idea whether the university of my institution has access to specific dataset in my are and/or how is the process to request to but new books, and/or what is the reference system available for academics.
I recognize that I frequently feel frustrated with the services I can access through my institutional library, because most of the articles I am reading are not available through it.
Thank you to ask these questions. These questionnaire made me aware that I may need to schedule an appointment with the librarian in my area.

[Rox]

#1686

Before answering this questionnaire, I used to feel quite satisfied with my understanding on how the library at Rhodes works, yet the questions made aware that there are number of elements that I still do not know. For instance, I do not have any idea whether the university of my institution has access to specific dataset in my are and/or how is the process to request to but new books, and/or what is the reference system available for academics.
I recognize that I frequently feel frustrated with the services I can access through my institutional library, because most of the articles I am reading are not available through it.
Thank you to ask these questions. These questionnaire made me aware that I may need to schedule an appointment with the librarian in my area.

[Susan Kilonzo]

#1812

For every postgraduate student I am supervising, the first thing I ask of them is to make an effort and read around the areas of research interest. The reading culture, at least for the students that I have interacted with, both u/g and p/g, is so poor and as such p/g students just pick on research topics and in most instances, are unaware of the literature that exists around their field of research interest. I ask them to visit the library and get an orientation of the resources available, and if need be, I direct them to specific literature that I am certain is in the University Library. Beyond this, I encourage them to enrol as students in any library centre that is within their rich and explore as much as possible what can benefit them in the libraries. I share with them the literature that I have that relates to their research problems and ask them to constantly do online search in specific online sites for additional literature.

How do I access the lib? All members of staff are given library cards for short loan and open sections. They also have staff IDs (just incase the librarians on duty do not know them). There are also online databases that can be accessed virtually. I am not sure of all of them that my institution has subscribed to but I know of JSTOR, Scopus, ScienceOpen, Public Library of Science, Semantic Scholar and PubMed.

Once one is registered as a student or member of staff, they are given an induction on how to use the Library resources. For the short loan section, one can only borrow for a limited number of hours, say overnight, and failure to return the resource as required attracts a penalty depending on the number of hours one delays.

I am not aware of any referencing software that is provided by the institution.

I know the school of graduate studies, which also has a library of graduate students, has well laid down procedures on referencing styles for a thesis. These are recommended to the school by various schools depending on the discipline. For instance, the school of Arts and Social Sciences uses both APA and MLA, the latter is mostly used in the departments of Linguistics, Kiswahili & Other African Languages and Literary Studies.

How do I keep up with the latest research in my field? In this era of Internet, I am keen on what is being published by certain journals and as such I have subscribed to some of them. I get alerts every month. I also do free search of whatever topic I am interested in. I write quite often and that requires that I read quite a bit. Through this, I get to know who is writing on what. Other people’s citation of my own work is also an indication that my field and research interests are growing, and through Google Scholar, I can easily tell who has cited my publications.

It is possible to get alerts by creating a search alert by getting onto google.com/alerts in your browser, entering a search term/topic then choose show options to narrow the alert to a specific source, language, and/or region, and Selecting Create Alert.

Open access sites are free of charge and as such those publishing their papers in these sites are aware that their publications will be availed online to the public at no cost.

[Susan Kilonzo]

#1813

The key lesson from the presentation is that there are quite a number of avenues from where the students can be directed to get learning/reading resources. The supervisor should not assume that they are already aware of these avenues. It is important to understand their background, and especially if there is need to encourage them to develop a reading culture or help them realise where and how they can get reading resources. A step back to my experience when I did my Masters and PhD, then we did not have Google or online help. Over the last fifteen years, things have really changed and we also need to reckon that we are supervising in the era of digital information. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The is more than ever increased production and circulation of knowledge. However, this can easily be abused and we have witnessed cases of plagiarism and related abuse of the digital (and sometimes non-digital) materials. The need to build some kind of a good relationship with our students is important. I think this therefore moved beyond supervision to mentorship and guidance on a research ethics.

[Genius]

#1818

This session has made me aware that there is a lot of information that I need to follow up with our library to ensure that I get maximum support were possible. One of the reasons could be that I am a novice supervisor who has only co-supervised one honors student as I am currently developing my Phd proposal as well.

[Lynn Kisembe]

#1820

Interesting session-great insights on student support. To get the most out of our library, physical presence is required. Because of that I have somehow developed other avenues of building my library to ensure that am well informed on current research; access to e-textbooks, i receive donations of text books yearly from my former supervisor, professional bodies i belong to post current research activities, membership in thematic research groups, OER materials where i have a good understanding on the search tools one can use, academia, google scholar, international conferences where lots of publishers sell text books at a reduced cost, professional whats app platforms like Association of African Universities etc.

This lesson has really helped me understand what information literacy entails. Most at times and from my past experience with my supervisors, it was my responsibility to get out there and search for literature concerning my research topic. And sad enough, we make the same statements to our students, literature cited is not current, go our and search for current literature, you have not engaged with the literature, ignorant of whether the student we are asking to go out there carries the skills required.And that i as the supervisor has a responsibility to guide the students, to ensure that they are equipped to conduct a thorough LR. Do i have the skills? mmmmm, I thought i did, but there is more to learn considering the definition of what IL entails..

My suggestion: Incorporate IL as a topic in the Research methodology course, and strengthen it through other PG activities such as workshops. And also take up the responsibility to teach them.

[Damiannah Kieti]

#1821

This presentation has made me to reflect and appreciate the diverse aspects of information literacy, as well as, identify aspects I will require more support from my library. More important, the presentation has made me to acknowledged the need to establish students’ information literacy skill’s levels, particularly in the early stages of the engagement with the students in order identify appropriate points of intervention to effectively support them to meet their information literacy needs rather than applying same supervisory approach across all students.

Again, the presentation has left me reflecting on the need to implement use diverse range of information literacy programmes that map well with graduate students needs. For instance, information literacy workshops/seminar at the faculty or departmental levels, designed based on identified information literacy skills gaps among postgraduate students in the faculty.

[Carol Hunja]

#1850

I will not repeat what most people have said but in SEKU the library has young and highly vibrant and supportive staff. They even hold information literacy sessions with students and staff to sensitize on available resources. However, the issue of the reference manager remains. Most of the students and staff do not have a reference manager which leads to typos/errors/ommissions when referencing.
The presentation has enlightened me on the importance of online presence in having an ORCID no. including alternative ways on online profiling of researchers using PLUM and Altmetrics. The university uses the tradiotional citation index provided by google scholar. This information is very helpful.

[Frea Haandrikman]

#2026

@ Susan, I’m sure your student appreciate your pro-active approach when it comes to reading culture.

You also mention plagiarism. It is true that with all the digital resources available to us, plagiarism becomes easier. What I have noticed is that unintentional plagiarism is the biggest issue, but more at Bachelor and Master level. When plagiarism was detected students seemed really shocked, unaware of where we draw the line.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Frea Haandrikman.

[Alta]

#2027

Some of useful library resources at our institution:
Access to online search databases (e.g. Scopus, Web of Science, JSOR), with training on how to use these
Training in the use of reference managers (most of my students choose to use Zotero or Mendeley)
Inter Library Loans
Offsite access to journals (SUPER important for off-site students, and of course currently for all students)
LibGuides, a super useful “resource pack” for each discipline, which includes direct access to librarians
Various training workshops throughout the year
Meeting rooms that can be booked out
Online books
Access to, and help, with searching government gazettes (online and offline)
Currently: Virtual librarian access and guidance to online resources available via the library

[Frea Haandrikman]

#2031

@Carol, great to hear that you have good support staff.

Carol brings up the point of reference managers. It shouldn’t be a hurdle if you Library does not officially support a reference manager. There are many free options out there, like Mendeley, Zotero, or Endnote basic. Especially Mendeley is well-integrated into all sort of applications and database. If you, as a supervisor, are not using a reference manager yet I would really recommend trying it out.

Advantages of Mendeley (as an example) are:
– You can import references in bulk with a simple from many database. Simply press select the articles and press ‘export’, ‘cite’ or something similar to see your options.
– You can import a reference directly from Google Scholar, if you adjust your settings accordingly. Go to settings, search results, and under Bibliography manager choose your reference manager (or RefMan. RefMan will create a file that you can easily drag and drop in Mendeley or other reference managers). After you’ve saved this setting you will now see ‘Import into Refman/Refworks/whatever you chose’ under an article.
– Some reference managers, like Refworks and Mendeley, even offer integration into your Word documents or Google Docs! This is often through plugins called ‘citation plugin for Microsoft Word.’ As you type in your document you can add in-text reference from your reference manager account (without leaving Word!), and when you are finished you click on a Bibliography button. The bibliography will be automatically generated and will include all sources you have added in-text.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Frea Haandrikman.

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