Open Access and Academic libraries

So in my previous blog I have made mention about the Open Access movement  (OA). I have relayed that its making academic research information available to all at the cost of nothing. Mahalaa/free, or at least it intends to reduce the cost.

So the academic library whose main function is to be the house that stores all the academic information in it and should be on par with new technology that brings about information. Such as the computer whom one uses to go onto the world wide web and gets new information, for example.

Hence, in my opinion academic libraries should play a pivotal role in housing admittance to the open access movement, more so than any other type of library. Our university has signed their support in joining the Open Access movement when they signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in the Sciences and Humanities.

Open access in libraries offers a range of benefits. Obviously for research purposes in the manner that, open access makes for scholarly material available and in this purpose it allows for research papers to become more intensely available. It will improve the visibility and impact of the researchers work. It allows the researcher to gain immediate and free access to all the literature that the researcher requires to conduct their research. It will allow the researcher to have more control over how they publish and how their publications are used.

It also has benefits for the University Administrators in the manner that in particularly through the implementation of institutional repositories, is more attractive for our University administrators because repositories allow them to access and monitor their research programmes. It makes the research being undertaken at our University more visible and have a positive prestige for our university.  It will enable the research that is conducted here to better account for research output.

Looking now to the library that I'm volunteering at, that is Tafelsig Public Libary. One can clearly see that, their clientele is way different to an academic library. The only type of academia that utilises that library are students. High school and primary school students. Their thirst for information is not as pressuried as researchers. School students, often are satisfied by the information that, they get in the Encyclopedias or academic resource books that are able to provide the information that they require. 

OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT

OPEN ACCESS

THE OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT

I have not been studying for a while now, like in over a decade. So coming back to the academic life this year has been a new experience. In the manner of accessing information and adjusting to being a student, whilst being full time employed and being a mom.

So ever since I have started with studying this year. In every lecture I have heard about this thing called ‘Open Access’. It sort of made you feel ignorant about not knowing about the ‘Open Access’ movement.

Well in our last class, we had a session on ‘Open Access’. Now, I don’t feel ignorant any longer and now when anyone speaks about ‘Open Access’ I fully understand what it means.

First of all I think the logo that represents the ‘Open Access’ movement is quite brilliant. It is a perfect match. Personally, I just love when two things are compared to each, one can quickly catch it. The lock is open, meaning that access to, is free. That is what open access refers to, free access to information that has been previously not free.

My late mom always told me “Maya…you must never stop learning. You must acquire knowledge from the cradle to the grave”. 

This taught me that it is always important to learn new things. Learning should never be viewed as a burden. It should be a part of your life. 

The ‘Open Access’ movement basically refers to making academic research available to all, irrespective of your wealth status.  It’s considered to be unfair that, people whom and tertiary institutions whom are rich and affluent are the only ones whom, can access new and relevant academic research. The movement motivates that academic research be made available to all universities and to everyone who are interested in accessing that information.

So I do agree with the open access movement, mainly for the fact that all people and universities can have access to information and that one needs not to be rich in order to do so. This means that everyone can benefit from the research and this helps to take research forward. Perhaps if it was the cure for Aids, some researcher could benefit from researchers whom has conducted research on Aids in Switzerland for example, another researcher in Swaziland could access their research and formulate a cure for Aids by combing their new research with his research. Where if it was not for the open access movement, then the researcher in Switzerland wasn’t able to purchase the journals of the research conducted by the researchers in Swaziland and then the researcher from Swaziland would never have been able to collobrate the two research studies together to form the cure for Aids.

I think that we should learn from our history from the past centuries, where there has always been a discrepancy between the haves and the have nots. We know that, in the past these discrepancies has never benefitted anyone. So too, indeed we will benefit from making academic research available to all, as allowing for these discrepancies to prevail will cause a delay in creating new knowledge.

I am glad that our university has signed to join in on the ‘Open Access’ movement when they signed the Berlin Declaration on OpenAccess to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. It shows that we are proud to be African researchers and that we can also contribute to forming new knowledge.

 The above comic-strip explains the OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT nicely in a humerous manner.

Copright

COPYRIGHT

 
So the class session for this week focused on copyright and todaysmeet. Admittedly I was a bit confused in the beginning as to why we were having a lesson on Copyright. As to date, we have been doing a lot of exciting practical’s in class. Then 👀👀👀, I came to realise that we have been taught so much on how to publish things on the internet, that’s its by time that we needed to be educated about how to protect, manage and own the things that we are putting out there on the web. So then … it all made sense then, to learn about ‘copyright’. So what is copyright? (to me it means that it’s like oxygen, it’s all around us but we are not bothered much about it, we do not know the intricates  involved). So allow me the opportunity to Enlighten you (or at least let me try to).
 

 

Copyright is a legal right that somebody has over the work that they have done. It is created by the law of a country that grants the original creator of a specific piece of work, their exclusive rights over it, for its use and distribution. However, it is not forever, there is a time period attached. That being of the time of the publisher till 50 years after the death of the publisher.

South Africa, as many other countries across the globe has a copyright law that protects the publishers work. It is the Copyright Act of 1978 and it amending Acts.

The history behind Copyright is that it was first introduced in the 18 century (that’s a long time ago) with the invention of the printing press. A man by the name of Charles ll of England was concerned about the unsupervised distribution of books by making mass copies of them. In a response to stop this and to regulate it the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 came into being.

Copyright laws allows the creators of books, journal articles, movies, music and arts to be protected and not sold off as someone else’s invention.

I think that in our community, we are not fully aware of what copyright entails and how it should be applied. We often buy pirated D.V.D.’s for R10 per disc and we do not have a moral conscious about it. Also, we can access information so quickly over our laptops, i-pods and smartphones that we often take what we need (download music, movies and songs) without realising that we are at fault. (You see what I mean by its like oxygen … so in a nutshell that’s my explanation).

Brilliance of QR Codes

QUICK RESPONSE CODE (QR Codes)

So yesterday my work colleague and I was standing in a line at the local Shoprite store. We were chatting and she asks me, do you want a chocolate. I said yes, of course (how could I even refuse?) and then she looks at me and shows me the QR Code that’s on the chocolate bar, saying that these little barcodes are everywhere, these days. You, know it was at this minute that I felt that I needed to, so kindly use this opportunity/moment to look smart and bragg about ‘my new found knowledge’ on QR Codes that I recently learnt about in class. However, I was a tad bit disappointed in myself that I did not have my smartphone with me so that I could have used my i-nigma code reader app (in order to scan the QR code) to look even more brilliant and smart in front of my work colleague 😞

MORE ABOUT QR CODES

So I explained to her that a QR code is an abbreviation for quick response code. It was invented in 1994, by Denso Wave (a subsidiary that manufactures automatic identification products, industrial robots and programmable logic controllers). It is a trademark for a type of matrix bar code/2 dimensional barcode. Originally it was first invented for the automotive industry in Japan.

These days QR Codes are definitely not only used for its original purpose but it’s become very popular these days and an easily recognisable icon by many all over the world. A smartphone can even be used now as a scanner of the QR Codes and can easily display the information enlisted in the QR Code. It’s become very popular as an advertising strategy as it is a quicker way to access the brands website, than having to enter the brands URL address manually and personally it’s a more ingenious (like totally cool) manner as well.

Importance of cellphones

So in our recent class we were taught about how cellphones/smartphones has become an integral part of our daily lives.
This is so true...when I was younger there was a television program called "Beyond 2000", it was a program that looked at how scientific interventions would impact our lives beyond the year 2000. One of the programs was how they compared this hand held device with one of the hand held devices they use to use on star trek. Saying that, everything you need could be accesed through that hand held device. Now in the year 2017, it seems as if the smartphone is that hand held device that we are accessing everything we can, on it. Shopping, downloading songs and movies and listening and watchig it. We even are downloading e-books and reading them. Downloading games and playing it on our smartphones. Using it as a gprs device. It really has become a handheld device where we can access so many things on.

My other memory I hold dear to my heart is when I thimk of cellphones is, my late mom. She totally refused to adapt to the digital age and refused to learn how to operate a cellphone, even though it could have made so many things lighter for her. Like keeping in contact with friends and family and accessing new recipes on You tube.

Its amazing how in life in such a short period of time, how dependent we have become on it. Personally I rank it at Number three as the most usefull device invented by man, after the wheel (no.1 spot)  and the fridge (no.2 spot).

Whatssap on my smartphone is my most favourite app. on it,  it's got our family group on it, so I'm also updated on my family's shannanigans. My kids cresche group is also on it, including the group at work too. I'm inlove with it because it's so convenient. I can also access my gmail account and don't need to go to an internet cafe as previous to access my e-mails.

Im loving it, that I can access www.lib.uwc.ac.za on it as well.