Long Service in the Library

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1362 days ago

LONG SERVICE IN THE LIBRARY

In 2009 Mr Kalushi Kalushi and Mr Samuel Maluleka clocked up over 40 years of library service each, and University Librarian, Felix Ubogu and Deputy University Librarian Clare Walker recognised this at a General Library Staff Meeting in January, with a party for them and their colleagues.

Each of them started working in the University’s Medical Library in the 1960s when Wits and South Africa were very different. Sam now works in the Commerce Library on the West Campus where one of key responsibilities is to ensure that the many volumes of journals still being bound are properly prepared and sent through on a regular basis; Kalushi is the face generations of students have known as the head of the Wartenweiler Main desk. Sam’s children have been students at Wits; Kalushi has contributed many years to union business. Both of them carry institutional memories of an extraordinary range and are in themselves undoubtedly repositories of University oral history.

In August this year each was presented by the University Librarian with a custom-designed commemorative plaque in recognition of their extraordinary years of service.

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Resource Description and Access Lecture Series

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1392 days ago

The National Library of South Africa collaborated with experts in the cataloguing field to present the Resource Description and Access (RDA) Lecture Series from 22 to 24 July 2009. A total of 300 participants came from academic, special, public/provincial Libraries as well as Library schools within South Africa. The South African Department of Arts and Culture and the South African Library Information Trust funded the Lecture Series.
University of Witwatersrand was represented by six staff members from the Library’s Information Resources Department.
Dr Robert Maxwell, a Senior Librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, USA opened the workshop with his keynote address on cataloguing. He traced the history of cataloguing from earliest times to the present and why Libraries needed to change from Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2). AACR2 is based on rules while RDA is based on guidelines.
Libraries are now operating in digital, web based environment that involves relationships with metadata creators and users outside the Library sector. RDA provides instructions for cataloguing digital as well as traditional resources. It builds on the strengths of AACR2 and focuses on the needs of users to easily find, identify, select and obtain the materials they need.
What was important for the Libraries to know was that records created using RDA will be compatible with AACR2 records, so they would be no need to recatalogue older records. Libraries would also be able to use RDA content with many encoding schema e.g. Machine readable cataloguing ( MARC21) or Dublin Core. MARC21 provides the mechanism by which computers exchange, use and interpret bibliographic information. Its data elements make up the foundation of most Library catalogues used today. Dublin core is a standard for cross-domain information resource description, which defines conventions for describing things online in a way that makes them easy to find. It is widely used to describe digital materials such as video, sound, image text and web pages.
It is however important to note that it might take time for Wits Libraries to use RDA since we have to cooperate with Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC), Millennium, Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium (GAELIC) and Southern African Bibliographic Information Network (SABINET) in the provision of the RDA framework.

cnc 29/07/09

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The Library is going cashless!

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1393 days ago

Since 1 June 2009 no payments in cash have been accepted at the Wartenweiler Main Desk and all WWL users (staff and students) now pay Library fines and conduct any other Library cash transactions through pre-loaded ICAM swipe cards, the system already in use in all libraries for photocopies and computer printouts ("Pay-for-Print").

The cashless system is being rolled out to all libraries, one by one, across all campuses and service points, to eliminate handling of cash in libraries wherever possible. Notices will be posted prominently in each library branch or section as it is put on the new system. The Library is aware that there are certain operational sections where a swipe card cannot at this stage be used to pay, and individual procedures will be developed for these few cases.

If preferred, payment of large amounts for lost book replacements or very large fines can be made at the Cashiers' office in Senate House and the receipt presented at the Library desk, allowing the fine or lost book record to then be cleared. PLEASE KEEP ALL RECEIPTS!

Inquiries to Clare.Walker@wits.ac.za or Paiki.Muswazi@wits.ac..za

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