Getting to know our Research Commons users
1419 days ago
Getting to know our Research Commons users
Percy Makholwa is a Masters Student in International Relations, Social Science.
Librarian: You have been a regular visitor of the Research Commons, how did you hear about the facility?
Percy: The library staff at Wartenweiler library made me aware of this facility and explained that it would be a suitable environment for me.
Librarian: Tell me more about your research topic:
Percy: The topic is “Human rights in
Librarian: How long have you been engaged in research?
Percy: In relations to my MA research report this is my second year and I hope to complete in 5 months. I have been actively involved in research since my first year I guess.
Librarian: What has been the hardest part of your research process?
Percy: Definitely the proposal stage
Librarian: Where did you learn your research skills?
Percy: The Departments of Political studies and International Relations have courses in Research and Methodology- these courses do not encompass library research however I have therefore had to attend workshops hosted by the Wartenweiler library in their electronic classroom this has supplemented the courses offered.
Librarian: Which library resources do you most frequently use and why?
Percy: Electronic journals are very essential; news paper clippings on SABINET and official documents on the SA foreign Affairs website.
Librarian: How do you keep up to date with new developments in your research area?
Percy: I have set up an online notification which emails me the latest news on human rights and
Librarian: What would be your advice to newly registered postgraduate students? Percy: To consult with the library on available resources especially SABINET
Librarian: What training to our Postgraduate students would be the most useful? Percy: Definitely a refresher course on how use and access other sources like Proquest, SABINET and Taylor Francis
Librarian: Do you have any suggestions on how the Research Commons librarians could improve their support to researchers?
Percy: Everything is at this stage satisfactory to me- although it would be nice to have research commons being 24 hour facilities- that is probably a long term consideration
South African Library Week (SALW), March 22-27 2010
1195 days ago
SALW is an annual event that affords the library and information services sector the opportunity to actively promote and enhance libraries nationally. This year the event will be observed from March 22-27, 2010. The theme is Reading Changes Lives. More information is available at http://www.liasa.org.za/activities/natlibweek2010.php.
Wits Library is joining all other libraries in the country in celebrating this annual event. As part of these celebrations, come and listen to our dynamic speakers, Prof Bonita Meyersfeld, Human Rights Lawyer and Zukiswa Wanner, best seller African Writer talk about � Literacy and Human Rights, Read SA�.
Date & Time: 24th March at 13:15-14:15pm
Venue: A1 (John Moffat Building), East Campus
Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP Thuli Dhlamini e-mail Thuli.dhlamini@wits.ac.za not later than the 22nd March 2010.
Information literacy for NUMSA
1180 days ago
Among the many interesting engagements of the month, the Library Education and Training unit in conjunction with the Sociology Department had the opportunity of facilitating an Information Literacy session for the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) Executive Committee representatives, on 12th March 2010. This is part of a short course being offered by the Sociology Department. Watch the space for future developments.
By Library Education and Training Team
Information literacy NUMSA Education and Training library
The Publish or Perish syndrome
1180 days ago
On 11th March 2010, the Library had the pleasure of hosting a talk â??Publish or Perishâ?? in South Africa and implications for research support strategies by Dr Sharon Locke of the Wits Research Office. The turnout was impressive and the discussions quite positive. The talk caught the attention of many and requests for a repeat of the talk have been received. A tentative date for the repeat has been scheduled for 6th September 2010. Please diarize, but we will keep you posted!
By Library Education and Training Team
Do you want to know more about the Literature Review and Research?
1160 days ago
YOU are invited to join us in a session called "The Importance of the Literature Review - in research". Prof Elly Grossman will share her insights into the Literature Review process, as a researcher and postgraduate supervisor. Please join us on Thursday 27th May 2010 from 9:00am - 11:00am in the ECR Wartenweiler Library for a worthwhile voyage of discovery.
Please R.S.V.P. to Thuli Dhalmini thuli.dhlamini@wits.ac.za 717-1954 or Janet Zambri janet.zambri@wits.ac.za 717-1953
Library Literature Review Research
Information Literacy Conversations
1134 days ago
The Library Education and Training unit will be hosting Julie Brittain (Head of the British Library of Development Studies, Sussex University) and Siobhan Duvigneau(Information Literacy Co-ordinator)tomorrow, 11 May 2010 in the ECR, Wartenweiler Library at 14:30 pm. The discussion will focus on the information literacy programme at Wits. The two read about the programme and wish to find out more about it and discuss the approaches / practices Wits has adopted. The Education and Training team is looking forward to this exciting meeting.
Information Literacy Library Education and Training ECR Julie Brittain
Postgraduate Chat Service
999 days ago
Postgraduate Chat Service
The library has launched a new Postgraduate Chat Service to assist students with research and library related enquiries. A team of librarians will be monitoring the service Monday to Friday 8:30 to 16:30 and Saturdays 9:30 to 11:30. The service is designed to provide assistance to students in real time and for more complex research enquiries, to make targeted referrals. To access the service go to the library homepage: http://web.wits.ac.za/library and click on the "Postgrad Chat Service" link.
library Postgraduate Chat Service
1 HOUR WORKSHOP: Scholarly Authors - Do you Know your Rights?
838 days ago
Do you know your rights as an author in terms of the Copyright law? Do you have to assign your rights to publishers? What rights can you retain?
Come to this session and learn what your rights are and how to negotiate with publishers.
Date: 9 March 2011
Time: 13:15 - 14:15
Venue: Electronic Classroom, 1st Floor, Wartenweiler Library
Bookings: janet.zambri@wits.ac.za or Thuli.Dhlamini@wits.ac.za
Tel: (011) 717-1953/4
LibQual Library Survey Coming Soon.
726 days ago
A random selection of students and staff will receive a link to a web-based LibQual survey in an e-mail on Monday 25 July. The survey will take place between 25 July and 19 August 2011. It is designed to measure how library users perceive the quality of the library's services. Results will allow us to compare our performance with that of peer institutions, as well as to help us assess how the library services are meeting your expectations and where we may need to improve.
For the survey to be successful, we need your feedback. When you receive the official LibQUAL survey announcement and the survey web link on 25 July, please take the time to respond. Once you've completed the questionnaire you can choose to enter the lucky draw to win an iPad.
Enquiries: mailto:Paiki.muswazi@wits.ac.za
Wits Library Receives Carnegie Grant
707 days ago
The University of the Witwatersrand Library has received a grant of $500,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The grant was submitted on behalf of 5 African universities - Makerere University, Uganda, University of Cape Town, University of Ghana, Legon, University of Pretoria and University of the Witwatersrand.
The project, entitled Research Management Tool in Support of Academic Research in South Africa, Ghana and Uganda aims to provide the five universities with essential modern web-based research management tools. These tools will assist African universities in managing research and making strategic decisions at sophisticated new levels of research productivity and the impact of research produced, including the capacity to drill down from institution, faculty and school to the individual level.
The strategic objectives of this project are to:
- .Develop and strengthen institutional research performance.
- Strengthen and improve research management processes.
- Allow the participating universities to identify strengths and weaknesses in specific faculties, schools and disciplines and to determine research priorities.
- Assist the participating universities in targeting regional and international research collaborators, identifying areas of research investment and funding, strategic planning, benchmarking and assessing researchers for tenure and recruitment
The project is thus vital to the strategic missions of the universities as they strive to improve their research productivity. Training on the skills required in creating research metrics for the university, issues related to international competitiveness, collecting and interpretation of indicators, benchmarking, etc. will be provided to librarians, research office personnel, head of schools or departments, research deans and deputy vice chancellors for research. Participating universities will have the skills and knowledge to work with state of the art research management tools and these skills will be used to assist faculties, schools, individual academics and the university management.
The project presents participating institutions with opportunities to collaboratively develop and strengthen their research communities through annual research tool evaluation meetings and workshops. The workshops will be organized in South Africa and Uganda or Ghana covering such topics as pathways to research excellence or South-South research collaborations. The final workshop to be held at Wits will include selected African universities with demonstrated research strengths. This will provide a forum to share project experiences and extend the coverage as well as strengthen research community initiatives among African research universities.
THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM: A LEADERSHIP FABLE / [by] Patrick Lencioni. -- San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, �©2002. -- 230p. -- MGMT HD 66 LEN
700 days ago
THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM: ALEADERSHIP FABLE / [by] Patrick Lencioni. -- San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, ©2002. -- 230p. -- MGMT HD 66 LEN
During the BMS course in April 2011 Thomas recommended the book The five dysfunctions of a team. He also gave us one hand-out based on it. Having read the book I can tell you that it informed the BMS course, but was not plagiarized by them.
Leadership fables are a wonderful new genre. They are true fables, namely stories that teach lessons. They are very easy to read, and the lessons stick.
In The five dysfunctions of a team the author, Lencioni, describes a two-year-old IT company in Silicon Valley, near San Francisco, California. This company has lots of money, good products and star employees. It is not failing, but it is underperforming. It does not have its rightful share of the market. The board decided to offer the CEO a lower job, and he was happy to accept it, as he was not comfortable as CEO. They replaced him with a woman, Kathryn, and she sets about rescuing the company from its underperformance.
Kathryn spends two weeks just watching. The previous CEO Jeff -- continues to run the company. And so we learn about the senior management team. I became completely engrossed in the story. Suddenly I was seeing myself as a supervisor might see me. It was a chastening experience. I warmly recommend this book to you. It is most worthwhile to see the wider picture, and appreciate our roles as middle- managers in it. You do not have to agree with all Lencioni`s theories either, for example, his strong belief in corporate retreats.
The chief technologist, Martin, thinks he is more important than the others. He comes to meetings but always opens his laptop and does his e-mails. He only speaks when someone makes an incorrect statement, or says something he sees as threatening to his division. He is sarcastic and horrible. Kathryn gets him to stop doing other work during meetings. She improves the quality of the meetings. Martin gradually becomes a team player.
The marketing manager, Mickey, is brilliant, but annoys the others by looking smug during meetings. If anyone disagrees with her she rolls her eyes. She says,` I can tell you the problems this company has are not due to marketing`. She resists attending a training session for all sales people. She says, `I don`t need any of you. She clearly has an ego problem. She prints brochures on a new product before the salesmen have finished their customer research. She is very self-satisfied. So Kathryn fires Mickey. Mickey is thunderstruck. She had not seen it coming. She was so full of herself.
These are few of the interesting things on the book.
Thanks for reading
Mark Sandham
Education Librarian
THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM: ALEADERSHIP FABLE library
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