Month: September 2020

The Library and Information Service is pleased to inform clients that the Bellville Park Campus Library (USBL) reopened on Tuesday 8 September 2020 after five months of lockdown. This brings to five the number of libraries open for service: Stellenbosch University (SU) Library, Engineering and Forestry Library, Medicine and Health Sciences Library, Music Library and USBL.

Read here for all the details about opening hours, booking a visit, as well as services and resources that are offered. Clients are welcome to bring their own devices to the library.

Students wanting to borrow books from the SU Library need to submit a list of the books to the circulation desk (contact details in above notice) before visiting the library. They will be contacted when the books are ready and the circulation staff will book a time for them to collect the books.

Clients must comply with Covid-19 protocols which ensure their safety and that of library staff. This includes a limit to the number of users allowed in a library at a time.

Clients are welcomed back to the libraries for study and research purposes. We are here to support you to successfully complete your academic year.

Much progress has been made on the new Makerspace area in the Stellenbosch University Library. January 2021 is the new date that clients can look forward to the opening of this service. The Makerspace will support research creativity and innovation, drawing together students with ideas and those with the technical skills to turn them into reality.

 

Construction work on the area is complete. A brand new, signposted entrance to the Makerspace has been created from opposite the fire escape doors of the Learning Commons. In addition, this appealing space now boasts Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, an extended fume hood and has a fresh look.

The goal of the Makerspace is to enable students to create new digital artifacts and materials, adapt new digital tools, processes, and methods and participate in innovative projects, communities, and discussions. This will be accomplished by using digital desktop tools to create designs for new products and to prototype them (digital DIY). A booking facility will be available to reserve a construction or design workstation and to book the tools and equipment a client needs for a session.

A Makerspace Library Guide, as well as an information page for the Library website, has already been compiled by eager library staff working from home during Covid-19. Both resources are ready for publishing.

The Library looks forward to welcoming students to unlock their creative potential in this fantastic space.

Update on application to SU Strategic Fund and progress with implementation

The Library and Information Service’s application to the SU Strategic Fund to assist with the financing of the subscription cost for the Leganto course reading management system was successful, and the Library has commenced to install the system on its existing infrastructure. The Library will receive funding from the SU Strategic Fund to subscribe to Leganto for the period 2021 – 2023, with a first integration of the system into SUNLearn set for 1 December 2020.

A Campus Engagement Team comprising staff members from the Library, faculty, Blended Learning Coordinators, academic support divisions, the SU ICT Division and the SU Disability Unit will oversee the implementation process during the next 3 months. The implementation project will include a review of end-to-end lecturer workflows, ensuring the technical readiness of the Alma and SUNLearn platforms to exchange data, and training of Library and academic staff members to improve the online accessibility, format and structure of course reading lists.

By implementing Leganto the Library aims to proactively assist lecturers to create and maintain course readings by adding both print and electronic materials to the same list and showing real-time availability of both. It will assist lecturers in their blended learning offering for the modules for which they are responsible by embedding reading lists as a component of lecturer workflows and not as a separate system that the lecturer needs to access. As described in the application to the SU Strategic Fund, after 1 December 2020 the adoption process will continue into 2021 for full adoption across all possible modules by 2023.

Wouter Klapwijk