October 2020 was the 10th anniversary of International Open Access Week. Celebrations took place amidst the COVID-19 pandemic which made access to physical libraries difficult for many users. International Open Access Week is an annual global event that seeks to broaden awareness and understanding of the importance of open access to scholarly research. It seeks to ensure that scholarly research and accompanying data is published on platforms that make it freely accessible to the user. The theme for this year’s Open Access Week was “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion”. It is a theme that focused on the urgent need for action regarding information equity, representivity and inclusion.
The Library and Information Service (LIS) of Stellenbosch University (SU) did not let the COVID-19 crisis dampen its spirits. A number of activities were undertaken in celebration of this week.
Promotional material and plasma slides were prepared and presented throughout the week by Digital Scholarship staff. The exhibition and slides aimed to raise awareness and understanding about the Library’s open access (OA) activities.
A social media OA awareness campaign was run. The Library’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were used to share information about OA and its importance to library users especially while the COVID-19 crisis prevails.
A video, Open access initiatives at Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service was created and flighted on the Library website and social media. The video highlights the SUNScholar institutional repository and the Library’s open digital heritage repository, SUNDigital Collections, which showcases the Library’s special collections. SUNScholarData too, is featured.
Additionally, Ms Ellen Tise, Senior Director of the LIS, was invited to speak at the OA event of the University of the Western Cape Library Services. In her presentation, Ms Tise highlighted the OA initiatives of the LIS of SU and their impact. The initiatives include electronic theses and dissertations, digitisation of scholarly articles, digitisation of special collections content, and the digitisation of research data.
Siviwe Bangani
Editing: Bronwyn Bruton