Stellenbosch University Library launched its Makerspace on 10 March 2021. While not the first of its kind at Stellenbosch University, it is the first to be housed in a non-discipline specific space.
In her presentation, Ms Ellen Tise, Senior Director of the Library and Information Service, articulated some of the reasoning behind having such a space in an academic library. She mentioned that the idea had already started taking shape when in 2016 at the Stellenbosch University 14th Annual Library Symposium, Jeroen de Boer presented on: “Makerspaces: a great opportunity to enhance academic libraries”. In his presentation Jeroen quoted David Lankes: “The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities”. This corresponds well with the missions of academic libraries, which support the mission of the academe – that often centres around societal impact through research – and encourage being active contributors in the knowledge production ecosystem. Stellenbosch University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, Professor Eugene Cloete, commended the Library for seeing through the construction of a makerspace. “In future I would like to see many more spaces like this at the University”, he commented.
Attended by other members of the University Executive, the SRC Chairperson and various important stakeholders at the University, the launch was a success in re-emphasizing the importance of the academic library growing its span of services congruent with changes in the higher education landscape. It also showed the ways the Makerspace can enrich creativity and learning, as well as support existing curricula on campus. After the launch, guests were taken on a tour of the Makerspace with many expressing keen interest and delight at having such a space in the Library.
With the space having formally opened its doors to the Stellenbosch University community on 1 April 2021, we have high hopes that it fulfills its purpose to provide a collaborative, technologically focused environment for students to invent, create and learn while sharing.
Jeremiah Pietersen
Photographs: Hennie Rudman
Editor: Read more about the Makerspace. / Lees meer oor die Innovasieruimte.
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Virtual launch: Course Reading Lists in SUNLearn
On 17 February 2021, the Library and Information Service launched the Course Reading Lists system. Some 116 colleagues participated in the launch, of which 70 were academic staff.
In her welcome, Ms Ellen Tise, Senior Director: Library and Information Service, emphasized how this new system fulfills the need for comprehensive, structured, annotated and online reading lists available in the familiar environment of SUNLearn.
In her presentation, guest speaker Ms Amy Liakopoulos (Manager of Campus Engagement, Ex Libris North America) highlighted some of the benefits of Course Reading Lists for Stellenbosch University. It saves lecturers time in managing reading material for their courses: they can quickly and easily add diverse resource types to their lists and reuse these lists in subsequent terms or years through the rollover function. By organising resources into sections, tagging items as essential, recommended, etc. and by adding notes to resources, lecturers ensure students understand their expectations. A further advantage of the system is the integrated library support: with a single click, lecturers can send lists for Library review and students can report broken links directly to the Library. Comprehensive usage analytics measure student engagement with each resource; lecturers could leverage student feedback to improve instruction.
Two early adopters showcased their reading lists. According to Anria van Zyl (Senior Lecturer: School of Accountancy), Course Reading Lists helps her avoid clutter in SUNLearn, is easy to find, contains hyperlinks and exposes the Library resources to her students. Dr ZE Mashimbye (Lecturer: Geography and Environmental Studies) finds Course Reading Lists to be a convenient way to organise reading material and the Cite It! bookmarklet is a useful tool to quickly add resources to his list.
A demonstration of how to create a reading list and add resources, combined with a question-and-answer session, concluded the event.
Watch the launch recording.
For more information, visit the Library’s Course Reading Lists in SUNLearn webpage.
Natasja Malherbe
Editor: Read further how Course Reading Lists expands the Library’s support for teaching and learning at SU.