19 June to 13 July 2012

In this post I will communicate information on the following:

- UJ Reads.....

- Server change of 18 July

- Feedback on the clean-up of the catalogue

- Campus visit from Dr Bawa

- Feedback from the Management Meeting

- Disaster management workshop and fire drill

- UJoogle!

UJ Reads......

As communicated to you in earlier posts, this year we will be reading: Confessions of a gambler by Rayda Jacobs. Staff who already started to read the book said that it is so gripping that once you start you cannot put it down.

ILL and Circulation staff did a stunning display for the project. APK received 100 books and 33 are already checked out. So if you want a copy, you better get it now before the students come back next week.

Some pics of our display:

DFC Library also did a display, below two photos of their display:

Migration to new Server

Millennium will migrate to a new server on 18 July 2012.

Innovative will turn off the Millennium Software and begin the migration process. The system will remain unavailable for staff and patrons for the duration of the migration. 

** Please adhere to the following arrangements for 18 July 2012: ** 

1.       Circulation, ICL & ILL

a.       ALL transactions have to be completed by 15:00.

b.      Millennium will not be available from 15:00.

c.       Any circulation transactions after 15:00 must be handled manually.

2.       Information Services

a.       UJLink and UJoogle will not be available from 15:00.

b.      Databases will not be available from 15:00.

3.       Please note:
Circular 2012/442 sent 21 June 2012

Feedback from Dr Bawa's APK visit

Our Executive Director visited our library on 29 June. She started the meeting with staff by updating us on the developments regarding the Information Commons for undergraduate students and the Research Commons for postgraduate students. Both of these will be established on level one, which means that we have to weed and store books, reference works and journals to create space for the commons.

She also informed staff on the progress made regarding catalogue clean-up. Three teams have been formed: one team is busy cleaning up historical discrepancies, while the other focuses on current quality control. A third team is busy working on electronic resources. Good progress have been made by all teams.

UJ's fifth campus was also discussed. Dr Bawa explained to staff that the current Ndebele College will be run by UJ for a period of five years and thereafter go independent as a new university.

UJ Libraries' contribution for Mandela Day (apart from assisting at hospitals) will be blood donations. Staff will pledge their donation now and the procedure will take place in November.

Feedback from the Management Meeting

This meeting (consisting of: all Library Directors, all Campus Librarians, HR and Finance) took place on 2 July. From this meeting the following:

- There was a concern regarding the distribution of UJ book lists to bookshops. In future the book list will be published on UJ websites in order to make the list available to all bookshops.

- HR gave feedback on the vacancies in the library. At APK shortlisting and interviews for the Team Leader Circulation was completed. The position for Library Assistant Circulation was advertised. An additional shelving assistant started in our library on 2 July - Phetani Budeli will be helping out at APK for a few months before going to SWC where he is permanently appointed. HR is also in process of drafting a policy on poor work performance - as soon as the policy is approved, it will be placed on the intranet.

- Regarding Mandela Day, lists of staff who will be assisting on that day have been forwarded to Ernestine. At APK we will also do a display.

- The digitisation of thesis and dissertations are going well. 2500 items have been send for digitisation.

Disaster Management workshop and fire drill

On the 4th of July some of the APK Library staff attended a disaster management workshop. Kobus de Bruin from Occupational Health and Safety explained that all staff have to know what to do in case of a disaster (disaster plan). This plan must be tested at least once a year.

In case of an emergency, staff should take the lead to guide clients to emergency exits. All staff should know extension 2555 which we have to call first in case of an emergency.

Each department was requested to identify staff who can act as:

- a health and safety representative

- a first aider

- fire marshalls

After the workshop we had our emergency evacuation (fire drill). This went very well and we managed to evacuate the building within 7 minutes. Below some pictures taken on that day:

UJoogle

A reminder that UJoogle is now live. You can access is via UJLink (http://ujlink.uj.ac.za)  or directly http://ujoogle.uj.ac.za  

In closing: the second semester starts on Monday (16 July) and we will go back to normal hours.

Update: 28 May to 18 June 2012

My sincere apologies for not updating the post the last two weeks, but it was due to circumstances beyond my control:

This will therefore be a long post, containing info on:
- Electronic Notice Board
- Policy Review Discussions
- UJ's fifth campus.......
- Feedback from the Campus Librarian Meeting
- Feedback from the LIC IT Meeting
- 100 Amazing Women
- Film shooting in the library
- Espresso Book machine
- Library Hours

Electronic notice board
I am sure by now you have all noticed that the electronic notice board is not working: the device connected to the notice board is out of order and has been send to AMX for repairs. As soon as it is returned we will continue with our displays on the notice board.

Policy Review Discussions
Since the last blog update, three sessions were held during which UJLIC policies were discussed and several suggestions for changes have been made in line with our strategic objectives. These changes will (or have been) discussed with relevant stakeholders. During the final meeting, the changes will be re-looked that the policies will then be formally approved.

During these meetings issues related to policies are also discussed and I would like to share the following with you:

UJLIC Management Structure: Please note that structures as you knew them last year, have been changed or renamed as follows:

- Library Directors Meeting: a meeting of all library directors with the Executive Director (ED)

- Library Management Meeting: a meeting with all library directors, the Executive Director, Campus Librarians, HR and Finance.

- Strategic Planning, Implementation and Consultation Meeting (Strat PIC): the old Mancom meeting, consisting of all members of the Management Meeting together with Team Leaders and staff with a function accross all UJ Libraries.

UJLIC Annual Report 2012: Dr Bawa suggested that we change the way in which we present our annual report to outside stakeholders. For this purpose, a meeting has been scheduled for Monday (18 May). Although we expect major changes in the format and layout of the report, please continue with compiling monthly statistics as you did previously.

The next policy revision meeting will be held this week, during which attention will be given to the Cataloguing, Acquisitions and Physical processing policies.

Circulation Forum Meeting
This meeting took place on 29 May. The membership of this meeting have been extended to not only include Team Leaders of each campus, but also an additional member staff member. Currently the meeting consists off:
Janina - Service Manager accross campuses
Mdu - Team Leader from APB and also the chairperson
Musa - Circ staff member from FADA
Lucas - Team Leader from SWC
Pacsal - Circ staff member from SWC
Adri - Team Leader representative from APK
Daniel - Circ staff member from APK
Moipone - Team Leader from DFC
Rudi - Circ staff member from DFC

The major issues that were discussed were suggested changes to the Circulation and Circulation Financial Policies. Once the final approval of these policies have been done, the updated version will be discussed by Team Leaders with circulation staff.

It was also decided to have a special meeting with Carina Malan during which system issues will be addressed.

UJ's fifth campus......
The government would like to establish new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. UJ will be assisting with the establishment of the university in Mpumalanga. A faculty of Education (for foundation phase) will be established at the Ndebele College. This faculty will be run by UJ for the next five years. In five years' time, this faculty will go independent as part of the new university. Form more info see:
http://www.skillsportal.co.za/page/education/universities/1158142-New-university-on-the-cards-for-Mpumalanga

Feedback from Campus Librarian meeting
The meeting was held on 14 June and chaired by the Director: Client Services (Dr van Vuren) and all campus librarians were present.

iPad Project: Just  reminder that this is the project where iPads are donated to the library for a period of time for student use. Update: The contract with the provider is ready for signage and we will most probably receive the iPad later this year. These will be put on level one for student use.

From SWC Library: Charlotte reported that their first ever shelving assistant has been appointed: Remember Ndluvu. They too experience high usage of computers in the library and the research commons is also well used. She also extended a big thank you to the Faculty Librarians who came to visit their library the May.

From the APB Library: Santha said the the interviews for the vacancy of Information Librarian has been scheduled. They have opened their overnight study area on Sundays.

From the DFC Library: This library currently have a vacancy at circulation. They are also busy with weeding of books.

From the Shelving Forum: Charlotte Kunene is the Service Manager of this forum. She reported that a meeting is scheduled for next week. One of the topics that they will discuss is accross campus assistance with specific projects.

From the ILL & ICL Forum: For this forum, Santha is the Service Manager. During the last meeting held, the main topic that was discussed is the national ILL survey: What is the current state of ILL? and How to move forward with ILL? They are planning to present their results in a formal presentation later this year. The issue of library books ending up in the wrong library (when returned) needs to be discussed as a matter of urgency with relevant stakeholders.

From the Information Services Forum: As Service Manager for this forum, Julia reported that Dr Bawa join the last meeting held. The updating of the letter of introduction was discussed. Dr Bawa mentioned that attention should be given to first year embedding too and that timing to get into the curriculum is very important.

From the Circulation Forum: as reported earlier in this post.

UJ Reads....(formerly know as One Book One Library): The following title has been selected for this year: Confessions of a gambler by Rayda Jacobs. The author has been invited and discussions on the book will take place in September this year. A film about this books has also been made. For more on the book, click on the link below:
http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/religion/documents/ARISA/2003_E4.pdf

For more info on the movie:
http://www.moviesite.co.za/2008/0404/confessions_of_a_gambler.html

Rayda Jacobs' blog: http://raydajacobs.blogspot.com/2011/07/confessions-of-gambler-joonie-buy-your.html

New catalogue format: The new format of the library catalogue should be available within the next few months. As mentioned previously, the new catalogue with have a similar search look and feel as that of Google and will be called: UJoogle. For a sneak preview, you will receive a link to this via email. All staff will be requested to assist with the marketing of UJoogle.

Feedback from the LICIT meeting
The meeting took place on 15 June and the objective is to discuss all library IT matters. The meeting is chaired by Pieter Hattingh. Four meetings per year will be organised and it is of utmost importance that all campuses and departments are represented.
During the past few years, the operating system used in the library has been referred to as Innopac, Millennium, etc. In order to stick to one single name, Millennium will as from now on be referred to as the Integrated Library Management System (ILMS).

Electronic Resource Management (ERM): All licences with vendors will be loaded on the ERM system immediately. A smaller meeting will be arranged between Faith, Pieter and Carina to discuss the process in detail. Faith and Sharon is in process of designing a webpage which can be used by clients and staff to report databases problems.

Springerlink: This database makes use of larger cookies and this impacts on keyword searches as WAM battles to accommodate the larger cookies. However, this issue should be resolved when we migrate to the new Millennium release.

BibIT Helpdesk: This is now available on all campuses, not only APK.

WiFi: Client Service staff will receive training to deal with student queries regarding connection to WiFi in the library. Several sessions will be scheduled in order to ensure that all staff can attend the training. Library IT staff will only be able to assist students with complicated connection issues (once an indemnity form has been signed). They will assist with these cases on Fridays upon appointment.

Thin Clients: This product was bought to replace the current student computers. By using thin client student computers can be maintained and updated simultaneously instead of one computer at a time. These will be used in the learning commons (undergraduates) only.

Inventory: This has been done on all campuses and the register has been updated. Staff were reminded to inform IT if any computer equipment is being moved from one office to another.

Time management software: Different software are currently being tested. There is currently no definite date of implementation. In the meantime time management will be done manually with temporary staff.

Electronic Course Reserves: The usage of this function has declined do to more academics making of of Edulink. The Circulation forum have to discuss make a suggestion whether this module can be used for something else or if it should be cancelled.

New Server: We will be migrating to a new server on 18 July. Please note that all transactions on Millennium must stop at 5pm on 18 July. Arrangements to accommodate this, will be discussed with each department individually.

100 Amazing Women
Together with other stakeholders (like the Mandela Foundation) the library will be hosting an event in August to celebrate 100 amazing women. The event will take place at the Johannesburg Country Club more info will follow in due course.

Filming in the library
Please note that Catapult Commercials received permission to film a commercial in the library. This will take place during the winter holiday on 26 June from 9am to 2pm.

Espresso Book Machine
We are currently in negotiations for a print books on demand machine. For more info on what these machines are about, click on the link below:
http://ondemandbooks.com/ebm_hardware.php

Library Hours
Just a reminder that the university winter holidays start on 23 June and ends on 14 July. Library hours during this time will be:

Weekdays - 7am to 6pm
Saturdays - 8:30 to 1pm

Update: 12 to 25 May 2012

In this post you will find info on the following:

- Access to library computers (students)

- Stolen books

- Feedback from the Quality Task Team (QualTT) meeting

- Policy revisions

- Combined Management Meeting

- Feedback from the APK Operational Forum Meeting

- Feedback from the Collection Development Task Team(CDMTT) meeting

- Staff news

Access to library computers

In order to provide more students with access to the limited number of computers in the library, the following changes have been made the last two weeks:

- The computers on level one has been enclosed and students now only have one hour access to computers. This is being manually regulated by four temporary staff members.

- WiFi has been extended and is now available on levels one (24 hour study area included) and on level two. Notices informing students of where WiFi is available in the library has been put up.

- The computers in the foyer on level one, have been configured to give access to the library catalogue only.

We sincerely hope that these measures will be successful in giving more equal access to computers to our students. In the meantime, we are expecting WiFi to be rolled out throughout the library. The 'time-out' software (as mentioned in previous posts) is currently out on tender.

Example of WiFi notices in the library

Stolen books

I previously reported on library books that were stolen and that Protection Services apprehended the people that did it. On 15 May I was summonsed to court for the theft case against one of the people accused of stealing the books. The person in question pleaded guilty to theft and was given a fine and a suspended sentence. It was encouraging to hear that the magistrate of the court also took the matter seriously and I want to thank UJ Protection Services and the SAPS for presenting a water-tight case.

Quality Task Team

The meeting took place on 16 May. Members were tasked to look at the ALA standards and establish if these standards would be applicable to UJLIC as well. Most members submitted their input and the chairperson will put all contributions into one document.

The library fact sheet has been updated by Hettie. This document contains important information regarding the library, such as: number of computers per campus, annual check-outs, seating etc. Please contact me, if you need a copy of the fact sheet.

Policy Revisions

A series of meetings has been scheduled during which library policies are discussed. Suggested changes will be discussed with relevant parties and policies updated if needed. The first meeting took place on 16 May and the remaining meetings will take place in June. I would like to remind you that current library policies are available on the Intranet.

Combined Management Meeting

Santha will compile a summary of the meeting and send to all library staff.

APK Operations Forum Meeting

The meeting took place on 18 May and started off by informing members that Mr George Maliobusa has been appointed as Operations Manager for APK and in future he will be chairing the meetings, should Adv Coetzer not be available.

Auxiliary Services and Transport : The short supply of buses to transport students in between campuses have been addressed: four more buses have been added to the current schedule and more queue marshalls were appointed.

The tender for the inter-campus courier service is in process of being finalised.

The lock-down of bathrooms in the library (when there is no water available) has been addressed. The library received keys to lock the bathrooms in times of a water-crisis.

The hygiene tender (currently with Steiner) is in process. In the new tender provision have been made for higher standards from the supplier.

In the new tender for cleaning services, weekend supervision of cleaning staff in the library has been included as well as for a full cleaning staff compliment on weekends (currently we only have skeleton staff on weekends).

Members form the forum thanked the staff from auxiliary services for cleaning the area outside the university as this creates a much better impression of our institution.

AVU: The back-log regarding AVU equipment in classrooms has been mostly addressed. During the meeting is was mentioned that due to the new time table, the demand for classrooms increased with 45%, while the number of AVU staff remained the same. Theft of AVU material still remain a concern.

Health and Safety: Recycling stations are available across the campus and staff were requested to make use of these as this is an important issue for the university.

Overcrowding of lecturing venues are being monitored. This year popular modules have been capped to ensure that there are sufficient seating space for students in classrooms. Attention must also be given to evacuation procedure especially for big events, the computer labs and the library.

Maintenance: The boilers for all air-conditioners on APK have been switched on. This should supply hot air in venues.

Paving repairs is currently being done on the APK campus.

Residences: The meal-of-the-day-kitchen is in full operation. Student who cannot afford a decent meal can get a meal once a day from this kitchen. This project is run by Student Affairs and current feeding about 800 students.

Feedback from CDMTT meeting

The meeting was chaired by Mrs. Sander.

The remaining items for the old ERC collection have been fully incorporated with the DFC collection.

The supply of newspapers have still not been resolved due to issues regarding payment.

At the meeting is was mentioned that the shelf numbers containing a slash "/" will be rectified this year still. A request was also put forward to limit the numbers after the decimal point (on the shelf mark) and this will be investigated.

The amendments to the Donation Policy was accepted by all members of this committee and will be forwarded to relevant stakeholders. Amendments had to be made to as previous procedures became time consuming, ineffective and resulted in a unbalanced collection. Legalities regarding ownership also had to be addressed. Please note that as from now: ALL DONATIONS MUST BE REFERRED TO RIETTE ZAAYMAN. She will facilitate the process and Campus and Faculty Librarians will be consulted if and when needed. All telephonic enquiries regarding donations can also be referred to Riette.

A concern has been raised regarding the low expenditure of information budgets for most of the Faculties. Faculty Librarians are requested to follow up with their faculties.

Staff news

As was communicated to you via email, Tiny will be leaving UJ at the end of this month. Tiny, thank you so much for your contribution at the APK Library and we wish you all of the best in your new job.

Tiny Makua

Congratulations to Doreen who became a grandmother. Doreen, we hope that little Rethabile will bring you lots of joy.

Rethabile

Update: 2 to 11 May 2012

In this post the following information will be communicated:
- Usage of public computers in the library
- Reference works
- New faces at Circulation
- Feedback from Circulation Forum meeting.

Update: 19 to 26 April 2012

In this post I will share with you the following:

-              Encore demonstration

-              Feedback from the Campus Librarian Meeting

-              April’s farewell

Feedback: E-strategy meeting - 17 April

The old Mancom and Library Leadership get together every 3 months to discuss progress regarding our strategic goals. The last quarterly meeting took place on 17 April and this is a summary of the main topics discussed:

Dr Bawa opened the meeting by reminding representatives to give feedback to their staff. In this post I will provide an overview of what has been discussed in the meeting, as well as the outcomes. Please note that in depth information relating to specific departments will be provided by the Team Leaders.

Update: 28 March to 12 April 2012

Dear Colleagues in this post I will share information on the following:
- KPA's
- Feedback from the Circ Forum Meeting
- Charging bays
- Maintenance
- APK meeting with Dr Bawa
- How to win a laptop

Update: 19 to 27 March 2012

In this post, you will find information on:
- Library Hours (Long weekends)
- Weeding
- Human Rights Display
- TypeQuick
- Feedback from Collection Development Task Team

Library Hours (Long Weekends)
Please take note of the library hours and closing times during the long weekends in April and May:

5 to 10 April 2012
5 April	Library closes at 6pm
6 to 9 April	Library Closed
10 April	Library open normal hours (7am to 10 pm)

26 April to 2 May 2012
26 April	Library closes at 6pm
27 April to 1 May	Library Closed
2 May	Library open normal hours (7am to 10 pm)

Notices to inform our clients about these hours will be put up at the entrance of the library.

 Weeding
 In my last post and during my departmental meetings with you, I mentioned that we had to do weeding and relocation of items in the general collection, journals and reference works. In the past few weeks I read several articles on the topic and from these articles I would like to share the following with you:

- A collection needs to be relevant and appealing - an unweeded collection has the potential to  convey outdated or irrelevant information to clients.

- As irrelevant items are removed or moved from the collection, relevant items are more visible to clients.

- Browsing becomes more productive and the library looks more organised and attractive.

- Crowded shelves means that shelving takes longer and the possibility for mis-shelving increases.

- Libraries (not only ours) do not have the space to keep each and every book that was ever bought - if you keep pouring water into a glass, at some stage the glass will be full and the water will spill.

- The objective of weeding is not only to address limited space in libraries, but also to maximise the usage of the collection by moving/removing irrelevant issues.

- Weeding does not necessarily implies a loss of information. It might change the method of access to information from print to online; from direct access to indirect access (storage or ILL).

Below a picture of what we can do with the weeded books - reference desk made from books (just joking):

Human Rights Display
If you have not already, make some time to have a look at the Human Rights Display on level 6. Thank you to the Law Librarians and everyone else who assisted - I think the display looks stunning. Below some pics:

Feedback from the Collection Development and Management Task Team (CDMTT)
The meeting took place on 27 March and was chaired by Mrs Sander. From this meeting I would like to share the following with you:

- The process to incorporate the remainder of the East Rand Collection with the DFC Collection is going well.

- Faith is finalising the prescription to newspapers for libraries. Both print and electronic newspapers would be made available.

- The Donations Policy is currently under review. Input received have been forwarded to the CDMTT. Riette, Annette Liebenberg and Janina is to draft criteria for acceptance of donations and present to this task team. As a trial it was decided that all telephonic enquiries regarding donations will be transferred to Riette Zaaiman and she will co-ordinate the process.

- In order to proceed with weeding on all campuses the weeding policy should receive urgent attention.

- This year there will not be one big exhibition by publishers. Smaller exhibitions may be organised in co-operation with ACP.

TypeQuick
Imagine being able to type at the speed of thought without having to search for keys. That's what you can expect to accomplish when you learn to type with Typequick.

This software has been installed on the server and we have 50 concurrent licences. Should you want to make use of this training software, contact Vivian or Janina and we will send you the URL and assist you with the start-up and log-in.

In closing......

I would like to close on a positive note by sharing with you an email we received this week from Richardson from SWC library. Richardson spend 6 weeks in 2010 at the Info-point:

When I spent Six weeks in 2010 with you guys, I wasn’t aware how much it would help me going forward skill-wise. Now, that I have small space where I can make my own decisions on the spot I have realized meeting you was god-sent or a piece of magic. The problem I had before was the fact I would go to training for something that I thought was useful for me but because it was not in my line of job I would end up forgetting it. Thank you my Three Musketeers!! Tricks that you taught me in doing book searches, searching databases, course reserves, question papers have really come in handy. What you did was how transfer of skills should work. When I  came back I was a bag full of tricks, thanks to you. Theresa, Michael and Tyson, thank you very much for your genuine and warm reception that you gave me. Thanks for your enthusiasm in showing many things I didn’t know. At the end of it UJ and UJ LIC are benefittingKunene for allowing me to go APK despite Dewey Project which was going full steam here at Soweto Campus. Thanks Janina for allowing me to use your facilities and your staff to empower myself. Thanks Dr van Vuren for facilitating everything and ensuring that I did go to APK and that my stay was both comfortable and successful. Thanks Annelize for being an enthusiastic host and ensuring that everything went smoothly, thanks for babysitting me when I knocked off at 10pm. Your presence ensured that I didn’t fall asleep. Under normal circumstances 10pm is way beyond my bed-time. You also ensured when I started knocking off at 10pm last year I had an experience of one day.

Update: 5 to 16 March 2012

Dear Colleagues, in this post I would like to share the following with you:
- Improved procedures for searching of missing books
- Feedback regarding UJLIC Strategic Objectives
- Feedback regarding the Combined Management Meeting
- One Book One Library
- Theft of library books
- Congrats to Yvonne Bucwa
- Human Rights Day

Missing Books
If a books shows available on the catalogue, but cannot be found on the shelves, please refer the client to Circulation to complete a 'Missing Book' form. These forms are collected by Shelving staff (Stanley or Sphiwe) every morning. Once the forms are collected, they check the status of the item on the catalogue, as this gives them an indication where to start searching for a book, for example: a book recently catalogued, might still be on level four or with the Information Librarians.

After the status have been checked, the information on the forms are recorded on an Excel spreadsheet. This helps with feedback to clients, records the number of times the item has been searched and assist in the keeping of statistics.

All books are searched five times - while the search is done, the item is marked as 'On search' on the catalogue. As soon as the book is found clients are informed via text message that the book is available at Circulation. If not found clients are also informed accordingly and the item is marked as 'Missing' on the catalogue. These titles are then forwarded to the Campus Librarian or Faculty Librarians for possible replacement.

Should clients have any enquiries regarding the progress or processes for searching for missing books, please refer them to Stanley or Sphiwe at extension: 3543.

Feedback regarding Strategic Objectives
In order to implement our strategic objectives of having a Learning Commons for undergraduate students and a Research Commons for postgraduate students, we have to seriously look at the weeding of multiple and un-used items, the storage of less used valuable items and the weeding/storage of items available online (journals and reference works). These issues will be addressed with you during my monthly meetings with departments. Dr. Bawa would like the weeding and relocation of items to be done before the end of the year.

Feedback: Combined Management Meeting
The revised and shortened UJ vision, mission and values were distributed to all Team Leaders to be discussed with you within your departments. The feedback received from you and other Campus Libraries were the main topic of discussion during the Combined Management Meeting. I want to thank each and everyone of you for your input and it has been given through at this meeting.

At this meeting it was also reported that the advertisement for the vacancy for an Admin Assistant on level three has closed and that they are in process of compiling the shortlist. The vacancy for Information Librarian at APB and the vacancy at Acquisitions will be advertised towards the end of this month.

It was also mentioned that Archiving and the Rare Book Collection will be moving to DFC. A grand opening of the Archives are planned for August.

One Book One Library
This committee had a meeting during this week and the title for this year has been selected - you will be informed of the title during next week. We also want to change the name of this project form One Book One Library to something else. If you have any suggestions for a new name for this project please forward it to me or Dr van Vuren.

Theft of Library Books
The theft of library books has always been a concern, but escalated recently. During the past two months, seven library books have been confiscated from students and returned to the library. According to the students that were found in possession of these books, the books were bought on campus as second hand books. Protect Services acted quickly and arrests have been made. Further investigations and more arrests might follow.

We kindly, but urgently ask you to be on the look out for suspicious behaviour and to report it  to Protection Services. Should you have any ideas on how we can improve the security of our stock (books), please forward your proposals to me.

Congratulations
I would like to congratulate Yvonne Bucwa who has been accepted to the Carnegie Leadership Academy. Yvonne will attend the academy from 13 to 27 April. Good luck Yvonne, we are SO proud of you!

 Human Rights Day
Just a reminder that 21 March is Human Rights Day and that the library will be closed.

I found this article very interesting (see the link below). It not only explains why we celebrate Human Rights Day, but also what our rights are:
http://www.educationstation.co.za/Documents/Holidays/Human_Rights_day.pdf

Update: 21 Feb to 5 March

This post will contain updates on the following matters:

-          Feedback: Usage of Library Public Computers

-          Feedback: Combined Management Meeting

-          Feedback: Campus Librarians Meeting

-          Feedback: VC’s visit to the APK Campus

-          Feedback: Moving of books

Feedback: Usage of Library Public Computers

In the last post, I promised to give you feedback regarding the ‘over usage’ of computers in the library. On 22 February some library staff members had a meeting with ICS staff to discuss the possibility of implementing a time-out functionality on computers in the library. The idea is to find relevant software that will allow students to use computers only for a certain time (hypothetically speaking, say 45 minutes) some time (say three hours) will have to pass before the same student have access to the computers again. Currently both ICS and UJIT are working on this proposal and we should have feedback regarding this quite soon.

Please also note that Wi-Fi is available on level one in the library. Students who have their own laptops can therefore also connect to the network via Wi-Fi. Should they have difficulty to connect to the network via Explorer, please advise them that they might want to try Firefox. I am also happy to inform you that according to current plans, the whole library should have Wi-Fi towards the middle of the year. We hope that this will also alleviate some pressure on the library computers.

Post graduate students can also be directed to the Post Graduate Centre for access to computers. This centre (located in the library) has 19 computers available for postgrad students.

Feedback: Combined Management Meeting

Once a month, all Campus Librarians have a meeting with the Executive Director: UJLIC , Directors: UJLIC, Finance Representative (Eon Botha) and HR Representative (Heleen Kruger). The last meeting took place on 27 Feb and from this meeting I would like to share the following:

Staff is requested to take note of the following policies regarding HR (available on the Intranet):

Performance Management: This policy gives clear guidelines regarding this process and sets a framework for line managers. According to the policy, all performance management documents for staff must be in place by the end of March.

Retirement: The age of retirement has changed from 60 to 65 and early retirement stays at 55 year. Note that the change in the age of retirement will only be applicable to current employees.

Resourcing: The new Resourcing Policy provides line managers with valuable info regarding the process to be followed for appointing new staff.

All Line Managers were urged not to underspend on budgets allocated to them.

Line Managers were also requested to report on all calls logged for maintenance as well as progress regarding the work that was done.

During this meeting members also bid farewell to Ms Neli Kuanda, who left the employment of UJ at the end of February. Members were informed that Neli’s portfolio will be temporarily handled by Mrs Sander.

Feedback: Campus Librarians Meeting

This meeting took place on 28 February and the largest part of the meeting was devoted to implementation plans for an Information Commons (for undergraduate students) and a Research Commons (for postgraduate students) in all campus libraries. For our library extensive changes to the physical space will have to be made, but before we can even start with this, we will have to look seriously at the current space occupied by our printed collection. Weeding of some items will have to be considered as well as the storage of valuable items that are less used.

Feedback: VC’s visit to APK

Professor Iron Rensburg visited the APK campus on 1 March. Several library staff members attended this event as well.

In his opening statement, Prof Rensburg mentioned that all staff has an important role to play at UJ and working together towards a common goal is extremely important -  our common goal is to support teaching,  learning and research.

Previously the focus was on planning, goal-setting and performance management and this have produced the required results. He suggested that some leadership styles will have to adapt in order to make provision for a more collagist approach.

He also mentioned that the university is in process of revising its mission, vision and values. Note that the new draft for the vision and mission have been forwarded to your Team Leaders. Please provide your input (via your Team Leaders) no later than 12 March.

A concern was raised regarding parking and traffic on campus. It was mentioned that the current Parking Policy is being revised and that paid parking (on campus) will probably be implemented later this year. Some members raised their concerns regarding paying for parking on campus and these concerns were noted. Please note that the speed limit on campus is 20km per hour.

ICS reported that the rolling out of Wi-Fi is currently a priority and that the over usage of computers in the library is being addressed. Currently Wi-Fi is available on the following places on campus:

-          Student Centre

-          Library (Level 1)

-          In front of A-Ring

Notices to advertise Wi-Fi hotspots are in progress.

As was the case in the Operations Forum, the issue regarding the availability of AVU material in lecturing halls were addressed again by lecturing staff.

Feedback: Moving of Collections

The changes to the locations and loan rules on the system have been completed for theses and dissertations on levels one to four. Please note that from now on it will display as follows:

Work on changing the remaining reference works from Zastrau to Dewey will also now proceed at a faster pace. Student assistants have been employed to assist and apart from the Shelving Department, ILL staff will assist as well. I sincerely want to thank staff from these two departments in assisting with the last of the Dewey project. If all goes well, we should be finished with the reference works by the end of April.

In closing – on a lighter note:

Update: 3 to 21 February 2012

So much has happened since the last update, so I would like to start by apologising for the length of this post in advance.

From my side, I would like to share the following with you:
- Staff news
- Feedback from UJLIC strategic objectives
- Feedback from meeting with APK Client Services Departments
- Moving of collections
- UJLink: Enriched content
- Author workshop
- Opening of Johannesburg City Library
- Usage of library computers
- Feedback from the Operations Forum Meeting

Staff news
Congratulations to Vivian who became the proud grandmother to a baby boy this month.

I would also like to congratulate Sharon Swart on winning the iPad by completing the Energy Efficiency Survey:

Feedback: UJLIC Strategic Objectives
Regarding the strategic objectives that were shared with you on 3 February, I am happy to report to you that Dr Bawa presented our objectives with great success. In her feedback Dr Bawa mentioned that we received great support from the VC and university leadership. The library was tasked to create an implementation plan (that will happen on 22 Feb) and Dr Bawa will do a roadshow at all the Faculties.

Feedback: APK Client Services Departments
The past two weeks I had my monthly meetings with the different departments. From these meetings I would like to share the following:
- Please note that ILL and ICL cannot be requested telephonically. This is due to the fact that the staff of this department have to make very shure that they request the correct book or article. During telephonic conversations, the client will be requested to submit information electronically.
- The blocking of students with outstanding library fines/books on ITS seems to be successful. During January 2012 the amount received for the payment of lost books increased with 770%, when compared to Jan 2011. I would like to congratulate April and his team for the hard work regarding this issue.
- The Shelving staff already had their first forum meeting. At the forum they started discussing the implementation of the portable barcode reader (PBR) for shelf reading and stock taking. This will be implemented this year.
- At the meeting with the Information Librarians, they requested the table of the allocation of Dewey numbers per level. Please find the table below:

Level 1	DDC #: 000 - 226
Level 2	DDC #: 227 - 354
Level 3	DDC #: 355 - 399 & 500 - 599
Level 4	DDC #: 400 - 499 & 700 - 899
Level 5	DDC #: 600 - 699 & 900 - 999

Moving of collections
The moving of theses and dissertations to the left of each level have been completed on levels one to four. Locations and loan rules have been created accordingly and will be updated on the catalogue during the course of the week. You will be updated via email regarding the progress in this regard. I would like to thank the Shelving Staff and the LIC IT staff for their assistance.

We are still in progress of labelling and re-shelving reference works with no Dewey numbers. As from March four student assistants will be employed to assist with this task. We would like to finish arranging this collection according to DDC by the end of April.

UJLink: Enriched content
On 16 February we all received an email from the UJLink Team that summaries and book jackets have been added to the catalogue. I would like to thank this team for the wonderful enhancement. It really makes our catalogue look more colourful:

Author Workshop
You are reminded of the Author Workshop that will be held for researchers an prospective researchers on 1 March @ 2pm in the library auditorium. During this workshop the following will be addressed:
- Why publish research?
- The calculation and value of an Impact Factor
- Open access publishing
- Information on Springer

Remind clients that limited space is available and for more information they can contact: Simon Machogo -Sekoto at ssekoto@uj.ac.za.

Re-opening of Johannesburg City Library
The Johannesburg City Library was re-opened last week. For more information follow the link below (you might just recognise a familiar face):
http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7733&catid=88&Itemid=266

Usage of Library Public Computers
You will all agree with me that the library has been well used since the students returned. All departments reported an increase in activity and the high usage of the computers in the library remains a concern.

Note that the role of the library is to give access to information and therefore students have full access to the Internet.

In order to address the crisis regarding the use of library computers, I have completed a report and forwarded it to library leadership. In the report short, medium and long term solutions were suggested. In order to address the short term solution (implementing software that would limit the time a student uses a computer) will be address by some library staff and ICS during a meeting tomorrow (22 Feb). You will be updated with new developments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I would like to thank you for your patience with this issue. I am positive a solution will be found very soon.

Feedback from the Operations Forum Meeting
The first APK Operations Forum Meeting for 2012 took place on 17 Feb and from this meeting I would like to report the following:

Auxiliary Services  and Transport: Frans van Deventer confirmed that the water crisis at APK on 16 Feb was not a smooth exercise, partly because of the delay in this department receiving information. All departments at APK were requested to improve contingency plans in this regard. The Library would like to lock bathrooms during times when now water is available and this will also be discussed with Protection Services.

The inter-campus bus service is a free service and currently the demand is higher than the supply. This will be addressed with MEC. It was mentioned that buses do leave according to schedule, but there are too many students making use of this service and some have to wait for the next bus.

Elite Cleaning Services will do spring-cleaning during June/July and December this year. The issue regarding improved supervision for cleaning staff during weekends in the library has also been addressed.

AVU: The issue regarding the licencing codes for the SmartBoard Software at the Library has been addressed and the codes were forwarded to LIC IT as well as the Campus Librarian.

Technology issues in the classrooms is a huge problem and was discussed at length. AVU asked for support from Faculty staff to address these issues as they are experiencing severe budget constraints.

Occupational Health and Safety: The overcrowding of lecturing halls remain a concern regarding safety. No solution to the problem has been discussed.

The flu campaign will start in March, staff have to keep their eyes open for the circular. A limited number of vaccines will be available.

Protection Services (Security): Common theft remains a problem - especially at APK and in the library. Please remember to keep your personal belongings safe as a large number of theft cases occures due to neglicence of the owner (please remind students as well).

Should you battle to find parking on campus, note that the parking behind the Art Center (Truffles) is seldom used. Paid staff parking will still be implemented later this year.

ICS (UJ IT): In the role out of Wi-Fi on campus the library and residences will be a priority. The role out plan of Wi-Fi will soon be available on the Intranet. A standard sign for Wi-Fi hot spots will be designed and placed accordingly.

Technical Services: Members at the meeting were requested to remind staff to save energy. Electrical items that are not used, must be switch off and if possible lights in offices must also be switched off when you leave.

Language Unit: Prof Monareng reported that the UJ Language Policy is now available of all four official UJ languages. Currently this unit is also working on a project to translate terminology used in Political Science in all four UJ languages. Their aim is to complete this by the end of the year.

In Closing...........