Day 8 of Experiential Learning - Library databases and tools

Day 9/12

My day started off at 09:00 in Training room 1, Mernesky Library, University of Pretoria where Mrs Bulelwa Manduba welcomed us into the session Library databases and Tools, where she introduced us to her 4 colleagues including Mrs Suzy Nyakale. She further explained how the program of the day will be ran. Mrs Manduba began the session by explaining the information specialists responsibilities which include the following: Duties to handle enquiries,Locate information on behalf of a client, Conduct group training on behalf of the client,conduct group training on electronic resources,Guide on making interlending requests,Training on EndNote,Purchase books and standards and Biomatrics. Mrs Manduba further discussed the Key performance area's which are referred to as Key result area's within Organisations and these include: Part Client relations management, Marketing Library products through Social Media plate forms, Professional Development through improvement on subject knowledge, Project Participation among other things, Mrs Manduba then gave Mrs Suzy Nykale a plate form to present to us.

Mrs Nyakale  presented the Role of Information specialists in research through explaining LIASA, which is the Library and Information Association of South Africa which was launched in the University of Pretoria in 1997, Mrs Nyakale explained that the Association is located as branches within all provinces , whereby , in Gauteng the are two branches , the Gauteng North and Gauteng South . Mrs Nyakale explained the purpose of the Organisation to be , to monitor the profession , regulate it according to the rules and regulations, to Provide structure and direction and lastly to help professionals remain current in the field . She explained that the are a lot of benefits to being a member , that being : members are kept informed on current events in the field, they are able to understand the body of knowledge, networking , publications etc .  Mrs Nyakale further explained the responsibilities in a professional organization which includes to pay dues , vote , participate to make a few . She concluded her presentation by saying we as students should apply for LIASA and love our customers and give them the best user experience in our field of work .

After the Mrs Nyakale’s presentation we went for a 30 minutes break , returning we were divided into 4 groups of 6 where we had to work together in groups in performing different tasks , in my group we had an activity on Research support where we worked with Biometrics which is the measurements of research output . My team and I did an activity that evolved using scopes and Google schoolar as databases, on both platforms we had to check where two Auothers , Corrine Sanders and De Wet Swanerpoel had an H- index score and what it was based on the two databases , we also checked for accredited journals and used ORCID as a plate form to check visibility.

After the session of working toegether as a group on the activity , we were given an hours break , in returning we had to do a presentation based on what we have learnt throughout the day . The day concluded with all for groups presenting what they had learnt throughout the day .