Information and training

 

• The Faculty Librarian
• Faculty liaison programme
• Information Retrieval
• Orientation & Training
• Contact Information

The Faculty Librarian

A Faculty Librarian helps staff and students of his/her appointed faculty with research and assignments, while Information Librarians make sure that general information matters are attended to.

There is an online form: "Request Information" available to Nelson Mandela University staff and students or a get a paper form from a faculty librarian.

Tasks of faculty librarians:

• develop the LIS collection;
• promote current awareness;
• train and instruct in the use of the library and its facilities and
• co-ordinate short loan collection.

Statement:

It is the vision of the Information Services to achieve quality of service in the provision of information, and to foster life-long learning through information literacy education. Innovation is encouraged in both these areas when appropriate.

These principles and values support our vision:

• Equity of service to patrons: The information needs of all patrons are considered in earnest and patrons treated with respect and tolerance.

• Confidentiality: The content of an information transaction is treated as confidential and should not be discussed outside professional context.

• Commitment to excellence: We intend to provide the most efficient information service through the direct provision of information or by teaching the strategies and necessary skills to meet the information needs of patrons. Nevertheless accuracy of information cannot be guaranteed due to limitations of resources and the knowledge of the individual staff member.

• Intellectual freedom: Information Services staff will not interpret legal, medical, financial or statistical information. It is the responsibility of the patron to utilize personal judgement in interpreting and/or using information provided.

Mission: It is the mission of the Information Services to serve as a user-centered gateway ensuring optimum access to information resources for the instructional, learning and research purposes of its patrons, and thereby to support the teaching, research and service functions of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

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Faculty liaison programme

In our continuous strive to improve the Library and the services it provides, the Information Services and Training Department of the Nelson Mandela University Library and Information Services (Nelson Mandela University LIS) envisions being an active partner in the achievement of the University’s teaching, learning and research goals by providing expert assistance and instruction in the use of an increasing variety of information sources and technologies.

The Nelson Mandela UniversityLIS is therefore pleased to announce the implementation of a Library Liaison Program which partners a Faculty Librarian with a designated Faculty. The purpose of the partnership is to develop and foster two-way communication beneficial to both the LIS and the Faculties.

The services provided by the Faculty Librarian to the Faculty include the following:

• Communication:

To initiate and maintain communication between the Library and the department or division;

To represent the information needs of the academic department or division to the Library;

To notify Faculty about new Library services and materials of potential interest.

• Consultation:

To provide support for accreditation review processes;

To assist Faculty in the proposal of new course offerings by determining the adequacy of Library holdings and identifying appropriate resources.

• Collection Development:

To involve Faculty in the collection development process by selecting Library materials and reviewing Faculty requests for materials in the assigned subject area.

• Information Services:

To perform advanced literature searching.

• Training:

To provide library orientations, tours, presentations, and training sessions.

For help with your research, or to schedule a library training session for your class, please contact one of the following Faculty Librarians:

The Nelson Mandela University LIS looks forward to working with you to enhance the educational experience for our students.

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Tools used to retrieve information:

 

• reference works;
• periodical indexes and abstracts online and/or paper;
• government documents
• The library catalogue is online and accessible from on or off campus;
• The Internet - access is free of charge. Stations are available on the 1st floor in South campus and in all the other campus libraries.
• Online Databases - consult the Information Librarians for access to online databases, Nelson Mandela University Library's online subscription service. Tutorials are available for self-training

New information alerts

The purpose of the Current Awareness Service is to help the individual lecturer to keep his/her research up to date. The methods of assistance are a systematic and selective review of recently published literature, electronic information about publications not yet in print and announcements of conferences on offer.

New publications:

Lecturing staff are informed about new publications via:

• The contents of new subscription journals sent to them by library staff at the Serials Desk;
• new titles in paper format sent to them via information librarians in the form of book announcements, brochures and journal sample copies from publishing houses and
• new titles in electronic format sent to them by information librarians who have access to an online list of new titles on Blackwell's Collection Manager.
   

International Conference Alerts:

Conference Alerts
Subscribe at no charge to this Web Site to receive free e-mailed updates of conferences matching your interests, avialable dates and preferred destinations.

Nexus Database System
on-campus access
off-campus access

This database is maintained by the National Research Foundation of SA and provides information on forthcoming conferences nationally and internationally.

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Orientation & training

This service of the LIS is available to registered staff and students only.

Orientation and training sessions are offered at all the campus library branches. The aim is to help patrons become self sufficient in the use of the electronic catalogue and online databases and to be made aware of the programmes on offer.

Sessions will be anounced.

General training is provided by Information Librarians at all the campuses.
Campus contact numbers:

2nd Avenue	+27 41 504 3896
Business School Library	+27 41 504 2044
George (Saasveld)	+27 44 801 5004
North	+27 41 504 3409
South	+27 41 504 2937
Missionvale	+27 41 504 1270

 

Subject database training is provided by specialist information librarians on week days from 8:30 - 16:30.
Campus contact numbers:

2nd Avenue	+27 41 504 3896
Business School Library	+27 41 504 2044
George	+27 44 801 5004
North	+27 41 504 3409
South	+27 41 504 2298
Missionvale	+27 41 504 1144

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Information Retrieval

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