By Gwyneth Perry -Senior Librarian
International Open Access Week is an event held globally, to demonstrate the importance of open and accessible research findings and to ensure equitable knowledge sharing within the information community.
Region C Libraries hosted a virtual program for Open Access Week and Cyber Security Month, on Wednesday the 26th of October. The program was open to all on the Teams platform and 3 very interesting presentations were given.
Open access with it’s theme “ Open for Climate justice” was presented and explained by Ms Delisiwe Khoza, Information Specialist IIE MSA ( formerly Monash University. She clearly explained the importance of open access resources to allow interaction between the climate community and the international open community. Climate change is a hot topic at the moment and being able to access resources related to this very important issue is a great necessity.
A second presentation was given by e-learning Senior Librarian for Johannesburg Libraries, Tebogo Msimango. He explained the e-learning website www.cojelearning.org.za that has been established by COJ LIS and indicated a wide variety of free training courses available on the website, for any interested community members to use. The e-learning website gives up-to-date information about all things library related and we hope that more and more people will begin to access it to make use of the vital information it contains.
A 3rd presentation was given by Xolani Khanyile, a Final year Library and Information Science student at the University of Zululand. He covered the topic of Cyber Security. In this world where Cyber- crimes happen at every turn, his talk was very informative and useful. He shared tips and tricks on how to prevent cybercrime, anti-virus software to be used, and various other vital facts related to the topic.
The Region C Libraries were very pleased to be able to make this program available far and wide through digital technology, as well as hosting speakers from far afield. Libraries are now able to bring the world to the community, using virtual technology and we hope that further programs of this nature will be held in the future.
