Sabinet IFLA Participation Grants

It is our great pleasure to announce that Sabinet has made funds available to sponsor 10 South African librarians to attend IFLA WLIC 2015.

This sponsorship comprises funds for registration fees as well as two thousand rand (R2000.00) towards travel and/or accommodation.

Requirements:

• Priority will be given to eight public librarians as well as, two academic librarians who have a focus in the area of information literacy
• Candidates requiring sponsorship will have to provide a motivational letter indicating how attending this conference will add value to their career, their organisation and the user population that they serve (max 200 words)
• Candidates will also need to provide a letter of approval/permission from their head of institution expressing permission to attend the conference

Conditions:

• The additional funds for accommodation or travel can only be claimed after the conference by supplying the following supporting documentation
  • Grantees will be expected to provide a certificate of attendance, which will be issued at the IFLA conference
  • Proof of travel and/or accommodation cost incurred (payment confirmation etc.)

Send your application to cpf@sabinet.co.za on or before 1 May 2015

The University of KwaZulu-Natal is now live with OCLC WorldShare Management Services

The University of KwaZulu-Natal, a leading African university, is now using OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS) as its library management system.

WMS provides cloud-based library management and discovery applications in an integrated suite, offering librarians a comprehensive and cost-effective way to manage library workflows efficiently, and improve end users' access to library collections and services.

The implementation of WMS helps bring the university closer to its mission of achieving academic excellence and innovation in research. Joyce Myeza, Library Director, University Kwazulu-Natal explains: "WMS is a global knowledge system, it helps us widen access to learning research, and innovation, to both our local and global scholars. WMS enables us to deliver infrastructure and support services designed around their learning needs."

Speaking of the reasons for selecting WMS Joyce says: "The costs of maintaining our legacy systems were becoming unsustainable. This combined with a desire to provide consolidated access to all of our resources and make better use of our collections budget were instrumental in our decision to implement WMS."

The University of KwaZulu-Natal was formed on 1 January 2004 as a result of the merger between the University of Durban-Westville and the University of Natal. The new university brings together the rich histories of both the former Universities.

"OCLC are excited to welcome the University of KwaZulu-Natal to the WMS community," said Eric van Lubeek, Managing Director, OCLC EMEA. "One of the institution's strategic objectives is to establish efficient, effective management systems for students, which meet their requirements in a pragmatic and flexible way. We are delighted that the university saw WMS as way to achieve this for its many library users."

OCLC works in conjunction with its local partner, Sabinet, in the African region. Sabinet provided on-the-ground implementation support and training for the University of KwaZulu-Natal and will be providing ongoing support for WMS in Africa. "We are pleased to have played a significant role during the course of this implementation," stated Ros Hattingh MD of Sabinet. "Sabinet has worked with OCLC for a number of years and the successful implementation of WMS at the University of KwaZulu-Natal is as a result of this successful partnership."

Almost 300 libraries on four continents - Australia, Europe, North America and Africa - are currently using OCLC WorldShare Management Services to gain efficiencies and improve usability in library services and end-user discovery.

This year we are doing it differently!

They say change is as good as a holiday, and we are most certainly hoping that adage applies in this case. As valued clients of Sabinet you should be well aware of our annual regional meetings. This year we have opted to do things a little bit differently by hosting two regional meetings, one of which will be in its usual time of the middle of the year, and the other at the end of the year.

The reason for this change is due to feedback received from some of you stating that you feel that you get more value from these educational sessions than you do from our client year end function. The meetings will be hosted across all the regions we serve and will give you the opportunity to understand our business and help us to ensure that we continue to deliver excellent service.

Watch this space for more information on the upcoming regional meetings taking place in July/August of this year.