RefWorks Workshops in the 4th Term

RefWorks workshops are offered in the Library Xstrata Training Room (Level 2) from 11 September to 30 October, see the remaining dates & times below. The workshops are open to all registered staff and students, but limited to 26 participants per session. 
Reserve your place online by selecting the relevant date on the online calendar.
RefWorks is a web-based research management service, similar in function to products such as EndNote, Reference Manager and ProCite.
With RefWorks, you can:
•    Access research information online, from any browser
•    Organize your information in one convenient place
•    Generate correctly formatted bibliographies in virtually any style, in seconds
•    Import references from diverse information sources
•    Manage all types of source content—not just bibliographic data

Wed 9 Oct, 13h00 – 14h00
Wed 23 Oct, 13h00 – 14h00
Wed 30 Oct, 13h00 – 14h00

South Africa & African research at your fingertips!

Need to find African research and information?
Sabinet’s SAePublications database and African Journal Archive provides access to the full-text of several hundred publications.

RefWorks Workshops 2014

RefWorks workshops will be offered in the Library Xstrata Training Room (Level 2) once a month from 28 May to 15 October, see dates & times below. The workshops are open to all registered staff and students, but limited to 26 participants per session.

Reserve your place online by selecting the relevant date on the online calendar.

RefWorks is a web-based research management service, similar in function to products such as EndNote, Reference Manager and ProCite.
With RefWorks, you can:
•    Access research information online, from any browser
•    Organize your information in one convenient place
•    Generate correctly formatted bibliographies in virtually any style, in seconds
•    Import references from diverse information sources
•    Manage all types of source content—not just bibliographic data.

Ask Us!

If you have questions, we've got answers!

 

Ask Us, available via the Library Webpage or Education/Higher Education LibGuide, allows you to search for answers to previous questions, or ask a new question! There are also options to view featured answers, most popular answers and most recent answers.

LibAnswers combines real-time chat service with email reference, and an ever-growing knowledge base to ensure patrons get answers they need - wherever, whenever! Questions and answers include general information about the library, technical questions and research type questions.

Take a look at the suggestions as you type in the Ask Us box to see if there is a match to your question or browse by popular topics. We will respond to your question within 1 working day (Monday - Friday).

Please note that your questions and our answers may be made public to assist other users of the Library's services.  All personal information will be removed from questions to retain privacy.

Open Access week, 21-27 October 2013

Rhodes University Open Access event: 24 October 2013 (see invitation below)

What is Open Access?         
Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.
OA is entirely compatible with peer review, and all the major OA initiatives for scientific and scholarly literature insist on its importance. Just as authors of journal articles donate their labor, so do most journal editors and referees participating in peer review.
OA literature is not free to produce, even if it is less expensive to produce than conventionally published literature. The question is not whether scholarly literature can be made costless, but whether there are better ways to pay the bills than by charging readers and creating access barriers.
There are two primary vehicles for delivering OA to research articles: OA journals and OA archives or repositories.

Facilities for postgraduate students at Rhodes Library

Postgraduate Commons - Library level  

The Postgraduate Commons is designed to be a scholarly workplace for Honours, Masters and PhD students at Rhodes University. This library facility accommodates 80 students at high-end computer workstations, in worktables, study booths and group study rooms on comfortable seating. The facility caters for all postgraduate students in a colourful and spacious environment.

Research Commons - Library level 2

The Research Commons has been designed as a scholarly common room for senior postgraduate students and academics. It is located on level 2 of the Rhodes University Library, beyond the Science and Pharmacy Faculty hub, and is open, via access control, to academic and research staff, postdocs and postgraduate students at masters and doctoral level. Experienced library staff members assist users’ information needs and arrange consultations with subject specialists if needed. The facility overseen by a post-graduate student assistants after office hours.

Inter-Library Loan services at RUL

The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of South Africa recognizes that individual academic libraries in South Africa cannot afford to hold all the resources that will be needed by their institution’s researchers.  At the same time, it is the vision of all academic libraries to provide ready access to information resources for their users.  Therefore it becomes the mission of the Inter-Library Loan (ILL) service to provide ready access to the materials that the Rhodes Library does not hold for its researchers, academic staff and postgraduate students by co-operating to share library resources efficiently and effectively with other libraries.





RHODES UNIVERSITY LIBRARY






As the Library has made an enormous financial investment in both its print resources and the access that it provides to online scholarly journals and e-books, it is important that these items are not requested on ILL.  Therefore, before submitting an ILL request, users should first check

1)       the Rhodes University catalogue (OPAC)    

2)      the Cory Library

3)       A-Z e-titles via SFX (a listing of full text electronic journals available to Rhodes users) to ensure that the item is not held locally. 

Once it has been established that the item is not available at Rhodes, it can be requested on ILL by filling in the appropriate form

1)      electronically (via the ILL link on the OPAC web page)

OR

2)       manually by using the forms available at the Loans desk on Level 1.

Points to Note:

i)                    Before users can request ILL material electronically, they must first register with the library on OPAC and create a log-in pin.

ii)                   The ILL process is governed by the CHELSA (Committee for Higher Education Libraries in South Africa) agreement, an agreed set of criteria and standards to regulate inter-lending between institutions.  This being said, the lending conditions are determined by the lending library.  In the case of books, the return date of the item must be adhered to as the system depends entirely on the co-operation of others.  Renewal is possible in some cases and this should be discussed with the ILL staff member. 

iii)                 At Rhodes University Library the postage costs of ILL material are charged to the requester.  At present the cost is R 20.00 per item for loaned items (books, theses etc.) and 50c per page (with R1.00 service charge) for items that need to be printed.  PDFs of items are forwarded to the requester free of charge.

iv)                  Original periodicals are almost never available for loan.  Instead a photocopy of the article is supplied.  As mentioned earlier, with regard to locally obtained articles, requesters are expected to pay for the photocopy of the article supplied with the addition of a small service charge.  Articles which are not available in South Africa can be requested from overseas, although this is an expensive option.   Overseas requests should be discussed with the ILL staff member.

v)                  Non-South African theses which are not held in South Africa may be purchased by the requester.  The ILL staff member should be contacted for more information about how these theses may be obtained.

vi)                 It should be noted that some books are not available for loan such as reference materials or rare items. 

vii)               Provided that the requested item is on the shelf at the holding library, the average turnaround time for books and articles sent by mail is 10 – 14 days.  Articles sent by Ariel or PDF should arrive within 3 to 5 days.  The average turnaround time for overseas requests is 14 – 30 days. 

Whenever you are unable to locate an article or book at Rhodes University

– remember to try Inter-Library Loans!!