Wits Libraries Annual Report - 2019

Page 9

hard copies of theses to digital formats for Web based open access; and support for the payment of article processing charges (APCs) to ensure research outputs are shared openly for the benefit of all. There was a significant increase of 73 percent in access to the Research Support LibGuide from 149 674 page views in 2018 to 258 758 in 2019. The most visited page was Research Methodology with 226 528 views. The most popular and most often used HP collections were the papers of The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), Trade Union collections, African National Congress, Court trials, Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA) Anglican Church Diocese collections; Swiss Mission in South Africa, and collections of the South African student movements.

INFORMATION AND DIGITAL LITERACIES Integration of digital and library skills development support into academic programs Through a number of Library-Faculty collaborations, the strengthening of digital and library skills among students received priority attention. Of particular note were: •

The cooperation between the Library and the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (EBE) Academic Development Unit (ADU) in running the Engineering Profession: Common First Year (FEBE1000) course. The LibGuide supporting this course attracted 8 068 page views, with 75 percent of the 1 157 enrolled students completing the Information literacy course. This model was also applied to students in the School of Construction Economics and Management (CEM) and School of Architecture and Planning (SoAP).

Support for students in the Faculty of Humanities featured: -Contact library lectures blended with a Wits-e tutorial and test for students taking the Film, Visual and Performing Arts (FVPA1A, WSOA1002/1002A) course. Out of the 350 students registered for the course, 287 took the compulsory test the results of which counted for five percent of the final semester mark. -The same model was replicated for students enrolled in the International Relations Honours and Social Work and Speech and Hearing undergraduate courses.

Approximately 178 first year Law students attended a contact lecture session, followed by a Wits-e quiz

Information literacy at the Faculty of Health Sciences was fully integrated into the academic programme.

Digital and library skills development programmes markedly drew students to digital resources and services, for example, LibGuides, the gateways to subject specific information. There were 63 757 Prescribed, Recommended and Open Textbook LibGuide page views in 2019 compared to 13 643 in 2018 and 1 166 521 page views across all LibGuides compared to 835 462 in 2018, a 39.6 percent increase, in a year where the student enrolment increase was only 2.1 percent.

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