From Storage to showcase: How FigShare (Yabelana) enhance research visibility

                                                                       By Nonjabulo Ngcobo

      https://yabelana.ukzn.ac.za

In today’s data-driven world, research output includes more than just journal articles and theses. It encompasses datasets, videos, posters, and even codes, yet many of these valuable assets remain hidden on hard drives or departmental servers, unseen and unused.

 What is FigShare (Yabelana) and why does it matter?

Yabelana is an online repository platform designed to help researchers and institutions share research outputs in a discoverable, citable, and open way. Yabelana supports any research output format from raw datasets and figures to software and multimedia. Each item uploaded receives a digital object identifier (DOI), making it easy to cite and track. This simple yet powerful feature transforms FigShare from a mere storage system into a platform for research visibility impact (Thelwall;2016).

Visibility in the age of Open Research

Visibility is one of the biggest challenges in academia. A study or dataset has little value if it remains unseen.  FigShare tackles this by ensuring that every uploaded item is

• Shareable: researchers can easily distribute their work through direct links or social media integration.
• Citable: DOIs make each research output a legitimate reference in future publications.

By hosting research on FigShare (Yabelana), the UKZN library extends its reach beyond institutional boundaries, connecting its work to a global research audience.

From Metrics to meaning: Tracking impact

One of Figshare’s standout features is its analytics dashboard. Researchers and administrators can track:

• Views, downloads, and citations of each research item.
• Geographic reach of their content.
• Engagement trends over time.

These metrics provide valuable insights into how research is being used, shared, and discussed, giving concrete evidence of research influence and visibility. These analytics also support research evaluation, funding applications, and annual performance reports.

The IR Librarian's role: Curators of visibility.

Librarians are the quiet champions behind the successful FigShare/Yabelana repository. They:

• Train researchers on how to deposit data and assign metadata properly.
• Ensure compliance with open-access policies, copyright rules, data management plan.
• Curate and categorize collections for discoverability.

By guiding researchers through the Yabelana process, Librarians turn institutional outputs into globally accessible knowledge. This elevates the library’s role from a traditional support unit to a strategic partner in research dissemination.

Turning Research storage into research impact.

Yabelana proves that visibility isn’t just about uploading research; it is about presenting it in ways that invite discovery, engagement, and reuse. When used strategically, it transforms a university research repository into a showcase of academic excellence. For researchers, Yabelana means greater recognition and more citations. For the institution, it means a stronger global presence. And for the library, it offers a modern stage to promote open access and data stewardship.

Conclusion

The days of research outputs gathering digital dust are over. With FigShare, UKZN can shine a global spotlight on its research, making it visible, citable, and impactful. As academic institutions embrace open science, FigShare stands out as a bridge connecting libraries, researchers, and the world in a shared commitment to accessible, discoverable knowledge.

 References

Thelwall, M. and Kousha, K., 2016. Figshare: a universal repository for academic resource sharing?. Online Information Review, 40(3), pp.333-346.

Unlocking the Power of Research Data

 

                                               By Nkululeko Magwaza & Nonjabulo Ngcobo

Introduction: Research data holds immense potential in driving innovation, addressing challenges, and fostering collaboration within the academic community. The recent "Unlocking the Power of Research Data" event at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) shed light on the significance of effective data management, the role of repositories, and the transformative impact of open science. Organized in collaboration with Figshare, a leading platform for research data management, the event aimed to raise awareness of Yabelana, a Figshare-powered repository managing research data at UKZN. The event provided researchers with a platform to share insights, exchange experiences, and explore innovative approaches in research data management.

Harnessing the Full Potential: The event emphasized the vital role of research data in advancing scholarly pursuits and the opportunities unlocked through open research data practices. Cross-pollination of ideas, facilitated by open data sharing, enriches the research landscape and fosters collaboration among institutions and entities. Yabelana, utilizing Figshare as its renowned repository, empowers researchers to securely store and share their research data with the wider academic community. Open research data allows for systematic approaches to finding practical solutions to ongoing challenges and emerging problems.

Paving the Way for Academic Excellence: UKZN, committed to cultivating a data-driven research culture, recognizes the value of research data and invests in the necessary infrastructure and expertise. Yabelana, powered by Figshare, plays a crucial role by providing a robust platform for managing research data at UKZN. Researchers can securely store, preserve, and share their data, ensuring accessibility and long-term impact. The event acted as a catalyst for fostering innovation, enhancing research outcomes, and strengthening UKZN's reputation as a hub for ground-breaking discoveries across disciplines.

Promoting Transparency and Community Engagement: The event highlighted the importance of open science in promoting transparency, reproducibility, and community engagement. Open research data allows for greater visibility, impact, and collaboration within and beyond the academic community. Yabelana, aligned with these principles, enables researchers to openly share their data, increasing transparency and facilitating collaboration. Figshare's comprehensive features, including data citation and version control, ensure the integrity and reproducibility of research findings. By embracing open science and making research data openly available, institutions and researchers contribute to a more inclusive and collaborative research ecosystem.

Raising Awareness and Best Practices: Events like "Unlocking the Power of Research Data" play a crucial role in raising awareness, fostering collaboration, and promoting best practices in research data management as the demand for accessing scholarly materials and research data continues to grow. Organized by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Library in partnership with Figshare, the event facilitated discussions on data management strategies, sharing protocols, and publication practices. It provided a platform for sharing knowledge, experiences, and innovative approaches, contributing to the advancement of research data management practices. Researchers gained practical insights and explored the potential of Yabelana in supporting their research endeavors.

Conclusion: The "Unlocking the Power of Research Data" event at UKZN, organized in collaboration with Figshare, highlighted the transformative potential of research data in driving innovation and collaboration. Through Figshare's robust platform, institutions and researchers can enhance visibility, impact, and collaboration within and beyond the academic community. Yabelana serves as a valuable repository for managing research data at UKZN, offering secure storage, easy accessibility, and efficient sharing of datasets. As the research landscape evolves, events like these acts as beacons, guiding researchers towards harnessing the full potential of research data and unlocking new frontiers of knowledge and discovery.

 

Digital resources and their role in supporting academic services

By Nonjabulo Ngcobo and Sicelo Hlongwane

Humankind has been fully immersed on the era of the Information Age and the Internet of things since the 1980s. This paradigm shift has continuously been embraced by the masses and brought many changes to how academic libraries undertake their daily business of disseminating information to support teaching, learning and research. As a result, for academic libraries to remain relevant to patrons they are compelled to adapt to emerging changes in information communication technologies and the manner in which they disseminate information resources and sources that meet the changing needs of the user. Digital resources are considered one of the most valuable resources used by students and researchers in an academic environment.

According to Kenchakkanavar (2014) an electronic resource is a resource which requires computer access or any electronic product that delivers a collection of data, be it referring to full text databases, electronic journals, image collections, other multimedia products and numerical, graphical or time based information, as commercially available titles that have been published with the aim of being marketed for use. Electronic resources allow information specialists to provide a better service quicker and easier. The user can access the information sources stored in digital format using computers without having to be physically present in the library. The American Association of College and Research Libraries (2018) states that the information center is committed to preserve its electronic resources just as it is ensuring permanent access to it's collections in other formats.

The mere availability of electronic resources in institutionary repositories does not necessarily mean students access and use such resources. As, Manda and Nawe (2008) pointed out that users may not be aware of the availability of such resources, do not know how to access them, or do not know what the resources offer. However, information specialists (librarians) play a major role in supporting patrons by creating awareness of the library services. They provide training to equip users with new skills and knowledge to utilise electronic resources. Our general view, without supporting evidence, is that access and use of electronic resources is a major contributing factor and has a positive impact on students' success in thier academic endeavours.

Advantages of Electronic Resources.

Electronic resources offer a number of advantages not only to libraries but also to users, authors, editors, publishers, and archivists. The advantages are:

• Saves time by providing easy and instantaneous access without wasting time on processing, printing, binding, and delivery.
• Search and browse functions are quicker when extracting information or integrating that information into other material and to cross-search or reference among the different publications.
• Integration of different media (Image, Sound, Video, etc.)
• Saves library storage space.
• Provide hyperlinks to related additional resources.
• Allow remote access from anywhere at any time.
• Enable simultaneous access to a large number of users.
• Facilitate access to physically challenged persons.
• Are eco-friendly.
• To access and retrieve relevant articles, a good number of databases are available.
• Multiple simultaneous access and through local networks (Global Protect) becomes easy.

Disadvantages of Electronic Resources:

University and college libraries face enormous challenges and opportunities. The amount of information that libraries need to acquire is continuously increasing and the existing resources are insufficient. There are many disadvantages to the electronic format:

• All e-resource devices require power.
• High cost of technology infrastructure.
• Need special equipment to access the information.
• Lack of compatibility among different publishers.
• Hardware and software compatibility problems.
• Copyright violation problems.
• Current e-book format may not be readable by future e-book devices.
• Book reading devices are more expensive than most paper books.
• Lack of awareness of IT skills for usage of e-resources.
• Technological barriers.
• The initial cost is very high. As a result, many publishers are forced to calculate the expected benefits before embracing on a publication product (economical barriers).
• Use of products according to the convenience of the user is not necessarily possible. There are often certain technological restrictions.
• Lack of uniform standards in the retrieval of software products from different publishers creates problems in their usage.
• Since reading of ICT based resources and services requires skills, the users have to acquire certain skills beforehand or take the help of intermediaries like library professionals to help them in accessing the electronic documents. Even the library professionals have to learn the skills, if they desire to serve the users effectively and efficiently.

References

Parthasarathy, R. 2009. Impact of Electronic Resources on Academic Program in arts and science colleges-: Tiruchirappalli A study. Retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/10603/186505

Kenchakkanavar, A.Y., 2014. Types of e-resources and its utilities in library. International Journal of Information Sources and Services, 1(2), pp.97-104.

AACR., 2018. Library of Congress Collections Policy Statements Supplementary guidelines.

Manda, P. and Nawe, J., 2008. The impact of electronic information resource use on research output: Experiences from universities in Tanzania. University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal, 10(1-2).

Meet the blogging team

by the Bloggers Team

Why blog? After a workshop a few years ago the UKZN library decided that creating a library blog would be a useful addition to the range of communication channels it uses to reach its wide range of users. A set of rules and a code of ethics were established, parameters discussed and a roster drawn up. All subject librarians and heads of departments are on the roster. Two blogs a month are posted.

An editorial team under the leadership of Ms Faith Magwaza, principal librarian for Humanities was set up to guide bloggers, proofread and support the process – and yes we have the T shirt!

The merits of blogging are often listed as including strengthening one’s knowledge, being creative, helping others, sharing with colleagues, building confidence in writing skills, writing about one’s interests and passions, creating awareness, meeting like-minded people or just enjoying this forum and so on. For some UKZN subject librarians writing is a daunting task and blogging is a challenging venture but as time goes by skills are improving and although most of the blogs to date are on quite serious and on work related topics, staff are stepping up to the challenge as they gain confidence.

The editorial committee comprises subject librarians from each campus. The Edgewood rep is Mukesh Kemraj who says this about being on the team: ”I like being part of the team as it showcases the library staff’s talent and broadens an individual’s understanding of the library profession as a whole.”

      Mukesh Kemraj (Edgewood)

Ashika Pramlal (Westville)

Says Ashika Pramlal, the Westville library representative “As a member of the editorial team this has been a “learning curve” for me. Reading the blogs of colleagues has been a most humbling experience and I am touched by the talent and enthusiasm of bloggers thus far. I have learnt a lot being part of the blog team and it has been an enjoyable and enriching experience.”

The Pietermaritzburg contingent of representatives comprises Rose Kuhn, Jillian Viljoen, Renee Damonse and Shorba Harkhu. “We enjoy group work and reading our colleague’s postings!” Rose, Jillian and Renee are based in the main library and Shorba is based at the Life Sciences Library.

Pmb Cecil Renaud: Renee; Jillian and Rose

Pmb Life sciences: Shorba

Howard College has 3 representatives on the editorial team. Nonjabulo Ngcobo, Subject Librarian for Humanities has this to say about being on the team:  “I am a member of the Bloggers Team, and my role is editorial which is basically the checking of the content of the blogs objectively and provide criticism without tearing down the work of the writers/ authors. I am very thankful and blessed for working with a wonderful team as I gain new knowledge every time we meet and by reading other writers blogs.”

Also from EG Malherbe library is Nontobeko Sikhosana who feels that: “being part of the blogging team has been a wonderful experience for me; I have learnt new and interesting things through other colleagues’ write-ups. Blogging is brain opening, it is fun to hear what other people think and feel, and it is an effective way to share ideas with each other.”

Nontobeko Sikhosana (EGM library)

Nonjabulo Ngcobo   (EGM Library)

              

And finally, from Faith Magwaza: “As a part of the blogging team I co-ordinate all the activities of the Blog. My positive experience on the team is seeing the talent and commitment of bloggers in submitting their blogs on time and openly accepting the comments of the editorial team. One of the successes of the team is that Library blogs are now available on the UKZN Facebook page."

To see all the blogs go to: http://libwebteam.blogspot.com/

For a list of subject librarians, their disciplines and contact details go to: http://library.ukzn.ac.za/SubjectLibrarians772.aspx

24 Hour Service: UKZN Libraries responding to student’s needs

By Nonjabulo Ngcobo            

The University of KwaZulu-Natal Libraries are categorised as academic libraries which are found in higher education institutions, and their aim is to support teaching, learning, and research of their institutions. Academic Libraries serve the scholarly and research needs of their clientele, and provide a service whereby users’ access, or rather, have access to information resources. The University of KwaZulu-Natal Libraries went above and beyond providing outstanding service to the University community by providing a 24 hour service and access full time.  The Library was previously operating from 8:00 am to 23:00 pm and also open on Sundays during exam times up until March 2016.

A 24 hour service is not a new idea among universities in South Africa. Other academic libraries are operating 24 hours (Ajiboye, 2013) e. g. University of Cape Town. “The demand of users to have unrestricted access to the library and their reluctance to leave at closing times, especially during examination periods, and the request from the Student Representative Council informed the decision of UKZN Library management to operate the libraries 24 hours. This has been a remarkable transformation helped by emerging technology trends and the evolution of the classroom beyond the classroom. Libraries are required to continuously adapt in order to meet the ever-changing needs of their users (Bowman, 2013). The expansion of a library’s operational hours to 24 hours is one of the adaptive efforts, and many libraries have switched to a 24 hour service which is far from the professional norm?. It is very important or rather a requirement to implement various adaptive measures so that the service is both safe and effective.

Issues with providing a 24 hour service

Extending hours has its concerns and challenges that involve a number of issues. Budgeting for staffing is one of the major concerns since library budgets vary every year. Budgeting for new positions is often the biggest barrier to offering the extended services and hours (Sewell, 2013). Security is also a challenge as the University provides libraries with one security guard during the day (although 24 hour security is now available). Security is a major concern as it involves the safety of the staff, patrons, the facilities and collections. Another issue is that the service that is offered in the evening will be or is limited since there are no professional staff available to answer in-depth reference and technical queries. Lastly, what is the quality of service offered during the evening? This is a very important aspect as the main focus of the library is to provide a service to its community.

Service Quality as an instrument/ method used to gauge library service quality

As the library operates 24 hours it is very important to provide a quality service to its users or community, and Service Quality is an instrument used to identify a gap analysis of an organisation’s service quality performance against user service quality needs. There are five determinants of service quality namely:

·       Tangibles - the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and

Communications material.

·       Reliability - the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

·       Responsiveness - the willingness to help customers/ patrons and provide prompt service.

·       Assurance - the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust

and confidence.

·       Empathy - the provision of individualised attention the library provides its customers.

How effective is the 24 hour service to students?

·       Students have different sleeping patterns and study habits. For some students, their most productive time of the day could be after midnight, while others are most productive in the afternoon. A 24-hour library service is beneficial for students who either work better at night or are unable to visit the library during normal library hours (Peduto, 2013).

·       A 24-hour service is also beneficial to international students, who tend to work late and take the opportunity to contact family in another time zone. This assists these students in avoiding the challenges of calling home in the residence halls during quiet hours.

Downside

·       A downside to having 24-hour facilities is the frustration of where the money to keep these facilities running will come from, and who would staff them as well as the issue of security.

·       Mess, mess and more mess – overflowing dustbins and scarcity of toilet paper!

References

Ajiboye, B.A. & Bankole, O.M. 2013. User survey of 24- hour library service during examination periods at Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Journal of access service, 10:3, 172-185.

Bowman, A.C. 2013. 24-hour academic libraries: adjusting to change. Journal of access service, 10:4, 217-239.

Peduto, M. 2013. Benefits of 24-hour facilities outweigh drawbacks, http://www.etownian.com/campus-life/benefits-of-24-hour-facilities-outweigh-drawbacks/ [accessed on 03/03/2018].