Resources for PhD students at the Faculty of Medicine : which they are and how to use them

In May 2024 the library at UEM was asked if they could train the PhD students of the Faculty of Medicine. We prepared this training with a workshop for the UEM librarians in Zoom.

During the workshop we used a powerpoint presentation, "Resources for the PhD students at the Faculty of Medicine : Which they are and how to use them"

In addition to this powerpoint we looked at the training materials from Research4Life. We used and referred to their powerpoint "Additional discipline-specific resources : Health sciences". Find this powerpoint at the Librarians hub at Research4Life

Two workshops on information literacy

Last week, a follow up workshop on information literacy for UEM library staff took place in the computer lab of the library. The participants were coming from several UEM libraries in Maputo.

It was a follow up of a workshop held in 2018 and it included different aspects of information literacy. An important part of the training is to learn how librarians can help library users to get to a higher level of information literacy in an academic context.

Examples from the content are: information retrieval, search techniques (like Boolean searches), evaluation of results, scientific articles, references, citations and diagnostic tests.

Materials from the workshop will be posted soon in this blog.

Participants from the UEM Library

October 28th-29th a workshop was organized for librarians from other institutions of higher education as well as government agencies. The content was similar to the content of the workshop for UEM librarians, but with more focus on the databases made available in Mozambique. Which are they, what do they include and how do you search those databases in an efficient way?

In addition to this, Dr Horacio Zimba gave a presentation of the research library consortium of Mozambique.

Some of the librarians from other universities and institutes.

Customer Service, workshop - Day 2

After a summary of Day 1 we continued with a session about the user. What characterizes the ideal user and how does that differ from the reality, the user who really shows up in the library. Is he/she always nice, thankful and happy, can express his/her needs, used to handle technology and understands our library rules, or…?

We talked about the value of the user. Even if they sometimes can be difficult to handle and does not follow our rules “without the users the librarian’s don’t have to be there”.

What qualifications and tools does the librarian need to help, serve and tackle the everyday variety of users with different needs and different experience of using a library.  What can we do to strengthen the librarians role, and profession? How can we perform a reference interview in a good way so that the user will get the best possible help? To know the value of the profession – “know why we are better than Google”. These were questions we constantly lifted during the day(s).

We also experienced how important it is to listen. That you can be a good or bad listener. What difference it makes for the one who tries to explain or ask something.

Sidra Nhacudime tries to tell Alda Cossa something but she was a very bad listener 😉

The presentation from Day 2

Customer Service, workshop - Day 3

This day was a practical day, where we talked about and tried the joy of UX. "User Experience or UX, as it is defined in the library context, is a suite of techniques based around first understanding and then improving the experiences people have when using the library services"

First we tried an evaluating tool called Love/Brake up Letter, where you write a letter to something that you either love or don't want to have anything to do with anymore. Some examples from the participants that was read aloud with a lot of smiles and laughter:

Love - The Book, The Trainers 😊
Break up - The Salary, A Papaya Tree, The Bus

Next on the agenda was Observations in the library room. The participants went out in the library looking for things that could be improved, took photos and the discussed what they do to to make it better for the users and the library staff.

A mix of things that could be improved, part of which can be explained by ongoing work.
Some easy to fix and some maybe a bit more complicated.

We also tried Cognitive Mapping, where you ask a user to draw a picture of what he/she e.g. like to do when coming to the library - no words just pictures. This could be used as a basis for a deep interview with the user for a deeper understanding of how the library really is used.

The final exercise was Guerilla Testing, where you ask users what they think about the library in general or a specific topic. The entire group went out and talked to the students that was in the library at the time and came back with many interesting thoughts and ideas.

Thank you all - participants, Democrito, Bruno, Horacio and the rest of the library staff at UEM for an amazing week. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Tove & Malin

The presentation from Day 3

UX -- User Experience on the last day of the workshop

The last day of the workshop, facilitated by the trainers Malin Utter and Tove Lekselius and translator Democrito Manyissa, focused on user experience, UX.

Facilitators Tove Lekselius, Malin Utter translated by the UEM Central Library's own Democrito Manyissa

As the other days, there were a lot of group sessions, but it seems that they were extra popular/useful today. This, of course, wouldn't have been possible without the input from all wonderful participants.

All participants and facilitators in front of the library.

Customer Service Workshop

This week, the Central Library Programme of the UEM-Sweden Programme organises a workshop on library customer service.

Exciting things going on in the library.

Invited to the workshop are librarians within the library organisation working closely with library users and it is led by Malin Utter from the Swedish School of Library and Information Science and Tove Lekselius from the Library, both at the University of Borås. Supporting with translations when the English language becomes challenging, is Demócrito Manyissa, from the UEM library.

Demócrito Manyissa, Malin Utter and Tove Lekselius discussiong during a coffe break.

Presentations are usually shared with participants -- and here on the blog.

Workshop : Information literacy, UEM library June 5th-7th

This week we are exploring the concept of information literacy. The content of the workshop is:

• A general introduction to information literacy
• Exploration of which types of resources UEM has access to, subscribed as well as free
• Understanding the role of librarians teaching information literacy

Some documents which may be of interest are:
Recomendações da IFLA sobre a Literacia Informacional e Mediática Versão Final Parasobreviver e evoluir, 2011 (2 pages)

Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, 2015 (18 pages)

The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy, 2011 (14 pages)

Writing a good research question [2018-06-06]

How to spot fake news, IFLA, 2018 (Poster, also available in Portuguese)

Many libraries have written about the CRAAP test, a test used to evaluate sources. I found something from the Benedectine university, CRAAP. Search on the web to find more examples.

Ongoing workshop

We are so happy to be here in Maputo, even though the workshop note books and pens are still left behind in Nairobi (to arrive this afternoon).

This morning, the workshop was opened. The team leaders Horacio Zimba and Veronica Trépagny presented the programme and the context. Veronica gave a background on the cooperation and a presentation of the University of Borås, before the actual workshop on the modern research library was started by Svante Kristensson, the University of Borås library director.

The aim of the introduction and workshop is for us all, Eduardo Mondlane and Borås, to have a shared framwork and point of departure for the cooperation. With exchanged ideas and experience (from Mozambique and Sweden) as a point of departure, we will be able to even better stake out possibilities together.

The introduction gives a context, with a focus on the research training partnership programme. It also focuses aims and objectives of the ongoing five year cooperatin.

Here is the introductory presentation and here is the short presentation on the University of Borås.

The modern research library workshop, is based on the university library of Borås and will focus on the roles of the librarian, research support and the importance of professionalism in librarianship.