Western University organises summer school for academic librarians from Africa

For Margaret Atsango, it’s a “dream come true.” The senior librarian of Africana collections and services at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, has waited three years to visit Western to learn new skills from fellow library science experts and exchange knowledge with her peers.

She’s one of thirteen academic librarians from 12 countries across Africa taking part in a week-long bibliometrics and research impact summer school, conceived and coordinated by Isola Ajiferuke, professor and assistant dean, research, in the Faculty of Media and Information Studies (FIMS).

Participants were selected from a pool of 113 applicants across the continent to attend the school at no cost, with FIMS covering travel and accommodation for each participant.

The summer school was originally scheduled for 2020 but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They say, ‘patience pays,’ and indeed it has,” Atsango said. “This workshop is a benchmarking exercise, not only for bibliometric analysis, but also on service offerings to library patrons in Canada. I have met wonderful librarians from the African continent, as well as experts from Western University, different universities within Canada, and the United States.”

Analyzing and measuring the impact of academic research

Western professor Isola Ajiferuke, associate dean, research, Faculty of Information and Media Studies (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)

Bibliometrics refers to the quantitative analysis of academic research, providing a measurement of someone’s impact or reach in a field ─ for example, How many citations a journal article would have? And what does that indicate?

Over the past decade in North America, it’s become common for institutions to have bibliometrics analysts on staff who can use statistical information to help the university position itself in particular research areas. Western appointed its own bibliometrics and research analyst, Qing Liu, MSc’17 (Statistics), in April 2018.

As Ajiferuke witnessed the trend, he also realized it was rare for institutions in Africa to adopt a similar approach and felt compelled to respond.

“Given that most library and information science schools in Africa don’t offer a formal course in bibliometrics, I thought it would be useful to offer a summer school on bibliometrics and research impact here for academic librarians from Africa,” he said.

Peter Gatiti, associate vice provost and university librarian at the Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya, said he “found the opportunity to learn more about various bibliometric techniques from a leading LIS School is very encouraging.

“My previous assumption was that bibliometrics is embedded in the curriculum of most ALA Accredited LIS programs,” Gatiti said. “This is not necessarily the case; most practising bibliometric librarians have learned on the job. I have also realized that the budgetary challenges associated with subscribing to the leading bibliometric tools are also experienced by librarians in various institutions, including from North America.”

Throughout the week, participants have been learning about the basic concepts of bibliometrics, informetrics, webometrics, and altmetrics, as well as how to use research impact measures responsibly. The participants gained hands-on experience using the databases Web of Science, Scopus, Altmetric.com and Dimensions in performing research impact services.

“All the presentations were fantastic,” Atsango said. “Professor Ajiferuke’s exercise and explanation on how the H-Index (measuring both the productivity and citation impact of publications) is calculated was a real eye-opener, as was a detailed presentation on what is measured by different ranking institutions by professor Dietmar Wolfram (senior associate dean, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). I now understand better when our researchers from the Global South decry the standards, referring to these as ‘bibliometric coloniality,’ where the Global North doesn’t cite most papers from Global South articles.”

Knowledge exchange
The summer school also presents an opportunity for knowledge exchange between the visiting African librarians and six master of library science (MLIS) students, who also applied for the opportunity.

The school concludes with group presentations by the African librarians on library practices in their countries and home institutions, followed by discussions among the visiting librarians, invited librarians from London and the MLIS students.

“It’s been equally exciting to interact with FIMS faculty and MLS Students, which brings diverse ideas to the summer school,” Gatiti said, adding that he’s also appreciated the chance to observe how a summer school like this is organized, with an eye to one day offering something similar.

World’s smallest book, housed at the University Witwatersand
One of the world’s smallest books, housed at the University Witwatersand, Johannesburg, South Africa (Submitted photo)

Atsango also welcomes the idea of other university librarians visiting her workplace at the oldest library at the University of Witwatersand, which houses Nelson Mandela’s trial papers and what is believed to be the world’s smallest book, purchased by her university in the 1950s. Manufactured using microfilm/microfiche printing technology, “It has 20 pages, one of which contains the Lord’s prayer,” she said. “It is always the star attraction during our special collections library tours.”

With the inaugural summer school well received, Ajiferuke hopes to host another school next year. In the interim, he also hopes “both the theoretical and practical lessons from this session enable the participants to establish bibliometric and research impact services in their respective university libraries.”

In addition to Ajiferuke, Liu and Dietmar Wolfram, senior associate dean, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the summer school facilitators include:

Jacquie Burkell, associate vice-president (Research)
Erin Macpherson, knowledge exchange research officer, Knowledge Exchange, Impact and EDID in Research
Marisa Ruccolo, solutions specialist at Web of Science Group
Laura Bredahl, associate director, Research Strategic Initiatives and Research Oversight, University of Waterloo
Patty Smith, product solutions manager, Digital Science & Research Solutions Inc.