Day 1

What a day! The Academy only kicked off yesterday, and I already learned so much!

Our first presenter this morning, Prof. Wieland Gevers gave a very informative overview on research publishing in South Africa. He referred to the important roles of the editor and peer reviewers in order to ensure high standard research output. International journals and citation analysis were also discussed. In order to allow a rise of the South, South Africa needs local publication of science. He referred to the important role of ScIELO and concluded with a brief discussion on the future of Open access publishing.

Two participants of the 2007 Library and US Internship 2008, Maryna van den Heever and Cyrill Walters shared their experiences with us. Maryna explained how the knowledge and research skills she gained at the Academy influenced her work and especially the services delivered to researchers at her institution. Cyrill focussed on her experience in the United States - especially at Yale University.

A very interesting discussion on the reasons why history matters followed after lunch and made us aware of the ways in which history can influence the present decisions.

The last presentation of the afternoon was done by Dr Zeblon Vilakazi, Managing Director of iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science. He discussed research in Nuclear Physics and referred to the importance of knowledge management in the research environment.

Then we divided in small groups for our first reading circles.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's programme.