Gloria is a lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Institute of Lifelong Learning and Development Studies at Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe. She has special responsibility for coordinating the Information Literacy Skills component of the Communication Skills module. She is a former Library Director at the same institution.
Q: What does Open Access mean to you?
A: Open access means unlimited access to research materials and tools to publicise research and make it more visible to a wider audience. Open access means knowing the research others are carrying out and making one’s research known to others.
In the past the Library was on the forefront of celebrating OA week. The celebrations entailed having seminars with speakers from the Library and other experts from around the country.
Q: How do you think CORE’s mission is important?
A: CORE’s mission is important because of it’s global outlook and inclusivity. By aggregating all open access research outputs from repositories and journals from across the globe and availing them to the public, CORE ensures that no-one is deprived of the information they require. The database is professionally managed from a centralised place by experts and this guarantees quality services.
(Image from Wikipedia.)
By aggregating all open access research outputs from repositories and journals from across the globe and availing them to the public CORE ensures that no-one is deprived of the information they require.
Q: How do you use or plan to use CORE at your institution?
A: To date CORE has been introduced to Mphil and Dphil students as part of open access awareness and training during their Residence Week. Plans are afoot to have practicals on the CORE Search engine, CORE Discovery, CORE Recommender and the CORE API services in their next session.
The students are appreciative of the potential CORE has to further their research and are keen to have hands-on experience in its use.
Personally, I am doing research on information literacy and I will be using CORE to assist me in my research.
Q: Why did you decide to become a CORE ambassador?
A: I am an ardent believer in open access and I easily identified within CORE’s mission to provide unrestricted access to research outputs for all. There is a knowledge gap on open access and CORE offers tangible evidence of authentic and quality scholarly outputs which can be used to convince sceptics of open access of its value. So when the opportunity of becoming an ambassador arose, I needed no persuasion.