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Dr Pamela Abbott - LIBSENSE: Building Library/NREN Collaborations around Open Science

LIBSENSE: Building Library/NREN Collaborations around Open Science

LIBSENSE is a pan-African initiative created  to support research and education infrastructure across African higher education institutions to promote the development of open science.  It was conceived in the latter part of 2016 and launched at the 2017 conference of the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) organisation.  I have had the privilege of working with WACREN from 2016 onwards on various aspects of this initiative, including developing and launching a pan-African survey on African higher education librarians’ capabilities to support open access and open science in their institutions.  The results of this survey and accompanying focus group discussions led to the publication of this report on the results of that study. LIBSENSE has since moved forward with a more expansive mandate under AfricaConnect3, a European-sponsored project that addresses digital divide issues in the African continent.  I also continue to support research-based activities under this expanded remit for objective 1 of LIBSENSE under AfricaConnect3.


Recently we were approached by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), which is the leading international body representing library and information services and their users, to publicise LIBSENSE. IFLA is committed to the delivery of high quality library and information services worldwide and lists as one of its core values free and equitable access to information.  They were interested in understanding the strategies we were deploying in Africa to enable national research and education network organisations (think JISC in the UK) to work with libraries to develop quality support for open science in Africa.  So, the article we wrote for the IFLA website was born and published with an introductory blog.  The article tells the story about the inception of LIBSENSE, its core objectives, founding collaborators, accomplishments, current activities and future plans.


Dr Pamela Abbott
Senior Lecturer in Information Systems

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