Monthly Archives: January 2015
How to avoid predatory journals
Jocalyn Clark (@jocalynclark), executive editor of the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition and other publications, was a senior editor at PLOS Medicine and assistant editor at The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal). Her current BMJ blog entry focuses on “How to avoid predatory journals.” This is an excellent guide for doing your own homework when […]
Breckenridge on digital Southern African Studies
Episode 88 of Africa Past and Present — the podcast about African history, culture, and politics — is now available at: http://afripod.aodl.org In part 1 of a new series on digital African studies, Keith Breckenridge (WISER, Wits University) discusses the current state of digital Southern African Studies; the politics, funding, and ethics of international partnerships […]
Fair Use Week begins February 23, 2015
In the US legal context: Fair use allows the use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances. For libraries, educational institutions, and the public, the fair use doctrine is the most important limitation on the rights of the copyright owner—the “safety valve” of US copyright law. Libraries may wish to consult […]
Ebola Emergency Response Library for distribution on micro SD chip
We last posted about the inspiring and practical widernet project about a year ago. They’re still doing good work, and recently began promoting their Ebola Emergency Response Library. As the linked page says, While this collection will be available on the World Wide Web for those who have Internet access, the resources will be distributed on 32 GB […]
Improving Wikipedia
I encourage librarians, scholars, practitioners, and anyone knowledgeable about Africa to contribute, edit, improve and enhance Wikipedia articles. It’s one of the 10 most popular destinations on the internet and the new VisualEditor tool makes it easier than ever to jump right in (though it’s a good idea to get a sense core policies and principles first). Many people […]
Nature Conservancy job: Spatial scientist for Africa program
The Nature Conservancy is seeking a spatial scientist to support the Africa program’s work on development siting and mitigation. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS MS degree in Geographic Information Science, Ecology, Geography or related field and 4 years related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience. Experience in designing, maintaining and analysis of spatial databases to meet […]
Beall’s List of Predatory Publishers 2015
By Jeffrey Beall, January 2, 2015 [via Ivan Oransky at Retraction Watch]. Each year at this time I formally release my updated list of predatory publishers. Because the list is now very large, and because I now publish four, continuously-updated lists, this year’s release does not include the actual lists but instead includes statistical and explanatory […]
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2014. Click here to see the complete report.
Obituary for Terence Ranger
A brief announcement from the British Zimbabwe Society was distributed via H-Africa on January 4, 2015: “Terry Ranger passed away in his sleep last night in his home at Oxford. Marieke was asked by Shelagh to send the news around. May he rest in Light and peace. There is so much to say but let this simple information […]
African Studies library 