Tag Archives: Opinion
Scholarship out of Africa
“In his article, Writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge, Dr. Steven Feierman, author and professor Emeritus at University of Pennsylvania wrote about the need for local scholars to be on the forefront of research in Africa.” — Quoted from Lee Walton at https://www.thirdchapter.org/scholarship-out-of-africa/
Celebrating our loyal readers!
Many thanks to all of our over 7,000 readers worldwide. You have logged over 14,500 views of this site since our first blog entry in 2012! We’re so proud that we can serve a portion of your interests in this small way. We truly appreciate your continued engagement with our work to promote African Studies, libraries, and […]
When Open Access becomes the norm
From the Musings about librarianship blog, by Aaron Tay, Senior Librarian, National University of Singapore Libraries Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2014: How academic libraries may change when Open Access becomes the norm The writer (who isn’t an Open Access advocate) predicts that the “nearly unstoppable” trend which “is going to have a great impact on how academic libraries […]
Exporting the Chinese urban model to Africa
According to research of the Go West Project (Shanghai-based architect Daan Roggeveen and Amsterdam-based journalist Michiel Hulshof): More and more Chinese-made buildings, infrastructure, and urban districts are sprouting up across Africa, and this development is changing the face of the continent’s cities. Read more in Justin Zhuang’s July 8, 2014 at Metropolis Magazine. With thanks to @ProfCaraJones
Where in the world are our readers?
Ours is a very small blog (just me and my computer) aimed at readers with specialized interests (total views are under 7,000…which for the niche we represent is satisfying to me). I’m nevertheless proud to report that our readership literally spans the globe, with Africans very much present and indeed prominent among them! Here’s a breakdown of numbers over […]
Elsevier presses copyright on papers at academia.edu
Giant scholarly journal publisher Elsevier has demanded a take down of papers from Academia.edu this month. This is a self-defeating action in terms of bad publicity for big commercial subscription interests, because it reinforces resentment against subscription based scholarly publishing and builds broader awareness of Open Access best practices. My own practice is that I load pre-publication and other versions of my papers […]
Subscription based publications and ‘sexy science’ bias
Michael Eisen writes: …the real problem isn’t that some fly-by-night publishers hoping to make a quick buck aren’t even doing peer review (although that is a problem). While some fringe OA publishers are playing a short con, subscription publishers are seasoned grifters playing a long con. They fleece the research community of billions of dollars […]
Remembering ‘the war to end all wars’
In five years we’ll mark the end of hostilities in the ‘the war to end all wars‘ for the 100th time. It’s a sobering irony not lost on the generations of soldiers and their families since 1918 that the Great War did not end war, but in fact kindled the fire that swept across Europe (and […]
The Decline of Wikipedia
The Decline of Wikipedia By Tom Simonite (October 22, 2013). MIT Technology Review. This article is worth some attention if you’re at all interested in the world’s most popular free online information resource. The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can […]
Open Anthropology journal disappoints
A post at Savage Minds Backup on the new AAA Open Anthropology journal expresses real disappointment: Many of the problems were obvious from the beginning. The new ‘journal’ is not ‘open access’: all of the material on it is being released temporarily for a six month window, at which point it will be closed again. True, older material will […]
African Studies library 