Melinda Kusemachibi
MASVINGO- Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) on October 28, 2021 hosted an electronic resources training workshop for 40 health practitioners from Masvingo Province, as part of the annual International Open Access Week commemorations at its Herbert Chitepo Law School.
The workshop was held with an aim to capacitate participants’ access electronic information resources, so that they will be able to harness a wide range of information from open access e-book and e-journals platforms.
In his opening remarks, GZU Pro Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Innovation and Research Professor Moses Chimbari said the publishing landscape had undergone significant changes driven principally by the globalization of research.
“Today’s event aims to share and train you, our valued medical practitioners, in a plethora of medical literature that is freely available to you. In addition, GZU is proud to share with you today some of our key medical and health sciences databases, which we will give you six months free access to, from November 2021 to April 2022,” said Chimbari.
The workshop came at a time when the country is trying to contain Covid-19 and the healthcare system being in shambles.
Lawrence Chikwanha, a GZU librarian indicated that the weeklong event was targeting to change things for the good in terms of access to information in the healthcare system.
“We did this event as part of GZU weekly programme which is called a Week for Open Access running for six days from October 25 to 31. This event will help medical practitioners all around Masvingo Province to have access to information,” said Chikwanha.
The theme for this year’s International Open Access Week, is “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity”.
GZU joined the Open Access (OA) movement in 2016 when it became a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.
