Category Archives: Requests for information

In-depth enquiries, quick questions, supply of articles, papers, bulletin, etc.

A day in the life of … Katinka van Straaten

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Katinka is the person to contact should you need any of the products or services from the Technical Library that are described below.

 Katinka’s typical day will start by checking emails to see if any new requests for information have been received. She will also check to see if clients have requested any items from lists of research results she has sent them, from information searches that have been completed. There may also be emails from suppliers of books and standards she has ordered for clients, as well as current awareness alerts that she has set up for clients on subscription databases.

 Next, Katinka will spend an hour or two reading both paper copy and electronic copy technical journals that are received in the library. Whilst reading, she will select articles on, for example mining, and related disciplines such as metallurgy and geosciences, engineering, safety, and management. The articles selected will be added to the catalogue and will appear in the monthly bulletin published by The Technical Library. She also keeps in mind any information requests she has had from clients and selects anything about subjects she has recently researched. She selects an abstract and a broad subject heading, and readies each article for data capture.

 If it is a new month, Katinka will extract statistics from the library management system that reflect the number of reference enquiries, in-depth enquiries, publication requests, items supplied, standards and books ordered, subscription databases searched and new members who joined the library.

 Time will be spent setting up new current awareness alerts or conducting both reference and in-depth enquiries for clients, and orders will be placed for any new books and standards that have been requested.

 Katinka reads through contents pages of conference proceedings that have been received in the library, and selects conference papers to add to the catalogue. This is done so that the information in these papers is included in any reference or in-depth searches that are done in the catalogue.

 Please contact Katinka – or watch a video where she describes her duties and responsibilities at The Technical Library.

 This blog is written to promote the products and services of The Technical Library. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Debbie Lievaart

26th January 2017

Request training

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This blog invites clients to request training on how to search the catalogue.

One of the benefits of becoming a member of The Technical Library is that each person is given a username and password to access The Technical Library catalogue. Each client is able to conduct their own searches for books, conference proceedings, journals and journal articles, and submit requests for these items.

It is the responsibility of the staff of The Technical Library to ensure that all clients know how to conduct these searches to that relevant information is retrieved.

Please contact Katinka van Straaten should you required training on how to search the catalogue.

This blog is written to promote the products and services offered by The Technical Library. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Debbie Lievaart

29th November 2016

Requests for information : Publication requests

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This blog explains the information supplied from conference proceedings and journals

Listed below are the types of publication requests (journal articles and conference papers) that are received :

  • The result of research requests conducted by library staff (either in-depth or a quick question) is often a list of references in bibliographic format from the library catalogue. Clients select the most relevant items they would like to receive in full text.
  • Clients submit single requests or a list of bibliographic references they would like to receive in full text. These are often references listed in published articles. The in-house journal collection includes mining, geology and metallurgy volumes going back to the early 1900s.
  • The library produces a monthly bulletin of new articles added to the library catalogue, which have been selected from paper and electronic journals or received on inter-library loan. Clients ask to receive copies of these articles.

Should any article or conference paper not be in the library collection, it can be requested on inter-library loan. There is a cost for this service.

Please contact Luke Ngubane for any publication requests.

Library jargon definition of the week

Adopted standard.  National standards organisations like the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), British Standards Institute (BSI), Deutsches Institut fur Normung (DIN) or the American National Standards Institute are members of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

As members of ISO and the IEC, these national organisations have the option of adopting any international standard as a standard from their country. These are then republished as SABS ISO (for example SABS ISO 9000), or BS IEC or BS ISO/IEC, and are referred to as an adopted standard.

This weekly blog is written promoting the products and services of The Technical Library. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Debbie Lievaart

14th November 2016

Requests for information : Quick questions

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This blog explains the quick reference enquiry

Should you need the answer to a question, don’t forget that the library staff are available to research it for you. A quick question takes less than ten minutes to answer. Library staff use their network of resources and their searching skills to find these answers.

The Technical Library’s web page contains several links which could answer your quick question.

  • Under the ‘Team‘ tab are email links to library staff who will tell you how to renew a book or journal on loan, how to request an article or book, how to request in-depth research or alerts and how to request training
  • Under the ‘Useful Links’ tab are links to a currency converter website, the Infomine Technical Dictionary, some Legislation and Mine Safety websites.
  • The ‘Marketing Videos’ tab leads you to our very popular YouTube videos.

Contact Katinka van Straaten whenever you need a quick (work-related) question answered.

Library jargon definition of the week

Peer reviewed journal/journal article. The goal of peer review is to assess the quality of articles submitted for publication. The article is submitted to impartial experts for review. The manuscript is checked for accuracy, and the research methodology and procedures are validated. In this way, articles that are accepted for publication in peer reviewed journals are of a very high standard.

This blog is written promoting the products and services of The Technical Library. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Debbie Lievaart

4th November 2016

Requests for information : In-depth technical enquiries

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This blog explains the in-depth enquiry process

The In-depth technical enquiry entails searching the library catalogue and any other applicable sources. In order to ensure relevance and a good understanding of what is required, it is important to supply library staff with as much information as possible, especially if the information is of a technical nature. The context in which the information will be used helps this understanding.

Once all relevant sources have been searched, the results are edited and a list containing references in bibliographic format (title, keywords and abstract) is forwarded to clients. Clients can then select the most relevant items they would like to receive in full text. Library staff will source these from either our in-house collection or via inter-library loan.

Contact Katinka van Straaten whenever you need an in-depth literature search in your specialised subject area.

Library jargon
Search alerts. If there is a specific subject you are interested in and you would like to receive updates when new material has been published in this field, please contact Katinka van Straaten.

This blog is written promoting the products and services of The Technical Library. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Debbie Lievaart

18th November 2015