Mozambique: MCTES launches access to and use of Elsevier’s digital libraries – Watch

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Mozambique: MCTES launches access to and use of Elsevier’s digital libraries – Watch

3:41 CAT | 16 Mar 2021

Photo: TVM

The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Daniel Nivagara, has launched the Access to and Use of Elsevier academic and scientific repositories (‘Elsevier’) platform, which will enhance the academic and scientific community’s access to research-related content.

Held in a hybrid format, with face-to-face and virtual attendance online, the official Access to and Use of Elsevier Academic and Scientific Repositories launch ceremony was attended by rectors and vice-rectors of universities, general directors and deputy general directors of higher institutes and academies, directors of research institutions, those responsible for national academic and scientific repositories and libraries, plus teachers and students from higher education institutions and members of the national academic and scientific communities.

The occasion served to present the bibliographic content offered by Elsevier to the academic and scientific community of Mozambique, together with the ways of accessing and using the repository.

Speaking during the ceremony, Minister Nivagara said that the event aimed to promote the strengthening of strategic cooperation between the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) and Elsevier, promoting access to the resources of the company by members of the academic communities and scientific researchers in Mozambique.

Minister Nivagara highlighted the need to promote the training of higher education and research institution staff in accessing and using Elsevier electronic libraries.

Elsevier, he said, would work with the Network of Higher Education and Research Institutions of Mozambique (MoRENet) to ensure the creation of conditions for shared access, having identified 106 higher education institutions which would have free access to Elsevier resources for three months.

The Elsevier initiative will help realise MoRENet’s vision, mission, and strategic objectives, in particular those relating to access to academic and scientific content on this network.

As the minister explained, one of the objectives of the three-month donation [from 1 March to 30 May 2021] was to clarify the need for access to electronic libraries such as Elsevier. This knowledge would be used to identify terms of reference for the hiring of digital library access for members of the academic and scientific communities of Mozambique.

“This constitutes yet another dimension to engage in the mobilisation of our students, teachers and researchers to access and use, massively, the resources made available by Elsevier within the scope of this initiative,” the minister stressed.

The Elsevier initiative will also contribute to the materialisation of MoRENet’s vision, mission, and strategic objectives, in particular those related to access to academic and scientific content in this network, he added.

MoRENet and Elsevier organised four training webinars on accessing and using the electronic libraries over February and March of this year, in which 600 teachers, researchers, librarians and students from all provinces of the country took part. The webinars werei organised for the training and awareness of participants on Elsevier’s ScienceDirect, Researcher Academy and Mendeley platforms and the ways of accessing the knowledge resources to be made available under this initiative.

One of MoRENet’s duties is the technical training of staff from institutions of higher education, research and professional technical education linked to this national platform for sharing ICT resources.

MoRENet is one of the projects of the Information Society Policy, the Strategic Plan for the Information Society and the National Broadband Strategy that aims to contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives of the Government, related to the National Education System (SNE) and to the Science, Technology and Innovation System of Mozambique, namely: Mozambique’s Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy; Higher Education Strategy; and Professional Technical Education Strategy;

MoRENet links 167 institutions of Higher Education, Research and Professional Technical Education in a national high-speed data communication network, providing quality services, with economic, technological and institutional sustainability in order to constitute itself as a fundamental partner in the development of the academic and scientific communities of Mozambique.