Purpose Access to appropriate scholarly information can play a positive role in the development of African countries. Institutional repositories (IRs) have the potential to enhance access and sharing of research-based information generated in Africa. Developing IRs is a consequence of the internet’s fundamental influence on the availability and distribution of scholarly information. IRs were instituted to optimise open access of scholarly information that can be freely distributed on the internet. The perception is that the IRs are not embraced in Africa as a valuable tool as the case is in other regions of the world. Research carried over to explore the reasons for the perceived little development and exploitation of IRs in Africa is limited. The purpose of this paper is to report on a survey that attempted to identify the obstacles and challenges regarding IRs in African academic institutions. Design/methodology/approach A webometric approach and online semi-structured questionnaires filled in by IR managers or people responsible for IR management were used to collect data for this study. Responses were received from 26 respondents. Findings The major obstacles were identified as inadequate funding or financial support, lack of support from institutional management and lack of awareness of IRs at institutional management level. Research limitations/implications The study selected only IR managers or people responsible for IR management and administration in different African academic institutions with existing IRs as respondents. Other people in these institutions might have valuable knowledge about issues regarding the IRs in their institutions from whom no data were collected. Originality/value Based on the findings, the paper recommends strategies on how African academic institutions could increase the number of IRs and improve the utilisation of IRs in the continent.

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to determine how undergraduate students at the University of Namibia perceive and use e-books. This paper aims to report on the result of a study that investigated the adoption of, views about and use of e-books at the University of Namibia. Design/methodology/approach The study used a mixed-method approach. It used three methods, namely, focus group interviews, observation combined with the think aloud and a survey to investigate how undergraduate students use e-books. Findings Major findings of the study indicated that students use and prefer e-books for course and research purposes. But they mainly use non-library search engines such as Google, Yahoo and commercial sites. Lack of searching skills, slow/unreliable internet and limited or lack of relevant content of e-book collections were the major hindrances affecting e-book use. Originality/value The findings of the study could be used to understand the use of e-books at the University of Namibia and at academic institutions with similar context to Namibia. The study contributes to the knowledge base of library and information science (LIS) by providing a detailed analysis on the views and use of e-books at the University of Namibia. The recommendations of this study can be adopted by libraries in other countries with similar socio-economic conditions like Namibia.

A new computational procedure for the analysis of treaded tires under conditions of steady-state rolling has been recently developed. As with well-known procedures for axisymmetric structures, the new procedure uses a mixed Eulerian/Lagrangian kinematic description in which rigid body rotation is described in an Eulerian manner and the deformation is described in a Lagrangian manner. This work discusses the industrial and historical context of the procedure, provides an overview of the technology, reviews experimental validation targets, and compares against better-established procedures. The new procedure successfully predicts the distributions of normal, lateral, and longitudinal stress in several different cases. A limitation of the new procedure is that solution accuracy can degrade, particularly in the longitudinal stress, when the angular extent of the base pitch sector is too large. When applied in nontreaded cases, the new procedure produces results consistent with established procedures such as Lagrangian rolling and conventional steady-state transport for axisymmetric structures. The main benefits of the new procedure are (1) computational efficiency and (2) the ability to include the full geometry of treaded tires.

No abstract

The topic of this longitudinal study was reading promotion and its perceived benefits. The aim was to determine if reading promotion can lead to reader development and if reader development can lead to self-development, as is often claimed in the literature. A reading promotion project in the Northern Cape, South Africa, was monitored over a period of five years by using a selection of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The outcome of the study indicates that the reading promotion project was responsible for positive changes in the lives of the beneficiaries of the intervention. It especially points to the positive role access to appropriate reading material and prolonged and enthusiastic reading motivation can play in the lives of a developing community with little means.Keywords: reading; reading promotion; reader development; longitudinal