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University of KwaZulu-Natal

Streamline staff workflows and consolidate resource access

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"WorldShare Management Services offer a global, cooperatively managed knowledge base and helps us widen access to learning, research and innovation, for both our local and overseas scholars."

Joyce Myeza, Library Director, University of KwaZulu-Natal

In order to meet the vision of the University of KwaZulu-Natal to be the premier university of African scholarship, the library staff decided they needed a new library management system. "The cost of maintaining our previous library system was becoming unsustainable," said Joyce Myeza, Library Director at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. "This, combined with a desire to provide consolidated access to all of our resources and make better use of our materials budget, played a key role in our decision to implement WMS," or WorldShare® Management Services.

Additionally, as their users are becoming more comfortable with the technology available, they are expecting more from the library and its partners. They want to be able to access information whenever and wherever. "We want to satisfy the needs of our very techno-savvy users that the libraries are serving currently," said Nonhlanhla Ngcobo, Manager of Library Information Services.

“WMS is a one-stop shop which our users can go to, to find a wide variety of resources, not only books. They can find journals, especially peer-reviewed journals. Our lecturers and students are very happy with the availability of peer-reviewed journals in WMS."
—Nonhlanhla Ngcobo, Manager of Library Information Services

Having attended demos and presentations, the library staff approached Sabinet, OCLC's partner in the African region, to discuss how WMS could offer a solution to their staff and cost restraints. They saw WMS and WorldCat® Discovery as cloud-based library management and discovery applications that could help them save money, streamline workflows and improve services for users. Joyce explained that this will help users because, "WorldShare Management Services offers a global, cooperatively managed knowledge base and helps us widen access to learning, research and innovation, for both our local and overseas scholars. WMS enables us to deliver infrastructure and support services designed around their learning needs."

Although there was initial apprehension among University of KwaZulu-Natal Library staff, especially with the institution being the first on the African continent to adopt WMS, they are now happy using the system and are really championing it with their users. "I'm happy to report that even the staff who were very much uncomfortable with the new system initially, now that they've been given time to get used to the new system and they have been trained on the different modules, they are now using the system efficiently, and they are training users to do the same," concluded Nonhlanhla.

Services used by the University of KwaZulu-Natal

WorldShare Management Services

Map showing location of the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Library at a glance

  • The Pietermaritzburg main library was founded in 1955, although the University of KwaZulu-Natal was formed in 2004 following a merger of the University of Durban-Westville and the University of Natal
  • Collection includes more than 664,000 books, journals and multimedia resources with a growing number of e-resources (approximately 14,800 e-book titles)
  • Provides resources for those studying commerce and management sciences, health sciences, the general sciences and other disciplines

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