Africa: Open Access Week 2011

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This list is part of the Open Access Directory.

This is not an exhaustive list of countries. If you want to add your event and your country is not listed here feel free to add it in alphabetical order.


Botswana

  • Contact: Reason B. Nfila, Chair OA Organizing Committee, Botswana Library Consortium
  • Location: 24 to 30 October, University of Botswana Library (UBL) Auditorium, University of Botswana (UB), Botswana
  • Link for more details, if available: Botswana Library Consortium (BLC) coordinates the OA Week celebrations to sensitize the target audience of researchers, policy makers, journal editors, educators, deans & directors, graduates students, media, and library professionals about open access concepts and best practices in increased access and dissemination of information.

Egypt

  • Contact: Mandy A. Taha, Senior Librarian and Project coordinator at the Library of Alexandria, and EIFL Open Access coordinator in Egypt (2008-2010)
  • Location: Alexandria
  • Link for more details, if available: two seminars: Open Access - an Alternative Perspective of Scholarly Communication on October 23 at the University of Alexandria. The seminar will discuss the benefits of Open Access for scholars and researchers in Egyptian universities and Open Access to Scholarly Communication What is it? Do we really need it? on October 30 at the Library of Alexandria, Main Conference Hall. The seminar will provide a brief introduction to open access and will try to answer the following questions: What is Open Access? What is not Open Access? What is Gold and Green Open Access? Is there a need to go Open Access?.

Ethiopia

  • Contact: Aster Mamo
  • Location: the Library of Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), Gulelle Arbegnoch Street (the former Pasteur Institute) Addis Ababa
  • Link for more details, if available: A presentation about Open Access on November 10, 2011, to celebrate International Open Access Week.

Ghana

  • Contact: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology (KNUST)
  • Location: 25-26 October 2011, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
  • Link for more details if available: Open Access Africa, now in its second year, is a free conference which brings together researchers, librarians and funding bodies to discuss the benefits of open access publishing in an African context. The conference is hosted by BioMed Central in partnership with Computer Aid International. Abstract submission for posters on the theme 'Open access in Africa: progress and benefits' are being accepted.

Kenya

  • Contact:Festus Okumu
  • Location: Jommo Kenyatta university of Agriculture and Technology
  • Link for more details, if available:



  • Contact: Rosemary Musula Otando
  • Location: Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) and University of Nairobi Library
  • Link for more details, if available: exhibitions and short training sessions on November 1-3 and will conduct an Open Access workshop for the staff on November 4, 2011 [1]

Lesotho

  • Contact: Matseliso Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa
  • Location: the National University of Lesotho Library
  • Link for more details if available: Through the support of the UNESCO Cluster Office for Southern Africa and INASP, Lesotho will for the first time formally celebrate Open Access Week from the 24 to 30th October 2011. Celebrations intend to sensitize the community that comprises academics, students, librarians, researchers, policy makers and ICT professionals and others who have a role to play in making knowledge freely available event link and more information.

Mali

  • Contacts: Abdrahamane Anne and Birama Seyba Traore
  • Location: Bamako
  • Link for more details, if available: Consortium Malien des Bibliothèques (COMBI) and Campus Numérique Francophone de Bamako will celebrate International Open Access Week with a conference about the potential of open access for Mali (Avantages du libre accès à l'information pour le Mali) on October 25th. In addition two training sessions on open access resources (Recherche de l’Information en libre accès sur internet) will be held at the faculty of social sciences and humanities on October 26th and at the faculty of medicine, pharmacy and public health on October 27th

Mozambique

  • Contact: Aissa Mitha Issak
  • Location: Maputo
  • Link for more details, if available: Open Access Week in Mozambique was celebrated [2] at the Universidade Pedagógica with an Open Access folder and t-shirt released and disseminated, as well as with the speeches, presentations and demo sessions at the library targeting lecturers, researchers and students.

Nigeria

  • Location: Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State
  • Link for more details, if available: A one day seminar on Open Access: A new paradigm for academics at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State will reveal: what Open Access is; its benefits to scholars and academic institutions; why it should be adopted; and how to practice it in MOUAU. The library believes that this event will promote the Institutional Repository policy currently advocated for by the university librarian of MOUAU which in turn means that academics will become visible to the global research community and there will be an increase in citation of their works. MOUAU is a winner of INASP 2011 Open Access Week competition.

South Africa


  • Contact: Susan Murray (African Journals OnLine)
  • Location: AJOL, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 24-30 October 2011
  • Link for more details, if available: About AJOL. We have replaced our usual featured country photos at the top of each page on our site (at www.ajol.info) with a banner linked to openaccessweek.org.


  • Contact: Allison Fullard (University of the Western Cape)
  • Location: University of the Western Cape, Western Cape, South Africa, 24-30 October 2011
  • Link for more details, if available: UWC Open Access Initiative. UWC Library will be recruiting nationally for a new position: Head: Repository and Digital Scholarship Services. We're diverting funds normally set aside for copyright costs (feeds paid to corporate publishers for course reader duplication costs) to pay article processing charges for publication in accredited OA journals.



  • Contact: Ina Smith (Stellenbosch University). Twitter' @usscholar or #usscholar
  • Location: Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa or Live Stream. 24 October 2011 14:00 - 17:30 South African Time Time Zone Converter
  • Link for more details, if available: Stellenbosch University Open Access. Presentation by Stevan Harnad - Panel discussion with Stevan Harnad, Eve Gray and more - Launching 14 Open Access journals (9 DoE accredited) using OJS. View programme.


  • Contact: Ansie van der Westhuizen (University of South Africa)
  • Location: University of South Africa, Gauteng, South Africa, 25 October 2011
  • Link for more details, if available: Unisa Library is hosting an Open Scholarship Seminar on Tuesday the 25th October 2011. On Monday th 24th October we will tap in on the Seminar that will be streamed from Stellenbosch. We are working hard on our Open Access mandate.



  • Contact: Elsabé Olivier (University of Pretoria)
  • Location: Dept. of Library Services, University of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. 27 October 2011 12:30 South African Time Time Zone Converter
  • Link for more details, if available: Dept. of Library Services. Susan Veldsman, Director of the Scholarly Publication Programme of the Academy of Science for South Africa (ASSAf); The launch of three Open Access journals: South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences ( Edited by Prof Steve Koch), Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Edited by Prof Gerhard Heymann) and Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Natuurwetenskap en Tegnologie (Edited by Prof Kobus Eloff)


  • Contact: Ingrid Thomson (University of Cape Town)
  • Location: Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. 27 October 2011 14:00 South African Time Time Zone Converter
  • Link for more details, if available: Partnership with OpenUCT and Scholarly Communications in Africa, present a seminar "Demystifying Open Access"; Also promoting library resources that offer access to OA journals, and access to list of DHET accredited OA journals. Part of Open Access @ UCT.


  • Contact: Sagren Moodley (Durban University of Technology)
  • Location: Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, 02 November 2011
  • Link for more details, if available: Durban University of Techology will be holding a debate on Open Access on the 02 November 2011. We have gathered a panel of open access advocates and detractors to debate challenging issues in terms of open access in scholarship - these include Professor Bawa (DUT), Dr Derek Keats (Consultant, and formerly of Wits and UWC), Dr Hussein Suleman (UCT), Dr David Spurrett(UKZN), Mr Nico Fassen (PASA) and DUT academics.


  • Contact: Derek Moore (University of the Witwatersrand)
  • Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Link for more details, if available: We are celebrating Open Access on the 24th & 26th Of October at lunchtime with the following workshops: Open Access & Scholarly Communication Speakers: Prof. Yunus Ballim – “Wits and Open Scholarship”, Pierre Malan (Sabinet) – “The African Journal Archive”, Luci Abrahams (Wits LINK Centre) - “The OpenAir Project and South African Research”; Open Access Projects Speakers: Prof. Yunus Ballim – Welcome, Kerryn McKay – The African Commons Project, Shelley Nicholas – Neil Butcher & Associates, Barry Dwolatzky – Joburg Centre for Software Engineering

Tanzania

  • Location: Sokoine University of Agriculture
  • Link for more details, if available: SUA, a winner of INASP 2011 Open Access Week competition, will use INASP grants to train on the Use of Open Access Resources among Junior Teaching Staff at SUA. Financial limitations reduce the capacity of most libraries including Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) to subscribe to electronic resources. Open Access (OA) resources provide a partial solution to this limitation. Despite their potential to meet the information needs of library users in Tanzania, library users are not all aware of the existence of OA materials and very few know how to access them. This training workshop will impart skills to junior teaching staff at SUA on how to access and use OA resources. On October 24th Prof F. W. Dulle will give a public lecture Open Access to Scholarly Content for the Enhancement of University Teaching, Learning and Research.

Togo

Uganda

  • Contact: Fred Lugya
  • Location: Makerere University
  • Link for more details, if available: Uganda Scholarly Digital Library (USDL) is a collection of scientific research publications by researchers at Makerere University, a winner of INASP 2011 Open Access Week competition. It is the official Institutional Repository (IR) of Makerere University. During Open Access Week, the digitization team, will promote this resource through posters, training and classroom presentations. They will also publish usage statistics to help motivate authors/researchers to upload their research to increase citation to their works.

Zimbabwe

  • Contact:
  • Location:
  • Link for more details, if available: At least two institutions in Zimbabwe will celebrate International Open Access Week: National University of Science and Technology and the University of Zimbabwe.