Distance learning made easier

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - There is good news for Unisa students in the Mossel Bay area and even for people here considering studying through Unisa.

Now described as an Open Distance e-Learning university, Unisa has entered a partnership with Mossel Bay libraries.

The main town library in Marsh Street will act as a depot for Unisa study material, but the other branch libraries in the municipal jurisdiction will also co-operate.

From now on Unisa students will be able to have books, DVDs, articles and other study material couriered from Unisa Pretoria Main Library to the main library in Mossel Bay. Students simply have to bring their student cards and their IDs or driver's licences with them to the library as identification in order to collect the items. The students then return the items to the library and they are couriered back to Unisa.

Unisa will communicate with the library about the delivery logistics.

At a function at the Mossel Bay Library in Marsh Street on 8 March, the partnership was announced. Geraldine Cele, manager of library services: Unisa Cape Town campus, stressed that Unisa did not wish the library to incur any costs in this partnership.

Library staff do not even have to phone Unisa. They should correspond via email and Unisa would do the rest. The library was merely a facilitator in the process.

Cele said there was no excuse anymore not to study; this new measure was taking education to the people.

George, Plettenberg Bay and Knysna libraries already have such partnerships in place and one is being negotiated currently with the Oudtshoorn library.

The function was attended by Unisa representatives; the manager: library services at the Mossel Bay Municipality, William Clayton; and staff from the various libraries in the Mossel Bay municipal area.

During the function it was noted which services were available at libraries, such as free use of the Internet and WiFi, free use of the library as a study space and having items printed or photocopied at a reasonable price.

Dr Shahieda Jansen, deputy director: academic support and ICT at the Unisa Cape Town campus, who drove to Mossel Bay together with Cele for the function and to cement partnerships with other libraries on the Garden Route, said: "Studying is no longer an elitist privilege. Seeking knowledge is an extension of the culture of Unisa students.

"Unisa's partnership with libraries is about expanding the reach of education into communities."

Jansen, whose doctoral degree is in psychology, has worked in tertiary education since 2003.

She told the Mossel Bay Advertiser she had done all her studies through Unisa.

Another Unisa student at the function, Xoliswa Frans, who is an assistant librarian at the Mossel Bay Library, was emotional during her speech, her voice breaking when she said she had done her all her modules in librarianship through Unisa and that she was currently busy with her last module.

She told those gathered that the libraries' partnership with Unisa was an opportunity to develop communities through "studying made easy". Frans said it was "taking services to where they are needed".

She told the Mossel Bay Advertiser later that her qualification had taken five years and that she had found it challenging because she was working while studying and she was also a mother.

For more information on the library partnership and how it benefits Unisa students, contact the librarian at the Unisa Cape Town campus, Beatrice de la Porte (021 936 4125/6 or ctnlib@unisa.ac.za).

Geraldine Cele.