Promoting Awareness On Electronic Journals
By Lyna Mohamad & Azrol Azmi

Bandar Seri Begawan - The UBD Information Week hosted by the University Library for the fifth time is aimed at promoting awareness on the importance of information with the first Information Week held in 2003.

Yesterday's event was officially opened by Dato Paduka Sheikh Hj Adrian Sheikh Hj Mohamad, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, who also saw the launching of the Electronic Reference Resources and e-Journal Databases for Academic Institutions in Brunei Darussalam.

It was another significant milestone following last year's event that saw the official launching of e-Library@ubd digital library systems and the signing ceremony of the VILIS Brunei Digital Library Project.

The opening ceremony began with the recitation of al Quran and al-Fatihah followed by a welcoming speech from the Acting Chief Librarian Dr Hj Awg Suhaimi Hj Abd Karim.

In his speech, he said the launching of this year's Information Week is very significant as it marks the beginning of a three-year subscription and usage of electronic reference and e -journal databases for the education community here.

"The inauguration is the beginning of a digital journey to our teaching and learning community that is facilitated by VILIS Brunei Initiative," he said, adding that this is one component of the many systems to be introduced by the digital library systems initiative of MoE, which god willing will be completed in August 2008.

The launching of e-reference and journal databases will be significant enhancements to schools and colleges, as it has been known that online information resources to facilitate teaching, learning and research are scarce.

The progress of the VILIS Brunei project as a whole so far has satisfied the project manager and they are now converting the catalogue record of more than seven school libraries, receiving delivery of various hardware and equipment and beginning to digitise MoE publications including students' reports, government publications and past years' examination papers.

Access facilities to these quality resources are still quite limited particularly at school level. But they are offering 24/7 services enabling students and teachers to access these facilities from home, school libraries, offices, cyber cafes or from abroad using Internet access as well as providing access with single entry point from the designated URL address.

Provision of these resources to teachers and students will serve as a new test to the teaching and learning community in Brunei and will also be a new experience for librarians and library staff at schools.

These availabilities and rich features will help facilitate research and will help teaching and provide access to ICT driven resources with thousands of contents, features and functionalities covering various level of education systems and multidisciplinary subject contents.

The launching doesn't mean the end of the project manager's job as there will still be a number of challenges and important responsibilities -brought about by the introduction of these technology driven resources to the stakeholder of VILIS project.

As the project team, they will have to overcome the first and primary challenges of promoting the usage and availability of these digital libraries and also creating understanding among stakeholders of what electronic resources or electronic journals are all about.

"It is important that our stakeholders are conscious of the fact that this quality information is now made available by the WE and it is for everybody to use it."

On the part of teachers and students, availability of these resources will require them to be competent and to possess information searching skill techniques also known as information literacy skills.

It will enable the user to be more apt with the resources and content and will be able to select, assess, and search the right information and use for respective purposes.

"The needs to be explorative in using these resources are very important. One should not confine to only one resource but should use more than one to be successful."

Following a video presentation, the guest of honour was given a preview of the exhibits that have been put up in conjunction with the UBD Information Week.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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