Library Publications

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    Advancing research through DataCite’s global access fund : Busitema University, Uganda.
    (DataCite, 2024) Lugya, Fredrick Kiwuwa.
    This article details Busitema University Library's initiative, funded by DataCite’s Global Access Fund, to promote open scholarship in Uganda. A key output was a week-long "train-the-trainer" workshop in May 2024, which equipped 31 participants from 28 university libraries with skills in open access advocacy, institutional repositories, and DataCite’s persistent identifier services. The goal is to establish a national cohort of "Cadres" to drive the adoption of open infrastructure. The project aims for 100% open scholarship and DataCite services within Ugandan universities within five years. Sustained engagement through an online forum, regular training, and a planned academic paper will maintain momentum. This initiative represents a significant collaborative effort to foster a culture of transparency, accessibility, and enhanced research discoverability across Uganda's academic community.
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    Enhancing access and efficiency: the role of library research guides in supporting academic success at Busitema University
    (Elsevier Inc., 2025) Lugya, Fredrick Kiwuwa.
    This mixed-methods study evaluates the implementation, perceived impact, and systemic barriers of standardized research guides at Busitema University, a multi-campus institution in Uganda. Through concurrent qualitative and quantitative data collection—including in-depth interviews with 30 students and 15 lecturers, open-ended surveys (n = 142), and document analysis—the research identifies both the transformative potential and critical limitations of the discipline-specific guides. Findings reveal a significant awareness gap, with 55 % of interviewed students unaware of the guides' existence. Among regular users (40 % of interviewed students), concentrated in Engineering and Health Sciences, self-reported data indicated perceived time savings and enhanced research efficiency. The study highlights the pivotal role of lecturer-librarian collaboration, with successful partnerships in 8 of 15 cases correlating with higher reported guide engagement. However, institutional constraints—such as lack of recognition for collaborative work, cited by 73 % of non-adopting lecturers—and infrastructural challenges, including weekly internet outages faced by 75 % of rural students, significantly hindered scalability and consistent access. The research demonstrates how localized content curation, incorporating 336 Ugandan policies and 524 scholar profiles, enhanced contextual relevance and addressed decolonial pedagogical aims. Persistent issues with content currency, including broken links reported by 23 % of users, underscored sustainability challenges. Based on these findings, we propose an integrated intervention framework grounded in library and pedagogical scholarship: (1) LMS integration for seamless curricular embedding, (2) incentive structures to formalize faculty collaboration, and (3) participatory update cycles to maintain resource relevance. These evidence-based recommendations contribute to global conversations on equitable resource access, offering a replicable model for balancing standardization with contextual flexibility in resource-constrained academic environments.