The Headspace exhibition brought together the work of students of Photography, Fashion, Graphic Design, Surface Design and Industrial Design in an explosion of colours, textures and shapes.

The exhibition, which was spread across three floors of the Design Building on the Cape Town Campus and two floors of the adjacent Student Centre, opened on 18 November 2008.

The title ‘Headspace’ alludes to the idea that, regardless of the discipline in which a student works, the creative process starts in the same place – the mind.

Dean of Informatics and Design Prof Johannes Cronjé opened the exhibition with a reminder that for the local design industry to flourish, South Africans should make a concerted effort to purchase the work local students. “It is part of our mission not just to be doers of jobs but to be creators of jobs,” he said.

The Industrial Design display exemplified the importance of students being able to both express their creativity and produce work that is functional and marketable. Vikki du Preez, who teaches History of Design, referred to two third-year projects – a prototype of an alarm clock and a model of a gaming console – to illustrate this point.

For the console, students were encouraged to come up with the most unusual concept they could imagine, and did not need to fit the device with working parts. For the clock, however, they had to work within the constraints of actual technology, and bring creative energy to a fully functioning object.

At the Graphic Design exhibition, artwork was not only on display but also being created. Third year student Kyle “Van Eck” Pase, whose interest lies in finding connections between graphic design and graffiti, was at the opening to paint his interpretation of the Headspace concept. Fellow third year Justin Poulter, who designed the poster used to promote the exhibition, created a dynamic accompanying mural on the opposite wall.

One of the primary features of the Fashion exhibition was the focus on providing a sound theoretical underpinning to commercially viable work. BTech student Nadia Lemmer created a sensuous range of garments for the fuller figure, influenced by the writings of Naomi Wolf. Also responding to the needs of contemporary women was Saara Jappie. Her vibrant Eastern summer clothes were conceptualised so that young Muslim women could wear stylish designs without compromising their values.

The Surface Design exhibition demonstrated the path that a student takes to developing a personal style. The first and second year displays saw students exploring the basic elements of design such as contrast and movement. The third year work brought the focus back to the designer as an individual. Students placed drawings of birds in an environment that represented the space in which saw themselves, and printed the results onto fabric. The material was stretched over three-dimensional frames resembling Herero figures. The overall effect was that of an African Village of surface designs.

The Photography exhibition also presented the results of individual creative journeys. In many cases, students travelled to remote locations in the country to capture the atmosphere of a place or a sense of the people who live there. The displays covered a variety of genres, including documentary, portrait and fine art photography.

“Each student has a body of work that speaks of personal development,” said Photography Lecturer Colin Adonis.

Jewellery Design opened its exhibition on 17 November 2008, prior to the Headspace launch.

Many of the students who exhibited at Headspace are in their final year of study and will enter the industry in upcoming months. The exhibition provided a taste of the exciting work that can be expected from this new generation of young designers.

By Ilana Abratt

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An eye-catching multimedia display created by the CPUT Faculty of Informatics and Design, under the creative direction of Roxanne Spears, was named Most Creative Stand at the 2009 Design Indaba.

The award was announced at the Design Indaba’s official opening on 26 February 2009.

The announcement marked the first time Most Creative Stand has been won by an educational institution.

The Design Indaba, held annually at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, is an internationally acclaimed gathering of design talent. It features a three day conference in which delegates are exposed to some of the world’s leading creative achievers, as well as a public exhibition of work from a variety of design disciplines.

Although Faculty of Informatics and Design lecturers and students are regular visitors to the annual Indaba, 2009 is the first year that the Faculty held a stand at the exhibition.

All aspects of the stand were designed and built at the University itself. The structure was put together by Industrial Design Lecturer Daryn Molenaar and was illustrated by Simon Berndt, Justin Poulter and Lauren Fowler with dynamic life-sized portraits of ‘hero’ students.

The heads of the portraits featured windows onto screens, donated by Digicape, displaying stop-motion animation films of the hero students’ best work.

Spears defined a hero student as someone who comes out of the Faculty and makes a mark. In other words, a student whose work has already won acclaim in the design industry and whose work shows that he or she is already at the cutting edge of design trends.

She selected the hero students by viewing portfolios from the Faculty’s various departments and by selecting the students who, while not necessarily the top mark scorers, represented a standard of work to which the learners visiting the expo would aspire.

The illustrations were created in a similar style to the promotional visuals for last year’s Headspace student exhibition. Spears explained that the Headspace concept had been very well received and that she wanted to produce a Design Indaba display that would build on that success.

The stop-motion films integrated into the stand not only provided a showcase of the variety of design disciplines offered at CPUT, but also added a YouTube-like element that made the stand popular with its secondary school learner market.

Spears noted that in addition to presenting the Faculty as an exciting place to for a new student to work and study, the display also demonstrated its commitment to postgraduate education and reinforced its industry alignment.

“It establishes us in line with the best of the best in the design industry,” she said.

The Indaba’s panel of judges consisted of Stefania Johnson of New Media Publishing, Gerard Back of Mila, Lauren Shantall of Elle Décor magazine and Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, Deputy Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership. Their aim was to select the stand that demonstrated the most eye-catching originality and clever use of design.

Other finalists for the Most Creative Stand Award included the Cape Craft and Design Institute, fashion house Stoned Cherry, design consultancy Animal Farm and furniture studio Casamento.

As the winners, the CPUT team received a trophy designed by Carrol Boyes.

The award-winning stand is to be placed on display at the Roeland Street Campus.

By Ilana Abratt

Photo: (clockwise) The CPUT team is presented with their award at the Design Indaba opening; Roxanne Spears, Creative Director for the stand; detail from an illustration on one of the stand’s panels; self-portraits by Simon Berndt and Justin Poulter.

Published online: 11/03/2009

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For first year Environmental Management and second year Public Relations Management students, 2009 has been a year with a strong environmental sustainability focus.

Over the past two terms, the students have been working on various projects that explore new ways to make the CPUT community aware of how to use paper in an environmentally responsible manner.

These initiatives were undertaken as a result of a call by CPUT’s Green Sustainability Forum for new teaching and advocacy projects on environmental issues.

In the first term, Environmental Management first years were divided into groups of ten and were asked to submit a report investigating paper efficiency in either the Environmental and Occupational Studies Department, Graphic Design Department or Public Relations Department.

To research the topic, they spoke to staff members, students, cleaners and store managers. The students also collected data on the paperwaste generated by the Departments by examining and analysing contents of communal bins.

The students later presented their completed reports to a cross-discliplinary panel that included Environmental Ethics and Communication theory lecturer Leanne Seeliger, Research Methodology Lecturer Phumzile Mniki, Public Relations Lecturer Dr Nirvana Bechan and Health and Safety Officer Eugene Laloo.

Running in parallel to the Environmental Management project, was an environmentally focussed initiative for second year Public Relations Students, supervised by Dr Bechan.

The students were asked to draw on their understanding of media theory to design a piece of publicity alerting staff members to why they need to be conscious of saving paper or energy. The students were also required submit a report explaining how their theoretical knowledge informed the choices they made in their assignments.

For the Environmental Management and Public Relations students, participating in the paper-saving projects provided an opportunity to, at an undergraduate level, acquire skills that would serve them throughout their academic careers, such as research methodology and report writing.

Through their research, they also discovered actions that they could take in their daily lives to help prevent paper waste, such as photocopying on both sides of a page when copying notes and recycling used paper as scrap notepads.

Seeliger, who co-founded the Green Sustainability Forum in February 2009 as a means to foster collaborations on environmental issues between students, academic staff and non-academic staff, said that the paper-saving projects had successfully formed a common focus for representatives from different Departments and different subjects.

She noted that the Environmental Management assignment had involved co-ordination between lecturers in Communication Skills, Research Methodology, Calculation and Statistics, thereby creating a working environment that resembled what the students may face in postgraduate studies or in industry.

“You teach in separate subjects, but this is more like a real life situation with different groups working together. Students are dealing with real life issues. They are learning skills,” she said.

During the third term, the project will be rolled out to Environmental Management Extended Programme students, who will investigate paper usage in the Civil Engineering and Surveying Department. These students will be asked to formulate and implement strategies that put the recommendations contained in their reports, and those of the other students, into practice.

To join the Green Sustainability Forum, contact Leanne Seeliger at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

By Ilana Abratt

Photo: (clockwise) Team Three received the highest appraisal in the Environmental Management assignment; Green Sustainability Forum co- founder Leanne Seeliger with project collaborators Prabha Rama and Phumzile Minki; Kilograms of waste paper are accumulated at academic institutions each year.

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Thuso Segopolo, a BTech student in Information Technology, has become the first student to represent CPUT at the International Youth Leadership Conference (IYLC) hosted by Civic Concepts International.

In July, Segopolo attended the seventeenth IYLC, held in Prague, Czech Republic. He was one of 120 delegates representing universities in 40 different countries around the world including Australia, Jamaica, the UK, India and Morocco.

The week-long event provided a forum for young people from different nations to exchange thoughts on responsible leadership. The conference included a number of workshops that simulated the challenges faced by global decision-makers. In the first simulation, delegates took on the roles of members of the United Nations Security Council dealing with the political crisis in Kosovo. In other workshops they participated in a mock trial hearing of the International Criminal Court and in a meeting of a simulated European Parliament.

Segopolo described the atmosphere as “educational, diplomatic and entertaining.” He appreciated having had the opportunity to act as an ambassador for his institution and was proud to be the first CPUT student to ever attend the conference.

“I have learned more about other countries,” he said. “I have learned how to improve my leadership skills in an international landscape.”

Segopolo has been interested in issues of leadership since school and is an active member of the Black Management Forum. He was encouraged to apply to attend the conference after hearing a comment made by Dean of Students Cora Motale regarding how important it is that students take initiative.

The Civic Concepts International organisation aims to prepare the leaders of the future by informing young people about pertinent global activities and promoting cultural awareness among students. In addition to hosting the IYLC, Civic Concepts International also hosts the International Youth Leadership Africa conference which focuses on responsible leadership on the continent of Africa.

By Ilana Abratt, Marketing and Communication Department

Photograph: CPUT student Thuso Segopolo (left) meets Andrew Chou, from Australia, at the International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague.

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Women in all spheres of the CPUT Community were recognised and celebrated during the month of August in a variety of presentations and events.

On 15 August, The Department of Advancement invited female alumni, final year students, international students and Executive Management members to an evening titled 'Unleash the Brand in You' at the Granger Bay Campus. In an event that provided fun and entertainment alongside a more serious focus on the real issues affecting women, various speakers presented on the theme of ‘branding’ in relation to female identity.

Executive Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor’s Office Dr Nomathamsanqa Tisani discussed the CPUT logo and the way in which its deconstruction of the shield symbol represents a break from the traditional symbols used by Universities. Journalism student Ruth Chisesa spoke about the xenophobic label kwerekwere and how such terms make women feel. Cariema Samoodien of the Yardsticks marketing company asked the audience to consider the relationship between ‘you as a woman’ and ‘you as a brand.’

“Women have been out of the kitchen since a long time ago,” said Alumni Officer Nandi Madadasana, organiser of the event, “but how do we interact with each other? This is the century for women. It’s now time to showcase what we can do.”

The Department of Student Affairs held various Women’s Month related activities during August, culminating in the Phenomenal Woman day on 23 August. Wearing caps reading “I am phenomenal,” female students from various campuses were treated to a bus tour and a catamaran trip to seal island. The day ended with an awards ceremony for students and staff at GrandWest.

The ceremony featured Generations star Sophie Ndaba as guest speaker. Students were intrigued to learn that the glamorous actress grew up in an orphanage and got pregnant at an early age. She urged students to never give away their own power to a man, to study, to work hard, earn their own money and become self sufficient in every possible way.

“We went home inspired, motivated, empowered and full of phenomenal new ideas as to how to overcome the challenges in their lives. It is events like these that we will treasure in years to come” said Lindelwa Gayiza, student and co-organiser.

Students who attended the Phenomenal Woman day each received a business etiquette booklet compiled Student Affairs. The booklet was published in an effort to develop CPUT students holistically as Women and as potential business women in South Africa and abroad.

South Africa celebrates National Women’s Day every year on 9 August to commemorate the famous 1956 women’s protest against the pass laws. In addition to celebrating the public holiday, many organisations hold events throughout the month to give thanks to female role models and draw attention to women’s issues.

By Ilana Abratt and Anette Grobler

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On 14 August, CPUT, as part of its celebration of Women's Month, gave a group of 100 Grade 10 and 11 female learners the opportunity to attend presentations by five inspirational women who had used Mathematics as a path to success in a variety of fields.

The learners were picked by their schools for their passion and achievement in Mathematics. The programme was planned by Dr Shaheed Hartley and Melissa Quinn of the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (CEMSTE), and was held in partnership with the Capetonian Hotel. The CPUT Director of Advancement, Gillian Mitchell was Master of Ceremonies.

One of the most memorable speakers was Dr Phethiwe Matutu of the Department of Science and Technology. Dr Matatu was the first black woman in South Africa to be awarded a PhD in Pure Mathematics.

Dr Matatu spoke about how studying Mathematics has given her the ability to work independently and pay attention to detail. She illustrated this with examples from her own life, describing how, as a child growing up in a rural village in the former Transkei, she did calculations in the family shop where there was no till. An affinity for Mathematics as a child ultimately lead her to pursue the subject at a tertiary level.

“As a woman you can become anything you want to be,” she said, “so make your choices responsibly so as not to lose the gains that women have made so far.""

The day’s presentations illustrated how Mathematics serves as a platform to a multitude of opportunities, in areas as diverse as science, medicine, engineering, business and the arts.

CPUT doctoral student in Microbiology, Ms Vanessa Jackson explained how she performs mathematical calculations on a daily basis to plot the growth curves of bacteria. Dr Thandi Matsha, of the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences discussed her research into obesity-related diseases and how she uses Mathematics to interpret statistics. Dr Ayesha Jacobs from the Department of Chemistry, discussed how she uses Maths as part of her research into supramolecular chemistry.

Fatima Hamdulay, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Business explained how a knowledge of Mathematics helped her develop a style of thinking that can be taken from one career to another. Her undergraduate studies focussed on Chemical Engineering, but thinking in a mathematical way had helped her develop her career further in the Business field.

The learners who attended the event were active participants in the day’s programme. They performed songs and poems between the presentations and responded to each speaker with relevant questions.

The event was the second Women in Mathematics Programme held by CPUT. Dr Hartley plans to continue running the programme annually so as to expose new generations of young women to role models who have used Maths as a basis for successful careers.

By Ilana Abratt, Marketing and Communication Department

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A highlight of the Installation Ceremony of the first Chancellor of the University will be a performance from the merged CPUT Choir. The Choir, which consists of male and female voices from multiple campuses will be performing two pieces. They will be accompanied by Choir Manager Thobeka September and by Dr Nina du Toit, Co-ordinator of the Disability Unit.

Despite the fact that the University has existed as a merged institution since 2005, the choirs of the Bellville and Cape Town Campuses have, for the past three years, practiced and performed separately. On 12 June 2008 the choirs merged and are now known as the CPUT Choir.

During the June vacation, the merged choir represented CPUT at the South African Tertiary Institution Choral Association (SATICA) competition in Limpopo at the University of Venda . The other universities that participated in the competition included Walter Sisulu University (WSU), Vaal University of Technology (VUT) and Durban University of technology (DUT).

Chorister Unathi Xulubana said it was a good experience and exposure for the choir. She added that this is a choir that will be representing CPUT during future competitions and many other special occasions. “We as the CPUT choir, we will represent and continue to be ambassadors of CPUT in arts and culture” said Xulubana.

Last year, the Bellville and Cape Town Choirs entered separately in the Old Mutual/Telkom National Choir Festival and were both awarded accolades. Cape Town Choir was placed third and Bellville Choir was crowned national champion. The merged choir continues to be of interest to Old Mutual and has been hand-picked by the company for use in Old Mutual’s new marketing initiatives.

Among the other Arts and Culture contributions scheduled for the Installation are Djembe drumming from the CPUT student dance group Distorted Movement and praise singing from Lonwabo Mdunyelwa of the Arts and Culture Leadership Programme. The CPUT Choir will perform the song “Plea for Africa ” and the male voice piece “Soldiers’ Chorus.”

September is proud of what the CPUT Choir has achieved. “They are extremely talented,” she said, “We can expect great things from them in the future.”

By Ruth Chisesa and Ilana Abratt, Marketing and Communication Department

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Megan Barnfather, a CPUT Graphic Design student, has done the institution proud by winning a Gold Loerie at the 2008 Loerie Awards in the student category Three-Dimensional, Environmental and Package Design.

Her witty, attractive packaging for Wellington boots caught the judges’ eye for its charm, colour and functionality. Her unusual pink and yellow shoebox resembles an umbrella and can be held in a customer’s hand by a rope handle. The customer must remove the tip of the umbrella to open the packaging and reveal the shoes.

The objective for the project was to create packaging for a product that communicated its characteristics to the target audience. Working with Heath Nash, a well-known paper engineer, Design students were asked to create a shoebox, given the constraint of using no glue, and no imagery, as well as minimal assembly requirements. The students chose the type of shoe to package.

Barnfather ‘s design not only answered the brief, but added value and shelf appeal to the well-known but humble Wellington boot.

By Ilana Abratt, Marketing and Communication Department

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The sound of Vuvuzelas rang out on Mowbray Campus on 11 September 2009, as first year Sport Management students celebrated the upcoming World Cup with a campus Soccer Day.

The event, which was organised by the first years as part of their course’s practical component, was enthusiastically supported by students and staff from the Business and Education and Social Sciences Faculties, many of whom arrived dressed in the colours of their favourite team.

National Red Bull Street Style Soccer champion Chris Njokwana demonstrated a series of dazzling soccer ball stunts including ‘around the world’ where the player kicks, juggles and catches the ball using one foot and ‘magnets’ where the ball appears to rotate around a players head.

Njokwana invited volunteers from the audience to have a go at some street style tricks and soon students and lecturers were showing off knee taps and other moves like football pros.

“Do you think we’re ready for 2010?” shouted Sport Management lecturer Juanita Stoop.

“Yes,” screamed the crowd, waving their flags and vuvuzelas.

Njokwana, who is currently on a nationwide tour to promote the Red Bull Worldwide Freestyle Soccer Contest was impressed with the spirit of the CPUT audience.

“This is the best live crowd we’ve had,” he said.

The day’s activities continued with a goal shooting competition and a soccer tournament that featured a number of student teams as well as a lecturers’ team.

Student Anelisa Jubisa, sporting top-to-toe Orlando Pirates gear, beat some serious competition from Kaiser Chiefs supporters to take home the award for best fan.

The CPUT Sport Management Department has urged all its students to volunteer to assist at the 2010 World Cup. According to Stoop, the planning, organising, risk management, marketing and public relations skills the first years acquired by managing the Soccer Day will be essential for those who participate in the 2010 programme.

“By exposing them to some hands on event planning and organising, they will have a very small idea of the effort one has to put in order to organise a World Cup event,” she said.

“This will allow them to think critically and with innovation when it comes to their volunteer work next year.”

By Ilana Abratt

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CPUT Libraries is celebrating the success of its Digital Knowledge (DK) site, with the number of academic text downloads registered by the site sailing well past the 10 000 milestone.

The site was launched in September last year as a means for CPUT staff members and students to publish theses, academic papers and other publications to a digital library that could be accessed by both a local and an international audience.

By 11 January 2010, the site reported that users had downloaded academic texts 12 000 times. A report by Google Analytics tracking site visits since the September launch stated that the site had been visited by users from 109 countries, including the US, UK and India.

According to DK’s reporting systems, the most popular CPUT download for the period 11 December 2009 to 11 January 2010 was a dissertation by Patience Aseweh Abor titled “Medical waste management at Tygerberg hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa.” The item was accessed 201 times in the four-week period.

The growing collection of CPUT items hosted by Digital Knowledge is the result of the efforts of Faculty staff members, who have contributed poster presentations, articles, conference proceedings and speeches, and Library staff members who have assisted academic staff, and undertaken the laborious process of scanning documents for the collection.

According to Deborah Becker, who serves as the Digital Knowledge co-ordinator for CPUT Libraries, the University has digitised most of its collection of pre-2005 Peninsula Technikon theses and loaded them into the Digital Knowledge database.

“12 000 downloads emphasises the visibility Digital Knowledge offers and the value of adding items to the collection,” said Becker.

“The library would like to thank staff and students who are contributing to the development of the database.”

The Library is still scanning its collection of Cape Technikon and CPUT theses. Becker, and fellow Library staff member Imraan Baderoen plan to have these texts uploaded by the end of 2010.

Other plans for 2010 include growing the site’s collection of historical photographs and documents and rolling out a means of recording citations in DK,

The Library recently also added a number of e-books to the DK site, which are available for free to staff and students.

The CPUT DK site is hosted by USA-based online publisher Berkeley Electronic Press and is based on the organisation’s Digital Commons platform.

Students and staff members wishing to contribute items to DK can access the site directly at http://dk.cput.ac.za/ or contact Imraan Baderoen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further assistance. For technical enquiries, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Note that to access Digital Knowledge, some users may need to adjust their browser settings.

By Ilana Abratt

Photograph: CPUT Libraries staff members Imraan Baderoen and Deborah Becker are hard at work digitising the University’s collection of dissertations and uploading the texts to Digital Knowledge.

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A colloquium on Web 2.0 technologies, held jointly by the CPUT and University of the Western Cape (UWC) Libraries, provided a forum for both institutions to explore new technologies that could improve their service to library users.

Web 2.0 refers to recent advancements in World Wide Web technology that provide the ability for users to collaborate and share information online. It is a topic currently garnering the attention of university libraries worldwide, as the role played by these technologies in the lives of students continues to increase.

The CPUT/UWC colloquium took place at the UWC Library Auditorium on 25 November 2009. Johann van Wyk, Education Library Manager at the University of Pretoria (UP), was Guest Speaker, and opened the colloquium by discussing the strategic plan that his library had rolled out in order to better utilise Web 2.0 tools and the generally positive response of UP students

Van Wyk provided examples of blogs that Library staff members had set up in order to provide online forums for literature discussions and environments for collaborative bibliographies.

“The environment has changed. A new virtual world exists. We cannot wait for them to come to the library. We must take ourselves to them,” he said.

The colloquium included addresses by UWC Library Director Pateka Matshaya, CPUT Informatics and Design Lecturer Prof Melius Weideman, UWC Lecturer Sandy Zinn and Nikki Crowster of Calico. CPUT Libraries Deputy Director Michiel Moll provided the closing address.

According to Moll, the CPUT and UWC Libraries are embarking on a process of increased coooperation between the two units.

“We feel that together we can achieve more and, as libraries, we are not in competition with each other, but both are there to serve our users. Projects such as this colloquium, closer working on an individual level and further joint projects are envisaged,” he said.

Matshaya said that she foresaw the two institutional libraries working together in the areas of staff training and development and in the sharing of expertise, innovations and IT solutions.

Commenting on discussions she had held with CPUT Libraries Director Dr Elisha Chiware, she said: “I strongly believe that, taking this relationship forward will be the responsibility of our staff as that approach will ensure long-term sustainability.”

The Web 2.0 colloquium was organised by Sulaiman Majal, Janine Lockhart and Yunus Omar of CPUT and Lilian Mitchell-Kamalie of UWC. The event was sponsored by Emerald, SWETS and Springerlink.

By Ilana Abratt

Photograph: Attending the CPUT/UWC Web 2.0 Colloquium were (left to right) CPUT Lecturer Prof Melius Weideman, UWC Library Director Pateka Matshaya, Library Manager at the University of Pretoria Johann van Wyk and CPUT Libraries Deputy Director Michiel Moll.

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A new website, launched by CPUT Libraries will help the institution’s staff and students find an international audience for their research papers, presentations and theses.

The site, known as Digital Knowledge, was launched on 22 September 2009. It includes facilities that allow any staff member or student to upload items to an online library of academic work. The site is searchable via Google and Google Scholar, enabling academics from Universities around the world to access CPUT research output.

Welcoming guests to the Digital Knowledge launch event, CPUT Libraries Director Dr Elisha Chiware described the historical role of libraries as a centre for storing and organising works and looked at the various methods libraries have used over the centuries to accomplish this purpose –from indexes to abstracts to today’s online search engines.

He drew attention to modern society’s demand for immediate access to information and stated that web presence is becoming a key factor in rating academic institutions.

“Through the Digital Knowledge platform, CPUT will not only increase its web presence but will also attract top academic staff,” he said.

CPUT Vice Chancellor Prof Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga, also addressing the audience at the event, took the opportunity to formally welcome Dr Chiware, who joined CPUT as Library Director earlier this year.

She said she was elated with the development of the new site and thanked senior library staff for their hard work in bring the project to fruition.

The Digital Knowledge site is hosted by USA-based online publisher Berkely Electronic Press and uses the organisation’s Digital Commons platform. Other institutions with research repositories based on Digital Commons include Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon Universities in the USA, the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland, and Bond University, Australia.

CPUT Libraries signed a three-year hosting contract with Berkely Electronic Press in January 2009 and worked in conjunction with the company to develop the repository according to CPUT’s needs.

Library staff member Deborah Becker served as Project Co-ordinator with Imraan Baderoen assisting with information uploads.

Several staff members and students have already uploaded their work to Digital Knowledge and have witnessed a rapid turnaround in international interest. A thesis on Managing Absenteeism written by Library Staff member Janine Lockhart was recently uploaded to the site and was downloaded 53 times within a two-and-a-half week period.

Staff, students and other users can access and contribute to the Digital Knowledge site by clicking the Digital Knowledge button on the CPUT Libraries web page, or by visiting http://dk.cput.ac.za

By Ilana Abratt

Photograph: (top) Attending the launch of Digital Knowledge were CPUT Libraries staff member Michael Smith, Libraries Director Dr Elisha Chiware, Digital Knowledge Co-ordinator Deborah Becker, CPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Vuyisa Mazwi-Tanga, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Technology Innovation and Partnerships Dr Chris Nhlapo and CPUT Libraries staff members Michiel Moll and Janine Lockhart. (lower left) Part of a screen shot from Digital Knowledge (lower right) The CPUT Libraries home page

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