Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of the open access (OA) movement on the African continent, and if there is any financial or moral exploitation by dominant “foreign” world powers. OA provided the African intellectual community with a tool to prove its academic prowess and an opportunity to display cultural and intellectual independence. OA publishing is prone to abuse, and some in Africa have sought to exploit the OA boom to profit from non-academic activity rather than use this tool to glorify Africa’s image and diversity on the global intellectual stage. These issues are explored in detail in the paper.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors broadly assessed literature that is related to the growth and challenges associated with OA, including the rise of OA mega journals, in Africa.
Findings
African OA journals and publishers have to compete with established non-African OA entities. Some are considered “predatory”, but this Jeffrey Beall-based classification may be erroneous. Publishing values that African OA publishers and journals aspire to should not equal those published by non-African publishing entities. Africa should seek solutions to the challenges on that continent via Africa-based OA platforms. The budding African OA movement is applauded, but it must be held as accountable as any other OA journal or publisher.
Originality/value
African scholars need to reassess the “published in Africa” OA image.
A resourceful and well-organized library is an asset to any academic institution and its existence is justified by the extent to which users are satisfied with its resources and services. Nonetheless, globally, library services were affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was therefore focused on determining the level of users’ satisfaction with the resources and services of Kumasi Technical University library during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey method was employed and a questionnaire was used to collect data. Stratified and convenience sampling techniques were used to select 192 respondents but 169 responses were valid for analysis. The findings revealed that, generally, users were satisfied with the physical facilities, services and COVID-19 protocols in the library, though, the library provided poor online services, did not have discussion rooms, some users were not aware of electronic resources and few users did not follow COVID-19 protocols in the library. The study recommends the provision of discussion rooms, improvement in online services, publicity and training on electronic resources and provision of adequate water for handwashing and hand sanitizer.
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