Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education is a teacher training center that is currently training pre-primary and primary teachers and school administrators. My work as the librarian is to support the student teachers with information that they need for their day-to-day learning processes. This entails studying the curriculum and course units allocated ahead of time to gather information that suits their academic needs. Information gathered for them includes books in print form and online resources. We have a well-stocked physical library with most of the books they use. As a member of CUUL, we use MyLoft for our e-library. Before their study sessions, I train their lecturers on how to access and use the resources on MyLoft. When the students return for their sessions, I train them as well on access and usage. Apart from organizing and disseminating information, I handle the diploma classes in their research work. I lecture research methods and I also supervise the finalists who are carrying out their research proposals and reports. During the student teacher’s study sessions, I work closely with both the Pre-primary and Primary Education departments in activities like organizing their examination rooms, invigilating exams, ensuring that classes are ready and well equipped with the study and support materials needed, ensuring that lecturers deliver on time as scheduled on the timetable. My biggest role is to ensure that the learners have all the information and support they need for their learning processes.
My understanding of open access, open science, and open scholarship is its focus on collaboration in scholarly communication, transparency and inclusivity for all. Open access aims to ensure that academic research is made free and accessible to the public as a contribution to knowledge. Open science advocates for transparent and reproducible research practices, emphasizing the sharing of data, methodologies, and findings to foster innovation and accelerate scientific progress. Similarly, open scholarship encourages the open sharing of educational resources, teaching materials, and intellectual outputs to support lifelong learning and the advancement of education. I possess knowledge of the modes of open-access publishing, open data repositories, and open educational resource platforms.
My main expectation for the conference is to deeply understand the principles practices and tools that govern open scholarship and research data management. I would love to gain a deeper understanding of data citation, and metadata standards in the accessibility and usage of research. Furthermore, I would love to explore the paths of promoting open access, and collaboration to create and reproduce research. I also look forward to meeting and interacting with the experts of open access and open science, exchanging ideas, learning new concepts, and with fellow participants too and to acquire practical skills and knowledge in research and data management.