Geared towards providing counseling services to the students of the university, the initiative aims to increase university’s success through counseling and guidance from well trained and equipped personnel.
At the same occasion, the UTG also officially opened the main university library which is both traditional and e-library. Officials say the library has standard facilities that will give students the opportunity to access peer review journals, articles, e-books and other academic works.
Speaking at the launch, Prof. Dr. Faqir Muhammad Anjum, UTG vice chancellor, described the event as historic, saying that the University Library and the Center for Career and Well-being are the first of their kinds in the university’s history.
The library, he added, has The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) database machine donated by the University of Cornel in New York that students and lecturers will use to access information on Agricultural Sciences. “The management in fulfillment of its commitment to changing the academic trajectory of this noble institution is happy to announce that UTG Library received some computers from Vrije Universiteit, Brussels and we have subscribed to EBSCO database as it is the case in top notch universities,” he added.
In light of this, he said, UTG would be paying a subscription fee of US$27,000 per annum which will allow students to access 7,986 journals and books from 5886 publishers. He went elaborated how this would benefit the teachers, students and researchers.
Badara Joof, the minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, said the library is both a traditional and e-library which would provide access to a lot of journals and books, audios and videos. “It is not only accessing them, but how meaningful and purposeful you use those materials,” he added.
He challenged the staffs of tertiary institutions and their students to link the research work that they do to the development needs of the country, saying “you are linked to Cornell University and you have access to agricultural materials, I will challenge you now to use those materials, domesticate them to the development plan of the agricultural needs of this country.”
Tolga Bermek, ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in his remarks, said TIKA contributed to this project by digitalising and modernising the technical infrastructure of the library. Access to information, he said, has improved tremendously with more use of IT and modern management tools such as e-learning, e-books. e-teaching and other methods.
“TIKA has integrated an automation system to the university library, which will help academicians, students and other researchers to access knowledge in an easier and more practical way,” he pointed out.
Awa Joof Peters, the UNDP representative, in thanking UTG, revealed the UNDP has signed a memorandum of understanding with the university. She affirmed their continuous support and partnership with the University of The Gambia.
