Media statement by Nomonde Mbadi, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Durban University of Technology Subject librarian, Joyce Myeza, recently completed her Masters Degree with distinction in Library and Information Science at Boston’s Simmons College in the USA. She received a Fulbright Scholarship which sponsored her studies.

Myeza is a subject librarian for both the Faculties of Management Sciences and Accounting and Informatics at the DUT Library, on ML Sultan Campus.

“I am grateful that my Masters degree equipped me with Open Source and Information Technology skills relevant to my job. While studying there, I developed a love for writing and started writing scholarly papers to apply the knowledge gained,” says Myeza.

As part of her Masters degree studies, she was impressed with what open source can do. Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. She believes open source should be driven in South Africa as it has a lot of beneficial advantages. She says open source is convenient to use because it has open community, which is self help service. She adds that open community assists in skills transfer and it allows users to learn at their own pace.

She later attended the ESARBICA conference in Namibia where she presented a paper on a practical guide of digitizing the collection and using open source. After attending an International Federation of Library Association in Canada, she assisted with the web page design for the section of the organisation’s Africa page.

A busy and emerging scholar destined for serious academic business, Myeza attended a leadership seminar in New Mexico in 2008 and again in 2009. She was part of the SATN conference held recently in Cape Town. She is also attending an IFLA conference in Italy in August this year.

Myeza is the mother of three and has a supportive husband. She says she would not have successfully completed her studies without his support. She also wants to thank the DUT community for all their support and most importantly GOD Almighty for what she has achieved thus far.

For more information, please contact Bhekani Dlamini on 031 373 2845 to facilitate the interview.