Varsity students in Nakuru have been urged to acquire outstanding research and academic expertise that cut across crediting sources of information and ideas to shun academic theft.
Speaking on Friday May 13th at a stakeholder’s forum dubbed, Knowledge Ambassadors E-resources Workshop, organized by Kenya Library and Information Services Consortium, KLISC, Mrs. Jane Grace Kinyanjui, who is the chair urged scholars from the wider Nakuru county to get familiar with the use and access of e-resources, which entail a range of titles in form of e-books and e-journals to boost their knowledge proficiency by usage in order to justify for electronic resources.
“We want to create awareness among users on how to assist scholars to utilize electronic resources on good research and academic skills that include plagiarism and referencing.” Said Grace.
The event saw universities and tertiary institutions within Nakuru county brought on board to be sensitized into becoming representatives of the consortium by providing a platform for sharing electronic resources as knowledge ambassadors. Mrs. Jane caution against the unethical practice of academic writing warning that institutions of higher learning are now equipped with modern anti-plagiarism software to discourage the vice.
“if students are not careful, they may land in distress due to plagiarism” added Grace, who is also a senate member of Egerton University.
Among the strategies that were decided by the knowledge ambassadors to promote e-resources included hosting more workshops for students, offering tutorials and training manuals, initiating a reward system for scholars, involving faculty members in the utilization of databases and maximizing the effectiveness of knowledge ambassadors forum by introducing clubs and societies.
The event which was facilitated by the Fundraising and Advocacy Committee (FAC) of KLISC in collaboration with the Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) Nakuru branch purposed to advocate for benefits of using e-resources in research and learning and access to e-journals, e-books, and repositories.
St. Paul’s University, Egerton University, Laikipia University and Thika Technical College were among the institutions present.