Purpose -This study aims to investigate the use of Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository (SUAIR) among academic staff at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science (CVBMS). Specifically, the study looked at awareness of, attitude, self-archiving and challenges the academic staff face when using SUAIR.Design/methodology/approach -The study used survey method. The data were collected using selfadministered questionnaire with the results analysed using descriptive statistics.Findings -The study found that although there was more than one source of raising awareness on SUAIR, the university's library, the internet and meetings were the major sources. Majority of the respondents were not aware of how to deposit their scholarly output in the institutional repository. As a result, the majority of academic staff had never deposited their scholarly work in SUAIR. Generally, the respondents had a positive attitude towards using SUAIR. Apart from lack of skills and knowledge on how to deposit research outputs, the study established that lack of time, fear of plagiarism and lack of awareness of existence of the SUAIR were significant barriers to the effective utilisation of SUAIR.Originality/value -This is the first time such a study has been undertaken focussing on the use, awareness and attitude of SUAIR in Tanzania. As such, the study findings can be used to assess the attitude of academic staff at Sokoine University of Agriculture and other universities in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa with similar operational characteristics.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to impact the business environment in different ways. The current paper presents how the university and research library websites in Tanzania responded to the changes in the working environment and style following the outbreak of COVID-19. This study employed a content analysis method to collect and analyse data from academic and research library websites in Tanzania. This study focuses on how library websites in Tanzania were used to update and connect library users with relevant information resources and services during the outbreak of the COVID-19. The findings show that 12 of the 24 library websites had the opening and closing hours, two university library websites had information related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 and 12 had no information related to the outbreak of the COVID-19. This study has an important practical implication for the academic and research librarians on the effective use of library websites for information sharing and communication.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the scholarly literature relating to the usage of Twitter in library settings. Various uses of Twitter and strategies used to promote effective utilisation of Twitter in the library are given. The library uses Twitter accounts to support various information services, interact with users and for collecting feedback from users for the services given. Design/methodology/approach The Google Scholar database was consulted to extract the desired data published in the five years (2015–2019). Then, the content analysis method was used to analyse the retrieved literature. Findings The findings revealed that Twitter is used by both the library and its users. The library uses Twitter accounts to support various information services, interact with users and for collecting feedback from users for the services given. Furthermore, the findings revealed different ways that can be implemented to improve the effective utilisation of Twitter in the library. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study is that the findings of the research are based on the data collected from Google Scholar in the five years only. Originality/value This study tries to explore how Twitter is used in the library settings and the strategies that when implemented can help to ensure that libraries reap the best from Twitter.

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This study examined the quality of web-based online agricultural information relevant to the maize industry in Tanzania. Selected online sources were evaluated to assess the agricultural information available in terms of four dimensions of quality, namely: authority, completeness, timeliness, and understandability. The study identified a wide variety of web-based online information on maize production, including information on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and grain-handling. It was found that the information was of variable quality. Among the 39 online sites studied, several lacked contact information, had outdated content, and contained information that was missing some important details, and none provided weather information. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on online agricultural information in an African context where the agricultural sector is central to national economic development. The online agriculture information evaluation tool used in the study can potentially be of use, in its current form or adapted, to researchers beyond Tanzania.