A massive amount of scholarly material is freely available for students and researchers alike.
The Wits University Press (WUP) has made almost 200 books accessible for free until July 1, 2020, allowing students, researchers and anyone that is linked to any institutional library network unlimited access to their content.
WUP has partnered with JSTOR, a digital library, and Proquest, providers of online content for students and researchers, at this time when major institutions are shifting to online-based learning and teaching.
“The initial idea was to enable online access to books at a time when students and researchers could not access physical books in their libraries,” WUP publisher Veronica Klipp told Wits Vuvuzela.
“However, this idea has developed into providing library access to all scholarly content from a large number of participating publishers for the duration of the covid-19 crisis. This ensures that scientifically sound information and research is available to anyone working from home,” she said.
Klipp said any student that has online access to their institutional libraries, which are accessible for using zero-rated data for Wits students, will be able to access any information available at no extra cost. 
This is particularly important for postgraduate students who will be working on their theses or research papers from home.
Cole Meintjies (22), who is studying towards an honours degree in psychology, told Wits Vuvuzela that he was not aware of this gesture by WUP. “Now that I know I will definitely take a look at what is available. Obviously, the extent to which I use the books is dependent on their relevance to my work, but any access to academic resources is valuable.”
Lindokuhle Tshabangu (22) who is working towards an honours degree in linguistics said that she was extremely likely to use this information now that she had been made aware of it, especially because she is currently working on her research paper and she expected to have to pay for any information that she might need.
FEATURED IMAGE: A Wits University student uses the free WUP content on JSTOR. Photo: Dylan Bettencourt.
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