Skip to Main Content

Current Awareness 2025: January

Request a Literature Search

Struggling to find academic material for your assignment, research proposal, or thesis?

The Library can help with a literature search—a systematic and comprehensive search for published academic resources on your topic.

How to request a literature search:
Complete our online form or use the Unisa Student App (available on the Android Play Store and iStore). In the app, go to Library and select Literature Search Form.

What is current awareness

Current awareness is the term used to describe staying informed by keeping up to date with the latest publications, research and news in your field.

The perspective of current awareness is the present and the forthcoming, as opposed to the retrospective. 

Current awareness ranges from looking for information on specific topics on a regular basis (and this usually involves the assistance of your Personal Librarian to help you set up a search profile matched to your research interests) to embracing a wider, more general, and cross-disciplinary view that brings an element of serendipity into your search for the latest information.

Informally, researchers remain alert in all contexts for useful information and insights that will inform their daily practice, their research, and spark off innovative and creative ideas for new avenues of research.

Website of the month

Oceanographic Research Institute

SAAMBR’s Oceanographic Research Institute is based at uShaka Marine World in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Much of the work of the institute is focused on the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. It is also a leader in marine research in the Western Indian Ocean region, and has worked on projects in all of the countries and island states along Africa’s east coast.

Scientific areas of expertise include:

  • Marine and coastal resources of the western Indian Ocean: fishes, sharks and invertebrates
  • Coral reef ecology and biology in the western Indian Ocean
  • Estuarine functioning
  • Habitat modelling
  • Marine Protected Area design and management
  • Mariculture
  • Coastal zone management
  • Genetic basis for stock discrimination and species connectivity
  • Biodiversity assessments, particularly of reefs and soft sediments

Database of the Month

Multidisciplinary database with strong coverage of marine science, oceanography, and economic aspects of maritime trade.

Unisa Open

The following sites on Unisa Open contains useful information for Unisa staff.

Older Current Awareness guides

About the monthly awareness page

The year is marked with many special days, weeks, and months dedicated and devoted to raising awareness about important issues.

This monthly post, compiled by the Information Search Librarians Team, will note special dates and themes, and draw your attention to possibly interesting cross-disciplinary topical references intended to inform and to inspire ideas for research.

Selected noteworthy days in September

Why do we mark International Days?

International days and weeks are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. We also mark other UN observances.  

 

WORLD BRAILLE DAY - January 4

Every year on January 4th, World Braille Day reminds us of the importance of accessibility and independence for those who are blind or visually impaired.Around 36 million people worldwide are blind and the number of people diagnosed with blindness is expected to reach 115 million by 2050.

The South African Library for the Blind renders a library and information service to blind and print-handicapped readers through the production of accessible South African reading material in development of a comprehensive library collection and rendering of advisory services to promote access to information. Learn more about them

 

World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture - 24 January

Held every year on 24 January, World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture celebrates the many vibrant cultures of the African continent and African Diasporas around the world, reinforcing UNESCO’s mandate to promote respect for cultural diversity and human creativity around the globe. As a rich source of the world’s shared heritage, promoting African and Afrodescendant culture is crucial for sustainable development, mutual respect, dialogue and peace. 
Read more.

 

National Police Day 2025 - 27 January

On National Police Day the South African Police Service (SAPS) remembers the sacrifices that our men and women in blue have made and continue to make as they provide safety for all who live in South Africa.

 

International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust - 27 January

Every year around 27 January, UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945. It was officially proclaimed, in November 2005, International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly.

Learn more.

In the media

Loading ...
Loading ...

Catalytic niche areas

The university has identified ten (10) catalytic niches that will assist the institution in catalysing research, innovation and engaged scholarship These are as follows:

  • Marine studies,
  • Aviation and Aeronautical studies,
  • Automotive,
  • Energy,
  • Space study and Square Kilometer Array,
  • Fourth Industrial revolution and Digitalisation,
  • Natural Sciences (Biotechnological studies),
  • Health Studies/Medicine,
  • Feminist, Womanist, Bosadi Theorizations,
  • Student Support and Co-Curricular activities.

Click on the links below for information on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Digitalisation.

("marine studies" OR "marine science" OR "oceanography" OR "coastal oceanography") AND ("South Africa" OR "South African coastline") 

("marine economy" OR "blue economy" OR "maritime trade" OR "commercial activities") AND ("Port of Durban" OR "South African ports" OR "coastal trade") 

("marine conservation" OR "marine protection" OR "ocean sustainability" OR "marine environment" OR "marine degradation") AND ("South Africa" OR "Durban") 

Dissertations/Thesis: ("marine studies" OR "marine science" OR "oceanography" OR "coastal oceanography") AND ("South Africa" OR "South African coastline") 

("marine education" OR "marine research" OR "marine innovation" OR "marine studies curriculum") AND ("economic growth" OR "engaged scholarship" OR "teaching and learning") 

Golden oldie

The marriage of convenience between the South African Police Service and the South African National Defence Force : the COVID-19 experience in the spectacle of national disaster
  • Zephania M. Mkhwanazi, 
  • Paul O. Bello, 
  • Dee Khosa, and 
  • Adewale A. Olutola

Acta Criminologica : African Journal of Criminology & VictimologyVol. 33, No. 3, pp 126-14831 December 2020

Abstract

This article explores the consequences of the recent marriage of convenience between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). South Africa is not in a state of total suspension of law, but there has ...

Further reading

‘Africa has a history’: an Afro-diasporic examination of Black education in Colombia and Brazil

Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Article 2022

Abstract

In centering my analysis in the Americas, I examine the body of antiracist legislation composed of Colombia’s General Law of Education, Law 70, and Brazil’s federal Law 10.639/03, which formed the template for the teaching of Afrodescendant education, history, and culture in the national standard curricula. In looking at Colombia and Brazil, I interrogate the state of Afrodescendant education in the Americas as part of global trends of Black mobilization and political and educational reforms. Indeed, I argue that such educational policies resulted from the hemispheric resurgence of Black activist movements from within and without institutions of education, as well as the support of socio-political movements concerned with ethnic and racial diversity. Together, these forces converged with the multicultural movements throughout the globe, shaping the educational realities of Afrodescendant populations not only in Colombia and Brazil but also across the Atlantic. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Looking for upcoming conferences?

If you are looking for forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:

Archive

Should you wish to read Current Awareness guides of previous years, please visit the archive:

2014-2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022