Mr. Songezo Mpikashe has been appointed as the Manager for Research and Open Scholarship at North-West University (NWU) Library and Information Service (LIS), effective 1 August 2025, based at the Vanderbijlpark Campus. He previously served as Senior Librarian for Institutional Repositories and Digital Scholarship at NWU.

Mr. Mpikashe has over seven years of growing experience in academic librarianship, specialising in managing institutional repositories, digital scholarship, research data management, open access and open science advocacy, copyright, and scholarly communication. He is also the author of the isiXhosa novel Intembeko Ndiyazi Kum.

In his role at NWU, Songezo oversees the university's institutional repositories, Boloka and DayTa YaRona, as well as the Digital Scholarship Centre, including the Research & Honours Commons. His work focuses on strengthening NWU's digital research environment through support for research data workflows, management of the Open Journal System (OJS), digital preservation practices, and advocacy for open access publishing.

Before joining NWU, he was a Scholarly Communications Librarian at Stellenbosch University, where he engaged in copyright advocacy, digital repository development, and researcher support programmes. His previous roles at the University of the Western Cape and Cape Peninsula University of Technology provided him with extensive experience in institutional repositories, copyright, open educational resources, user services, collection development, interlibrary loans, and library instruction.

Mr Mpikashe is passionate about equitable access to knowledge and advancing a research culture that promotes open science and sustainable digital infrastructure. His work also includes digitisation of special collections, metadata curation, and training initiatives for emerging researchers and postgraduate students.

Academic Background

  • Master of Library and Information Science (In Progress) - University of the Western Cape
  • Bachelor of Library and Information Science - University of the Western Cape
  • Certificate of Information Technology (ADT Teach Programme) - ADT Teach Cape Town
  • Certificate of Practices and Principles of Project Management - Stellenbosch University

Areas of Expertise

  • Institutional Repositories & Metadata Management
  • Open Access Publishing & Scholarly Communication
  • Research Data Management (RDM) & FAIR Principles
  • Digital Scholarship & Preservation
  • Digital Humanities & Special Collections Digitisation
  • Copyright Compliance & Author Rights
  • Faculty Training & Research Support Services
  • Knowledge Management & Library Innovation
  • Inclusive Leadership & Change Management in Libraries


Welcome aboard, Songezo! We are excited to welcome you to this new role. Your expertise, dedication, and vision will continue to strengthen NWU LIS as we strive for excellence in research and innovation.