In 2024, only 38% of Africa’s population used the internet, according to the ITU.1
For many students, access to digital learning still depends on what their institution makes visible, practical, and easy to use.
At Karatina University in Kenya, University Librarian Dr Everlyn Anduvare helped turn JoVE into a campus-wide teaching tool accessible to over 12,000 students. This work made her stand out as the 2025 JoVE Librarian Innovation Award winner.
Working with colleagues Ms Jackline Wanjiku and Ms Margaret Njeri Muiru at the Mwai Kibaki Library, Dr Anduvare built a practical model that reached faculty where they work and students where they learn.
A Model for Campus-Wide Use
The strategy went beyond the promotion of JoVE to ensuring its integration and use.
Dr Anduvare’s team embedded JoVE in the university’s LMS and on the library homepage, created staff and student guides, and carried out training of over 100 faculty members.
The impact showed up quickly:
- ▪️ Platform searches rose from 14 in 2023 to 1,871 in 2025
- ▪️ Video views reached 57,486 in 2025
- ▪️ The university later embedded JoVE Awareness as a Key Performance Indicator in its institutional performance contract
What’s more, the library has also budgeted for a dedicated JoVE Visualization Room to support students who don’t have personal devices or stable internet access. This next step reinforces a key part of Dr Anduvare’s model: adoption of a resource depends not only on awareness, but on practical, equitable access.
Tips for Your Library
Let’s break Dr Anduvare’s success into practical steps you can use in your own library.
1. Build institutional support early
- ▪️ Dr Anduvare began with senior stakeholders, including ICT and eLearning leaders, before the subscription was in place. That early advocacy helped secure support and position a visual resource like JoVE as part of teaching and learning, not just a library purchase.
2. Embed access where users already work
- ▪️ Her team placed JoVE directly in the university’s Moodle LMS and on the library homepage, then created guidelines for faculty and students. This reduced friction and made the resource easier to find and use in established academic workflows.
3. Train both your staff and your faculty
- ▪️ The library first trained its own staff to act as confident ambassadors, then expanded into one-on-one office visits and school-wide faculty sessions. This made the outreach more personal and practical.
4. Keep awareness active all year
- ▪️ The model went beyond one-off training. JoVE was built into first-year orientation and kept visible through email alerts, posters, WhatsApp channels, social media, and information literacy sessions. This helped move usage from awareness to regular use.
5. Tie adoption to long-term institutional goals
- ▪️ The team did not stop at promotion: the inclusion of JoVE Awareness as a Key Performance Indicator in the university’s performance contract helped shape library advocacy into a lasting campus priority.
Key Takeaway
Dr Anduvare’s work shows what can happen when librarians act as strategic partners in teaching and learning. Adoption grows faster, faculty support becomes more practical, and students get easier access to visual learning where they need it most.
Explore how JoVE can support teaching, learning, and access at your institution.
- International Telecommunication Union. (2024). Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2024. https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/11/2402588_1e_Measuring-digital-development-Facts-and-Figures-2024_v4.pdf