July 2008 IFLA Newsletter.Pub
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Volume 41, July 2008 IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section Newsletter Don’t Die Wondering… Just Do It! Editor Stephen Marvin from Sue McKnight, Chair [email protected] ‘Lead by Example’ is a phrase I have awards and titles committee, the Inside this tried to live and work by. ‘Don’t die University Awards & Titles wondering’ is another of my pet sayings. Committee, and finally Academic issue: ‘Just do it’ is another maxim. Board, I have been awarded a Rewriting these three rules to live and personal chair and the title Successful 2- work by could be presented as: ‘Have a ‘professor’ and will become a Essay Con- 3 go; if it doesn’t work out at least you will member of a select band of uni- test Winners have tried; and if it does work out, what a versity staff in the UK who are bonus!’ not ‘academic staff’ but who National Li- 4 I feel these sayings, which I firmly be- have been awarded this title brary of China lieve in, have helped me to gain three representing the highest aca- Translationum acknowledgements in the past month and, demic esteem. I was encouraged hopefully, will encourage others, espe- by academic colleagues to apply ARL Program 5 Schedule — cially my colleagues in IFLA, to aspire to and I am so pleased I had a go. wish us Success! achieve what is important to you. Unlike the Desire2Excel Award, First, at the forthcoming Desire2Learn putting my professional life story User Conference, I will be presented with together took many hours of soul PERSÉE Portal 6 the Desire2Excel Community Award for searching, composing, re- Explore Quebec City with Chicago Tribune’s Alan for Periodicals leading the consultative process under- drafting, and re-drafting again. Solomon http://www.youtube.com/watch? taken to inform the VLE Project. This is Fortunately, I keep my CV up to v=VMDaU4L61lI recognition for doing something I think is date, so there was a detailed CARL critical 7 winners of this national accolade. There is a just plain common sense: i.e. involve the account of all the significant of Canadian gala black tie ceremony in London in Septem- people who will be using the system to events and achievements in my Copyright ber and I will be immensely proud to be there. ensure we are delivering what is needed. I working life. I feel so proud to The National Teaching Fellowships are for nearly didn’t submit a nomination to this have been given this great honour SMU Library 11 supporting student learning, so you don’t have award, but I wanted to make sure the and believe if I can do it, others Fit for a to be a teacher per se to be eligible for nomina- international D2L community were aware can too. I am hoping to inspire President tion. Nottingham Trent University (my univer- others to research, to publish, to While these acknowledgements are specific to sity) is on ‘the map’ and willing to ac- serve the professional community Highlights to 12 my organisation and national opportunities, tively participate in the user community. I and your organisation, and to Quebec City other countries and organisations have similar also thought we had a ‘good story’ given encourage and mentor others. Anniversary schemes. While these awards are very per- the feedback we have been gaining about Finally, I was honoured by the sonal, they also reflect very well on the profes- the process. So, there is something to University to be one of three sion. So, believe in yourself and have a go as IFLA Address celebrate and all it cost was an hour or so NTU candidates selected to sub- you can’t succeed if you don’t try; and cele- of time to fill in a pro-forma question- mit for the 2008 National Teach- Changes brate successes. Congratulations to ARL sec- naire. ing Fellowships. To my surprise tion on receiving grant for 2,000€ see page 6. Simon Lemstra, IFLA Web Second, after a rigorous process involv- and delight, on 26 June the HEA Manager, noted the proper, ing a detailed application, two external publicly announced I had been Sue McKnight, Chair, Academic & Research official addresses: referees, two external assessors, college selected as one of 50 individual Libraries Section, IFLA [email protected] (Headquarters) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Quebec City’s 400th birthday—Sharing their Success! [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Quebec City is celebrating its 400th site in 1985. There are several Quebec is hosting "The Lou- [email protected] anniversary (July 3 1608). Quebec activities planned during the vre in Quebec with 275 pieces [email protected] comes from an Algonquin Indian IFLA Congress to commemo- from Paris. See an outdoor [email protected] [email protected] word that means "where the river rate the anniversary. Among drama of native culture and [email protected] narrows." The city is still surrounded the events, images from Que- history, "Kiugwe: The Great [email protected] by fortification walls dating from the bec's history will be projected Meeting," presented in Wen- From before June this year, be 18th and 19th centuries, with can- nightly on a giant screen in dake. Have FUN in Quebec!! sure to re-enter any HQ mail address using the proper nons along the ramparts. UNESCO the Old Port. The.Musee Na- See p. 10 for schedule of @ifla.org version. declared the area a World Heritage tional des Beaux-Arts du events. Volume 41, July 2008 Page 2 Successful Essay Contest Winners—Welcome to IFLA! Africa - Gulu University, Uganda – Ongaya Kizito Latin America - University of San Carlos, Guate- mala – Ingrid Maritza Alonzo Arrivillaga Mangosuthu University of Technology, Zambia – No- musa Buthelezi (N. Zimu) University of West Central, Brazil – Rozane Denes Ongaya Kizito, Gulu University, Ghana Mr. Kizito received his MLIS in on which library system to Mr. Kizito recentlyOngaya completed Kizito has the a specialEnvi- January this year following his obtain. There are only six pro- interest in research, specifi- Bachelor’s degree in 2003. Mr. fessional librarians offering ronmental Systemcally, Research Web based Certification geographi- Kizito wants to obtain greater considerable limitation in in Arc Informationcal Managementinformation withsystems. the exposure in the profession to terms of experience and expo- ESRI Institute inHe Nairobi. recently He wantsobtained to spe-an cope with current trends. Gulu sure to only localized libraries. cialize in web basedEnvironmental geographical System informa- Re- University was established in Attending the IFLA confer- search Certification from 2002 by the President of Uganda, ence will be a landmark for tion systems. the Arc Information Man- Mr. Museveni to cater to the future development and the agement needs of northern Uganda. The first of its kind to bring home from http://ongayakizito.bloguganda.comInstitute ESRI (Nairobi) library is in the process of ac- new ideas from international System. ARL wants to ex- quiring automated systems. professional body. Some col- press our gratitude from Lacking any experience in li- laboration may also be established with other IFLA for some special assistance in arranging brary systems, it is difficult to libraries around the world. support toward Ongaya Kizito’s attendance to confidently advise management Thank you. Ongaya Kizito the IFLA Congress this year. Nomusa Buthelezi , Mangosuthu University of Technology, Zambia I am a South African career woman who is a life long learner. I High Schools). The project started in November 2004 and strive very hard to achieve my goals. I have been at Mango- ended in November 2005. The school does not have com- suthu University of Technology academic library since June puters. The aim of the project was to develop the pupils’ IL 1996. I am a hard worker who strives very hard to finish her skills, mainly computer skills. It was observed that these pu- projects, meet deadlines and accomplish the set goals. I also pils had cyber phobia or technophobia. At the end of the pro- love to develop my community through research. I work very ject, pupils’ computer skills had improved and they had no hard to uplift the name of the institution I work for, for personal technophobia. They received the certificates of competence. development and also to fulfill the Library organisation’s (LIASA)’s mandate of using libraries to develop the commu- A paper about this community outreach project was presented nity. by the author at the September 2005 Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) conference parallel ses- In December 2005 I completed Masters in Information Studies sion. The main aim of attending the IFLA conference is to through University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg). The network with other librarians and share ideas regarding the title of my research paper was: “Assessment of information development of information literacy skills especially com- literacy (IL) skills of first -year students at Mangosuthu Tech- puter schools in historically disadvantaged schools in Africa. nikon at a pre-library orientation and instruction phase” The Teachers teach under very stressful conditions due to the scar- findings for this study confirmed that there is dearth of IL skills city or no resources. Teachers themselves do not have the with first year students mainly in the following fields: a) necessary skills such as computer skills in order to impart that Online searching, b) Searching of information in the library and knowledge to the learners. It would be educating to bench- within information sources, and c) English language. mark the services of the developed countries relative to the semi-developed and under-developed, the goal being to de- Because of these findings I initiated a community outreach pro- vise improvement measures and source back skills acquired ject where a team of three librarians extended basic computer to our community.