|
The theme of the conference was: Library and Information
Services on the move
There comes a time in an
information worker’s career when conference attendance
becomes a reality through external grants such as the
DAC grant and internal conference funding being made
available to staff. This year four of us travelled
together to attend the 11th Annual LIASA
Conference in Bloemfontein – what an experience!
It was so interesting to network and swap business cards
with peers from other institutions. Unlike previous
years I was given the opportunity to attend the Pre-
conference workshop FAIFE: “Copyright, Copyleft and
everything in between: a digital solution” - what an
eye-opening experience. I never get enough about
copyright issues therefore I urge each one of you
working directly with clients to attend these kinds of
workshops. The presentations made by delegates were
remarkable, relevant, and very informative.
Various speakers and experts have been invited to
address issues involving our profession and sharing
their expertise with us. While I cannot share everything
I have learned in different sessions at the conference,
the following paper was delivered by Barbara Lison from
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen North Germany “Changing
Societies need Innovative libraries”. As she said “we
live in a rapid changing world which is not only caused
by the globalization of science and economy”. With the
success of internet technology the transformation of
traditional societies has reached the high speed
development which has not been unknown before. How do we
change as librarians to be innovative? As librarians or
information workers we need to remain relevant and
continue to add value to our services by providing
solutions to the needs of our coming generation. The
following can be improved to render a good service: self
empowerment, eagerness to learn, willingness to try
unusual things, We should improve our professional
engagement skills, imagination, open mindedness,
internal benchmarking is necessary, inclusion in
discussions, and training. Networking with our
colleagues in our different faculty libraries is a start
that may help to further our education. Better salary
and/or promotion should act as a motivator for better
delivery.
There are several challenges in our profession but we
have to do something and fight the battles of ignorance.
Our challenge is that we need to move forward, we need
to remain at our institutions and continue to add value
to our service by providing innovative learning methods
for our coming generation. At a professional level, the
opportunity of attending conference is that I was able
to refine my research topic for my Masters degree next
year.
I am throwing a challenge to all of you, colleagues, are
you or is your library innovative? Are you on the move?
A changing society needs innovative libraries and
librarians. How can we be good librarians? Join the
library and information association and be involved. The
future belongs to us.
We would like to express our gratitude and
appreciation to: Department of Library Services and
Department of Arts and Culture for their continuous
support for creating this opportunity for staff to
attend firstly national conferences so that it broadens
our horizons and helps to create strong network links
amongst information workers from different types of
libraries.
Contributed by Sindy Magdeline
Hlabangwane
The LIASA 11th Annual Conference with the
theme “LIASA on the move” was held in Bloemfontein from
28th September to 2nd October
2009. The conference targeted Librarians from different
types of libraries. The University of Pretoria was
represented by Robert MOROPA, Ujala SATGOOR, Fatima
DARRIES, Sindy HLABANGWANE, David MAHLANGU and Prescilla
REETSENG. Four of UP’s delegates’ registration were paid
for by the Department of Arts and Culture’s grant.
Different pre-conference-workshop sessions and CICD
training sessions were held on 2009/09/28. The
Presentation skills workshop was presented by Kwelanga
Training. The objective of the workshop was to share the
necessary tips when one is preparing for an interview,
meeting, coaching session etc. The lecturer clarified
the ten steps to a perfect presentation i.e. Make sure
you are clear, Define a clear, concise objective that
meets time constraints and the needs of your audience,
Brainstorm and mind-map your ideas to formulate the
structure of the body of your presentation, Plan and
write the conclusion, Research and write the body, Plan
and write the introduction, Time your presentation,
Practice your presentation, using Visual aids and
confident questions and answer session skills. Lesson
learned “It takes practice to get it right and it is
important to remember that all Good presenters were once
very bad presenters”.
The ILL Interest Group also held its Pre-Conference
Workshop attended by 18 delegates. Various topics were
discussed during the workshop; David really enjoyed the
topic on “Common errors in ILL services and how to avoid
them”. In his opinion the workshop was very beneficial
as half of the delegates were newly appointed ILL staff
members, and the workshop was geared to inform them of
new developments. With his experience and sound
knowledge of ILL, He had an opportunity to share his
expertise with fellow delegates.
We started the conference on the 29th with a
meeting for DAC grantees; Naomi HAASBROEK thanked DAC
for sponsoring the 81 grantees with a R3500 registration
fee. The LIASA President (Rachel MORE) declared the
conference and exhibitions officially open.
On the 30th September all interest groups met
in parallel sessions to receive annual feedback, to
celebrate achievements and to plan for the future. The
IGBIS (Interest group for Bibliographic Standards) sent
out a plea to all Cataloguers to join IGBIS and to
register their training needs with Santi STEYN at
santi@sabinet.co.za. LIASA has set aside R133.600.00
for training of Cataloguers, delegates will only pay
R100.00 for registration. The speaker emphasised that
IGBIS only presents cataloguing training sessions on
request, so, it all depends on Cataloguers to identify
relevant training needs “Kgomo go tsoshwa ye e tsoshang”.
The speaker invited members to subscribe to groups via
http://groups.google.com/ to enlist their details on
igbis@googlegroups.com and to read IGBIS-In-Touch
newsletter as important information is communicated via
the newsletter.
The 2nd ILL workshop was also held on the 30th
September. The annual feedback report was given and this
was followed by the topic on “Impact of Open Access on
ILL”. During this lecture it was evident that most ILL
staff members were clueless about open access and do not
even know its impact on both Universities & researchers,
and more importantly how it impact on their work. Due
to time constraints, it was suggested that follow up
training on Open Access be arranged for next year. Julia
PARIS from UJ gave a presentation on “Interlending
Bootcamp”, she emphasized the need for delegates to be
positive and create a friendly working environment in
their libraries, and also to improve the image of
library by being professional at all times. We had a
social cocktail in the afternoon.
On the 1st October, experienced Information
professionals shared their success stories and put
across some future challenges for libraries and
librarians. They recommended that for libraries to
strive library managers should reconsider changing the
rules that govern libraries to accommodate the future
and present needs of their client e.g. how does a
librarian deliver information service that will reach
clients fast via mobile phones if the client is not
allowed to use their phones in the library. How does a
librarian communicate to clients via tools such as
facebook if the clients are not allowed to use facebook.
Libraries should be more visible and accessible, there
should be clearly marked signages directing clients to
the library. Libraries should serve as tourist places
for clients, a place where they can meet and share ideas
and discover the friendly and welcoming service.
Libraries should provide information in the medium
preferred by their clients.
We were privileged to attend the Gala Dinner still on
the 1st October, At this event the winners of
the Librarian of the year 2009 award were announced, The
winner Ms Busi DlAMINI (Gauteng South) was awarded
R30 000 donated by UKS, the runner-up Nohra MOERAT
(Western Cape) received R20 000 donated by EBSCO and the
third winner Rasby RAMUGONDO (Bloemfontein) was awarded
R10 000 donated by SABINET. Dora ARKERMAN, chair of
Local Organising Committee shared her success stories
and challenges she faced while organising the
conference. Dora was the winner for Librarian of the
year 2008 award. She congratulated the 2009 winner Busi
DLAMINI and thanked LIASA for the support she got whilst
touring the world. The president also congratulated
Ellen TISE on her appointment as the president of IFLA.
On the last day of the conference we had an annual LIASA
general meeting, where motions were deliberated, LIASA
as the voice of the profession is responsible for
investigating unfair appointments into positions, no
members will be allowed to be just members of interest
groups without being members of LIASA, The membership
fee has been increased to R350.00 per annum. The LIASA
President challenged members to raise R1 000 000.00
towards the building of the organisation and please
donations are welcome.
For our David MAHLANGU attending this conference was “a
dream come” true, this was the first LIASA conference he
had ever attended in 8 years of his career as a
Librarian.
We would like to invite all the Librarians and Library
support staff to support LIASA (The voice of the LIS
profession) by joining or renewing their members. The
early bird membership fee for 2010 is R275.00. LIASA
provides us with the opportunity to meet faces of
colleagues across the world and discuss professional
issues, learn and grow within the profession and to
build external relationships and strong networks with
fellow LIS professionals.
We would like to thank the Management of UP Library,
LIASA & Dept of Arts & Culture for the wonderful
opportunity afforded to us to attend the conference. We
are looking forward to the 12th Annual LIASA
conference to be held from 27th September to
01 October 2010 at St. George’s hotel. Gauteng North is
hosting the conference so please let us join forces and
make LIASA proud. For more information about the
conference and papers delivered please visit http://www.LIASA.org.za.
Contributed by Robert, Ujala, Fatima,
David & Prescilla (Proudly LIASA Members, we are on the
move).
Compiled by Prescilla REETSENG
|
Another
interesting and entertaining presenter was Prof John
Pearns, who looked at reasons why some publications
become best sellers and others not.
Sydney
