Friday was a busy day with a session (workshop) with the chief librarian and the deputy librarians Andrew, Isa en Amani on library trends in the morning and (digital) repositories in the afternoon. Especially the ‘trends-session’ gave enough food for thought and reason for feedback: critical questions and debate. The young deputy librarians are eager to learn and implement new ideas, but they have the courage and sense to not simply adopt new things, but reflect on it to see how it can work for Tumaini.

Friday evening I prepared the session for Saturday morning: a workshop for the whole staff on customer services. It was a recapitulation of what we did last year completed with some new ideas, trends and a more in depth way of looking at it.
We started at 8.00 am sharp and I had about 1,5 hours before the library opened again and the staff was needed downstairs. We managed to stick to the time and it was a good session. People were taking notes and eager to learn.
When we closed up, I had the opportunity to give them a small token of my appreciation for their warm welcome and kindness, which was highly appreciated: ’stroopwafels’ (treacle waffles) and small pieces of ‘Delftware’ for each of the participants.

Later that morning I accompanied Rev. Cornelius Simba to meet the Board of Trustees of Tumaini University College. They were coming to see the new extension of the library, “for which they signed the papers” as they explained to me.
This new extension is a wonderful bright and open building of three floors with office rooms, rooms for special collections and activities and a computer area that will be used for information literacy teaching. The problem is that this building is still empty: except for some chairs and tables, no furniture, shelves or computers have arrived yet. The students don’t seem to bother: they are using the new building as an area for group work and independent studying.
As the new extension has such a nice air, the chair of the Board of Trustees explained his ideas about the office dedicated to Simba, the chief librarian. In his opinion, this office should become his office and he wasn’t joking!! I’m wondering if he gets his way, if he is going to do the shelving every morning and evening too .

Yesterday afternoon I had some time off and took the chance to walk downtown Iringa and see the hundreds of little shops and market stalls where you can buy all sorts of things. The traders invite you to come and see their commodities, but I just wanted to wander around and enjoy this free time. When I came back to the house, Maria was there to clean up and do the washing.

Today it is a lovely day: sunny blue skies like the days before. November is the start of the rain season, but until now I’ve been lucky: only a few downpours and only one of them hit me.
On my computer there is a tool showing me the weather near Baexem: 12 degrees and raining! Like Crowded House wrote and sang ‘you always take the weather with you’  and I have to admit a lot of other feelings and thoughts.

When I arrived this morning at the Library, I was too late: the shelving was already done. I had promised the staff that I was going to help them with this tedious and time consuming job, but apparently there was not so much to shelve today. I’ll give it a try tomorrow again.

Together with Andrew, the system-librarian and Isa the cataloguing librarian, I spend the whole morning on the planning of the implementation of the new WebOPAC. I worked late last night to prepare a few documents that could help the staff. Now it’s up to them: they have to start thinking, planning and documenting the process. I will take a lot of time to convert 80.000 books into the new system.

I took rev. Simba for lunch at the Hasty-Tasty-Too restaurant: a famous place (it’s mentioned in the Lonely planet and the Rough guide) and we had a nice meal and a talk about the HIV/Aids problems in Africa. In Tanzania the problem is not as big as in South Africa and Namibia, but also here there a too many victims, especially children who are left alone with no family at all.
Simba explained to me that it is a complex problem and has to do with poverty, ignorance (lack of education), and cultural issues and simply donating money will not work. Anyway, the university is doing it’s best: one of the best posters I’ve ever seen on HIV/Aids. [Graduate with A's not with Aids] Sorry folks, cannot upload photos with this poor internet connection. Will add them later.

This afternoon I worked on the presentations for tomorrow: one on library trends and one on digital repositories.
Although the internet is working on my laptop it is rather slow, compared to my system at home, so it takes a lot of time to find and produce material.

Tomorrow, it’s already Friday: time is flying when you’re having fun.

Two lectures were on my schedule for today, each 1,5 hours. The first group was quite responsive, but the second class started at 12.30 pm and they were very quiet and some even fell asleep. Their stomacs were empty, and without food the brain cannot work. Interesting, especially when one of the topics was ‘critical thinking’. I comfort myself with the fact, that it must have been the timing – not my lecture .

Later on Rev. Simba and I went for lunch on the campus and I had typical Tanzanian food, which was really nice. There is so much to talk about, that we could have chatted all afternoon, but one has to do other things, like preparing the following day.

Danny took me in the car together with Bukaza Chachage to town and I was invited to visit the new bookshop Bukaza started recently. A challenging and interesting undertaking and it was good to see there is a children’s section with picture books and of course a section with business and economics textbooks, of which I recognized several being in the MSM-collection.
I was more interested in African publications and managed to buy two books: Poems from Tanzania co-ordinated by Richard S. Mabala ISBN 978 9976 1 0205 5 and Nature Notes from Tanzania by Anne Outwater ISBN 9976 973 74 8.
Very nice reading stuff!

Back at the house we found out that the power was down: no electricity at all. Luckily enough I asked Danny to come inside to check the hot water system as I had a problem with that. Danny and the caretaker managed to fix the problem. I had no idea what I should have done without electricity: no computer working, no lights and no coffee – that’s probably the worst.

Tomorrow, another interesting day when I’m going to work with Andrew and Isa on planning the implementation of an automated catalogue, based on KOHA. First, I will help the staff to shelve the books: a task that takes them at least two hours every day and they are working on it with the whole team. It’s one of the less agreeable jobs in the library so they can use some help.

I’m closing this blog with copying one of the poems I found in the book I bought today. The poem is called ‘Intellectual apathy’ by E.L. Baregu. I finished the second session of today with a story about my grandmother, but the relation to this poem is purely coincidental.

Intellectual Apathy

One day I’m gonna tire
of reasoning out with Darwin
on the origins of man,
for what then did god do
those seven days?
I’m simply gonna tire
of the sermons of the philosophers
on man and society,
on religion and politics,
on science and arts.

I say
I’m gonna stop prying
the colonial scars
that have healed outside but
bleed inside.

I simply will grow numb
to the thorns of imperialism
that prick my being and threaten
to disease it.

I’ll be apathic to this giant strangler.
I swear
I’ll close my eyes to the maleficence
of exploitation
I’ll just lie back and let it
sap me dry;
I’m gonna let its worms ravish
my flesh to the bones
That day
I shall reject completely the doctrine of Karl Marx.
I shall plead ignorance to any kind of ‘ism’
I shall appraise no more the efforts of Lenin,
I will block my mind to the thoughts of Mao.
That day,
     Before I’m finally engulfed,
     I shall go to grandpa to hear some
     Wisdom.

I have not shared with you my travel experiences. The flight was fine: on time and I finally managed to get an aisle seat; very helpful when you have a sore back and cannot move around easy.
Daniel was waiting for me at the airport and on Sunday Dr. Bukaza Chachage (project coordinator) was there to greet me too and join us on the travel to Iringa.
On the way we picked up another traveller from Tumaini (an MBA-student) and we had a nice lunch at the Swiss restaurant just outside Mikumi Park.
Travelling through Mikumi brought us a wonderfull view on a herd of elephants; I’m sure the babies I saw last year were there too: grown but still not as big as their parents.
On the way we did some shopping the Tanzanian way, which means you stop alongside the road and start negociating the price of oinions, meat or other things you want to buy. As soon as you stop the traders come to the car to show their goods and I was happy that I did not had to decide what to buy: to me all the onions looked the same .

Today, the real thing started: a workshop with the deputy heads and the chief librarian, Rev. Cornelius Simba on the challenges and opportunities for the library.
We discussed strategic management issues and used a SWOT-analysis to define the strengts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the library. Making the SWOT turned out to be instrumental in coming up with strategic choices for the future. Some of these choices are: collaboration with the other universities in Iringa to improve services for all students en to beat the competencies of the staff. Accountability is another focus as well as marketing the library. The workshop will be continued on Monday morning and then we’re going to discuss leadership issues, coaching and intermediation and the different roles of the library professional in an educational library.
A big challenge for the library, its staff and users is the availability of a fast and reliable internet connection. The trend to provide more and more resources online is difficult to follow if the connection is too slow and blocks the access to resources and tools. This item is going to be discussed further on Thursday and Friday when we going to talk about the new automation system and library trends.

Tomorrow two lectures are scheduled: one on research techniques for a group of counselling students and a lecture on information literacy for a group of students of the faculty of journalism. I’ve just finished preparing these lectures and although they’re based on the lectures I did last year, all links, screenshots etc. had to be checked and if necessary updated.
I will be interesting to see what the feedback of the students will be, but about that, I will tell you in the next blog.

 Anyway, Tanzanians are wonderful people, at least the man from the Zain shop (Tanzanian provider), who helped (which took an hour) and made it work. Three hurrays for this person!!

So, I’m back to base and it feels already as being home. I’m back at the project house, my own comfort zone, where I can work quietly and prepare for a full program. I’m remembering the noises in the background: a dog whining and a pig rooting about in the ground, behind the house and of course the mosque making sure I’m not sleeping late.

As I said, a full program again, which is good, because that’s what I came for. Here is an outline of ‘things to do’: training sessions with staff on Tuesday and Monday; lectures to students on Wednesday; meetings with the library staff on Thursday and Friday and a session with Rev. Simba, chief librarian on performance appraisal on Saturday. Well, I will not be bored. I’m sure, there will be some time to share a few thoughts and happenings on this blog. For now, this is it. I’m off to dreamland.

Till next time.

Vorig jaar heb ik uitgebreid over m’n ervaringen geblogd en ben van plan dat dit jaar weer te gaan doen. Er is echter een beperking: de blogs zullen enkel in het Engels zijn. Het schrijven en vertalen kostte veel tijd en die tijd wil ik liever besteden aan andere nuttige dingen.

Dus, wil je m’n belevenissen volgen – stay tuned en reageer!

Deze gigantische boekenbeurs omvat 8 hallen met 7000 exposanten en 2500 evenementen. Een beetje veel om in ruim 2 dagen te doen, dus moesten er keuzes worden gemaakt. Ik koos voor hal 3 (jeugdliteratuur) en hal 4 (onderwijs). 
Tijdens m’n bezoek sprak ik met vele uitgevers, boekverkopers, docenten en (school)bibliothecarissen over – hoe kan het ook anders –  bibliotheken in het onderwijs.

 Op zaterdag de 17e oktober, vond een speciaal congres en tentoonstelling plaats onder de titel ‘De lerende samenleving’. Het congres bestond uit lezingen en workshops en in de tentoonstelling mocht ik ENSIL vertegenwoordigen en de nieuwe flyer uitdelen. 
Een dag eerder woonde ik een openbaar debat bij: ‘Bibliotheek en Onderwijs – eisen en uitdagingen voor de toekomst?’ Mediatheken waren vertegenwoordigd door Guenther Bree, voorzitter van de Hessische LWSVO, LAG e. V.  en de winnares van de Hessische  ’schoolbibliotheek van 2009 – prijs’. Guenther kweet zich prima van zijn taak en onderstreepte het belang van mediatheken voor kwalitatief goed onderwijs. Deze boodschap herhaalde hij in zijn workshop tijdens het congres, met als titel ‘Mediatheken, de motor van het onderwijs’.

Naast dit congres en de contacten op de beursvloer, was de Messe voor mij vooral interessant door de contacten met de leden van het Bundesverband Lesefoerderung e.V. Stuk voor stuk, demonstreerden deze zzp-ers hun passie voor lezen, boeken en de ontwikkeling van kinderen en jongeren op een professionele, creatieve maar vooral ook betrokken wijze. Het Bundesverband bestaat uit kleine zelfstandigen (leraren, journalisten, boekverkopers, kleine uitgevers) die voor scholen, lokale bibliotheken, overheden en anderen leespromotie projecten ontwikkelen en uitvoeren. Het netwerk is nog jong, want het is pas actief sinds maart van dit jaar, maar ik heb er alle vertrouwen in dat het een succes wordt. In de paar maanden van hun bestaan wisten ze een plaats op de Messe te veroveren en presenteerden ze een handzaam boekje vol met adressen, projecten en activiteiten en op het terrein van leesbevordering in geheel Duitsland.

Een ander interessant netwerk is het Netzwerk Mehrsprachigkeit. Deze groep vertegenwoordigt uitgevers uit een groot aantal Europese landen (Nederland ontbreekt!) van meertalige boeken voor kinderen. Deze boeken bevatten dus teksten in twee of meer talen. In onze huidige multiculturele samenleving en inmiddels meertalig onderwijs zijn dit soort boeken interessant. Met verve werd recent onderzoek aangehaald waaruit is gebleken dat vooral kinderen van immigranten eerst de ‘familie-taal’ moeten leren voordat een nieuwe taal kan worden aangeleerd. Dit soort boeken kunnen kinderen helpen naast de taal van hun familie en gezin, ook de taal van het nieuwe thuisland onder de knie te krijgen en dat ook nog door middel van plezier in het lezen met behulp van leuke boeken. 

De derde organisatie die het verdiend om hier te noemen is EEPG – European Educational Publishers Group. Deze club van Europese uitgevers van schoolboeken, vertegenwoordigt uitgevers uit 25 Europese landen. Hun website geeft waardevolle informatie over schoolboeken in Europa en de producenten ervan.

Tot slot nog twee organisaties die de moeite van het noemen waard zijn: de Phantastische Bibliothek en de  International Youth Library.
De Phantastische Bibliothek, gevestigd in Wetzlar (Duitsland) is de grootste bibliotheek op het gebied van Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Utopia, Reizen en avontuur, sprookjes, mythen en legenden, ooit gepubliseerd in de Duitse taal.
De International Youth Library  is de grootste bibliotheek van internationale kinder- en jeugdliteratuur ter wereld. Deze bibliotheek is in 1949 opgericht en sindsdien continue uitgebreid tot een internationaal geaccepteerd en gewaardeerd centum voor ’s werelds kinder- en jeugdboeken. Als slagroom op de taart, bevindt dit museum zich in een echt kasteel: Schloss Blutenburg, in de buut van Munchen.

Kortom, mijn bezoek aan de Frankfurter Buchmesse was de moeite waard: veel nieuwe contacten opgedaan, leuke mensen ontmoet en veel, heel veel interessante informatie en links verzameld.

NB: alle links en nog veel meer, zijn uiteraard opgenomen in de ENSIL Delicious pagina.

Maar mijn ‘nationale onderwijsweek’ werd bepaald door het meer dan fantastische artikel in School Library Journal, van Joyce Valenza en Doug Johnson met als titel ‘Things that keep us up at night’.
Beide auteurs zijn expert op hun vakgebied en hebben hun sporen verdiend. Dr. Ross Todd noemde Joyce Valenza, een van de beste en meest spraakmakende onderwijsbibliothecarissen in de VS. Joyce is niet alleen bekend van haar blog en de geweldige website die ze ontwikkelde voor de leerlingen en docenten van haar school, maar ook door haar baanbrekende werk voor het onderwijsbibliotheekwerk in het algemeen. Doug Johnson is een interessante spreker, vernieuwer en blogschrijver.

Ik ga hier niks verklappen over het artikel. Gewoon zelf lezen en genieten! Een geweldig cadeautje voor International School Library Month. Veel plezier.

Dit is goed nieuws want het vakgebied kan wel wat steun gebruiken van (internationale) organisaties. UNESCO nam overigens zelf deel aan de conferentie in de vorm van een keynote verzorgd door Ms. Misako Ito van Unesco. De aandacht van UNESCO voor informatie- en mediawijsheid sluit naadloos aan bij het thema van de conferentie dit jaar. Het thema blijft overigens ‘in the picture’, want ook ISLM heeft hiervoor gekozen, maar daarover een andere keer meer.

De eerste twee conferenties waren een groot succes, zowel door het aantal deelnemers als hun positieve reacties op de diversiteit en kwaliteit van de presentaties.
David Loertscher, bekend vanwege zijn groot aantal publicaties over samenwerking tussen mediathecarissen en leraren, is een van de presentatoren in de derde editie.

Deze conferenties zijn interactief. Het is dus leren met elkaar en door elkaar en dat maakt het extra interessant.

De rest van je leven (= toekomst) begint vandaag, dus meld je aan en doe mee. Meer informatie is te vinden via de links.