Cooperation, Collaboration, and Sharing Knowledge...
Librarians have a wonderful "heritage" of sharing resources and knowledge. I am happy that I've been able to continue that practice while here in Kenya.
Last evening I finished up the presentations and lectures that I was giving to the Christian Association of Librarians in Africa (CALA), Kenya chapter. The conference, which is being conducted in the new classroom building on the NEGST campus (it was being built when I was here last) has been scheduled from the 2nd to the 5th of August and is comprised of librarians from institutions of various sizes, locations, and missions. Some are undergraduate, while others are graduate in focus. There were roughly 25 librarians present. I was asked to give a full-day presentation on library's usage of the web and other Internet tools. I also gave a presentation on using the open standard bibliographic mark-up language, BibTex, Tuesday evening. 
Wednesday during the morning I oversaw a workshop on HTML and then in the evening re-presented a colleague's tutorial (Terry Huttenlock) on how to utilize Google effectively. All in all, my presentation had the broad theme of what are the implications of become a digital library--a concept that is just emerging here in Kenya.
Many of the libraries in the Nairobi area and within Kenya are automating. This may mean anything from they are cataloging their collections in a single machine to they are cataloging to a server on a larger network. Though we've been living with automation in libraries in the States for at least 30-35 years, it is just hitting Africa. Several times during our visit we had visiting professors and leaders for other schools around Kenya (ISAR, where we are staying, is a center for African study) ask us if we could come to their schools and help with their libraries. The need here is great.
One of the individuals assisting schools, like NIST, is Phyllis Masso, who also is a member of the executive leadership of CALA. Phyllis's husband teaches at Daystar after an early retirement from research and development in the area of optics. They've been in Kenya for several years and plan to be here for several more. Daystar, with whom Wheaton had an official relationship when we had a graduate program in communication, has two campuses. One is in downtown Nairobi and the other is along the Athi River about 50 kilometers from town. About six librarians from Daystar were able to come for the conference. Here's an image of their library.
Last evening I finished up the presentations and lectures that I was giving to the Christian Association of Librarians in Africa (CALA), Kenya chapter. The conference, which is being conducted in the new classroom building on the NEGST campus (it was being built when I was here last) has been scheduled from the 2nd to the 5th of August and is comprised of librarians from institutions of various sizes, locations, and missions. Some are undergraduate, while others are graduate in focus. There were roughly 25 librarians present. I was asked to give a full-day presentation on library's usage of the web and other Internet tools. I also gave a presentation on using the open standard bibliographic mark-up language, BibTex, Tuesday evening. Wednesday during the morning I oversaw a workshop on HTML and then in the evening re-presented a colleague's tutorial (Terry Huttenlock) on how to utilize Google effectively. All in all, my presentation had the broad theme of what are the implications of become a digital library--a concept that is just emerging here in Kenya.Many of the libraries in the Nairobi area and within Kenya are automating. This may mean anything from they are cataloging their collections in a single machine to they are cataloging to a server on a larger network. Though we've been living with automation in libraries in the States for at least 30-35 years, it is just hitting Africa. Several times during our visit we had visiting professors and leaders for other schools around Kenya (ISAR, where we are staying, is a center for African study) ask us if we could come to their schools and help with their libraries. The need here is great.
One of the individuals assisting schools, like NIST, is Phyllis Masso, who also is a member of the executive leadership of CALA. Phyllis's husband teaches at Daystar after an early retirement from research and development in the area of optics. They've been in Kenya for several years and plan to be here for several more. Daystar, with whom Wheaton had an official relationship when we had a graduate program in communication, has two campuses. One is in downtown Nairobi and the other is along the Athi River about 50 kilometers from town. About six librarians from Daystar were able to come for the conference. Here's an image of their library.
posted by David Malone at 7:54 PM
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