Visit to the iSchool revealed to us how to stand a better chance of being accepted to the PhD program, which I intend to follow us as soon as the receipt of applications begin in August. Prof gave a very enlightening overview of the School, and helpful tips one can use to focus an application for PhD studies.
Tour of preventive lab and workshop
Following the visit to the iSchool, it was time to tour to the Preventive lab and workshop. The tour was preceded by a talk from Jeniffer Hain Teper who lead a team of specialists. She began the session by giving an overview of what conservation and preservation is and what the differences were between the two terms. Next was Miriam Centon who articulated the care of collections and how collections were prepared for preservation. Josh Harris then talked about media preservation, while… spoke about . The tour highlighted the intricate processes involved in digitizing paper materials using high tech scanners, as well as the equipment used to digitize audio materials. The audio digitization workshop was of most interest to me as UNZA is looking at ways of digitizing audio tapes in the UNZA Special collections that have been inaccessible for years. The tips given will go a long way in helping us preserve our content that is in formats that may be inaccessible currently. I gained the forward thinking competence in this aspect.
Tuesday 5 June 2018
This day was spent touring the Indianapolis Public Library, with its impressive innovations and its spectacular Central Library Atrium. Of interest was the Tinker station where patrons are taught how to download free e-books, movies and games which was displayed twice a week, where users came for help on how to use the different kinds of gadgets to access e-collections. Another initiative I hope to share with our Professional Association is the how the Indianapolis Public Library has partnered with the Pacers, in the “Call a Pacer” reading program where individual basketball players are recorded reading books and these recordings made accessible by phone to Library patrons. This is a very good marketing strategy as it associates the Library with celebrities, thereby increasing its popularity in the community.
Indiana University: The next stop was the Center for Digital Scholarship at IUPUI Library where I was fascinated by the high tech 3D scanning machines. They primarily scan community cultural heritage institutional collections and provide access to these collections. It was helpful to learn that the collection of 3D images was accessible for free on the Internet.
Wednesday 6 June 2018
Back to base, and the day began with a welcome talk from the Dean of Libraries at the University of Illinois, Prof John Wilkin. He emphasized the need for Librarians to show value of the Library if we are to get support from management. Advocate for support just for the sake of it, was not adequate, but he challenged us to show what the Library is able to do to promote the goals of the University. He further stressed the need to create partnerships with stakeholders in the university. My advocacy competency was enhanced by this talk.
The second session which was about Technology in the classroom was presented by Susan Avery who showed us innovative ways of conduction library instructions, using clickers , videos and info-graphics. I found the use of clickers very exciting way of engaging with library patrons and would like to introduce it in information literacy classes at our university using cheaper open source classroom response systems. I will also try to adopt some of the lessons Susan introduced us to such as creation of concept maps for topics. This session built on my communication skills.
Library assessment and academic libraries session by Je-Chien Yu highlighted the need to assess the impact and performance of libraries using technics that present data with help of real world applications. I will advocate that our library develops a culture of assessment so that we can continue making improvements and of course help in budget planning and staffing because we need to make our decisions based on evidence. A number of instruments design to measure customer satisfaction such as LibQUAL, Ithaka (www.sr.ithaka.org), and local surveys can be used to conduct assessments. I strongly believe that Library and Information Association of Zambia could use whatever channel available to provide data to the library map at IFLA which can help with conducting studies etc. My critical thinking and advocacy skills were enhanced by this session.
On Thursday, June 7th, Charles D Linville introduced us to Geographical Information Systems and how it relates to Libraries. This was punctuated by hands on sessions where the associates created Associates institutional maps using the data on physical addresses of the associates places of work.
The day ended with a session on Data management by Ashley Hetrick, who gave and overview of data management and the role that Librarian played in it, especially in relation to data management plans. She emphasized the fact that it becoming clear the critical role that librarian are playing in data management as National funding organizations require data management plans (DMPs) as part of grant applications. These are forward thinking innovations that we need to embrace as Library professionals
Friday, June 8th was dedicated to the SILL workshop focusing on two modules, namely Module 2: Library Leaders as Innovators and Module 3: Library leaders with a plan. The workshop is meant to be used across the organisations from leaders to the lowest employee. The associates where encouraged to work as a team by forcing us to work with with different people. The group i was part of came up with the name Mort Travelling Innovators after which we worked as a team to crate the longest tower of floating balloons. This was to bring out team building and innovation in the Assocaiates.
the idea of the workshop is to help to be leaders who think critically and be willing to challenge the status core for the sake of providing valuable services to the readers. SILL stands for Strengthening Innovative Library Leaders. Clara used very interactive and fan ways of looking at problems and finding innovative solutions. The major lessons learned from Module 2 were:
- Team work: in order to be innovative, we need to work as a team
- Problem analysis: you need to take more time to understand and articulate a problem before you can solve it.
- Systematic approach to problem solving : follow a systematic proach to dealing with a problem
- Using available resources to finding solutions to problems. Innovators always find solutions to problems with resources that they have.
Module 3 which is about action in planning taught us how to improve as a leader with a plan by :
By the end of this workshop, I plan to implement an innovative idea using the SMART approach, which is “to create Lib-guides for 2 courses in each school every quarter”. This is in order to solve the lack of use of library resources by users.