1. Introduction
This post represents my final reflection about the Mortenson Center Associates Program. In order for the reader to fully understand the nature of this post I believe that it makes sense for me to provide some background context relating to my motivation for attending, the Mortenson Center Associates Program (hereafter referred to as the Program). After providing this background context I will then move on to evaluate the Program in order to assess the degree my attendance has served the purpose of fulfilling my institution’s goals. I have referred to my institution’s goals because this trip was first and foremost an institutional visit. Any personal benefits derived from the trip are secondary in nature. As such the reader will notice that my comments – primarily those relating to my observations – are written through the lens of my organization (Stellenbosch University) and that I specifically address the aspects that would be of interest to my university’s library (i.e the Library and Information Service). The last section of the post will address additional comments that offer some insight into my overall impression about the Program.
2. Strategic Link
2.1 Stellenbosch University’s Strategic Objectives
The future of the Library and Information Service (hereafter referred to as the LIS) has an intimate connection with the future developments affecting the rest of the university. In this sense, it is possible to discern the possible developments that will come to affect the LIS if due consideration is given to the factors which will affect the university in the future. The University has made attempts to address its future plans in certain institutional documents most notably the Stellenbosch University Institutional Plan 2017-2022 and the Stellenbosch University Vision 2040 and Strategic Framework 2019-2024.
2.2 The Library and Information Service’s Strategic Objectives
Stellenbosch University’s Vision 2040 and Strategic Framework 2019-2024 are supported by the LIS through its Strategic Directions 2021–2025 as well as the Strategic Action Plans 2021-2022. In these documents the LIS has taken the decision to formulate strategic objectives which support all six of the core strategic themes identified in the Stellenbosch University’s Vision 2040 and Strategic Framework 2019-2024.

The outcomes of the Mortenson Center Associate’s Program could be interpreted as contributing to achieve the University’s and LIS’ strategic actions. Particularly aligned to these outcomes would be the following strategic themes of the University’s vision 2040.
- Networked and collaborative teaching and learning
- Research for impact
- Purposeful partnerships and inclusive networks
- Employer of choice
These three strategic themes have been singled out as they fall within the scope of content to be addressed at the Mortenson Center Associates Program. More specifically these institutional strategic themes are connected to the following strategic objectives of the LIS’ Strategic Action Plans 2021-2022 namely:
- Provide responsive, transformative and inclusive services across digital and physical environments to support and advance research, teaching and learning
- Accelerate scholarship and learning through the provision of optimal access to and the use of format-neutral responsive collections
- Innovatively use smart technologies to enable a digital-first library service and experience
- Increase our leadership role in digital scholarship and research support at the Institution
- Foster internal and external partnerships and inclusive networks
- Develop and sustain competent, diverse, and agile staff
3. Objectives of the LIS’ Participation in the Mortenson Center Associates Program
The objectives of the LIS’ participation in the Mortenson Center Associates Program were to:
- Learn more about things the LIS would be interested in adopting in the future.
- Explore the future possibilities by considering the future trends that are expected to affect the university’s activities which are supported by the LIS as well as how these trends would be expected to affect the manner in which the LIS contributes to the university.
- Bring back acquired knowledge and see to it that it disseminated amongst the LIS’ staff members so that they too can benefit vicariously from the trip. This would apply to as many divisions and functional levels as possible. I am conscious that one the greatest benefits from this would be the knowledge that can actually lead to the practical implementation of ideas within the LIS.
- Network and collaborate with colleagues from different parts of the world.
- This will also be great opportunity for personal development in line with the University’s employer of choice core strategic theme and the LIS’ strategic objective to develop and sustain competent, diverse, and agile staff.
3.1 Learn more about things the LIS would be interested in adopting in the future
The Mortenson Center Associates Program exposed me to several different things which the LIS would be interested in adopting. Some of these are relatively low-hanging fruit and may not require much effort to adopt. However, there are several things which would require some contemplation and perhaps further investigation before they can be pursued for adoption purposes. It was interesting to note that certain ideas do not require large capital investments – these will lend themselves well to adoption. In other areas large capital investment may not be required but implementation may only be possible in the medium rather than the short term. By and large the interesting observations will have to considered at a more senior level at the LIS most notably after my final report for the 2022 Mortenson Center Associates Program has been written up.
There were several observations which were made in this respect most notably in the following areas:
1. Leadership styles
2. Leadership training
3. Communication
4. Change management
5. Design thinking and human-centered design
6. Active learning
7. Personal Development Planning
8. Action plans
9. Grant writing
10. Teaching and learning
11. Makerspaces
12. Flexible learning spaces
13. Whiteboards in learning spaces
14. Research commons
15. The utilisation of the LIS’ spaces (re-appropriation or the possible creation of spaces that do exist yet at the LIS)
16. Blogging
17. Library discovery tools
18. Researcher librarians
19. Artificial intelligence
20. Library assessment
21. Library consortia
3.2 Explore the future possibilities
Below are the notable future trends that are expected to affect the University’s activities. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list. It is representative of notable observations.
Research commons: This refers to the Research Commons as a client-facing aggregator of research services. It entails having some form of presence of research-related services in the research commons. The spaces also incorporate flexible learning spaces and whiteboards. Another interesting possibility is remote access of the research commons computers – which would enable researchers to access specific workstations within the research commons remotely.
Flexible learning spaces within libraries: The trend seems to be to encourage learning and collaboration by having spaces with tables and chairs that can be rearranged with ease. Although such flexible learning areas are found in other facilities or units at universities, even the university libraries have adopted these spaces.
Artificial Intelligence: The application of artificial intelligence in the library setting seems to hold a lot of promise. Machine learning in particular seems to be the most relevant form of artificial intelligence that can be applied in the library setting. Most of these developments are on cutting edge of technology and thus not mature. As such a bit more investigating may be required in this area in order to identify feasible artificial intelligence initiatives that can be adopted. There are, however, some use cases relating to collection management, library discovery tools, acquisitions, metadata management, AI literacy and the enhancement of user services for example which have already been identified.
Makerspace: Rethinking the use of the LIS’ makerspaces so that they can incorporate things that do not seem to be commonly associated with makerspaces e.g Lego sets as well as Blockchain technology. The possibility of having a makerspace with furniture that could be easily rearranged is also something that could be considered. Other interesting opportunities that could be explored in this area are: the metaverse, virtual humans, incorporation of digital humanities, mixed reality, augmented reality, gaming (primarily e-sports), drones, robots, virtual reality training, virtual reality design, virtual reality research, visiting scholars, laser cutting and artificial intelligence.
More affordable textbooks: The cost of textbooks is quite high for most students. In order to address this issue universities are attempting to make textbooks available for free or at reasonably low prices. The free textbooks are made available as Open Educational Resources. The textbooks available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as OERs are openly accessible. The low-cost textbooks are available as part of the e-text@Illinois and could be made publicly available but this would be subject to further discussions with the relevant stakeholders at Stellenbosch University. The low-cost textbooks in question are all interactive in the sense that they contain embedded multimedia. Only some of the free textbooks contain embedded multimedia.
Information Discovery: Information discovery can be greatly enhanced through the customisation of library discovery tools. There is a need to improve the accuracy of the information that is retrieved by discovery tools. At the same time, improvements can be made to the quality of the information that can be retrieved as well as the manner in which it is represented and displayed. The nature of the information search can also be assessed better in order to enhance the search experience and results if certain customisations can be made to discovery tools. This is an area for the application of machine learning. In addition to this, the utlisation of Application Program Interfaces on the one hand as well as the Bento box model on the other hand seem to offer great possibilities for enhancing the functionality of library discovery tools.
Design thinking: Design thinking is both an approach and a mindset. As a creative approach it represents a series of steps that will help you design meaningful. When viewed as a mindset it entails viewing the world like a designer. Design thinking can allow the LIS to work together with its user community in order to discover the community’s wants and experiment to create services, programs and processes to meet the community’s changing needs. Perhaps importantly, design thinking can promote innovation at the LIS – particularly in the case of desirable solutions that are financially viable and technologically feasible.
Active learning: Research has demonstrated that active learning increases student performances. Active learning can be used in the place of traditional instruction methods such as lecturing. Active learning incorporates flexible classroom design and engaging activities. Although active learning is addressed by teaching and learning centers at higher education institutions it can also be implemented by academic libraries since they also provide teaching and learning services. In this respect it is conceivable that the LIS could partner with the University’s teaching and learning center as well as other stakeholders in order to implement active learning at the university.
Researcher librarians: The role of certain librarians could take on a more academic or research nature. In the United State of America, certain librarians hold faculty status. Such librarians may teach courses and conduct academic research just like academic staff members and researchers. The research and academic aspect is accounted for in the job descriptions and role analyses of librarians falling into this category. The adoption of a similar set up at the LIS would require several changes – but if it the changes were to be implemented they would probably increase the LIS’ research output. As things stand some of the LIS librarians already conduct academic activities in the sense that they perform a teaching and learning role. Where feasible this could possibly be extended to complete courses instead of just training sessions
3.3 Bring back acquired knowledge
To a certain degree it may be too early for this objective to be met in its entirety as I still need to return to work and share the knowledge which I acquired over the past couple of weeks. At the same time it needs to be acknowledged that the Mortenson Center has its own measures in place to ensure that the attending associates document their experiences and make them accessible to their colleagues at their home institutions. This is accomplished through blogging on the Mortenson Center’s blog. Associates are required to blog about their experiences, lessons learnt, observations and insights gained during the course of the Program.
3.4 Network and collaborate with colleagues
I have been able to network with several individuals over the past few weeks. This group ranges from individuals who are affiliated with the Mortenson Center on a more permanent basis to the other associates who attended the Program. In some of these cases it appears that there might be scope for future collaborations but this an avenue which still needs to be explored further. In other cases opportunities for collaborations may actually present themselves in the future – especially if the communication channels established by this networking opportunity remain open.
3.5 Development on a personal level
This Program presented me with an opportunity to develop on a personal level particularly in relation to the areas listed below:
- Organisational thinking: Attending the Program forced me to think more broadly about my organization rather that my functional division. This is primarily because my observations during the Program had to be made from a more general rather than a specialist point of view. Over the past few weeks I have had to think really hard about the different issues which would be relevant to different colleagues work at the LIS. Such thinking has permitted me to perceive the interconnections between the LIS’ different divisions much better. Interestingly enough I was also able to observe the manner in which these divisions could be interconnected differently based on the organisational setup at the different institutions that I visited.
- Leadership Style: I was able to discover my leadership style. This was truly an eye-opening experience. In the process I came to understand how individuals with my leadership style operate and how they can interact with the other individuals – most of whom would probably have different leadership styles.
- Leadership training: I was also exposed to leadership skills training. Admittedly, this is an area which may require some further development. However, my confidence and capability to lead has been enhanced greatly due to a better understanding of what leadership entails.
- Communication: I was exposed to the different aspects which need to be considered in order to communicate with others more effectively. In essence, the asymmetrical nature of information requires that information be communicated in an understandable manner and that the successful receipt and comprehension of the communication information be confirmed.
- Personal vision for the future: I have re-evaluated my personal plan for the future, as I was able to learn about several opportunities that I was unaware of before I attended the Program.
4. Concluding Remarks
4.1 Overall Impression
I believe that the Mortenson Center Associates Program represents the single greatest transfer of knowledge in the library sector in the entire world. It is certainly better than attending international conferences due to the manner in which it facilitates knowledge acquisition and networking. The knowledge that participants (i.e facilitators, presenters) possess is extremely valuable and their willingness to share their knowledge is really admirable. I understand that institutions pay for the privilege to participate in the Program. But it generally felt like our hosts went beyond the call of duty in order to make sure that the associates were comfortable and that they managed to benefit from the Program as much as possible. Although there is always room for improvement I believe that this is simply the case with most things in life. Overall, I believe that the Mortenson Center has a winning formula and that the staff affiliated with the Program should keep up the good work. I feel very privileged to have participated in this program. Not only have I come out of this program with a better understanding and appreciation of libraries but I have also developed a deeper appreciation of other cultures.
4.2 Comments about the schedule
In terms of the Program’s content it is wide ranging. To a certain degree, the Program represents a deep-dive into the Library and Information Service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However this has been blended with perspectives from several other institutions. There are no specific tracts for the different types of librarians. As such all librarians are exposed to the different library environments even if they do not work in similar types of libraries. The idea is to provide associates with broad exposure rather than pigeonholing them to the types of libraries in which they happen to work. Needless to point out that it will not be possible to apply most of the insights gained from the visits to the non-academic libraries.
Since the Mortenson Center attempts to cater for the major types of libraries the Program focuses on exposing associates to the different types of libraries. Interestingly enough the schedule appears to be somewhat rigid. For example, the schedule includes visits to several public librarians despite the fact that none of this year’s cohort of associates works at a public library. In addition to this, the schedule does not include any visits to a school library or a national library yet these types of libraries are actually represent by the associates attending this year’s program.
That being stated it has been pointed that the sources for innovation in academic libraries does not lay solely in other academic libraries. Indeed, it has been pleasantly surprising to note certain aspects from public libraries which could possibly be transplanted to academic libraries.
4.3 Some of the Program’s limitations:
It is worth pointing out that since my observations were limited by the specific tours, workshops, sessions that I am exposed to there are certain things that could not be picked up if they are not offered by our host libraries. Furthermore, certain developments that lay on the cutting edge of technology are to a large degree only conceptual.
Due to time constraints it was not always possible for the presenters to go into great details on some of the topics addressed during the problem. This is not a major setback and should be expected as the Program focuses on breadth rather than depth of content. As such it is imperative that associates consider reading up on the discussed topics in the future. Indeed a deep dive into most of the content is probably advisable. In most cases the presenters who participated the Program were kind enough to share their presentation slides. This was quite beneficial. In addition to this, I would personally suggest that anyone interested in gaining more knowledge about the subject matter covered during the Program make the effort to consult the following resources:
- The websites of the visited institutions. There is plenty of information available on institutional websites and a deep-dive relying on this information source can yield more detailed information than could be covered during presentation sessions.
- Research publications generated by the presenters are another useful source of more information. Most of the presenters have conducted research in the areas that they cover in their presentations and thus one can benefit by searching for research articles or conference proceedings published by the presenters.
- Research publications or online videos on the topics in question could also be useful. It does not make sense to restrict oneself to learning from only the people who participated in the Program. In this respect, the tours and presentations that form part of the Program can serve as points of departure for more detailed investigations that incorporate other sources of information.
5. Acknowledgements
I would like to thanks the Senior Management Team at the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service, my colleagues back home, Dr Clara Chu, Barbara Ford, Amani Ayad, Kathleen Ebeling, Merinda Hensley and everyone else who contributed to this year’s Mortenson Center Associates Program in some form. I never had the pleasure of meeting C. Walter and Gerda B. Mortenson – the founders of the Mortenson Center – I feel that I owe them a great deal of gratitude. Their decision to fund the creation of Mortenson Center for International Library Programs was a generous gesture that has impacted a countless number of individuals – myself included – in a positive way and I hope that this will be the case for many years to come.