15 MARCH 2010

The presenters for the day were Mr. John Tsebe, he talked about Locating Libraries on the national agenda.

Mrs. Rachel More, the president of LIASA talked about Leading Liasa and Liasa leading the Profession.

What interested me was when she talked about Professional Librarians not wanting to join Liasa because they claim that the association is not doing anything for them.

This is really happening at most institutions, the Professional Librarians have lost interest in Liasa, especially in KZN, because most of the short courses which can empower and develop them are offered in Gauteng, Librarians from other Provinces are left in the dark.

Prof Archie Dick talked about Social responsibility of Libraries and Librarians, his presentation was well structured, and he did a lot of research. He was able to give evidence that the burning of the Libraries is not a new thing but is the thing of the past.

During the talk I learnt that we as Librarians have a vital role to play in our communities, we must not stand back, we must involve the community in everything we do, let them be part of the decision makers in the matters of the Library, by so doing they will feel important and they won’t regard the Libraries as something which belongs to the government or municipality.

Prof Theo Bothma gave us class work to discuss in groups the next generations Librarians… how will we look now and where do we want to be?

This was an informative, educative and interactive session, all the groups came up with good ideas but the most important one was that all the groups emphasized that Technological changes is affecting all the Libraries, Public and Academic.
Libraries today are moving in the direction of hi-tech technology and Library users are more advanced than us. There are factors which affect us Librarians, for example Lack of financial support to acquire the latest technological equipment, access to social networking technological tools barred and problems with connectivity, offline or no electricity.

Pamoja, was a very interesting game to play, what we learnt from the game is that in the workplace Leaders must have good communication skills, negotiation skills, listening skills and tem work plays a vital role in the working environment.

Usefulwebsite ; http://www.nlsa.org.za