23 MARCH 2010

Johan Greef from Treetops organization, talked about organizational culture.

Organizational culture is the personality of the organization.
Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. For example if at a certain Library, the photocopy machines or the printers are always out of order, people from the outside will know about this and they will never come to the Library because they know that the service is very poor.

It is therefore important that we as leaders provide our client with a good service which is efficient because first impression lasts.

We were privileged to be visited by Karin Kitching of the United States Embassy and Rene Schoombee, the 2007 Librarian of the year, from Laerskool Rustenburg; they addressed us on Library advocacy.

They define Library Advocacy as the act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea or policy, active support.
Rene Schoome mentioned that Librarians are the Library advocates, Library advocates belief that Libraries and Librarians are vital to the future of information Literate.

She also mentioned that we must be passionate about our profession, be enthusiastic and positive about being a Librarian , join Library associations , offer our services to the community and accept invitations to deliver presentations and develop and empower ourselves by applying for grants and scholarships.

She mentioned that we as Librarians must be proud to be Librarians and market our services.

I ‘m going to practice what I have from her, I now know that everywhere I go I must talk about our Library and tell people about the unique service we offer. I must not act like just a Librarian, I must talk about our services at the Faculty boards meeting, Library committee meetings and make our voice heard.

I have learnt a lot from Rene, in order to show that I’m a good leader ,from now on

I’m going to make sure that I become an active member of LIASA, contribute towards the development and empowerment of the people in my community and I’m applying for Full Bright Scholarship in order to further my Masters Degree.

The Director of Library Services University of Pretoria, Mr. Robert Moropa talked about: Is your Library well positioned in the minds of decision makers?

We learnt that as Leaders we must see ourselves and our Libraries adding value in the entire organization, for example many institutions of higher education and municipalities don’t value Libraries, therefore as Librarians we must be Library Advocates, learn to market our services, speak well about our Libraries and not act like just Librarians, we must not allow them to cut Library budgets and they must learn to value Libraries.

Useful website:http://www.liasa.org.za/advocacy/advocacy.php