Day 15 : Friday 18 November

 The next generation librarians … how will we look?

Prof Theo Bothma discussed the influence of ICT and showed us some amazing apps on his I-pad. He spoke about new trends in broadband, mobile technologies, Web 2.0 and 3.0 and cloud storing. He also said libraries should embrace and utilize the new trends and technologies. We need to become proactive in implementing new technologies. Other areas where we need to focus is capturing of indigenous knowledge, history of our environment and general community training. A practical and informative session.

The way forward for libraries in South Africa

Prof Christine Stilwell identified the main issues for the future. She shared with the group her experiences and outcome of the future librarian by using the Delphi method. We could all relate to these issues in our libraries. She left us with recommendation and a “take home message” : librarians are negotiators, navigators, advocates – engage with change!

Group presentations

The groups presentations were all of high standard, the delegates presented their part of the group presentation clearly, and calmly. Some of the PowerPoint presentations were very good, although some text on the slides tend to be too long.

I stressed a bit, although I have presented at many international conferences before, this was a first  time where assessment came into the picture. My team were tops!

Feedback

Prof Christine gave very apt and constructive feedback on our presentations. Feedback included: the length of the slides, size of fonts, dark and difficult to read backgrounds, use of graphics. She also tipped us to use “saves” – use humour when things go wrong. Prof. Stilwell encouraged us to improve our presentation skills, we were told not to look at the Power Point Presentation when presenting, but to face the audience.

The feedback on the contents of the presentations were positive and she also gave us a few ideas to better our Word documents. A very inspiring and informative session. Although I have presented at a few conferences before, this is an area where I still could develop.

THE GALA DINNER

The gala dinner was the climax of the two weeks. Relaxed after our presentations, all dressed up. The food was good, the company superb and the only problem was our soon to be departure from a group that became friends.

After last minute encouragement from Rachel More and Robert Moropa, everybody hugged greeted with the promise of returning on our graduation day. I felt sad because I knew that I will be in the USA, but perhaps I will be able to Skype on that occasion.

Thanks

I would like to thank Carnegie and the University of Pretoria’s Library Services for this wonderful opportunity. Ujala Satgoor and Martha de Waal, for their caring and the wonderful programme. Also to all my colleagues who attended the 5^th CLLA , you were great, may you all become inspiring leaders!

Day 14 : Thursday 17 November

Advocacy toolkit - Karin Kitching

Several elements of library advocacy were discussed, namely support, educated action, stakeholders and relationships.

Karin also taught us how to present ourselves in 30 seconds. The lift speech. Meet someone in the lift and in 30 seconds make a lasting impression. You should plan by reading the circumstances, correct time and place, and know what you would like to convey, to make an impact. This is all about promoting your library and what you can offer. Build up trustworthy relationships, identify strategic people, people that you know can be your advocate at any times, someone, who can spread the word.

She spoke about the importance of a positive attitude and outlook. Al the delegates enjoy this presentation and took something of value to their future as a leader.

Karin is a director at the Youth Outreach Coordinator, they give grants to South African youths for studies in the USA. On behave of her encouragement I am going to enrol my son in their programmes!  Part of my new networking aims!

Locating libraries on the radar screen – Robert Moropa

Robert showed us what being on the radar was and how we can put our libraries on the radar screen. He discussed the negative and positive reasons for getting on the radar screen and the reasons for falling of the screen. His presentation was fun, direct, positive and practical. Everybody could relate. His sincerity, faith, and character was visible and I felt so proud to be part of his team and the University of Pretoria!

I learned that you need to aim high when you formulate your vision. Thank you, Robert, always a pleasure to listen to you.

Visit to Constitution Hill Museum, Court and Library

The Constitution Hill precinct, located at the western end of the suburb Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The first court session in the new building at this location was held in February 2004.

The hill was formerly the site of a fort which was later used as a prison. The Old Fort prison was later extended to include "native" cells, called Section 4 and Section 5, and, in 1907, a women's section was added. An awaiting-trial block was constructed in the 1920s.

Both political activists opposed to apartheid and common criminals were held at the prison. Under the apartheid government, only whites were held in the Old Fort itself, other political prisoners were jailed in the same cells as criminals, murderers and rapists.

The tour through Constitution Hill was a personal journey, an eye opener, a reflection on human behaviour and a social responsive awakening!

Useful website: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Hill,_Johannesburg

Day 13 : Wednesday 16 November 2011

Ethics and the dynamic organization – Prof Willem Landman

Good speaker used practical exercise to show us that there is more to ethics than just straightforward values. The circumstances in a specific situation can also play a role. Ethics is a triangle relationship between you and somebody else. Trust and be faithful to your values.

Digitization and preservation – Ria Groenewald

Digital information is important for an institution or an organization.  Any organization depends on its own knowledge, the knowledge of its past and the constant creation of new knowledge. So we preserve this knowledge and make sure it is available in future.

Ria showed us the importance of preserving your records and data, raw research data, and other documents of importance to your organization. You can also use these principles in your own private life. She stressed the importance of giving metadata to all digitized or preserved items so that easy retrieval can be ensured.

Useful website : http://www.ais.up.ac.za/openup/docs/UPmandateAfrica.pdf

Online gaming – Bettie de Kock

Bettie showed us the gaming orientation programme that was developed for students at the University of Pretoria. This is a fun way to introduce library literacy in a way the students can relate to. The group was fascinated and several questions was asked. Bettie gave tips, and offered her expertize to people who would like to embark on this new technology.

Gaining a competitive edge – Nishe Sewdass

Although it was the graveyard shift and all participants was tired after too many late nights, Nishe kept us awake with her lively personality and perky voice! She covered a lot of information without us realizing it.

Competitive intelligence asks what is our core value, providing a service? Libraries are still very important but we need to sell ourselves.

Competitive Intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.

Useful website : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_intelligence

Day 12 : Tuesday 15 November

Responsible leadership – Dr Eben le Roux

Introduction to knowledge management – Marietjie Schutte

For me this was a refresher course on Knowledge Management, I attended a workshop a few years ago. Marietjie knows her topic very well although it is very theoretical and a difficult concept to understand. I realized that a project that I working at is actually knowledge management, with my new knowledge I am going to improve on this project. Marietjie said I am welcome to contact het.

Innovations and thinking outside the box for South African libraries – Prof Johannes Cronje

Practical exercises lead us to use our creativity and out of the box problem solving. As individuals and in team work we reached higher results that we ever could have imagined. He also gave us a wonderful graph on time management, one of my areas where I need to develop.

We do have to be innovative, creative and still be able to work together as a team. Each one has to find his/her niche in which we can contribute to the overall success.

We were asked to be creative for example, to weave a paper matt, to name five uses of paper clip and to draw an elephant. I won the prize for the best circles, the total amount of 5 cent!

The four Learning styles were discussed namely Accommodator (Learns by experience, solves problems by trial and error), Diverger (Views situations from different angles, tends to be imaginative and emotional), Converger (Likes to focus on specific problems. Interested in technical matters.), and Assimilator (Learns by reflective observation, and abstract conceptualization).

It closely resembles the results we received in the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI).

Day 11 : Monday 14 November

The dynamic organization – Johan Greeff (Founder Treetops)

Johan is an engaging, humorous and interesting speaker. Without much effort he took us through a heap of information without anybody realising it. His practical exercises and video clips all contributed towards a very good presentation.

We did the PENST analysis and the Swot analysis. From the “holy exercise” I learned that we tend to look at a situation from a certain angle without realizing that we do not see the big picture. Even in ‘n group we could not communicate what we saw, because everybody had their own angle. We need to be  open-minded. Sometimes we as so stuck in our own views, that we forget the bigger picture. We need to have a keen interest in things. We need to take ownership.

Day 9 & 10 : Saturday/ Sunday

Weekend, catch up on washing, rest (?) and doing projects individually and in groups!

Day 8 : Friday 11 November

Day 8 : Friday 11 November

Marketing, branding and effective communication – Prof Ronel Rensburg

Another extraordinary eccentric speaker, who knew her topic well. She spoke about branding, communication, marketing and reputation management.  She used very good and recent slides of people in the news to demonstrate the theory to us. Informal and Formal communication are the very important means of organizational communication. It is vital for organizations to market their services to their client and customers .

Branding defines what your organization is, what you stand for, what makes you unique, how do people perceive your organization, whether you could change peoples’ perception about your organization and if your organization can live up to the new brand it has created for itself.

Ronel sang for us in her opera voice, and we returned the compliment.

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

Multi-culturalism and the diverse workplace – Lizette le Roux

Lizette only started on her theoretical information on multi-culturalism, try to build up to a point where we, the audience should get involved in sharing our stories. It was not needed, the group was ready, we spend the rest of our session, telling our personal experiences and hurt. We learned the not only one group or race was hurt but every person had their own story. What is really interesting was confessions that it was not only the opposite race that was the culprits but often their own people. We cried together, hugged, forgave and hopefully moved on.