Christian at the University of Illinois

REPORT ON 2008 FALL ASSOCIATES PROGRAM BY THE MORTENSON CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY PROGRAMS FROM SEPTEMBER 2-OCTOBER 30 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
BY
CHRISTIAN YAW KOFI (GHANA)
INTRODUCTION
The Mortenson Center for International Library Programs is a unique practical study that is specially designed to connect librarians around the world in order to promote peace and understanding. It is a practical oriented program that introduces and empowers participating librarians to new information and communication technologies and best practices through study tours to major United States libraries, seminars and training workshops. Indeed, it is a continuing professional development where participants share their experiences and learn new things about their chosen profession.
A total of eighteen (18) participants from ten (10) countries attended the 2008 Associates Program. They were drawn from Bahrain, Columbia, Ghana and Japan, Kenya, Nigeria and Palestine. The rest were from South Korea, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Three weeks into the Program, the African Group comprising ten (10) IT personnel and librarians joined the Associates. Some of the training activities for these two groups were held jointly while others were held separately. The African Group, however, spent only one month.
WHAT WAS LEARNT?
What was learnt can be grouped into three major areas namely study tours of US major libraries, seminars and training workshops. The study tours took participants to academic, public and special library systems in three different states namely Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In the state of Illinois, participants visited the University of Illinois Library, the Urbana Free Library, the Champaign Public Library, the Grainger Library, the High School Library and the Oak Tree Library and the Ames Library at the Wesleyan University of Bloomington. The others were the Chicago Public Library, the Rudy Lozano Branch Public Library and Instituto Cervantes in Chicago. In the state of Illinois, the study tour was crowned with a visit to the Lincoln Trail Libraries System (LTLS) an umbrella organization that coordinates activities and services for most libraries. It was there that participants were introduced to the ‘Fish! Philosophy!’ Participants were at the end of the interaction to play, choose attitude, make their day, be committed and be there at their workplaces. This way, they will not only bring relief to stressful colleagues and patrons but also to themselves in order to increase productivity.
In the state of Indiana, participants visited the Medical Library of the University of Indianapolis. According to the Director of the Mortenson Center, it was the first time that Associates had visited the Library and this was because a good number of participants work in medical libraries.
The study tour also took participants to Dublin, Ohio where they visited the Online Cataloguing Library Center (OCLC) and the Westerville Public Library. The OCLC is the largest online library public catalogue in the world with about an addition of one million bibliographic records every five seconds.
These study tours of libraries were all preceded and characterized by lectures spelling out into details their mission, vision, resources and services. They were then followed with a tour of the various sections of the libraries, where sectional heads briefed participants on their activities. In all instances, questions were entertained for purposes of clarifying points not clear to participants. This way, participants gained an immeasurable insight into the modern practice of librarianship.
SEMINARS
The 2008 Associates were involved in a lot of seminar activities. These included seminars on Copyright for librarians, Community Informatics, Project Management, Fundraising, Library Customer Services and Customer Service winning strategies. The others are Financial Management for Libraries, Library Budgets, Library Leadership and Human Resource Management. These seminars dubbed “Management Series” were especially useful as they adequately prepared participants for more responsible positions in future.
TRAINING WORKSHOPS
The 2008 Associates were also involved in a number of training workshops. These activities were especially important if participants were going to function efficiently in the ever changing nature of the profession. The workshops included Bandwidth Management, Open Source software such as Open Office for Windows, KOHA (an Integrated Library Software System), VUFIND (an OPAC interface), MASTERKEY (a Metasearch engine) and BIBLIOS (a Copy Cataloguing System) and Digitization of library resources into electronic formats. Participants were taken through practical sessions. Of significant interest here was the practical ways of how to acquire and implement these activities.
WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED?
It is the belief of the author that when this learning experience is shared with colleagues at the University of Cape Coast Library, much can be accomplished. The program package provided a holistic view of best practices in librarianship and granted that the right environment is created, coupled with adequate resources and maximum cooperation from all stakeholders a lot can be achieved. With the newly acquired skills in writing grant winning proposals, project management and fundraising, I think, I am well positioned to help improve upon the information infrastructure and services of the University of Cape Coast Library. With the knowledge and awareness of open source software resources on the Internet, the University community can now begin to have access to information resources which hitherto were unavailable to them.
CONCLUSION
I am happy to report that the two- month long program for the 2008 Associates was a fulfilled dream in my career because it met my cherished aspirations as a professional librarian. The study tours of various libraries exposed me to different kinds of resources and services that can be provided by a library. It is important to state however, that most of these services are community driven. The management series seminars helped sharpen my leadership and managerial skills while the training workshops imbued me the professional skills required to function efficiently. All in all, it was a well-balanced and thought out program by professionals in their own rights. They were all excellent to work with. From Barbara Ford (Director), Susan Schnuer (Assistant Director), Coral Daube (Administrative Secretary), Muzghan Nazurova (Coordinator) to Sara Thompson (Graduate Assistant), I express my sincere appreciation for their cooperation, support and understanding of the diverse cultural pluralism that made up the 2008 Mortenson Associates.