Co-Producers of knowledge

It's the end of the first week since we left Mt Fleur. I hope we have settled in well after some time away. Now it's time to work work and work. Institutional goals and strategies and how to implement them and those who will be going to the US please let us know so that we can send our lists of goodies to be brought back!

I already miss all of you, don't forget Prof Foster - you are guardians, distributors and keepers of knowledge.

SUNDOWNERS

Congratulations team, you did it!!!

Thanks Michael for taking us through the rough terrain.

Librarians to bring change and recognition to our profession

After the academy, it is clear that what we have learned, is going to bring changes and improvement in our profession and as it is known that our profession is under threat and the aging workforce, it is up to us the new generation of librarian on the move to carry the torch of light, development and research shine. The impact of ICT in library operations should not overwhelm us but we need to embrace and be leaders in this field as the technology is being used everywhere (e.g. I Pads and Mobile phones). We need to be on top of our game and this team is the one that is going to change the library world and gain respect it deserves.

THANK YOU MONT FLEUR STAFF

QUOTABLE QUOTES WEEK2 @ THE ACADEMY

"Librarians must understand user needs at their time of search", Ms Jenny Walker

"We need to be able to catalogue content to make it easier for eventual users, the way they want it, not the way we structure the library", Mr Richard Higgs

"Claim your space as librarians within content management", Mr Richard Higgs.

"Think about scholarly communication as a conversation", Prof. Moragh Paxton.

"Good writers capture ideas on the piece of paper, without worrying what the reader would say", Prof Chrissie Boughey.

"Writing is a process of discovering meaning", Prof. Chrissie Boughey.

"The function of copyright and intellectual property is to stimulate innovation", Dr Colin Darch.

"We need more patents because they are an indication of development", Dr Colin Darch.

"Doubt everything you read, unless you believe in it", Dr Colin Darch.

Farewell 21 October 2011

I echo the sentiments of Dilshaad and Jacob. It has been a fantastic experience. I have met such wonderful people and learnt so much in the two weeks that I have been here. I did not suffer from 'information overload' as the programme was so varied and stimulating. Thank you for the words of comfort and reassurance I received while my husband was in hospital. I will miss this beautiful setting, the warmth and hospitality of the staff at Mont Fleur and the delicious food. I will also miss the company of my friends.
Thank you to everybody who have made this experience worthwhile.

Packing up

The time has come to head home!I'll miss waking up to the twitter of the birds.

I would like to thank the following people for making the Academy such a memorable and rewarding experience: Joan Rapp and Pamela Snyman(and the rest of the UCT Law Library staff for holding up the fort in my absence. Karin, Colin & Pat for putting together an interesting, varied & stimulating programme. The participants for sharing their experiences and ideas and being such good company.

Not surprisingly, the Academy met my expectations.

Farewell to Mont Fleur

One of the hardest things is to say "Goodbye" to the people you spend two weeks with. It was hard for me to say "Goodbye" because I will miss the warmth that I enjoyed being surrounded by 19 ladies what made sure that I become settled and enjoyed my stay at Mont Fleur and not feel isolated as the only man. It was good for me to experience life in the women's world as there was no single day where I could go to sleep without enjoying jokes, laughing and sharing family matters. It was an experience of a life time and I enjoyed every minute. Ladies, we will always meet on "Cyberspace". Thank you for making my stay at Mont Fleur one of the unforgettable memories.

Changing role of a librarian

As Prof Christie has indicated in his speech, for South African Universities to compete equally in the academic world, libraries and librarians should play a pivotal role in supporting the research endevour in the research environment. How do we do this as librarians. Contentrate on PhD's. According to Prof Christie, "not only must our libraries be transformed to enable the writing of great PhD's by very many more people in South Africa than hitherto, but many more of our librarianss must themselves come to hold PhD's, whether in librarianship and informatics or in any academic subject under the sun". This is a challenge for anyone in the library sector to look at improving his/her educational qualification but fortunately those of us who attended the research academy, had an opportunity to endevour in this journey to start writing and to persue the ultimate goal of achieving PhD's in our field and beter still, being subject specialists in our fields. As we are supposed to support academics, Masters and Doctoral students, the notion that having the right qualification (PhD) means you will be able to talk the same language as your clients. Let's think about this????

Yoga

After listening to all the wonderful and informative session for the day, to refresh our minds and bodies, Yoga was the answer and also prayers from "Sma" helped a lot.

We can only do the best we can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

Getting your research ideas down, to published outputs

Great stuff, Lucky thanks for posting the pics. Today's sessions were really outstanding. All 3 presenters (Prof Paxton, Prof Boughey and Prof Nassimbeni) touched to the core of the real matter.
I stayed up first part of the night just practicing free writing (thanks to Prof Boughey!)To be honest I found it difficult to stop after 5 minutes so I let my fingers carry on for a bit longer. Its great fun. I guesse this part of the brain just enjoys to be liberated. Lets keep the skill, or rather lets nurture it some more!

Let me retire now, am really exhausted after that mountain walk and seeing those breathtaking views! Its been an amazing day, and thank God we missed the storm!

Research writing , publishing & mountain climbing

Today's day was outstanding. I just wish all the presentations heard today should have been done three or four months ago. This is what we all have been hungry for to write productive research, proposals and research paper. Prof Paxton just drove on Genres, and Prof Boughey flew with research writing. I need to start practising free writing and keeping a reading journal. The cream of the research cake was Prof Nasimbeni with research reviews. Boy my head was about the burst with information!

By the way today we retired the day with mountain walk again. This time I managed to reach the destination "top of the mountain".I'm very proud of myself. The mountain view was calling and the nature was so beutiful.

Will the internet kill the web?

What do others say? In all other very interesting presentations, my heart went to the presentation done by Dr Colin Darch on this day.

"Let us be Radical Librarians"

Librarians it's time for change,change is here and change is now! Let us not be scared of the changing technology. Let us take our reference desk to where the researchers congregate...let us teach, read,write and publish!

"Let us all stand on the shoulders of the giant"-Sir Isaac Newton

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Chrissie Boughey gave us such inspirational ideas on how to write. I like the idea of free writing and the keeping of a journal.

Research Writing

I found today's three sessions on Research Writing, Genre as a Resource for Writing, and Getting a Paper Published to be 'lifesaving' experiences.

Working with GENRES - Prof Paxton in Action

Todays sessions was very informative. From GENRES as resource for the writing of Research to Research Writing to Getting a paper published. The circle was completed! Good luck with the article writing.

Raining! 18 Oct 2011

It is raining today. Looks like we will not be going for our mountain walk.

The changing world of the library environment

The sessions that we attended on Monday, 17/10 clearly highlighted the notion that the world of the library has changed a lot and it is still changing and it is up to us as young librarians to make sure that all the changes that are taking place in the library in terms of the new technology that is invading all spheres of life we embrace and we use it to our advantage and this clearly shows that must always be on top of things by acquiring all the skills related to the use of this technology. It is not worth it if we carry the mentallity of "it is not part of my job description" then I wont do it as this is a remedy for failure as the world will pass you and you will fade back into the dark ages and the library environment will become a nightmare for you. We need to grab every opportunity that is brought to our shore and utilize it so gain as much information as possible.

Monday 17 October 2011

Apart from print and electronic information, librarians should also be aware of other data such as experimental and computational. This formed the basis of Yasien Sayed's talk. He also stated that from his experience students are moving away from printed to electronic information. Jenny Walker carried this idea further by stating that only 3% of students use the library website to search for information. They prefer a single search box for everything. Richard Higgs made an interesting point. He said that we should structure content the way users want to access it, not according to organisational silos. Colin Darch pointed out that in future libraries will have to deliver content to mobile devices. Real food for thought.

Wow what a moment!

At the Water Front yesterday, we bumped into Freshlyground 'Nomvula' - musician.

Saturday 15 & Sunday 16

Saturday, we had a short session, and most people went to their homes and relatives and I was on the remained behinds but I am telling you, we had movie afternoon and enjoyed the big screen and snack, by the blink of an eye, the day was gone. Sunday after breakfast we hit the road to the Waterfront and the girls had a serious jol and a bit of shopping therapy to take the week out of the system. The snippets

Friday 14

Another interesting presentations day. Today I also met my former professor and supervisor Prof. Andrew Kaniki. The day was suppose to end with the sundowners on the mountatin, but the weather was too angry for outdoor. A glinch of action pics

Thursday 13

Additional to the interesting presentations of this day. The Yoga session was a classic, I wish I had camera at hand to take photographs because I really don't know how explain the ladies abused looks from the session, while the instructor was very relaxed. Before the day ends the drumming began and was the best ever and the mountainswe responding to the music from the talented librarians. Zixoxwa ngezithombe( pictures can tell a lot

2nd Week of the Academy

The Academy is meeting most of my expectations. I am looking forward to more interesting presentations and stimulating discussions next week

Sunday 16 October 2011

We have been here for a week. Time has gone by so quickly. What an inspirational week it has been. Today we had a bit of R&R. Some of us made a trip to the Waterfront. We saw Freshly Ground performing and we even bumped into the lead singer while shopping! What a wow moment.

Drumming 13 October 2011

After a day of concentration it was relaxing to do the drumming session .We all had fun.

Tea time @ Mont Fleur

Thank you to all the staff for being so caring and friendly.

16 October 2011

Good day everyone

We are having a great time in Mont Fleur. This is the most wonderful experience I ever had. Inspirational speakers, good hospitality and delicious food.

Yesterday morning we had a very interesting session on social media. Key technologies that were touched - Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter. It was very interesting to hear that these tools are not only for chit chat but also to discuss and engage with library users.

The afternoon was quiet, most people left as we are having a short break until Sunday. Today, those who left in Mont Fleur will be spending a day in Cape Town at the Water Front.

Saturday 15 October 2011

We had an interesting presentation by Tony Carr and Janine Dunlop on using technologies. We were shown how to tweet. Research has shown that most students use twitter. The library can use this to their advantage in sending out library related information to students.

It was a very quiet day today as most academy participants went home for the weekend. But, at least we can catch up on our work.

QUOTABLE QUOTES OF WEEK 1 @ THE ACADEMY

"You can not manage what you can't measure", Cyril Walters.

"Librarians should be champions of democratic knowledge", Prof. Donald Foster.

"Democracy can be mighty convenience for those in power, the struggle for information is the struggle for power", Richard Calland.

"We should open up debates of disciplines and not restrict our students into compartments", Prof. Lungisile Ntsebeza.

"It's difficult to built theory from a case study", Prof. Liesel Ebersohn.

"In order to make progress as a researcher, you need to learn to say NO, particularly to other people's interests", Lisa Kane.

"Just because people are illiterate does not mean that they are stupid", Prof. Juliet Armstrong

"There are no easy answers on where to start in research" Lisa Kane.

"Emotional traps limit us from moving forward", Shamiema McLeod.

"We do best when we do things once", Dr. Robert Morrell.

"Knowledge is a very fragile thing", Prof. Martin Villet.

"Innovation is not all about technologies, but how to do things better", Dr. Andrew Kaniki.

"Don't get excited if you don't get cited", Prof. Johann Mouton.

"The world of publishing is driven by Web of Science", Susan Veldsman.

"Going through peer review process is dramatic! it works on your self-esteem", Susan Veldsman

Friday 14 October 2011

Martin Villet gave an excellent presentation on forensic entomology. It was interesting to note from Johann Mouton that universities throughout the world are accountable for their research output. In South Africa there are rewards and incentives in place to increase production. Susan Veldsman gave her account of the difficulties involved in scholarly publishing. There is a new South African database out called ScIELO.

Thursday 13 October 2011

University of Pretoria's Dept of Education works closely with certain schools in providing knowledge. This formed the basis of Liesel Ebersohns talk. Teachers are elected to counsel children with emotional problems by way of 'body mapping.' Lisa Kane described her journey as a doctoral candidate, which can be very tough and lonely. Shamiema McLeod encouraged us to get rid of our 'fears.' Later on in the day we had a wonderful yoga and drumming session. These two were the highlights of the day for me, oh and off course the food.

The end of week one @ the Library Academy

I just cannot believe that we are at the end of week one! Time has just been flying with the most interesting speakers and most wonderful and weird topics!!  I have been exposed to so many interesting concepts, ideas and new initiatives. Each speaker being significant in what they presented.

 There are more! We had fun with a ‘yoga’ session, drumming and a picnic lunch in the tranquillity of the beautiful gardens of Mont Fleur. The most beautiful sunsets, mountains draped in pink shades and and ….

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Hugh Corder made an interesting point. As a professor of law he felt that it is imperative for law librarians to have a law degree in order to provide a professional experience. Adam Haupt spoke about copyright infringement especially with regards to music. I never realised that hip hop music can have a deep socio-political meaning. Diane Hilderbrandt provided a unique example of sending postgraduate engineers to the library for training. Postgraduates are given a bursary and sent to an overseas conference. M.Sc. students are asked to present their results at a local conference in order to provide them with the necessary exposure in their field of study. She also emphasised the importance of electronic journals and databases. Lungisile Ntsebeza gave an interesting account of his research concerning rural youth. While undertaking his research he found out that addressing tribal authorities and community members by his clan name elicited more information than addressing them by title. It automatically connected him to the community.

We had a wonderful picnic lunch.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Over and above the delicious food, interesting talks. my today enspiration presenter was Dr Kristina Bentley, taking about my rights to access to information even if I am an individual. From today, I am assured that I have my rights even to the Makana Municipality,or what ever supersised authority. Another inpirational talk of my day was from Prof Lungisile Ntsebeza, the urban and the rural youth, the transformation and the traditional leaders, clash due to transfomation. Very interesting reality research. My day was sealled by busking in the sonar and later a swim, what a refreshing night. Mount Fleur staff continously caring about each and everyone of us, with our diverse needs. I already had several stomach aches, it must have been the excitement, of course not food silly ! but they haven't gave up on me. The fact is that we need brain enlargement to accomodate the rest of the academy.Our facilitators are brilliant too.

RLC JOURNEY

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Journey to education and leadership continues today. Lots of interesting talks, but my favourate of the day was Prof Donald Foster, talking about knowledge. Guys that man is a walking , talking, sleeping eating Psychologist. Very knowledgeble of the fileld, a brilliant lecturer too. He clarify our position as librarians in that from today onwards when people ask of what we do as librarians , we will have to answer that, "We are the co-producers of knowledge" I wouldn't miss his lecture even if its a downey in the cold Grahamstown weather. Our first session of groups was also one of the interesting potions of my day. Sharing common knowledge and seeing how diverse locations doen't affect the quality of production we provide. Common thinking. The day ended up with a guided walk, and the classic is I turned on the way before distination because I am mountain sick, my system refused the smell of different herbs, the great news is after I have turned back the group saw a snake, what a blessing in disguised. I am not friendly with snakes , but I had told the group ealiar that I will just catch it by tail and throw it away. What a pleasant weather in Cape Town.

Tuesday 10 October 2011

Today we started listerning to different researchers talking about their specialised research fields and their interests All the speakers were brilliant very knowledgeble of their fields. We kicked off with Prof Archie Dick. Wow what an interesting talk,I never noticed the importance of having your research affected by your emotions, Then Jeanetta, the elephant guru. She is so passionate about doingher study with elephants, you just cant stand between her and the elephants, Very interesting research.I just liked the way Prof Herman Wasserman talked and praised the usefullness of the library in his jounalism research needs, noted though that we need to think of outsorcing the archived tabloid newpapers, Rolien will handle that, piece of cake to her. Big up to Rhodes library!

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Stan du Plessis through his dynamic voice and presentation made a very boring topic (economics) very enlightening. He collaborates with librarians and this makes his work much easier !!!! An interesting point that he made was that he has a library in his office in the form of a computer as he can access all the e-resources that he requires. He also visits the library should the need arise. Juliet Armstrong gave a very interesting talk about her involvement with traditional Zulu homesteads and the marketing of traditional pottery. Donald Foster kept us enthralled for one and a half hours talking to us about the subject of psychology. He says that we should be co-producers of knowledge.

Monday 10 October 2011

The talks given by the two US interns were very enlightening. What I would take back with me from Sunette Steynberg's experience is her example of the 'human boolean'. Interestingly she spoke about how much the mind can take in and expand. She sees herself not part of support staff but as a research partner. Cyrill Walters emphasised the idea of physical space which is so important to meet the needs of students. Students should love being in the library as is the case at UCT. What I would take back with me is the practice at Purdue Univ? where every student is matched to a librarian. Emails are sent by the librarian to every new student. Carla Tsampiras from the History Department, Rhodes Univ presented a very refreshing talk about her collaboration with librarians through her research process. Through her cooperation with librarians she has amassed a huge amount of information something that she would not have been able to do had she done it on her own.

Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful venue, wonderful nosh and the great speakers!

Finally here,
Sunday we got to know one another, very exciting. Wonderful people I am privileged to be here. Thank you all for the company.

Library Academy 1st day

This first day in the Library Academy has been great. Warm welcome by the Mount Fleur staff members. The "know each other better" session , a been a brilliant way to break the ice and knowing each other better. It wasvery nice to know other collegues and their interest. I made lots of friends too. I loved it :) . By the way good food, complements to the chefs. RLC manangement you guys are great and a thank you to ours Directors and Managers for the opportunity. Big up to the library profession!

Sunday 9 October 2011

Found at the foot of the mountains Mont Fleur is a hidden gem. The setting is beautiful and the staff so friendly. The academy participants arrived here around 2-3pm. We had a fun filled 'get to know each other' session followed by a scrumptious supper. We have a wonderful team and am looking forward to sharing the coming events with them.
Have to get to bed early to get up in time for my walk tomorrow morning at 6am with my SU colleagues.

Arriving at Mont Fleur - Sunday 9 October 2011

Arriving at a place with the most beautiful surroundings, we passed through strawberry fields and vineyards heading towards the mountains and here at the foot of the mountain we found Mont Fleur http://www.montfleur.co.za/ Friendly and supportive personnel who helped everybody to their rooms to settle in.
At 17:00 'Getting to know each other' - was so nice to meet everybody and get acquainted - this was fun spending three minutes with everybody. At 18:45 spoilt with wine -  and received a warm welcome.
Had a dinner to die for!! - Thank you so much. Looking forward to our stay and the learning experience.

RLC

See you on Sunday.

Stellenbosch joined the Libguides community

Stellenbosch recently subscribed to Libguides. At the moment we are busy customising our system and planning a template.

Would be great if all the Rhodes, Wits and UCT colleagues and everybody else with Libguides experience could bring and share ideas, procedures and standards to the Library Academy so that we could discuss what worked and what not during your Libguides implimentation projects. Questions I have is about the governance you have in place and what level of training was necessary to get everybody to use, create and market their Libguides subject guides.

Looking forward to hear about your Libguides experiences.

See you all on Sunday!

Hi there

Hope you all get everything done before Sonday! I still have tons to get in place at home and at work. Elbie

At last Mont Fleur Meeting everybody and Learning more about research!

Sunday is near and I am looking forward meeting everybody and to learn more about research. The drumming session sounds fun! Till then from Stellenbosch library - Marleen

Library Academy

The reading list for the 2011 Library Academy has certainly broadened my horizons on the state of Academic Librarianship!

I am looking forward to the Academy...