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Future Knowledge and Skill Areas for African Academic Librarians

Future Knowledge and Skill Areas for African Academic Librarians. Elisha Chiware Director: Cape Peninsula University of Technology Libraries, Cape Town, South Africa. Outline of presentation. Overview of current LIS Education in Africa Challenges of LIS programmes Future knowledge areas

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Future Knowledge and Skill Areas for African Academic Librarians

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  1. Future Knowledge and Skill Areas for African Academic Librarians Elisha Chiware Director: Cape Peninsula University of Technology Libraries, Cape Town, South Africa

  2. Outline of presentation • Overview of current LIS Education in Africa • Challenges of LIS programmes • Future knowledge areas • Future skill areas • Skills development through Continuing Development Programmes • The role of LIS programmes in future knowledge and skill areas • Conclusion

  3. Current lis education in Africa • LIS programmes in Africa in the last ten years: • Rapid changes to keep up with trends in information world • Amalgamation of programmes • Re-orientation of programmes • Curriculum review and revision • Name changes • Realignment within universities

  4. Current LIS Education in Africa • Nature of current programme offerings • Certificate courses (1 year) • Diploma programmes (2 years) • Bachelor Degrees (3-4 years) • Masters (2yrs) • PhD degrees( 3 yrs - )

  5. Challenges of LIS Education in Africa • New entrants (young and little interest in LIS careers) • Staff qualifications and experience to teach in LIS programmes • Dwindling number of students • Diluted programmes e.g. Double Majors (A LIS Degree combined with a subject e.g. History, Psychology, Geography, etc)

  6. New opportunities/areas of training • New areas of training in LIS schools • Knowledge management • Publishing studies • Multimedia studies • Development communication • Media and Public Relations

  7. the future Knowledge areas for African Academic Librarianship • Subject Specialization before LIS programmes • Knowledge of the information environment • Knowledge of the higher education environment in general and the value of libraries • Knowledge of (PEST) Political, Economic, Social and Technological Environment

  8. The future Skill areas • Library leadership and management skills • Support for scholarly communication and dissemination • Information technology management • Advocacy, Marketing and Fundraising • Instructional skills • Community engagement and development • Innovation and entrepreneurial development support • LIS Research skills

  9. Library Leadership and management skills • Library Leadership • The African Library Leadership Academy • Carnegie Foundation of New York • Management • Finance and Project Management • Human Resources • Managing a diverse skills base

  10. Support for Scholarly Communication • To support/collaborate with faculty and postgraduate students in accessing information for research • Need to understand the research process & environment in specific subject areas • Assist faculties in research output management • Research Data Management • Emerging international support • Research Libraries support from the Carnegie Corp

  11. Information technology management • Electronic information resources management • Network management • Research data management • Digitization and preservation management • E-learning platforms • How librarians successfully collaborate with faculty in e-learning platforms

  12. Advocacy skills • Budgetary challenges in Higher Education in Africa • Libraries are no longer seen as the heart of the university? • To many competing programmes in universities for a small cake • Need for more advocacy • To fund raise • To promote continued use of libraries • To position libraries in society and the economic development of Africa • To get the attention of policymakers/fund allocators

  13. Marketing skills • Library marketing skills • Promotion of library programmes within the university community • Promote the library’s work in national and international library programmes

  14. Fundraising skills • Knowledge of the national and international donor communities • Grant proposal writing • Working within the guidelines and framework of the mother institution • How to handle donations • Accountability • Maintaining the relations with the donor community • Working with alumni • African universities have poor histories of working with alumni • There is need to change – as this group is a potential source for building/supporting HE and libraries

  15. Instructional skills • Academic libraries training programmes • Instructional skills • Information literacy programmes require firm grounding in teaching skills to be effective • Presentation skills

  16. Community engagement skills • Why community engagement • Strategic goals of many universities esp. UoTs • Libraries participation in community engagement programmes • Outreach programmes • Book donations • Assist with the start-up of small community libraries, especially in remote areas • Teacher training programmes – model school libraries

  17. Innovation and entrepreneurial support • Support for innovation and entrepreneurial development • Informal sectors • SMME sectors • Science parks • Support for the growing knowledge economies • Knowledge based economies • The role of librarians in support of knowledge based economies

  18. Library research skills • Ability to implement and evaluate research for service improvement • Gathering and analyzing data and dissemination of findings to advance African Librarianship • Demonstrate a commitment to the improvement of the professional practice in Africa through a culture of research and evidence-based information practice

  19. Continuing Development Programmes • Responsibility of employers • Special skills programmes for existing staff • Funding for Special skills programmes • Indentifying credible service providers • In house training programmes • Selection of staff participants • Include CDPs into staff KPA (Key Performance Areas)/Performance Management Contracts • Monitoring and Evaluation of CDPs

  20. The role of LIS programmes in skills development • Development of relevant curriculum • Work closely with employers to identify and develop skill and knowledge areas • Carry out independent market studies • Maintaining standards • Through provision of resources to monitor and evaluate programmesoutputs • Ensure that LIS programmes remain relevant to the market place

  21. Conclusion • Better Skill and knowledge areas articulation will determine how academic institutions value and support libraries in Africa • This will also determine the level of the flow of resources to libraries for better information services delivery • And also how libraries can leverage themselves for more funding for skills development and knowledge acquisition

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