Author Archives: Editor

ICT program for African universities

nhancing librarians’ ICT skills for research enablement in African universities: a Carnegie-funded CPD programme

 

Applications for the fourth intake of the Carnegie-funded Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, which is aimed at enhancing ICT skills for research enablement in African universities opened on 1 February 2015 and closes on 13 March 2015. The The programme will begin on 23 May 2015 and ends on 20 June 2015. Academic librarians and LIS faculty in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are eligible to apply for admission to this programme. Eight four-week training sessions will take place over a period of three years. 32 participants will be selected for each intake. 

 

This four-week residential training programme with both practical (70%) and theoretical (30%) components will cover the following

topics:

1.     Setting the context: Libraries, ICTs and research 

2.     Leadership and innovation

3.     Information literacy

4.     Social media for research discoverability in an academic environment

5.     Mobile technology and mobility

6.     Managing and organising information

7.     Personal Information Management

8.     Open Scholarship and Open Science – Publishing

9.     Open Scholarship and Open Science – Institutional Repositories

10. Open Scholarship and Open Science – Understanding and using research data management

11. Digitisation

12. Evaluating website architecture

13. Cloud services and storage

14. Virtual research environments

15. The next generation librarian

 

This is a fully funded programme which will take place in Pretoria, South Africa. The funding covers books and other academic expenditures, flights, accommodation, and a daily stipend while in Pretoria. All participants are expected to reside in the accommodation provided in Pretoria for the duration of the programme.

 

Grant exclusions:

·       Visa applications, personal expenses (for example medicine, laundry, phone calls, etc.)

·       ICT equipment such as laptops, modems, internet access top-ups etc.

·       Travel to and from the airport in your home country

 

Application for the third intake closes on 13 March 2015. No late applications will be considered. (There will be a fifth intake in November 2015, as well as three further intakes in 2016.)

 

For additional information on the programme content, eligibility and selection criteria, application procedures, important dates, etc., please see http://www.up.ac.za/en/information-science/article/21563/carnegie-cpd-programme.

 

All correspondence or enquiries: Joan de la Haye at [email protected].

 

Lyon Declaration update

The Lyon Declaration in 2015

IFLA is very happy to announce that with the start of 2015, the Lyon Declaration has received support from over 500 library, ICT and development, institutions and organisations. This worldwide and cross-sector uptake underlines the importance of the Lyon Declaration and furthermore the importance of access to information for future development.

Please see the full Declaration and the signatories for more information. You can also find 19 translations of the Declaration online.

 

What’s next?

During the next nine months leading up to the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2015, IFLA will concentrate its efforts to ensure that access to information remains within the new development framework. We will also work on indicators with our coalition partners. These indicators will enable UN Member States and the UN to measure the impact of access to information on development over the next 15 years. The IFLA Statistics and Evaluation Section is closely working with IFLA and its partners on formulating the indicators.

In order to achieve this, IFLA will participate in a range of high level meetings leading up to the Special Summit on Sustainable Development (September 2015) and will work closely with other stakeholders, national ministries and UN Member States.

Furthermore, several IFLA Sections have prepared briefs on how the Lyon Declaration is relevant to their professional environment. These will be available shortly.

 

Get involved

·         Sign and add your voice to the call at the United Nations;

·         Organise meetings with policy makers in your country and use theToolkit created by IFLA in order to make the voice of the library community heard on a national level;

·         Translate the Lyon Declaration into your language and share it with colleagues in your own country;

·         Encourage others in the library and development sectors to sign the Lyon Declaration;

·         Promote the principles of the Lyon Declaration throughout your network and ensure that the message gets spread as widely as possible.

 

Background

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development calls upon United Nations Member States to make an international commitment through the post-2015 UN development agenda. The Declaration proposes to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies. It was prepared by IFLA and a number of strategic partners in the library and development communities.

 

Library of Congress Library Awards call for applications

The Library of Congress Center for the Book is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2015 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. These awards are given to outstanding organizations working to promote literacy, both in the United States and worldwide. The awards seek to recognize organizations doing exemplary, innovative and replicable work over a sustained period of time and to encourage new groups, organizations and individuals to become involved. All groups that work to promote literacy are encouraged to apply.

The application rules and a downloadable application form may be accessed at www.read.gov/literacyawards/. Applications must be received no later than midnight on March 31, 2015.

Last year, the awards went to Room to Read (Rubenstein Prize-$150,000), SMART (American Prize-$50,000) and Mother Child Education Foundation (International Prize-$50,000). More information about these organizations and 14 other literacy leaders is available in “Library of Congress Literacy Awards 2014: Best Practices” at read.gov/documents/best-practices2014-for-web.pdf.

Please share this information with any organizations that you think might be interested in applying for these awards. Questions may be directed to [email protected].

IFLA Conference Satellite Meeting on School Libraries and Guided Inquiry

School Libraries & Guided Inquiry: Taking Stock & Taking Action
13-14 August 2015 at the NLSA Centre for the Book, Cape Town (TBC), South Africa

Ross Todd from the USA and Lyn Hay from Australia will be the featured presenters for this two-day Satellite Meeting, co-sponsored by IFLA’s Information Literacy section and School Libraries section. The first day will include panel discussions on school library issues related to library provisoning and staffing and to learning outcomes and the curriculum and a keynote address on Guided Inquiry by Ross Todd and Lyn Hay. A copy of the book Guided Inquiry Design (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2012) will be provided to all registrants for the Satellite Meeting.

 For the second day, registrants will choose one of two tracks. Track 1 involves a full-day hands-on workshop based on the book Guided Inquiry Design. Track 2 involves a full day on the school library as a force for supporting 21st century teaching and learning. Topics addressed in Track 2 presentations and hands-on workshops include: media and information literacy in the 21st century school; school library work in the curriculum; competencies for the 21st century school librarian; social media in teaching and learning; reading promotion strategies in a digital world; working with the Smart Classroom; and showcases of local school libraries and local school library projects.

Registration for the Satellite Meeting will open March 15, 2015. Registration fee for the two-day meeting including lunches and teas will be 150 USD, with a discounted early bird registration of 100 USD available before June 1, 2015.

 

More information: Sharon Mader, [email protected]  http://ifla2015-schools.co.za

Library of Congress Summer Institutes

The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its week-long Summer Institutes for K-12 educators. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., these professional development events provide educators with tools and resources to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching, with an emphasis on student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge.

The Library is offering five Institutes this summer.  Three of the Institutes are open to teachers and librarians across the content areas, one focuses on civil rights, and one concentrates on primary sources for science education.

Open Institutes Open to K-12 teachers and school librarians across the content areas

Institute Session 1: June 22-26

Institute Session 2: July 6-10

Institute Session 3: July 27-31

Civil Rights Institute Open to K-12 teachers and school librarians with teaching responsibilities related to the Institute focus

Civil Rights Institute: August 3-7

Science Institute Recommended for K-12 educators who teach science or collaborate with science teachers

Science Institute: July 20-24

Applications are due March 24th and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/teacherinstitute/

Book donation sites

Here are links to resources for book donations and best practices:

1. The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Movil and the Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for All Program have a page about book donations to their project but the mailing instructions and other recommendations are useful for other projects at: http://www.sjdsbiblioteca.org/donations/how-to-send-books/ .

2. This is a Peace Corps resources with great suggestions for sources and best practices at: Sources of Donated Books for Schools and Libraries – http://collection.peacecorps.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15105coll3/id/154

3. The Lubuto Library project book donation suggestions are at: http://www.lubuto.org/bookguidelines.html However, the guidelines are copyrighted and intended for the Lubuto library.  However, there is a notice “To request permission for other uses, contact [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Use of the “Guidelines for Donating Books for Lubuto Library Collections” will be granted only with express acknowledgement that they were developed by and for the Lubuto Library Project®.

IFLA response to development agenda

IFLA’s response to the Synthesis Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Post-2015 Development Agenda: “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet”

 

Access to information…Intellectual Property reform…access to open data…affordable access to ICTs. These are some of the important issues IFLA and those of us in the greater library and information community are grappling with in a variety of ways.

IFLA has been working with the international library community—as well as civil society and member states—to develop its position on the creation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help ensure that crucial elements such as access to information are included in the UN post-2015 Development Agenda. Throughout this process, it is important that libraries are seen as being part of the conversation.

 

Last week, an advance “Synthesis Report of the UN Secretary-General On the Post-2015 Agenda” was released. The Report outlines the priorities and main goals of the post-2015 UN Development Agenda and has a serious goal: to transform our economies, our environment, and our societies. IFLA welcomes the Report and the inclusion of access to information, and encourages the United Nations to recognise the role of access and skills as an essential pillar in the transformational agenda for sustainable development. Unfortunately, we are disappointed that the report lacks substance on the potential of ICTs for development.

 

We encourage the UN and its Member States to use the Lyon Declaration during the next stage of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda to inform the inclusion of access to information, and the skills to use it effectively by:

·        Acknowledging the public’s right to access information and data, while respecting the right to individual privacy;

·        Recognising the important role of local authorities, information intermediaries and infrastructure such as ICTs and an open Internet as a means of implementation;

·        Adopting policy, standards and legislation to ensure the continued funding, integrity, preservation and provision of information by governments, and access by people;

·        Developing targets and indicators that enable measurement of the impact of access to information and data.

 

IFLA has already released a Toolkit to support library institutions and associations and other civil society organisations to advocate for access to information in the context of post-2015 UN Development Agenda—thereby empowering signatories of the Lyon Declaration to make the voice of the library community heard on a national level.

 

What next?

Following the publication of the final synthesis report at the end of December 2014, IFLA will produce a revised version of the Toolkit with specific talking points and examples to support meetings with member state representatives that library associations and institutions will organise in early 2015.

The final synthesis report will become the baseline for the negations and meetings that will take place throughout 2015, in the lead up to the Special Summit on Sustainable Development. IFLA will be participating in some of the meetings, including:

·        High-level thematic debate on the means of implementation for the post-2015 development agenda (February 2015)

·        Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 (July 2015)

·        Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force Report (September 2015)

·        Special Summit on Sustainable Development (September 2015)

 

Read the full response online.