Monday, April 14, 2014

SCECSAL 2014 Organisers update registration and exhibition payment information


The Main Organizing Committee for SCECSAL XXI 2014 has updated payment information on the Participants Registration Form and Exhibitors Registration Form. Please, download and use the forms available on the SCECSAL website or the links below:

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Pre-SCECSAL event: BSLA workshop, Lilongwe, Malawi, 26 – 27 July 2014

An IFLA Building Strong Library Associations (BSLA) programme preconference to SCECSAL XXI under the auspices of Malawi Library Association, will be hosted by IFLA in partnership with IFLA Regional Office for Africa on 26 – 27 July 2014 at Sunbird Capital Hotel, Lilongwe, Malawi.  IFLA invites library associations attending SCECSAL to apply to participate in the workshop.

IFLA's successful Building Strong Library Associations (BSLA) programme is being through a series of convenings and projects at the regional level in Africa, Asia and Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean from 2014. This workshop is an outcome of the Africa Regional convening held in Kumasi, Ghana, in February 2014.

The workshop will include training from the BSLA programme, group work, discussions, and practical activities to take back to national associations to implement at the national or regional level. During the workshop, associations will identify their own needs for further activities and development and form action plans for implementation. The workshop language will be English.

Expected outcomes
To build a strong library sector that benefits society, associations need a strong foundation in representation, governance, organisational development and strategy. The long-term goal of the programme is to build the foundation for library associations to assist their work in representing the interests of library users, telling the story of libraries and gaining policymaker support and partnership.

The workshop will:

  • Reinforce inter-country networks and expertise to support development in the regions;
  • Increase understanding and adoption of IFLA policies and manifestos to support high quality library and information services.

Register to attend the workshop

Registration is open until 30 April 2014. Attendance at the workshop is at participants’ own expense. Associations that have not participated in BSLA workshops previously are particularly encouraged to attend.

Workshop participants should have:

  • Demonstrated, current active leadership within their national or regional association;
  • A depth of understanding of issues that have a current or expected impact on the library and information services sector on a national and regional level;
  • The ability to use their knowledge and experience to develop the capacity of their Association after the convening.

To register to attend the workshop, contact:

Lindy Nhlapo
IFLA Regional Manager for Africa
IFLA Regional Office for Africa
Tel: +2712 429 6374
        +2711 471 2826
Fax: +2712 429 6130
Mobile: +2772  7145 125
lnhlapo@unisa.ac.za
iflaafrica@unisa.ac.za  

Please include the following details to complete your registration:

  1. National or Regional Association name
  2. Names of the representatives that will attend the workshop, and their position in the Association
  3. Library association profile: does it provide services and run activities for members, have a strong governance structure, a clear direction and strategic plan? Please outline the objectives for your association’s current strategic plan, and an overview of progress towards these goals.
  4. Needs assessment: How will your participation in the workshop  complement any existing development projects that the association is undertaking? What are some of the Library Association's strengths? What are some of the challenges facing the Association?

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Call for applications: Enhancing librarians’ ICT skills for research enablement in African universities

Applications are now open for the first intake of the Carnegie-funded Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, which is aimed at enhancing ICT skills for research enablement in African universities. 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. Advanced Information Literacy and Advanced Information Retrieval
  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 computing 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 first intake of 2014 closes on 29 April 2014.  No late applications will be considered. (There will be a second intake in November 2014, as well as further intakes in 2015 and 2016.)

For additional information on the programme content, eligibility and selection criteria, application procedures, important dates, etc., please see: http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=22719&subid=22719&ipklookid=7

All correspondence or enquiries: Joan de la Haye at Carnegie-cpd@up.ac.za

Joan De La Haye
Carnegie CPD Programme Administrator
joan.delahaye@up.ac.za
+27 (0)12 420 2887