Jaya Raju and Maria Musoke awarded 2018 SCECSAL author of the year awards

Prof. Jaya Raju  receiving the award from the
Mayor of Entebbe, His Worship Vincent De Paul Kayanja

Associate Professor Jaya Raju, Head of the Library and Information Studies Centre at the University
of Cape Town, South Africa, and Professor Maria G.N. Musoke from the East African School of Library and Information Science of Makerere University, were today in Entebbe, Uganda, awarded the 2018 SCECSAL Author of the Year award for the journal article and book categories respectively.

Professor Raju’s award was for her journal article "Information Professional or IT Professional? The Knowledge and Skills Required by Academic Librarians in the Digital Library Environment" published in the portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 17, No. 4 (2017), pp. 739–757.

Prof. Maria Musoke receiving her award from the Mayor of Entebbe

Professor Musoke was recognised for her book Informed and Healthy: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on the Value of Information to Health Care published by Academic Press in June 2016.

This is the third time that SCECSAL has given the Author Awards even though the award was introduced more than 20 years.

The late Professor Maurice Chifwember Lundu received the Author of the Year Award in 2000 at the seventh SCECSAL conference in Windhoek, Namibia for his book The Library in the Service of Society: Philosophical Foundation published by the Mission Press.

In 2002, at the eighth SCECSAL conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jenny Raubenheimer, then Director, Document Delivery and Acting Head, UNISA Library, University of South Africa, and John van Niekerk then Deputy Director: Library Services, Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa), received the author award (Journal Article Category) for the article - Recent developments in interlending and document supply with a focus on the South African situation, published in Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 30 Issue: 1, pp.17-24.

SCECSAL honours past and present LIS professionals

Prof. Isaac N.M. Kigongo-Bukenya (R) receiving the award from the
Mayor of Entebbe, His Worship Vincent De Paul Kayanja

The SCECSAL General Council has recognised five individuals -  one from Kenya, two each from Uganda and Zambia respectively – for their dedication and contribution to the development of SCECSAL since its establishment in 1974 and awarded them the SCECSAL Excellence Award.

The SCECSAL Excellence Award, inform of a plaque, was introduced in January this year and the SCECSAL member Associations were invited to nominate individuals to be considered for the Award, and associations from eSwatini, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia submitted their nominations.

The awardees, endorsed by the SCECSAL General Council, are:

• Jafred Shalimba Musisi (posthumous) from Kenya - for his key role in founding SCECSAL. Mr. Musisi was also for many years, the institutional memory of SCECSAL. In 1998 he wrote an article detailing the history of SCECSAL in the special issue of Maktaba Journal of Kenya Library Association. This ensured that the early history of SCECSAL was not lost. Until his passing on in 2011, he was a regular participant at SCECSAL conference.

• Prof. Maurice Chifwembe Lundu  (posthumous) from Zambia - for his dedicated professional support and service to SCECSAL. Prof. Lundu was one of the few library and information service professionals outside East Africa who contributed to the formation of SCECSAL and its expansion into Central and Southern African regions and ultimately the establishment of SCECSAL. He played a key role in organizing and hosting the second SCECSAL conference, and the first outside East Africa, in Lusaka, Zambia in 1976.

• Tucker Kigongo Lwanga from Uganda - for his foresight and instrumental work in founding the Standing Conference of Eastern, and Central African Librarians (SCECAL), the forerunner to SCECSAL. In 1970, Mr Lwanga served as host Chairperson of the biennial conference of the East African Library Association (E.A.L.A). At the next E.A.L.A biennial conference, in 1972, taking into account the prevailing situation in East Africa, he proposed the dissolution of the E.A.L.A and formation of SCECAL. His proposal was accepted and SCECAL was formed and its first biennial conference was held in 1974, also recognised the first year of SCECSAL.  

• Prof. Isaac N.M. Kigongo-Bukenya from Uganda - for his continued support to SCECSAL since its formation in 1974. Prof. Kigongo-Bukenya has participated in 15 SCECSAL conferences and played key roles at the conferences including as a paper presenter, conference paper reviewer, and Master of Ceremony (MC) at SCECSAL conference events.

• Justin Chisenga, PhD from Zambia - for his more than 15 years dedicated professional support and service to SCECSAL. Since 2000 Dr. Chisenga has been SCECSAL’s “institutional memory” and he has provided support and guidance to Local Organizing Committees of SCECSAL conferences, facilitated the development of the SCECSAL brand and logo, ensured that SCECSAL has an online presence (www.scecsal.org), presented papers at SCECSAL conferences, served on several SCECSAL conference papers review committees, and has facilitated consultations on the SCECSAL constitution and various SCECSAL guideline documents.

Ms. Mwanza Aggie Kaite-Mumbi (R) from the Library and
Information Association of Zambia receiving the award
on behalf of the late Prof. Lundu's family

The next Excellence Awards will be given in 2020 in Windhoek, Namibia.

The SCECSAL Secretariat has asked the  member Associations in Botswana, eSwatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to initiate the process of identifying  individuals from within and outside their countries to be considered for the 2020 Excellence Award in anticipation of the call for nominations to be issued in early 2019.