New dates for SCECSAL 2020 announced

Delegates from Malawi at SCECSSAL 2018 in Uganda

The SCECSAL 2020 Conference and Exhibition will be held on 8-12 February 2021 at the Safari Hotel and Conference Centre in Windhoek, Namibia, according to communication from the Namibia Information Workers Association and the SCECSAL Secretariat.

The SCANUL-ECS meeting will be on 7 February 2020.

The SCECSAL General Council, made up of Presidents/Chairpersons of SCECSAL Member Library and Information Associations from Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, approved the new dates on 24 March.

The conference was initially scheduled for 20-24 April 2020 but was postponed due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Current registrations will remain valid for the conference on the new dates in 2021. Individuals wanting to cancel their registrations can do so, in writing, and will be charged 25% of the registration fees to cover administrative costs incurred thus far. Requests for refunds should be sent to Ms Ritva Niskala at rniskala@unam.na and copied to Mr. Wilheim Uutoni at wuutoni@unam.na and Dr. Chiku  M. Mchombu at cmchombu@unam.na.

NIWA will revise the conference budget and registration fees for 2021 to take into account the anticipated increase in costs due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.  The revised registration fees will be announced in August 2020.
More information will be made available on through the following digital platforms:

Conference website: http://scecsal2020.org/
SCECSAL Forum Blog: http://scecsal.blogspot.com/
Follow us: @SCECSAL

Courses at SCECSAL 2020 in Namibia

Make your choice.

Are you a library and information services (LIS) professional residing in any of the SCECSAL region countries? Are you planning to attend the SCECSAL conference in 2020?

The SCECSAL Secretariat in collaboration with the Namibia Information Workers Association will organize courses for LIS professionals attending the XXIVth SCECSAL conference in Windhoek, Namibia, 20-24 April 2020.

The following six courses have been proposed. Which one would you participate in?

• Course 1: LibraryThing and the application of mobile technology in library services
• Course 2: Marketing Libraries
• Course 3: Facilitating Multi-stakeholder Processes (i.e. Group Meetings and Events)
• Course 4: Mobile Apps for Librarians
• Course 5: Social media: managing your library’s account in the 21st century
• Course 6: Social Media for the Libraries: Twitter, Blogs and Instagram

Make it known at: SCECSAL 2020 Training Courses

NIWA issues a call for abstracts for XXIV SCECSAL conference in 2020

The Namibia Information Workers Association (NIWA) has issued a call for abstracts for paper and poster presentations to be delivered at the XXIV SCECSAL conference to held in Windhoek, Namibia from 20-24 April 2020.

The them for the XXIV SCECSAL conference will be “Inclusive Libraries and Information Services Toward Achieving Prosperity for Sustainable Development in Africa”.

Abstracts, due by 30 April 2019, may cover any of the 21 sub-themes proposed for the conference, among them the following:

• Access to information: issues, challenges and solutions (e.g. Marrakesh Treaty; Cape Town Declaration)
• African libraries as drivers of the National Development Agenda Building capacities of library and information professionals to contribute toward attaining the 2030 Agenda
• Digital preservation and access 
• Open Data, Open Access and Open Science in development 
• Specialised information services in support of development (e.g. in agriculture, climate change, health, environment, science and technology, industrialisation agenda, etc.) 

Further information is available at the following sites:

Call for abstracts – XXIV SCECSAL Conference (PDF)
NIWA – XXIV SCECSAL Conference website

Training workshops at SCECSAL 2020: call for proposals

The SCECSAL Secretariat today issued a call for proposals for training workshops to be organized during the XXIVth SCECSAL conference in 2020 to be hosted by the Namibia Information Workers Association (NIWA) in Windhoek.

In April 2018, in Entebbe, Uganda, the SCECSAL Council recommended that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes targeting library and information professionals in the SCECSAL regional should be a regular feature of all future SCECSAL conferences.

The Windhoek conference will, in addition to optional tours on 22 April 2020 also include optional training courses for conference participants.

Individuals and organizations interested in offering courses during the conference should submit their proposals t by 15 February 2019 to:

Mr. John Anbu Paul

SCECSAL Secretariat

Email: john.paul.anbuATgmail.com

Download call for proposals.

SCECSAL Secretariat issues a call for bids for XXIV SCECSAL Conference in 2022

Mr. John Paul Anbu K (r) and Mr. Justin Chisenga (l)
consulting during the SCECSAL conference in 2016 in
Ezulwini, Swaziland
[Photo: Khosie Ndalangamandla]

The SCECSAL Secretariat, hosted by the Swaziland Library and Information
Association (SWALA), on Tuesday issued a call for bids for hosting the XXIV conference of the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern African Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL) in 2022.

The call was distributed on the SCECSAL discussion forum for Presidents and Chairpersons of the SCECSAL member Associations on the Dgroups platform.

The host for the XXIV SCECSAL conference will be confirmed in Entebbe, in April 2018, thus consolidating the 2016 decision of the SCECSAL General Council to select future conference hosts four years in advance.

In an interview with the SCECSAL Forum Social Reporter, Mr. John Paul Anbu, SWALA President, welcomed the decision to announce the SCECSAL conference hosts four years in advance.

“Selecting hosts four years in advance gives a chance for the hosting country to plan well in advance. This also provides an opportunity for the associations that are not very active to put their act together to host a successful conference”, Mr. Anbu said.

Eligible member associations

Participants from Lesotho at the SCECSAL 2008
conference in Lusaka, Zambia [Photo: Justin Chisenga]

The SCECSAL General Council recently adopted new guidelines for selecting the hosts of future conferences and under these guidelines only SCECSAL member Associations from Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland are eligible to bid for the 2022 conference.

The Uganda Library and Information Association (ULIA) is set to organize the XXIII SCECSAL conference next year and the Namibian Information Workers Association in 2020.

The new guidelines divide SCECSAL into three sub-regions -  Eastern: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda; Central: Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe; and Southern: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa – and forbid a sub-region from hosting consecutive conferences unless circumstances dictate so and the decision is approved at least by two thirds of the members of the SCECSAL General Council.

“Rotation of SCECSAL conferences among sub-regions provides equal opportunity for the associations in the sub-regions in terms of hosting and equal opportunity for participants to visit other sub-regions for conferences”, Mr. Anbu said.

The four countries in the Southern sub-region have all hosted SCECSAL conferences in the past with Lesotho first hosting the conference in 1980 and later in 1996; Botswana in 1986 and in 2010; South Africa in 2002; and Swaziland in 1988 and 2016.

Deadline for bids

The closing date for submitting the bids, which should adhere to the new guidelines, is 31 January 2018.

All bids should be submitted to:

The President
Swaziland Library and Information Association
P.O. Box 2309
Mbabane, H100
SWAZILAND
Tel: +268 2517 0153
Fax: +268 2404 3863
Email: anbuj@uniswa.sz