Streets, Jacaranda City - 2021

This post is the first part of this weeks class assignment for the  University of Maine Digital Curation Graduate Certificate Course https://online.umaine.edu/dig/ on sharing digital content.
This is a photo of Tshwane, Pretoria, South Africa with the Jacaranda trees in bloom. The Union Building,  the seat of government, is in Tshwane, Pretoria. However, it is better known for the Jacaranda trees, and is locally referred to as Jacaranda City. 
Here is a beautiful view of the City.

Photo by South African Tourism, Some rights reserved.

When I first arrived in Tshwane, it was October and the Jacaranda trees were in full purple bloom. So first perception is of a purple Pretoria. Its difficult to resist the picturesque prettiness of the Jacaranda trees in full purple bloom, so I have photos for each year I have lived in this city. Except, I think, for 2020. Mostly because we did not go out as much because of the Covid19 lockdowns.

Here is a photo I took on a rainy afternoon, on my way from work, on 26 October 2021.

Street, Jacaranda City 2021 by Fatima Darries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

  

Report on RDMF21: Data Stewardship in Research Institutions

 

I attended the RDMF21 virtual workshop on Zoom on 12 and 13 July 2021. The workshop entitled Data Stewardship in Research Institutions, was hosted by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC). https://www.dcc.ac.uk/

My attendance was supported by a grant from the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). https://www.dpconline.org/

 

The two, half day workshops, focused on institutional data stewardship roles, and how national-level communities of practice can help institutions coordinate. The overarching them was coordinating support for research data stewardship for generic and disciplinary role.

In this blogpost I share some notes and thoughts compiled from my personal notes, collaborative notes, tweets, with the hashtag #RDMF21, and presenters' slide decks. 

1.    The keynote was delivered by Mijke Jetten from the Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences and spoke on the professionalising the data steward roles in the Netherlands.

Some key points:

·         It is agreed that Data stewardship and data management skills are essential in research, but there is no consensus on the responsibilities and tasks of data stewards.

·         Need for skills and capacity building at national and international level

·         Also needs change managers, people that push culture/policy change

·         Human capacity needed - 3 FTE per 100 researchers from OECD report, and estimates 5 FTE per 100 researchers by the EC High Level Expert Group EOSC

·         National initiatives : Dutch National Programme Open Science (NPOS)- developed Basic data steward job profile components,

·     international initiative : ELIXIR-CONVERGE: Toolkit,  RDA Professionalising Data Stewardship IG: topics, and RDA Libraries 4 Research Data IG: 23 things for data stewards

 

2.    Lisa Otty, Centre Manager, Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture and Society presented on joining Social Science and Humanities (CDCS) support with Central RDM Services at University of Edinburgh.

Key points:

·         Centre for Data, Culture and Society launched in 2019. Supports network of academics with shared interests, based in College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in the University of Edinburgh (UoE).

·         SHAPE acronym is used to refer to Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and Humanity, https://thisisshape.org.uk/

·         CDCS mission is to support applied digital research across the research activity in the College, to create a community of practice across CAHSS for data-driven work.

·         Training is a key activity for CDCS. They offer over 50 courses for 600+ people per year. Also offered workshops on how to manage research under pandemic conditions.

·         Offer social events such as coffee mornings for informal discussions on data management and monthly data clinics.

 

3.    Paul van Schayck, from Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University presented on Data Stewards and Research Software Engineers collaborations on Life Sciences service.

Key points:

·         Data from a perspective as a research data manager (RDM) as well as a researcher

·         Data Hub Maastricht is RDM support provider, it offers the Maastricht Data Repository for high volume data

·         Support is offered by Disciplinary Data Stewards

·         data stewards and how to prioritise development - Stakeholders are the data stewards, not the individual researchers

·         developing discipline specific tools - Data steward provides the domain-specific knowledge and the data hub service provides the IT knowledge

·         training for researchers on how to use repositories, and provide better integration between tools such as XNAT/OMERO and institutional IT resources

 

4.    The presentations were followed by a breakout for a discussion on : Leveraging activities outside your institution to your advantage.

Key points:

·         At institutional level, different stakeholder involved in RDM have different training needs e.g. librarians, data stewards, manager of domain repository, and institutional repository

·         need to define roles across the institution for community/stakeholders involved in RDM

·         Collaboration within an institution takes a lot of work, you need a political decision that this is desired

·         Important to have a coordination group across the institution

·         Working groups are useful, get them started even if attendance isn’t always good, better to have them in place

 

5.    The second day started with a keynote address from Graham Parton, the Senior Data Scientist at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA), on the need to connect data stewardship roles across the research lifecycle and ecosystem. The is a perspective from a domain (subject) repository data scientist.

Some key points:

·         The professionalising Data Steward Interest Task Group under the Research Data Alliance (RDA) is seeking to explore and model, the varying landscape of RDM

·         The diversity of activities, roles and environments can difficult for the RDM community to professionalise the work and services

·         Aiming for an openly available collection of models, to serve in establishing and sustaining data stewardship services at different organisations

·         The UK’s National Environmental Research Council (NERC) has a data lifecycle where the various stakeholders in the data lifecycle are involved, including tracking and reporting from the funder side

·         The data is managed in the lifecycle in a project from instrument to archive and end-user. The interaction between end-user, instrument scientists, data scientists (i.e. archive) and IT specialist/software engineers are crucial to the success of the project

·         NERC policy - 2010 revision stipulates that data be made publicly available within 2 years

·         designated data centre to work with the PI of the project, to do the NERC Data Value Checklist (https://nerc.ukri.org/research/sites/environmental-data-service-eds/policy/data-value-checklist/ ) to establish a full Data Management Plan (DMP). This task needs to be completed within 3-6 months of the project start date - compliance

 

6.    Myriam Mertens, Open Science Coordinator, Ghent University Library presented on setting up a data steward team at Ghent University and the national/regional context in Belgium.

Some key points:

·         Small team of data stewards – promote and facilitate, advancing culture change to open data and re-use

·         Started with an initial 3-phased work plan: 1. Onboarding, 2. Start faculty, 

3. Launch more proactive support with advisory & training services

·         Government funding for open data, and date stewardship in institutions, for the next few years

 

7.    The first breakout discussion on day 2 looked at looked the role of the data stewards in delivering services

The question from a member of the group “How do you measure success as a data steward? Currently? In the future?” engendered a lot of discussion but more questions arose than answer. However, some of the following points are worth noting:

·         People still need humans and human interactions, webpages are nice but people won’t read it

·         ‘Measuring Impact’ - JISC undertook a series of studies on data centres and measured ROI; as a domain repo we also seek user Impact stories)

·         Is data re-use/reproducibility a good measure? (citation? Downloads? How do you measure re-use)

·         Systems that uses registration can give you more insights and then follow up with people via a survey

Discussion concluded with different measures of success for different aspects.

 

8.    The second breakout discussion was on a (national) community of practice for data stewards

·         South Africa has a CoP (network for digital curation) for about 10 years, has been unfunded, initiators are retiring, and community might be losing its mojo.

( Yes, data stewards and Librarians across the world know what mojo means.)

·         Who fills the gap if networks/services retire?

·         International groups are useful for learning about models in other countries, but national context is important to what can be done eg. funding, policies

 

 1.    Helen Clare, Senior e-infrastructure strategy manager at Open Research Competencies Coalition, JISC Digital Research Community presented on UK a tale of 2 communities, *or one community and a coalition (and definitely not the only communities!)

Key points:

·        Data stewardship in SC3: Scholarly Communication Competencies Coalition was formed in 2017 to exploring training and professional development for

·         scholarly communications (and open research)

·         Open Research Competencies Coalition formed in 2020 - Rebranded during Covid to online research support – broader conversation

·         Space for JISC digital research community to connect share and collaborate, but across discipline and roles, across open research

 

Librarians and Open Access: the case of E-LIS

E lis an-e-prints_lis_uj_3_with_references

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

TUT Web 2.0 Library Workshop, 9 June 2010

Sharing Videos on Youtube is an introduction that looks at how academic libraries can use YouTube.

Sharing videos on YouTube

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

Education theories promote engaging student where they are at in the online environment. The proliferation of what is referred to as Web 2.0 tools provide such an opportunity for academic libraries, i.e.to engage students where they are in the online environment. This introduction looks at Slideshare and E-LIS as tool to make information available online and accessible.

Sharing media on slideshare and elis

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

TUT Web 2.0 Workshop, 9 June 2010

Tswane University of Technology Library is Workshopping Web 2.0 technologies in the Library environment.

Education theories promote engaging student where they are at in the online environment. The proliferation of what is referred to as Web 2.0 tools provide such an opportunity for academic libraries. To engage students where they are in the online environment. This introduction 

provides an overview of the tools and what such library services may look like.

Web 2 and library2 an introduction

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

Another presentation on Wikis. I have used it to create a bibliography for publishers in Arts and Design, Open Access Webliography and to mentor staff, using PBWorks.
Here's an example in Wetpaint.

Wikis for collaborative authoring

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

TUT Web 2.0 workshop

The day will start off with a general on what Web 2.0 is all about.

Web 2 and library2 an introduction

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

First books I remember reading

I have been trying to remember what the first book was that I remember reading, without much success. My overwhelming memory is of the books we had at home and how exciting our trips to the public library was. At home we had a set of encyclopedias. I cannot remember what the name was. I do remember, very un-librarian like, that it had a cream cover with gold lettering. I loved looking at the Gem stones pages, which were printed on what we librarians call plates, but to me as a child was wonderfully colourful and the pages smooth and lovely to touch. Along with these encyclopedias were a set of classics. Also with wonderfully full colour illustrations on the front and back covers and pages. The Hans Anderson Fairytales volume was the first of these that I read. Others in the series were Black Beauty, Robinson Crusoe, The adventures of Tom Sawyer and of course Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps I read Alice in Wonderland too young. I could not for the life of me understand why this silly girl ate and drank stuff simply because there was a note on it that said so. I must admit to enjoying it much more as an adult reading Alice with my nieces and nine year old son.

Another overwhelming memory as I try to remember reading my first book, is going to the public library in Thornton road where the library use to be in Athlone where I grew up. A crew from our neighbourhood would go. We were not allowed to go alone as we to cross two busy roads in order to get to the library which was about 10 minutes walk away. Even so, were lucky to have a library at all in the vicinity. The old Athlone Library was a two room affair. One section for children and the other for adults. Neither room was very big and the collections were not either. And yes the librarian in the adults section did really have a bun and spectacles. Coming back to what I read, I was a fairy and folk tales girl. I do remember finding a copy of Enid Blyton's Noddy with the Golliwog.  I did not know then how controversial Enid Blyton and the Golliwog was. What I remember taking out and reading from the library, is The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other works of Beatrix Potter. I absolutely adored these small books, which was much easier to read and carry in my small arms then some of the other landscape sized books that children's books are published in. I guess the publishers did not know that children has to carry the books home! I suppose my very first book would have been the books that we learnt to read from in school. I remember Kees, Daan en Koeloe but must admit not remembering the story at all. I also remember that these school books were often illustrated with only one or two colours, orange comes to mind, and of course that is why the full colour illustrations in the books at home and Beatrix Potter was such a treat.

Perhaps it is still why I enjoy reading children's literature so much with my son. We particularly like the Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile.

The September project

I am very proud of my assistant Niel and colleague Adrienne. Together with the two of them we were able to participate in the September project, "a grassroots effort to encourage events on freedom in all libraries in all countries during the month of September."


See Niels article to the Library newsletter in the link and see the presentation that ran on our plasma screens, http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/11668


Our Marketing deputy director had this to say "Congratulations Colleagues - this was indeed an excellent initiative. I recall students watching very attentively the plasma screen presentation. September is undoubtedly a month that can be used to highlight and celebrate what's right in this country"

Jacaranda City, October 2009, Pretoria

oct 2009 pretoria 005, originally uploaded by darriesf.

The Jacaranda trees have bloomed beginning of October. From a week later, they begin shedding their flowers.
On campus, students believe that if they are showered with these flowers, they will do well in the exam.
I think it is just picture perfect.

E-LIS: an Eprints LIS Repository

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

E-LIS: an Eprints LIS Repository

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

Impact of the Internet on reference services in higher education libraries in SA

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Impact of the Internet on reference services in higher education libraries in SA

View more presentations from Fatima Darries.

E_LIS : A global repository for Librarians by Librarians

E-LIS is an acronym for Eprints in Library and Information Science. It is an international open archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the library and information science. It is accessible to anyone with Internet access at http://eprints.rclis.org

Background

E-LIS is the first international e-server, in this subject area and resulted from the RCLIS (Research in Computing, Library and Information Science) project and the DoIS (Documents in Information Science), promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and hosted by AEPIC team on machines of the Italian Consorzio Interuniversitario Lombardo per Elaborazione Automatica (CILEA). It is a non-commercial repository. There is neither funding nor interest in profiting from the initiative.

E-LIS was originally founded by Jose’Manuel Barrueco, Antonella De Robbio, Thomas Krichel and Imma Subirats Coll and started in 2003. E-LIS relies on the voluntary work of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds. Currently, there are 64 editors from 42 countries across the world. The regional editor for Africa is Fatima Darries, who is also the country editor for South Africa, along with Wynand van der Walt.

The quality of the metadata of the submission is controlled by country editors.

Why a repository for Librarians

The purpose of the E-LIS archive is to make full texts documents visible, accessible, harvestable, searchable and useable by any potential user with access to the Internet. Librarians can search and archive their own publications and presentations in E-LIS free of charge.

E-LIS puts at the disposal of the LIS community not only metadata, but also full text documents which are freely accessible and retrievable using the full potential of the Internet.

E-LIS is for librarians. It is librarians who use it. By working practically in the field within the framework of Open Digital Libraries, it improves the knowledge of the building and management of open archives amongst librarians. It provides a platform for librarians to test and see how an open archive works and what its capabilities are.

Not only does it promote open archives in various disciplinary environments, but also create a valid and credible model in our own discipline for the building of a world LIS archive. E-LIS promotes self-archiving in LIS (not only in E-LIS) and offer an open archive to authors without acces to an institutional repository. For those who do have an institutional repository it offers the added advantage of an archive that is discipline specific to LIS. Archiving in a global discipline specific repository increases the visibility for authors in the international sphere of LIS>

E-LIS allows for the establish of a base for communal work between librarians information technology professionals, and to enhance the Open Access movement

In addition to traditional Library Science subjects, E-LIS also includes all technical and applied disciplines relating to the Librarianship and Information Science world

Most arguments regarding the building of digital libraries, tools and scope, electronic publishing items, techniques and methodologies from metadata description to preservation, archiving to copyright, have place into E-LIS.

The repository now boasts almost 8000 eprints (research, articles and presentations) in the E-LIS archive! It makes it significantly large resource to search for information from across the world on LIS. You can also subscribe to the RSS Feed for alerts on new submission to E-LIS.

Author rights and responsibilites

LIS researchers, librarians, students and research institutions are invited to search (it’s free!), and participate by depositing their own work.

Articles, presentations and papers can be in any language (abstracts and keywords in English). Preferred formats are .pdf and .html, as these are best suited for later retrieval.

Statistical information regarding viewing and downloading is provided.

All works deposited in the E-LIS server remain the property of the author. Authors who submit work are responsible for the documents they archive. Authors have to ensure that the intellectual property of their deposited work is theirs and that no restrictions exist for digital distribution of the deposited work.

Fatima Darries can be reached at Darriesf at yahoo.com and Wynand can be reached at WynandvdWalt at gmail.com.

published in LIASA in Touch 10(1)

LIBRARIANS FOR ADVOCACY

LIASA-in- Touch, vol 10, issue 1, March 2009.

On 26 and 27 November 2008 I attended the conclusion of a series of workshops on libraries as gateways to information and democracy. Topics discussed included improving networking, advocacy and lobbying strategies. This concluding workshop was hosted by The Goethe Institut in Johannesburg, the IFLA Africa Section and LIASA. Ms Ulla Wester of the Goethe Institut were responsible for the organizing and logisics. The reports of the five countries of the previous workshops are available at the Goethe Institut website at http://www.goethe.de/ins/za/joh/wis/sbi/enindex.htm.

We discussed and considered many creative and innovative strategies to advocate for libraries, and there is a recognition that we need to lobby at all levels. Questions were asked about on whose agenda we have to place libraries when we lobby and advocate. This is one of many and appropriate questions to consider and to answer. However, I believe that ultimately the best advocacy for libraries are librarians’ own behaviour, attitudes and services.

Let us provide the service that we are mandated to do. Yes, with the existing resources at our disposal. It is our services as a librarian that is needed especially when we have limited resources, when our resources are insufficient in meeting the needs of the communities we serve, whether school, public, academic and research or corporate.

If we have decided that information provision is a worthwhile way in which we live out our lives, that working in LIS our contribution to building our democracy and our country, then be informed and educated on all matters concerning Library and Information Services. A good start would be to spend your own money to subscribe to individual membership of LIASA. If we have been working in LIS for a while and do not have a library degree, make plans to get one!

Be informed of developments in our profession in our country but also outside our country, and who the role players are in the councils and advisory boards. Don't wait for this information to come to you. LIASA publishes 4 issues of LIASA-in-Touch which if you read it will keep you well up to date on LIS matters in South Africa. There are several scholarly LIS journals published in South Africa. But there are also list serves, blogs and a host of new generation web tools which you can use. We are information professionals, we know how to find information. Take the lead in you own life and identify you own information needs, and go find the information that you need.

Be professional. That means being responsible and behaving in a way that elicits respect from the community we serve and those outside of the profession, as well as those inside the profession, from our colleagues and our bosses.

Update your skills as a librarian. With the information revolution that also includes information and communication technology skills. We can seek those out; there are many opportunities offered by LIASA at Branch and interest groups as well as at the Annual LIASA Conference.

Know the legislation that governs your sector and the legislation that impacts on information provision. Know what the Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights allows and does not. As a government agency, libraries also have to provide information on request to the public in terms of the Access to Information Act. Will it compromise our users privacy?

Know under which government ministry our library service, even though it be indirectly, falls; including who the minister and director general is. We will have to be savvy when we approach our political leaders, and it starts with knowing who they are.

Be a librarian in all spheres of your life. Don’t be a librarian within the four walls of the library, from 08:00 to 4PM. Talk about and advocate for libaries in every network that you are in. Be a librarian in your family and friends network, in your community, in your church, synagogue, temple and mosque. Do not limit your professional networks to LIS only, establish contacts and networks in the sector that you are in, as well as in other professions and disciplines. And again advocate for libraries in those networks.

Develop your own personal advocacy manifesto and work towards achieving it!

A selection of art libraries in SA, 2007

Ifla Art Section Newsletter, no 61, 2007

Introduction
This article as the title indicates is a selection of five Art Libraries in South Africa. It is by no means meant to be representative of the country. Each of the librarians in the different institutions and organization presented here, have given their own input on their libraries, on their collection, users and what’s special about their libraries. So it’s a bit of an insiders view, if you like. The names and contact details of the librarians in each of the libraries are included.

Iziko South African National Gallery Library
By Suvashni Casoojee at sjcasoojee@iziko.org.za

Iziko South African National Gallery Library is situated in the
attractive Cape Town Company Gardens. It is further enhanced by the
splendor of Devil's Peak and Table Mountain in the background. The
present building dates back from 1930, the history of the first item
accessioned in 1931. The current collection that is captured
electronically has 15446 records.

The library comprises of 3 staff members. The operating hours are
Tuesday - Friday 08h30 - 16h00.

The Library boasts a unique:

* reference collection on South African and international Art
books and journals

* a collection of newspaper cuttings dating back to 1904

* a comprehensive pamphlet collection from the turn of the
century

* invitations of national and International exhibitions

* Art boxes for scholars, students and academics

* postcards with art content

* Videos, Dvds and CDS

* Exhibition catalogues of national and international galleries


The users include:

* Curators and staff of the Gallery

* Public

* Pupils, students and Academics

* Tourists

* Other Libraries, Art schools and Museums

* Artists

* Researchers
Exhibition catalogues are sold via the library. Annually on the 18 May
and the 24 September a book sale is held at the Iziko South African
National Gallery.

Fine Arts Library UKZN (Westville Library Collection)
By Richard Beharilal" at Beharilalr@ukzn.ac.za

The Fine Art Collection, often referred to as the Fine Arts Library was a specialized collection of books dedicated for the use of both students, staff, and the broader community. The collection itself was started in the early 1960s at the University Library in Salisbury Island. In 1971, the University of Durban-Westville was established in Westville after the land was donated to the Government by the Borough of Westville. At this new site, being the University of Durban-Westville, the Library was built. As a result the collection of books, and other material was relocated to the present site, and the Fine Arts Collection being one of the prized collections of books. The collection was supplement by some very rare books, which was the envy of many private artists/collectors whom used the Fine Arts Library with prior permission. The Collection was still not optimally utilized due to the space in which it was housed on level 7. The room was quite small in size, and users were often inconvenienced since they had to work outside of the enclosed area. In 1985 the Library was extended by another 4 levels, and the Fine Arts Collection was then housed in a modern architecturally design area on level 9. It operated for over 21 years on level 9 bringing along many South African, and World Scholars to this area of the Library. Unfortunately, due to the merger the Fine Arts Collection had to be relocated in 2006 to the other 2 Campuses (Howard College & PMB). It was indeed a great loss for the Westville Campus as the Fine Arts Collection enriched the library stock. The most important loss is that the collection was unique it its nature. Apart from the Fine Arts, Integrated Arts (Education) users it served many users, the Speech & Drama, Engineering, Architecture, History, and Religious Studies users but especially, the Sport Science Students (whom are currently at Westville – Dance).


Hiddingh Hall Library
By Gill Morgan at Gill.Morgan@uct.ac.za

The Hiddingh Hall Library, a branch of UCT Libraries, is situated on UCT's Hiddingh Campus in Cape Town. Built in 1911, it was the original library of the South African College, later to become the University of Cape Town. It became a branch library in 1931 when the J.W. Jagger Library was established as the University's main library on the Groote Schuur Campus. The Hiddingh Hall Library now serves the Faculty staff, and students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), of the Departments of Fine Art, Drama and Historical Studies.
The collection consists of printed material, books and journals, audio-visual material, (cd’s, dvd’s and videos) and electronic resources such as journal indexing databases and online journals, amongst others, to support research.
The library has a very extensive and comprehensive art collection, from art history to the very contemporary both in print and audio-visual. Similarly resourced is our drama collection, which includes an extensive play collection, audio-visual material, and accent training material.



The Visual Art Collection of University of KwaZulu-Natal Library in Pietermaritzburg
By Jenny Aitchison at aitchison@ukzn.ac.za


The collection consists of books, journals and audio-visual items that support the teaching and research programmes of the Centre for Visual Art, including the history of art. Formerly the Department of Fine Art, it has been based on the Pietermaritzburg campus since 1937. The collection is not housed separately but forms part of the Cecil Renaud Library's collection. Books on South African and African art have always been a priority and these are an important focus in collection development.

Reference and loan books and audio-visual items are classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system and have Library of Congress Subject Headings. Journals are filed alphabetically by title with the Library's other print journals. They are not assigned class numbers or subject headings. Access to electronic journals is mainly through the databases that form part of UKZN Library's electronic resources. Links to these appear on the Library's website, from which it is also possible to search the catalogue of the UKZN Library.

http://library.ukzn.ac.za/HomePage718.aspx

The subject librarian for Visual Art liaises with academic staff in the Centre to select books and audio-visual material to be acquired. He or she is also responsible for the classification and subject cataloguing of these information resources; helping staff, students and members of the public find relevant information and providing training in information-seeking and retrieval skills for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Informatics and Design Faculty Library at Cape Peninsula University of Technology
By Fatima Darries at DarriesFa@cput.ac.za

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is a recently merged institution, having previously been Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon. They are respectively, historically advantaged and historically disadvantaged institutions. This means they were intended for white and black students, respectively. Technikon’s are similar to institutes of technology or polytechs. The previous minister of Education, Kader Asmal introduced the merging of higher education institutions in order to catalyse and expedite transformation in the higher education sector. He was also responsible for the renaming and refocusing of these institutions to from Technikons to Universities of Technology.

CPUT is therefore very much in transition as a result of the merger, and this is reflected in the library. The Informatics and Design Faculty Library is situated on the Cape Town and Bellville Campuses, approximately 50 km apart, and are two of seven campus sites. Early in next year there will be another site a few kilometers from the Cape Town Campus, which will have specifically the Architecture, Town and Regional Planning and Interior Design department libraries. These three form part of the Informatics and Design Faculty, along with Graphic, Jewellery, Industrial, Fashion and Surface Design Faculty and Informatics.

We have an approximate 30 000 items in our audiovisual and book collection, and 170 titles in our hard copy journal collection, with the bulk being in Cape Town campus. We have 4 000 registered students in the faculty, with again the bulk on the Cape Town Campus.

Both the students and staff of the Informatics and Design Faculty use the collection very intensively and extensively. My only complaint: they know the stock so well that they go directly to the stock without consulting the Library catalogue. We often have students from other institutions and also the surrounding school using the collection. While the collection is relatively small, we have one of the best collections for the Design Arts in the South Africa.

Conclusion
The quick, unscientific, look into the different art library collections, reflects both our history in South Africa and gives you an indication of a society undergoing rapid change.

Co-ordinated and compiled by Fatima Darries, November 2007.

Mali’s National Library houses AMBAD, 2006

LIASA In Touch , Vol 8, Issue 1 March 2006

Monsieur Mamdou Konoba Keita is the National Librarian of Mali. He is also the president of the Association Malienne des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes, abbreviated to AMBAD; the Malian Association of Librarians, archivists and documentalists.

The National Library is housed in one wing, and the National Archives in the other wing of a very large building in Mali’s capital Bamako. It is in the National Library wing that AMBAD has its offices. Monsieur Keita was gracious enough to afford me a meeting on short notice. I took the opportunity to remind him of WLIC in 2007 in Durban. However, with Mali being the 4th poorest country in Africa, the Malian librarians will only be able to participate with sponsorship.

Mali does not have a public library system. The task of this service has become that of the National library. They have just been connected to the Internet for the staff. Public access to the Internet in the National Library is still a challenge. The children’s section of the library is not busy as the children are still in school. In the young adult and learning centre I find mostly University students.

Mali having been a French colony, the two countries’ National Libraries have some ties with one another; as evidenced by the 700 titles donated from the National Library of France in 2006 as part of a collection building project.

Despite the lack of a library system, AMBAD is 4000 members strong. Although AMBAD has the support of Mali’s Department of Culture, it does not include any financial support. Like LIASA, AMBAD, relies on membership fees. Training too is high on the list of priorities for AMBAD.

According to Monsieur Keita, Mali and South Africa have had good relations since before 1994, and was the first to visit South Africa after liberation. He hopes for a strong relationship between LIASA and AMBAD.

Fatima Darries, January 2007.