Dear All
Kindly find the below LIASA Update by the LIASA president Ms Ujala Satgoor. Most importantly I want all of us to read the last paragraph regarding her apathy concern in the LIS field.
Dear Colleagues
It has indeed been a while since our last update. The theme
"Celebrating libraries in 20 years of democracy” has informed many of our
activities in 2014. I’d like to report on the following activities and developments
within LIASA, as well as share my observations:
- Membership and the Voters Roll – 2014 is an election year and it is imperative that
every LIASA member actively participates in nominating/seconding or
availing themselves for branch and national portfolios, and exercising
their right to vote. I must commend the members who responded to our
various calls to register and/or renew their membership so that they met
the deadline of 31 May 2014. The final Voters Roll will be available on
Friday 20 June 2014.
- 2014 Electoral Officer – Ms Laila Vahed, Director: Library Services,
University of Zululand, has been appointed the 2014
Electoral Officer. She will oversee the national election process for
the portfolios of President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary and Public
Relations Officer. The official communication in this regard will be sent
out by Ms Vahed.
- Branch Seminars - I must commend all those branches that succeeded
in hosting the seminar on Librarians as agents for social change,
community development and democracy. We will only begin to realise
the enormity of our responsibility and the opportunities that exist when
we begin to engage with civil society or
our respective constituencies. I’m encouraged by the level of
discussions and engagement at the various events and look forward to
sharing the outcomes of these seminars.
- LIASA Roadshow
- the aim hereof is to visit every branch, meet with the BECs and
members as well as heads of library services in every province. This level
of engagement is to ascertain the challenges, levels of support, and
membership issues as well as visiting libraries to see the conditions
under which colleagues function and the communities
they serve.
- Thus far we have visited the Northern Cape, Free
State, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape. We will be visiting the North
West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga on 23-25 June 2014. It has indeed been
a humbling but empowering experience! I have the utmost respect
for library and information workers who diligently provide services
in far flung and disparate libraries. Undoubtedly there is a lot of work
to be done to elevate the role of libraries and the value it adds
to developing individuals and communities.
- SAQA Professional Body Recognition – the final submission of the LIASA documents has
been made to SAQA and we are hopeful that this will be approved by
the Board which will sit late in June 2014. We will keep you apprised of
developments.
- IFLA 2015 – the
first announcement has already been circulated and appears at http://conference.ifla.org/ifla81.
We are currently working on the details of the final announcement which
will be made available at the 2014 IFLA/WLIC in Lyons.
- SA Book Fair –
Ingrid Thomson and Mandla Ntombela represented the LIASA Executive at the
SA Book Fair. I wish to acknowledge the National Library of South Africa,
Naomi Haasbroek, Fadeelah Davids, Laddy McKechnie, Alison Garlick and all
the LIASA members who helped and popped by the stand. This was a great
opportunity to promote LIASA and the Top 20 Librarians Choice.
Furthermore, we can look forward to:
- 2014 Librarian of the Year – the call for nominations will be circulated very
soon! I know that this process will continue to attract strong and dynamic
librarians who will serve as exciting role models for the profession
- SLYSIG National Conference, 15-16 July 2014 – I invite all school librarians to register for
this exciting conference! The closing date for registration is 04 July
2014, so don’t leave it too late! For further details, visit http://liasaslysig.wordpress.com
- SCECSAL XXI, 28 July –01 August 2014, Malawi - http://www.scecsal.org/conferences/scecsalxxi.html
- IFLA /WLIC 2014,
Lyons, France, 16-22 August 2014 – We will have the opportunity to invite
the world to Cape Town and actively promote South Africa during this week.
If you are attending the WLIC, please do let us know so that you can also
form part of the team
- LIASA Conference 2014
– the 16th Annual LIASA Conference will be held on September 22-26 2014 at
the Birchwood Conference Centre, Gauteng with the exciting theme
“Celebrating libraries in 20 years of Democracy: Continuing the
Dialogue…" The Early Bird registration closes on 10 August 2014.
Please ensure that you are a paid up LIASA member to benefit from the
reduced registration fee. For further details, visit http://liasaconference.co.za/
- Due to repeated requests to extend the date for the
submission of abstracts, the Conference Programme Committee has extended
the due date to 20 June 2014. So if you are keen to share your thoughts,
best practice and experience at the LIASA Conference, you still
have a few days to submit your abstract.
- Discussions on the IFLA Trends Report - a
mail has been circulated soliciting your observations and opinions, please
do engage with this. We need to compile a country report on these trends
so I urge you to study the report and respond accordingly.
In addition to the above, I wish to share my concern regarding the
following:
- LIASA Sustainability – at the 2013 AGM the Treasurer
shared with the membership the importance of retaining membership at 1600
to ensure LIASA’s sustainability. Presently we have 1200 paid up members
for 2014 - those of you who have not renewed thus far please do the right
thing! LIASA can only be strong as its membership.
At this stage, I must
register my concern at the apathy and passivity that prevails amongst members
and the broader profession. Despite every attempt to raise the visibility of
LIASA, provide strong leadership, meet and engage with members, highlight the benefits of professional
membership, provide opportunities for further development, initiate discussions
on critical LIS issues, improve communication and administration, etc I cannot
understand why we persist with the problem of membership retention. We are
lauded by other associations for what has been achieved and is being done, yet
our own fraternity does not appreciate and respect the importance of the
Association. Having visited many libraries around the country, I can
declare that a library is as good as its librarian! This can only happen if the
people working in libraries are exposed to innovations, best practices and
knowledge sharing which comes from professional membership! As I begin to
wrap up my term, I know that we can make huge strides as a profession and
that there are exceptional LIS workers in the field, but I also feel
despondent!
Best regards
Ujala
Ms Ujala
Satgoor
LIASA
President
"Celebrating
libraries in 20 years of democracy"
*Director:
Library Services
Rhodes
University
TEL: 046 603
8079
FAX: 046 603 7310
Skype:
ujala.satgoor
Chairperson: IFLA 2015 National CommitteeMember: National Council
for Library and Information Services
Member: IFLA Africa Standing Committee
