LIASA UPDATE BY Ms UJALA SATGOOR: LIASA PRESIDENT 2012-2014

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: 

1. 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
2. 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
3. SCECSAL XXI, 28 July –01 August 2014, Malawi - http://www.scecsal.org/conferences/scecsalxxi.html
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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:

1. 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

president@liasa.org.za

www.liasa.org.za

 

"Celebrating libraries in 20 years of democracy"

 

*Director: Library Services

Rhodes University

u.satgoor@ru.ac.za 

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