Wednesday 30 December 2015

Libraries in higher education - What is on the five-year horizon?

NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition
This report "examines key trends, significant challenges, and important developments in technology for their impact on academic and research libraries across the globe."(1)

An interesting report for us librarians working in higher education. It treats trends and technologies as well as challenges and solutions - looking at the coming five years.

1. Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A.
(2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition. Austin, Texas:
The New Media Consortium.

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Running and planned activities

The library sub-programme within the UR-Sweden programme for research, higher education and institutional advancement held an important and fruitful meeting with the library directors on October 16th in Kigali.Since then, we really think that we can talk of ourselves as a team, the URLDT. That is, we have been in this together for so long, but the meeting was important for us to share ideas, tasks and responsibilities. Both Swedish team leaders were present, since Anna was there online via Skype. During the meeting we agreed on many things: responsibilities for organising different trainings, things to prioritise and when. How to handle the e-resources (as seen in earlier blog posts), when to try to work on the digital repository, how to continue with the process of the library management system/integrated library system with experts in Borås etc.

Since then, two trainings have taken place. One focused the building up of the library web page. Tuve Nordius delivered a basic web content management course for members of staff that will be working with the web. This has been possible thanks to the cooperation with the ICT sub-programme as well as with the IT service within the UR.  Tuve will come back as soon as possible after Christmas for a follow up on this course -- and hopefully we will have a library web after that.

Secondly, the library directors have been workning on management and communication in a workshop with professor Elena Maceviciute. The workshop was well received and a follow up will be organised after professor Maceviciute's assessments and discussions with the group.

A job shadowing trip to Sweden for the shared ideas and concepts of how a modern multi campus research library works with its systems, its organisation and its users has been postponed, though. The idea was for the team to have a common understanding of what needs to be in place and what processes there within that are important. The libraries of the SLU (the Swedish University of Acricultural Sciences) in both Uppsala and Alnarp, as well as the library at the University of Borås were ready to receive the team.

What else is on the agenda? Remember that we need to focus on availing resources first -- and then to work with usage.

  • We continue our training and competence building efforts. Anna will come back for a longer period in February, to look at e-resourses and work closely with librarians again. Cascading workshops are still needed.
  • We have planned to come back for the web content -- so that you as librarians can manage your own web page (respecting the design of the UR and relying on a web aministrator. There is up to date still no common catalogue, but the e-resources will be found centrally, and via college/campus web pages. We will also emphasise the user perspective in relation to the web content.
  • So in parallell to the trainings, there is technical work going on, where the IT department is very helpful.
  • There is a digital repository to set up. We have appointed one librarian to work on it and to facilitate a targeted training for this.This is, however, a complicated process that first of all requires preparations regarding the organisaton of the resources within the repository and then needs to be incorporated into the server and software. And in all steps there is need of competence. 
  • When it comes to the library management system/the integrated library system, discussions are ongoing. The University of Borås is ready to give more advice here. 

Well, this is a (short) update. A small delegation from the University of Borås plans to travel to Kigali for discussions and meetings in January or February. We are looking forward to that!

Tuesday 20 October 2015

From A to Z updated

The list of e-resources for the University of Rwanda (UR) has been updated.
  • New resources
  • Updated information
  • Updated links
Staff and students at the UR should use this list to get access to e-resources. The resources are available both when you are on campus and when you are working off campus. Of course you need a valid UR account to log in if you are off campus.


Earlier today the list for other higher learning institutions was also updated.
Many thanks to Björn Mattsson from Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Updated list of resources

Today an updated Journal list for Higher learning institutions has been published.
  • New resources
  • Updated links
  • Updated information about the resources
 One important change is the possibility to access each of the EBSCO databases individually.

For the institutions outside the University of Rwanda it's important to verify that you are using the correct links to the resources.

If you have any questions you can contact the country coordinator Charles Rugengamanzi  <C.RUGENGAMANZI@ur.ac.rw>

Monday 21 September 2015

Veronica visits the two BTH sub programmes, Library and ICT infrastructure


Veronica Trépagny came to BTH in Karlskrona for a meeting with both library and ICT infrastructure.
Anna Stockman and Eva Norling (librarians) had invited Veronica and in the afternoon Björn Mattsson (BTH) also participated. Björn is the Swedish team leader for ICT infrastructure in the UR Sweden Programme.
It was a fruitful meeting where we, among other issues, discussed the harmonization of the libraries at UR.

Veronica Trépagny at the BTH library 2015-09-21


Friday 14 August 2015

Cross-cutting programs cooperating

Sylvie Mboyo, responsible for the harmonization of ICT at the University of Rwanda, hosted a meeting Friday afternoon at the College of Science and Technology (CST).
Sylvie, Alphonse Ngabonzima (library director at CST), Eva Norling (librarian at BTH) and Anna Stockman (librarian at BTH) discussed IP-addresses, infrastructure, web development, collaborative tools, Content management systems, proxy servers and much more.
It was a very fruitful meeting and a "To do list" will be followed up by the participants.
Alphonse, Sylvie and Eva

Working with e-resources

Eva Norling and I have been working for a couple of days in Huye. A newly created group of librarians wanted to learn more about administration of INASP e-resources.
Much of the time was spent verifying links to the e-resources and updating information about content and strength. The new information will be compiled to a fully updated list which will then serve as a source for updating all links to e-resources. This list will be useful for all institutions which have registerd for e-resources from INASP
Many thanks to Charles Rugengamanzi, Francine Yamuragiiye, Beatrice Niragire and Benilde Mukarubayiza. You did a good job!
Charles and Eva

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Handling e-resources

As our deputy team leader Anna Stockman from the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) together with her colleague Eva Norling, work with the UR libraries team next week, efforts will be on put on hands on work with e-resources. But important questions for the UR-libraries are also to be discussed. If you have any thoughts on how you think that an efficient and transparent workflow for e-resources should be like, you are welcome to share your thoughts here on the blog as well as directly in e-mails to Anna (use the hidden link here in Anna's name).  She will share it with the UR team of librarians.

Veronica Trépagny, Team Leader at SSLIS, University of Borås

Events in August 2015

Colleagues,

This is to inform you that this month, we have planned to interview both candidates to the masters studies in digital library management (Thursday 6th of August) that have been preselected and potential doctoral students (application deadline on Thursday 6th, interview the week after). Colleagues from SSLIS are in the country for these admissions. Both in library and information science.

At the same time, a team from BTH will be here and, together with a team representing the UR libraries, work on availing e-resources that are there, but not accessible everywhere.  UR librarians and colleagues will continue the process.

In order for the sub programme to be fully harmonized, an assessment has been done. It will lead to the process of choosing one common integrated library system. This issue, and others, will be discussed at a meeting in Kigali on Wednesday 12th of August. This meeting assembles the directors of library services of the respective campuses. These directors form a team, that will work with the UR-Sweden team leader and communicate and share the programme content and activities with the colleagues at the respective campuses. They will also have regular Skype meetings with the Swedish team leader(s).

More updates to follow.

Veronica Trépagny, Team Leader at SSLIS, University of Borås

Wednesday 8 July 2015

PhD studies in Sweden -- scholarship call out

Long time!

Meanwhile, the call for applications for our second scholarship for doctoral studies at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science is out. Application deadline is the 5th of August. The call has been prepared and published at the UR website:

http://ur.ac.rw/?q=node/318

/Veronica Trépagny, TEAM LEADER SSLIS

Wednesday 18 March 2015

From 24th to 27th March 2015 Short course for "Costumer support" and "Education" at Nobleza

From 24th to 27th March 2015 at Nobleza Hotel (Kigali), Under the Library UR-Sweden Sub Program, in collaboration with the Swedish School of Library and Information Services, the Library is organizing a four days Short course for "Costumer support" and "Education" for Librarian who will be working within the areas of customer support and education. Please note that no matter which area Librarians are working with, consideration of the libraries’ users is always necessary.

Directors, please name two(2) librarians who will participate in this short course. please take this as an urgent matter. we have to prepare the invitation accordingly and the time is pressing.

Please note that the short course is to be held next week.

Blessings

Thursday 12 March 2015

Why not a Rwanda Library Association?

As library and information professionals, librarians and library assistants at the University of Rwanda are not the only ones working within the field. And you are not the only ones with questions regarding your profession, your fields of work, or that at times are in need of advice. You most certainly have experience that is of interest for others and worth sharing.

With a nation wide library association, you would have a forum for comunication and cooperation, you would have the possibility to talk with stakeholders and decision makers, share information and promote the development of your profession as well as of information and communication within the country.

In Kenya, the Kenya Association of  Library and Information Professionals (former KLA, Kenya Library Association), has been supported by the Swedish Library Association in buildning it up and making it a stronger actor. If you are intested in developing joint initiatives in Rwanda, it might be a good idea to contact them.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Did you see and share the Vacancy Announcement?


University Librarian at the University of Rwanda in Kigali -- Vacancy Announcement Ref: DVC-FA: 0510/2014

Did you see the vacancy announcement for a university librarian at the University of Rwanda? It is still open until the end of the month.

Job title: University Librarian

Report to: Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research.

CLICK "READ MORE" FOR MORE INFORMATION


Tuesday 10 March 2015

Library work with users in focus, short course March 24th to 27th


-- prepare your costumer support and education services for it! 


A basic assumption and the starting point for this course is that the library is an organized collection of retrievable documents, which is managed by trained professionals (librarians) who are well-orientated in the collection and can provide access to it – without the librarian, there is no library!

Furthermore, the course is designed on the anticipation that the librarians at the University of Rwanda will be working in different services responsible for specific areas and tasks, for example media, digital services, education, and customer support. 

The course content is specifically aimed at those who will be working within the areas of customer support and education. It should be stated, however, that no matter which area you are working with, consideration of the libraries’ users is always necessary. 

CLICK ON READ MORE BELOW IN ORDER TO HAVE THE FULL PICTURE.

Impressions from job shadowing in Sweden

Béatrice Niragire visited Sweden two weeks in February together with Daton Ngilinshuti for teaching in the master programme in  library and information science that they are admitted to, followed by one week's job shadowing at the University of Borås library. 

Below, Beatrice shares some impressions from her time in Sweden.

*******************

Outline of the visit

The first week was devoted to the Digitizing Culture Heritage Material Course as planned in the master's program and the second week was scheduled for Job Shadowing. The objective of this Job shadowing was to exchange and learn from the librarians of Boras University Library.

Job shadowing

The job shadowing was organized in meeting sessions according to the library services and
functions. The library of Boras operates through four main functions:

• Customer services
• Collection services
• Education
• Digital services

CLICK ON READ MORE BELOW IN ORDER TO READ THE REST OF THE REPORT

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Reminder UR-Sweden, team, blog

The UR-Sweden library sub-programme is here for the benefit of the whole of the university libraries within the University of Rwanda (UR). This is why any activity carried within the cooperation should be known by the UR library community and their results shared for its development and capacity building.

For this reason, we are making room for reports from job shadowing here on the blog. And for this reason, the team of library directors will be invited to team meetings online. Additionally, we wish to create other ways of communicating with the rest of the librarians within the UR, like by the help of an e-mail list. More information on this will be shared shortly.

/Veronica Trépagny

Monday 2 March 2015

Evaluation of the cascading workshop in Busogo

The first of the cascading workshops is over. We who facilitated were very impressed by the participants. They worked hard during the three days, asked good questions and were participating actively - just the way you want participants to act. Thank you!

We got very many positive responses to the questions in the evaluation of the workshop.
One of the questions was:
Please specify what you think you will do differently as a result of participating in the event.
And here are some of the answers:

Wednesday 25 February 2015

New calls to open up


Librarians, holders of bachelor and master degrees!

The University of Rwanda will soon be opening up next call for scholarships for master studies in distance mode at the University of Borås, a partner within the Sweden-UR programme for research, higher education and institutional advancement. The programme is called Digital Libraries and Information Services and more information on it is found here.

A call for applicants for one scholarship for doctoral studies (PhD) at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science will also be opened soon. The research areas that exist today are described here. Please keep your eyes and ears open and share the news with friends and colleagues. If you want to know more about doctoral studies in general, information is here. But there will be more specific information connected with the upcoming call. 

Do not hesitate to contact us.

Veronica Trépagny, Team leader






New training on its way


Librarians within the UR,

This is to inform you that based on the survey you answered to last year and the mapping that you are helping us with this year (this mapping is done by library directors or head librarians at smaller libraries) in addition to discussions and analysis, the short course training continues 23-27th of March. The teacher will communicate with participants beforehand, in order to meet you all at the right level. 

We have been waiting for suggestions on participants from our team leaders and will communicate with you shortly.

Veronica Trépagny, Team Leader

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Cascading workshops at UR-CAVM

Time for training - cascading workshop
This week we will have the first in a series of cascading workshops.
Researchers and lecturers in agriculture and related fields have been invited to UR-CAVM to learn more about e-resources and how to find information related to their topics and interests. It's not a question of merely sensitizing the participants, hands-on practice is an important part.

Friday 23 January 2015

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR A PhD SCHOLARSHIP


Some of you might have noted that the second call for applications for scholarships for doctoral studies in Library and Information Science at the University of Borås, Swedish School of Library and Information Science in Sweden, is out and to be found here: University of Rwanda website. The call is still open a week and we welcome many applications. 

/Veronica Trépagny, Team Leader, SSLIS