ZimLA Newsletter now available

Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) started publishing the ZimLA News this year after it had stopped for a while. The new issue is available as an online edition.

The newsletter is available from the association website at http://www.zimla.org.zw. The first issue is also available on this blog here ZimLA News Issue 1, Jan - March 2015.

RDA, 2015 priority

Compliments of the New Year followers of this blog. I hope you enjoyed every moment of the long break, meeting old friends, relatives and spending some time with family.

I hope 2015 is going to bring in new exciting moments for your careers and professions. I am certain that it’s going to be a better year for the library profession as last year the release of Resource Description and Access (RDA) meant a lot of changes to many libraries, museums and archives in material description.

So, I stumbled into this exciting offer from Cataloging & Classification Quarterly of free access to ten articles covering the topics of RDA and ISBD. Do not miss this window of opportunity, if you are keen on implementing RDA. 

Last year, I was privileged to attend a presentation on RDA presented for Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC) Bibliographic members. I found the articles from the journal very insightful and providing valuable experience other institutions are going through in implementing RDA. 

Check out this link from the Cataloguing & Classification Quarterly if you need to read the 10 articles on RDA and ISBD until April 2015.

I wish you a happy migration to RDA in 2015.

ZimLA Announces 49th Conference Call for Papers

The Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) last week announced the Call for Papers for the 49^th ZimLA Conference and Annual General Meeting slatted for Kariba from 23 – 25 June 2015. The theme of the conference is Libraries driving the economy: a 21st century trajectory.

According to ZimLA, “National development can be achieved through the provision of information through which libraries play an important part.” It is against this background that the sub-themes of the 49th conference set address the position of libraries in economic growth. Several sub-themes for the conference include; Innovative marketing strategies for library and information products and services, Information Literacy and National Development, Role of libraries in socio-economic transformation and Intellectual property rights and national development among others.

The first call for papers is out and abstract submission deadline is February 28, 2015. ZimLA expect to notify acceptance of abstracts by March 15, 2015. ZimLA announced that prospective speakers will meet their own cost for the conference.

Abstracts are send to the following emails; information@zimla.org.zw; secretarygeneral@zimla.org.zw ; president@zimla.org.zw; lantern.fusire@nust.ac.zw ; fusirelantern@gmail.com hrncube@gmail.com ; and hrncube@nrz.co.zw. Read the full Call for papers here Call for papers ZimLA 49th Conference and AGM

Resource Description and Access for ZULC members

I had an opportunity to attend a presentation on Resource Description and Access (RDA) organized by the Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC) recently. The presenters; Charlie Molepo and Mandisa Lakheni, were from Universal knowledge Software (UKS) an innovative company providing sophisticated library and archival products. At this presentation I got an opportunity to meet Charlie, whom I had met at the 48^th ZimLA Conference in Victoria Falls were he presented on the various libraries and archival software and training services they offer. Besides, he had an exquisite exhibition and distributed very attractive mugs. (I will always remember him for these ones.)

Anyway, RDA according to the Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA was developed to replace the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition Revised, which were first published in 1978. The OCLC website reported that The Library of Congress announced full implementation of RDA in March 31, 2013. Initially, RDA was envisioned as a third edition of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, and was accordingly called AACR3, but in an effort to emphasize the break from the past it was renamed to RDA, according to Coyle and Hillmann (2007). Miksa (2009) maintains that “The principal goal of the new rules is to facilitate resource discovery through library catalogs in a more consistent and powerful way than is currently possible with AACR2.” According to Coyle and Hillmann (2007), RDA is being presented by the JSC as a change in practice that will position libraries for the electronic age.

Oliver (2007) cited in Miksa (2009) points out that “RDA is a content standard, not a display standard and not a metadata schema. RDA is a set of guidelines that indicates how to describe a resource, focusing on the pieces of information (or attributes) that a user is most likely to need to know. It also encourages the description of relationships between related resources and between resources and persons or bodies that contributed to creation of that resource.” An important component of RDA discussed as the conceptual model is FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data). To get a good understanding of FRBR and FRAD reading an article by Mark K. Ehlert titled RDA: Building Blocks would help.

The presentation by Charlie Molepo and Mandisa Lakheni was insightful in that it discussed the reasons to replace AACR2 which I found convincing. Among the reasons given by Charlie Molepo and Mandisa Lakheni are that the internet caused an exponential growth in resource format, we are no longer using card catalogues, we have more information carriers than before, technology is growing every day and the biggest of all, AACR2 was developed in the era of the card catalogue. In this regard, Coyle and Hillmann (2007) stated that “The early cataloging rules, dating back to the catalog of the British Museum in 1841, evolved primarily to handle textual, published resources.” It therefore means that as information sources change formats mainly caused by the digital environment and the internet.

Charlie Molepo and Mandisa Lakheni further discussed how RDA works in a real setting. They mentioned that RDA simplifies the process of transcription by taking what you see on the resource, and eliminating many of the AACR2 rules that instruct cataloguers to alter the data that they are transcribing to abbreviations. Basically, UKS presenters observed that the new elements being added to RDA solve problems with demonstrated in AACR2. Whilst explaining the simplicity of RDA over AACR2 Mandisa highlighted that cataloguers are expected to write every detail in full, in contrast to the use of abbreviations in AACR2; for instance Second edition and not 2^nd ed.. The basic rule, as I understood it in RDA is writing everything in full. On the other hand the main difference I noticed is that RDA is designed for the web environment whilst AACR2 does not match the web environment.

A few disadvantages of RDA were highlighted by Mandisa which included the initial implementation is costly due to subscription and training; the RDA toolkit needs to be made available on all computers and all cataloguing records need to be converted from AACR2 to RDA, however this is not mandatory; library staff require training to acquire skills on how to use RDA and institutions must pay a subscription rate to use the RDA Toolkit online. There is a contention that RDA may also inherit short falls of AACR2 were it has its roots. Coyle and Hillmann (2007) stated that , “The challenges of this rapidly changing environment may be more than the developers of RDA can accommodate, given the firmness of their ties to AACR.”

Basically this is it. I could have gone on and on writing about RDA stuff I learnt but you can find out more on the Internet. A simple Google search for ‘Resource Description and Access’ can yield good hits which are all good reads. And visit the OCLC web site for training materials.

Reference

Coyle, K., and Hillmann, D. (2007). Resource Description and Access (RDA): Cataloging Rules for the 20th Century. D-Lib Magazine, 13(1/2). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january07/coyle/01coyle.html

Miksa, S. D. (2009). Resource Description and Access (RDA) and New Research Potentials. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 35(5). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from https://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Jun-09/JunJul09_Miksa.pdf

Molepo, C., and Lakheni, M. (2014). RDA Information Session held in Harare. Harare, Zimbabwe.

IFLA officially Launched the Lyon Declaration in Lyon, France

The 80th IFLA World Library and Information Congress going on in Lyon, France is the biggest library event which brings more than 4,000 participants is running under the theme 'Libraries, Citizens, Societies: Confluence for Knowledge'. The congress shall end on August 22.

Yesterday, IFLA officially launched the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development that outlines the need for access to information to be recognised in the United Nations post-2015 development framework. The Lyon Declaration will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is expected to set the agenda for development for the next decade. According to the IFLA media release the framework which has been signed by more than 125 institutions and associations from within and beyond the library sector, including development agencies, media organisations, gender, ICT and education campaigners have signed pre-launch, already making the Lyon Declaration the most successful campaign of its type that IFLA has ever undertaken.

IFLA further noted that the framework will give IFLA members and libraries the tools to advocate for the inclusion of access to information in the final goals, and to be ready to support national governments in implementation of the framework. IFLA therefore encourage librarians to meet with Member State representatives to promote the Lyon Declaration and highlight the role that specific library services, such as government information, literacy, children's services and ICT can play in supporting development. For the coming ear IFLA shall continue to seek signatories to the Declaration and will continue to create more awareness of the framework to governments through UN.

The Lyon Declaration is the new development agenda that UN is discussing to succeed the MDGs that is expected to guide all countries on approaches to improving people’s lives, and outline a new set of goals to be reached during the period 2016-2030. Through the framework, sustainable development is to be achieved through a sound library system that ensure everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information to promote democratic societies.

The Lyon Declaration is available at http://www.lyondeclaration.org/

Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) Timeline

Timeline

1957 – Established as Central African Branch of the South African Library Association (CABSALA).

1959 – Established as the Library Association of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia,

1964 – Became Central African Library Association,

1967 – Renamed Rhodesia Library Association

1980 – Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA)

Changed the acronym form ZLA to ZimLA to distinguish from Zambia Library Association which also used ZLA.

2012, 2013, 2014 - Successfully hosted annual conferences in Kadoma, Mutare and Victoria Falls

2015 - 49th ZimLA Conference and Annual general Meeting (AGM) in Kariba 

Reference

World guide to library, archive, and information science associations. 2^nd completely and expanded ed. Munchen: IFLA. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/6DgH9N (Accessed 11 July 2014).

Library Association crafting a Strategic Plan

The Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) recently held its annual conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Victoria Falls from 23 to 28 June 2014 at the magnificent A’Zambezi River Lodge. The conference run under the theme “Working Smarter and Adding Value: Library services in a new Paradigm” was attended by close to 70 delegates including exhibitors and regional participants from Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.

The conference papers tackled various sub-themes including Social media and libraries, library partnerships and innovation. Besides the presentation from 20 presenters, the AGM was an important part of this conference that elected a new leadership for ZimLA National Executive Council (NEC). The elections were held for the National Executive Council (NEC) as required by the ZimLA Constitution for the President, Vice President, Secretary General, Treasurer, Editor and Advocacy Officer. The outcome of the elections is as follows: President, Lantern Fusire, the Vice President is Wadzanai Chihombori whilst Harriet Ncube retained the Secretary General position. Hosea Tokwe retained the Treasurer’s position and Jasper Lee Maenzanise was elected to the Advocacy Officer position with Kenneth Mangemba being the Editor. Their office term shall run to 2016.

Zimbabwe Library Association National Executive Council (ZimLA NEC) and branch chairpersons who participated the strategic planning workshop that was held at the A’Zambezi River Lodge after the 48^th ZimLA Conference and AGM. From left: Jerry Mathema (Matebeleland Branch Chairperson), Lantern Fusire (ZimLA President), Hosea Tokwe (ZimLA Treasurer), Lewis Mukucha (NLDS Deputy Director), Mrs Tesah Stima (NLDS Acting Director), Kenneth Mangemba (ZimLA Editor), Harriet Ncube (ZimLA Secretary General), Ujala Satgoor (LIASA President and workshop facilitator), Wadzanai Chihombori (ZimLA Vice -President) and Shadreck Ndinde (Masvingo Branch Chairperson). (Picture Courtesy of ZimLA 2014.)

The strategic planning workshop was a critical exercise after the conference that was attended by NEC, ZimLA Branch Chairpersons and National Library and Documentation Services (NLDS) representatives, Acting Director Tesah Stima and Lewis Mukucha, the Deputy Director. However, Manicaland was not present at the strategic workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Ujala Satgoor, a Director of Library Services at Rhodes University and President of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) who has vast library leadership experience. The strategic workshop came at a time when ZimLA was struggling to find feet in its operations.

Ujala Satgoor LIASA President and Director of Library Services at Rhodes University during the ZimLA strategic planning workshop sponsored by IFLA held recenlty n Vic Falls. (Picture by ZimLA, 2014).

ZimLA is making frantic efforts to make the working document available to its constituency once consultations are done. The valuable document shall define a new Vision, Mission statement and Core values for the library association. It shall identify the position of ZimLA among its membership guiding the library association in its effort to meet membership expectations.

Satgoor’s vast experience in library leadership provided a sound background for the exercise and was instrumental in driving ZimLA participants to a desired outcome. The participation of Satgoor strengthen relationship between LIASA and ZimLA that started back in 2012 when the immediate past President Naomi Haasbroek attended the 46^th ZimLA Conference in Kadoma and mooted the crafting of a strategic plan for ZimLA. The draft strategic plan is expected to be made public soon before its adaptation to allow wider consultation with stakeholders.

LIASA immediate past President Naomi Haasbroek (centre)  flanged by past ZimLA President T. G. Bhowa and the then Kadoma Mayor during the opening of the 46th ZimLA Conference in 2012 in Kadoma at the Kadoma Hotel. (Picture Courtesy of ZimLA) 

Once the strategic plan is available the association is expected to increase its drive for visibility. This would also build on the success of the 49^th ZimLA Conference to be hosted by the Mashonaland branch slatted for Kariba on dates to be advised soon.