Friday the 25th of March 2011

INTERNATIONAL VS. AFRICAN LIBRARIANSHIP

By Buhle Mbambo-Thata

In this session Dr. Mbambo-Thata was very critical of notion that African libraries are poor and do not have books. She noted that it is because we always this less of ourselves. She continued by encouraging the young librarians to stand up and contribute to their work environment.

THE VISION FOR LIBRARIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

by Puleng Kekana

This speaker could not come.

THE WAY FORWARD FOR LIBRARIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

by Prof  Christine Stilwell

Christine presentation was mostly based on the Delphi method for South African Libraries. She indicated that libraries should evaluate themselves in other to find out what issues are on significant for the library profession and prioritise them in order of importance.

GROUP PRESENTATIONS

After the presenters it was time for us to present our group assignment. The groups presented their work and it showed that there was a lot of work done.

The Academy was closed at by a Gala dinner on Friday evening.

Thursday the 24th of March 2011

MAKERTING, BRANDING AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION  by Prof Ronel Rensburg.

In this session the concepts corporate marketing, branding and communication was discussed. Ronel indicated how important it is for a library to brand itself and communicate its products and services to the organisation. To me this was more relevant to corporate industries or the overall university. I believe that the library can only market itself using good client service and the by showing its users how they can help them better complete the assignments and research.

GAINING A COMPETITIVE EDGE by Dr. Nisha Sewdass

She is a very good and friendly speaker. She elaborated on the way in which we could analyse and discover the libraries competitive edge. The following topics were discussed:

•         What is Competitive intelligence?

•         The intelligence cycle

•         Value of CI for organisations

•         How companies compete

•         Competition in the Service Sector

•         Gaining a competitive edge

•         Competitive strategies for the LIS

This is important for libraries to know analyse themselves and find out exactly who they are and what they are good at. This was very useful session for me because I will be able to propose this in the management committee in our library as a basis for our strategic plan and discovering the value of the library in the university.