IFLA WLIC Day 7 - Boulders Beach

And here it is, THE PENGUINS!! You knew it was coming at some point this week, and today was the day :)  This is a very picture-heavy post; you have been warned.

Boulders Beach is on False Bay, to the southeast of Cape Town.  It is part of the national park, and it is a protected beach where African penguins come to nest!  Once you're in the park, you follow the little boardwalk around to the beach.  It's a short little walk, so easy enough for anyone who wants to see. 

And there they are!  They are RIGHT THERE near the boardwalk.  Wild penguins!!  See how close they are to the boardwalk?

This little guy was just too cute, standing so properly.

 

African penguins are unfortunately an endangered species.  The several large nesting grounds in South Africa are reporting fewer and fewer breeding pairs each season.  Like many animals, humans are having an impact - the fishing industry has depleted their food supply, their beaches are being built up with condos, global warming, pollution, and the occasional oil spill. 

We even saw a penguin release today.  Several people carrying large cardboard boxes with air-holes and labeled with the Shorebirds Conservancy logo crossed the fence, going off the boardwalk and onto the beach itself.  They carried the boxes over to a quieter part of the beach, lined them all up, and then tipped them slowly out.  And out came penguins!  I didn't get to ask the parks staff (dressed in that standard, international olive green shade used by Parks departments around the globe) if they were rescues or rehabilitated or what.  But whatever they were, they were released!

 

Aside from the pictures I'm in, I think this is my favorite one that I took.  I am actually quite proud of it.  :)

IFLA WLIC Day 7 - Wind and Wildlife

Today I took a bus trip down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.  Which, incidentally, is not the furthest south you can go in Africa.  There's another cape a little to the east (just a couple lighthouses east, as a matter of fact) which is further south.  The Cape of Good Hope is, however, the further southwest that you can go in Africa.  And how often can you say you've been to the corner of a continent?

The drive reminded me very much of Highway 1 in California.  Very rocky coastline, very windy roads, and absolutely gorgeous scenery.

 

The Cape itself is a National Park, with plenty of wildlife and wide open scrublands.  There really isn't tall vegetation, simply because of the wind!  This much water around you, this far south, means that the winds can get pretty intense.  Fun fact: they were going to name this the Cape of Storms, but that was considered too negative, bad luck, so they went with the more positive Cape of Good Hope.

At the Point itself, you take a little funicular rail to the base of the lighthouse, and then can take the stairs up to the lighthouse.  You have an absolutely breathtaking view, while the wind is whipping about also taking you breath away!  In the pictures below, the one with my windblown locks is in front of the Cape of Good Hope (the little spit of land behind me) while the other is in front of False Bay.  Which is actually a bay, but not Table Bay at Cape Town which olden sailors were aiming for.  The mountains apparently looked similar enough that it caused confusion; hence, False Bay.

 

And being a national park, we were on the lookout for wildlife.  The first siting was an ostrich crossing the road.  It sounds like the start to a joke, doesn't it, but there he was!

 

Further up the road, our bus driver slowed because he had spotted a baboon on the side of the road.  As we sat and watched, it turned out the baboon wasn't alone!  There were several of his friends, including several young ones scampering about and playing!!

 

 

Baboons are actually a pretty dangerous pest animal in that part of the world.  They are intelligent, move in large groups, and will eat anything and everything.  The park and the coastal towns actually have a job called Baboon Spotter, who radios in the movements of baboon troops sited in the area, so that those nearby can plan accordingly.  

And yes, this sign below was the one which the baboons were playing behind.  Very appropriate, really.

But the real stop was coming up next - Boulders Beach!

IFLA WLIC Day 6 - Multicultural Librarianship

Today was my day of multicultural sessions.  My morning session was sponsored by the Indigenous Cultures Special Interest Group, and my afternoon one by the Multicultural Libraries one.  I had been looking forward to today's sessions more than any of my others, I think.  Between moving to Hawaii in the spring, and a long running half-joke, half-plan to move to New Zealand when Zach gets out of the Army, I was definitely curious.  I was also pretty sure there was a lot I could take home from these sessions.

The morning one was by far my favorite.  There's just so much potential from the projects these presenters are working on, and so much need for them.  It's just a great opportunity.

The project that intrigued me the most was out of Western Australia, called Storylines.  It works with Aboriginal groups in WA, uploading pictures and using the community knowledge to add names, dates, places, and tags to them.  And the tagging goes beyond just basic metadata; users can add whole stories to the pictures (or recordings or videos, whatever was uploaded).  The portal is available in several Aboriginal languages, and they aim to eventually have it available in all languages in that state.  The project returns materials to the Aboriginal families if possible, once everything's uploaded, so there is a restoration component to the project too.  And there is a culturally sensitive aspect; pictures can be marked as private or sacred or secret, so that something that should be treated with a great deal of respect doesn't end up as 'just another picture' going viral on the Internet.  There's a little bit more restriction in dealing with those, so that they can indeed remain private. It's a great platform with a lot of potential applications.  I can think of several historical libraries I've researched in which would benefit from being able to collect local, personal history like that.  And even the college I work for has boxes of old pictures from the 1960s and 1970s which would be such a resource, if only they could be properly labeled.  A portal like Storylines would be really be useful for libraries and archives like these!

And there are so many stories coming out of Storylines so far!  A man from the Lost Generation was helping with the project, and actually identified some of his own family members, and was able to reunite with his mother.  And in another area, children were asking about a dance shown in pictures, one they hadn't seen before.  It sparked the elders to remember the dance and teach it to the younger generation.  And the presenter said that's an added benefit, how it's helping to bridge generations as they share stories; the children hear stories from the past, and the older generation learns computer skills working with the portal.  It's a really, really impressive project.

I think that is becoming one of my favorite topics this week.  Not indigenous populations necessarily, but inclusion. Yesterday I had a session on LGBTQ materials in the library, and today had the two multicultural sessions.  I'm a knowledge junkie, and curious.  I want to know everything I can.  And one of the things that boggles my mind utterly is the conscious decision to deny someone access to information.  It's one of the reasons that Banned Books Week can get me riled up - if you don't agree with something, fine, but don't try to tell me it's something that I'm not allowed to read.  Let me decide for myself.  If there's an unconscious block to information access, or an institutional hurdle rather than an actual policy or rule, then it's something that can be overcome.  We just have to figure out how.  So I have really enjoyed my sessions which discuss inclusion within a library, how best to provide information to all audiences, to meet the needs of more than just the majority.  Sometimes it's because you're in that minority that you need the resources a little more.  Seeing people all over the world tackling the same (or very similar) problems, it makes you think.  At what point is this a reflection of human nature, dominance of the majority and all, but is it also part of human nature to work together, to share ideas on how to address the balance?

I had a nice long chat with the Indigenous Population SIG chair after the morning session.  Lots of good advice for someone starting out in the profession, and possibly thinking about this aspect of a library.  Volunteer volunteer volunteer!  Get involved, both professionally and in the community.  Especially if I'm thinking about working with multicultural or indigenous library services, being active in the community will definitely help build those connections. And she had a great line about native cultures and the more relaxed way many of them look at life, that "things just bloom in their own time, when they are meant to."  I know it's a cliche, but when you're looking at finishing your degree and moving a quarter of the way around the world in the same month...  well, the reminder that things will happen when they happen, and sometimes the best opportunities are the ones that come upon us unexpectedly, can be very comforting.

IFLA WLIC Day 6 - Knitting!

So, last night at the cultural event, like I said, I spent a good hour or so knitting.  I left with the needles and yarn and the blanket square I'd completed, planning on bringing them back to the charity booth today when I wandered the Exhibition.

As it turns out, today at lunchtime was the collection day for all the blanket squares.  The project was 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day.  Why 67?  Mandela worked for human rights for 67 years of his life, so it's a common number used when honoring him.  

 

This project is like Project Linus in the States, for those familiar with it.  People contribute knit or crocheted blanket squares, and then volunteers will seam the squares together into whole blankets.  People can contribute whole blankets too, if they want.  The completed blankets are then donated to charity.  And excitingly, the Conference knitting group reached their goal - 67 blankets!  Plus a few scarves and hats :)

Most of the people involved with the project here at the conference are local (well, South Africans - some are from Joburg or Pretoria or elsewhere, not all Cape Town).  Many of them were chattering along in Afrikaans around me as we were all knitting while staff counted up the completed squares (a sampling of which is shown above).  One lady noticed me, and asked if there was a similar charity that I was working on.  I said that no, I'd gotten involved after meeting some knitters the day before, and thought I'd stop by to help.  Knitting is pretty universal, after all, and knitters are knitters wherever you are.

And speaking of "knitters are knitter wherever you go," I was sitting and knitting along, and the guy standing next to me knitting (the bearded gentleman in the picture below) mutters under his breath "Oh, kraap!"  And I spell it that way because you can't hear the thick Afrikaans accent otherwise.  But I laughed at how that translates in any language, and he was chuckling and turning a little red, knowing that he'd been overheard dropping a stitch :)

The other funny story from that lunch was that I kept hearing what I thought was my name, except that no one's name tag showed "Lara" or anything like that.  But I asked the lady next to me if someone had that name (I didn't know if it was a word they were using - with my familiarity with Afrikaans, I could have been hearing the word for 'yarn' or 'shoe' or something, and confusing it with my name).  But, lo and behold, there was another Lara there!  We laughed and chatted and swapped business cards, laughing that we are going to form an International Knitting Lara club (current membership: 2).  

Oh, and I got another half a square done as I was sitting and chatting :)  I'd've finished it too, except I had to scoot out to make my afternoon session.

For my knitting notes, I completed one and a half blanket squares in the approximately 2 hours I was working on them.  I cast on 35, knit garter for a few rows, then garter stitched the end 3 stitches and stockinette the middle.  The I finished with a few rows of garter stitch again.  I was on size 5.0mm needles using a DK acrylic.

IFLA WLIC Day 5 - Knitters!

Tonight was the Cultural Event for the conference, so lots of delicious food and entertainment.  (As a side note, it reminds me of school - we didn't have parties, we had cultural events!)  There were face painters and lots of music, even a drum circle.  I've a few pictures here in the atrium and hall areas (which were still very much part of the event), but my pictures from inside the main room were too dark.  You'll just have to check out the official IFLA FB and Flickr pages to get the full idea.

 

 

The main entertainment for the evening was good, but it's still a large, crowded dance floor, and I can only take so much before I need to slip away (introvert, remember).  So as I was taking a moment in a side room, enjoying the calm for a moment, three girls a little younger than me sat down on the couches around where I was sitting.  And I kid you not, one of them opened her bag and pulled out knitting supplies for them!!  I just started laughing, "Mine's in my room!"  

The girls turned out to be staff members for the conference, working for the company organizing the volunteers.  They were on duty tonight to manage the volunteers during the cultural evening, and had brought the knitting to help pass the time.  The knitting is for a charity project going on during the conference, and as I was sitting and chatting with them, one ran into the Exhibition Hall to get another set of needles from the charity's booth.  So I, too, sat and knit a blanket square!  Probably not what some would think of as an exciting Cultural Evening, but I had a great time!

I had a great time chatting with the girls, who were all South African, and just as much fun listening to them.  It seems it's a matter of routine to shift from English to Afrikaans and back, like Spanglish.  So we talked about languages for a little while, which I found very interesting.  There are 11 official languages in South Africa, and it's not uncommon to know 2 or 3, plus a smattering of words from others.  I was told that those speaking the African languages likely know even more, since the tribal dialects can be pretty similar.  Then English is the business language, and Afrikaans is still very much in common use.  Even the ATM I visited gave you 4 language choices - English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu.  Apparently the younger generation (like the girls I was chatting with) are more prone to mushing the languages together, while their parents tell them to 'keep it pure', and hold consistent in language choice at least until completing the sentence.  It reminded me of the movie Tortilla Soup, where the father is constantly fussing at his daughters to pick one language and stick to it.

And my final thought for the night is that I didn't look for knitters, and hadn't tried to go yarn shopping, but the knitters still found me :)

IFLA WLIC Day 5 - Meeting people

Networking, networking!

Part of the benefit to these conferences is the ability to meet people face to face, swap business cards, build those connections.  And I'm doing my best to strike up conversations.  As I mentioned yesterday, it's not my strong suit, introvert that I am, but librarians on the whole are a pretty friendly, helpful bunch.

As I've been talking to people, I've been asking about career paths and schooling.  Librarianship is such an unusual field in terms of grad school.  We all need our master's (or at least most countries require it) but unless they want to teach, few get into the field thinking "I want my PhD in Information Science."  That's very different from my undergraduate degree.  Scientists pretty much know if they will need advanced education, and if they will need it, most go straight through to the doctorate (or at least the ones I know).  At most, it seems they might take a year or two for some sort of work-study or Fulbright or Peace Corps sort of project.  But I know very few librarians, either in my grad school or those I've met at events like this, who have gone straight through.  A lot of people seem to get out and work for a couple years (or more) and then find their way back to a PhD program for one reason or another.  Common advice I'm hearing is to get involved in the IFLA and/or ALA committees.  They are good ways to get to know other professionals, and also to learn some of the opportunities and possibilities out there for librarians.  More chances to figure out how I want to focus my library career, and possible ways to go about doing it. 

As for me, I'm still learning my options.  We will be moving to an actual city in April, and there will be a university there with a PhD program I could enter.  I don't object to further education, so in terms of the work, I have nothing against earning my doctorate.  But with moving around so unpredictably, I am unsure if I should get my PhD while we're in a city where I can, or if I should wait, or if I need it at all.  Will I spend all that time and effort and expense to earn my degree, and then end up getting stationed at Ft Irwin or Polk or someplace else so remote there's no chance to use it?  So, as I chat with people, I'm also trying to pick their brains, get advice, and hear their story of how they ended up where they are.

Speaking of where we'll be in the future, I've met one librarian who teaches at the university there where we'll be stationed in the spring, as well as a couple people who will introduce me to others (people who know people, in other words).  Here's hoping that it'll help get my foot in the door next year, and make moving to a new area a little easier (in the job search, at least!).

I'm also meeting non-librarians (who'd've thought!) and it's very interesting talking to people from all over.  At the reception last night, for example, I had a great conversation with a college kid from Montreal who had come along with his mom before heading back to school in the fall.  We talked about beaches and the coast (the reception was at an aquarium, after all) and travel and sites in Cape Town and the surrounding area.  I've only had a little bit of tourist time so far, but what I've done hasn't been what he's done so far, and vice versa, so it was interesting comparing notes.  He said that he'd be shark diving this week, so hopefully I'll see him again later this week and be able to hear how that went!

IFLA WLIC Day 4 - So much to learn

My first two actual sessions were today, so we are definitely underway now!

My morning session was on continuing professional development, one of those major challenges in librarianship.  Technology is changing so quickly and so constantly, that the information field is evolving nonstop too (you have no idea the number of papers I've written on the subject so far in my program).  Like many professions, librarians must continue learning even after earning their degree, as they must stay current technologically, as well as develop their personal skills.  Like many academic programs, the LIS master's degree has been trimmed down to be the bare minimum number of credit hours, and many skills are learned on the job or in professional development courses after earning the degree.  You only have 36 credit hours in a master's program after all; there's a lot to cover.  As a result, many librarianship degrees, for example, don't require a management course, or the school might not even offer one that's library specific.  (As a side note, my school thankfully does offer one - I took it a year ago, and found it very interesting, especially with the variety of managers and workplaces I've had as we've moved around). 

Adding to the discussion, some countries have a professional certification for librarians.  New Zealand, for example, has a professional registry for librarians (like the PG or PE certification for geologists and engineers, respectively).  You can still work in the field without that certification, but having it does open up more doors professionally.  To renew, a NZ librarian has to complete annual CEU work covering standard topics according to LIANZA guidelines.  The US currently does not have anything comparable, though personally, I think it's a great idea to have some sort of current standard that a professional must maintain, beyond the initial degree.  That opinion probably reflects my experience working with so many PEs and PGs and seeing Zach work on CEUs for his job.

So anyway, required or not by the country's professional organization, professional development typically covers a variety of topics, including technology, professional skills, management topics, advocacy and fundraising skills, etc.  But how do these professional development courses happen?  What's the best way to deliver them to librarians - in person, webinars, workshop, lecture?  What is the most effective way to present the material?  Who should be providing them - the professional organization, the institution, or someone else?  What are some of the current practices?  All of these questions bring us back to the session I was in this morning.

I was very interested to see how international these issues are.  The papers presented were from Qatar, the UK, Switzerland, and Africa (a training program that was conducted in several countries).  And at my table, there was myself and one other from the States (two different states), plus three from South Africa (again, two different states represented), two from Namibia, one from Uganda, and one from Benin.  And yet there was so much that overlapped or was common to our jobs and our libraries, no matter the country.  Like when we discussed management support, or lack thereof, for library professional development - everyone could relate to micromanaging bosses, or ones who don't delegate, or being unable to escape our email inbox and really focus on a training or webinar.

My afternoon session was one I was really looking forward to.  Titled "Do THEY have the right to information?", this one discussed library and information access for those homeless, incarcerated, or with mental difficulties.  I wasn't disappointed in the session, but the speakers were hit or miss for me.  Either the projects they presented were really on-point personally, or I just didn't have the background or experience to fully appreciate everything they were presenting.

One I was very excited about was Gerd Peschers, the director of the prison library in Munster, Germany.  This library won the German Library of the Year Award in 2007.  Yup, against all other libraries, this one was honored.  I was very curious to see what he'd present about. His website libertree.eu tells more of his goals and his work (it is in German, so you'll have to use a translation site to really get the most out of it).  And there was a surprise guest too.  Peschers had come early to South Africa to visit some of their prison libraries before the IFLA conference began, and he had talked to one of the staff members (I missed whether it was a guard or administrator or what) about coming to present today.  So, we had a brief surprise presentation!  It was really neat.  Peschers had been impressed by the SA libraries, and thought that it had been largely due to Mandela's influence, both from his value of education, and from his time personally spent in prison.  The guest agreed.  The right to information is in the South African constitution (yes, actually in their Bill of Rights!) and the prison libraries continue to support that.

Aside from the content, I had a few thoughts on the format of these things, and talked about it a little with my professor.  There are pluses and minuses to each of the ways that my two sessions were run today; which one you use just kinda depends on your goals and schedule.  And probably some personal preference too.  The morning session had each speaker present, then after each one, we broke into smaller groups (our tables) to discuss a handful of questions relating to the topic just presented.  In the afternoon, all the speakers presented, then all discussion was at the end.  Personally, I preferred discussing after each speaker.  I felt like I could process more of the material, talking about it right then instead of moving immediately onto the next topic.  The first presentations in the afternoon just didn't feel as fresh in my mind by the time we could discuss and ask questions. On the other hand, this session had the discussion at the end to allow all the presenters to entertain small audiences and answer questions.  Attendees could move between the groups, talking to several of the presenters during the discussion time.  My professor also pointed out that with so many overlapping presentations at the conference, going straight through the papers meant that people could slip in or out to move between sessions and not miss as much. 

I do wish the afternoon session had been broken into at least 2 sessions.  I know that the presentations did overlap some, in broad topics, but it felt like each of the three subcategories could have been its own section.  Not that I didn't get anything out of them, but I feel I could have gotten more out.  As it was, it felt like each topic was just brushed over lightly.  I know that's how these major conferences can feel sometimes, with just so much material to cover in relatively little time.  But at the same time, to work with any of these populations (homeless, incarcerated, or mental difficulties), you have to be motivated, given the challenges and stigmas associated with them.  And you could definitely tell from the presentations, that these were people who were passionate about their work.  I'm sure there were practical scheduling reasons for setting up the session as it was, but I would have loved to have given them each a little more time.

Finally, do something that scares you every day. 

I presented my group's highlights to the room after our discussions this morning.  I realize that I only spoke for about 3 minutes, but it was about a half ballroom full of people, all way more senior in the profession than I am (seeing as I'm still working on my degree...).  And actually saying something, presenting something no matter how small, is very different than just asking a question in one of these sessions.  Plus, I hate public speaking (am sooooo much better talking one-on-one).  So consider this a conscious effort to do something to challenge myself!