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!

IFLA WLIC Day 3 - One Last Random Thought

So, remember I was saying the other day that the Stadium is gi-norm-ous?  I wasn't exaggerating.

This picture was taken from a couple km out into Table Bay on the way to Robben Island.  And look how big it still looks!  You can see it in perspective to other buildings and to the mountain behind it.  I've seen it on aerial views too, and it's immediately recognizable (I've seen postcards, mostly, but you can easily pick it out on Google Maps too).  Craziness!  Maybe I'm just not used to enormous stadiums (no professional football or baseball attendance here) or maybe it's the shape as much as the actual capacity, but it still seems really impressively big.

IFLA WLIC Day 3 - Robben Island

Wow.

This one was just so impressive.  Definitely a must-see if you're ever in Cape Town. Intense history, natural beauty - this was a combination of two things that I definitely love.  There's a reason Robben Island is a World Heritage Site, kids.

Robben Island is named for the Dutch word for seal, because lots of fur seals used to live on the island.  The English called it Penguin Island, and one explorer named it for his mother, but Robben Island was the one that really stuck.  I'd always thought it was named for a Mr. Robben, but no.  Seals.

Robben Island has been an important stop for explorers and traders and settlers and so on, since people first started sailing this way.  It made for an easy supply stop, without having to land on the mainland and deal with locals (aside from the seals and penguins, no one lived on Robben - at it's closest, it's still about 7km from shore - not exactly a convenient commute).  It's got a gorgeous view of the bay and Table Mountain.  It'd be million-dollar-real estate if it wasn't so far offshore.  Almost makes you forget why this island is significant, but that beauty supposedly just added to the imprisonment - life and beauty and freedom so visible, but not close enough to touch.

Activity on the island has a pretty long history too.  It's been used as a prison for almost as long as it's been used as a supply and communication point.  Starting in the mid-1600s (only a couple years after finding the place!), the Dutch put political prisoners out on the island - local leaders, mutineers, that sort of thing - the people they wanted secluded so as to not stir up more trouble.

The island was also used as a leper colony in the 1800s.  Though most of the leper buildings have been destroyed, you can still see the leper graveyard and the church used at the time.  Interestingly, the only reason the church survived the repurposing and redevelopment of the island was that it was the only building on the island not owned by the state; it was (and is) owned by the Anglican church.

Then the island was outfitted with 9inch guns during WWII, to protect Cape Town and Table Bay, should it ever be attacked.  The tour guide made a point to say the guns have never been fired in aggression though; Cape Town wasn't attacked.  The guns have been restored though, and one of the guns on the island is the only remaining gun of its kind still functional (well, it would be fully functional if they put in the firing pins, but otherwise...).  It's a big sucker, that's for sure!

The most famous use of the island though, was the prison for political prisoners during the apartheid era, beginning in the 1960s.  Many were sent without trial, or rather a sham trial, and one of the most famous residents had no trial, but an actual clause in the legislation keeping him there pretty much indefinitely.  Robert Sobukwe was another anti-apartheid political leader, a contemporary of Mandela's, and after his official sentence was completed, the government didn't want to release him, so they sent Sobukwe to Robben under a special legislation.  He was kept in a tiny house next to the guard dog kennels, not among the other prisoners, and only one person could talk to him, the priest who visited once a month.  And he suffered through six years of that. Humans can be so... well, inhuman, sometimes.

We passed the quarry on the tour, where many were sent to work as their hard labor detail.  Because of the range of backgrounds of the prisoners on the island, some were highly educated and some only with grade school level education.  The quarry was one of the places which brought them together, and they turned it into their university.  People would work with one man for a while, say a lawyer, and learn history, and then move to work under another man and learn math, and so on.  One man, currently a Supreme Court Justice, said that he arrived at Robben Island with a grade 8 level education, and left with his doctorate.  They even taught some of the guards ("warders"), and for that reason, guards were rotated regularly on duties on the island, and for overall time on the island.  The administration didn't want guards sympathetic to the prisoners or their political beliefs.

The pile of rocks in the forefront of the quarry was from a reunion trip in the 1990s.  Many of the former prisoners, including Mandela, came back in 1995 to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of his release.  They were talking about the duties at the quarry, and breaking rocks, and Mandela demonstrated.  Other former prisoners split rocks too, adding to the pile.  The pile grew into an Isivivane, or a memorial for those prisoners who had died on the island and didn't get to experience freedom again.

We passed the Medium Security prison building on the island too.  It was built because the security prisoners (the political prisoners) were supposed to be kept separated from the common law prisoners. Apparently the guards didn't want the political prisoners converting the others to their ideology.  The political prisoners were housed in the Maximum Security building, while the common law prisoners were in the Medium Security building.  In other words, the thieves, murders, rapists and so one were considered less dangerous than those people incarcerated for objecting to apartheid.

But the big stop after the tour of the island was the Maximum Security building.  Former prisoners serve as the tour guides now, and it adds an interesting element, hearing first hand how the apartheid government prosecuted and punished, even into the 1980s (when our guide had been arrested).

As part of my school work this summer, preparing for this trip, I've been reading a lot on South Africa, and have been reading Long Walk to Freedom too.  I was actually standing in the yard and at the cell that I'd been reading about, and seeing in so many old pictures.  I always like seeing history in person (so to speak).  Makes it seem much more real.

 

The only real downside I felt for the day was the length of time I was able to spend there.  We had great tour guides, both on the bus and through the prison.  But the tours were so structured, we didn't have a lot of time to wander on our own and read signs and really experience it ourselves.  Maybe it was because it was the last ferry of the day, maybe because it was the tour from the museum and not a private/chartered something, I dunno.  I just know that our family reads signs at museums (some more than others - love you, Mom!) and there was a lot of information on the island.  I ended up taking a lot of pictures of signs as well as landmarks and scenery, so that I could go back later and read.  It's not that I didn't like the tour, or didn't find it interesting or educational; I just feel like I could have learned and felt so much more if I'd had a little more time.  Still, that doesn't mean you shouldn't make the trip out to the island - definitely don't miss it if you're in the area.

On a lighter note, I couldn't have asked for a better day to go out on the water!  It wasn't choppy, cold or too windy - perfect weather, in fact!

IFLA WLIC Day 3 - Welcome to IFLA!

Today began with the Newcomers' Intro Session and then the Opening Ceremony.  We're officially open now! 

The Newcomers' session was helpful, but mostly in a review sort of way.  Information on the program, how the schedule was set up, how best to make the most of the conference.  All very good information, but a little bit of a review.  Still, always good to have reminders.

The Opening Ceremony was impressive, as opening ceremonies tend to be.  The key speaker was very interesting.  Dr. Rob Adam works on the Square Kilometer Array, or SKA.  It's a massive radio satellite array, an international collaboration aiming to create the most accurate radio telescope.  The dishes are spread in South Africa and in Australia (need lots of isolated desert for clear reading).  So why was he speaking at a librarianship conference?  His work falls more on the Information Science side of the spectrum.  The total area covered by the radio dishes is the titular square kilometer.  Which means that's an awful lot of data processing.  So, his work has some interesting implications for information science and Big Data.

Besides the speeches, there was interpretive storytelling, and lots of music.  I'm not much for interpretive storytelling (or poetry readings, so similar) but I really liked the children's choir who closed the show.  Very dynamic, and good music choices - some more popular stuff.  The lady behind me was singing along to one medley of songs they did, and I was singing along to Circle of Life (written by a South African, apparently!).  

 

I have to say, I like all the music.  I know I've heard about it before, but it really does seem to permeate life here.  It's like going to Memphis, I think, and not hearing blues or jazz.

The other thing I liked seeing today was how similar we all are, even as different as we all are.  I people-watch, being the little wallflower that I am.  So after I'd taken several pictures of the Marimba players before the Opening (the picture right above), I was watching the crowd who was also taking pictures.  And in the same crowd of people, were several in more traditional dress.  I.e., the sort of eye-catching dress that others might stop and take pictures of.  In the few minutes I was watching (and then getting my camera out), I saw lots of sports coats and similar business casual, a bright pink sari, several different traditional African outfits (sorry, can't narrow it down more), a handful of hijab, and an East Asian nun.  I think you can see several in the picture below, all snapping pictures (mostly on their cell phones) of something that's new and different to them.  I like that about big travel like this - the world is both very big and very small all at the same time.

IFLA WLIC Day 2 - Some sightseeing - guided wanderings

The other half of my day was spent literally wandering the city.  I rode around on the hop-on, hop-off bus for a bit, listening to the recording (more on that later), and I did a walking tour through the neighborhood of Bo-Kaap.  Bo-Kaap is one of the iconic sights of Cape Town, and you can see why in the pictures below.  All the pretty colors!  And if it's a clear day, you'll see Table Mountain overhead too.  Not our luck, but still a pretty walk.

 

Bo-Kaap was previously known as the Malay Quarter, and was an area of slaves and freed slaves.  Incidentally the Malaysians in the area were not the majority, but the name still stuck.  The Bo-Kaap name is geographic in origin - it is derived from the Dutch for 'above the cape' (the neighborhood is situated on the hillside).  Because of where the slaves were imported from, the area was (and is) predominantly Muslim, even though any religion other than Christianity was outlawed during that time period.  The first mosque was founded about 40 years before the repeal of slavery and the religious restrictions.  A man had been captured as a slave, and brought to Cape Town.  While on Robben Island, he wrote down everything he could remember of the Qur'an, and then brought that with him.  He used it to teach when he arrived in Cape Town, thus founding the first mosque.

       

The story behind the houses is a good one too.  Slaves couldn't wear colors, only black and white, and their houses could not be colored either.  Once a slave had earned enough to buy his freedom, he celebrated by painting his face in bright colors, dressing brightly, and celebrating with friends and family.  One freed slave painted his house bright red as well.  He found that it actually helped his business, because he became known as the 'tailor in the red house.'  For either reason, the tradition of painting the houses brightly caught on, and now these couple square blocks of brightly colored houses are a landmark in the city!

And of course a pic to prove I really was there :)

The first house in Bo-Kaap is now the Bo-Kaap Museum.  It's the tan one in the center there.  And it's right across the street from the oldest business in Bo-Kaap, a little corner shop and cafe, which smelled deliciously of spices as we walked past :)

The other part of my wandering wasn't so active, but still very informative.  The hop-on, hop-off bus has several routes very well planned to get you to a lot of the major sites.  I rode the long way back to the Convention Center after my tour, so I could see more of the town.  We passed several beaches to the south of the city, which were very pretty, but in the weather today, also reminded me that it was still winter here.  Those waves look very choppy and cold!

    

The bus route also drove up Table Mountain, but with all the clouds, it was absolutely 0 visibility.  I didn't even try for a picture.  It was quite a climb up the hill though, so I'm really hoping that it clears up this week and I can get up the cable car to the top to hike.  The view must be fantastic!!

The other big landmark I couldn't photograph today was the Stadium.  That thing is HUGE!  I know I've seen big football stadiums in the states, but this one seems really, really big.  Maybe it's the design, or maybe it's just that football really is that much more popular than foo'ball.  (Yeah, I said it).