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| Prof Christine Stilwell |
Despite the anxiety which the class experienced this morning in anticipation of our presentations, Prof Christine Stilwell's session on the way forward for librarians in South Africa, proved to be very engaging and informative. She highlighted the fact that librarians need to be more vocal about the emerging technological trends and its impact on librarianship. The Delphi Model was mentioned as a method to identify where we are and where we want to be as librarians.
Prof Theo Bothma's presentation about the next generation librarian blew us out of our seats. He introduced us to advanced technologies and showed us what could be achieved by using smart phones. The amazing services available such as Google Goggles and other Web 3.0 technologies enhance the fact that librarians need to harness these communications methods and adapt to the environment that the 21st Century patron frequents. ICT definitely plays a major role in reshaping and redefining libraries and librarianship. We have to move away from traditional thinking and acknowledge the fact that out users are moving out of the library space into mobile and other technologies.
Our presentations elicited a positive reaction from our assessors, Ujala
and Christine. They were very pleased with all the groups and I must
admit that my group amazed the class as well. Firstly, I provided the
group with a set of slides I had used at other conferences across
Africa. The pictures depicted scenes from African universities
including its academics and students. Our slides were bright and
colourful and I could see that everyine was impressed. Viveka Pillai
started off with a joke to break the ice and I thoroughly enjoyed myself
speaking about possible development areas for librarians. Being used
to presenting at conferences both nationally and internationally, I had
known what to expect and knew how to address the audience. My
colleagues, Musa Radebe and Spondo hugged me a while later expressing
their admiration and astonishment. Sonto and Nicoline both did a
marvelous job too with their bits on the strategy.
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| My presentation - trying to be as convincing as possible |
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| Sharnitha Bhim, Viveka Pillai and Musa Radebe |
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| Selimina, Zethu, Siphethile, Myself and Musa Radebe |
A superb gala dinner marked the end of a strenuous, yet fruitful two weeks where classmates including myself dressed to the nines. What a pleasure to finally enjoy each others company without having to worry about assignments!
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| Thami, Pearl, Sonto and Nicoline |
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| Ujala Satgoor delivering a speech at the Gala Dinner |
Those were the good times.
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