NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 February

Grant to provide for assessment of seven university libraries in Africa

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@uiuc.edu

2/17/04

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — International library experts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been awarded a grant that will allow them to work with seven African university libraries.

The grant of $42,600 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York was awarded to Illinois’ Mortenson Center for International Library Programs. The seven university libraries are in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

The funding, which supports a preliminary assessment of the seven libraries, came from Carnegie’s Partnership for Higher Education in Africa. The partnership supports innovative programs that help revitalize university libraries around the world, and equip them to educate future country leaders and administrators.

According to Mortenson director Barbara Ford, who is overseeing the project with Mortenson Center assistant director Susan Schnuer: “University libraries in all countries have an exciting and challenging future. They must learn quickly and efficiently to select, implement and manage new technologies to provide better access to information.

“Information today is no longer confined to a physical structure such as a library, and learning to provide access to virtual information is critical to the educational mission of universities. One way to help librarians transition into an open access information environment is to provide a professional development program that focuses on the new technologies and the skills needed to use them.”

Ford said she and Schnuer will first consult with the seven Carnegie grant recipients about a needs assessment for their libraries and future training programs for library staff.

The assessment is the first step in evaluating the need for a professional development program for grantees, which are the University of Ghana, Legon, and University of Education at Winneba (Ghana); Ahmadu Bello University, University of Jos, and Obafemi Owolowo University (Nigeria); Dar es Salaam University (Tanzania); and Makerere University (Uganda).

Mortenson staff will spend about a month in Africa, returning to the Urbana campus in late March. Focusing on user access to information, their review will assess resources in such areas as technical infrastructure, delivery of services, bibliographic instruction for users, understanding of international standards and related services. New technologies and their role in the libraries also will be part of the assessment.

Before joining the Mortenson Center as its second director in January of 2003, Ford was assistant commissioner for central library services at the Chicago Public Library, and prior to that, she was the president of the American Library Association.

The Mortenson Center specializes in providing short-term training for librarians from outside the United States. Founded in 1991, the Center has welcomed more than 600 librarians from 85 countries to attend campus-based seminars on library management, fund raising, new technologies and library promotion and advocacy.

Last fall, 16 associates from seven countries – Colombia, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa – were at the Mortenson Center for an eight-week program. Currently, associates from Japan and Russia are at the center.

For more information about the African project or the Mortenson Center, visit www.library.uiuc.edu/mortenson.