The paper describes the strategy of the Namibia Library and Archives Service (NLAS) to transform the public/community library network. The opportunity to transform the library network emerged when the Namibian education sector received major funding to develop its strategic framework for the implementation of education sector requirements for Vision 2030, Namibia’s development strategy. In 2002 the Ministry of Education invited the World Bank to assist in developing strategies that will overcome the challenges in the performance of the education sector. Although the library network is part of the mandate of the Ministry of Education, the World Bank team did not identify libraries as a critical area to be developed but recommended leaving the countrywide library network out of the education sector reform. The paper describes the strategy that NLAS applied to get the library sector accepted into the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP) and to secure funding for a countrywide library sector turn-around strategy, changing the focus of public/community libraries from recreational reading to institutions supporting education, research, economic empowerment and everyday information needs.
Namibians often find themselves in situations of litigation where they need person-related records to defend their rights and privileges. Such personrelated records include birth, adoption, marriage, or divorce or deceased estates. It has been observed that the institution where such records should be expected, the National Archives of Namibia often cannot retrieve person-related records of persons previously classified as non-whites under colonial and apartheid laws. Many native Namibians end up losing property or have problems claiming their constitutional rights due to lack of evidence. The purpose of this paper was to explore whether the existing archival literature can guide National Archives of new and emerging African nations on how to handle challenges brought about by gaps in inherited colonial archives. Using a literature survey to explore the state of what is written on the content and usage of colonial archives in post-colonial era, this article argues that the content and use of colonial archives in Africa do not feature prominently in the literature of archival science. Although there has been a rising interest on the subject during the last decade, none of this emerging literature has systematically studied archives in depth with a view on what these archives contain for the non-academic user, what they neglect and what they lack altogether in serving the needs of all citizens in post-colonial states. It recommends that archival scholars as well as archival institutions increase research into this neglected area. Raising awareness may produce academic discourse to help archivists in newly decolonised countries to competently support users whose inquiries currently cannot be answered by the inherited colonial archives collections.
This paper illustrates the experiences of the University of Namibia (UNAM) Library in demonstrating that librarians in its employment are, indeed, academic staff by research and publications and by performing academic support functions for researchers, students, faculties and centres. This was tested through the UNAM Library capacity building project initiative in partnership with the Helsinki University (HU) Library and Tampere University (UTA) Library, in Finland. The learning objectives of this collaborative project were to improve competencies of UNAM Library staff so that they are able to function expertly and competently in an academic environment and to evidently assert their position as academic staff. The approach applied in this collaborative capacity building project included staff exchanges to share best practices; joint seminars, meetings and mentorship programs with research as a cross cutting issue in all the areas. Staff members were encouraged to think critically about what they have learned, how it contributes to their work at UNAM and to develop their research skills. One of the highlights of this collaborative project is a book with the title Empowering People – Collaboration between Finnish and Namibian University Libraries. The book provides evidence to the librarians themselves as well to the university community that research and scholarly communication is equally a part and parcel of the librarians’ work.
in 1993. She has worked as a researcher and librarian at the Social Sciences Division of the University of Namibia (1993)(1994)(1995), as a Deputy Director: Research, Information and Library Services at the Namibian Parliament (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999) and is currently the Director of Namibia Library and Archives Service. She is the author of an autobiography, The Price of Freedom (New Namibian Books, 1997) and was Chairperson of Namibia Information Workers Association (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) and of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Eastern and Southern Africa (1997)(1998)(1999). She may be
This article contributes to the ongoing debate on library ‘value’ in collection management. It is written from the perspective of library practice in a developing country. It focuses on the micro-level of individual library and archival items and comes to the conclusion that value is a multidimensional concept and that one item can have many different values for different individuals, different groups of people, different uses and purposes which are not static but changing over time. This makes de-selection or ‘weeding’ of library and archives material a complex exercise, affecting the benefits from library use in various ways. There may be educational, entertainment, informational, research, evidential (legal), monetary, intrinsic, sentimental and other values inherent to individual library material. Weeding driven by narrowly interpreted criteria of usefulness, curriculum relevance and concerns about storage cost, may not do justice to the educational, social and cultural common good embodied by libraries.
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