Library Technical Consultants
Visit Unijos Library
Technical Consultants –
The
Mortenson
Center
for International Library Programs, for
the
University
of
Jos
under the
Unijos – Carnegie Partnership were in the University Library October
29 – 30, 2007. The team comprised of Susan Schnuer - Team Leader and
Assistant Director of the
Mortenson
Center
, and David
Dorman. The team met with the University Librarian, members of the Library
Project Management Team, and the Jos-Carnegie-Partnership Committee, where
they expressed satisfaction with the library’s progress in the
preparation for the implementation of an integrated library system. They
expressed the hope that fund will be released soon for the purchased of the
software.
Two Unijos Librarians Present
Lead Papers at Cataloguing and Classification Section National Workshop
The 27th Annual Seminar/Workshop of the Cataloguing, Classification and Indexing
Section of the Nigerian Library Association held 28th October
– 2nd November, 2007 at the Niger State Library Board,
Minna
,
Niger
State, with the theme: Changing Work Patterns for Cataloguers,
Classifiers and Indexers in the Era of ICT. Mrs. Apeke Ajulo
– Head, Cataloguing, and Dr. Stephen Akintunde – Deputy
Librarian (Admin. & Systems) presented lead papers respectively. Mrs.
Ajulo’s paper was titled: “Co-operative
Cataloguing Ventures – a Discourse”; while that of Dr.
Akintunde was titled: “Budgeting
for Technical Services in the Era of ICTs”. Both papers
generated considerable debates, since they were quite relevant in the
situation of libraries in
Nigeria
today. Follow the link to read their papers.
Unijos Deputy Librarian attends
Inaugural Meeting of new Library and Information Network of the Association
of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
Deputy
University Librarian (Admin. & Systems), University of Jos, Dr. Stephen
Akintunde, was one of the 16 Librarians, Publishers, and Commonwealth
officials who met for the inauguration of ACU Libraries & Information
Network: An Information Lab for the Knowledge Society, which held at the
University of Botswana, Gaborone, 22 – 24 October, 2007. During the
meeting, which was organized by the Association of Commonwealth
Universities, and supported by UNESCO, a number of issues relating to
Information Literacy, Quality Assurance and Benchmarking, Strategic
Engagement within Institutions, and Librarian-Publisher Engagement, were
discussed. According to Jonathan
Harle, Programme Officer (Research & Libraries) at the ACU Headquarters
in
London
,
“The network will be a new forum, which we hope will enable
Commonwealth University Librarians to engage with each other regularly and
informally. This we hope, will foster new links and hopefully collaborative
projects between institutions, whilst also helping to connect librarians
with publishes, scheme providers, and other organizations active in this
area”.
Unijos Deputy Librarian named
Country Coordinator for electronic Information for Libraries – Free
and Open Source Software
Deputy
University Librarian (Administration & Systems) - Dr. Stephen Akinyemi
Akintunde was, October 18, 2007, named as Nigeria’s Country
Coordinator for electronic Information for Libraries’ new Free and
Open Source Software (eIFL-FOSS) for Libraries project. He will work with
librarians and software developers in countries that are within the eIFL
network. Funding for the project was secured from the Open Society
Institute only in October this year. In an electronic mail message, Randy
Metcalfe, Programme Officer for eIFL-FOSS, explained that “eIFL-FOSS
is an eIFL.net program advocating free and open source software (FOSS) use
in libraries in developing and transition countries. It aims to raise
awareness and understanding of FOSS, facilitate eIFL.net member engagement
with FOSS development communities, and undertake projects of special
significance to eIFL.net members.” According to him, “The
eIFL-FOSS country co-ordinators are, or will become, FOSS champions for
libraries in their countries. Each works, at the moment, in some capacity
with the library IT infrastructure in one of the local eIFL consortium
libraries.” Dr. Akintunde was
nominated by the Nigerian University Libraries consortium (NULIB). Read
more about eIFL.net and eIFL-FOSS at EIFL: eIFL-FOSS
University of Jos Library Hosts
eIFL.Net Workshop on Digital Information Resources
The
University
of
Jos
Library
was host to other university libraries in
Northern Nigeria
October 14th – 17th,
2007. It was a capacity building workshop on digital information resources
for Nigerian universities. The workshop was organized by the Nigerian
University Libraries Consortium (NULIB) and sponsored by Electronic
Information for Libraries – www.eifl.net Participants were exposed to electronic
resources for libraries that were available at either reduced prices or
entirely free to members of NULIB. They were shown how to register, access,
and retrieve the materials for use of their patrons. Participants also
discussed how to diffuse the knowledge to their patrons. It was a hands-on
workshop. Workshop facilitator was Dr. Stephen Akintunde, Deputy University
Librarian,
University
of
Jos
. The
Obafemi
Awolowo
University
,
Ile-Ife, hosted universities in the South from October 18 – 20th.
Click here for more
reports on the Workshop, including pictures.
Unijos Librarians Attend 2007
Durban
IFLA Meetings
The World Library and
Information Congress (WLIC): 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council
Durban, South Africa, August 2007. It was attended by over 3,000
delegates from 177 countries, among who were three librarians from the
University
of
Jos
– Mrs. Leah Tashi (Deputy
Librarian (Subject Libraries), Mr. Reuben Ajao (Social Sciences Librarian),
and Dr. Stephen Akintunde, Deputy Librarian (Admin. & Systems). The
three also attended a post-IFLA programme: “FOCUS ON ACCESS: AFRICA
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON BUILDING DIGITAL COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES
2007”, held at Sica’s Guest House, Durban, August 24 –
31. The workshop was organized by the Centre for Information Literacy,
University
of
Cape Town
,
and funded, according to Professor Peter Underwood, Project Director, by
“a Technical Assistance Grant from the Carnegie Corporation of
New York
, to assist with the establishment of
collection development strategies for the use of electronic information
sources in
Africa
”. Joint
facilitators with Professor Underwood at the workshop were Chris Armstrong
of Information Automation Limited,
Aberystwyth
,
United Kingdom
; and Ray
Lonsdale, Reader, Department of Information Studies,
University
of
Wales
,
Aberystwyth. Attendance of Unijos participants at the IFLA meetings
(including the pre- and post-IFLA) were sponsored from the grant. Earlier, Dr. Akintunde had attended a
pre-IFLA
Africa
Section meeting August 15
– 18. The pre-IFLA meeting focused on how libraries in
Africa
can provide services to enable their countries
meet the Millennium Development Goals. Click the link to download pictures (zip compressed files) of
the pre-IFLA Africa
Section meeting and post-IFLA
Focus on Access Workshop.
Beyond Google:
One day training for Librarians and Lecturers at the
University
of
Jos
,
American Corner Tuesday, 15th May 2007
A one day workshop on
Advanced Internet Search strategies was organised by the United States
Embassy,
Abuja
.
It held at the American Corner of the
University
of
Jos
on Tuesday, 15th May 2007. It was aimed at creating awareness on the many
tools and tricks of web searching that would assist in effective and timely
research.
NLA IT Section
National Workshop on Library Automation to hold at University of Jos March
2007.
The Nigerian Library
Association Information Technology (NLA IT) Section organized a workshop on
Library Automation tagged “Library and Information Today LITT07"
the workshop held from 18th to 22nd March 2007. About 50 librarians from
all over the country attended the workshop which was essentially hands-on.
It was held at the Computer Centre of the University of Jos. Facilitators
were: Hamza Dalhatu of the American Embassy, Abuja; Samuel Eyitayo, also of
the American Embassy, and Chairman, IT Section of the Nigerian Library
Association; and Stephen Akintunde of the University of Jos Library.
Index Data Provides
Demo access for yet-to-be-released federated metadata search database to
UNIJOS.
The open Source Z38.50
technology company, Index Data (
US
) has chosen
University
of
Jos
Community
to enjoy a Demo access to its
Federated Metadata Search Database. The Database offers federated search
capabilities cutting across major search engines, Open Access Initiative
Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) compliant databases and
harvesters like OAIsters. David Dorman the Consultant to Mortensen Centre
For International Library Programs, Urbana-Champaign (US) announced this
offer to the Library Administration during the VTLS training that took
place, February 2007.
Training for
Cataloguing staff at University of Ibadan
A two man team from
the Cataloguing Section of the University Library left for
Ibadan
for a training
in January 2007.
Electronic
Resources, Citation and Referencing styles Seminar for Post Graduate
Students Thursday, 22nd February 2007 at Law Multipurpose Lecture Theatre.
The seminar was
organised by the
Post
Graduate
School
,
for postgraduate students of the University and their supervisors and Heads
of Departments and Deans of Faculties. The Deputy Librarian (Administration
& Systems) – Dr. Akintunde facilitated the seminar which took
participants through the electronic resources on the Library’s web
page, and how to do general and refined searches for resources in the
Internet. The Seminar which was well attended at the Law Auditorium, also
discussed appropriate citation and referencing styles (American
Psychological Association APA, and MLA, Chicago and others). The CD-ROM of
the lecture has since been distributed to Post Graduate students by the
Post
Graduate
