Global Librarianship
I work with graduate students from all over the world, some of whom have not studied at an American university before, and I think one of their many challenges is getting used to our libraries. I decided to attend the Global Librarianship session at SLA to get a glimpse of how libraries work outside of North America.
None of the speakers talked specifically about university libraries, but their remarks about Africa were still useful to me, and all of their stories were very inspiring. I thought all three were great speakers on causes they were truly passionate about, and they demonstrated the great diversity within sub-Saharan Africa.
Melanie Sellars of Librarians Without Borders spoke about her work developing a library in Angola. Kevin Cullen of the Univeristy of Colorado spoke about his experience volunteering for Peace Corps in Botswana. Jane Kinney Meyers, who received the Dow Jones Leadership Award and a standing ovation at the opening general session, spoke about the Lubuto Library Project.
