NOTE:
Remember, if anybody wants an autograph for their copy of my book, Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet, http://marylaine.com/book/index.html, e-mail me and I'll tell you how you can get the message you want, inscribed on a paste-in-able slip of paper with my ExLibris caricature on it.
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GURU INTERVIEW, PART I: RODDY MACLEOD
Q: You’ve been based at Heriot Watt University for some
time, but you’ve also worked in Africa. Could you tell us about that?
A: That’s right. I spent two years at the University of Malawi,
in the mid-80s, and two years at the University of Botswana in the
mid-90s. After each contract, I came back to Heriot Watt.
Q: What was it like in Africa?
Roddy: I studied African history at Edinburgh University, so it was
a great experience to travel within that continent and visit places I’d read about. My original intention was to go up the Nile from Cairo, and then overland to Malawi, but at exactly the time I arrived in Khartoum the war in the south of Sudan flaired up, and I had to fly to Nairobi. Then the Kenyan/Tanzanian border was closed, so I
also had to fly from Nairobi to Lilongwe, but I did manage to travel
around Egypt, northern Sudan and Kenya.
Q: Did you visit any libraries along the way?
A: Only one, at the University of Khartoum. There’s a
wonderful wealth of historical manuscripts there.
I learnt two important things from working in the university libraries in Malawi and Botswana patience, and pride in my profession.
Patience was necessary, because in Malawi in those days
the infrastructure was underdeveloped, so it could take a whole
afternoon just to make one phonecall. Everything took longer, but
despite that, there was a great belief in the importance of
education, and the library was seen as a central resource. I
remember one incident when I was crossing the border into
Zambia. The border guards sometimes made things difficult for
travellers, and there were horror stories of people being delayed for
hours. On the trip in question, the custom’s officer asked me
where I worked, and when I told him Chancellor College, he
ushered me straight through, saying how good it was to meet me,
how he respected the university, and especially the library where
‘knowledge was stored’. That attitude was not uncommon, and
was so refreshingly different from the UK where, too often,
librarians are portrayed as crabbed dragons only interested in
silence.
In Botswana, the library was quite well-funded, and top-quality
librarians were attracted there to work, under the leadership of Kay
Raseroka, who has since become an important figure in IFLA. I
had access to better computer equipment there than in the UK,
and everyone was proud of the library and its collections. They
were great times, spent with some lovely people.
They now have an impressive new library building, and are well
positioned to benefit from the Internet. As you can imagine,
access to networked information can be partricularly important for
developing countries. Botswana is relatively healthy in economic
terms, and can take advantage of electronic resources and the
latest research findings, but in too many other developing countries
this isn’t the case. I think that organisations such as INASP are to
be lauded. [ed.: INASP is "a cooperative network of partners. Its mission is to enhance the flow of information within and between countries, especially those with less developed systems of publication and dissemination."]
Q: Are there any connections between the work you do
nowadays on the Internet Resources Newsletter and EEVL, and
developing countries?
A: Only really that the Internet Resources Newsletter
highlights many Web sites and services which are free, and can, in
theory, be exploited by those in developing countries, if the local
telecommunications structure permits. EEVL has worked in the
past with AVEL, based in Australia, and AVEL recently re-
focussed to concentrate more on sustainable development
resources. Sustainable development is particularly important in
developing countries, and I’d be happy for EEVL to become more
involved with such work, but, of course, funding needs to come
from somewhere for this to happen.
Q: How has the Internet Resources Newsletter changed over the years?
A: Surprisingly little, actually. We still feature selected Web
sites in each issue, but we’ve added occasional book reviews,
news items, and recently a Blogorama section. I still use Word
files and Word macros to put much of it together. These were
written a long time ago by Gordon Andrew, who used to co-edit the
newsletter, but they still work fine! The two Catherines (Ure and
Ferguson) who now co-edit it have developed the Web site, but the
intention is to keep everything simple, and this allows me to
concentrate on the content.
The biggest change came when Catherine Ure developed an email
version of the newsletter, and thanks to William Hann (see Ex
Libris Guru Interview in #39) who’s Willco company distributes it,
this has really taken off, with nearly 20,000 people now
subscribing. It’s a free publication, and this is very important. It has no budget, so we could not produce it without such help.
Come to think of it, not only does the newsletter have no budget, it
also has no editorial board and we don’t have to produce any
annual reports or forward plans, etc. Thanks to Michael Breaks,
the University Librarian, we can simply concentrate on the content.
Too often, nowadays, projects get bogged down in report writing
rather than simply getting on with things.
Q: Would you like to tell us about Pinakes, your subject launchpad?
A: That is a joint effort with Dave Bond, our Information
Services Librarian. It’s a very simple idea that has worked quite
well. It features links to, and thumbnail graphics of, over 50 subject gateways. The subject gateways, in turn, point to quality
resources in their respective areas.
Stay tuned for the continuation of this interview in next week's issue, where Roddy elaborates further on subject gateways, EEVL, cross-searching of multi-databases, his personal subject interests, and his favorite resources for keeping up.
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COOL QUOTE:
Accept that change is constant, and constant learning is the only reasonable response. Gone are the days (if they ever existed) when everything you need to know about being a librarian could be learned in library school. Learn to thrive on change. Anticipate it, smell it out, and chase after it. If you do this well enough, instead of being the victim of change, you will be its agent. And you will be able to mold change to serve your public better
Roy Tennant, "Strategies for Keeping Current, Library Journal, September 15, 2003, http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article
&articleid=CA320878
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