Category Archives: Education

ICT Professional Development for African academic librarians

Enhancing librarians’ ICT skills for research enablement in African universities: a Carnegie-funded CPD programme

Applications are now open for the first intake of the Carnegie-funded Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, which is aimed at enhancing ICT skills for research enablement in African universities. Academic librarians and LIS faculty in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are eligible to apply for admission to this programme. Eight four-week training sessions will take place over a period of three years. 32 participants will be selected for each intake. This four-week residential training programme with both practical (70%) and theoretical (30%) components will cover the following topics:
1. Setting the context: Libraries, ICTs and research
2. Leadership and innovation
3. Information literacy
4. Social media for research discoverability in an academic environment
5. Mobile technology and mobility
6. Managing and organising information
7. Personal Information Management
8. Open Scholarship and Open Science (OS/S) – Publishing
9. Open Scholarship and Open Science – Institutional Repositories.
10. Open Scholarship and Open Science – Understanding and using research data management
11. Digitisation
12. Evaluating website architecture
13. Cloud computing and storage
14. Virtual research environments
15. The next generation librarian
This is a fully funded programme which will take place in Pretoria, South Africa. The funding covers books and other academic expenditures, flights, accommodation, and a daily stipend while in Pretoria. All participants are expected to reside in the accommodation provided in Pretoria for the duration of the programme.

Grant exclusions:
· Visa applications, personal expenses (for example medicine, laundry, phone calls, etc.)
· ICT equipment such as laptops, modems, internet access top-ups etc.
· Travel to and from the airport in your home country

Application for the first intake of 2014 closes on 29 April 2014. No late applications will be considered. (There will be a second intake in November 2014, as well as further intakes in 2015 and 2016.) For additional information on the programme content, eligibility and selection criteria, application procedures, important dates, etc., please see:
http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=22719&subid=22719&ipklookid=7.

All correspondence or enquiries: Joan de la Haye at Carnegie-cpd@up.ac.za

New Library of Congress Literacy Awards

Applications Being Accepted for New Library of Congress Literacy Awards

April 15 Is Deadline for Awards Totaling $250,000

Three prizes will be awarded annually:

  • The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000), for a groundbreaking or sustained record of advancement of literacy by any individual or entity worldwide;
  • The American Prize ($50,000), for a project developed and implemented successfully during the past decade for combating illiteracy and/or aliteracy;
  • The International Prize ($50,000), for the work of an individual, nation or nongovernmental organization working in a specific country or region.

The awards will be conferred for the first time in October 2013 to recognize and support outstanding achievements in the field of literacy, both in the United States and abroad. Special interest is given to groundbreaking, innovative and highly successful work that could be replicated by others.

Individuals, institutions and organizations that are working to reduce illiteracy or aliteracy (having the ability to read, but simply not exercising the skill) are encouraged to apply:

Individuals might include, but are not limited to:

  • Educators
  • Librarians
  • School media/technology specialists
  • Community leaders

Institutions, Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations might include:

  • Libraries
  • Schools
  • Nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations such as literacy groups, museums, community-based programs, school or library organizations, foundations

The application rules and a downloadable application form may be accessed at www.read.gov/literacyawards/.

For more and detailed information please also go to http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/13-019.html

UNESCO Publications out now

New publications from Uthe UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States in Beirut:

Life Skills (Arabic)

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002193/219331A.pdf

Teacher’s Guide for the Book Life Skills (Arabic)

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002193/219335A.pdf

UNESCO International Meeting of Experts: Fostering a Culture of Intercultural Dialogue in the Arab States, Report

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002196/219692A.pdf (Arabic)

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002196/219692E.pdf (English)

 

Literacy Study in Lebanon

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002196/219625A.pdf (Arabic)

 

School-Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV) in Lebanon (English)

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002196/219623E.pdf

Cyberfamily activities

The blog Cyber Families: Connect, Create, Care (http://cyberfamilies.blogspot.com) provides biweekly thematic online activities for the whole family to do together. Each theme includes projects that family members connect, create, care, and explore careers. Themes include virtual museums, forensics, mass media, animals, nutrition, poetry, and more. Dr. Lesley Farmer developed this site to help librarians reach out to families by providing them with top-quality websites that promote information literacy and digital citizenship.