Tag Archives: Inclusion

The 10-Minute Library Advocate #91: Think how you can promote cultural diversity

Through providing access to information, libraries have a key role in opening eyes and broadening horizons.

In schools, they can complement classroom work by promoting wider reading. In universities, they make it possible for students to build up a deeper, wider idea of the state of knowledge in their fields. Beyond, they enable people to discover – and even escape to – new worlds.

Crucially, they have a key potential role in helping readers explore and enjoy the diversity of their communities, their countries, and the world as a whole.

This of course doesn’t just stop at information itself, but also the activities and opportunities that can be built on top of this, using spaces and staff support.

Importantly, there is the possibility to make people aware of perspectives and experiences that they may not have thought of, and to celebrate this diversity.

Through this, libraries can help achieve the goals of the International Day of Cultural Diversity, marked last Saturday!

So for our 91st 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think how you can promote cultural diversity.

How can you best work with those bringing these different perspectives and experiences in order to share these?

What ideas do you have for giving users the opportunity to try something different, stepping outside of what they know and embracing difference?

How can you present this as a positive, as something that brings benefits to individuals and groups alike?

To start, there are lots of great ideas in IFLA’s Multicultural Library Manifesto, and its accompanying toolkit. You can also take a look at our blog for the International Day of Cultural Diversity, which explores indicators of the impact of diversity on development!

Let us know your ideas in the comments below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 2.3: Develop standards, guidelines, and other materials that foster best professional practice 

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!

The City We Need Now 2.0 – Library Implications

The COVID-19 pandemic came at a time of already insufficient progress towards development goals. Achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda has gone from hard to much harder, and with it, the need for ambitious, concerted, innovative effort has grown.

Both the challenges we face, and the potential for finding solutions, are so often concentrated in cities. As the places and structures in which people live, work, socialise, learn and create, our ability to realise our potential, and our rights, is heavily influenced by them. Getting cities policy – or policies – right, makes a huge difference.

With the half-way point in the 2030 Agenda fast approaching, the World Urban Forum just next month, and with the General Assembly reviewing the implementation of the New Urban Agenda recently, this question is high on the international agenda.

To shape thinking, the World Urban Campaign, of which IFLA is a member, launched a 2.0 version of its The City We Need Now campaign. This looked to bring together thinkers from across the board in the urban policy space, in order to identify themes around which to build action.

On 25 April, following consultations around the world, the key conclusions of this work were published, highlighting 10 priority areas for action. These are being promoted by Campaign members, and brought to decision-makers, from the local to the global levels.

The document is a helpful one for libraries, both in terms of identifying themes which matter for libraries, and actions where libraries have a strong role to play.

This blog summarises these, in order to help libraries and library associations draw on this as a resource for advocacy, especially with local governments and local government associations. It focuses on each of the identified highlights in turn:

1) The city we need now is healthy and promotes wellbeing: an obvious priority in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this nonetheless focuses on how to improve quality of life durably, including in the face of non-communicable diseases. Improving mental health and wellbeing, as well as the determinants of health (education, housing, social connections) are all underlined.

Libraries of course have a long-standing role in supporting wellbeing, through their collections (including growing awareness of the potential of bibliotherapy) and simply offering a quiet space. They can contribute more actively to healthy living through supporting public health campaigns and enabling access to eHealth.

2) The city we need now is free from violence, war and fosters a culture of peace: the threat of insecurity has always been there for many, with Russia’s war against Ukraine only the latest reminder. The Campaign highlights the need, in addition to an immediate end to aggression, to support initiatives that bring people together and move them away from conflict.

In their role as community hubs, open for all of the community, libraries are well placed to support here, acting as living labs. They are on the front lines in some cases, for example Colombia where they have been among the first public services to return to areas previously marked by conflict. Through supporting democratic engagement and empowerment, they also strengthen people’s ability to find solutions and act.

3) The city we need now is resilient, low-carbon and adapts to climate change: COP26 marked a major reaffirmation of the need for action to reduce emissions and promote adaptation and resilience. Cities are part of this, both as actors in limiting climate change, and in needing to respond. The Campaign calls for stronger engagement in climate action, as well as a drive to change behaviours.

As IFLA highlighted in the run-up to COP26, libraries have the potential to play a powerful role in climate action and empowerment. Through informing decision-making, sharing information that drives behaviour change, and providing a space for communities to build consensus around action, there is much that they can do to make a difference here.

4) The city we need now is inclusive and promotes gender equality: linked to the highlight around a culture of peace, the Campaign underlines the need for tolerance – and indeed celebration – of diversity, and forms of decision-making that include everyone. It calls for proactive efforts to educate and share experiences, and value the lives and experience of all.

As spaces open to all, libraries can act as catalysts for successful multiculturalism and broader equality, designing services which respond to the needs of all. Focused programming can go further, especially when libraries benefit from investment and training. They can also offer a ‘safer’, more structured environment for all to get involved in decision-making.

5) The city we need now is economically vibrant and provides opportunities for all: the need for people to have a livelihood and to encourage local business and job possibilities also features. The informal economy, as well as new forms such as the shared economy, can play a role, but of course rely on people knowing about opportunities, and having the skills to realise them.

Public libraries in many countries were founded on the principle that they would help people continue to learn throughout life, and they continue to do this in a huge variety of ways as a core part of the lifelong learning infrastructure. In parallel with this, they offer crucial support for jobseekers, both in applying for support (where available) and finding new opportunities.

6) The city we need now has a strong sense of place and has room for diverse identities: in effect, this is the culture goal of the Campaign, stressing the need both to consider cultural factors, and to engage cultural actors in order to support sustainable development. The sector has, however, suffered from the forced closure of venues and limits of travel. There needs to be investment now, in order to ensure future returns.

Libraries are often the densest, and best-used cultural networks cities have, enabling people both to access their shared culture, and achieve their broader cultural rights. They need to be better recognised within cultural policies however, in particular those that look to realise the potential of culture to drive integration and success in wider policy goals.

7) The city we need now is managed through public participation and democratically governed: as stressed already above, there is a pressing need for citizens to be involved in decision-making, not just in order to increase a sense of engagement and belonging, but also to improve the quality and relevance of decisions taken. The Campaign notes in particular the value of open data, and proactive outreach to all members of the community.

Libraries are increasingly realising their role as part of the democratic infrastructure. In addition to traditional work in helping people to take informed decisions, many provide space for democratic debate for the community as a whole, key public legal information to help people realise their rights, and portals for engaging with open data. Some even help designing these portals in order best to meet user needs.

8) The city we need now fosters comprehensive and integrated planning and development: the way in which buildings and neighbourhoods are planned and used is a key concern, and something over which city authorities can have a significant impact. The need to move towards more localised communities (15-Minute Cities) is on the agenda, as is the need to regenerate and re-use existing places, rather than simply taking more land.

There are already great examples of libraries sitting at the heart of efforts to bring life back to previously run-down areas, including IFLA’s publication on new libraries in old buildings. There is also clearly an important role for information in effective urban planning and policy, something that library and information professionals are well placed to support, either within governments or wider research centres.

9) The city we need now ensures access to housing, services and mobility: closely linked to better planning is the need to ensure that everyone can access the services and opportunities that they need. Clearly, improving housing provision is also essential, as this unlocks a major series of other economic and societal benefits (health, wellbeing, disposable incomes, education).

Through operating as networks, public libraries already represent an example of decentralised service provision in action (and indeed, in many cases act as multifunctional service centres, partnering with other parts of government). When libraries are accessible on foot or by bicycle, this reduces the need for polluting travel, or for excluding those without their own form of transport. In parallel, through internet access provision, as well as helping people find out about their rights, libraries can also support access to housing and the defence of tenant rights.

10) The city we need now learns and innovates: building on a point already made above, the Campaign stresses the need for intelligent policy making, based on strong information management, a readiness to innovate, and the encouragement of partnerships and connections.

Libraries in the government and parliamentary fields already do just this at the national level, helping to ensure that decisions are based on the latest data and research. The skills and services they offer are also invaluable at the local level, and could certainly be drawn on more.

 

The City We Need Now campaign is not over. With key moments coming up this year, the above highlights will be referred to regularly in a variety of events and processes. Take a look at The City We Need Now site, and in particular its regional campaigns, to find out about new opportunities, or simply reach out to your own local government associations to talk about how libraries can make a reality of the Campaign’s goals.

The 15-Minute City: A Key Reference for Libraries?

An idea that has picked up a lot of attention in the last couple of years in urban development discussions has been that of the 15-Minute City.

The concept – or similar ones – have been around for a number of years, with Carlos Moreno often cited as the primary source, but was most prominently taken up by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in her successful 2020 re-election campaign. Since then, a number of global organisations – including the C40 Cities network – have taken it up with enthusiasm, and it features near the top of The City We Need Now 2.0, a recent publication of the World Urban Campaign (see a future blog).

It provides a neat way of bringing together a lot of thinking about how to make cities more liveable into a single, understandable idea – that people should be able to do all of the essential things in their lives – shopping, eating, working, relaxing, learning – within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride.

It stands in contrast to models of cities where people need to travel much longer distances – often by private transport – in order to fulfil these basic needs, leading not only to pollution and lost time, but also a sense of dislocation.

This is particularly the case in cities subject to sprawl (i.e. which spread over huge spaces) or with unmixed zoning (i.e. residential areas are kept separate from commercial or industrial ones). Too often, for example, distant suburbs or housing estates are the ones that experience the most serious problems. Many groups in such areas, for example, may simply be unable to travel long distances, for reasons of cost, disability, or simply lack of time.

Moreno himself, in his TED talk, sets out four underlying principles: 1) ecology – the idea that we need to be promoting ways of living that are better for the environment and nature, with more green spaces and less pollution; 2) proximity – the idea that key services (including culture) are close by; 3) social connection – that people benefit from knowing their neighbours and building stronger relations and collaborations, and 4) engagement – that people need to more closely involved in decision-making about their areas.

The library angle

As highlighted, while the term ’15-minute city’ may be new, it brings together existing ideas, including many which will be familiar to libraries. Indeed, the idea of libraries providing services in places that don’t require people to drive is already familiar from the IFLA Green Library Checklist.

Firstly, there is the obvious role of networks of public and community libraries in providing services in proximity to their users. It is well understood that in order to respond to local needs, a key factor for success is being close enough to be able to understand these, and give everyone an opportunity to benefit. Protests against library closures often focus on the fact that forcing users to travel longer distances risk excluding them. It is a source of pride that libraries represent perhaps the densest network of cultural institutions that many cities or countries have.

A second angle is the idea of multi-functionality. 15-Minute City proponents argue that there needs to be better use of space, including flexibility to ensure that any one building or location can serve a number of purposes and publics. This is of course what libraries already do, acting as centres for culture, education, democracy, public health, and beyond. This is supported by libraries’ emphasis on responding to user needs, rather than trying to apply a rigid, one-size-fits-all service model. This is also something that libraries are developing, building on their role – often – as the only non-commercial indoor public space, with dedicated staff and internet access.

Strongly connected to the above is the emphasis on the social function of libraries as places not just for individual study or enjoyment (although this if of course important), but also for interaction. As highlighted, it is vital to have these opportunities outside of commercial locations or those that may be off-limits for different groups. Here too, libraries around the world are developing their capacity as meeting places, where social capital can be built and maintained. Through offering programming, rooms, access to shared cultural references, opening eyes to other cultures, or simply by allowing people to be together, they make the difference.

A further role of libraries, again linked to the above, is in boosting democracy. Collective decision-making of course starts with a feeling of belonging to the same community, and being able to talk, discuss, share, and work together to develop new ideas. As highlighted, libraries already enable this through their social function. However, they can go further, for example acting as centres for providing access to – and facilitating use of – local open data. They can be venues for consultations and conversations between decision-makers and citizens. And they can help fight misinformation by building the skills to evaluate and use information effectively.

Questions to address

Of course, the 15-minute city concept does raise questions, and indeed has its critiques, notably from those who suggest that without significant efforts, it tends to be richer areas and communities that benefit. For example, in Paris, the conversion of roads along the Seine in parks was seen as primarily benefitting the (better off) communities living there, at the expense of those living further away, and who rely on their cars to get to work.

For libraries in particular, there is the question of how to manage the perceived trade off between scale and impact – is it better to have fewer, bigger institutions with more possibilities to offer services and programming, or more, smaller ones (for example, see the variation highlighted in our Library Stat of the Week post)?

Of course, this may be a false dichotomy. When working effectively as a network, smaller libraries can benefit from the advantages of scale, for example in access to collections. However, it is clearly also the case that offering a wide range of programming and activities with reduced space and staff is harder than for a big central library.

Connected to the critique of 15-minute cities mentioned above, there is a particular need to ensure that all communities – not just wealthier ones – benefit. This implies a need to invest more in library services in deprived areas.

This of course can have a major pay-off, given that it can be people facing poverty who can benefit most from library services, and who would otherwise not be able to travel longer distances to a bigger institution. However, it does of course require investment, and strong support for librarians so that they in turn can share have the greatest positive effect. This includes work within the library field to share ideas and resources, from the level of local networks of libraries, to the national and even the global level.

A powerful reference for library advocacy

The idea of a 15-Minute City has the potential to be a powerful one for libraries, given how far it plays to our institutions’ existing strengths. We can fit in well with urban development agendas that use it as a reference point, although of course may need to work to remind decision-makers that this is the case.

At the same time, it does raise questions that libraries will need to address, notably about how to ensure that all residents of towns and cities have reasonable access to libraries. Ideally, we can make the most of 15-minute city policies to ensure that our institutions – and profession – receive the investment and support needed to (continue) to make this a reality.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #75: Think about a barrier to use of your services

Libraries have a universal mission.

Our goal is to make sure that every person has the possibility to access the information that they need in order to fulfil their potential and realise their rights.

In particular, people in difficult situations may be the ones who need information most – to find out about opportunities and support open to them, to seek well-being, to launch a business, or simply to communicate.

Yet universal access to information remains a goal – something to aim for – rather than something we can claim to have achieved already.

Far too often, people who could benefit from library services are not doing so.

In order to progress towards our goal, we need to be able to understand what is stopping us.

So for our 75th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think about a barrier to use of your services.

You could think both about factors that are within your control, and those that are outside of it.

Are there aspects of your buildings, or the way you organise your services, which risk preventing some people from using the library?

It could even be a small thing that risks, otherwise, making some people feel unwelcome or unable to use the library.

Looking more broadly, are there challenges in law, for example to providing remote access to works? Or to providing library cards to certain groups?

Once you have identified a barrier, you can think about how to overcome it, either through direct action or advocacy.

Share your ideas in the comments box below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 2.3: Develop standards, guidelines, and other materials that foster best professional practice

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the com

COVID has forced us to think again about service provision: can it offer longer term lessons for how we serve persons with disabilities?

Tomorrow, the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities starts, in New York and online.

It will have, as an overarching theme, ‘building back better: COVID-19 response and recovery; meeting the needs, realizing the rights, and addressing the socio-economic impacts on persons with disabilities’.

There’s clearly a lot in there, but there is already more than enough space to see how access to information – as a need, as a right, and as a driver of development – fits in.

At least two of the sub-themes offer an even clearer connection. ‘Living independently, being involved in the community’ ties strongly to the possibility for all to find and use information to take decisions for themselves, as well as to engage in community life, in all of its dimensions.

Similarly, ‘right to education; challenges with inclusive education and accessibility during COVID-19’ is again, to a large extent, about ensuring that everyone has the possibility to access knowledge and skills.

With a mission to serve everyone, there is already a strong community of practice in the library field focused on services to persons with disabilities. Within IFLA, sections on libraries serving persons with print disabilities, and serving persons with special needs, bring this expertise and enthusiasm together.

A key impact of the crisis, however, has been that many more library and information workers have found themselves needing to think about how to reach out to community members who are unable to come to the library in person or for whom ‘traditional’ service offers do not necessarily work.

This is because, thanks to the restrictions and precautions taken to counter the pandemic, almost all library services have had to be offered differently. Every library now, arguably, has to take into account principles of design thinking in order to meet needs.

In response, we have seen an explosion in digital offers, both collections and services. Libraries have shifted budgets towards buying eBook licences, sometimes benefitting from additional government support.

Activities such as storytimes or learning have gone online. New works, games and tools have been devised, websites have been updated, and there are new and easier-to-use consultation services, deliveries to users at home, and proactive contacts from librarians to community members.

There are many examples on our COVID-19 and libraries page, which details experiences from the first months of the pandemic.

This has allowed libraries, at least to some extent, to maintain services to communities, and indeed to reach new users. As the story of the pandemic is told in future, we will of course, hopefully, also see persons with disabilities having benefitted from better access to information.

Of course, this is not to forget the costs of decisions – however necessary – to curtail services which benefit people with disabilities and others, or the additional challenges that they have faced, over and above those facing the wider population.

 

Clearly, the transition to a new way of doing things has not been without challenges – such services often require additional resources and training to work effectively. In providing them, reducing health risks for staff and users is vital. Similarly, acquiring and giving access to digital works – often providing greater possibilities for access for persons with disabilities – often runs up against issues of cost and restrictive terms and conditions.

Yet with sustained support, and a focus on improved regulations (not least the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty and its extension to cover people with other disabilities), we can hope that there will be the possibility to sustain elements of pandemic-time services which will benefit persons with disabilities into the future.

Girls in ICT Day: Towards a more fair and equal digital future

This year, 22 April marks the 10th anniversary of the International Girls in ICT Day. First Introduced by the International Telecommunication Union, on every fourth Thursday in April it draws attention to the need to bring more girls and young women into tech, ICT and STEM sectors.

Over the past years, libraries in different parts of the world have taken part in the Girls in ICT Day celebrations – for example, in Kenya and Suriname. These activities build on a natural alignment between the goals of the Day, and libraries’ experiences with supporting digital literacy and equitable access to knowledge.

So, what do gender digital divides look like in 2021, and what can libraries do to help?

“Connected Girls, Creating Brighter Futures”

Estimates suggest that less than 35% of positions in the tech industry and related professions are taken by women; including only 24% of leadership positions. More broadly, there are gender inequalities in internet access and device ownership, and social and cultural norms which may still restrict meaningful access and use of ICT for women.

A recent World Wide Web Foundation report offers a more in-depth exploration of these gender digital divides. Drawing on the experiences of women in four countries in the LAC region, Africa and Asia, it highlights that:

–  Data affordability is an important barrier: particularly in rural areas, women were more likely than men to say that costs limited their internet use;

–   Similarly, women in rural areas more frequently cited a lack of digital skills as a reason for not going online;

–   Women were less likely to create content online;

–   And finally, they also expressed more concern about their privacy, and had less trust in how tech companies use their data.

These inequalities can manifest themselves early in life. Focusing on the experiences of girls and young women, another important piece of the puzzle lies in the recently released General Comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. One of the key overarching principles it sets out to help realise children’s rights in digital environments is non-discrimination. This includes overcoming digital exclusion, particularly the gender-related digital divide.

Girls can, for example, face more restrictions in accessing online environments, be less likely to own a phone; or face disadvantages in developing digital skills. An accompanying explanatory note points out that, while universal personal and individual access to ICT and the internet is the preferred long-term outcome, in situations where children are unlikely to have it, states should work to expand public access offerings.

Naturally, offering this kind of shared and equitable access had long been one of the key priorities for the global library field. Overcoming gender inequalities in access to digital technologies and the internet is certainly an important step to realising the goals emphasised by the Girls in ICT Day (as reflected in the first part of its motto this year – “connected girls”). The next step, however, is going beyond connectivity and empowering more women to pursue education, learning, and careers in STEM.

How can libraries help realise this?

Overcoming gender inequalities in this field certainly requires a comprehensive response from many stakeholders. This includes, for example, making the internet a safer space for girls, creating more opportunities and incentives for young women’s participation in the private tech sector, encouraging them to follow STEM higher education tracks, and more.

As community and lifelong learning centers, libraries have been gaining experience in this field. Both before and during the pandemic, we see examples of libraries encouraging and supporting girls and women to pursue their interest in tech in many different ways. For example:

– In Singapore, the Jurong Regional Library hosted an exhibition exploring the nexus of art and technology by an all-women arts collective – with the National Library Board’s MakeIT space helping artists pick up new digital skills;

– In India, the Technology Empowering Girls program was launched to offer young women learning opportunities to develop both digital and soft skills, to help boost their career opportunities;

–  In Canada, the Vancouver Island Regional Library ran a coding competition for young women and girls;

–  And in several countries, libraries worked together with civil society and tech sector partners to deliver events (e.g. CoderDojo4Divas in Belgium) and clubs and courses (e.g. GirlsWhoCode in the US, UK, India and Canada), which cater specifically to girls or young women.

Inclusive and reflexive practices

Because of the multiple and structural gender digital divides, it is also important to learn from the initiatives aiming to encourage girls and women pursue their interest in IT. What works, and why? What can help overcome the different barriers girls and women may be facing?

For example, a recent article in Hello World talks about a coding club for adults in a public library in Almere, the Netherlands. The club succeeded in engaging women, who made up more than half of the participants. Mindful of the existing gender stereotypes around coding, the founder asked what they found attractive about this offer. The women pointed out that the club being run by a woman was a draw, since it offered positive social proof. Another draw was the fairly low-pressure nature of the club – prioritising fun and engagement, rather than the pressure to get things just right, helped overcome some participants’ hesitation.

Another example is the work of Libraries Without Borders on their project IdeasBox4Women. When BSF noticed lower attendance among women to their Ideas Box project, which offers access to technology and learning opportunities, they ran a diagnosis and designed an intervention specifically for women and girls.

This includes concrete measures, like setting aside women-only timeslots and organising gender-mixed activities; as well as making sure that women and girls have access to female facilitators. Another key element are activities which raise awareness about local gender inequalities and dynamics. They help draw attention to existing challenges, while fully giving local communities the space to address and act on this awareness in ways which best suit their customs and culture.

These examples show how reflexivity and mindfulness towards women’s needs can help create more inclusive spaces.

As we continue to learn from such initiatives and interventions, libraries and their partners can help create a more fair and equal digital future!

Alice Kibombo, wikimedian in residence at the African Library & Information Associations and Institutions

In 2020, AfLIA welcomed Alice Kibombo of the Wikimedia Community User Group – Uganda as a Wikimedian in residence. IFLA is delighted to see this initiative coming to life and therefore invited Ms Kibombo to share project’ insights with the international library community.

Could you tell us about your background and how you came to Wikimedia projects?

I am a practising librarian as well as an active volunteer/editor based in Uganda. I regularly contribute to both English and Luganda Wikipedia, Wikidata and WikiSource.

Coming into Wikimedia projects? Let’s see… as much as I would like the narration to be a bit more romantic, I am what would be classified as an accidental Wikipedian. I was contributing individually until my boss sent someone to the library because she just did not know what to make of what they wanted. It turns out, he was active with the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda and they were looking for a library to partner with and host them for a number of activities. Gradually, a number of Wiki-related projects such as WikiLovesWomen in 2017 came in and provided me with the opportunity to get involved with the administrative side of things and the rest is current affairs (see what I am responding to now…)

Since then I have contributed a number of articles and been the beneficiary of various regional training, learning days and scholarships which to a large degree prepared me for my current assignment.

Which Wikimedia projects will be considered and why are they relevant to libraries?

Our primary project of focus is Wikipedia – the encyclopaedia project of Wikimedia. As often stated, libraries and Wikipedia have an overlapping mission which is to provide reliable information through verifiable references and doing proper research to bring quality, accurate information to the world. Wikipedia is as good as its sources and when it comes to libraries, not only do we have the best sources but the experts on these sources. Let’s just say that we should consider Wikipedia as an extension of the work we do albeit in the free knowledge movement.

In addition, library resources, in a number of forms, are relatively invisible on the web and while Wikipedia emphasises quality resources, some of what’s accessed are relatively sub-par because of the sources.

To be addressed in the course will be Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and WikiSource will be addressed in the near future as Wikidata deals with linked data which is the “thing” right now.

As a Wikimedian in residence at AfLIA, what are your goals and next steps to get started?

This I believe is a turning point for all parties – mind you, it has not been attempted before on the continent, well not on such a scale and it is a testament to the benefits of a partnership. There are both personal and institutional goals but both AfLIA and the Wikimedia Foundation (and loudly, I, in the background) agree on some aspects :

We have talked a lot about being able to represent our facts and tell our stories thus the focus on local languages and CCC (Cultural Context Content). The course (which is an adaptation of the will be conducted in English, French and Portuguese but the skills and content therein are very much translatable to a local context. Call it decolonising our realities.

In terms of training/ skills/ empowerment which is really the bulk of the work, this is already underway –  we recently had the honour of “wrapping up” with the pilot cohort who as a group gave us very valuable insights which we were able to incorporate into the material for the main cohort. We are hosting the first main cohort between February 1 st and April 24th and if the number of responses is the only indicator of success, then I can say it has been received positively or our networks served us well or both.

Through a pre-course survey, 54% of respondents reported that they were not aware of any Wikimedia community in their locale. Keep in mind that a number of African wiki communities also reported limitations in their ability to initiate GLAM-related initiatives since they had no access to the network that is the librarian community in Africa. This, therefore, provides the project with the opportunity to nurture relationships between these two communities and hope that the results will be worthwhile.

At this point I need to mention that I do not work alone, I see myself merely as a liaison between this particular outreach of the Wikimedia Foundation and AfLIA’s step in fulfilling its core objectives. We do have all these interesting projects lined up and which you will be hearing about in the near future.

How could the library community support these projects?

The experience with the pilot cohort brought to the fore a number of issues – we knew they existed, we just did not know the depth to which they ran. First, there was a huge disconnect between the librarians’ community in Africa and Wikipedia! 54% of a group of information professionals not knowing about their potential partners in the Free Knowledge movement begs a lot of questions!

With that in mind, we are training librarians from over 30 countries in Africa so we constantly encourage institutional buy-in for them to realise the benefits of such training for their staff. From personal experience, you would be surprised outright negativity we have to deal with and I do commend the librarians who have made an individual effort to be part of this project

With the situation presented by COVID-19, the library community has not been spared the reality of being increasingly distributed and virtual and now more than ever, driven by heterogeneous interests in both training and content. I would therefore encourage information institutions to engage with the librarians we are training on thematic contribution where possible. Depending on the nature or mission of the institution, some may focus on image release, others on community engagement, others on content generation.

The project would benefit greatly from the shared expertise of librarians who have also experienced Wikipedians. A good number work in isolation so if and when they read this, perhaps they should contact us.

Lastly, this presents an opportunity for the community to engage in alternative pathways to individual development mainly by supporting the human resource they have. Institutions and individuals that may not for example offer space could offer publicity or actively encourage their staff to participate in programs such as these, offer access to hard-to-access resources eg those behind paywalls or historical collections to support thematic engagement

Would you like to add anything?

Lots and lots and some more – it’s hard to choose without writing a whole dissertation. Since I have and cannot fully exhaust whatever it is on this here forum, a lot is happening

You can also keep yourself updated by visiting the project page and following us on social media.

To us, the Free Knowledge movement is not the last frontier as much as it is a new frontier.  I like to think with this project that and this project is mutually beneficial.