PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 18, April 22, 2004

UI librarians working to rejuvenate African libraries

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand Global partnership Susan Schnuer (left) and Barbara Ford, assistant director and director, respectively, of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, spent the month of March traveling to several African universities to assess their staff training needs as part of the Carnegie Corp. of New York's Partnership to Strengthen African Universities grant program. Schnuer and Ford found that the librarians at the institutions they visited struggle with issues such as underfunding, outdated resources and overcrowding because of escalating enrollments.

Staff members at the UI Library's Mortenson Center for International Library Programs are helping bolster educational, social, economic and democratic development in African countries through a Carnegie Corp. of New York initiative aimed at rejuvenating African universities' libraries.

Barbara Ford and Susan Schnuer, director and assistant director, respectively, of the Mortenson Center, recently traveled to Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda to assess the needs of seven university libraries that the corporation and its partners hope to regenerate through a 10-year initiative called the Partnership to Strengthen African Universities.

A case study commissioned by Carnegie and its partner foundations in 2000 revealed that Africa's university libraries and public libraries were drastically underfunded and underutilized, partly as a result of a lack of government support since the mid-1970s and the failure of external organizations to create facilities, invest in materials and provide services relevant to the lives of the majority of African citizens.

University libraries in particular suffered erosion of resources and staff attrition because they were generally overlooked by the organizations that provided at least sporadic external funding to public libraries.

Through its initiatives in Africa, the Carnegie Corp. also hopes to democratize scholarship for women, who make up an average of 30 percent of the student populations and less than one quarter of the instructors at universities in some African countries.

Carnegie Corp. hopes that supporting strategic development at universities and libraries will spark similar improvements at universities throughout Africa.

During March, Ford and Schnuer visited with library staff, technical staff, university administrators and Carnegie program administrators at the University of Ghana Legon and the University of Education at Winneba, Ghana; Ahmadu Bello University, University of Jos and Obafemi Owolowo University in Nigeria; Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania; and Makerere University, Uganda.

At each location, Ford, Schnuer and Joyce Latham led discussions among staff about their training and technology needs. Latham, an instructor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, accompanied Ford and Schnuer for the first half of the trip. Ford said Latham's expertise in technology was vitally important because most of the libraries are just beginning to use computer technology to provide services such as online catalogs and access to article databases, services that are commonplace to library patrons and students in the Western world.

African university librarians also struggle with outdated computer equipment, a lack of basic computer skills among some staff members and problems such as unreliable public utilities.

An unprecedented demand for higher education also is placing tremendous pressure on staff members to meet the demand without additional resources. Student enrollments at some universities are triple or quadruple what the universities were designed to accommodate. In some of the lecture halls, students sit two to a chair, and up to nine students may share four-person rooms in the hostels. At one university, the librarians shut the doors at certain times of the day to prevent additional people from entering because the library is packed with people, Ford said.

In addition to needing support to help bridge the digital divide, librarians also may face institutional challenges, such as officials who believe the libraries are unimportant to the university's mission or who think that technology will be a panacea.

"They needed some help learning how to advocate for their needs on campus because it was pretty clear to us that some of the university administrators thought that once the technology was in the libraries, they wouldn't need to buy new books or hire new staff," Schnuer said. "We needed to really work with the librarians to say that their role is going to change, but they're still going to be needed and they're still going to need the materials in the library."

Ford and Schnuer also observed that library staff members are hampered by professional isolation and could benefit from networking with colleagues at other institutions to help them solve problems or evaluate new technologies.

In their final report to Carnegie, which they will submit in June, Ford and Schnuer will recommend training strategies that can be delivered locally, nationally and internationally.

Ford and Schnuer said they were most impressed by African students' determination to get an education and by the resourcefulness of the librarians, who are determined to maintain high-quality service with little support.

"It's incredible what people can accomplish with very few resources," Ford said. "Many of these universities have been in a situation where their libraries have not had funding for acquisitions for quite a while, and the exchange rate is so bad that even if they do get money it doesn't buy much in the library market. What they're really hoping for is technology to change that balance so that once they have access to some resources over the Internet, they'll be able to leapfrog whole generations."

Schnuer said: "I really saw in the librarians this incredible willingness to take risks. They have nowhere to go; they must change, so you have this vibrancy and this feeling of energy. All they need is information, and they can move to the next step."

The Mortenson Center, which was established in 1991 with gifts from C. Walter and Gerda B. Mortenson, seeks to strengthen international ties among libraries and librarians worldwide for the promotion of peace, education and understanding. The center specializes in short-term training for librarians outside the United States and has hosted more than 600 librarians from 85 countries.

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