In the last three weeks I had the pleasure of participating in different capacities, at two ground breaking meetings- the African Public Libray Summit on 19-21 October 2012 www.african-public-libraries-summit.org/ and the Beyond Access Conference on 2-3 November www.beyondaccess.net. While the two meetings were a few weeks apart and at different geographical locations their focus was similar. In my view both focused on libraries and the development agenda. Both conferences addressed the partnership of government, civil society and libraries in the development process. Both included policy makers, civil society, development partners and librarians.They both incorporated best practices and success stories on libraries and community development into the programme.
I left both meetings filled with hope! It seemed that we were entering a phase in which policy makers would identify libraries as strategic partners in the development process. My hope, though, is that libraries would develop own agency, and positition themselves as development institutions; that libraries would present themselves as such, without waiting to be discovered. At APLS and Beyond Access one had a sense that libraries were indeed positioning themselves to be counted as development partners. The two conferences, one hopes, were not events but catalysts of change.
The ball remains in our court as librarians, to present ourselves as part of the development solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment