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ANNUAL LIBRARY SYMPOSIUM: EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS OF LIBRARIANSHIP
As academic libraries find themselves
challenged by perpetual technological change and a continuous
shift in user behaviour, the Library and Information Service held a
symposium in November to seek
solutions to advance institutional objectives and augment the future of
academic libraries. The symposium titled X-plore • X-pand • X-ceed:
ensuring dynamic academic libraries for the future was attended by
125 delegates from across the country and neighbouring countries.
In particular, the Symposium’s lens was turned to library management
systems, new roles for librarians and how to develop a change culture as
catalyst for the creation of new order services. An ambitious aim was
set to articulate robust, flexible and scalable responses capable of
sustaining academic libraries in an unpredictable future.
Rising to the challenge, key speakers Carl Grant (University of
Oklahoma) and Daniel Forsman (Chalmers University of Technology)
encouraged delegates to re-evaluate traditional perspectives and to
seize opportunities provided by the digital environment. Foremost was
their emphasis on capitalising on knowledge about users, optimising the
potential to analyse library-held data and escalating the assimilation
of digital and cloud services into all spheres of librarianship.
The Symposium also embraced the notion of “mind set” and the “power of
the individual” as pivotal elements for building dynamic and sustainable
libraries congruous with the needs of the 21st Century. To this effect,
critical principles that nurture creativity and empower individuals to
be, and to create, the desired solutions for the profession’s
challenges, were affirmed. Among the speakers were product leaders from
around the globe to lead discussion on new generation library platforms,
e-books and new acquisition models. They were joined by a host of local
speakers who emparted their experiences working in an advanced digital
academic environment. Local and international librarians, who
participated, talked about new roles for libraries such as research data
curation and digitisation of heritage collections.
Ending the Symposium on a high note, Dr Steyn Heckroodt (Stellenbosch
University) gave a zealous talk on the nurturing of a change culture. He
pointed out willingness to learn, passion, originality, team effort and
conquering of fear as forceful elements which drive change. With this
message he clearly conveyed that answers lie not in technology, but in
the human ability to navigate and take advantage of its possibilities.
The Symposium adjourned with an air of confidence and enthusiasm about
the measures required to lead academic libraries to new frontiers. A
list of presenters and their presentations is available on the
Symposium website at:
http://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/sulis_symp.
Lucia Schoombee
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Ms Ellen Tise, SU Library head with Mr Daniel
Forsman, Chalmers University of Technology (left), Prof Julian Smith,
SU's Vice-Rector: Community Interaction & Personnel and Mr Carl Grant,
University of Oklahoma Libraries (right).(Photographer: Anton Jordaan)
Panel
discussion. From left to right: Mr Wouter Klapwijk, Dr Axel Kaschte,
OCLC, Dr Tamar Sadeh, Ex Libris and Mr Richard Burkitt, ProQuest.
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