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Progress report on the Library and Information Association of South Africa: Carnegie Library Grantee Meeting — 21 August 2002

Overview of the project activities and accomplishments for the period April-August 2002 by Ellen Tise & Gwenda Thomas

The LIASA National Office is functioning effectively. The office is used regularly by LIASA committees, including the Executive Committee, for their meetings. During the 15^th SCECSAL Conference, the LIASA National and SCECSAL Secretariat provided a full service to the delegates. Planning is currently in progress to provide a full staff complement and office infrastructure at the LIASA National Conference in October 2002.

Sponsorship and fund-raising remain an important function of the National Office. During the past quarter, sponsors have been approached with proposals for specific projects eg South African Library Week 2003 and the LIASA National Conference. The Executive Director attended a three-day conference from 5-7 August 2002 called "6^th African Resource Mobilisation and Development Convention" which was focused on the practical aspects of fund-raising and donor marketing for Non-Profit Organisations.

The Executive Director, in consultation with the LIASA Executive Committee, is coordinating a business plan for the Association. Ms Connie Price of the Department of Education/EU programme facilitated a planning session in May 2002 during which the Executive Committee defined a set of strategic objectives within the context of the LIASA vision, mission and selected aims. Four strategic objectives have been prioritised and finalised as the basis for the financial planning in the business plan due to be submitted to the Representative Council in September 2002.

The total membership of the Association on 10 August 2002 was 2 331 members. The paid-up members on 10 August 2002 was 1 490 members which is an increase of 29% compared to the same period for 2001. The Association is actively implementing its membership strategy which encourages all the structures within LIASA to actively recruit new members. The Executive Director collates information from the branches on their target fill-rates and submits a report to the Executive Committee and Representative Council. The Executive Director maintains regular contact with the Branch Executive Committees about membership recruitment. Training and support in this area will be provided at a LIASA conference workshop for LIASA Office bearers in October. The Executive Director will follow up with branch visits in November 2002 to assist with membership recruitment planning, budgeting and management for 2003.

The LIASA membership survey project is in progress. The purpose of the survey is to evaluate the members’ perceptions, expectations and satisfaction of the Association’s current performance and to get input for future planning. After calling for proposals, the contract for the survey was awarded to the Centre for Information Literacy at the University of Cape Town. The survey consists of two parts:

• all paid up 2002 members
• lapsed members from 2001.

The questionnaires were distributed using e-mail and mail facilities.

The preliminary report is due in September 2002 and the final report will be presented to the AGM after which the results will be widely publicized to the membership.

A request has been submitted to the Centre for Information Literacy to submit proposals to evaluate the performance of the management and committees of the Association as well as to get feedback from non-members in the LIS sector.

Communications within and beyond LIASA remain the focus of considerable efforts by a number of members, including the National PRO, Professional Officer, the Editors of LIASA-IN-TOUCH (LIT) and the Web Coordinator. Activities include:

• Regular updates to Representative Council members
• Regular postings on Listservs, e.g. LIASAOnline, SABINEWS, AFLIB-L, IFLANET
• Quarterly issues of LIASA-IN-TOUCH published in 2002
• Quarterly issues of LIASA News printed in 2002
• Additional print run of colour brochure for the Association
• Content updates on LIASA web site

Other notable achievements include:

• The first issue of the LIASA’s research journal the South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science is ready to be published.
• Various promotional activities have been undertaken by the LIASA National Office staff and LIASA committee members, including talks and presentations to Interest Groups and forums eg Joint meeting of the Forum of University Librarians of South Africa and the Inter-Technikon Library Committee.
• LIASA’s promotional materials are in demand by the branches and supplied though the National Office.
• Planning for the South African Library Week 2003 is well under way and the Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST) has been approached by the LIASA President for professional and financial support.
• Planning for the annual LIASA Conference is in progress and international speakers have been invited to attend. DACST has been approached to provide financial support for the conference.

LIASA continues to strengthen its relations with other library associations and build partnerships, both in South Africa and internationally.

Carnegie Library Grantees in South Africa
The Executive Director, in cooperation with INASP and the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy arranged the Carnegie Library Grantees meeting on 14 April 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. A progress report on the LIASA Project was presented at the meeting.

Nohra Moerat, the LIASA National PRO, attended the Carnegie Workshop on strategic communications for African public libraries and universities presented in Cape Town from 22-26 July 2002.

Hilda Ramboho, the LIASA Professional Officer, visited the offices of Carnegie Corporation in June 2002 as part of her official visit to the United States.

On 13 August, Dr Rookaya Bawa visited the LIASA National Office.

IFLA
The LIASA National Office is coordinating a South Africa-IFLA Forum to promote participation in international activities and to provide support to South Africans attending IFLA. To date, contact has been made with 37 South African IFLA attendees.

The LIASA President will be actively involved at the IFLA Conference and will attend a number of meetings as a member of the Governing board Executive Committee and Secretary of the Africa Section. The Executive Director, will deliver a paper at the Continuing Professional Education Open Session at IFLA entitled " Building bridges: LIASA and leadership".

Three LIASA members are recipients of travel grants from donors:

• Ingrid Thompson of the Library Services at UCT was awarded the EBSCO Information Services (South Africa) travel grant
• Morris Mabasa of the Limpopo Province Library and Information Services was awarded a travel grant by the National Library of Canada to attend IFLA and a grant by COMLA to attend the Council meeting and the joint COMLA/CILIP seminar in London 14-17 August.
• Sandy Zinn of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of the Western Cape was awarded a DANIDA travel grant to attend IFLA.

The 2007 IFLA Bid process is in progress. The South Africa Bid Committee hosted the IFLA evaluation team during the site visit (02-08 June 2002). The site visit to Durban was 02-06 June followed by two days at the LIASA National Office. The itinerary included visits to institutions in the KZN region as well as meetings with government officials to promote and gain support for the bid. The final presentation is on 16 August to the IFLA Governing Committee after which the successful country will be announced on 23 August in Glasgow.

LIASA was invited to send a representative to attend a planning meeting for developing countries as input to the World Summit on the Information Society (December 2003). Naomi Haasbroek attended the meeting in Mali in May 2002. The LIASA President is the IFLA representative for the WSIS and has attended UNESCO meetings in Paris.

LIASA has nominated Mr HG Haffajee as its representative to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.

SCECSAL
LIASA hosted the 15^th SCECSAL conference and was responsible for the SCECSAL Secretariat 2000-2002. LIASA is responsible for the Chairmanship of SCECSAL for the period 2002-2004 and will submit the resolution, adopted by the conference, to the IFLA Governing Board. LIASA submitted a country report to the General Assembly Meeting on the work and achievements of the association. The LIASA National Office is responsible, in cooperation with Unisa Library and the SCECSAL members, for coordinating the SCECSAL Archives. An interim conference report has been submitted to the LIASA Executive Committee and will be widely circulated once the final report is approved. The National Office coordinated the financial reports to donors and letters of thanks.

COMLA
LIASA was represented at the Regional Meeting held during the 15^th SCECSAL Conference and submitted a Country Report. COMLA invited LIASA to send a representative(s) to its Council Meeting on 14 August and to participate in the pre-IFLA COMLA/CILIP seminar from 15-16 August. The LIASA representative is Morris Mabasa who is an Executive Committee member and Chairman of the Northern Province Branch (Limpopo). Ramesh Jayaram, the Chairman of the Public and Community Library Interest Group will also attend the COMLA/CILIP seminar.

SALLP
Phase One of the SALLP leadership training programme is in progress. The first group of nine candidates attended the six week training programme at the Mortenson Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 23 June to 02 August. The contract to evaluate the project has been awarded and the first two reports received from the survey company. Reports from the group and photos have been received and will be posted on the website. Phase Two of the project will be launched in October 2002 at the LIASA Conference.

PASA
Follow up is in progress to set up a meeting with PASA to explore joint action plans between PASA and LIASA eg VAT, copyright etc.

South African International Festival of Books (bookeish!)
The LIASA President is a member of the Advisory Council of the Festival and has attended a number of meetings.

World Library Partnership
The World Library Partnership has established its regional office within the infrastructure of the LIASA National Office and pays a contribution towards the services and infrastructure provided by LIASA. The WLP has paid the LIASA membership for its host librarians and actively encourages the volunteers to join the association.

The LIASA Professional Officer, Hilda Ramboho, visited the United States from 10-24 June 2002. It included attendance at the ALA Conference where she presented a paper "Overview of South African Librarianship". Visits were made to Library Associations in Georgia and New York as well as the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Queens Borough Public Library International Section hosted her for one day and where she also did a presentation for the staff.

The International Association of School Libraries (IASL) will be hosting a conference in Durban in 2003. LIASA has been invited to nominate two representatives from Kwa Zulu Natal to be on the Planning Committee.

The Executive Director attended the SLIS/OSALL Conference in June on behalf of the President as well as the launch of the South African Site Licence Initiative (SASLI) Office in July.

Over the past four months, LIASA has registered a number of successes in the arena of advocacy and lobbying activities. During the IFLA bid visit, meetings and visits were arranged in KwaZulu Natal to promote LIASA as well as appointments with government officials in Pretoria. The Chairman of the Public and Community Libraries Interest Group under Ramesh Jayaram is working tirelessly to arrange a meeting with key officials in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to discuss the current situation in public libraries. A letter has been sent to the Interim Chair of the Provincial Library Directors, requesting a meeting between the committee and the LIASA Executive Committee.

In the formal education and training arena, LIASA has facilitated the registration of the Standards Generating Board (SGB) and was represented at the first planning meeting held in May 2002. The LIASA Interest Group for Research, Education and Training (RETIG) is arranging unit standard writing training for the last quarter of 2002.

In Continuing Professional Education (CPE) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes, a major achievement was the participation of the nine SALLP candidates in the training programme at the Mortenson Center. The membership survey, currently in progress, will provide critical feedback for planning, development and implementation in line with the LIASA strategic objective for CPE and the SALLP goal to establish a CPE facility in LIASA. A number of Interest Groups and Branches continue to present CPD training as part of their regional activities.

The second phase of the LIASA project continues to build and develop its membership, implement its programmes and maintain a high profile in the international LIS community. The management structures and membership work tirelessly to realise achievements and success on the road to building a sustainable Association.