Thursday and Friday we spent with Bi. Jacquiline and Mr. Leonard at the Regional Library in Morogoro. Amazing time. The demonstration of my Kobo reader was trumped when Francis used her iPad to show them pictures of the library and our host that she downloaded from her camera. We also showed pictures from our workshops in Dar-es-Salaam and at the school for librarians. These are technologies that cause some deep thinking in Africa about what may be possible.
With Augusto's leadership we started the day by each talking about our countries. Christie is showing our hosts how she travelled to get to Tanzania. Xiao Feng's slide showed pandas, the great wall, peking duck. I had pictures of the rodeo, RCMP musical ride, NHL hockey, the Rockies and a grizzlie... yep that about describes Alberta!!
At a minimum 80% of books come from donations. Systems look very similar to earlier days in Canada including cards in book pocket and manual tracking of checking out books and returns. Six of the 13 computers are in good condition. Internet connection was in place for one year given a Finnish partnership however excessive connection costs and the newness of the use of the internet among library users made it a challenge to continue after the one year pilot. There is a strong desire to reconnect in the future should funding occur. A DOS based cataloguing systems is in place. Computers assist a bit with back office needs. Despite the challenges the librarians and staff make very good use of limited resources to serve a very broad cross section of users .
It just happened to be International Women's Day, we heard the street parade and arrive in time to get a picture of Francis, Christie and Jacquiline with the long line of proud women from professional to school girls as a back drop. We had lunch with our hosts (lunch is from 1-3 typically in Tanzania) then back to the hotel where I took a a minute to take a picture of a local flowering bush.
Back in the hotel we all started to make our work room home... I think I screwed up when hanging my flag from the wrong end ... Francis was too polite to make me change it.
We worked into the evening ... power failures are not uncommon.... I must say my heart lept a bit when the elevator in Dar stopped.. lord I was warm .. just a short delay but I was quick to exit when the doors opened. Now we continue to work from the light of our laptops and just wait a few minutes for things to start back up.
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