LELICO in the limelight at two events

AT THE LLA 30TH ANNIVERSARY
 
The venue was the State Library in Maseru, Lesotho. It was certainly the occasion for the Lesotho Library Association (LLA), yet the Lesotho Library Consortium (LELICO) also got the stage.  The Lesotho librarians marked the 30th anniversary of the Lesotho Library Association from the 11th to the 12th December 2008. This august event was graced by opening remarks from the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Culture, Mrs M. Malie. It was officially closed by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Training, Mr M.O. Makara. Both urged librarians in Lesotho to cooperate in order to maintain standards and maximize resources. The Swaziland President of the Library Association Mr Morrison Mkhontha as the guest congratulated LLA for keeping up the good work for the past three decades. Apologies from BLA and LIASA were received.

On the 12th, the coordinator of LELICO Dr Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa gave an elaborate presentation on the challenges and prospects of the dawn of the information society in Lesotho, as well as the role of a national consortium such as LELICO. She emphasized the fact that it draws its institutional membership plus the participation of individual librarians from the same libraries that make LLA active. Although the imperatives of ICTs were daunting they demand the commitment of the entire profession in order for Lesotho to benefit from the offerings of technologically-managed library information. She too praised individuals, libraries and LELICO that had contributed in making the celebrations the great success that they were.

From questions and comments that were raised, the executive committee of LELICO observed issues that would need to be expeditiously attended to in order to woo more members to the consortium. Marketing LELICO and a vibrant website are undoubtedly some of several crucial factors to be addressed.

AT THE WORLD BANK SUPPORTED TRAINING WORKSHOP

As the host of the World Bank-supported Development Information Centre (DIC) and as an institutional member of LELICO, the National University of Lesotho Library also took an advantage of training it had to offer on use of the freely available-electronic resources on industry, trade, economics and development to advise further about the role of LELICO. On this occasion that was held in Maseru on 09 January, 2008 at the Lesotho College of Education Library and the DIC coordinator gave practical lessons on accessing online information from all the databases at their disposal.