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Regional Training Seminar, Tanzania, November 2011
In November 2011, EIFL-FOSS held a regional training seminar in Dar es salaam, Tanzania, with the support of UNESCO.
The seminar brought together library directors and IT/FOSS librarians from 14 African countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The seminar consisted of an intensive 2-day workshop focussing on the benefits and technical implementation of FOSS solutions. The overall objective was to equip participants with sound technical capacity and greater confidence to implement FOSS in their library settings, as well as providing the opportunity to discuss strategies for rolling out more FOSS deployments in more libraries.
The workshop was held at the College of ICT, part of the University of Dar es salaam, with the involvement of COSTECH (the Commission for Science and Technology), and CoTUL (Consortium for Tanzania University and Research Libraries).
Workshop Programme
The programme was devised such that approximately half of the time the delegates were together in a single session; and for half the time the role groups were trained separately from each other in parallel sessions covering issues pertaining to their role (for the IT/FOSS librarians this involved, for example, intensive training on key tools; for the Directors, for example, discussions around effective advocacy and decision-making). The full programme for the event can be seen below, in the Workshop Materials section, along with presentation materials for each session.
Event Feedback
Feedback from the event suggests the direct benefits to the participants were great, and the impact upon their institutions and the other libraries within their consortia will be considerable. Of the 39 individuals who completed feedback forms, the response to the question “Has this event increased your knowledge and awareness of FOSS tools?” was given as 'Yes' in all 39 cases. Similarly all 39 respondents answered 'Yes' to both the questions “Do you feel better equipped to advocate for FOSS in your own institution?” and “Do you feel better equipped to advocate for FOSS deployments in your country / consortium?”.
Immediate benefits will be felt within the delegates' own institutions. Among the 39 delegates there were no less than 43 planned implementations of FOSS tools upon arrival back to their home institution. The most popular of these were the guided searching software SubjectsPlus (7 planned implementations), Disability Tools (6), OpenBiblio ILS (5) and the federated access software SimpleSAMLphp (5).
22 delegates reported that they had already planned, or would quickly arrange, training workshops for colleagues (IT and librarians) within their own institution to pass on what they had learned at the conference. This will be aided by the flash memory sticks they were given, which contained copies of many of the tools in which they were trained at the conference, including the Disability Tools, SubjectsPlus, OpenBiblio and ABCD.
10 delegates (mostly library directors) stated that they intended to engage other institutional managers using the advocacy skills and tools they had gained at the conference, while 5 planned to tackle their ICT departments and strengthen relationships between the library and ICT managers. Others said they would reinforce and strengthen the understanding of all library staff in relation to the FOSS tools already deployed, ensuring everyone understood the ethos of FOSS and why the tools were being utilised.
Coverage
- EIFL and UNESCO trains Libraries on Free and Open Source Software, Ubuntunet Alliance, November 2011
- OASCIR at EIFL-FOSS regional seminar in Dar es Salaam, University of Khartoum, OASCIR Blog, November 2011
- EIFL-FOSS regional seminar explores tools for libraries, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, November 2011
- Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Libraries in Africa - Tanzania, African Institutional Repository Communication Platform, November 2011
- Photos of the event on Flickr
Workshop Materials
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FOSS – The Possibilities. 5 minute overviews of key software tools: Download zip file
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| Introduction to KIT (Netherlands) and KIT Institutional Repository Toolkit and Open Access Repositories Capacity Strengthening Programme Download zip file |
| EIFL FOSS Library Advocacy Resource |
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ILS Training Session 1 (Evergreen, Koha): Download zip file
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External Advocacy and Policy Issues, such as: Download zip file
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ILS Training Session 2 (ABCD/ISIS, OpenBiblio, data migration issues): Download zip file
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Internal Advocacy and Management Issues, such as: Download zip file
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| Repositories Training Session (DSpace) View powerpoint |
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Pilot and Case Study Knowledge Sharing: Download zip file
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Federations and identity issues Download zip file
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| Pilot Knowledge Sharing: SubjectPlus View powerpoint |
| Pilot Knowledge Sharing: Disability tools View powerpoint |
| Access To Resources Training Session (CUFTS/GODOT, SubjectsPlus, Federating EZproxy, SimpleSAMLphp, Drupal etc) Download zip file |
| Introduction to FOSS Business Models (FOSSFA) View pdf |
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