Author: jessamyn

One School, One Library, One Librarian

Posted on by jessamyn

Why South Africa is failing its children and what people are doing to try to solve the problem.

[F]ewer than 7% of schools in South Africa have a functioning library. Perhaps 21% have some kind of structure called a reading room, but these are usually used for classrooms, are seldom stocked properly and do not have a library professional in charge to ensure that the right books are there and that they are used properly. The lack of libraries compounds the many problems, such as teachers’ poor subject knowledge and poor access to textbooks, that plague our schooling system. These factors combine to make our reading outcomes, at all grade levels, among the worst in Africa.

taking on library vendors – a call to arms

Posted on by jessamyn

Sarah Houghton-Jan has had it, and I don’t blame her. Reading Meredith’s post about EBSCOs shady dealings just made be gnash my teeth again and wish that there was a decent way we could let our vendors know that sure we’d like to continue relationships with them, but they have to start giving us genuine options — good tools, decent prices, respectable service — instead of just assuming that they’ll always have a library market.

writing

Posted on by jessamyn

As most of you know, I’m working on a book. As many of you likely don’t know, I can be a terrible procrastinator though I tend to deliver content on time if I can (my deadline’s been extended til June). So I’m spending the next few months being a perfectionist, noodling with Scrivener, and talking to my computer about the digital divide and how libraries and librarians can help people cross it. I may send out some queries for some personal feedback and/or anecdotes at some point.

In the meantime I’ll be reading offline more, writing here less, and not travelling out of state again for work until summertime. Thanks to the wonders of RSS, you’ll know when I’m adding more content here [and I’ve added my twitterstream to the sidebar] but I sadly won’t be heading to Computers in Libraries. Hope it’s fun.