My partner for this networking session was Nondumiso Nzama from South Africa. A Bachelor’s Degree holder, she started her career path by volunteering at the community library, and the Durban Natural Science Museum. Her personal interests which include, but are not limited to, reading, visiting art exhibitions and museums and travelling contributed to passion for the profession. In South Africa, the National Library has two branches, while the municipality library where she works has 92 libraries. In her observation, the value of libraries, and what librarians do is not highlighted or emphasized as should be.
She loves children, and outreach services to them make her
happy. She aims to inculcate a reading culture at the earliest possible
opportunity. Sadly, some companies, organizations and institutions in South
Africa do not recognize Bachelor of Information Science as full library
qualification, and one is expected to compliment that with a postgraduate
degree, or another Bachelor’s Degree in Technology.
Nondumiso is a
perfectionist, and her attention to detail is crucial especially for her target
audience. In South Africa, as is the case in many African countries, the use of
technology in the library is not where it should be, and this is one of the
areas that she hopes to improve, through resource mobilization. Her passion to
the profession has seen her network and benchmark with the Research Data
Management Librarians Academy, and the Library and Information Association of
South Africa whose websites are a rich source of information. It was an honor
to share experiences with a brilliant light in the profession, who is greatly
committed to make changes in the lives of people through information and
knowledge management.
