Jamilu Abdullahi’s testimonial

It is wonderful that through this program I am able to meet my network partner from Indonesia. First, we established contact via email and later through whatsapp. I have sent a message to Mr Rishikesh Paul who is a public librarian in Indonesia stating this: “Hi! it is your partner in the International Librarians Networking Program. Glad to hear from you via email... I wish we will endeavor to discuss more on public libraries and information services” And he replied “Glad to see you here. We will do that together”. That was how it started.

Though I am affiliated to academic libraries in Nigeria, I have the opportunity to learn about Indonesian public library sector. I have shared my career story and the Nigerian public library sector experience with my network partner. I further learnt that regular communication with network partner helps a lot in understanding our different library environment. The International Librarians Networking Program really encourages me to love my profession and career.

Ali Abbas Mahmoud's testimonial

I have been in the library field for 17 years, I’m an Egyptian working in UAE, I’m very proud to belong to this wonderful field as a librarian, we have never heard of such initiatives, but it’s a unique experience since the nomination step in this program and the ease and speed of response in this amazing initiative.

ILNP program based on knowledge and experience transfer between to partners one of them from far east and the other form far west with different culture, different human races to be one team finds ways to communicate, learn, and benefit from each other’s.

This program gives them huge chances to develop their libraries, it has a great impact to change libraries in (services – activities – etc…). 

I’m in Emirates from Arab world, I working in Academic library and have experiences in Public and School libraries and my partner from USA, she is working in Public library, and our coordinator from Korea, we talk together about our qualification and our social life, and our hobbies, our culture, and we found some ways to communicate and start to transfer our knowledge and experiences to each other’s.

Our project it will be about public library transform, we will show you how the Public libraries in Arab world working on transform and will focusing on the good activities what served our community.

It is great chance to say thank you to all teams:

1- Initiative owner 

2- Organizing team 

3- Implementing team 

4- Coordinators 

5- Participants 

For some reasons: 

1- Excellent organizing 

2- Patience with us, Advice, guidance and counseling 

3- Continues following up 

From heart of Arab world (Shokran شكرا)

Ali Abbas Mahmoud MLIS, Ph.D. Researcher Library Manager 

University of Fujairah, UAE 

Email: Aliabas727@hotmail.com

Alena Katina's testimonial

To start with, I would like to thank all the organizers of the International Librarians Networking Program for this great opportunity to become one of the participants. It is a great project which gave me a great communication experience with LIS specialists from different countries. When I became a participant I have no idea that I will meet such a great people interested in the theory and practice of the librarianship.

In addition, this program became very important for me because during the Pandemic I felt a demand in communication with students who can also understand you on the professional level. Thus lifelong learning is very important for young specialists in LIS (to whom I belong), this program seems like one of the ways in achieving this goal.

In conclusion, I should note that my program partner Teresia Atieno Cochumba, a Senior Library Assistant of the Technical University of Mombasa Library helped me to feel better personally and professionally. I also got a mouthful of motivation for future development in LIS field and we initiated a joint online project for LIS students. I hope, our project will help LIS students to know more about LIS schools, programs, interesting educational and research projects which will motivate them just like this program motivated me.

P.S. I would like to thank my supervisor, Associate Professor, Dr. Albina Krymskaya for a chance to join this program.

Alena Katina

PhD Student of the Library and Information Science Department

St. Petersburg State University of Culture

 

April Moyo's testimonial

I was delighted to participate in the International Librarians Networking Program. During this program, I was matched with Mal’akh Ortega, who worked as a librarian in Mexico. We were able to connect via email and WhatsApp to exchange information and share about our own experiences in librarianship this far. If it were not for this program, I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to connect with her in this way, if at all. I truly appreciate the Program providing this outlet as a way to engage in the work of other librarians around the globe. We have still been in communication with each other beyond the end of the official program! 

I learned about things happening at her library and overall, we could exchange information about the way things have changed at work during the coronavirus pandemic. It was nice to be able to learn about our daily responsibilities, the operations and services in our libraries, management procedures, virtual programs, quarantine processes, etc. We were also able to share information about professional development opportunities (webinars, or other programs), as well as share personal aspirations, research interests, and professional goals in librarianship. We learned about not only how our libraries responded to the pandemic, but also how our respective government officials have responded on behalf of its citizens. It has been interesting to share dialogue around these issues for the past few months. My partner also emphasized how libraries/librarianship is viewed from her (and I assume others) abroad, from a perspective of someone living outside the USA, which was very insightful, as I have only worked and lived in the United States. We have discussed starting a project together, so hopefully that will come to fruition.

I am thankful for the ILNP for providing this outlet for librarians to connect and share information informally with each other. This environment fosters a unique connection between colleagues around the globe and a sense of community, especially during this difficult time. I hope to participate in a similar program in the future, so that I can meet more librarians and get to know more about others’ experiences in other places around the world. The IRRT has done a fantastic job with presenting webinars and other training, highlighting work happening in libraries in other countries throughout this summer. I am looking forward to more content in the Fall to continue learning and connecting with others, as I hope to one day work abroad. Perhaps in the future, we can also arrange a meet-up online for all of the participants to share experiences and see each other, to further enhance the program. 

Mal'akh Ortega's testimonial

At the beginning of the program, I was curious about the situation with other libraries around the world, especially with the chaos and the Pandemia Covid-19. This process was weird because the virtual work had the same no told rules for all of us: lots of work, internet problems, no schedules, and more work as usual times.

I appreciate the opportunity to share with April Moyo, how the librarians work in other universities in the United States of America and our conversations make me feel that the differences are less than our coincidences and expectations. The experiences that my partner has told me, let me understand how our work could make a better place for anyone who needs to make important decisions throughout their lives.
 
The libraries and their librarians in virtual spaces are the support of their study programs and the innovation with the e-learning without a doubt is the next step. In these times of Pandemic, I envision virtual work as an opportunity to improve communication among the library community. I hope that these types of cultural exchange programs help us to break down geographical barriers in order to implement new pedagogical strategies that can create a new online, multidisciplinary, and multicultural learning community.

September issue of IRRT’s International Leads

An article about the program was just published in the IRRT online publication International Leads. Please check it out if you are interested in learning more about how the program was created and implemented.

Link to September issue of IRRT’s International Leads:
http://www.ala.org/rt/sites/ala.org.rt/files/content/intlleads/leadsarchive/202009-edited.pdf

Marcela Molli's testimonial

The International Librarians Networking Program (ILNP) invited and contacted people from different countries, who curiously share not only one profession but also are historically immersed in the same and unprecedented problem, the COVID-19 pandemic.

In my case, I am from Argentina, and I communicated with my pair (she is Brazilian living in the United States) weekly. We talked about various aspects of our academic training, professional journeys, anecdotes, and private impressions. For example, we explored the benefits that reference managers offer us (such as Mendeley) or the use of tools for the creation of web pages (I created a page using Google Sites for my library and explained to her how to use it).

We took advantage to learn more about online tools to communicate such as Google Meetings and Zoom to make video calls and share our screens when necessary, which was also beneficial for my current job during this COVID-19 pandemic since I already know how to use all the features.

I have enjoyed every minute of the program, I think it is a proposal that revitalizes the spirit of the participating librarians because it reminds us that we can always work better if we do it as a team, being supportive and nurturing empathy. It would be nice if ILNP can offer the program again and extends the duration because I really enjoyed it.

This Program is proof that a librarian is never alone since he/she has a constellation of colleagues who synergistically feedback, and whose energy revitalizes him/her, making his/her voice turn on and rise like a beacon of light that projects credibility.