Day 16: Something called HOME! - 19 Nov 2011

The team I shared 2 weeks of my life with!

The final day of going home has arrived. I was up at 05h30. Quick shower, breakfast and off you go to the airport. The wait at the airport felt like eternity. Boarding time and finally HOME HERE I COME!

The plane did not fly fast enough! I was looking forward to be with my hubby and kids. You won’t believe the faces I saw, crying of happiness and joy. For moments we just stand there embracing each other!

The rest is history…

As I have promised the song which I decide is now a poem called:

CLLA-5 Experience

The Carnegie Corporation

Has made a restoration

To develop library leaders

And encouraged vision readers

And although it was a challenge

The program had a balance

And here we are today

With thankful hearts we say:

Carnegie, Carnegie you have sowed the seeds in our lives

And to perfection we pledge to strive

The UP coordinators, Martha and Ujala

Prepared a 2 week training gala

Consultants and professors

Gave presentation lessons

Creativity inspired innovation

And the group gave full participation

Carnegie is melting

A pot of diverse talent

Yellow, red, green and blue personalities

Public, academic and national libraries

Watch out for SA’s leading

Librarians emerging

Now for the hard work! Assignment 3

Till next week!

My own creation and motivation through the 2 weeks!

Day 15: The way ahead…Winding up - 18 Nov 2011

Friday morning has finally arrived. Most of us got up early and meet in our groups to go through final altering of our presentations.  No ‘gym’ at all, no breakfast for most of us.

The hour has come for the morning session to start. Prof TheoBothma (Head: Dept. of Information Science, UP) gave us an in depth explanation of the new trends in technology, interesting facts of the impact technology has globally as well as new technological gadgets.

Prof Christine Stilwell (Head: Dept of Information studies, UKZN) gave a presentation on the way forward for libraries in SA. What was outstanding is the approach to presentation. Something extraordinary and kept your attention. It was like a wrap up of the whole two weeks of presentations, yet it was ‘new’!

Lunch, we ate in silence! The moment of truth has arrived. We were quiet and yet excited. Group 3 presented and the fear left us all. It was our turn second: Group 4. I feel that we have done extremely well, but wait for feedback. All the groups gave their best!

Feedback started and Prof Christine was open and complimented all of us for the good presentations. A sigh of relieve! Ujala did the last part of feedback for the whole academy and we went to prepare for our gala event. Group 4 in the picture!

The gala event was great and we enjoyed every moment of it. Why? We were happy that everything was done and over with.

What is left: packing and sleep!

The last night in a hotel room tomorrow I’ll be sleeping in my own bed!

Day 14: Advocacy and visit to Constitutional Hill - 17 Nov 2011

Thursday morning! I feel like I’ve never slept. I drag myself out of bed. Feel excited too, but still have to analyse the excitement.

No one was there to walk, run or gym, except me, or did I miss it??? Never mind. I walk back to my room and start working on our presentation layout. Fun!

08h30 we were entertained by Karin Kitching (US Embassy Librarian). She spoke on the advocacy toolkit. The most outstanding activity in this session for me was: create a 30 second elevator speech to have an impact on the most important person in the elevator. I realised that sometimes we want to have an impact on people’s lives, but we say the wrong things. Nonetheless, I am having the opportunity to work on the right speech!

The Director (UPLS) Robert Moropa spoke on Locating Libraries on the radar screen. A very unique and interesting topic! We had fun with him and his sayings… so where do I see myself in the next 5years. Out of practice or on the radar screen of International librarianship? Had you wonder for a second…

How exciting were we when we got lunch boxes packed like school kids for our visit to the Constitutional Hill. I really do not want to say more about this as I still feel hurt for the treatment humans had in this place! However, we stick close to each other and encouraged one another to walk through and hold on. We hold hands to show our togetherness in all facets. On the ride back to the Hotel we were sitting each one with our own thoughts!

The rush of fear hit us after supper. Groups had discussions and uncertain question about the presentations of the next day. Deep down in my heart I had excitement too, but the fear was predominant.

Very late that night I realised the excitement was: There is 2 more days to go home!

Day 13: Current Trends in LIS sector - 16 Nov 2011

Today was different: I could not wake up by myself. I was so exhausted and confused when the alarm buzzed. I could do with more sleep, but I got up anyhow. The morning 'gym' did wonders to my tired body.

Back in  my room I got the inspiration to write a song about my experience at the Academy. It need some tweaking and a beat.

Our first presenter Prof Willem Landman ( Ethics Institute of South Africa) gave us an in depth straight to the point view on personal ethics and organisational ethics. Within an organisation structure there need to values that must be transparent with honesty and accountability and a sense of responsibility. The question that stick to me about ethics is: What makes our action right, consequences or behavior? Makes you think!

Ria Groenewald (Digitisation Co-ordinator, UPLS) and Bettie de Kock (Information Specialist, UPLS) gave us insight on digitisation & preservation and online gaming, respectively.

The last session of the day was presented by Dr Nisha Sewdass (Dept. of Information Science, UP) on Gaining a competitive edge. We did an interesting activity. We were to tell what animal we wanted to be and why we chose to be that animal. I love the eagle, because of their strength and eye for detail. They can look from above and have a clear vision in mind on whatever they do. They assist their family and friends and stick close to each other. They also love to help those in need. This is how I see myself! One of our colleagues wanted to be a Hyiena - why? Just because all the other animals were taken so desperation for uniqueness pop up! Made us laugh...

Boy was I exhausted. We had dinner and group discussion till who knows what time that evening! Our presentation was finish after we left the conference venue.

A hot bath and straight to bed...

3 Days to home - can you believe it?

Day 12: Responsible Leadership, Knowledge Management & Innovative Thinking - 15 Nov 2011

Tuesday morning...12 days of the Academy has passed. I woke up long before my alarm buzzed. Opened the curtain and sliding door to have fresh air and embrace the melody of singing birds in the trees. This time of the morning the only people on my mind is my husband and kids. My daughter asked me to sing her a song and send it. I did it and it brought tears to my eyes as I miss them so very much.

Anyway, life has to go on. I meet the team outside for gym, but to my surprise some did not pitch, they were too tired. I felt relaxed after half an hour of running and walking and what is most important is that my mind has to be open for the day. The food of the hotel is so amazing, but it can be too much at a stage. I decided not to have breakfast and blog instead.

Our first speaker for the day, Dr Eben le Roux (Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership, UP), spoke on Responsible leadership. The lesson: "Being a responsible leader requires more than being an effective, visionary and good manager. It also means having and adhering to the right values, and having a good character." In this photo a mind map on strategic leadership development.

Knowledge Management presented by Marietjie Schutte gave us in depth information on how to document knowledge for centuries.

The most outstanding presentation of the day was that of Prof Johannes Cronje (CPUT) - Innovation and thinking outside the box for South Africa Libraries. We did a learning style model and a lot of creative activities highlighting the essence of strategic documents.

This was one of the better days...

Our group discussion went on until 22h00. We finished our presentation and I am so proud of the group! Even though you went to bed later than normal you felt some fulfillment and relief. One can at least have sweet dreams...

4 days to going home; I start doubting the idea of the countdown...

Day 11: Dynamic Organisations - 14 Nov 2011

The beginning of a new week! The last week of the academy, can you believe it? Time has fly and I feel totally overloaded with information and ideas.

Today I woke up @ 05h00, well rested and looking forward to the challenges of the day. The normal routine of gym, shower, breakfast and off you go!

It seemed to be a very exciting program: Strategy alive: The living organisation by Johan Greeff (CEO and founder of Treetops). This session was about stress management and assertiveness. I love the statement: Work is a place where we bring our personal gifts. This makes it very special. We make our love for life visible. It is about conceptual thinking and thinking ahead.

We had an exercise called the Holy Exercise. We had to peep through a hole in a cloth which covered obstacles on a table. This was a real strategic way of looking at our problems. We had to think strategically and came up with the best solutions. The lessons I learned is that there is more than one angle to the same thing. Diversity adds value and individuals must do their best. Speak your truth, listen, listen, listen with an open mind and seek the truth. The bigger the hole the don't necessary yield more information.

This was a day full of exciting activities explaining strategic organisations.

We were invited to the Opening of the Carnegie Research Commons of University of Pretoria. This was  a gracious experience meeting the sponsor (Carnegie Corporation) Omotade Aina and Dr Rookaya Bawa, the Vice Chancellor and Principal - Prof Cheryl de la Rey and Robert Moropa (Senior Director: UP library services). In this photo all the attendees for the 5th Carnegie Library Leadership and the above mentioned colleagues. The program coordinators of the Academy is also in this picture.

It was a memorable day and one I will never forget.

5 days to go home!

Day 10: Weekend tasks and group discussion - 13 Nov 2011

Since this was another day off for sessions, we could negotiate free time within our groups.

Today I was up a bit later 06h00. Today is Sunday (the second one in my entire life that I had to cater to work). Today is normally family day for me. Today I decided to attend church (I have arranged with a friend to pick me up). Today I MISS MY FAMILY!

I did my hair as this is a two hour operation to get it dry and perfect. Had breakfast with the group and off I went to attend church. The theme of the service was obedience. It linked in with leadership obedience and I could just enjoy every second in the presence of God. I felt revived when I got back and was ready for the challenges of the week.

I called home and had a two hour conversation with my husband and kids. We had laughter and could not help to shed a tear. I had a hour nap and @ 18h00 our group met again for more discussion and group work.

It was quite a lazy day if I may call it that? I went to bed @ 09h30 but could only fell asleep late. I had too many things to think about; did introspection and had a marvelous time with my Creator. All I know is that it felt sweet when I got up on Monday morning for the regular drill as my countdown to go home has start.

                                                                           6 DAYS TO HOME!

Day 9: Weekend tasks and group discussion - 12 Nov 2011

I was hoping to sleep in, but I became so used to getting up early in the morning so my day started at 05h45 as usual. It was Saturday morning and we as group did our regular 'gym session'. Did we enjoy a lovely breakfast for the first time without the worry of having to rush for a session? Yeah sure...

We had a day off from sessions but we had a lot of group work to finish for our presentations for this coming Friday. Our group met @ 08h00 for discussion. We had a fruitful session and cover quite a number of our assignment.

After a group working session we went on tour to surrounding Public Libraries: Waverley Public Library and Alkantrand Public Library. These libraries have motivated, innovative and creative staff. One of them has a private listening library as part of their activities. Many activities is part of these libraries daily routine. They have supporting communities whom participate and create opportunities for themselves. I was very impressed with the libraries as they do not have many resources and funds to develop, but they do activities and create a platform for their own fundraising events.


We ventured to Woodlands Mall and have lunch. This was the only opportunity we had to shop for our needs, but some of the ladies did not only shop for their needs but also for the WANTS. From there we visit a lookout point to view Pretoria from the furthest side. In this picture is me and Joanne Arendse at the lookout point with Pretoria in the background.  Our journey ends at the Union Buildings and its beautiful gardens. I embraced every moment of fresh air, exotic smells and visual beauty.

Exhausted we reached the hotel. Guess what? We had supper and group discussions start @ 19h00 until 21h00. I was tired and excited like a racing horse after a victorious race.

Well you can imagine what happened next... Sleep

Day 8: Marketing branding & effective communication and multiculturalism in the workplace - 11 Nov 2011

Yipee it is Friday! I have been here a week, can you believe it? Routine has kicked in, got up @ 05h30, team 'gym', breakfast and there you find yourself in the conference room READY FOR THE NEXT INFORMATION INFLUX!

Prof Ronel Rensburg (Dept. of Marketing & Communication, UP) gave us a presentation on Marketing, branding and effective communication. This was a real interactive session. We were divided into groups and each group had to do a realistic marketing strategy.

Our group decided on doing something unique but practical. We decided to have a Talent Auction to raise funds to buy a gift to the workers at the Conference venue. Each one of us have a talent that we could auction. We brand, market and put a price to our service and then the real business began. Some of the other groups also bought into the idea and believe it or not it was fun! Even though we did not do it for real I enjoyed every moment of it. (I still think that we should do it for real; let's see how I can influence the group!) Just for the record: Ronel can sing and I mean sing from the heart!

We had a light lunch and after a busy session I quickly went to my room for a power nap. The afternoon session start at 14h00. A very touchy topic: Multi-culturalism and the diverse workplace by Lizette le Roux (Senior Consultant in Multi-culturalism, Leadership and  Cultural Integration). We pledge to confidentiality in this session... All I can say is that we dealt with heart issues of the group and I realised that we can make a change step by step. I personally resist to get involved in the discussion we had, but participate by listening. This session bind us as group with an invisible cord of love, respect and appreciation. We end the session with our group song, which I will post some time later!

The evening we had a braai in the pool area and boy did we enjoy that! Calmness and a togetherness of friends, colleagues and special people! We had so much laughter and I can say that today was real special to me! Special because of all the links we made during the afternoon. I cannot describe it, but I know you will understand...or I hope so...at least.

Day 7: Library Visits - 10 Nov 2011

Today was one of the most exciting programs. We were going out! Not shopping, but on a tour to visit Libraries.

I was up early and enjoyed the early morning 'gym' session. We had to be ready earlier in order for us to take the trip to the Merensky Library. We were welcomed by Ujala and she took us on a tour through the library. The most exciting part was to visit their new Research Commoms, which will officially open Monday 14 November 2011.  We were the first Carnegie Library Leaders to have a presentation in the newly build Carnegie Library Auditorium. It is a stunning place and is equipped with all possible technological devices for conference venues.

We attended two session one on Quality assurance and the other on The strategic organisation in practice presented by Christa North (Head: Quality unit, UP) and Dr Heila Pienaar (Deputy Director: e-Information strategy and e-Research enablement, UPLS), respectively. We visit their digitisation section as well as the reference section. We were treated with a lovely lunch at Burgundy's after our visit to the UP Museum. The bus then depart to The National Library of South Africa.

We were welcomed by Ms Rachel More (Deputy National Librarian) and a tour guide was assigned to us for the rest of the afternoon. The building is really a state of the art attraction. We visited each department and the most exciting one to me was the binding section. This is where books are cleaned, repaired and rebind. They also fulfill the binding of all types of magazines, parliamentary gazettes and journals.




Our last stop was the Liasa office. We were welcomed by a very lovely lady, Hannelie Brink (Liasa: Office Manager). They even had gift packs for each one of us. This made me feel special.

Even though we were so exhausted when we got back to the hotel we still had our group discussion after dinner. I believe that we have dedicated and committed people in our group and I just love the synergy between us. I got to bed 23h50.

Day 6: Optimising Human Capital - 09 Nov 2011

I totally forgot to mention that we get up every morning at six to jog or walk. This is a real strength drawing half an hour. This is also a time where we clean our minds.

The session on Optimising Human Capital for Sustainable Organisational Performance gave me new light to human resources. It is like building this big puzzle and not having the clear picture yet. Prof Yvonne du Plessis gave us insight on this topic and relate it to her own personal experience. 

The most outstanding part of it was something that she called the River story. Underneath a drawing that explains the story. We see our organisation as the main river and each unit as a branch of the river. In order for the organisational river to flow effectively and efficiently each one of us have Roles and Responsibilities. When sharing Resources we want Results, but without Relationships we have to Re-evaluate, Reconfirm, Reconstruct, Rearrange and even Reprimand. When achieving these Results we can give our staff Recognition and Rewards.

We had a session in the evening with Ujala finishing the Campbell Descriptor Tool. We assessed our capabilities and had a group discussion on what we as group see as the main qualities a leader should have. We reached the 21h20 mark and went exhausted to bed.

Day 5: Organisational Leadership in Practice - 08 Nov 2011

Today I got up with a terrible migraine headache. I think the challenge in the group is the air conditioner temperature for all of us. I felt like my world is turning and I could not even concentrate, non the less I got ready and join in the session.

Prof Yvonne du Plessis (Dept. of Marketing & Communication, UP) gave us a full day presentation on Organisational leadership. This was a very theoretical approach and since I could not concentrate I requested to be excused. I took medication and slept for an hour and felt so much better when I got up. 

Today our world were shaken. One of our colleagues cousin passed away, to whom she was very close. It came as a real shock to her. The group shared the pain and for the rest of the day we could not help feeling sad with her.

Even though we had sadness in the camp, we still need to work. Our presenter gave her best and we had a marvelous afternoon session. 

Herewith a picture of a activity we had to do. The instruction was that we should draw a picture to describe our leadership. In this picture the house represent me. Windows and doors refer to the open mindedness as leader. The satellite on the house refer to my IT specialty. The scenery: Tree and swing refer to freedom and creativity; Mountain refer to the fact that no life is without challenges and so is our leadership journey; Birds = the freedom to reach my goals; The sun = my innovation and creative thinking to new developments; The clouds refer to our mentors to whom we can always get back to for more information and guidance in our lives and lastly the River is the journey as leaders and we have to direct and lead no matter the direction!

So this was my day! Now the evening responsibility start. After dinner we met in our individual groups and all the hard work starts. We have a group assignment to do and the deadline is Friday 18 November 2011. The challenge for this is that each one in our group has a different personality that we had to deal with! That I will discuss as we go along.

Day 4: Setting the South African LIS context & Pamoja Game - 07 Nov 2011

This was a very interesting day!

The National Librarian of the National Library of South Africa, John Tsebe, gave us an in depth presentation on the strategic vision of the NLSA. A bit too much theory, but interesting.

Ujala gave us the presentation and strategic plan of Liasa on behalf of the Liasa President, Naomi Haasbroek. This was a session where we discussed burning issues in our profession. It was great opportunity where we as young professionals could raise our concerns and share our ideas. I honestly believe that more of these platforms should be created where our voices can be heard.

Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata gave us the story of libraries and librarians in the African continent. To me it was a view of quality development. A thought that will always stick to me on this presentation is: Ask yourself what you want to do when you want to grow up. The advise was: Never stop to grow. The lesson I learnt is that once you stop growing, you become stagnant.

The practicing next generation librarian was presented by Rene Schoombee, a icon public librarian who changed to a schoolteacher librarian for the sake of loving the development of kids. She is a very opportunistic and motivated person who confine in being there for the community.She is very passionate about the profession and loves being involved. She is a true ambassador and practice what she preach. I learned that we need to be involved to reach our goals.

After a lovely meal we played the Pamoja game - A learning activity for the Information Age. This was excited and what came to mind is that we as librarians service every facet in society even if it means that we have to go the extra mile. I learned flexibility, cooperation, negotiation skills and how to share a common vision in the team.

Throughout the day I learned that it is important to know your environment and know the time we living in before we make a decision!

Day 3: HBDI Personal and Group Profiling & Graduation CLLA 4 - 06 Nov 2011

What day was it again? Sunday morning someone said... Goodness me! This is really the first time in my entire life that I worked on a Sunday as I honor this day to my Maker and Creator. Challenging it was!

So, here I am sitting in the conference venue and this elderly lady, tall and elegant enter the room. I thought: "Oh my, how boring is this session gonna be!" She smiled and start talking with much comfort and confidence ... what did I think again? Never judge a book by its cover! I learned this lesson over and over, but one can sometimes become so prejudice and 'box' people before we even know them!

Ann de Boer better known as Professor Ann de Boer (Dept of Information Science, UP) is a woman full of life and energy and I know this blog space will be too small to describe her. I will just highlight some of the aspects that really touched me as individual here. The tool known as the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) gave me the overview of my personality. What was interesting is that my whole brain development is equally developed in all 4 quadrants. 

We joined in for lunch and welcomed the 4th Academy attendees for their graduation ceremony. It was a lovely experience meeting colleagues who can relate to the same fears and experiences we about to have. The expectation is high as a lot of these attendees got distinctions, which make it even more compulsory for us to deliver!

We as a group formed a choir and sang for the graduates as a surprise. We have a lot of talent and we thought that we will use it to the benefit of group! We even have people who love to do washing and ironing. Can you believe that?

Day 2: Web 2.0 Technologies in the workplace: Blogs, Wikis & Mobile Technologies - 5 Nov 2011

The energy levels are still high even though we went to bed late on the first night. Amazing!

Antoinette Lourens (Information Specialist, UPLS) gave us a brief overview on blogs and wikis and we were task to create our own, which is now part of our assignments. As I've said previously: I honestly thought that blogging is a nice way to waist precious time, but to my amazement I enjoy writing on my blog! I have learned the different ways in which we can use blogs and can admit that this will become part of my daily routine, even in the workplace! Wikis was already part of my daily tasks at work as this is the way we keep various committees informed on progress of meetings, etc.

Christelle Steyn & Janice de Wee delighted us with the different types of applications on mobile phones. There was information on mobile catalogues, mobile databases, mobile search engines, mobile social tools, etc. My question is: What is next? Probably mobile librarians...(laughing) A foreign tool to me was "quick response" (QR) codes. This is something I want to investigate to understand how it can be used.

In the absence of Prof Theo Bothma (Head: Dept. of Information Science, UP), Ujala Satgoor (Deputy Director: Marketing, Training & Development, UPLS) was tasked to give us an introduction to our Individual Assignments. One could feel the anxiety and sense the silence in the group. Nonetheless, we tried to stay motivated. I thought for one moment: Why am I doing this to myself! I must be insane, but to that there are some sanity in what I am doing...

During supper the team was quiet...each one with our own thoughts. Another day is almost something of the past, but we still had one more session to go. The food was great as usual, but too much.

As I enter the conference room I thought: what will keep me awake for our last round of information tonight? To my amazement, Ujala kept us talking for 2 hours without us even realising time, and we could go on.

Day 1: Introduction CLLA - 4 Nov 2011

The day started at 5. Traffic - Flight - Traffic and finally, here I am attending the first day of this very exciting course at the Villas Hotel in Pretoria.

I can see the fear, curiosity and adventure in each of my colleagues eyes, but I'll rather not say anything about that, since I experience the same emotions at that point in time.

I'll share my expectations instead:
I want to drive myself to a level of of being confident in my profession and develop my leadership abilities. I hope to have a great networking experience and learn from my colleagues. I want to be equipped to become one of the leaders in South African Libraries. I need personal development and confidence in what I want to achieve, but realise that this is not possible on my own, thus the drive to live my dream through constant learning from colleagues who has already set the standard.

We've done 5 minute presentations about ourselves and that has set the calmness and togetherness in the bigger group.

How could I forget the interesting session on Web 2.0 tools by Johann van Wyk (Information Specialist, UPLS)? Just WOW! I knew about blogs and always thought that it is a waist of time, but I must admit that it is a very useful tool, since this is the space where I am talking to you. I've learned about glogs, stixy, dimdim, and a variety of other tools. It  was quite overwhelming! The challenge for me is: Finding one tool that suit the profile of my needs in my working place.

Above all I enjoyed the food (not intending to gain any weight) and what a blessed feeling when I reached my room to just sleep, sleep, sleep...