The Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) is stepping up efforts to revitalize the public library sector in Zimbabwe through a stakeholder’s sensitization dialogue on public libraries slated for the 27th of February 2013 at the Celebration Conference Centre in Harare.
The event seek to bring together around sixty stakeholders, including high level government officials, representatives of international organizations, and library leaders will come together to discuss current perceptions & situation, as well as potential transformations of public libraries in Zimbabwe.
The event, titled “Stakeholders Sensitization Dialogue on Public Libraries in Zimbabwe: Current and Future Perceptions.” is co-organized by Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA), the National Library and Documentation Services (NLDS), and EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP). According to the EIFL website, “This event aims at starting a dialogue among local and national government officials and library leadership about libraries as catalysts for change in the areas essential for community well being and development such as health, agriculture, employment, youth, education and others.”
The website further reported that, “After the official opening, Mr. Geoffrey Kimani, Director of Research and Insights, TNS RMS, will begin the dialogue with a presentation of findings of a six-country study, Perceptions of Public Libraries in Africa, with focus on results from Zimbabwe. The study was commissioned by EIFL-PLIP and conducted by the international market research company, TNS RMS. In 2012, similar presentations of this unique study, held in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, have raised energetic discussions among respective library communities and stakeholders.
Speakers in Harare event include Mr Tendekai Gift Bhowa, the President of ZimLA and Ms Ramune Petuchovaite, Programme Manager for EIFL-PLIP. Government officials will be invited to talk in the panel session on the value of public libraries within different policy areas.”
The event will also include six facilitated thematic discussions: Advocacy and lobbying strategies; ICT innovations; Public libraries and media reporting; Legislation and Policy environment; Public libraries and MDGs.
Further information can be accessed at http://www.eifl.net/events/dialogue-perceptions-public-libraries-zimba
