WE BUILD LIBRARIES’ ICT CAPACITY

THE CHALLENGE

To offer new services that use technology, public librarians need new skills.

The EIFL Public Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) helps to build the capacity of librarians so that they can introduce technology, manage new services, build non-traditional partnerships and engage with communities in new and different ways.

Since 2017 we have focused on building the capacity of public librarians in Africa.

WHAT WE DO

  • We build public librarians’ capacity to develop new and innovative services that meet community needs.
  • We train public librarians to measure the impact of ICT-based services, and to use impact evidence to advocate with government for resourcing of public libraries with technology and funding for new services.
  • We build public librarians’ digital skills and enable them to pass on their skills to people in the community.
  • We advance continuing professional development for librarians in Africa by training corps of local public librarians to become trainers.
  • We offer international learning and networking experiences for young African public librarians to inspire creation of new services.

Immediately after the EIFL training, in collaboration with my colleague, we embarked on a women’s empowerment programme in which we supported women’s self-help groups to draft constitutions for their groups, helped them to research the internet for donors and to fill in online proposal templates. Some groups have already received funding.

- Wellington M. Ngala, librarian at Kenya National Library Service / Dzitsoni Library, who attended EIFL’s new service development training in Kenya

FACTS

1

EIFL-PLIP built ICT skills of over 2,000 public librarians from libraries that have computers and the internet in six countries in Africa from 2014 - 2023.

 

 

 

 

2

In 2013 EIFL was awarded a WSIS Project Prize for Excellence in the category Capacity Building for the work of EIFL-PLIP.