At the beginning of the 2nd week, I have made some plans for workshops: today I gave one on best practices for the Refererence Interview to 7 librarians. We decided to have a weekly librarian meeting, and future subjects will cover: searching databases; what are blogs?; and other subjects we decide on. I will also give 2 workshops to a class (32 students) of students studying The History of the Arab World — and we will cover at least the Encyclopedia of Islam, digitally.
At the end of the first week, I feel that I am beginning to know my colleagues here and their various tasks. They are all serious workers. I’ve spent an hour a day on the Reference Desk with Said, a colleague, and I’m sharing “best practises” of this job. I am working on a survey for students, and Monday I’ll give a workshop for all those involved in Reference.
Imagine that today, the end of the first week, there is a snow storm in Ifrane, Morocco — we are in the mountains, where the King has a palace. It is quite amazing to look out the window of my very elegant office and see a thick blanket of snow!
I continue to make contacts and to make plans to travel this weekend. Hopefully once out of Ifrane, there will be no snow.
First days in Ifrane I have met with the Director Prof. Lotfi and his staff. All are extremely cordial, and the lines of communication are formally open. My projects include: creating a student questionnaire for feedback; share my reference knowledge with librarians here on databases and the steps involved in a formal Reference Interview. I will also look into the possibility of creating a bibliography of works to be purchased to support a Portuguese Studies department at the University.
I’ve signed up for 3 courses, the first of which starts at 8 AM: Basic Arabic; History of the Arab World; and Arab Literature. I look forward to this! even if it will be only 6 weeks.
Communication on the campus is Arabic and French, and some English as there are also some American students. All courses are in English.
The library is magnificent — all wood inside. It looks out on the Mosque. The atmosphere at the University is very positive, and people could not possibly be more cordial and helpful and interested in learning from me.
My first impression is that they have a good system set up, but that Reference is a weak point in library services. The Director is the first to admit this.
I have now several projects that the library wants to follow with my lead. They are the ones mentioned in the first paragraph. After meeting with head of Reference, and the head of ommunication within the Library, I will conduct a workshop for Reference librarians next week. I will also work on a document to be used for faculty outreach. I will, also, attend my 3 classes and work on learning the Arabic langauge.
As the week ends, I realize that the Mohammad VI library shares some of the same problems as Mugar at BU. It’s hard to get faculty and students in for instruction workshops. Outreach is perhaps a better tactic — either going to offices of faculty, to show them on their computer, or putting on something like an Open House in the library. One student attend a workshop. Many had signed up. I’ve created a student survey, which will be examined on Monday and then made available electronically on Monday. On verra…….