In October of 2005, Simmons College received a $1.8 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to train a new generation of Vietnamese librarians for leadership roles. Professor Pat Oyler, who oversees the grant, has been working with Vietnamese librarians for over 12 years.
Vietnamese librarians spent a semester taking core GSLIS classes during 2006, one half of the 25 librarians in the Spring 06, and one half in the Fall 06. In addition to GSLIS classes, each group visited the Library of Congress, attended either the ALA Annual or Midwinter Conferences, and spent time at the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. They returned to their respective Learning Resource Centers in Can Tho (in the Mekong Delta), Hue, Danang, and Thai Nguyen (north of Hanoi).
The Vietnamese librarians have three more semesters, taught in Vietnam, to finish their Simmons MS in LS degree. Pat Oyler taught three course in the first Vietnam semester, from March until the end of May 07. The site was in the Can Tho LRC, and all the students moved to Can Tho to enroll in the courses.
Now the courses are offered in Hue for the summer semester, and the students have moved to Hue. There are three GSLIS courses being taught by Patrick McGlamery, of the University of Connecticut, and me. These courses are Academic Libraries, Digital Libraries, and Digital Information Services and Providers. A fourth course is being offered to expand the students? experience, User Education. The students attend class Monday ? Thursday, morning and afternoon with each class meeting twice. On Friday, they participate in lectures and shadowing internships at the Hue LRC. The courses run from roughly June 11 ? August 15. The final Fall semester will be in both Danang and Thai Nguyen.
In roughly the middle of the summer semester, July 16-20, Patrick and I will be offering a week-long seminar for the IT staff at the four LRCs.
It is a full schedule, and we are all grateful to have survived the first week.
– Terry Plum in Hue