Librarians from Universities Central Library, Daw Yin Yin Aye and Head Librarian, Dr. Sanda Oo, of Yadanabon University, Amarapura Township are touring the United States. Their two weeks at University of Washington enabled us to meet twice to discuss strategic plans for their respective institutions. They look to Nargis Library Recovery as a possible partner in upgrading their libraries, especially in scaling up the digital capability of their younger librarians. They are focused now on internet and global access, especially on training staff, faculty and students to use the computers now creeping onto campuses throughout Myanmar. Sanda Oo also heads the Department of Library & Information Studies at Yadanabon U., located midst Amarapura ruins, within 40 miles of Mandalay University, the most familiar higher education institution in Upper Myanmar. Both librarians have benefited from Beyond Access training programs as well as a few laptop computers donated by that program administered by the Asia Foundation and Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation. But their partnership only is a taste of the enormous change needed to upgrade their libraries. Digital was the most used term in our conversation; clearly government funding must increase enormously if these tertiary institutions are to regain the stature Rangoon and Mandalay Universities held in the post-war Democracy Period. I will take their requests for collaboration with NLR to our board of Directors, perhaps we can guide some immediate resources to them. Fortunately, Judith Henchy, Southeast Asia Librarian, University of Washington in nearby Seattle, is part of a larger network of university librarians experienced in ongoing digitization programs. Following their two weeks on campus at the University of Washington. Yin Yin Aye and Sanda Oo flew to Chicago and drove out to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. NIU has one of the best collections of Burmese material and a splendid Burmese Studies Program directed by Professor Catherine Raymond. They return to Myanmar late this week, hopefully the varied international assistance programs directed at Myanmars libraries can directly impact and continue the modernization efforts of these two energetic librarians.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:13:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015