This is a day away from the Villas, and after being so busy and involved in activities all the time, this was something different! Departure 7:30 - this meant an early rise (an hour earlier than usual) and breakfast. After working on our group assignment the previous night, we tried to finish at 21:00 in order to not be late this morning)!
The driver took us on a extended route to the University of Pretoria, our first destination. Arriving at the Merensky Library our first lecture was in the committee room on the 4th floor. Very awkward to be in a familiar environment in a complete different capacity. Christa North presented us with Quality Management - I was very much intrigued by this, she applied it to such a simple example, but also so important to many of us - how do you quality manage you own closet? I really enjoyed this and somehow I could make this my own, and something that I will keep in mind, whatever the task may be that I am involved.
Then Mr Robert Moropa, the director of the Merensky Library took us on a tour through the library and this was awesome for me, although I am an employee at the Library I a situated on the Health Sciences campus and only attend meetings on this campus from time to time. The change in the structure will make a big difference in the future and I loved to see what they have in mind with the Research Commons and future endeavours related to Carnegie Foundation. I have to admit, I felt proud to be an employee at the Library. The lecture RADAR - was done with so much style and the angle from which this was explained to the group was just great! This also emphasize why this organisation (library) is striving to be the best! From here we visited the Law Library and took a brisk walk to Burgandy's for lunch. On our way there a little history of the University was shared with them - indicating the 'Ou lettere' building the original Merensky Library building and Kaya Rosa. The lunch at Burgundy's was really tasteful. From here we departed to the NLSA.
At the NLSA we were welcomed with refreshing bottled water (cold) and each received a from NLSA with brochures relating to the NLSA. What an impressive building and facilities! We were welcomed by Douw Drijfhout, he is from Preservation Services. After short presentations on the Legal Deposit and the De-acidification Project we toured the library. Fascinated by the Foreign Publications, here they receive publications with countries they have agreements with and these publications are catalogued while other foreign publications donated are not taken up in the collection although they are all kept in the archives. Could not really see what purpose this serve though? We also visited Interlending and as they call it - Stack Management. Although I knew they have to keep a copy of each South African publication, be it from pamphlets to literature to government publications - was this the first time I actually understood how they do it and preserve it, through the Stack Management system. I was also totally fascinated by the De-acidification Project running and awed by the fact that the system they run are the only one in the southern hemisphere! Another South African achievement to be proud of.
We briefly visited the LIASA office and met the ladies in the offices - keeping things going for LIASA. This was quite a tiring day and we all were extremely exhausted that evening - teamwork and group assignment also had to give it a rest and wait for the next!
