Public librarians from Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) will take part in a two-day communications and advocacy training course organized by EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries). 

The workshop is the fourth module of a major capacity building initiative involving 30 librarians from 29 public libraries that provide public access to computers and the internet. The capacity building initiative aims to build librarians’ project planning, management, technical and communications capacity, and to enable them to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into new services that meet community development needs.

Training for module four will be led by Kaspars Ruklis, an international communications trainer, assisted by Ramune Petuchovaite, manager of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP). Training will support development of communications and advocacy plans for new service ideas. The training follows a workshop from February 17-18 to be led by Professor Andreas Degkwitz of Humboldt University, Berlin (Germany), and supported by Goethe-Institut / Kenya, during which the same group of librarians will develop writing skills and strategies to raise public awareness about library services and their impact.

The first module of the EIFL-KNLS training took place in November 2014, and built librarians’ ICT and e-literacy skills and their capacity to train community members to use ICT. With financial support from UNESCO, training for modules two, Digital resources and online searching skills, and three , Planning of innovative ICT-based services, took place in Nakuru in December 2014.

Read more about EIFL's capacity building programme for public libraries in Africa.