WE BUILD LIBRARIES’ ICT CAPACITY

THE CHALLENGE

To offer new services that use technology, public librarians need new skills.

The EIFL Public Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) helps to build the capacity of librarians so that they can introduce technology, manage new services, build non-traditional partnerships and engage with communities in new and different ways.

Since 2017 we have focused on building the capacity of public librarians in Africa.

WHAT WE DO

  • We build public librarians’ capacity to develop new and innovative services that meet community needs.
  • We train public librarians to measure the impact of ICT-based services, and to use impact evidence to advocate with government for resourcing of public libraries with technology and funding for new services.
  • We build public librarians’ digital skills and enable them to pass on their skills to people in the community.
  • We advance continuing professional development for librarians in Africa by training corps of local public librarians to become trainers.
  • We offer international learning and networking experiences for young African public librarians to inspire creation of new services.
READ MORE

Immediately after the EIFL training, in collaboration with my colleague, we embarked on a women’s empowerment programme in which we supported women’s self-help groups to draft constitutions for their groups, helped them to research the internet for donors and to fill in online proposal templates. Some groups have already received funding.

- Wellington M. Ngala, librarian at Kenya National Library Service / Dzitsoni Library, who attended EIFL’s new service development training in Kenya

FACTS

1

EIFL-PLIP built ICT skills of over 2,000 public librarians from libraries that have computers and the internet in six countries in Africa from 2014 - 2023.

 

 

 

 

2

In 2013 EIFL was awarded a WSIS Project Prize for Excellence in the category Capacity Building for the work of EIFL-PLIP.