We have been in Banda Aceh for the weekend. I'll re-cap the first few working days in Pidie.
When we got to the public library in Sigli we met with the staff and the head of the District. Louise (FCM leader) reviewed the reasons we were there and began a discussion with the staff about their library service, what they were happy with and what they felt needed attention.
All throughout this discussion there were motorcycles racing around the library and I could hear Celine Dion music in the background. It was somewhat surreal.
There is a staff of 23 at the library and generally about 75% report for work each day. The staff get paid whether they attend work or not. They want to have an automated library system yet only about 4 of the staff are comfortable with computers. They have a bookmobile that serves 30 districts over a 120 km territory. They are proud of their service to the public but acknowledge that their collections are not strong.
We met with the head of the library and the head of the district on Thursday night. We talked through the objectives that we felt had been identified during our conversations with them and the staff. The key part was that the head of the library (Gusmeli) had not been able to be present for the discussions that we had been having and we wanted to make sure that the ideas made sense to her.
The evening meeting could have been a commercial for Deep Woods 'off' bug spray. The mosquitos were everywhere and we were trying to be discreet with our slapping and arm waving to get rid of the pesky bugs. We agreed to return in the morning to review it all again with them and the staff. Friday was a civic holiday so we were not sure how many staff would choose to come to this meeting.
On Friday, we were very pleased to see six staff, including the director and the head of the library was in attendance. I was pleased to see that they were not in their library (almost military style) uniforms....they had come in on their day off and were dressed in their regular clothes.
Once again we went through a process of reviewing and confirming the main goal of the project which is to improve the library service that is available for the people of Pidie. They were very responsive and made some good suggestions as to how they wanted to see this happen. It was an altogether different feel than the evening before when there was little comment given about the project.
They agreed to meet with us all the next week.
We headed back to Banda Aceh for the weekend. We had our work cut out for us. We still have to finalize the project plan, with the objectives and a plan lined out for future missions. Over the weekend in Banda we visited with our local resource partner, Sanusi, the head of the university library. He showed us around his facility. We now have an idea of how his operation works and if there is potential for staff training or job shadowing at the university library.
We went to a local book store to see what sort of materials are available. We also discovered a public library in Banda. Finding out more about the book industry in Indonesia and investigating the public library in Banda are some future steps for us.
Today we head back to Pidie to begin the next stage of our work.
We are having a lot of fun and enjoying the people we meet. I am trying to learn a bit of the Indonesian language each day. Katherine thinks this post is rather dry, but I wanted to make sure that I covered all of the details.
D.
When we got to the public library in Sigli we met with the staff and the head of the District. Louise (FCM leader) reviewed the reasons we were there and began a discussion with the staff about their library service, what they were happy with and what they felt needed attention.
All throughout this discussion there were motorcycles racing around the library and I could hear Celine Dion music in the background. It was somewhat surreal.
There is a staff of 23 at the library and generally about 75% report for work each day. The staff get paid whether they attend work or not. They want to have an automated library system yet only about 4 of the staff are comfortable with computers. They have a bookmobile that serves 30 districts over a 120 km territory. They are proud of their service to the public but acknowledge that their collections are not strong.
We met with the head of the library and the head of the district on Thursday night. We talked through the objectives that we felt had been identified during our conversations with them and the staff. The key part was that the head of the library (Gusmeli) had not been able to be present for the discussions that we had been having and we wanted to make sure that the ideas made sense to her.
The evening meeting could have been a commercial for Deep Woods 'off' bug spray. The mosquitos were everywhere and we were trying to be discreet with our slapping and arm waving to get rid of the pesky bugs. We agreed to return in the morning to review it all again with them and the staff. Friday was a civic holiday so we were not sure how many staff would choose to come to this meeting.
On Friday, we were very pleased to see six staff, including the director and the head of the library was in attendance. I was pleased to see that they were not in their library (almost military style) uniforms....they had come in on their day off and were dressed in their regular clothes.
Once again we went through a process of reviewing and confirming the main goal of the project which is to improve the library service that is available for the people of Pidie. They were very responsive and made some good suggestions as to how they wanted to see this happen. It was an altogether different feel than the evening before when there was little comment given about the project.
They agreed to meet with us all the next week.
We headed back to Banda Aceh for the weekend. We had our work cut out for us. We still have to finalize the project plan, with the objectives and a plan lined out for future missions. Over the weekend in Banda we visited with our local resource partner, Sanusi, the head of the university library. He showed us around his facility. We now have an idea of how his operation works and if there is potential for staff training or job shadowing at the university library.
We went to a local book store to see what sort of materials are available. We also discovered a public library in Banda. Finding out more about the book industry in Indonesia and investigating the public library in Banda are some future steps for us.
Today we head back to Pidie to begin the next stage of our work.
We are having a lot of fun and enjoying the people we meet. I am trying to learn a bit of the Indonesian language each day. Katherine thinks this post is rather dry, but I wanted to make sure that I covered all of the details.
D.
4 comments:
Hey you two,
Got Dawna's e-mail with the blog address...great to connect.
Somehow my comment was added to May 20th instead of today's post, but I did reply!
Have fun over there, be safe
hey Kat and Dawna,
So it's almost all ready to go. Sounds like a real piece of cake.
You're lucky, more time at the beach!
Have a ton of fun in the sun!
xo
Wow! I'm with Katherine. Half way through I was thinking that this was a tie with "The parrots of Telegraph Hill", a documentary that I watched on TV last night. That was twenty minutes I'll never get back.
Anyway, it does sound exciting. I am so envious of you both.
Seven sleeps until Rufus.
You be dry or wet and let the rest of us be amusing.
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