GROUNDWORK FOR GHANA
By David Orman, Head, Document Supply
Unit, John Rylands University Library, Manchester
On Sunday 17th May I found myself at a Little
Chef with six librarians, recently arrived from Ghana, and
Sara Gould of IFLA (International Federation of Library
Associations). The pub I originally chose had turned out
not to serve lunch on Sunday, so eventually we settled for
a meal at the Little Chef and hoped that the week ahead
would improve after the rather inauspicious start! Sara
and I had exchanged phone calls and emails and met to discuss
suitable training for our visitors. The idea was simple.
Interlending in Ghana
Ghana has no formalized interlending agreements, relying
on personal contact; so far as it goes, this is fine. But
Ghanaian university libraries are expanding. We think we
have trouble keeping up with demand, but in a country where
university's holdings average less than 10,000 items per
library, and where the thirst for knowledge is growing,
the need for document delivery can, without hyperbole, be
said to be dire. Western-sponsored projects have helped
and, for instance, a three-year provision of free documents
is not to be sniffed at. However, it is to be wondered whether,
ultimately, such schemes are of any real benefit: where
funds are subsequently withdrawn, analogies with the temporary
relief of famine are not entirely out of place.
The task ahead
Sustainability was therefore the key word arising from our
introductory meeting on Sunday. This was more than a little
daunting, but we hoped that the week would convey at least
an idea of the basic procedures necessary to operate an
effective, and therefore sustainable, national interlending
scheme.
Rather earlier than I am wont to rise, Monday morning saw
me making my way to the hotel, from where we all travelled
to Manchester Piccadilly to catch the 8:50 to York. I had
of course read the background documents; but whilst CVs
and minutes of meetings are well enough, to find that Kwame
(one of the librarians) was a fellow newly-wed did rather
more to bridge the cultural differences.
A day at Boston Spa
The visit to BLDSC was useful. Those of us who use ARTTel
or ARTemail can so easily become blasé about it:
they reduce the time our readers have to wait by a day or
two. Multiply this by five, and you have some idea of the
practical benefits ARTemail will bring to Ghana for requests
made to the British Library. After a packed few hours, our
visitors decided to return to Manchester direct, whilst
I enjoyed a couple of hours in York. And so it was that,
whilst sampling the delights of down-town Manchester, six
Ghanaians experienced their first Mancunian downpour. Drought?
What drought?
Tuesday morning, at a rather more civilized 10am, found
us crowding into the offices of NWRLS at Manchester Central
Library. A brief history lesson took us back to the English
libraries of the 1930s and the practicalities of setting
up and maintaining a union catalogue. There was also an
introduction to the regional transport scheme which provided
food for thought. Unity was demonstrated, and reckoned to
be the sort of thing Ghana could benefit from: networked
systems are fine, but in areas where networks are not as
reliable as in the UK (and problems are hardly unknown here!),
a stand-alone system is ideal. If nothing else, the visit
provided a useful vision for the future.
A visit to the local Waterstone's at lunchtime was apparently
appreciated. I say apparently, because your reporter holed
himself up in the equivalent of the Ale and Arty with a
pint and a note-pad, all the better to make last-minute
amendments to the following days' teaching sessions.
If the morning session had taken us back to the 1930s, the
afternoon took us back to the late nineteenth-century, Manchester's
heyday, as we visited the original or `real,' as I prefer
to call it, John Rylands Library. Bearing in mind that the
building resembles more a temple of books than the anonymous
warmth of modern libraries and that Ghana enjoys rather
less inclement weather than Manchester, it was probably
inadvisable to have turned the heating off. Still, a cup
of coffee in the fellows' room did much to warm the body.
As for warming the spirit, a selection of items were presented
for our enjoyment, from the oldest fragment of the New Testament
through to a volume owned and inscribed by Henry VIII. Even
Oscar Wilde might have considered this an excess of pleasure.
The final three days were to be the substance of the week,
and were based in the Committee Room of the (main) John
Rylands University Library. Sara and I were joined by Stephen
Prowse (King's College, London) who led one of the sessions
on Wednesday, and between us we managed to cover the programme.
Doubtless, some of it was already familiar to our guests,
but what were of greatest value were the discussion sessions:
it was in these that our fellow interlenders were able to
refer to the particularities and todiscuss the nitty gritty
of the proposed Ghanaian interlending co-operative.
An anticipated hour's Internet experience on Thursday extended
to two hours, during which Mr Martey, librarian at Ghana's
Balme Library, used BLDSC's newly-launched OPAC97 to locate
a copy of a first edition his library requires. He would,
he advised us, try to buy a photographic reproduction for
addition to stock.
Readers will be pleased to learn that there was great interest
in FIL (possibly a couple of new subscriptions on their
way, Ms Membership Secretary!) as a model on which to base
a more formalized discussion and exchange-of-experience
group. The value of such an organization is not perhaps
as apparent to those of us who take it for granted, as it
is to those who do not have such a forum. As a general rule,
we were told, chief librarians in Ghana value interlending
as an integral part of their services; but where an organizational,
rather than individual voice is likely to have greater impact
in persuading universities to provide realistic moral and
financial support, it is to be hoped that a version of FIL
would prove to be a valuable asset.
Having covered most of the elements of borrowing and lending,
we devoted our final morning to discussing IFLA's Model
National Interlibrary Lending Code. To be frank, if I had
seen this before, I certainly hadn't considered it in any
depth. Preparing for the session, however, I found it to
be extremely valuable. And, since the six visitors represented
the entire Ghanaian interlending fraternity, the code was
amended to reflect ideas practicable in Ghana, and will
form the basis of a nationally agreed interlending protocol.
FIL's raison d'être is to facilitate interlending
and co-operation. In this instance, co-operation between
IFLA and FIL resulted in a memorable week for all concerned.
More important are the views of our Ghanaian friends: `The
course has been very useful'; `We truly had a lot of ideas
from the discussions which would help us to tailor our ILL
system to suit our local needs'; and `on the whole, the
entire arrangement was perfect.' Perhaps most gratifying
was the following comment: `We shall, when we go back, be
called upon to design a training programme on document delivery
and interlending for other libraries. We shall just pass
on, with few modifications, all that we have been taught
on this course.' Those of us involved in the course eagerly
await news of future developments in Ghana.
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