North West District Information Specialists Workshop

In keeping with BIOKAVANGO’s plan for knowledge management and sharing, HOORC Library in collaboration with BIOKAVANGO hosted a workshop for North West District Information Specialists on the 24th September at Maun Lodge. For a long time, information specialists in this part of the country have lamented the lack of an effective information sharing system which would facilitate an easy flow of information amongst them. So it was against this background that the theme Seeking The Best Way Forward for Information Sharing Amongst Information Specialists in Ngamiland, was found befitting. Speakers for the workshop were drawn from various sectors namely, Government Departments, Tertiary and secondary education institutions, Library Associations, and NGOs. The workshop focused on best practices for information sharing amongst information specialists. Some of the challenges identified were non existence in some cases of basic infrastructure to house collections, lack of library expertise to manage the information, and lack of proper filing systems. For the media houses, the lack of proper filing systems and limited distribution outlets is proving to be the greatest challenge. Some of the recommendations to come out of the workshop were: a need for capacity building for information specialists, and the need to capitalise on open source software available for managing collections.