You are calling me from where?!

We made it! Last weekend, after a long 24 hours of travel we landed in Uganda. We stepped off the plane into the humid, African air and I'm sure I was grinning ear to ear as I hopped impatiently through the visa line. We arrived!

This first week was both busy and slow...just like life. Bursts of things to do and people to see, followed by long stretches of jet-lagged quiet when Brian and I looked at each other and said: now what?

But we are here! In Uganda!

We found our way to the grocery stores, set up our internet, attended an orientation, started to connect with friends, rode boda bodas, and even took an overnight trip to the nearby town of Jinja and saw the source of the Nile. It's not what we were expecting, to be honest. We thought we might start at the library. But, instead, we started to figure out how to explore a different culture together. It's different coming back as part of a married couple and I'm thankful for this week to spend some time figuring it out.

The Nile behind us!

My highlight this week: seeing my old boda boda driver, Sunday. Sunday is a good driver and a hard worker. I called him and when I said, "Hello, Sunday, this is Rachel." He said, "Rachel! But you are calling me from where?!" And he was so surprised when I said I was calling from my old flat. [Honestly, I was so excited to say that I'm here, in Uganda!] He was happy to come pick me and Brian up. And I was delighted to see an old friend.

Which reminded me why we are here: we are here to build relationships. We will go to the library tomorrow. And we will meet our new colleagues. And we will help somehow in the library over the next few weeks and months.

But more importantly we will build relationships and grow friendships. We will listen and learn. We will remember that our story is not about us, it is about loving others well.

And the world will grow smaller.

Intangibles In the Library

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about librarians. You know, that we all wear glasses, shush people, and love reading. Some of those things make sense: libraries are often valued as quiet spaces and many librarians did join the profession because of their love of reading or literature.

But as I was telling someone recently: libraries are also about people! One of the reasons I love my job is because of the students and people I get to work with every day. And a big part of why I loved living and working in Uganda was because I loved the people. Libraries are about books, yes. But they are also about empowering people with information.

The longer I work as a reference librarian, the more I realize the things I provide patrons. Not just books, articles, study space, and other resources but many intangibles. For example, I also:

• Show compassion. Students struggle with research. With life. With school. Some don't know how to start a research paper or don't understand why they should come to the library. Some of them are just struggling in general. I want to show compassion to these students. To care about their previous experiences and meet them where they're at.
• Give patience. Along with showing compassion, I give patience. Students sometimes come to the library stressed by life and school. They aren't always in the best mood. But I strive to be patient with them and understand that they have a lot going on in their lives.
• Give hospitality. One of the definitions of hospitality is: the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way. This is exactly what I try to do: create a space that is friendly and welcoming and encourages students to come back when they need help.
• Provide a listening ear. In some ways, this is similar to showing compassion. Some students love to talk! I'm always amazed at what personal information students will share with me when they're stressed by school. I listen to their stories and it's always a privilege when someone offers a part of their life to me by sharing those stories.
• Share excitement. Students I've helped in the past often stop by to share the grade they got on assignment I helped them with. Or they tell me that the book we found was perfect. I love sharing their excitement over finding good information.

These are the intangibles that make my job worth it. I help students with many things but these are my favorite things to provide. I'm not perfect at any of them, but I'm learning. Being a librarian is about a lot more than than being a keeper of the books, at least for me. It's about the bigger picture...about people, caring for them, and providing a space to empower them with information.

A House of Books

One of the most common descriptions I've heard of a "library" this past year is that it is a "house of books". This description never ceases to annoy me. It's like when people say that because I'm a librarian I must love to read...stereotypes drive me crazy! Although, I have learned to be a lot more patient with people's assumptions and simply explain my version of librarianship. Because, to me, a library is about so much more than books. It's about information and community and connections and teaching and research and learning. Not just books.

But, of course, there is a physical space associated with libraries, most of the time. And when I was in graduate school, I took a class entitled 'Library Buildings'. It was a great class offered by a professor who has spent years as a library building consultant on library construction projects. It was fascinating to learn about things like: the best places to put computers, lights, books, etc. I mean, who knew, it can actually make a difference where you put books and tables?

I've discovered that it does, indeed, make a difference. Here are a few examples I've (re)discovered since moving to Uganda...some we talked about in class and some we did not:

• Building a library next to a dirt road is not a good idea. Unless you want to spend time every day clearing fine, red dust from all the books and tables.
• Concrete floors might not be the best for sound reduction but they sure are easy to clean.
• Inverters are a good option for when the power goes out at night. If you can afford one.
• If your desk is in public space it will be exactly that: public. (We talked about this in class...Fred Schlipf was so right! My circ/ref/cataloging/everything desk is incredibly public...no private space here!)
• Lighting really does make a difference. For example, make sure your lights are actually above the tables where people work. Otherwise you get weird shadows.
• Keep public computers within sight. Otherwise you never know what kinds of things people are getting into. Or downloading.
• Having small rooms for group work (with glass doors!) is definitely ideal. Because having a one room library creates tension between the group-studiers and the silent-studiers. You can't win.
• Outlets should not be place directly beneath windows that are often left wide open.

At any rate, these physical considerations are important (and sometimes humorous) and a library may be a house of books. But more importantly, I believe a library is a center for learning. And hopefully a place to build community. So, I suppose a library is a little bit of both...the physical space, i.e. the house of books, but also the community and learning that take place within the house. And I'm still learning how to bring them both together.

Creating Space for Community

The students are returning to RTC this week. Classes began last Wednesday. It's so great to have them back on campus! :)

My first few weeks on campus were quiet in the library as I prepared for the new semester. I tried to split my time between cataloging, creating a few new signs, rearranging, etc. I'm happy to announce that we now have 5000 books cataloged! I believe at this point we're more than halfway. Pretty exciting. Especially because now that the students are back I know my days will look very different.

But one of the things I wanted to do do over the break was think carefully about the space I have in my library. With one room I have limited space but I knew I wanted to make a couple of small changes. I believe that one of a librarian's main jobs is to build community. To provide a space that empowers people with information and helps build its respective community.

I love the sense of community that exists in East Africa. I love that my neighbors notice when I'm not around. I love to watch students walking hand in hand after class. I love how taxis are sometimes so crammed with people that a stranger will hold someone else's baby. [Ok, sometimes I don't love the cramming part, but you get the idea. :)]

And I want the library to be a place where that community can continue to exist and maybe grow. Probably the biggest change in the library since I came has been the installation of computers. Four of them for students to use. It's been a big challenge for me as a librarian to simply be handed computers and expected to install, network, and maintain them. It has tested my technical skills but also my critical thinking skills as I think about where to put computers, what policies to create, the purpose of having computers/technology, etc. While I was in the US, I had the opportunity talk with an old professor from grad school about how to arrange computers/technology to encourage and build community. In the US we often see computers individually arranged to give everyone their own privacy and space. But here I want the computers to encourage people to do what they do naturally: work together. So I decided to experiment.

You might remember pictures like this from last year:

Five students crowded on one side of the table, around 2 computers. I've loved seeing how they work together. But I started to wonder if I could make space for even more people if I spread things out a bit. So, I rearranged the computers just a bit.

Before:

Five computers basically in a line (one of which
embarrassingly didn't work properly)

 After:

A bit more spread out...most noticeably computers on
opposite sides of the table, with an extra chair at each 

I honestly have no idea if this will be better or not. I hope that creating more space will encourage more students to work together on the computers, which they tend to do already. But I am afraid by creating this extra space I've implicitly said that the students themselves should be more spread out. I'm going to observe for the first couple weeks and then if needed, move everything again.

Along with trying to use technology and the library to build community among students, I'm also trying to create the sense that the library is for the entire RTC community. Along with everything else, I've been trying to welcome the kids that live on the RTC campus. I'm sure I've talked about these kids before. They've captured my heart in a lot of ways. This one in particular:

Little Seme playing a typing game

He recently came marching into the library saying, "Rachel, I want to color these" and pulled out a few small pieces of cardboard. Over the past year I've created a shelf of things for the kids: coloring books, crayons, games, children's books, etc. I told him he was welcome to use the crayons and to just put them back when he was finished. I LOVE that he felt comfortable just walking in and helping himself to what he knew he was allowed to use.

The kids' shelf

I want everyone at RTC to know that the library is a safe place of learning and studying and also of community. A place where we use technology together to learn, research, study, and grow.