Discussion
Started 17 April 2019

Role of community Libraries

What role should community libraries play in the building/ development of their communities (think about empowering the disadvantaged, or in peace and reconciliation in post-conflict societies, slums etc).

Most recent answer

Okello Gilbert
Makerere University
Linda Harms Smith thanks for the reply. You are right that community libraries have a great role in developing their communities. But the challenge presently are many. There is a general lack of understanding of what Libraries are both within the profession and policy makers. So its common to find many libraries left out of the development agenda, budget cuts, among others. This is a global trend but pronounced in most African countries.

All replies (4)

Olivier Serrat
Georgetown University
The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation has developed a step-by-step process to help libraries strengthen their role as community leaders and bring about positive change in their communities. A Step-By-Step Guide to 'Turning Outward' to Your Community, available at http://www.ala.org/tools/librariestransform/libraries-transforming-communities/resources-for-library-professionals offers tools to better understand communities; change processes and thinking to make conversations more community-focused; be proactive to community issues; and put community aspirations first.
Okello Gilbert
Makerere University
Yes this a very helpful resource Olivier. Libraries need to redefine their position in community. Thanks a lot Olivier Serrat I wonder others are impacting their communities.
Linda Harms Smith
University of Pretoria
My sense is that Community Libraries, especially if community members participate in their initiation, development and management structures, could play an extremely important role as a place for gathering, knowledge exchange, education, and development of social networks and support. They should not be 'imposed top-down' but rather evolve in collaboration with community members.
Okello Gilbert
Makerere University
Linda Harms Smith thanks for the reply. You are right that community libraries have a great role in developing their communities. But the challenge presently are many. There is a general lack of understanding of what Libraries are both within the profession and policy makers. So its common to find many libraries left out of the development agenda, budget cuts, among others. This is a global trend but pronounced in most African countries.

Similar questions and discussions

Calculation of SANS and SAXS profiles using routines in GROMACS (any version): how to make it for very large systems?
Question
3 answers
  • Anonymous researcher
I have simulated quite large systems (more than 300000 atoms). The for analyzing I've tried to use routines in GROMACS (various versions were tested), but none of them worked as desired. Talking about routine gmx sans or g_sans I can say that it gives memory errors when the system is basically too large. The problem can be due to the static memory allocation in the routine or maybe the system is too big for it?! Can anybody from GROMACS developers say how big the system can be for this function? Then the routine gmx saxs or g_rdf (but you calculate saxs profile there). For some reason the final curve looks smooth only when you take very large Q value up to 60 1/nm. If I put a setting for less, let's say for maximum 2 1/nm I will get an ugly curve due to the smaller number of points taken into account. Then regarding the saxs calculation I would like to know how can I get more points in the curve for saxs for a shorter Q-range (between 0 and 2 1/nm or between 0 and 5 1/nm)? I have checked all settings and such settings were only available for sans (there you could define qstep, while for saxs there is nothing like this).
And, please, do not tell me here in the answers something irrelevant or something a-la "something is wrong with your installation"! I have all correct libraries and everything works fine except the issues which I have mentioned.

Related Publications

Chapter
Since the beginning of management, employees and managers alike have been searching for ways to be happy and productive at work. Among the plethora of concepts and models that attempt to explain how to create emotionally satisfying and behaviorally productive work settings, the topic of community at work, ironically, has been underexplored. Anecdot...
Article
This article sets out to provide an overview of ‘development communication’ and some current literature on ‘community’ video making, in order to explore some theoretical and practical issues which may contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to engage in ‘development support communication’.
Got a technical question?
Get high-quality answers from experts.