May 12, 2009

I thought it was time I describe the college and the library in particular. Meserete Kristos College was established in the 1990s in Addis Ababa by the Meserete Kristos Church, the Mennonite church in Ethiopia. In 2007 the college moved to the present campus in Debre Zeit. The campus has a 5-story building serving as the main building, a guest house with four suites, each with three bedrooms (Mike Miller from Atlanta shares our apartment until the first week of June), a dining room/chapel, a kitchen, and a few other smaller buildings. The campus also has a partially completed dormitory which will house 340 students on four floors. At this point all floors are up and the roof is being constructed. The walls have not yet been built.

The majority of students are male, married, and in their 30s and 40s. They are pastors and evangelists who have been called out by their churches for further education, and in many cases are being funded by their congregations. There are one, two, and four year programmes at the college, with instruction in Amharic and English. Those in the two and four-year programmes study in English. Many of the faculty have graduate degrees from American seminaries and universities.

The library occupies the first and second floors of the main building. The third floor is offices and the fourth and fifth floors, from what I have seen, house the approximately 170 students and a few additional offices.

The main entry to the library is on the second floor. The second floor includes the circulation desk, the lab with around 10 workstations, the reference collection, a number of study tables, and the library office. Stairs from the middle of the second floor lead down to the first floor where the general collection of around 20,000 volumes is held along with additional study tables.
Nearly all of the collection has been built by acquiring donated books. Naturally, the collection is comprised of mostly older materials, but there are also a number of recently published items. The collection is a typical Bible college collection with strengths in Biblical studies, theology, practical theology, and church history, augmented with titles in the social sciences. In recent years the college has considered expanding its course offerings to include the liberal arts and sciences, particularly nursing, so titles in these areas are being added as well. Given that the vast majority of the materials have been donated, I am quite impressed with the collection that they have been able to accumulate.

The library is staffed by four employees – two cataloguers, a circulation desk attendant, and an IT person, augmented by student clerks. Some of them have basic library training, but that is about it. Descriptive cataloguing and classification skills are minimal.
The library has an integrated library software program that includes a cataloguing and circulation module and a public access catalogue. Students access the catalogue using two computers. Unfortunately the library does not have a computer network. Copies of the database need to be constantly copied onto other computers so that all are up-to-date. Not having a network obviously limits how much cataloguing can be done. Realistically, only one person can update the database at a time.

The library has a number of donated books that still need to be processed. Library procedures and documentation need to be prepared, issues of information literacy need to be addressed, and staff need to be exposed to further training and professional development. I am going through a series of topics with the staff in order to write a report for the academic dean and president.
One of the things that I have already been able to accomplish is help them set up software that they had acquired in order to download library cataloguing records from other libraries over the Internet. In spite of dial-up access, we have already been able to download a number of records, thus speeding up the cataloguing process and improving the quality of their catalogue.
Major issues at the college are the lack of licensed software, the lack of a computer network, including proper firewalls and other security measures, and dial-up only access to the Internet. It is impossible to update software and operating systems, and as a result viruses run rampant throughout the campus. Staff and students are needing to constantly clean up their computer systems and USB flash drives are always infected with viruses. Just being able to provide high-speed Internet access for staff, never mind for students, who have no Internet access at all, would solve a lot of problems. I have no idea what that would take.

In spite of these limitations, I am amazed at how much the library is used. In the afternoons, study tables are piled high with books as students study and write their papers. There is a thirst for knowledge and a diligence amongst the students that is very encouraging.
Well, that is my take on the library here at Meserete Kristos College.

I am enjoying my work and feeling good about the contribution I am making. Sometimes I wish I could be here longer to get to know the college and students in greater depth, but two months is all we have so we are making the most of it.