On 13^th February 2023, The Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences received Mr. Maïeul Rouquette the new Director of Centrale de Littérature Chretienne de la Francophonie (CLCF), who is visiting different institutions from which CLCF trained librarians on library management. These training were conducted through the Formation des Bibliothecaire en Afrique de l’Est (FOBAE) which is currently being coordinated by PIASS.

 

In the morning, Mr. Maïeul had a tour of PIASS library where he was explained how library resources are managed, especially by using library management software. He was shown the book stores which kept more than 30 thousand books. After having the tour of the library, he met with librarians and they discussed about how trainings they got are helping them in their daily work. They also looked on different challenges they are facing, and different strategies that can be adopted to overcome those challenges. Meeting with the Director of CLCF was an opportunity for PIASS librarians to express their concern about the need of refresher training, which can serve as an occasion to meet and share the experience with other librarians who were trained, and learn from each other’s practices. PIASS joined CLCF in 2019, and trainings of librarians have started in 2020. So far 2 training sessions have been hosted by PIASS in which 21 librarians from Rwanda, DRC and Congo Brazzaville were trained.

The Director of CLCF & Director of Library & ICT at PIASS visiting the library

After visiting the library and meeting with librarians, The Director of CLCF met with the PIASS Management. Their meeting focussed on achievements and outcomes from the partnership of both institutions since 2019, and discussed about future collaboration. They explored different fields in which more support is needed, especially in networking, library staff capacity building, as well as equipment availability so that library users can easily have access to library resources and materials.

In their discussion, the Director of CLCF informed PIASS Management that there is a celebration of 30th anniversary of CLCF which will be celebrated on 19 October 2023, and there are possibilities of involving their partners in this special occasion.

So far, CLCF is partnering with four local teams namely; LE RÉSEAU RIDOC/FIBY Formation intensive des bibliothécaires à Yaoundé, LE RÉSEAU FABIM Formation des auxiliaires de bibliothèque à Madagascar, LE RÉSEAU FABAO Formation des auxiliaires de bibliothèque en Afrique de l’Ouest and LE RÉSEAU FOBAE Formation des bibliothécaires en Afrique de l’Est.

During his stay in Rwanda, the Director of CLCF visited 6 institutions of which their librarians were trained.