training library staff in kurdistan – iraq a collaborative effort to enhance library staff skills...

Training Library Staff in Kurdistan – Iraq

A collaborative effort to enhance library staff skills and understanding of

contemporary western library concepts in Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq


• This presentation is about the University of Kurdistan – Hawler Library (UKHL) and the Ministry of Higher Education of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - Iraq Joint Training Program for library staff in higher education libraries


The purpose of this training was to enhance the abilities and raising the level of the skills and knowledge of the local workforce of the library staff in Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq. In addition, we wanted to create an understanding of contemporary western library concepts in both the theoretical and practical senses.


• Introduction to Iraqi higher education library training• Pre 2003 training in Iraq (Pre War)

United Nations Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) have been involved in the Iraqi library staff training and development of libraries since the 1950s. The organization’s experts have visited Iraq, trained their library staff and prepared reports for the Iraqi government how to establish library schools, develop libraries, and to manage libraries in accordance with international practice. In addition to UNESCO, other entities, like the Ford Foundation, and United Arab Republic (UAR) have been involved in short training programs for Iraqi library staff.


Furthermore, the Iraqi government has sent students to study abroad in Library and Information Science Schools and in the early 1970s established library schools in Iraq. In the 1980s and 1990s like many thing else Iraqi library training and library development have stagnated or perhaps declined. In addition, during the war of 2003 many libraries were physically damaged. In post war of 2003 some international and regional organizations have been involved in training of Iraqi library staff.


To illustrate the point about the nature of earlier library education mention above: A.P. Srivastava’s report in 1968 states between 1952 and 1958 there were two short trainings programs conducted by the UNESCO, however, he doesn’t mention the number of attendance. From 1959 to 1967 four training programs were conducted, two of them by UNESCO, one by Ford Foundation, and one by United Arab Republics (UAR) experts. Total 51 library staffs participated in those four training programs. The training duration ranged from two months to six months (Srivastava P. 6). In Iraqi context no doubt this was a great contribution but with foundation of more university and expansion of the existing ones these had a limited impact.

Training Library Staff in Kurdistan – Iraq • Training Iraqi Library Staff after 2003

Actually training programs for Iraqi library staff after 2003 haven’t been as great as one will have hoped. There have been many discussions and outcries about the destruction of Iraqi libraries but not enough help in term of training programs to rebuild Iraqi libraries. However, Iraqis are partly responsible for not taking initiatives or enough advantage of good will for training programs, too. But the good thing is the librarianship is one of the most generous professions when it comes to help other, share or dissemination information. Librarians are often going beyond and above their duties to help others.


• According to data received from the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) of the Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq, after the 2003 war the following training programs have been conducted for Iraqi library staff between 2003 and 2008:


• Virtual Science Library (IVSL) 2003 in Amman, Jordan• E-Library 2006 in Amman, Jordan• Library Association 2004-2005-2006-2007

Baghdad, Iraq• Library Management (UKHL) 2008 Hawler (Erbil)

Sulaimany, and Duhok • Cataloguing (UKHL) 2008 Hawler (Erbil)

Sulaimany, and Duhok• Library Security 2008 Cairo Iraq• The MoHE did not specify the duration of above trainings

however, in my informal conversation with ministry officials and some participants most of those trainings were one or two weeks long.


In addition, to these trainings one of the most publicized training programs for Iraqi is the Harvard and Simmons college training program. Harvard Gazette reported that: “The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Harvard and Simmons $100,000 for the two-year project. The grant is part of the NEH program "Recovering Iraq's Past," which funds projects to help rebuild Iraq's cultural heritage.” In 2005 Harvard and Simmons College team organized training for Iraqi library professors and librarian in Aman, Jordan. According to Harvey Varnet and Michèle V. Cloonan, two successive courses were conducted in July 2005; 17 people attended the first one and 23 the second course. (p. 88) the authors reported that “Simmons/Harvard team” had received a second grant from NEH to train additional 32 Iraqi librarians in the summer of 2006 (P. 90)


• University of Kurdistan Hawler Training Program with the Ministry of Higher EducationThe University of Kurdistan Hawler Librarians (UKHL) voluntarily offered a training program for the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) in the Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq free of charge. Some background information about the UKH will be useful. The UKH was established by a Decree of the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Federal Region (KFR) Mr. Nechirvan Barzani in 2006 with the aim of achieving high international standards based on the British model. And to create a new educational model in Kurdistan and Iraq that is publicly funded but academically autonomous university because of that UKH is neither under the supervision of the MoHE nor the Kurdistan Regional Government. Therefore all UKH staff had to be people who had been trained in English speaking countries. The UKH Library Director had USA training and experience and Cataloguing Librarian British training and experience.


After the proposal of the UKHL Director to the MoHE Dr. Hadi Idris to train academic library staff in the Kurdistan Region in June 2007, the ministry responded affirmatively in October 2007. Then the issue became what to teach? UKHL staff didn’t have enough data about the level of participants’ library training and experience, and the ministry data was not sufficient because the degree of education was not reliable due to the absence of educational standards and enough data.


MoHE representative Mr. Whsiyar Chalebi, the General Director in charge of higher education libraries in the region, and the UKHL Director agreed on the general outline of training. The courses “Library Management and Concepts” was to be taught by UKH Library Director Amed Demirhan, and “Cataloguing and Classification,” by Mrs. Lesley Gaj, UKHL Cataloguing Librarian. We agreed on the following outline of the program but we would modify as needed during the process:


• Training for Library Managers: Instructor: Amed Demirhan I Library Concept and Services for Library Managers and Division HeadsA Library Development (2 hours)

1 What is a Library?2 Type of Libraries3 Library Bill of Rights

B Library Services (2 hours)1 Communities:

a Studentsb Facultyc Staffd Local citizense Visitors


II Reference ServicesA Reference (2 hours)

1 Questions?a What type of questions?

b Advising customers: students, faculty, staff, and residentsB Reference Sources (2 hours)

1 Printa Booksb News papersc Government documentsd Ready references –directories

Electronic Sources (2 hours)


Data basesb Internet/Web sourcesc CDs and other software III Electronic Libraries


Cataloguing for library staff in classification department - Instructor: Ms. Lesley Gaj I Cataloguing

A Catalogues – Introduction (2 hours)1 The purpose of catalogues 2 Applicability according to need – institutions and users 3 Standards - what are they, why do we need them?

a MARC – US or UK?b MARC Fieldsc Keywords and Subject headings

B Formats and Data (2 hours)1 How we get the data required?

2 What data is acceptable?

C Cataloguing (2 hours)1 Practical application/s


II ClassificationA Classification – Introduction (2 hours)1 Outline the purpose of classification and schemes2 Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) – how it works3 Practical application of DDC - introduction

B DDC – Practical application Continued (2 hours)


Initially it was decided to have 24 contact hours of training for each subject in each of the three Provinces in the KFR area. However, after first training in the Hawler (Erbil) province and on students request the training length increased to 30 hours for next two provinces. The UKHL conducted a total of 168 hours of training, 84 in each subject. We had to modify the above outline according to the need and request of participants in each of the provinces. As one could see in the table below the background of educational and working experience of the participants were highly diverse. The educational background of attendees ranged from High school graduates to PhD. Among 34 library managers only 11 had a BA in librarianship from Iraqi universities and no one had Master in Library and Information Science (MLIS) or equivalent.

Educational Data:Hawler Province (Capital of Kurdistan Region)

Education of Participants Library Education

Library Work Experience

Remarks

High School

Two Year Collage

BA/BSc Master of Art or Science

PhD 5 had BA and four with diploma from two years institute

One had less than one year working experience. The rest had from one year to sixteen year experience

15 were library managers

2 8 6 6 0

Sulaymania Province:

Education of Participants Library Education

Library Work Experience

Remarks

High School Two Year Collage


PhD Four had BA and Four two year collage total 8

10 of them had working experience less than one year. Rest had experience between one year and sixteen years.

10 Library Managers

2 8 17 1 2

Duhok Province:Education of Participants Library

EducationLibrary Work Experience

Remarks

High School Two Year Collage


PhD 2 BA Six people had less than one year experience. The rest had experience from one year to 11 years.

Nine were library

managers7 0 17 1 0


• A total of 102 students from 45 academic libraries participated in this training, from this 52% were female and 48% were male. In the province of Duhok, 25 students attended to both courses and in other two provinces some trainees attended to both classes, too.

• In every province the training program become news in mass media. After each course we conducted a survey to evaluate the training. I would like to share the response to the following questions for courses of training:


Hawler (Erbil) Province • Training was relevant to my needs 85-90%

said yes• Materials provided were helpful 85 – 90% said

yes• Length of training time was sufficient 50 –

70% said No• Questions were encouraged 90 – 92% said yes


Province of Sulaimanya• 1 Training was relevant to my needs 85-

100% said yes• 2 Materials provided were helpful 85 –

100% said yes• 3 Length of training time was sufficient 60

- 95% said No• 4 Questions were encouraged 90 – 92% said

yes


Province of Duhok:• 1 Training was relevant to my needs 90 -

94% said yes• 2 Materials provided were helpful 83 – 90%

said yes• 3 Length of training time was sufficient 48

- 31% said No• 4 Questions were encouraged 90 – 95 %

said yes


As shown in the above responses the participants were very appreciative for the training opportunities they received. The majority in Hawler and Suliamanya Provinces find the length of training short while in Duhok majority was satisfied. However, as I mention earlier the participants from Duhok attended to both classes. In other word they had 100% more training opportunities than Sulaymania and more than 100% than Hawler. They were enthusiastic and interested in learning. The need for further training and professional development for the library staff in region is clear.


In summary, this training program has been very successful as seen from the course evaluation responses. The training has contributed to staff development of higher education libraries in Kurdistan Federal Region – Iraq. Even though the UKHL have offered this program free of charge, it created a very good publicity for the university and good will in the community. In addition, while teaching we learned quite a lot from participants about the condition of higher education libraries in the region. It created a further interest to study development of library staff training in modern Iraq. As it is known the library profession is about collaboration and cooperation and it is not different in Kurdistan or Iraq.

Work CitedHARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES, “Simmons, Harvard team up to help devastated Iraqi libraries: NEH

grant seeks to modernize war-torn libraries, reverse librarian shortage” March 11, 2004http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.11/08-library.html Retrieved: March 7, 2011 Harvey Varnet and MichèleV.Cloonan Educating Iraqi librarians and library and information science

educators: Risks and rewardsC&RL News February 2006http://crln.acrl.org/content/67/2/87.full.pdf Retrieved March 7, 2011 Srivastava, A. P. Iraq: Education for Library Science and Documentation28 January to 27 July 1968http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000084/008494eb.pdf

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.11/08-library.html

http://crln.acrl.org/content/67/2/87.full.pdf

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000084/008494eb.pdf


Amed Demirhan, MLIS., MADRDirector, University of Kurdistan Hawler Library30 Meter Avenue, ErbilFederal region of Kurdistan – IraqOffice: 00964 - (0) 66 223 8661 – ext. 1036Cell : 00964 – (0) 750 432 3495e-mail: [email protected] or e-mail: [email protected] http://www.ukh.ac/listArticls.php?ZID=1&CID=6

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.ukh.ac/listArticls.php?ZID=1&CID=6




1. A special thanks Mrs. Sayran Taleb the MoHE in Kurdistan Region for her help

to collect data and provide it from Ministry.

2. Lesley Gaj is currently Deputy Library Director in UKHL

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