The Library and Archives of the National Univ of Lesotho did get the Endangered Archives funding
(http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/2009/qobo.html)
and so the project should have started about July or August 2009. I wasn't able to go there to help start it off -- no time as still working full time and have very busy (and understaffed) new project in 2009 (running through to mid-2012).
But that paid work will run on without me, as I'm stopping work (retiring) end of 2010, and then hope to again spend some months at NUL, as well as some months in USA and lots of months in Colchester / Mersea!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A year on
Obviously my blogging career is limited -- though the main fact I discovered in Lesotho is that Internet access across Africa, and particularly Southern Africa, and more particularly Lesotho -- is very limited and horrendously expensive. So no blogging while I was there, but I did manage to keep up a sort-of blog on a wiki, here:
In Lesotho, 1000 computers at a university of 8000 students -- had a one megabit internet connection. That was NOT each, that was shared. So we all stared at the hourglass icon until there was a timeout. Access wasn't slow -- access was impossible. I asked Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive what could be done, and he suggested that the heads of TelCo's needed to be replaced.
Anyway anyone interested can look here: http://www.bbcarchive.org.uk/lesotho/
for the remainder of the 2008 story.
In 2009 we're through to stage two of a funding application process with the British Library, to get scanning equipment for digitising the Lesotho Royal Archives at Matsieng -- a project of the University of Lesotho. So if that funding comes through, I'll go there again (again at my own expense -- the funding is for kit and Lesotho operator salaries) next July-ish. Fingers crossed.
In Lesotho, 1000 computers at a university of 8000 students -- had a one megabit internet connection. That was NOT each, that was shared. So we all stared at the hourglass icon until there was a timeout. Access wasn't slow -- access was impossible. I asked Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive what could be done, and he suggested that the heads of TelCo's needed to be replaced.
Anyway anyone interested can look here: http://www.bbcarchive.org.uk/lesotho/
for the remainder of the 2008 story.
In 2009 we're through to stage two of a funding application process with the British Library, to get scanning equipment for digitising the Lesotho Royal Archives at Matsieng -- a project of the University of Lesotho. So if that funding comes through, I'll go there again (again at my own expense -- the funding is for kit and Lesotho operator salaries) next July-ish. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The story so far
16 Jan 2008 -- after four years of aspiration (to go back to Africa, give something back, make a difference, fight AIDS) and two years of detailed planning (except if it was so detailed, why is everything now feeling so uncertain?) -- we booked flights just before Christmas and will fly to Johannesburg on 4 Feb, en route to the National University of Lesotho.
Why? It started with a Canon Collins Memorial Lecture in 2003, at the London Institute of Education. The talk was quite technical -- lots of epidemiology and demographics, and no apology for being technical. There were multidimensional graphs -- stark statistics -- about the effects of ripping the young adults (age 20 to 40) out of a population. We left feeling we had our wits and our health left, and we should 'go there and do something' as soon as we retired, while we still had wits and health.
Now we are 61 and 60, and not retired -- so we've wangled 12 weeks' time out from work ('scholarly activities' for one of us; accumulated leave for the other) and off we go.
We have made plans: visited Lesotho several times, made contacts at the University, decided our best bet was to work in health education (and the library infrastructure that supports health education).
Yesterday I emailed arrival dates to the University. But email isn't always picked up -- I'll try to phone tomorrow. Somewhere else on this blog I'll have to say who we are, I suppose, and what we specifically hope to do.
Why? It started with a Canon Collins Memorial Lecture in 2003, at the London Institute of Education. The talk was quite technical -- lots of epidemiology and demographics, and no apology for being technical. There were multidimensional graphs -- stark statistics -- about the effects of ripping the young adults (age 20 to 40) out of a population. We left feeling we had our wits and our health left, and we should 'go there and do something' as soon as we retired, while we still had wits and health.
Now we are 61 and 60, and not retired -- so we've wangled 12 weeks' time out from work ('scholarly activities' for one of us; accumulated leave for the other) and off we go.
We have made plans: visited Lesotho several times, made contacts at the University, decided our best bet was to work in health education (and the library infrastructure that supports health education).
Yesterday I emailed arrival dates to the University. But email isn't always picked up -- I'll try to phone tomorrow. Somewhere else on this blog I'll have to say who we are, I suppose, and what we specifically hope to do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
