Helen's Take: [excerpt from a thought-in-progress]
"Libraries
should aim at hosting events centered around the awareness and
implementation of SDGs". Hosting an event does not make you the
facilitator. You as a librarian, may not know everything about the SDGs,
but having the library building/conference room/auditorium as the event
venue and librarians as organisers, will announce libraries and raise
their profiles. Even if organising events to support SDGs is our ONLY
contribution to realizing the Global Goals (of course it cannot be), it
is something. Come to think of it, before you organize an event, you
would need to talk with the resource persons, partner with prospective
sponsors of the event, invite the media, etc. When our efforts are seen
in this manner, why wouldn't the government heed to our cry when we call
out for help regarding our library needs? Afterall, all we are doing is
to help develop the nation. Why can't we organise meetings with our
Vice-Chancellors, College librarians, Heads of Companies, etc and label
the meeting 'Actualization of SDGs: how our institution can help'? The
government, UNDP, etc will be willing to help in this project once you
kickstart it. I guess it's strange to call a staff meeting and say:
'Good morning beautiful people of our great organisation and wonderful
Nigerians...I bet some of you must have heard that the SDGs have come to
replace the MDGs since September 2015...our efforts as librarians are
needed to make this happen. Most often we forget our place in the
society and that is what I have called us to remind us and I am
reiterating that YOU ARE PIVOTAL to the realization of the SDGs...we
have to wake up to this call in how we render service to our users...We
have to really make Nigeria, NLA, LRCN and IFLA feel our impact. We must
not seek to help with all the SDGs; even if we focus our minds and
invest our energies on ONE or TWO SDGs, we can make it happen - YES WE
can"!
I bet you, this isn't strange afterall. What is strange is that most librarians are not proactive even after they have written papers on 'librarians as proactive citizens'. Let us start implementing what we write in all our papers.
Enough is enough! We have written so much; why don't we give ourselves a break and go into action?
Why not we follow the Russian example? One could possible have:
1. "Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals - A Nigerian Public Library example"
2: "Implementing the SDGs in Nigerian academic libraries"
3. "The SDGs: can librarians really help"?
4. "The perception of Librarians in attainment of SDGs"
5. "Librarians as agents in actualizing the SDGs"
6. "From MDGs to SDGs: investing in libraries for action"
7 "Special Libraries and the actualization of SDGs"
NB: I hope you enjoyed my flow of thought (s) this HOT afternoon? To follow me on twitter, @helenekez..Blogs: www.helenokpala.com/ phreeinfo.blogspot.com
For reference, see:
http://www.ifla.org/node/10150?og=7409
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