Prepared Maliteboho L. Thoahlane, Kareen Lawrence, and Karen Reed

1. Conversations in the International Librarian’s Networking Program:
Lesotho, Jamaica and the United States of America
Maliteboho L. Thoahlane - Lerotholi Polytechnic
Kareen Lawrence – Mona Library, University of the West Indies
Karen Reed - James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
LP Library
Lerotholi Polytechnic (LP) enrolls over 3,000
students in a range of vocational and technical
programs. The school is located in Maseru,
Lesotho just by the Caledon River and is made
up of three schools: the School of Enterprise
and Management (SEM), the School of the
Built Environment (SOBE), and the School of
Engineering and Technology (SET).
The library (pictured above) is situated in the
center of the campus. It houses mainly print
materials but is currently embarking on a
digitization project to be led by Maliteboho.
Our COVID-19 Experience
Maliteboho’s library in Lesotho unfortunately
had to close during COVID, so our discussions
focused on Kareen and Karen’s libraries.
Kareen’s library in Jamaica pivoted from hybrid
operations to online access only in March
2020, but members of the UWI Community
were able to return from September 2021.
Kareen has primarily worked from home during
this time. Karen’s library in the US was only
closed to students and most employees for 6
months (March to August 2020). At Karen’s
library, several customer service innovations
began during COVID (such as a self-checkout
system and a pull & hold service), and these
services have endured even after COVID.
Library Comparisons
An immediate comparison began between our
libraries and the work we do. Maliteboho
works as a library assistant in Lesotho but is
currently on leave to pursue her MLS degree in
Botswana. Kareen and Karen are both
academic librarians with liaison duties. We
learned that there are big differences between
the nature of Kareen and Karen’s job duties.
Karen is allowed a great deal of specialization
in focusing on the needs of two large
departments (Education and Psychology),
whereas Kareen’s job incorporates other areas
of library responsibility in addition to her core
area as Outreach Librarian. Kareen works very
long hours to meet the needs of her section.
Because Kareen works from home, it can be
difficult for her to have a clear separation
between work and personal time; whereas
Maliteboho and Karen both work in person
and can leave their job duties for the day.
Kareen’s library seems to conduct many more
themed events and outreach programming to
students than the other libraries. Karen’s
library has more funding and resources,
however all three libraries had similar issues in
trying to serve their patron needs to the best
of their ability. Despite differences in job
functions and how we are resourced, we did
find that there were many similarities related
to our work.
Final Takeaways
We learned that despite our geographic
differences, academic libraries around the
world often battle the same issues. Kareen and
Karen, as faculty members, both face pressures
to publish. Maliteboho, as a Library Assistant,
does not currently have this responsibility. We
had many valuable conversations about the
Library management styles. We all agreed that
librarians and library administrators could
benefit from training in certain business
management procedures to effectively meet
the increasing demand to justify the library’s
existence and to facilitate the application of
modern management/business practices.
What We Learned
We learned about the current events and
culture of each others’ countries. Kareen and
Karen discussed common issues of the
economy and workforce, including the large
number of Americans currently not working.
We discussed issues of customer service in our
libraries: both from the student perspective as
well as our perspective of managing staff. We
found that we have many common customer
service problems. We also discussed
professional development and career goals.
Maliteboho hopes to move into a professional-
level librarian position upon graduation.
Kareen and Karen, both faculty librarians, are
uncertain as to the next steps of their careers
and are considering options.
UWI Mona Library
The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona
Campus has over 19000 students enrolled in
undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
The main campus is in the metropolitan area of
Kingston and encompasses 653 acres of land.
The Library is comprised of the Main Library
and four branches. The Main Library, the
Medical, Law and Science & Engineering
Branches are on the Mona Campus, while the
Western Jamaica Campus Branch is located at a
campus with the same name in Montego Bay.
Kareen is the Outreach Librarian.
MTSU Walker Library
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)
enrolls nearly 22,000 students and is located in
a suburban environment 30 miles outside of
Nashville, Tennessee (USA). Although it offers a
range of undergraduate and graduate degrees,
MTSU is known for its signature programs in
aviation, music industry, and business.
The library is comprised of one main building
(pictured above) but partners with several
archival/historical units as well as a music
library on campus. Karen works here as a
liaison to the Education & Psychology depts.
Our next steps
We enjoyed learning from each other and do
not want the collaboration to stop! Kareen will
be attending the IFLA conference this year in
Dublin, Ireland, which has inspired us to set a
goal of attending IFLA in 2023 and presenting a
research paper. We would like to describe how
COVID-19 affected our different libraries with
regard to our customer service offerings.
Customer service is a topic that came up in our
discussions, and there were big differences in
customer service at the library service points.
We would like to explore this topic further, and
it is a good opportunity for us to continue
learning from one another!