Nadia and my new Sunday routine

Today (Sunday) was the first day that Nadia came to help me clean house. Nadia is a lovely young woman, the cousin of a friend of a friend. Nadia works all week and has part time work on Saturday. Sunday is her day off, and it was the only time that she could find free time in her regular schedule to start coming to my apartment to clean. I’d hoped that she could stay for an hour or two (the amount of time that 200 Dh could buy me), and help with the kitchen and bathroom/WC. She ended up staying for four hours, refusing things like drinks and pain au chocolat, and displaying a pretty amazing work ethic. She also didn't ask for more money, and identified work (like cleaning rugs) that she wants to do next time.

Today, not only did she scour the rooms where I really needed help, she also cleaned the huge salon marocain, the TV room, and the dining room. All on her "day off"!

I’m lucky as well, because Nadia is also a very good cook and she’s offered to make fried Moroccan pastries and even chicken for me next time. Ok, the chicken’s not for me (I’m vegetarian), but the pastries quite frankly don’t stand a chance!

I will mention that Nadia came today with another cousin who acted as our interpreter. Next week, though, we’re on our own. Nadia now represents just one more reason I need to stick with my Derija classes. It’s nice to have such good excuses to try learning Moroccan Arabic.

After about 30 hours and the equivalent of $46, I've just returned from a lovely trip to the town of Ifrane in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco. While there, I visited Jane (another Fulbrighter) who is teaching at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI) .

I also, of course, visited the university library (the third of the four OCLC member libraries in Morocco on my itinerary).

The trip began Tuesday morning in the rain, and by the time the CTM bus made it into the mountains that afternoon, there was a full-fledged snow storm all around us. The bus was safe (and by this time, warm, although there had been no heat for the first two hours of the journey).

Jane was happy to show me around last evening, and then this morning, I met with the library's director. Mr. Lotfi and I had such a riveting conversation that I never actually got to visit the staff areas or take photos of the building.

I tell myself that those will be among my goals for my NEXT visit to AUI...

Coffee and culture in Rabat

The Institute Français de Rabat (IFR) is a great resource in downtown Rabat, and is the local equivalent of the Alliance Française we seem to have in big cities in the United States. Not only do they have a series of cultural offerings such as expositions and films, but they also have a lending library and media center.

I checked out a book a few weeks ago, and thought that I was returning it one week late. Whatever the fee would have been, I assumed that it was less than taking a taxi there and back just to return the book.

The book was actually 2 weeks overdue. The fine? I can’t check out another book for the next two weeks!

Luckily, I my excuse to return the book doubled as a reason to have coffee with a friend that I met on the train a few weeks prior (a teacher by trade, who is willing to exchange French lessons for English lessons) so the whole trip wasn’t a complete disappointment. Mostly, Jallall and I sat and talked and drank coffee at their café instead of working, which was fine too. Jallal wanted me to take this photo so that I could include him in my blog, and I’m more than happy to oblige.

And today, Amina and I met at the other IFR location for coffee and a film: Des poupées et des anges. It’s nice to have cultural offerings in French in the heart of Rabat, but it’s especially nice to meet for coffee and conversation with Moroccan friends around the experience, too.

Digital library initiatives

The Réseau francophone des bibliothèques numériques nationales (RFBNN) (officially unveiled in late October) and Europeana (online since Thursday) are both drawing a lot of attention in these parts. Or, at least by librarians with the same interests as me.

Europeana is drawing criticism (see blog post from the 19^th) for its content and navigability. As much as I wish I could comment on it myself, I continue to be among those who are shut out. The Web site for Europeana states that it will be back online in mid-December, although it seems that some folks in the United States were able to get on since the announcement.

I did have the chance to look through the RFBNN project – this project is mostly headed up by the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales de Québec (where I visited this past August for the conference of the Association internationale francophone des bibliothécaires et documentalistes (AIFBD) and I must say, they do impressive work. The RFBNN project seems to be easy enough to use, but some Francophone countries like Morocco don’t have much of any content. Apparently the BnF is going to try digitizing more, but in the mean time, it’s all just a little anticlimactic.

It’s great that so many new initiatives are out there, especially with the news that was released about the Google Books projects and their new library policy. Libraries are wise to take digitization seriously. However, it’s disappointing when projects are only at best half-finished or in such a beta format that they’re unusable at their time of release. A few years back, I learned in Web design class not to post a Web page if there was no content for it (an “under construction” banner wasn’t good enough) – the idea being that users don’t like to be turned away for any reason. I would think that the same is true of a project as huge as a digital library. I for one, at any rate, am very disappointed.

The importance of good neighbors

Today I spent about three hours with my neighbor talking about MARC21 (library data mark-up language) and my dissertation ideas. My neighbor works as a cataloger of rare manuscripts at the Moroccan national library (the BNRM) and is a lovely person. She came and talked to my students yesterday on her day off about their experiences with UNIMARC, so when she asked me to stop by today and start teaching her MARC21, it was easy to agree.

At one point, she actually offered to pay me. I politely refused. After all, this is between librarians! She pointed out that, more than that, this is between neighbors.

When Moroccans whom I've just met offer to bargain on my behalf, they fib and say that we are neighbors and have known each other for a long time. It lends credibility to the transaction. Of course, being family is worth more than being neighbors. My landlady likes to tell people that I'm married to her brother. She actually does have a brother, but of course, I'm not married.

Being a member of a professional group isn't how people self-identify here -- the clan is based on its members and its physical location. I'm not used to identifying with a physical location -- I've moved at least once a year (save one year) for the past 17 years. No, I don't identify with location or even with family, per se.

American that I am, I identify with the traits of the individual -- profession (what I've made of myself) and perhaps a certain set of ideals. I come from a "do" culture -- "What do you do?" and in Morocco, the people are part of a "be" culture -- "Where are you from? Are you married?" One of the speakers at the Fulbright orientation spoke brilliantly about the DOers and the BEers; I'm lucky he put me on guard to this, or the subtleties might have escaped me.

I must admit, this is the first place I've lived where I've known and eaten with inhabitants from THREE apartments in my building. There are benefits to having good neighbors, and I've got a box full of cookies that she insisted I take home to prove it.

The Saudi library in Casablanca

On Saturday, I went to Casablanca to visit the Bibliothèque de la Fondation du Roi Abdul Aziz, the Saudi king. This research library specializes in humanities and social sciences pertaining to Muslim Arab peoples of the Maghreb countries. Hanan had orchestrated the visit since neither of us had visited the library, but both had heard such good things about their work and were interested in seeing their operation firsthand.

The library itself is a work of art, having recently been expanded, and the staff are both serious and motivated. I remarked a willingness to innovate that is not always present in libraries, and the fruits of their work were evident in the number of dedicated users. Hanan and I arrived 20 minutes after the library opened, and we still had to wait ten minutes, nearly missing our appointment, because of the mob of users waiting to gain entrance.

Our guide was invovled in Tech. Services -- not a librarian by training, he had gone to workshops in France and Egypt and was in charge of all things Dewey-related. The library is an OCLC member library (one of only 4 in Morocco); they maintain their own tri-lingual thesaurus of descriptors, apply an adapted (read: expanded) DDC in their cataloging, and are currently using Horizon as the ILS since Horizon is Arab character-friendly and has an office in Egypt.

I have not yet had a chance to tour operations at the national library in Morocco, but from what I've seen and heard, the Saudi library is in many ways carrying out some of the roles typically associated with a national institution. Innovation, access, bibliography, mission, focus, and professionalism are all abundantly evident in their work. I salute the librarians at the Saudi library. They should be very pleased with their work and with the service they are providing.

Conference: the Bibliothèque nationale du Royaume du Maroc

On Thursday and Friday, November 13 and 14, 2008, the Moroccan national library (the Bibliothèque nationale du Royaume du Maroc or BNRM) sponsorsed a colloquium on national libraries entitled

« Les bibliothèques nationales : enjeux et perspectives »

Because the building was recently inaugerated by His Majesty the King of Morocco on October 15, 2008, it was exciting that so many librarians from foreign countries came to participate and to see the new facilities.

Third year students in the "Librarian" option at the Ecole des Sciences de l'Information take a class with me that covers national libraries. We were fortunate to have been invited to attend the second day of the conference. Yet again, students came to the conference instead of going home to their families, even though we'd already had class that week on Monday as usual. Four students from the 2nd year also snuck in (with permission from yours truly). It was a great experience for all concerned, and one that is absolutely unique. One of the third-year ESI students even asked a question of one of the presenters during the question-and-answer session (and the question was a good one!)