From Benedict Akanga: We had an orientation programme on Monday 3rd – 7th of October. Mr Kansanga Lesley the Regional Librarian was the resource person in charge of the induction course. On the first day, we each presented ourselves, and that followed the introduction of the subject of the day. We learnt what a library is meant for and its needs. He reiterated that we have to encourage library patrons to come to the library regularly, “a library should be an interesting place which should catch the user’s interests” he said. Mr Lesley asked us to work very hard because been a librarian or working in the library is a profession and individuals are employed with specific qualifications and experience to work. On the second day, we had to report very early because we had a lot ahead, we started the lesson early, and we learnt about the qualifications of a librarian and personal qualities of a library assistant. We also learnt about categories of library, types of libraries, the Ghana library authority and Information Technology (IT) in librarianship. We also studied about the necessity of IT in the librarianship profession and helping users out with IT tools. We did some practicals of how to shelve books correctly and classified books into their various classes. On the third day, we continued we the discussion of what a mobile library is and how it operates, and the necessity of a mobile library in our various libraries. We learnt studied a lot about the classifications system of books, Mr Lesley took us through the method used is the Dewey decimal classification. On the fourth day, we had only practical activities. We rearranged books and shelved all the books in the library, we tidy up the library too, we learnt how to record new books and how to record borrowed books. How to create book pockets and many more. On the fifth day, we had an Entrepreneurship training worship which was organised by the Ghana Library Authority, for all young people (youth) in and around Bolgatanga on how to create a business Plan and the need to become an entrepreneur and how to become successful in life. Our training with the Regional librarian was interactive and very educative, we really learnt a lot from this training. We wish to thank our sponsors of this training. We promise to put all what we learnt into practice. This will improve the operations of our community library.
