Bibliocycle

Day 5:  Librarians as Planners.
Today participants considered the need to plan and manage their materials collections, and began the process of developing long range strategic and operational plans for their libraries.  Following an overview presentation on the planning process, school based teams will develop vision statements.  The group will complete an exercise in developing a consensus mission for the libraries.  Participants will develop a timeline for implementing the planning process.

From my hotel room I can hear the calls to prayer.  They happen five times each day, and are broadcast over a loudspeaker that is intended to reach a wide sector of the city.  The prayer times are published each morning in the daily paper.  The first call to prayer occurs sometime around 4:30 am.  The teachers that I was working with did not go to pray five times each day.  Nooruddin says that many people only use the earliest and latest times for prayer.  However, on Friday it was necessary to add extra time to the lunch break so that the participants could go to the campus prayer area.  I would have liked to have seen that, but I was engaged in conversation with one of the teachers and could not get away.

I have been impressed, working with a mixed group this week, at the extent to which the stereotype that I had of submissive Muslim women is incorrect.  Among this educated class, at least,  the women are quite comfortable speaking and interacting with their male colleagues.  I had an interesting discussion with one of the young (unmarried) women about marriage.  She expects her family to arrange a marriage for her, and yet she also has male friends and is comfortable with them.  When I asked her if one of these friendships might lead to love, so demurred.  Her parents would choose her mate.  Nevertheless, in class these women were playful and opinionated.  They dressed modestly (a wide range of dress) bust stylishly.  Many of the younger women clearly enjoyed dressing up, and came to the sessions in exquisite traditional dress.