18 years of Service at Hekima University College Library, a Wonderful Learning Experience
I have worked in this library for 18 years, and work has never ceased; you finish one task, and you start another. The secret to managing is always to make sure that your work is tidy and that you plan ahead on what you intend to accomplish in a day, in a week, or in a month so that there is no laxity and no work pile-ups.
The beauty of working in this library is that you find yourself learning new things despite the fact that you are not reading the books. This is because you are exposed to a lot of information from the book titles as well as the borrowing information as you handle the library material. You can see that; indeed, Hekima University College Library truly satisfies the needs of its students, the staff, the local community, and the environment around Hekima because the management has ensured that the library gets new acquisitions regularly. Therefore, working at the library is quite enriching and useful.
My work involves cataloging and classification. Sometimes people think that library work involves moving books from one point to the other; however, there is more science to it, which can only be understood by people who have been trained as librarians or those with careers in library management.
Cataloging is the science of making books and other library material known by users, authors, subjects, and data. With enhanced ICT Technology, careful and accurate cataloging of library material creates visibility of texts in the various search engines across the globe. We try to make sure that when a person searches for a book by the author’s name or the title or the subject, our Hekima catalog should appear on their search engine as an option, and they would be able to know that such a book is available at Hekima University College Library
Because we are now online, we can see how our catalog is being checked out by students, faculty, and staff at Hekima and other institutions in Kenya and outside the country. We have seen people come from far and wide to check out a book that can only be found at Hekima. Recently, we had a lecturer from Kabianga University in Kericho County look for a particular book available in Kenya only at Hekima University College, and that tells you that we have a treasure.
This, therefore, means that if you want your material to be known far and wide, then it must be well cataloged, subject content must be well labeled, and the call numbers must be well done so that we know that information accessibility within and outside Hekima is enhanced using modern ICT technology.
My lowest moment here, which I can say without fear or contradiction, is that the borrowing structures and terms and conditions are sometimes inappropriate. Books often disappear, and nobody can explain how they disappeared. Therefore, I advise the administration to implement strict mechanisms that would prevent more losses because a book lost is a great loss to the institution.
By Samuel Okirigiti, Assistant Chief Librarian