Thing 10: Graduate, Traineeship, Masters Degrees

My undergraduate degree was in Library and Documentation Science (Khartoum). It was a four year course which I think is a bit long, the whole course could have been done in less than four years. I chose to study librarianship because it appealed to me than any of the other courses available to me at that age, no doubt the love of reading and being in libraries at different stages of my learning have contributed. Throughout the course I kept being asked, ‘what is librarianship and what does it entail?’

After graduation I got a job as a library assistant for 3 years in an academic library. It was an interesting job but not very challenging. I then got married and joined my husband who was working in a famine zone with SCF. I had to stop being a librarian and instead I became a research assistant for a researcher who was trying to find out how people cope with famine. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a research assistant as it allowed me to travel around villages collecting data. Following this I moved overseas, but this time I was able to be a librarian for a couple of years in one of the international schools.

On my return to the UK I worked in public libraries for sometime. My husband was then sent overseas again and since I wasn’t sure about being able to find a job out there, I decided to upgrade my qualification by taking a distant learning masters degree course whilst living overseas. Aberystwyth was recommended to me and I liked the course so I went for it. Fortunately, I did find a job as a librarian in an international school whilst doing my dissertation on the use of e-resources by HE students in Kampala- Uganda, where I was living at that time.

Now, I’m still overseas, this time in Khartoum-Sudan, where I work as a Deputy Library Manager in an IB international school. I find working in international schools very interesting as I am able to deal with students and teachers from different backgrounds, reading cultures and different attitudes towards libraries and librarians. Chartership, I have been thinking about it for quite sometime but have never had the courage to take practical steps toward it. I think my main worry is how I will find a mentor which lead me to the next thing (mentoring)