AfLIA signs on a Curriculum Development Consultant: Wikipedia in African Libraries project
SEPTEMBER 13, 2020
AfLIA has signed on Prof. Rosemary M. Shafack as the Curriculum Development Consultant (CDC) for the Wikipedia in African Libraries’ Project, sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation. As a CDC, she will work closely but remotely with AfLIA’s Wikipedian in Residence, Alice Kibombo, to adapt the existing OCLC curriculum (Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together), modules/instructional design and training materials and make them suitable for African librarians for the training of at least 10 Librarians each from 30 Countries in Africa.
Prof. Shafack is currently the Director of the University of Buea Library and Information Services and a Professor of Library and Information Science, teaching in the undergraduate and graduate programmes of the Faculty of Education of the University of Buea. She has over ten years’ experience in curriculum development and evaluation as a teacher in the university, teaching library and information science courses. Her experience in curriculum development covers courses taught face-to-face, synchronous and asynchronous modes. Earlier this year, she took part in a training of trainers’ workshop organized by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in the development of distance learning courses for her university. She is a recipient of several awards among which include the Award of Female Academic Excellence by the Ministry of Higher Education of Cameroon in 2017. She is one of the leaders of the IFLA Leadership programme first cohorts and a trainer for the IFLA, ALP and BSLA.
The resulting Course that will be produced by Prof Shafack and the WiR will be used to train participants in two Cohorts of the Wikipedia in African Libraries project. The training will be geared towards equipping African librarians and Library educators with the requisite skills to become active digital citizens in collaborative spaces who can help tell our stories as Africans and accurately amplify the continent’s voice in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia which has more than 54 million articles in different languages and has grown to be the world’s largest reference website.