The Durban University of Technology will keep its collective fingers crossed that its Librarian, Patricia “Trish” Gierke, emerges victorious at the national selections for the Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) SA Librarian of the Year award.
Gierke, who recently scooped the KwaZulu-Natal Librarian of the Year 2013 award, will jet off to Cape Town today (Friday, 05, October, 2013) where the national winner will be announced during the LIASA Annual Conference.
Gierke is a member of the institution’s Library Staff Training and Development Committee and has been employed at the University’s Library Services since 1995. She is passionate about professional development for librarians.
She has presented at many training workshops over the years, most of which are for cataloguers under the auspices of the LIASA Interest Group for Bibliographic Standards (IGBIS). These have included training on Integrated Resources, dealing with discs in libraries, cataloguing standards for audiovisual and e-resources. She has also served as IGBIS KZN Secretary for many years.
Some of Gierke’s achievements include being co-author of the paper: Just because you have a license doesn’t mean you know how to drive: tackling the gap between LIS qualification and professional capacity which was presented at a conference held in Cape Town in April this year (2013).
Last year (2012), she presented a cataloguing refresher workshop for school librarians and was part of a panel discussion at the KZNMATA meeting, with the theme: innovation and change in the role of the librarian and libraries in the 21st century.
Gierke will also make a presentation during the LIASA Annual Conference and says she feels overwhelmed yet humbled by this opportunity. With her nomination for the national award coming as a great surprise, she acknowledged her fellow colleagues for the opportunity.
“I feel like a rock star with all the attention I am receiving. I am nonetheless humbled and honored to be given such an opportunity. I will have to make the province proud as well as fly the DUT flag,” said Gierke.
– Mbali Madlala
Pictured: Patricia “Trish” Gierke, DUT Librarian, who is currently in the running for the LIASA SA Librarian of the Year award.
