Through a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award — her second — Sharon Yang helped network 48 libraries throughout Kosovo and create a shared library computer system. Yang traveled to Kosovo from Oct. 16 to Nov. 6 to complete the project at the National Library of Kosovo “Pjeter Bogdani.”
Yang says the country is about 70 years behind American libraries, with many libraries in the country operating with no system at all.
“Most did not even have a card catalog. Some libraries just write their materials on pieces of paper or use an Excel sheet,” she says.
Source: Rider University
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Having an integrated, searchable library system in the country will help scientific development and scholarship in Kosovo, says Yang, who earned her Doctor of Library Science from Columbia University.
“Many of the libraries don’t know what materials they have or what other libraries have,” she says. “Kosovo also has a lot of history and culture as well and the people there want to archive that digitally. They can show the world who they are through photos, documents, art; people can search these items nationally and internationally.”
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
