Paiki Muswazi
University of the Witswatersrand Library
Johannesburg, South Africa

March 28 - April 28, 2008

Paiki Muswazi, Deputy Client Services Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand, is one of seven librarians from South Africa to come to the United States this spring under the auspices of the Research Libraries Consortium (RLC), a new three-year program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and involving three distinguished universities (Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Witwatersrand). The six-week long sojourn in the United States includes an intensive learning program at the Mortenson Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by a four-week residency at an academic and research institution (Yale in Paiki’s case), a mid-term gathering in San Francisco, and a conference at the University of Arizona.

At Yale he will experience day-to-day interaction between librarians and researchers, shadow research librarians and participate in research activities, and gain a deeper understanding of how research is supported by collection development, fundraising, and the use of technology.

Paiki'’s current responsibilities at the University of the Witwatersrand include management of the Africana Library and the Historical Papers department at the William Cullen Library housing the Research Commons, implementation of ongoing client satisfaction surveys and related projects, and coordination of the education and training function and library
participation in university and external events and projects. He has designed and facilitated various information literacy programs, implemented the online information skills tutorial, developed and facilitated the provision of staff workshops on information finding and conducting research. He is currently facilitating the incorporation of historical papers into Humanities postgraduate library workshops, and collaborating with the Public Knowledge Project of the University of British Columbia, Canada, in promoting online publication of journals at African universities to enhance local and global access to knowledge produced in Africa.  He is the author of about 21 journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and web
documents and has facilitated numerous workshops.

Prior to his current position, he worked as Senior Librarian (Education & Training) at the University of the Witwatersrand Library (2005-06), Assistant Librarian (Special Collections) at the University of Swaziland Library, in Kwaluseni, Swaziland (1994-2005), Librarian/Archivist at National Archives of Zimbabwe (1985-88).

A native of Zimbabwe, Paiki has a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Simmons College, a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Zimbabwe, an International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) from the ICDL Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, and a Diploma in
Training Management from the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) in Harare, Zimbabwe.