Day 1 of Experiential learning 2019

Day 1/12 

 My day started at 08:50 where everyone arrived into the Auditorium in the Merensky Library at the University of Pretoria ( Main Campus). We were welcomed to a presentation session by  Mr. Isak van der welt whose a system analyst at the University, He then introduced Mr. Robert Moropa to us as the Director of the Library. 

Mr. Moropa welcomed us into the session and elaborated on what is the vision of the Library, He provided statistics as to how the Academic Librarianship is advancing at a Top rate and also mentioned that the University of Pretoria is  both nationally and internationally recognized as a leading Library and that a University in London as asked for the University of Pretoria top submit an article on its vision for a strategic planning in advancement of an Academic Librarianship. Mr. Moropa introduced the 9 Focus as a strategic plan , this includes; Space, Collaboration, Teaching, Digitization etc. He further gave Mr. Isak a chance to continue with the Presentation. 

Mr. Isak introduced us to Lebi, an artificial intelligence robot, considered as stuff within the Library. 

Mr. Isak mentioned a lot of interesting facts about Lebi, some including : The fact that shes female, has 3 camera's , 7 recordings and her creation is estimated at 150 thousands rands.

 Mr. Isak further elaborated on Lebi's functionality as a programmed robot, that He controls and monitors Lebi's responses to questions asked by students within the Library and that Lebi accommodates all different kinds of students including those with disabilities, for instance the deaf (those that can read but can not hear), Lebi accommodates their requests by answering to their question in written format on a screen. According to Mr. Isak, Lebi is versatile and can cater to any academic questions regarding the University of Pretoria, he further concluded that Lebi is not meant to replace the stuff as employees within the Library are constantly trained on doing new jobs within a constantly changing environment, therefore, Lebi can do their old job while they focusing on new things. Mr Isak then concluded the entire presentation session by introducing us to blogger as a platform to blog daily about our experiences within the Library, the day ended with us in the training rooms learning on how to blog.