Library

Main library

Issue desk

Most days now Fraser is getting a lift into TCNN to make a start on the library.  A lot of his time is spent thinking and planning the most efficient way to catalogue the collection.   When the power is not reliable (it’s an event if we wake up to mains electricity and if we do then it’s often off again for the day before we’ve even had breakfast: toast is a rarity in the mornings now) it’s difficult to work out how to develop the ideal of a computerised catalogue which would be available to students for more than a couple of hours a day.  That’s one of the issues Fraser is wrestling with.  Another is internet access as most people get online via a dongle for each individual computer. Wireless broadband (if it’s even available here) is a far distant dream.  Managing staff who have more or less been left to their own devices for some years is another, this time unfamiliar, challenge.  To do it in a culture we’ve only lived in for four weeks makes it even more daunting.  One thing’s certain, there’s enough work to keep Fraser occupied for years.

Librarian's office

Reference section

My work in the last week has taken a bit of a back seat as I’m getting accustomed to fending for myself.  It takes time to find out where to buy what – where are the best vegetable stalls, fruit stalls, should I risk meat from the market (left out in the heat all day, would even my trusty pressure cooker kill everything that’s been growing)?  It takes some getting used to the concept that buying in bulk does not usually make economic sense.  One kilogram of sugar costs N100, 2kg costs N250.  I’m also having to look at ingredients on packaged food closely too.  There is a Cadbury’s Nigeria but unlike the Cadbury’s in the UK, here they still load food with hydrogenated vegetable fat.  It’s not just Cadbury’s, this carcinogenic, cheap bulking ingredient is prevalent in many foodstuffs, including peanut butter from the USA.  It’s a bit of a hobby-horse of mine but harmful ingredients which have rightly been removed from food in the UK should not be palmed off on people in poorer countries who don’t make a fuss.