Oral history interview with Rookaya Bawa, 2011.

Biographical Note

Program Officer with Higher Education and Libraries in Africa and Manager of African Libraries Project, International Program.

Scope and Contents

Early life in South Africa; marriage at age sixteen; one of ten people of color allowed to go to a white university; graduate education in England; member of black faculty at South Africa universities; work in libraries for South African Department of Education; mother of two girls; hired by Carnegie to develop a model library program in Africa; work in the field in Africa; importance of technology to African libraries; utilizing partnerships with local governments to ensure completion and sustainability of libraries; the library as safe space; development of library collections; inefficacy of mobile libraries; building of inter-library research commons; methods of activating interest in public libraries; choosing which libraries to work with; training public librarians; digitization of collections; benefits to philanthropy of hiring specialists or generalists; leadership of and disagreements with Vartan Gregorian; return to South Africa to care for ill daughter; future position as executive director of the academic library at University of Johannesburg; impressions of New York City; continuing role as consultant for Carnegie.

Subjects

• Bawa, Rookaya--Interviews.
• Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Clark, Mary Marshall, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Interviews.
• Libraries--Africa.
• Oral histories (literary works)