South to Patagonia …. An Unforgettable Sabbatical Experience

submitted by Vicki Croft, Washington State University

 

After 20+ years at WSU, I decided to take the leap and embark on my first ever sabbatical and being my first, I decided this would be one I'd never forget. As for all worthwhile endeavors, a considerable amount of pre-planning, organizing and paperwork is necessary. My proposal was due December 31, 1997, so by October I had to get serious about planning.

 

A lot of people, including Kathy, our NW Notes editor, have asked why and how I chose South America. Had I traveled there before? Did I speak Spanish? Did I know any Latin American librarians - or anyone in Latin America? The answer to all of the above is an emphatic NO. So how did I ever end up in South America?

 

Some of you know that I've had an interest in international veterinary libraries. This interest dates back to 1992 and the first International Conference for Animal Health Information Specialist.  Following the 1st ICAHIS, I'd seen veterinary library associations form in the UK, Ireland and Europe and attended an African conference in South Africa. During my previous travels and networking, I'd worked closely with Dr. Mushtaq Memon, the coordinator of WSU's International Veterinary Education Program. He'd helped with travel support, was always generous with contacts, and realizes the importance of library and information sharing in international veterinary activities. So of course, I asked him for sabbatical suggestions, with these criteria:

1) involvement of international travel and living abroad;

2) work in a country/part of the world where I didn't have any library contacts;

3) a project that would benefit WSU and support its international activities.

A fourth wish was an English-speaking country, but as you see, this was not to be. To Mushtaq, the answer was simple…Latin America, particularly Chile, and specifically the Universidad de Chile (UCH) in Santiago. WSU has cooperative veterinary agreements with several veterinary schools in Latin America…and of course, he had visited there and had many excellent contacts. Best of all, several Chilean faculty and administrators were scheduled to visit WSU in late October and November and I could meet with them and gauge their interest.

 

The rest is history… the visiting Chileans were charming and delighted with the possibility of a sabbatical stay in their country. I was given the name and e-mail address of Paula Muñoz Rosati, who would become my hostess, mentor, tour guide, travel agent, and most of all, friend and colleague. I obtained letters of support from veterinary schools and research centers in Argentina and Chile…and the proposal for a 6-month sabbatical was completed and submitted by the December deadline.

 

So now the work began… the Spanish classes… a 1-credit class on "veterinary Spanish;" and group lessons based on the PBS Destinos series. I pieced together a travel itinerary, arranged for housing, looked for funding support, and at last purchased my plane tickets. The die was cast. I would leave the US on August 25, not to return until December 16. In the meantime, through my contacts in WSU's international Programs Office, I learned of a possibility of a grant for library consulting work for a joint WSU-UCH environmental sciences program. The grant was submitted and eventually funded, but I wasn't to learn of this until after my arrival in Santiago.

 

My sabbatical projects had two parts: 1) the original veterinary project… surveying and visiting Latin American animal health-related libraries, librarians, and information resources, with the eventual product a directory of Latin American veterinary libraries and resources. 2) Participation in a United States Information Agency-funded project to work with the UCH-WSU Program in Environmental Sciences to develop partnerships to facilitate the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, working mostly with Paula Muñoz, the UCH veterinary librarian. During this time I lived in university-owned apartments for international visitors. I stayed in one of the two "WSU" apartments, in an exclusive part of Santiago where I could see the Andes from my patio. The only disadvantage to this site was the distance from the Biblioteca "Prof. Ramon Rodriguez Toro", Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias…approximately 12 miles…a 1-1.5 hour bus ride to and from work. During the month of October I was on the road…traveling and working with veterinary schools and libraries in Argentina and Uruguay. I visited the only veterinary school in Uruguay and 4 Argentina schools plus a veterinary research center. During my last six weeks, I returned to Santiago to finish up my work there. Paula and I also visited the other two Chilean veterinary schools (at Valdivia and Chillan).

 

But there was time for fun and visitor activities, too. On weekends in Santiago I visited various historical and scenic places, such as museums, gardens, shops, craft markets. We also went to the beach and the mountains, once. Paula and I also did some sightseeing while visiting Valdivia and Chillan. When my husband came for a visit, we traveled to Bariolouche, took the boat-bus combination trip over the Andes to Puerto Montt, and we visited the island of Chiloe. Yes, Chile also has beautiful volcanoes, beaches, flowers, vegetables, and seacoasts, just like the Pacific Northwest. The beauty and variety of the land, as well as the very warm, friendly, and generous Chilean people, are reasons that everyone I know raves about Chile and its people. We all want to return someday.

 

During my travels (solo) in October, I took advantage of weekends and holidays to be a tourist, too. I spent the Columbus Day weekend on the Uruguayan Riviera (where it rained - remember this was early spring!). Before traveling to Rio Cuarto, I took a tourist excursion to Iguazu Falls, at the crossroad between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. These falls were magnificent…so much wider, more diverse, cascaded, and magnificent than even Niagra. The lush subtropical setting made it very unique and unforgettable. And you guessed it…it rained there one day, too, but there was enough sun on the other days to see and enjoy the beauty of the Falls. In Rio Cuarto I lived with a delightful Argentina entomologist and we had a wonderful time. After Rio Cuarto, I returned home via Mendoza, a miniature Napa Valley and Wenatchee agriculturally, but the architecture, gardens and culture were definitely uniquely South American.

 

My South American sabbatical experience, including living and working in Santiago, was a very productive, rewarding, and unforgettable adventure. Not only were the goals of information sharing and networking accomplished, but I also made many new friends and colleagues, while living and learning about new cultures. Although my Spanish was rudimentary, I was pleased that I could read signs, letters, and other printed works. In fact, I could even do some writing in Spanish, which although far from perfect, was understandable. Travel across the magnificent Andes, and visits to Puerto Montt, Bariolouche, Valdivia, Buenos Aires, Mendoza, the Uruguayan Riviera, and finally Iguazu Falls, were all very memorable experiences. But best of all were the warm wonderful people I met during my adventures in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. The warm and close friendship that I developed with Paula Muñoz Rosati of the UCH and her family was very special and the wonderful hospitality provided by Cristina Fauda and Estela Montesino in Rio Cuarto unforgettable.

 

 

submitted by Kathy Kaya

 

Getting underway with my subcontract from the RML, on May 3rd and 4th, librarians from Montana's seven tribal colleges as well as three colleagues from Washington met at Montana State University-Bozeman for training in providing health information services. Nancy Press joined us to share information about DOCLINE and teaching adult learners. The Montana librarians received a new computer station for each college library to facilitate MEDLINE searching and an allocation to purchase a core collection of health sciences books. Currently we are honing MEDLINE skills and preparing to team teach a MEDLINE class for health professionals and other end users at each of their colleges.

 

 

submitted by Vicki Croft

 

On May 3 Agnes Chikonzo, the veterinary librarian at the University of Zimbabwe (Harare), arrived in Pullman as part of a 3-week contact visit to the United States. She was here to learn about new technologies, services, and procedures that could be incorporated into her library.  Agnes contacted me about coming to WSU because she and I had both participated in the 1st African Conference of Animal Health Information Workers, Onderstepoort, South Africa, in 1995.  Isabel McDonald and I were 2 of the 4 US participants in that Conference.

Agnes arrived late on the night of the 3rd, on a delayed Horizon flight from Seattle.  She'd been traveling for 28 hours, so slept some on the long drive to Pullman. The cold weather was somewhat of a surprise, as she was expecting spring-like weather.  Later she was to experience May snow and hail in Pullman ... the first time she'd ever seen either.  So during the first week she had to adjust not only to life in a different hemisphere, different seasons, small town Pullman, and jet lag, but also unseasonably cold weather.  Those of you who have met Agnes know that she is a delightful person, with a quiet, sunny disposition and a good sense of humor.  She spoke often and fondly of her 3-year-old son (the "Little One") and her understanding husband, Freeman, who generously and kindly supports her travels and work.

During her 2+ weeks in Pullman, she had a busy schedule.  She was introduced to several African veterinary faculty and students (from Kenya and Uganda), all of whom were delighted to meet her.  Dr. Rurangirwa, one of our veterinary faculty, and his wife kindly invited her to their home for a Uganda dinner.  Agnes spent 2 days with Darlene Hildebrandt, visiting libraries in the Lewiston-Clarkston area.  Other WSU librarians generously shared their time with her, discussing with her library technology, including the new videoconferencing project (between reference desks in Pullman and Vancouver).  She learned about services such as our direct document delivery program and used our full text journals and databases.  Others spoke with her about user education, web page management, html markup, collection development (Majors, etc.), document delivery (Ariel, Docline), and image databases.  Of course there was also time for non-library activities, such as meeting Chilean and Moroccan friends, dining out, shopping for souvenirs and bargains to take home to family and friends … and even hiking to the top of Kamiak Butte.

All too soon her time in Pullman was over, and we were on the road to Seattle, the last stop on this first visit to the U.S. We stopped midway at Snoqualmie Pass for some memorable photos of Agnes surrounded by 10 foot snowdrifts.  We have many hosts in the Seattle area to thank for their kindness and hospitality: Angela Lee for sharing her home and time with us, our NN/LM PNR and HSLIC colleagues (Linda Milgrom, Maryanne Blake, Janet Schnall, Terry Jankowski, Sherri Fuller, Jean Shipman, Brian Zick) for introducing Agnes to the RML and HSLIC; to Laura Larsson for sharing her expertise and virtual library with us … and a personalized web page tutorial. And how can we ever forget the fun weekend we spent with Angela and sister Shirley in visiting the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier?

Agnes has long since returned home safely.  She sends her thanks to everyone who helped make her visit so productive and enjoyable.  She has given presentations to the UZ library staff about her contact visit, and she has also implemented changes based on ideas from what she has seen in our libraries.  From our perspective, we have gained much, too.  We've gained a new perspective and understanding of a country and culture that many of us know little about.  All of us have been reminded that libraries, regardless of size, budget, geographical setting, share many common problems, and that the librarians who manage these libraries share the same common goals for providing high quality and effective information services to our clientele.

 

Northwest Notes / 20(2) Apr.-Jun. 1999 / July 9, 1999