Tuesday was a good day. After some difficulty on our end, we managed to contact our library software company in Canada, ResourceMate, and were fortunate enough to find someone on their support team that spoke French. Kudos to Keith Landell, who saved the day !
It took us about 3 hours to get it done. We had been able to buy a new desktop computer to replace the problematic library computer and had to reinstall the library's software on it, but ran into an obstacle with the operating system being a French speaking one and the installation software being written in English. As a result the installation hit a snag, but after "chatting" with the technician from ResourceMate in Toronto, they were able to take over our computer remotely using TeamViewer and were able to fix the problem. Our IT person in Ouaga, Damien Kaboré, was so impressed that he stayed past his normal working hours [as Toronto is 5-6 hours behind us] and watched the procedure. If you've ever watched a remote takeover of a computer it can be pretty remarkable. Damien is not known to ever put in more hours than necessary, so I was amazed that he stayed around until the end while someone from Canada remotely accessed our computer and installed the software, but he did. He even "chatted" back and forth with the ResourceMate support tech person in French asking him questions, I was was quite encouraged. After the installation, there was a problem with networking our two library computers together but the RM technician helped us with that as well and we got the job done ! This same procedure will need to be repeated in Abidjan, but Laurel Miller will do the installation there as she has done it before and is quite competent in that domain...
Here is the new equipment ready to have the library software installed.
And above we install Windows 10 (an upgrade from Windows 7) on the [old] OPAC [Online Public Access Computer] which we have for public use in the library. Users can access the catalog on it, search the Web, and use the word-processing software. There is also a scanner attached so that they can scan documents.
I have also re-installed the little Dymo label-maker for spine labels for the books, and reactivated the Unitech barcode scanner after a bit of Internet research. I'm so glad there are people out there in the real world that have the same problems we do, and bother to post the information or their success stories online. I was considerably more difficult in the pre-Web days.
Normally during the week I usually eat in the "réfectoire", a sort of dining hall, with whatever group is having lunch on site. Wednesday I went out for lunch at a new restaurant with Pam Morris for a change. Pam is a linguist here at SIL and I think she took pity on me because I had walked quite a distance in the early morning to visit a bank only to have it not accept my bank card. The old Ecobank had moved, and a new bank, the Banque Commerciale du Burkina had replaced it nearby, but the ATM seemed to want Visa cards only and my bank cards were both Mastercard. Pam drove me to another Ecobank that afternoon and we had lunch at a place called El Dorado, a very modern western-style restaurant frequented by expats. They didn't have the mixed grill, but the beef brochettes were very good, and the bread fresh with a nice crunchy crust.
Pam is from Kitchener, Ontario, and returned to Burkina a year ago in February after spending time in near-confinement there in Canada. We discussed the Covid situation here as life seems to be fairly normal and, although there are some masks being worn, and hand-washing stations in places, the situation does not seem dire. Pam has a friend that works as a nurse here in Ouaga who reports that the hospitals are not particularly overburdened either. According to her, early on, just like just about everywhere else, stricter precautions were taken but they have slowly been wearing off... Covid fatigue is everywhere...
In passing, I did see this little poster, though, written in the Dioula [Jula] language. Apparently the French publisher, Bayard worked with SIL to produce these posters about Covid-19 precautions in one of the major languages of Burkina Faso.
And Friday I worked again with the ResourceMate people to get our Web-based OPAC up and running. This means users will be able to access our catalog via the Internet. I eventually want to do this is the Abidjan and Mali SIL-libraries as well, but wanted to do it first in the library that I am most familiar with, the SIL-library here in Ouagadougou. Again we had a problem getting it started, and the huge file didn't sync properly, but with a little Canadian help I sent them a backup of our data it is up and running. As you can well imagine, I am very, very thankful that we've gotten this far! This was my plan when I started coming to Burkina in 2012, to have the holdings of the SIL Library here in Ouaga up on the Web, and it has taken 10 years to realize it. The site will still need to be customized, and translated into French, but I should be able to make some of those changes from the US. The other good thing is that when accessed from a cell phone using Chrome as a browser, the interface can be switched to French via its GoogleTranslate function, which works pretty well. Since the users here are more likely to access any website from their phones, this may work for most. Ezéchiel showed me how to create an icon on my cell phone to bookmark the site so that by clicking on it I go right to the SIL Library's website--very handy ! Here's the link. Next we'll need to find someone with the knowledge of Drupal to put the link on the SIL-Burkina website.
Friday morning Paul Solomiac, Ezéchiel, and I took a trip to Orca, the huge IKEA-like store here that also carries some electronics as well, and bought a hand-held vacuum cleaner to clean the dust off the books. Unlike in Mali, where the walls of the SIL library are red with dust, in Ouaga the books are kept in bookcases with glass fronts which protect them, particularly during the Harmattan season, but they still get dusty. Here Ezéchiel tries it out. There is just reddish dust everywhere, even in the closet on the hangars where I hang my clothes.
And a special treat for those who speak French, Stuart Showalter, linguist and translator of the New Testament into Kaansa, a Gur language spoken in the south of this country, shared a link to a television news report with some of us today via email. It was of an interview of Paul Solomiac, the Director of Language Programs for SIL-WAF, shown here on the French television program Télésud on Wednesday, February 16. In the program, Paul talks about SIL, their work in West Africa, and mentions the work in Burkina Faso in particular. About 1/2 way through the program you can see a photo taken in the library of the Kaansa team here in Ouaga, which I have reproduced below and also put temporarily on the library's Web OPAC [above] as one of the rotating photos. 😊 Click here for the link: Interview of Paul Solomiac by French television channel Télésud.
And Friday night was girls' night out. JeDene, Pam, Liffy, Kate and I went to the Sika Lounge for old time's sake, another expat hangout. Mary Hendershott, in Dallas the last time I heard from her, used to play the saxophone at the Sika frequently. There was live music playing and the mosquitoes were out...
From left to right : JeDene, Liffy, Kate and Pam.
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