No, I'm not taking my cat!
10/29/2008
I made a great discovery last week--that the U.S. Post Office has an international flat rate box. In other words, I can ship 20 pounds for $49.95, and it's insured. This is significantly cheaper than my other options. Naturally, when Ruby learned about this, she wanted to go too! Since she must weigh 14 pounds (or more), this isn't a good idea--there wouldn't be much room for the books!
Today I received another message from Hanoi, with a formal proposal for the work I am to do at Nha Trang University. I am to spend half of my time teaching American Studies, the other half focusing on library development. The topics they'd like me to address with the librarians include: minimum requirements for a university library (evaluating the level that the NTU library currently is), identifying a popular US library model suited to NTU, the development of fee and non-fee information resources, the establishment and development of an i-library, the development of electronic reference materials, enhancing reader services, the development of a regional library network and exchange with international libraries, librarian communication skills, the development of multi-media services, and university library administration. Wow! Those of you in the library profession know that this is everything but the kitchen sink.
I may have mentioned this before, but NTU was established in 1959 as the Fisheries faculty of the Hanoi Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, and it only became a multi-disciplinary university in 2006. Here is the school's current mission, taken from its webpage:
"The mission of Nha Trang University is to train and foster the human resource at undergraduate and graduate levels in multi-disciplines; to conduct research, technological transfers, and provide professional services to the national economy, especially in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors."
Faculty there are working with limited resources and trying to accomplish so much in such a short time. I hope I am up to the challenge. As Hong, the vice-dean, tells me, I am the first Fulbright scholar the university has had, and the first American professor the English professors have had. No pressure, right? She also reminds me that "Nha Trang is very different from your country. We are a developing country so we still have many problems and challenges that we need to do. I hope when you come here , you will help us." I hope so too!
