Training a Nation's Librarians

Examining libraries as outposts for societal advancement and justice in Kosovo

BY JOANIE HARMON

In Fall 2021, UCLA IS Professors Robert D. Montoya and Gregory Leazer, and Sean Pessin, a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Information Studies, piloted Kosovo’s first National Library Training Program, as conducted through the National Library of Kosovo. The six weeks of specialized training in key areas of library and information studies titled, “The Libraries Supporting Kosovo’s Communities (LSKC): Establishing A National Library Training Program in Information and Cultural Literacies” is supported by a U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy, Kosovo, grant for “Making Kosovo ‘My Home’ through Education, Inclusion and Anti-Corruption Actions.”

Through the project, Leazer, Montoya, and Pessin have addressed the State Department’s goals of education, anti-corruption, and inclusion as advocates on critical issues that affect Kosovo’s libraries and their positive effects on society as well as issues surrounding the profession of librarianship itself, with its needs for regulation, accountability, and good governance.

“The library is not simply a repository of books but also, along with other institutions, is a place for the synthesis of national and local culture,” says Professor Leazer.

Over the course of three weeks, Montoya, Leazer, and Pessin taught three courses that emphasized the ethical and justice-oriented nature of librarianship and the information professions. Montoya notes that, “Libraries have the capacity to make direct and significant impacts on people’s lives. The courses were meant to illustrate how librarianship may function as a global profession, but professional practice works at the level of the local, often in spaces like classrooms and community spaces.”

Pessin adds, “I am very moved by the openness with which we were invited to share space with librarians from all over Kosovo, and visiting cultural institutions in Pristina, Prizren, Kruja, and Tirana. Creating spaces organized for democratic learning teaches not only people with access to those places, but also every other place that those people participate in and co-create, including we who are returning to UCLA.”

The courses also brought attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a series of goals that can guide humanity forward toward a more sustainable, healthy, and ecologically balanced future. In this way, libraries of all types should be seen as spaces that catalyze broader, global movements.

“It has been a deep honor to work with the National Library in its unique role to bring Kosovar culture to global communities, and a means for Kosovars to learn about the world,” Leazer says.

The grant visit ended with a 77th Anniversary event for the National Library of Kosovo. As part of the ceremony, the National Library of Kosovo awarded Montoya the Pjetër Bogdani Prize for distinguished and impactful service to the National Library of Kosovo. Professor Montoya is only the second individual to receive this honor from the National Library for contributions to library and library science between 2017–21.

In addition, Montoya received the Eliot Engel Jubilee Prize from the U.S. Embassy of Kosovo, named after the U.S. Representative from New York’s 16th congressional district, in honor of his contributions to cultural heritage in Kosovo. The event also featured an exhibit curated by Pessin, titled “Kosovo: My Home,” that showcased a variety of book-objects produced by participating librarians in his course. Leazer, Montoya, and Pessin will return to Kosovo in March 2022 to teach four more courses. Together these courses will constitute a new, formally accredited national continuing education program.

For the last five years, Professor Montoya has worked with the University of Pristina to create the first bachelor’s degree program in library and information studies at the University of Pristina, based on interviews of librarians all over Kosovo, encompassing librarianship in schools, public libraries, and academia.

“To train the nation’s librarians, I needed to make sure I wasn’t just importing an American model, which history has told us is bound to fail,” he says. “I really wanted to get a sense of what communities needed. But I also needed a sense of how Kosovo’s libraries were connected to the broader notions of political engagement and democratic activity, as well as local and international governmental arenas.

“The bachelor’s program is going to establish a long line of qualified future librarians. But currently, in Kosovo’s libraries, there are many individuals who … care about their work but they don’t have the professional training they need to grow and flourish. The second project, the National Library of Kosovo Training Program, gives an opportunity for us to make a direct impact to professionals currently working in libraries. Kosovo is

UCLA IS scholars serve on the National Library Training Program Faculty of Kosovo, pictured here at the National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani” (L-R) Sean Pessin, UCLA IS doctoral student; Robert Montoya, assistant professor of information studies; and Gregory Leazer, professor of information studies.

also in need of better labor practices, coordinated national library assessment mechanisms, and they need to professionalize the field of librarianship. It’s a big task but I’m excited to be doing this with my UCLA Ed & IS colleagues. I see it as one of the most important things I can do as a scholar and member of the global library community.”

Montoya was selected as a Fulbright Specialist in 2017, and received an invitation by the United States Embassy to develop a national library training program in Kosovo. His research, which is focused on information representation and positionality; critical, ethical, and justice-oriented LIS work; and domestic and international library development, gives him a unique insight into the needs of Kosovo’s libraries and how they can preserve democratic activity. Montoya says that his research has revealed the importance of Kosovo’s libraries as “ spaces for the enactment and the production of justice and ethical social principles.”

“At the beginning stages of building a country, libraries are really essential in promoting democratic ideals such as public participation, equal representation, and governmental accountability to community needs, in addition to all the things we normally associate with libraries like supporting literacy education, reading skills, and working with public schools,” he says.

Professor Montoya brings his examinations of libraries as outposts for societal advancement and justice to UCLA with his creation of the new Library, Ethics, and Justice Lab; Pessin is a fellow of the Lab and serves as its project manager. The Lab’s aims include learning how to better serve specific populations of color in the local Los Angeles community; the role of libraries as agents of individual and community advancement and a supporter of democracy; and how to convince policy and decision makers that libraries are essential for all aspects of society.

As director of the California Rare Book School, Montoya will strive to integrate these same values into the continuing education program’s curriculum.

“CalRBS is one of the country’s finest continuing education programs for librarians and rare book specialists,” he says. “I want to work to expand the program into new areas and to think about how it can take the lead in providing a critical and justice-oriented framework in some of its courses.

“In the last many years, the library, special collections, and rare book professions have made great progress in the areas of diversity, equity, and justice. But we are a long way from where we need to be, and I think CalRBS can be an important driving force in making change happen,” says Montoya. “Making these changes locally at an institution like UCLA has the capacity to make our global community more just. It’s amazing to have the opportunity to do this. In this way, my humanitarian and development work in Kosovo; the research partnerships facilitated by the Library, Ethics, and Justice Lab; and my vision for CalRBS work together to imagine a future-oriented, globally conscious, and critical approach to librarianship.”

Besim Kokollari, established opinion leaders specialist in the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo, says, “The U.S. Embassy in Kosovo has supported the National Library of Kosovo since early 2002 in a host of areas, including management, staff professional development, exchanges, electronic resources, and funding grants. More than twenty U.S. library experts have traveled to Kosovo since 2003 on various U.S. government sponsored programs, including the U.S. Speaker program or the Fulbright Specialist program. With the U.S. speakers program, we have managed to expose Kosovo libraries to the U.S. library practices, development and technology, and helped them build professional and institutional cooperation. With the

National Training Program, Sean Pessin leading a discussion with Kosovo librarians in his “Teaching Information Literacy and Critical Reading Skills” course in the American Corner of the National Library of Kosovo.

Fulbright Specialist program, we have supported Kosovo libraries with longer-term expertise to initiate structural changes in their library management and practices. Dr. Robert Montoya’s engagement with local librarians is a good example of our interventions in Kosovo’s libraries. First, he arrived to Kosovo through the U.S. speaker program to speak on various events during the Library Week in Kosovo in 2018. It was an excellent opportunity for him to meet librarians throughout Kosovo, establish relationships, and share his expertise and knowledge on library trainings. He then continued his engagement with Kosovo through the U.S. Fulbright Specialist program and a U.S. Speaker funding grant to develop and implement what is considered the first formal and professional library training in Kosovo. We are very proud with this and other achievement made in Kosovo’s libraries. And, we look forward to seeing more positive changes so that libraries in Kosovo modernize their services to benefit their local and international patrons.”

Robert Montoya (’03, B.A. American Literature and Culture; ’15, M.L.I.S.; ’17 Ph.D.) is an assistant professor of the UCLA Department of Information Studies in the Masters of Library Science program and the new director of the California Rare Book School (calrbs.org) which is housed at UCLA. In addition, he is the founding director of the new Library, Ethics, and Justice Lab at UCLA.

Montoya’s forthcoming book, Power of Position: Knowledge Organization and the Biodiversity Sciences, to be published by The MIT Press in May 2022, deals with knowledge organization and its intersections with politics, biodiversity studies and science, technology, and society studies. The book is based on his dissertation, “Contingent Consensus: Documentary Control in Biodiversity Classifications.” His dissertation research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Beta-Phi-Mu International Library and Information Studies Honor Society, and the Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information.

Professor Montoya has held professional positions in special collections and archives since 2007, including his service as head of public services for Library Special Collections (LSC) at UCLA, where he led the LSC’s reference, reader services, instruction, outreach, duplication services, and scholarly communication and publishing.

Greg Leazer is an associate professor in the UCLA Department of Information Studies in the Masters of Library Science program. He was recently awarded the ALSC Research Agenda Pilot Grant which offers seed funds to help develop, conduct, and disseminate emerging research that aligns with priority areas outlined in the ALSC Research Agenda. Leazer is the associate director of the new Library, Ethics, and Justice Lab at UCLA and the former chair of the UCLA Department of Information Studies.

Sean Pessin is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Information Studies, faculty at CSUN College of Humanities, and director, CSUN Book Arts Lab. He earned a B.A. and M.A. at California State University Northridge and an M.F.A. from Otis College of Art and Design. As a lecturer at CSUN and the Colburn School, he teaches a variety of courses including Comics and Graphic Novels, Literary Magazine, Fairy Tales, and First-Year Composition among others. He oversees the production of The Northridge Review. In 2017 he founded the Book Arts Laboratory at CSUN which assists students with all their book-shaped special projects, including class anthologies, artist books, and chapbooks. His chapbook on TED Talks, Thank You for Listening, was published by Mindmade Books in 2017, and he has a new chapbook forthcoming from Magra Books.