Dayangku Hadzimah Awangku Ahmad
Dayangku Hadzimah binti Awangku Ahmad is a Malay and a Librarian from Pustaka Negeri Sarawak. She was born in 5th September 1971. She graduated from MARA University of Technology with Advanced Diploma in Library Science (Hons). She went for her primary and lower secondary education at St. Mary's School. She completed her upper secondary education at St. Thomas Secondary School before pursuing her Advanced Diploma in MARA University of Techonolgy.
With Kuching Polytechnic
He got his job in 1990 as an Assistant Library Officer at Kuching Polytechnic. There, he managed to set up the library and commenced its services for the campus community. He was deeply involved with the office management of the library and the acquisition, organization, storage and retrieval of information resources. Since there was no integrated library management system installed at the library at that time, acquisition, cataloguing, classification and assignment of subject headings; and circulation were done manually.
With the Ministry of Environment and Public Health of Sarawak
In 1995, he was transferred to the Library Division of the Ministry of Environment and Public Health of Sarawak. His initial task was to manage and administer the processing and distribution of information resources to libraries throughout Sarawak. From then on, he was assigned the job of identifying, selecting and acquiring a suitable integrated library management system for the library. Managing and administrating the library management system, which included database server and network management became a major part of his job. Besides that, he managed the library’s web homepage and web server.
At the Ministry of Environment and Public Health of Sarawak he was exposed to ISO 9003: 1994 standard. He took a major lead in getting the Library Division certified to the international standard in 1999.
With Pustaka Negeri Sarawak
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The year 2000 saw the completion of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, the new State Library of Sarawak, with its then state-of-art ICT infrastructure and facilities. He was among the nine pioneering government officers assigned by the Sarawak State Government to organize and commence its initial services. Subsequently, he was seconded to Pustaka Negeri Sarawak as a Senior Assistant Library Officer in August 2000.
During his first two years with Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, he was busy assisting the ICT contractor in stabilizing and fine tuning the ICT network infrastructure, the dedicated server system, backup system and support services. At the same time, he was also given the task to assist in stabilizing the integrated library management system - Angkasa. From then on, everything was about system improvement and enhancement. In addition to that, he was also part of the team that successfully completed few small ICT facilitated library projects throughout Sarawak. These libraries were
- Sri Aman ICT Facilitated Public Library;
- Mukah ICT Facilitated Public Library;
- ICT facilitated mobile libraries in Lawas and Sarikei; and
- ICT facilitated village libraries at Pueh in Sematan, Rayang in Serian, Selalang in Sarikei, Durin in Sibu, Beluru in Miri, Long Lama in Baram, Trusan and Kuala Lawas in Lawas.
In 2003, he was among those involved in identifying and selecting an integrated archives management system for Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, which is also entrusted with the responsibility of being the Sarawak State Records Repository.
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From 2005 until 2011, he was involved with reading promotion and reader development programs. These programs gave him the opportunity to study the demographic profiles of the rural and suburban populations of Sarawak; to determine and design appropriate programs; to define and design suitable information literacy skill modules for different target groups; to initiate and arrange outreach programs; and to deliver the program contents to the target groups. He took a major lead in visiting villages and rural community centres to promote reading and information literacy skills.
To ensure the success of the programs, working closely with other related organizations was crucial. he had the opportunity to work with all the public libraries under the local authorities in Sarawak. He had successfully delivered trainings on the handling of reading promotion and reader development activities; establishment and reviews of library key performance indicators; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) guidelines for public library development; collection development and management; and simple computer troubleshooting to staff of these public libraries. Giving consultation services pertaining to public library development and management was a core routine of his job.
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From 2012 until 2018, he was with the Research and Development Division[1] of the Sarawak State Library. There, he gained valuable experiences in library project management and had the opportunity to coordinate and monitor projects under the Tenth and Eleventh Malaysia Plans. He was involved in the planning, design and construction of the Sarawak State Library regional library. For the new and upcoming Sarawak State Archive Building project, which is due to be completed in the year 2021, he was a member of the technical team that was tasked with the study, evaluation and selection of a vendor for an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) for the project. The technical team was sent on study tours to Singapore, Kyoto and Sydney to complete its task. This ASRS in an archive establishment will be the first of its kind in this region.
In 2019, he headed the Knowledge Management Division of the Sarawak State Library. There he revamped and restructured the knowledge management programs and initiatives since they were no longer effective and serving their purposes. With the strong support of the management, he has established three new programs for the identification, capture and sharing of knowledge. These new programs are:
a) the Knowledge Inventory - a master register of organizational knowledge domains and knowledge assets.
b) PustakaPedia - a knowledge repository or knowledge base where the organizational knowledge is deposited as knowledge articles, provided access for, shared and maintained.
c) PustakaShares - a platform where expertise, experiences and lessons learned are shared or communicated via oral presentation.
Currently, he is heading the Innovation and Sustainability Division, which has merged with the Knowledge Management Division and placed under the purview of the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Operations).
Professional Knowledge and Expertise
| Management | Technological | Languages and Others | ||
| a) Quality management | a) Microsoft productivity tools | a) English | ||
| b) Strategic planning | b) Macintosh productivity tools | b) Malay | ||
| c) Balanced Scorecard | c) Adobe Photoshop | c) Sarawal local dialects | ||
| d) Key Performance Indicators | d) GIMP | d) Public libraries in Sarawak | ||
| e) Knowledge management | e) Mediawiki | e) Presentation | ||
| f) Project management | f) Network and computer troubleshooting | |||
| g) Library, records and archives management | g) Automated Storage and Retrieval System | |||
| h) Research management | ||||
| i) Event management | ||||
Papers Presented
He had co-authored and co-presented severaL papers at national and international conferences.
a) Transformasi Perkhidmatan Perpustakaan Melalui Lonjakan Profesionalisme Pustakawan. A paper presented at the Forum Kepustakawanan 2010, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
b) Marketing and Promoting Library and Information Services : the Sarawak Experience. A paper presented at the International Conference on Marketing, Promoting and KPI for Library and Information Centre Services, 2010, Malaysia.
c) Perkhidmatan Perpustakaan Kepada Golongan Khas di Pustaka Negeri Sarawak. A paper presented at the Seminar Perkhidmatan Perpustakaan Kepada Golongan Khas, 2010 Georgetown, Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia.
d) Inovasi, Kreativiti dan Perpustakaan : Peluang dan Cabaran. A paper presented at Forum Kepustakawanan 2011, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
e) The Reading Habits Among Library Users in Rural and Urban Areas of Sarawak, Malaysia A paper presented at the Asian Conference on Society, Education and Technology 2016, Kobe, Japan.
f) Together we can do more: the Sarawak State Library experience in developing and implementing high impact reader development initiatives through collaboration. An abstract accepted by the 2017 International Conference on Library and Information Science, Sapporo, Japan.
Overseas Attachments and Benchmarkings
a) National Library Board, Singapore - Attachment in 2007
b) National Diet Library, Kyoto, Japan - ASRS evaluation in July 2018
c) Macquirie University and University of Technology, Sydney, Australia - ASRS evaluation in August 2018
d) Mortenson Centre for International Library Program, Illinois Library, University of Illinois, USA - Attachment in May - June 2021
Awards
| Excellent Service Award | State Award | |
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Notes
- ↑ The Research and Development Division was renamed the Innovation and Sustainability Division in 2018.
