It was with great joy that we welcomed our colleague Tertia Coetsee back on Wednesday 2 May from her ten week long overseas study visit which she undertook with a group of South African university librarians.

Her visit kicked off with a study program at the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, Univ of Illinois, Urbana Champaign which lasted from 21 Feb to 10 March.

During this time the librarians also visited, among other libraries and institutions, the OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre) in Dublin, Ohio, which is the world’s largest library cooperative and creator of the World Catalogue.

From 10 March – 30 March the group split up and spent time at various host institutions throughout the USA. Tertia had the privilege to spend her time at the Veterinary Medical & Health and Life Sciences library of the Purdue University. During this time she had the opportunity to attend various meetings and library events, meet many of the staff members and gained a lot of insight in the librarians’ role in supporting researchers at their university.

From 30 March – 4 April a mid-term meeting was held for all the participants in San Francisco and they had the opportunity to report on and share their experience with the rest of the group.

From 4 – 27 April they returned to their host institutions to continue their program after which they returned home.