CHELSA congratulates Mr Lindsay Reid on his appointment as Director: Library and Information Services at Nelson Mandela University.
CHELSA congratulates Mr Lindsay Reid on his appointment as Director: Library and Information Services at Nelson Mandela University.Lindsay Reid graduated with a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Fort Hare. He has management qualifications from North West and Nelson Mandela universities, a postgraduate diploma in archives and records management from Fort Hare and a National Diploma in information technology from UNISA.
Lindsay joined NMU on 01 July 2021 from North-West University (NWU), where he was a Manager: Library Information Systems supporting the Chief Director: Library and Information Services in strategic planning and development of the Library Information Services to implement strategies and support the University’s Teaching and Learning, Research and Innovation and Technology. Prior to his promotion as a manager at NWU, Lindsay was Missionvale Campus Branch Librarian. He oversaw the daily library operations, client services and information services, strategic planning and policy development, budget planning and administering budget accounts. During this time he also acted as Deputy Director: Library and Information Services & Training for six months.
For Reid, it is a ‘welcome home’ moment: before moving to NWU, he was at NMU and he successfully implemented Knowledge Commons’, Discussion Rooms and Computer Laboratories at NMU and Fort Hare. He was also the first to fully implement wireless network access on all campuses at Fort Hare. Before his time at Mandela University, Lindsay was Manager: Library Networks and Systems Fort Hare Libraries for seven years, responsible for library systems, digital scholarship, computer automation, and innovation. He also worked as Service Systems IT Support Engineer at Volkswagen South Africa, Senior ICT Librarian at North West University, Systems Librarian for the SEALS consortium and Library IT Specialist at the former Eastern Cape Technikon. He matriculated at Arcadia Senior Secondary School in Gqeberha.
“The current pandemic forced universities to embrace digital transformation and its impact on the nature of learning, but it also provided new opportunities for academic libraries to transform the way that they engage with learning, teaching, and research within universities,” says Reid. He further underscores that, “in support of the University’s strategic plan, NMU Library will further strengthen and develop the virtual online library and information services. Library and Information Services will endeavour to support innovative teaching, learning, and research programmes and provide access to information resources that will help the Nelson Mandela University Libraries to achieve their strategic objectives”