Assoc. Prof. Helen M. Byamugisha

PROFILE

FOR HELEN MUSANABERA BYAMUGISHA

 PERSONAL DETAILS

Full Names                                        Helen Musanabera Byamugisha

Citizenship                                        Ugandan

Institutional affiliation                   Kabale University, Kabale, Uganda

Website                  https://kab.ac.ug

Contacts                 hbyamugisha@kab.ac.ug/ byamugisha.helen86@gmail.com

Telephone              +256 772 589721/+256 701 590 422;

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Helen Byamugisha is an Associate Professor and was the University Librarian of Makerere University between 2015 and 2023. She is a seasoned professional academic librarian with wide experience in library services provision and management in Higher education academic institutions. She holds a PhD in Information Science, a Master of Science in Information Science, a Post Graduate Diploma in Librarianship, a Post Graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation and a Bachelor of Science in Botany and Zoology. She is an impact driven information science professional with a great passion for solving societal problems. Helen is a pro-active, self-motivated and performance-driven person with strong organizational and interpersonal skills. Her oral and writing communication skills are very good. She is a committed team player with the ability to lead, motivate and inspire others. Helen is humble, respectful, and has a gift of working with diverse multicultural teams to meet expected objectives. She shares information and promotes harmonious working relationships. Helen is a strategic thinker, problem solver and strong leader with a track record of rapidly adapting to new environments and technology. She possesses excellent computer skills: Proficient at Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the Internet.

Prior to being appointed the University Librarian, Helen served as the Ag. University Librarian (2015-2018), Deputy University Librarian (2012-2015); Head of the Books Acquisition (1994-2012) and Assistant University Bookshop Manager (1979-1994), all at Makerere University. She has conducted research on information needs and use among urban farmers; water hyacinth control, information seeking and use; digitizing library resources; access to reading materials in academic libraries, Covid-19 pandemic and virtual information services and others. Helen has travelled widely, published articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented papers at local and international conferences in many countries.

Helen Byamugisha has taught, supervised and served as Internal Examiner for graduate students at EASLIS, Makerere University, and External Examiner at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She was the Vice Chairperson to Kabale University Council (2010-2015). She was one of the top Officers of Makerere University, a member of the Central and Top University Management, Senate and many other committees of Makerere University (2015-2023). Helen was a member of the Carnegie Corporation Advisory Board, MIT programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2015 – 2019). She served as a project Team Leader for a Carnegie project that procured print books for Makerere University between 2001 and 2004. She was Principal Investigator (PI) on the Makerere University Library Sida project titled “Information Support for quality higher education and research in Uganda” between 2015 and 2022 which funded library resource, sponsored five PhD and two Masters students. She was also a Co-PI on the Research project titled: ‘Artifacts as sources of historical information: unmasking Makerere University memory through documenting and contextualizing visual resources and objects’.  She is a member of a number of professional associations and has offered service to the community in various ways. Currently, Dr. Helen Byamugisha is teaching at Kabale University as an Associate Professor in the department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computing, Library and Information Science. She is also a Rotarian.