Blogger.SG at Woodlands Regional Library: Singapore's first Blogger's conference

The official news is out at Tomorrow.sg. The event will be on:

Saturday, 16 July 2005
Woodlands Regional Library

The organisers have also partnered with SHINE. The time of the event will be confirmed by the organisers later. Check Tomorrow.sg for updates. Better yet, subscribe to their feed.

FYI - the library is working with the Tomorrow.sg organisers & another partner to provide free wireless access on the event day (currently there is wireless access in the library but users have to pay the 3rd party vendor).

The Woodlands RL auditorium can take up to about 300 people. Will we see more than that? I've also asked if the organisers would like to have a 'live' web-cast of the proceedings. Maybe can be broadcasted to other library sites.

Any other wishlist?

Tag: SG BlogCon

Watch a skit or listen to a story on the MRT

Tired of reading my posts on READ! Singapore? Sorry leh, I gotta support the hand that feeds me, right? I'm kidding. I make no apologies for something I believe in. : )

If you are in the Jurong East area this Thursday, 2 June 2005, you might want to check out this event:

There's a MRT ride from Jurong East station to Woodlands station, from 2.30pm to 3.30pm. On the train, a group of teens will perform a skit from one of the book in the READ! Singapore selection. The library hopes to sign up 80 teenagers/ adults for this particular ride.

To be honest with you, so far almost nobody has signed up... ...

Ok, even if you don't think you'll go for the ride, I'd appreciate if you can pass the word along.

If you are at IMM shopping this Thursday and going back north, your support would be most appreciated. Participants need to register at Jurong Regional Library before the event.

Tag:readsingapore

Parent's role in nurturing the child's reading habits

Parental involvement plays an important part in whether the children pick up the reading habit. I say this from personal experience. Both my wife and I are avid readers, and our parents have shaped our love for reading.

My wife said there was a point in time when her mother would take her on bus service 64 to the (now demolished) National Library at Stamford Road every Saturday. My wife also said she would rush to the counter to queue and return the books (those days before anyone dreamed of automated bookdrop). She reminded me how library users had to open the book to the right page to be stamped. If not, one would surely get scolded by the staff.

My wife remembers Pippi Longstocking (of the super red hair and jutty pigtails), Beverly Cleary's Ramona, Anne of Green Gables... (all the hardcover books, she says). And miscellaneous stuff. She would borrow 16 books at one go. By that weekend, she would have finished almost all the books. It would be, in my wife's words, a torturous wait for the week until the next library visit.

For me, I didn't discover libraries until much later, for my parents didn't bring us to libraries. Now that I think back, my parents nurtured my reading habit in a different way, particularly my father.

What my father did was to bring my siblings and I to the town center every other night after dinner. We would inevitably end up in the (now defunct) Oriental Department store.

I remember stopping by the small book corner and just reading and re-reading "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Rapunzel", "Jack and the Beanstalk". And there were Asian fairy tales and learnt how Redhill got it's name, about Moorthy the Mouse...

One time, when I was 10, my father bought a book titled "Model Essays and Compositions". He didn't make me read it, nor was he the type to vet my homework. He just left it on the table. I picked it up, read it, and learnt some tips on writing well. For inspiration, I continued to read Goldilocks and Jack I guess.

I only discovered about public libraries when some library staff came to my primary school. They brought a whole bunch of books for us to choose, made us library cards, and that's when I learnt I could borrow books for free (which is why I believe very strongly in outreach activities even today).

My wife discovered libraries much earlier than I did. But while libraries were important in sustaining our reading interests, I'd say it was our parents who laid the foundation.

At the end of my earlier post, I said that if parents were really serious about inculcating the reading habit in their kids, they should lead by example.

I would think leading by example doesn't always mean being voracious readers. As in my case, my parents didn't visit public libraries. But I would think they recognised the value that books played, and they did other things that helped influence me.

The NLB can build libraries, right up to people's doorsteps. But all would be moot if parents don't play their part, in all sense of the word.

Tag: libraries, library advocacy, life long learning

Outreach activity at National Family Week, 2005

Some people ask what librarians (in the Public Library Services) do as part of our job. Here's one example -- we conduct outreach activities to raise awareness of library services.

Today was the launch of National Family Week 2005 at the Singapore Expo. NLB was invited by the MCYS organisers to set up a booth.

For this particular event, my colleagues brought books down, where library members could borrow on the spot. Also some giveaways to people who answered some quiz questions relating to the library services.



The next picture shows my colleague from Children Services, Siew San, conducting a storytelling session.



I observed that the adults were as participative as the kids. Most fitting for "National Family Week". Siew San did an excellent job telling the story, eliciting chuckles from a grandma in the audience (not in the picture).

OK, here's the unglamorous part that most people don't realise. Public Libary staff have to spend time away from their own family on weekends like today. If it's not an event like this, then it's being rostered at the public library (each staff typically work a maximum of two Sundays per month).

Just stating the reality of what it means to be in the public library services.

But it's up to the individual. You need to have a passion for the job.


Tag: librarianship

Cabbies participate in READ! Singapore

Correction: The author of 'XiNiEr' should be Mr. Chia Hwee Pheng and not Mr. Hwang Mengwen. My apologies for the error. (17 Aug 05)

28 May 2005. Saturday evening, 11pm to 12am. Ang Mo Kio Community Library (AMCL) hosted about 100 taxi drivers (yes, that many!). The book-talk session was the last leg of the READ! Singapore 12-hour marathon.

I have new-found respect for these cabbies. I shall call them Taxi Sifus ("Sifu" is cantonese for "teacher") from now on.

Supper was Teochew porridge. My colleagues expected maybe 30 Taxi Sifus at most, so the porridge quickly ran out some time before the start of the session at 11pm. Mr Wee Siew Kim (MP for AMK GRC) graced the session. I discovered later that the author, Singaporean Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, was there as well (Xi Ni Er's his pen name).


AMCL Programme Zone. Supper before the session.

The session was conducted in Mandarin. Five Taxi Sifus (three men, two women) were in the panel, each sharing their thoughts on a chapter or two from the book, "Short Stories" by Xi Ni Er.

NLB Call No.: SING XINE (Singapore Collection, Chinese)
Click here for item availability.

The Taxi Sifus in the panel took their task seriously. One took time during the day to write an essay. Another spiced his reading & sharing with dialect, much to the amusement of his fellow Cabbie Sifus. One of the women Sifu reflected on communication issues in marriages.


Five Taxi Sifus in the panel. The person standing is my colleague, Mr Peter Lee (programmes executive), acting as facilitator.

Most in the audience have not stepped into libraries for years. Some later registered as library members. Copies of the book was distributed during the session. It was heartening to see the cabbies flip to the chapters being discussed and reading the book.

I would have loved to see greater audience participation, as in questions or comments from the floor, but that might be asking too much. It was good enough to see them read the book, and stay till the end of the session.


Something you don't see often -- Taxi Drivers/ Cabbie Sifus reading in a group settting, and it's not their exams for the cab license.

Some of the cabbies took the initiative to get the author's autograph. It became an author signing as well! The author, Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, said conversations with Taxi Sifus formed part of his inspiration and material for the book.


The author, Mr. Huang Mengwen Chia Hwee Pheng, is seated on the extreme right of picture.

Initially I thought the panelists might feel awkward but turned out they were highly enthusiastic and obviously spent effort preparing for it.

Ah! I forget -- most cabbies have no problem talking. Take a cab and you'll agree with me. I think what they need is opportunity.


The person standing is my colleague, Mr Peter Lee, Programmes Executive. He was facilitating the session.

I'm thinking, "How can the library create more of such opportunities in future?" And would all Taxi Sifus respond as they did like tonight's audience?

Probably not.

After the programme, one Taxi Sifu joked with me that it cost him $60 for the night to attend the session. Well, I won't deny that there are opportunity costs to such activities. Guess that's why there's a need to inculcate a habit of reading.


Library tour for Taxi after the session. The foyer of AMCL looks really grand from this angle.

In any case, it was a first for NLB to have so many Taxi Sifus in one sitting, attending a programme in a library setting. The book sharing ended at 12am, but the participants didn't leave until about 1am.


Tag: readsingapore

Radio interview: Parenting Today 93.8 FM

This afternoon's 'live' radio interview was much more enjoyable than I thought, and my fears did not materialise. It's more accurate to call it a chat show rather than an interview. That's what we did -- we chatted.

12.35pm: Zubaidah, Juffri, Jaime & I meet the chat show host, Ms. Susan Ng, at the NewsRadio studio. Susan gives a quick sketch of what she would cover. We ask a few questions. The 'live' show is unrehearsed.

Susan gives me permission to take pictures. It's my first time in a radio recording studio. We're ushered into the studio and sit in comfortable chairs. There are mikes in front of us. The headphones are used if we take calls from listeners.



1:08pm: The "RED LIGHT" comes on (signalling that we're on air). Susan starts by making a traffic-watch announcement off a screen. Heavy traffic along the usual roads, I think.

Then came the show proper. Susan introduces Zubaidah (my colleagues who heads the Children Services), Juffri (he's from Programmes & Events Management), and myself (Susan reads my designation as "Manager & Librarian, Service Management, Public Library Services" -- Ok, technically correct, but I'm responsible for the Adult & Young People services only and not the entire Service Management department).


The radio interview centers on the importance of reading, and what parents can do to get their children and/ or teenagers to read. I'm having too much fun to remember what we say exactly. Will have to listen to the recording later.

(A colleague listening to the chat show SMS me later, saying she heard every single word, and also my shameless plugs about our enquiry services, and my urging the listeners to talk to our librarians. Yeah, I might have been carried away).

1:30pm: We take a break. We return on air with NLB CE, Dr. N. Varaprasad. Susan gets him to share more about READ! Singapore. Dr. Prasad says READ! Singapore is not a campaign but an initiative. It's also not about using libraries per se, but making reading fun. The library wants to support the local booktrade by encouraging people to buy the books in the selection.


L-R: That's Susan in the foreground, followed by Juffri and Jaime (our Corporate Communications Executive).

Around 1:45pm: We take a call on air. The caller asks for clarification on the library's self-study rule. He asks if it was true that security guards "chased students out". I take the question. I say the library had spent much time & effort getting teens to come into libraries, so it didn't make sense for us to chase students away. But there has to be a balance.

(What I didn't add was that those who don't abide by the general rules, like making unacceptable levels of noise, would be asked to leave. More about self-studying in another post.)

2pm: Show ends. We are ushered out the studio. Susan remarks that we all said the right things, at the right time. Well, it's because you're a good host, Susan.


L-R: Dr N. Varaprasad (NLB Chief Executive), Zubaidah and myself (sharing a private joke).

Susan is a professional; a veteran in the radio business. She doesn't follow a script and sounds so smooth. She's a great supporter of reading & libraries, and she's promotes reading to her own children. I'm her new fan.



Before the end of the first segment, I closed off with this soundbite: "If parents are really serious about getting their teenage daughter or son to read, then lead by example."

Intuitively we know reading is a good thing, But we say we have no time to read. We have to catch up with our emails, watch TV, play computer games, look after kids...

There's no quick answers to this issue. I guess like many things in life, if we feel something is important enough, we'll have to find time to do it.


Tag: rambling librarian interview

A job interview, from the perspective of the Interviewee (or Blogging is Storytelling epitomised)

Just read Roxanne's post on her recent job interview. She notes a disparity between what she was told about the company culture, and what she actually observed.

In NLB public libraries, one popular collection would be those relating to the "Job Interview" -- on the conduct, protocol, tips and techniques for interviewers and interviewees.

But I've not come across any books (or websites even) that offers a perspective like what Roxanne posted. It's not that she's pointing out something radically new (i.e. interviewees should also observe about the office environment when choosing a company). To me, it's the conversational tone that makes her point more stark.

Her observation was rather subtle actually. She didn't say, "Listen to what the interviewer say. If he mentions "Teamwork" as a buzzword, observe for yourself whether people greet each other in the office." This was what she wrote:

"When we get a project from the client, the whole team brainstorms together to get the concept out... we work very much together as a team."

A guy hurries from the door, with briefcase in hand, to what is presumably his own office desk. No "Good Morning" or "Hello" from him. Nobody deigns to turn their head to notice him either. Nobody talked to anybody for the whole time I was there.

Buzz. Team spirit. It's a lot of spin on words sometimes. But you recognize it when you see it.

This company is out.

She was reflecting on something she observed... very cluetrain-ish. It's posts like Roxanne's that makes me return to trawl the blogosphere for information. It's not just stating a fact or theory or concept.

She was telling us her story!
Blogging is Storytelling epitomised.

One more reason why librarians should blog.


Tag: blog advocacy

Live radio interview on 93.8 FM tomorrow

Am scheduled with another colleague of mine for a 'live' radio interview tomorrow afternoon, with Ms. Susan Ng from Parenting Today, on NewsRadio 93.8 FM.

Susan, who's one of the Reading Ambassadors for READ! Singapore, will meet us for a chat before the show (which starts at 1.08 pm).

The talkshow is on the importance of inculcating a love for reading in children and teenagers. We'll be speaking for the first half of the show (22 minutes to be exact) after which my CE would come on air to talk specifically about READ! Singapore.

My colleague is Ms. Zubaidah Moshen. She heads the Children's Services while I manage the Adult & Young People Services (both of us are from the NLB Public Library Services division). Zubaidah is an expert in her area. I'll try my darnest to sound as if I know what I'm talking about.

Let's see, I am not a parent (unless I consider my smelly Max a teen. He's about the right age in dog years). I think I'll talk about my own experience as a teen where reading is concerned.

I've been interviewed by newspaper & TV reporters, and once for radio (over the telephone). But 'live' radio will be my first. I'll try not to put my foot where my mouth is on national radio. Must also remember to breathe during the interview...

Last minute tips, anyone?

BTW, if I do botch the radio interview, what's the worse that could happen to me? I'll become infamous (which is still some fame of sorts). I could blog a post about it on what NOT to say on 'live' radio. I could conduct workshops on how NOT to act on 'live' radio... ah, power of positive thinking.

Or is that delusion? Heh heh.


Tag: rambling librarian interview

What happened at the Meetup on 24 May 05

Some people ask, "Why did you go to XXX for a holiday when there's nothing to see and do?". I say, "It's not where you go, but who you go with".

The same held true for the Bookcrossing Meetup Group on Tue, 24 May at TPCL.



My aim was to get 5 participants, with at least 3 staying for an hour. In the end, 14 turned up, with 12 staying all the way till 9pm. I think the boys and girls would have stayed a little longer had it not been for the library closing.

I can call them boys and girls because turned out I'm the oldster in the group. Ugh.

The average age hovered around 25, I think. I'm almost reaching mid-30s, and that made me THE old man. Preetam's almost my age, but he's way too cool to be Uncle-material. In fact, he impressed CarteNoir so much that CarteNoir calls Preetam a "demi-deity" in his blog post.


I got permission from the group (those willing to pose for it) to upload the picture, but I'm not sure if they all want to be named. Boys and girls, if you are reading this, put a comment and say who you are.

Mr. Preetam "Demi-Diety" Rai is the 3rd guy from the left (enjoying the food). I'm the tall bald one. Now you know how I look like -- harmless, stoned-looking, not too bright. And that was on a good day too. :)

Here's a snapshot of the discussion points we captured on the board:


There was only one real rule for the session: "You can leave anytime".

Call us a Bookcrossing group or Discussion/ Reading group... it doesn't really matter. Someone in the group said it was like playing "Calvinball" (where the rules are made up as we went along). Actually there was a system to it, i.e. the facilitation process. Very much like managing a meeting.

We started off chatting, asking about what we read. We talked about Science Fiction (which seemed to be the predominant theme), also veered to Romance, Time-travel, Death, Shakespeare... People talked about their impressions of the genre, of their favourite books, even snippets of their lives.

Selected items that participants talked about:
. Confessions of Max Tivoli (NLB item link)
. Flowers for Algernon (NLB item link)* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by those who read it.
. The time traveler's wife (NLB item link)
. Snow crash (NLB item link)
. Cat's cradle (NLB item link)
. Shakespeare's sonnets (NLB item link)

Before we ended the session, I asked the group for suggestions on how to structure the next session. They said:

1. Food -- deemed as important;
   
2. Set a half-agenda. Half the time could be a discussion on an agreed "theme" (e.g. Love & War) while the other half could be a open-style sharing.
   

That could work. Thanks for the suggestions folks.

My previous post was about measuring value. In this case, I'm convinced there was value created. Some said they were encouraged to read the genres and titles discussed -- something they would otherwise not do so on their own. There were also networking going around.

I have one word to describe the session.

Nice.


Reference:
Meetup is confirmed on Tuesday, 24 May at Toa Payoh Community Library (posted 19 May 05)


tag: bookcrossing, meetup.com

University of Hong Kong Libraries subject blogs: Email interview

Around late Mar 05, the University of Hong Kong Libraries launched its Subject Blogs site (http://lib.hku.hk/cd/news.html). Here's an email interview with Ms. Gayle Chan, Collection Development Librarian about their blogs. It's an excellent endorsement for library blogs.

When did the HKU subject blogs first get started?
We started to explore the idea after I heard about library blogs at last summer's ALA Conference. At the same time, we were also exploring a better alternative than using the bulk e-mail system to announce our new e-resources, which does not target any specific groups and not preferred by many students and faculty members we talked to.


What made you implement the subject blogs?
Our Collection Development Department is quite young (formed July 2003) and we had launched our website for not very long. Adding blog content in subject web-pages to deliver news and subject resources to relevant departments was considered desirable and beneficial to promote outreach in different subject groups.


What were your impressions of blogging before you started, and how have they changed?
Some of us were concerned about the constant need to find news items for regular posting, but turned out much of information was readily available from vendors or just by keeping abreast with literature or research and development in their assigned areas.


How much has the subject blogs changed the way the same content was delivered?
Some of our traditional ways of delivering the same information include email, newsletter, posting on library web-site, presentations/seminars, and by posters/ exhibition, etc.

Blogs certainly offered a much quicker delivery that can easily be targeted to specific groups. Faculty members/ researchers appreciate very much the added-value in information about current research and development in their field, conference/events announcements, and enhancements of contents in existing resources.


Did you have any feedback from your staff maintaining the blogs, as well as your readers?
Staff found blogs relatively easy to maintain. Readers especially like the feature by subject areas, as it saves them hours of searching via the library catalog or navigating with search engines for relevant news/ web resources in their field.

Blogs are something they can read at their leisure time instead of being bombarded with it.

A comment from a faculty member: "very exciting direction, at least for the engineering link, is that Weblog provides links to some very frontier and rapidly developing fields of engineering, like fuel cells, nanomaterials, and micro-mechanical systems, so that teachers and students can quickly start to get the basic information, to get informed."


How do you measure the effectiveness of the service? How many users are there?
Usage so far looks positive, well over 7000 users in less than 2 months.


And what is this in terms of total campus population?
Total student population is 19000.


Apart from the access figures you quoted, do you know how many subscribers you have via RSS feeds or readers?
We cannot tell how many subscribers, but our access counts includes those read via readers.


How do you see the HKU subject blog developing?
It will be interesting to see if blogging will help to solicit more feedback from both students and faculty/researchers about their information needs, eg. One can submit recommendations on receiving publication announcements. Not sure that our subject blogs will become platform for interactive communication or discussion forum like some other blogs.


Did you have any problems during the development or implementation of the blogs?
Not much, but we could not figure out how to do multi-templates within same blog when we wanted to have different Science subjects.



Other than HKU, do you know if any libraries (public, academic etc) in HK that is doing the same via blogs? Would you say HKU is the first in HK?
I never did a survey and I don’t know that other libraries in HK has done the same. So I believe we are the first.


Would HKU be allowing public posting of comments in the near future? If yes, would you allow moderated or unmoderated posts?
No plans for this at the moment.


Any overall remarks?
Overall, (blogs are) a very effective means of delivering current information to a wider target audience, and enables faculty/ students/ researchers to keep abreast in their fields of study or research.


Tag: rambling librarian interview. library blog