Past weeks in libraryland: Egypt and New Zealand

The citizen uprising in Egypt, which would have some significance to librarians because that's where the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is located (non-librarians might be more familiar with the ancient Library of Alexandria).

What's hearterning was that citizens stepped up to defend the library against vandals and looters.

EGYPT
News of the protests in Egypt started unfolding in late Jan.

On 3 Feb, a message was posted to the IFLA-L list, where it carried a message by Dr. Serageldin (Director, Bibliotheca Alexandrina) to let librarians know the Library of Alexandria was safe:

To our friends around the world: The Events in Egypt

The world has witnessed an unprecedented popular action in the streets of Egypt. Led by Egypt’s youth, with their justified demands for more freedom, more democracy, lower prices for necessities and more employment opportunities. These youths demanded immediate and far-reaching changes. This was met by violent conflicts with the police, who were routed. The army was called in and was welcomed by the demonstrators, but initially their presence was more symbolic than active.

Events deteriorated as lawless bands of thugs, and maybe agents provocateurs, appeared and looting began. The young people organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria. They are collaborating with the army. This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns.

The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters. I am there daily within the bounds of the curfew hours. However, the Library will be closed to the public for the next few days until the curfew is lifted and events unfold towards an end to the lawlessness and a move towards the resolution of the political issues that triggered the demonstrations.

More coverage from the Guardian.co.uk, "Alexandria youth 'protecting library from looters'" (1 Feb 2011):

The director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has announced that his building, built in commemoration of the famous ancient library destroyed in antiquity, is being kept safe by Egypt's young people during the current unrest sweeping the country.

... "The young people organised themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria," he states. "They are collaborating with the army. This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns."

(also see this chronological report from Guardian.co.uk)

NEW ZEALAND
This week on 22 Feb, over in New Zealand, news of the Christchurch Earthquake caught the world's attention.

I first learned about it from a Facebook friend's status update, where he posted a link to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news page. I was quite stunned by the video footage.

The New Zealand Library Association's (LIANZA) blog posted updates of news about their library colleagues affected in the quake.

The update on 23 Feb, 12pm:

At this stage I think we need to accept that with limited phone and power facilities, those on the ground in Christchurch are focusing on their immediate needs and those of their family and neighbours. The practicality of this is that people will be conserving battery power on their phones and computer for emergency use and I don’t think we can expect to get any detailed reports for some time.

As of 24 Feb, the LIANZA blog post reports that "all library staff in the Christchurch area were safe, although many are contending with personal property damage. There is no information about many of the libraries which are still closed."

I'm not a religious person. But I'll say a prayer for librarians and people in Christchurch.

Highlights from Singapore LibraryBlogLand, for May 2007

Here's a wrap-up for what I've read from the Singapore LibraryBlogland in May 2007:

Tiny Digit thinks there's "dark days" ahead to being a librarian, because "our skill set make us pretty difficult to seek greener pasture elsewhere". I didn't quite agree with that sentiment though : )

A colleague alerted me to this blog by Jewelle, a former librarian (who's originally from Sabah and now resides in Brunei). She brought her kids to Singapore for a vacation and made Cheng San Community Library as one of their holiday itinerary.

Isaak the Blogging Librarian shares his thoughts about the basic traits a librarian should have.

Novelet blogs about her experience at the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2007 (photos here).

Wrkshy is seeking partners for a collaborative art project.

QQ*Librarian shares her tip on the best way to avoid library fines. It's not rocket science, btw! She also discovers a library-themed food court in Singapore.

Highlights from Singapore LibraryBlogLand: April 2007

Last month, in the Singapore LibraryBlogland...

More NLB librarians discover podcasting and vodcasting
Coleman shares his perspective in training some NLB librarians. They must have liked his content and training style, 'cos my colleagues rated an average of 4.5 out of 5 for content, and 4.6 (out of 5) for trainer's score. Coleman says "Librarians are so generous!"


Quirky book-alert from High Browse Online

"The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification"... Enough said! Read the High Browse Online post here.


How do animals communicate?
This was asked by a kid (posted at the ASK! blog).


How would you cope with this exasperating library customer?
Here's what QQ*Librarian did to cope with a reader who "kept badgering me to prove the existence of Christ":

"...a quick prayer of "Jesus, help me" first... Then, I tried to imagine [the customer as] Pierce Brosnan (which is super difficult) and put on the best smile that I can manage for him."

Ex-library colleague puts up photo exhibition
Ex-colleague, Wrkshy (whom I still regard as part of the Singapore Liblogarian family, even though she's not working in a library right now) shares her thoughts on a recent photo exhibition that she put up.
[Photo from WrkShy]


Our own (wiki) novel idea!
SG Liblogarian Damien blogs about a recent meeting, where some of my colleagues and I decided to test our own Wiki-novel idea. We were discussing (quite heatedly) about what might work and what might not. In the end, we decided the best way was to test the ideas ourselves. I created this wiki on the fly. We had more than a few laughs coming up with the story guidelines. What's "SLW07"? It's a secret for now ('cos I can't steal the thunder from my Corp Comms folks, or I might get dooced!)


Her first experience behind an Advisory counter
Another colleague of mine, who calls herself "novelet", shares her insights on what it's like to be the librarian behind the advisory counter (to set the context for her post, novelet volunteered to man the counter; her regular work doesn't involve face-to-face interactions with library customers):

Customer service is really a very different experience from office work. When you are facing the public, you must be at your very best! You must be perceived to be fair and know the operations at finger tips. In addition, you must also be able to understand the needs of your customers; especially when they are not able to articulate what they really need help on!

The DDC Headache
Jolinddiva, who's taking her MSc. (Information Science) exams at NTU, wrote that the DDC is giving her a headache.


The "Ah-beng" librarian, on Wikipedia
Liblogarian "tiny digit", who has a penchant for expressing himself as an Ah-Beng, defends the use of Wikipedia... I think, if my Ah-Beng-speak is up to speed. Not quite an open-letter like mine, but he makes some similar arguments.


revish - a Social Book Review site
Isaak, the Blogging Librarian, reviews a Social Book Review site called revish.


Tan Swie Hian at the National Library
[Photo credit: Walter Lim]
Walter Lim blogs about the launch and recital of Singapore artist Tan Swie Hian's Nine-volume works, poetry and songs, held at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. BTW, Tan Swie Hian is one of the current four donors at the LKCRL Donors' Collection at level 10.



Singapore musician's audio interview at NLB's Digi.talk blog
[Photo from: Digi.Talk]
60s-music enthusiast, modcentric, points us to three audio clips of an interview with Singapore musician, Vernon Cornelius (where he shares things like the Beatles' brief stopover in Singapore in the 1960s, and the general Singapore music scene in the 1960s).

BTW, it's about time I reveal that modcentric was a librarian with the library@esplanade (yeah, "was", 'cos she's left the library and will be pursuing another career. She was one of the librarians who played an instrumental part in putting this exhibition and video documentary together. Best of luck, mod!)


Cartoonist Mark Heath finds my blog post!
After almost three years of blogging, things like this still give me a kick, heh (oh, you should really check out Spot the Frog sometime).

NLB Call. No: 741.5 HEA -[ART]

[Ref: Mar 2007 highlights]

Highlights from Singapore LibraryBlogLand (March 2007)

Some posts that caught my eye, from Singapore LibraryBlogLand* in March 2007:

1) Library equals class
QQ*librarian spots a menswear brand called "Library" while shopping recently.


2) LAS AGM: Singapore to bid for IFLA 2010
Damien blogs about the 2007 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Library Association of Singapore (LAS). What interested me was the discussion on whether to bid for Singapore to play host for IFLA 2010. Particularly, item 3:

"A third opinion dwelled on the level of professionalism of our professionals. Some felt that we are less worthy to host IFLA 2010 because our level of professionalism was nowhere near that of the other 5 countries."

I wasn't at the AGM. Which might have been a good thing. I might not have been able to control myself. "Less worthy"? Only if you think you are. And your actions tend to follow what you think.


3) Web Archive Singapore Phase 2
Singaporean bloggers like mrbrown would be pleased to know that blogs like his would now qualify for Phase 2 of the Web Archive Singapore (WAS) project (as reported at the LAS blog). Would mrbrown & gang do a follow-up to the earlier "Deeply Cultural" episode? LOL

Oooh, I'm flattered my blog is considered as archive-worthy (darn, I'd have to work harder to pretend that I know what I'm talking about):

The content is produced by individuals who are authoritative and/or are known in their fields of knowledge (e.g.: Air-conditioned Nation blog owned by veteran journalist Cherian George, Rambling Librarian blog consisting of mostly library-related postings by a Librarian)

That's all for now. Compared to 2004 and 2005, there are a lot more Singapore library and librarian blogs to start some semi-regular 'Singapore LibraryBlogLand' column. Which reminds me -- I've not been catching up on my RSS feeds lately. Have been hitting the books instead :)

* This term was unabashedly copied from bentley's weekly postings, like this and this one (I won't try to match his weekly updates though).

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

New url for Ngee Ann Poly's Readers' Choice

Soon after I posted the interview with Wendy, I was informed that their blog has a new url, at http://learners.np.edu.sg/liblog (formerly http://blogs.np.edu.sg/liblog). But I got a 404 error as I tried to access the new url for the past half hour. A surge in access to the blog?

Not that I had a big part to play. More likely it was from Librarystuff's referral. Should I ever apply for a job at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, particularly its library, maybe I could chalk up brownie points. I did play in part in promoting its library blog. : )

Warning! Ramble:
Little known fact: I spent 3 years in Ngee Ann Poly (Business Studies course, class of 1989/99). Had fond memories of the Karate-do club (how on Earth did I pick up that sport? A story for another time perhaps).

[Tag: library blog, ngee ann polytechnic, ngee ann poly]

Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Readers' Choice blog

Updated:
.22 Apr 05 (URL for Readers' Choice Blog)
.25 Aug 05 (Yet another new URL for their blog)

Conducted a phone interview today with Wendy, librarian from Ngee Ann Polytechic Library. She was telling me about their Readers' Choice blog (http://learners.np.edu.sg/liblog/) http://nplibrary.typepad.com/readerschoice/ started in Dec 04.

Before the blog, "Readers' Choice" was just a display of selected books for members to borrow. The blog now serves as an online platform to complement the physical display. It allows interaction between the library and users (e.g. readers submitting their recommendations and/ or commenting on the books).

Here's an exerpt from the phone interview* (edited for brevity):

Rambling Librarian (RL): How does Readers' Choice work?
Wendy (W): We have a 'Readers' Choice' book display, based on best sellers (as listed in the local bookstores like MPH, Times). We post the book summaries/ reviews by our own library staff and those submitted by readers in the blog.

RL: How do you encourage people to submit book reviews and summaries?
W: We give the Ngee Ann Co-op vouchers to anyone who submits a review. Their reviews don't necessarily have to be published, but reviews must be on books found in the Ngee Ann library. We have a deal with the Co-op to give out the vouchers.

RL: Who can submit reviews?
W: Students and anyone from the Ngee Ann community (faculty & staff).

RL: How do you track or measure the effectiveness of the blog?
W: From the number of comments received, loan circulations, number of reviews submitted. We put bookmarks in the books on display. Readers are requested to indicate if they learnt about the book from the blog. We also invite readers to leave a comment, either on the bookmark or in the blog.

RL: Can you elaborate on the tracking of the loan circulation?
W: For each item we want to track, we flag it in the system (by scanning the barcode). This tells our system to specially keep track of them when they are borrowed. We are able to generate the loan statistics for those particular items.

RL: Do you moderate the comments submitted?
W: Yes. The library vets the comments before publication but we don't edit them.

RL: Have you received any nonsense (e.g. vulgarities, spam)
W: So far, no.

RL: What's your boss' take on the blog?
W: She was supportive of the idea when we suggested to her. She agreed it was a good platform to interact with students. We also justify the blog by the loan rates.

RL: Did you find that loan circulation increased because of the blog?
W: Yes, it did. I don't have the exact figure now (left it in the office) but I remember the circulation increased by at least 50% compared to when we only had the display. The results were dramatic.

In case any of you wonder if I'd faked this interview, well, Wendy is a real person. She's a librarian at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Wendy gave me permission to include her yahoo email address here. You may wish to contact her to find out more about the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Library's blog.

* Too bad I have not bothered to learn how to do podcasting. Maybe I should consider a regular interview with librarians, like the Mr Brown Show. I'm waiting for the right time to contact Mr Brown, to ask him to consider conducting a public workshop on podcasting. Anyone interested?


[Tag: library blog, ngee ann polytechnic, ngee ann poly, rambling librarian interview]

Lansing Public Library blogs

Found another public library in the US using blogs as a service (via The Shifted Librarian) -- Lansing Public Library (Illinois). They have not one but four:
1) Lansing Library Adult News
2) Lansing Library Teen News
3) Lansing Library Youth News ("birth to Grade 5", i.e. what we know as "Children Services")
4) Lansing Library - What's New on Our Website (featuring updates on the main library site)

Judging from the archived posts, Lansing PL started their blogs in Feb/ Mar '05. I like how they've included the Instant Messenging icon to indicate if staff is online to answer their questions.

Just dropped a note to their web admin to ask a few questions, like how they promote the blogs and whether they conduct user education sessions on RSS and newsfeeds.

Speaking of which, GadgetDude gave me good suggestions on how to promote RSS as a form of public education to library users. One idea was to create say, a Bloglines account, with sample subscriptions that appeals to certain groups. In fact, Bloglines already allows me to send my subscriptions (I choose what I want to send) via email.

I'll certainly take up this idea. This is really no different from the web resources or pathfinders librarians provide to users, except that this is provided as RSS subscription that they can access as a kind of sample.

I have said this before -- if libraries want to provide blogs, public education on RSS is the other critical success factor. Otherwise, the blogs are really just another webpage to users.

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Related Posts:

• Example of public library using blog & RSS: Omro Public Library - 30 Mar 05
• New Library Materials... - 3 Apr 05
• Omro Public Library on Library Stuff! - 6 Apr 05

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[Tag: public library blog, new library material blog, library new arrivals, library new arrival blog]

Example of a Library New Arrivals blog

I'm taking a break from writing a presentation outline to senior management. Two like-minded colleagues are working with me to build a case for blogging in NLB.

It was apt to then read Steven Cohen's blog post* (3 Apr 05) on New Library Materials picked up my earlier post on Omro PL's blog. His ends his post by writing: "That said, a blog with selected new materials (maybe 5 or 6 a day) would be interesting to see, especially if there were links to more information about the item, maybe reviews from librarians or, even better, patrons..."

That's a great idea!

It ties in very well with what I am proposing for a New Arrivals Blog -- nothing fancy. Jus a simple regular post that alerts readers to a new title, recommends related items, throws in a related enquiry or two, and links to a blogs, and technorati tags. The best part is that readers can post comments directly relating to that blog post, and probably link back to their own blog.

It may look something like this (as an example only -- fictitious librarian & email):
=====================================

New Arrivals for week beginning 4th April 2005
By Tan P.K., Adult Services Librarian, JRL

NLB Call No.: BRO (under Adult Fiction section)
Click here to check for item availability.

This was just in, but it's out on loan as I send this. You could place a reservation here ($1.55 charge applies) and choose your pick-up location. As soon as your reservation queue is reached, the next item returned would be allocated to you. Hey, $1.55 is cheaper than some MRT fares!

If you wish to find out your queue number, please email me (state your NRIC or membership No.) There is no charge for cancellation of reservation if the item has not been allocated to you. [More on Reservations, from NLB online membership guide]

Perhaps this book might interest you after you've read The Da Vinci Code:
Da Vinci code: fact or fiction? : a critique of the novel by Dan Brown (c 2004)
Call No.: 808.803823 HAN
Click here for item availability and/ or to place a reservation


RELATED ENQUIRY - What are the other books written by Dan Brown?
ANS: Deception Point, Angels & Demons, Digital Fortress


WHO'S BLOGGING & TALKING?
Librarians: Rambling Librarian
Readers/ Bloggers: Idle Days
Click on Technorati Tags for more related blogs: dan brown, da vinci code

=====================================


I'd recommend that the post has to be personal and conversational. That's the essence of blogging. Admittedly, it takes a bit of work to compose a blog post with the links. But with experience, it'll take maybe 20minutes or less. I tend to ramble, so I take a bit longer :)

Comments, ideas or suggestions? Feel free to post or email me.


* BTW, I was alerted to Steven's blog by a FilipinoLibrarian whom I got to know recently via blogging. And Steven, thanks for the mention (just so you know, Steven & I have never met or corresponded. That's the Blogosphere for you!)


Tag: library blog, library new arrivals, library new arrival blog

Gorman's "Revenge of the Blog People": What other Liblograrians think

Read this in late Feb actually -- ALA president elect, Michael Gorman, wrote this piece in Library Jounal -- Revenge of the Blog People!* It's clear he and bloggers are not exactly the best of friends. As a librarian, what do I think of his piece? Well, I'm totally neutral about it. It's just one man expressing his opinion.

What's far more interesting to me is that other librarians are not so "hot" about Gorman's article. Generally, all are saying that Gorman's articles give librarians a bad name.

• FrazzledDad
• Mike the Librarian
• Tinkerty Tonk
• Roborant
• Instapundit

You know, far from seeing Gorman's article as a bad thing, I see it as an excellent case study of how bloggers are responding. Thanks to blogs, a non-librarian who bothers to do a bit of searching would likely get a more balanced view. Yet another example of the positive power of the Blogosphere.

* Thanks to Singapore Serf for sending me the article.