Celebrating Knowledge Conference - Day 2: The International Dunhuang Project (IDP)

"In 1900 a hidden cave was discovered at a Buddhist site near the ancient Silk Road town of Dunhuang. Sealed in about 1000 AD, it contained tens of thousands of manuscripts, paintings and printed documents on paper and silk dating from 400-1000 AD."

Learnt about the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) today, from Dr. Imre Galambos, Overseas Project Manager, British Library. More about Dunhuang and IDP at idp.bl.uk/chapters/about_IDP/idpintro.html

Some quick notes that I recorded (words in square paranthesis [ ] are mine. Any inaccuracies in the recording or interpretation are my own):

• They found that the manuscripts were written in Chinese, Tibetan, Khatoshti, Urghur,
• Khotanese, Tangut, Tocharian, Turkic, Sanskrit, even Hebrew. Some are already extinct languages. Truly a multilingual library back then [evidence of collaboration and resource-sharing back then?]
• Some were already 600 years old by the time they were sealed in the cave in AD 1000.
• Subsequently, since it was discovered in 1900, the manuscripts have been transported and stored at various libraries in Britain, China, France, Germany,Japan, Russia -- which later became an issue for China whose stand was for these national treasures to be returned.
• Problem with such a geographically scattered collection is that scholars don't necessarily have funds to travel to study to the respective countries to study the manuscripts. The same manuscripts could be split across different libraries.

[I can understand China's position, but personally, I think from a global perspective, such a "distributed storage network" has its advantages over storing the manuscripts in just one country. E.g. insurance against manmade or natural disasters at one storage location].

• IDP was founded in 1994 to try to alleviate this problem through its digitisation efforts of the manuscripts.
• IDP's core activities are: Conservation (cited as biggest priority. Some manuscripts have
• yet to be opened from their cases), Cataloguing (still no complete catalogue or union catalogue), Digitisation, Education, and Promoting research.
• Each scanned image is 200 MB and sold upon request. Lower resolution pictures are posted on the website.

[Try searching via this page in their website for manuscripts - idp.bl.uk/ManuscriptSearch
Just scrolling down the Titles field already boggles my mind. I also wonder if 100 or 1000 years from now, something I might have doodled or scribbled might be discovered and made into a scholarly artifact.]


Tag: library event

Celebrating Knowledge Conference - Day 1: Doug Johnson

[Update, 15 Nov 05: Discovered that Doug has a blog. Here's his post on Day 1. Here's his handout]

Quotable quote from Doug: "Students should come to the library , not to avoid the librarian, but because of the librarian"

Doug Johnson, Director of Media & Technology, Mankato Area Public Schools, USA, shared his ideas about "The Future of e-Books" (words in square paranthesis [ ] are mine. Any inaccuracies in the recording or interpretation are my own):

• Doug suggests that the ebook of 2015 will not be a sony bookman, a laptop or PDA. "A true ebook will be cuddly" - you can take it to bed, to the beach, to the bathtub.
• His ideal ebook will have the following features: padded, lightweight, uses a watch-battery & solar-powered, wireless, provides static memory, and has a "digital" paper, i.e. flexible display screen.
• More features in his ideal eBook: Glare-free screen, allow landscape or portrait display, built-in dictionary & translation service.
• The hardware of his ebook device will feature: a trackball, sound speakers, allow for sound recording, camera, text-to-speech, play audio books & video, allow for annotation, doodling in margins, add electronic sticky notes, set
• bookmarks, also a storage device to load more e-content.
• The use of this future ebook will "change the nature of fiction through customisable storylines, where the user can specify their content maturity-level, interactivity, and a marriage between video & games.
• It will allow notes & papers & study materials, customised textbooks. It will be an e-organiser.
• It will have artificial intelligence -- providing reader's advisory service, conversational reference, search bots, study prompts
• His ebook will be affordable - given away with subscriptions, funded with
• textbook & printing, purchased by parents like how they buy computers for their kids
• It will contain a monitoring chip

[I'm thinking -- would this be overkill? I think what works best is still something that does it's core function extremely well, allowing for a few add-ons. Like a TV set for instance -- no matter if it's Hi-Defition or the ole Black-n-White, all you make it do is just to view broadcasted images.]

• Doug stated four challenges for the development of his ideal eBook: (1) readable screen, (2) power supply, (3) cost, (4) price structure
• How would eBook impact libraries? He says when the Internet became pervasive, bookstores, banks, travel agents were also threatened by this new medium.
• Doug suggests that libraries need to look at how these institutions/ businesses have adapted and survived with the onset of the Internet.

During the Q&A session, I posed this comment/ question to Doug:

"I think your ebook of the future will happen. When it does, I would suggest that it's going to be harder for libraries to assimilate these 'Techology-based Information Containers' such that it's delivery is seamless to users. Right now the delivery isn't seamless and more like an after-thought as libraries react to how they are provided.

I would also suggest that the solution would be for libraries to develop content with the technology provider. Do you agree and if so, how can we get into the act?"

Doug's reply included an example of how teachers create customised content in schools. He also added that the more that kids produce content for the web, the more they will "discern information quality" since they will become aware that not all information put on the web is accurate".

Well my question wasn't answered directly. Not that I'm blaming Doug. He did qualify that he wasn't sure if he got my question right. Heck, even I had difficulty trying to formulate my question properly. I suppose I could have articulated it better. Nonetheless, I found his comment about students being more discerning about information obtained from the Internet intruiging.

It does indeed make sense.

What teachers and librarians can do is to encourage students to post information AND show the students how their posted information is retrieved by search engines.

By showing how their posts are being indexed and displayed, I believe students will realise the implication of responsible posting on the Internet (and those who blog might realise the need to become responsible bloggers). Even that aside, the least they would learn is that not all information on the Internet is accurate and authorative.

As to that part of my question that Doug didn't address, as I said, I don't blame him. He addressed the "how to get involved" but not the "libraries as prod-user" aspect. Or did he?

Let's see:

Suppose students become prolific prod-users and create enough consumer-mass AND libraries create a strong relationship with these prod-users... wouldn't that lead to technology developers (like those for eBooks) having no choice but to develop products according to the direct needs of prod-users (and hence for the library?).

I'll also offer a projection of mine: When we do have the eBook that Doug described, it would also mean that libraries will no longer exist as separate entities within the school. In fact, it will come to a point that the school IS the library, and the library IS the school as well.

Tag: library event

Celebrating Knowledge Conference - Day 1: Paul Saffo

Day 1: 14 Nov 2005. Conference started at 9am this morning. Too bad they didn't have WIFI. I thought I could try out blogging 'live'.


Here are some personal notes taken from Paul Saffo's keynote address, "Knowledge, Media and Libraries after the Bubble". Paul is the director and Roy Amara Fellow, Institute for the Future, USA (words in square paranthesis [ ] are mine. Any inaccuracies in the recording or interpretation are my own):

• He suggests that the Information Revolution is over. That we should drop the word "information" and replace it with "media" -- that we're at a stage of a"media revolution" like how mobilephones are no longer communication devices but media devices as well, with camera & video features.
• There is a shift from mass media to a "personal-media" world. Users expect to answer back [similar idea to a prod-user].
• Libraries have shifted or should be shifting from a place whereby "we don't anybody talk" to a place where conversations take place [sounds very cluetrain-ish].
• In an age of mass media, everyone sees the same thing. But in age of personal media (which we're at), we don't receive the same information and we may even surround themselves with information that reinforce what we already believe in. Suggests that society is in danger
• if nobody has any shared knowledge (I think he meant "shared values"). It may give rise to "new superstitions" (e.g. religious fundamentalism). Libraries have a role in this battle against misinformation.
• It takes time to develop an "attitude of information indifference" where we question the quality of information.

Aside: Paul shares a picture he took at an unnamed airport, where the "Airport Police" and the "Information Desk" services were listed on a signage that inadvertently read as "Information Police"! That got some laughs from the audience.


More notes:

• Machine-to-machine conversation is going to dwarf human-to-human ones. He asks if customers of libraries of the future be machines rather than human.
• Could libraries be setup under the same premises as GeoCaching.com? Where a hole in an oak tree could be a "library" for people to be discovered?
• Paul wants parents to talk to kids on how to download ringtones etc. Says that it's a dangerous situation when we don't know or show no interest in new technology that the young are picking up [I agree. If we don't even genuinely attempt to find out what that new technology is about and why kids rave about it, we inevitably set ourselves up for making certain assumptions. We either dismiss the new technology as something without practical use or we ban their use because we think it's dangerous -- like students & blogs].
• Paul says there's no substitute for direct experience. [Most certainly! That's why many people who assume blogging is something to be "feared" just don't get it].
• Insights to the future of the library profession may come from playing and creating online societies like SecondLife.com & Everquest. Paul cited that these online users spend up to 30% of their gaming time creating and building their online personaes. He wonders why there are no Librarian characters in those virtual world?
• Concluding statement -- libraries of the future cannot be just blogs & wikis. Libraries have to maintain an institutional role.

Tag: library event

Celebrating Knowledge Conference - Networking Night

Came back from the Networking Night dinner (sponsored by Hewlett-Packard as part of the Celebrating Knowledge Conference) at CHJIMES about 2 hours ago.


Prof Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave a speech where he shared his experience in using the National Library when he was a young boy in the 1950s, and how he liked to visit the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress during his overseas posting, among other interesting annecdotes.


First time I've had dinner at CHIJMES Hall. There's something unique about dining under a large hall. Wished my wife was there but then it was work after all.

More about CHIJMES' history here and here. It's a national heritage site cum dining, shopping and entertainment site.

I've always thought the name CHIJMES (pronounced “chimes”) was brilliant. The grounds used to be a Catholic school/ church. The school was called the "Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus" and popularly referred by its initials "Cee-Hage-Eye-Jay" (CHIJ).

After its facelift, they added the letters "M, E, S" after "CHIJ" as a word play on the sound of the church bell -- although the actual sound of the church bell would've been closer to a resounding "Dong" than a "chime" (but a entertainment place called "Ding-Dong" just wouldn't sound right, would it? Especially when "Ding Dong" could mean "mad" or "crazy" in Singlish).


Oh, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the huge christmas tree outside Raffles City Shopping Centre (across the North Bridge Road entrance/ exit of CHIJMES).


Tomorrow is the start of the two-day conference at the InterContinental Hotel. If they provide free WIFI access, I might even try to blog it 'live'.

Tag: library event

Official opening of National Library & Drama Centre, Singapore (12 Nov 2005)

Today, 12 November 2005, marks the official opening of the National Library of Singapore, as well as the Singapore Drama Centre (co-located within the NL, occupying 2 levels).



President of Singapore, Mr S. R. Nathan officiated the launch.


The event was attended by about 400 guests at the Events Plaza.




Now wait a second, wasn't the National Library opened on 22 July this year?

Yes, but that wasn't the official opening.

Geomancy wasn't involved in picking an auspicious date for this. The choice for 12 Nov is to coincide with the opening of the old National Library (Stamford Road) in 1960 (officiated by the late President Yusof Ishak) -- exactly 45 years ago.

The way I see it, the event today is kind of like Singapore officially registering the birth of one of her babies, when delivery of the baby (the National Library, Victoria Street) had been a few months before in July.

Incidentally, I snapped a picture of the Christmas light-up on my way to the train station after the event. It had nothing to do with the opening ceremony. I'm posting it here 'cos it seemed like a nice scene to end the event.


Tag: new national library, national library board singapore

Asian Children's Festival (ACF) 2005 at Singapore Expo

Opening ceremony for the Asian Children's Festival (ACF) 2005 was on 7 Nov. Today, 11 Nov, was the first day of the ACF at Singapore Expo.


Here's the booth manned by my colleagues from Children's Services. You can't miss it -- they are at the front of the hall (nearer to the right):


Library members can borrow books on the spot and Spin The Wheel to win prizes (there's also a ASK! promotion, i.e. ask questions to win prizes):


Children's Librarians (with programme executives colleagues) telling a story through a play (abridged version below):

Introduction to the story: About a merchant...


... with a rat problem.


The rat was so bold that the merchant couldn't do anything to it while the rat continued to eat the merchant's rice.


So the merchant went to consult a wise old man, who in turn...


... recommended a Samurai Cat to the merchant. But alas, the rat defeats the warrior!


And so the merchant laments to the old master that his stuffed cat was better than the Samurai Cat.


The old master sends another cat, but this time an old one. The merchant balks at the old cat and wonders if the cat will be any good when the warrior has failed.


The old cat, unlike the other cat before him, doesn't pick a fight with the rat. The old cat even asks the rat to take the food and leave him alone.


The rat gets bolder and takes more food.


The comes the harvest and the rat helps itself to a rice ball...


... and gets stuck by the sticky rice. Turns out the old cat prepared the riceball for the rat.


And so, the merchant understood that old doesn't mean useless.


The old master advises the merchant that brains are sometimes better than brawn.

The cast takes a bow. They are librarians and programme executives from NLB.

Aren't these librarians cool?

Tag: asian childrens festival

Drop Everything And Read - Double your loan quotas

UPDATE (10 Nov 05):

Thanks to the good people at Tomorrow.sg for highlighting the initiative. However, I'm kicking myself for a gross typo in my comment in my submission to the editors. I wrote wrongly that AV items could be borrowed by anyone. That's incorrect. The annual Premium Membership fees still apply:
"Readers at Tomorrow.sg might be interested in this loan promotion. It's a great way to borrow more AV items (normally there's an annual fee for this)."
My apologies for the error.

This holiday season, just Drop Everything and Read.
To help you along, the NLB is DOUBLING your loan limit from 1 Nov 05 to 31 Jan 06.

YES, regular members can borrow up to 8 items, and Premium members, up to 16 items. This includes the borrowing of audio-visual (AV) materials, capped up to a maximum of four AV items at any one time.

So, what are you waiting for?

"Just one part of life's journey": Holiday in South Korea, 24 - 29 Oct 2005 (part 2)

We visited the Naejangsan National Park on Day 1. This was about 5 hours direct from clearing the customs at Inchon International Airport and proceeding by coach (we had an hour for lunch first before entering the park).

This was the view from the pavillion looking down on the lake. We reached there by cable car:




From the viewing pavillion, my wife and I then decided to walk to one of the temples in the mountain. The guide said the walk would take 20 minutes to and fro. It turned out to be more like 30 minutes each way!

Leg muscles wobbled like jello as we made our way down winding paths made treacherous with loose pebbles. The cold mountain air was making our lungs and legs work harder than normal.

I thought, "This is only the first day in South Korea!"

We were exercising more than what we did in a week back home! Matronly South Korean ladies more than twice our age passed us with ease and sure-footedness, seemingly dancing their way down the path. We wanted to give up. The more we made our way down, the more we thought about the arduous return journey up (which was harder).

We were also fighting against time (the tour group was waiting back at the bus). But we didn't give up. I knew it was hellish then, but I'd kick myself even more if I went back home thinking that I should've continued there and then. At some point while going down (which I felt was the hardest for me), I stopped thinking about tripping and falling and just left the mind take over.

So we persisted.

We were glad we did.

We reached the temple, took two gulps of the sweet mountain spring water, snapped a few pictures (to prove that we made it), started back up the mountain. At that point, you just blanked your mind and thought of only the next immediate step. Time was running out (we were past our agreed rendezvous time with the tour guide) but I was past caring. I just thought about the next step, the next rock, the next corner.

Finally, we found ourselves back up the start of the path. Made it.

Writing about it now seems overly dramatic, doesn't it? As I look back at this picture I took on the way back up, it doesn't seem that bad. But man, when you were in the thick of it...


Memory is a transient thing. I'm sure if I look back at this post years down the road, I'd be glad that I wrote this down.






Tag: holiday, south korea

Asian Children's Festival (ACF) 2005

The Asian Children's Festival, or ACF for short, opens for its 5th year. It was launched today at Woodlands Regional Library by Minister for Education, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam.



This is a shot of the storytelling performance by two students from the Canossian School.

The girl on the left narrated the story of "The Nightingale" by Hans Christian Andersen while the taller girl on the right played the flute to represent the Nightingale and its song. BTW, the Canossian School provides education for children with hearing impairment who are deaf.

The ACF is "a campaign for children, and those involved with them, crafted with the children in mind to celebrate and honour them."

Check out the website for more details for events and the exhibition - www.asianchildrenfest.com

Tag: asian childrens festival

"Just one part of life's journey": Holiday in South Korea, 24 - 29 Oct 2005 (part 1)

Two weeks ago, my wife and I spent six beautiful days in South Korea, in a tour group with 17 other Singaporeans. One prime motivation for choosing South Korea was because of the <<大长今>> "Dae Jang Geum" Korean period drama.

Image source: Official site of Korean National Tourism Org (or see Google cache)

Naturally, the itinerary included a visit to the Dae Jang Geum Theme Park (that was on Day 2). This was taken at the "Gate of the Palace" (item 01, if you click on the map here).


Fans of the drama serial would find this particular scene familar -- it's the spot where palace courtiers and servants would wait to be announced, in order to see the king. This would be item 02 (shot from the left side of the steps) from the map.


The entire shooting site was smaller than what it appeared on TV. The location scenes appeared larger due to the camera angles.

This picture would be item 09 on the map (I took this from the opposite angle looking down on the courtyard).


This was the place where the kitchen scenes were filmed (item 16 on the map) .


They are now showing reruns of the drama serial. Sometimes my wife and I would catch certain episodes of the palace scenes, and we'd be amazed at how a slight upward camera angle or the placement of props and furnishings can make the scenary look so different.

Now that I've been to the film location, watching the drama serial again does come with a certain loss of that "movie-magic" -- but only just a little. There's also a different sense of enjoyment. I am able to view the show differently, as if a door has opened in my mind's eye and I'm seeing things that I didn't notice before.

Aside: That's something you don't lose with (fiction) books, I think. Unlike the physical world, that sense of magic would unfold from the pages and into your mind as you read.

I took about 1,000 plus photos from this holiday alone (thank goodness for Digital Cameras). Will post a few more related posts over the next few weeks.

Tag: holiday, south korea