International and Comparative Librarianship

Website Blocked & / or Removed - News & Views

2012-01-12T23:37:00.000-05:00

Reading the news, one wonders who is doing what. Is it the corporates that are responsible or the governments. And, how to get a feel of what is to be done, and how to know (in creating an awareness of the different perspectives). The following is a brief sample of news and views. Ask me for more or any specific area that interests you.

Author of U.S. online piracy bill vows not to buckle

Internet piracy bill splits technology, entertainment industries

India court threatens to ban Google, Facebook

Anti-internet piracy law adopted by Spanish government

Dutch court orders block on Pirate Bay website

We can block websites like China if steps not taken by social sites: Delhi HC

Finnish ISP ordered to block link to campaigner website in Pirate Bay crackdown ruling

Fighting Internet piracy: CES takes on SOPA vs. OPEN debate

How to get a Website Removed from Google

Four Google Social Search tips for control and privacy

Website blocked, cartoonist moves content to another host

How to block/remove ads from any website - YouTube

Block or remove pages using a robots.txt file - Webmaster Tools Help

Google to Make Removing URLs More Straightforward

How to Check if a Website is a Scam | Technology and Gadget Hub

How to check if your website/blog is penalized or filtered in Google

How to Check If Your Website Is Blocked In China or Not

On the same shelf:

Librarians in the Ancient Times (read as pre-modern age)

2011-11-20T15:46:00.000-05:00

Extracts from: "If You Were a REAL LIBRARIAN, You Would Know": Information Professionals Without M.L.I.S. Degrees
By Jenkins, William L
Published on AllBusiness.com

In the ancient world, libraries were staffed by people whose training was often in another field.
The first librarian at the ancient library in Alexandria was Zenodotus of Ephesus,(1) an epic poet.
Zenodotus served as librarian between 284 and 260 B.C. (2) Zenodotus' successor at Alexandria was Demetrius of Phalerum, a philosopher and statesman. (3)
Demetrius' successor was Callimachus of Gyrene, a poet "who combined an ability to write creative poetry with a willingness to submit to the grinding drudgery of compiling hundreds of lists involving thousands of entries." (4)
Many call him the father of librarians. (5)
Callimachus was followed by still another poet, Appolonius of Rhodes. (6)

These men were librarians, though their training came from other fields. What apparently made them worthy of service was their intelligence, management skills, cataloging and search talents, and incredible memories. In short, they had to be mental giants, persons of intellectual distinction.

Endnotes:
1 Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001, p. 37.

2 Eternal Egypt Web site, copyright 2005.

3 The Dead Germans Project, loaded Spring 2004.

4 Casson, Ibid., p. 38.

5 Callimachus, site created Dec. 10, 2000.

6 Eternal Egypt, Ibid.

Continue reading: "If You Were a REAL LIBRARIAN, You Would Know": Information Professionals Without M.L.I.S. Degrees

On the same shelf:

See Ibn Nadim, the first Islamic Bibliographer in Book in the Islamic Civilization

The Life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria

Book in the Islamic world: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East, George N. Atiyeh

A Bibliography of Scholars in Medieval Islam, 150-1000 AH., 750-1600 AD

Genius of Arab Civilization: Source of Renaissance

The Library: An Illustrated History, by Stuart Murray

Library: An Unquiet History, Matthew Battles

Foundations of Education for Librarianship (Information Science), Jesse Hauk Shera

Libraries in the Ancient World, Lionel Casson

Ancient History: Monuments and Documents (Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World), Charles W. Hedrick

Library and Information Science Education in India - 100 Year's Celebration & Introspection

2011-10-14T17:17:00.011-04:00

William Alanson Borden (1854-1933) in India.
"Borden 's Achievements (US) ... introduced the first library school in the country in 1911, the first school which had ten men and women participants, and which by chance initiated the women's era in the profession too... (p. 157 + see also Index)" Continue reading further in Librarianship and Library Science in India : An Outline of Historical Perspectives, 1994 , by Mohamed Taher and Donald Davis. New Delhi, Concept Publishing Company. -- See also: William Alanson Borden: An Apostle of International Librarianship, by Murari Lal Nagar

Info courtesy: Dr Jaideep Sharma, Dr. Manjunath, Pawan R. Agrawal, Jayant Deshpande, & all others. Image courtesy: http://blog.westervillelibrary.org

DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, Special Issue on 100 years of LIS Education in India Vol 30, No 5 (2010)

1. Guest Ediroial PDF
Jaideep Sharma 2
2. Library and Information Science Educationin India: A Historical Perspective PDF
Krishan Kumar, Jaideep Sharma 3-8
3. Library and Information Science Education in North India PDF
Paramjeet Kaur Walia 9-18
4. Library and Information Science Education in South India: Perspective and Challenges PDF
V.S.R. Varalakshmi 19-31
5. Library and Information Science Education in East and North-East India: Retrospect and Prospects PDF
Pijushkanti Panigrahi 32-47
6. Library and Information Science Education in Maharashtra: A Perspective PDF
Pratibha Gokhale 48-55
7. Short-term Library and Information Science Training Courses in India PDF
G. Mahesh, Narendra Kumar, Dinesh K Gupta 56-60
8. What Ails Doctoral Research in Library and Information Science in India? PDF
M.P. Satija 61-66
9. Library and Information Science Education in India: Some Government Initiatives PDF
Manoj K Joshi 67-73
10. Employability of Library and Information Science Graduates: Competencies Expected versus Taught—A Case Study PDF
Bharat Kumar 74-82
11. e-Learning Library and Information Science: A Pragmatic View for India PDF
Manorama Tripathi, V.K.J. Jeevan 83-90
12. Library and Information Science Education in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh PDF
Prabhjeet Kaur, Paramjeet Kaur Walia 91-96

Symposium on LIS Education in India: Challenges and Opportunities

LIS Teachers' contribution to LIS education, training and research in India

100 years of LIS Education in India

Centenary of Library Education, @ University of Nagpur, IATLIS Conference, 1987.

'Centenary Celebrations of LIS Education in India,' IATLIS Conf., 26th to 28th November,2011 at Department of Library & Information Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. For details contact: Geeta Girish Gadhavi, Asst.Prof./Co-Ordinator, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad - 380 009 Phone: 079 - 2630 1363 / 098257 85008

Sub-themes: These sub-themes are not exhaustive, rather indicative only.

1 Critical analysis of 100 years of Library education in India
to develop a sustainable vision for future.
2 Relevance of LIS education to job-market.
3 LIS Education - modes and methods
4 LIS Research and publication
5 Continuous Professional Education and Training
6. Impact of ICTs on LIS Education and Research
7. Restructuring of LIS Education
8. Partnership and collaboration
9. Faculty and infrastructural requirements with special
reference to developing learning resources in Indian languages.
10. Accreditation and quality control in LIS Education [source: Dolores' List of CFPs]

On the same shelf:

Single mom faces jail time after son laughs in library

2011-09-08T22:45:00.000-04:00

By Jordan Chittley | Daily Buzz

Libraries are generally thought of as quiet places and one U.S. library security guard and staffer take that very seriously.

Donnetta Foster, a 20-year-old single mother, is preparing for her jury trial next week because her young son made a laughing noise while in an Atlanta-area library in October of last year
Continue reading

Is SLA an International Organisation/Organization?

2011-08-28T21:36:00.045-04:00

Debaters are: Hal Kirkwood, Candidate for Director, 2012 SLA Board; Constance Ard, Answer Maven, Candidate Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect; Debbie Schachter: Candidate, Chapter Cabinet Chair Elect; Marilyn Bromley, Candidate for Director, 2012 SLA Board; Deb Hunt - Candidate, President-Elect; Catherine Lavallée-Welch- Candidate, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect; David Cappoli, Candidate, President-Elect; Jane Macoustra - 2011 Candidate for Director; Jane Macoustra - 2011 Candidate for Director; Hal Kirkwood, Candidate for Director

Read the debate here: Special Libraries Association's Blog

Sudharma: World's only Sanskrit daily turns 42

2011-07-07T15:44:00.002-04:00

Mangalorean.com

Extract:

Mysore: Even as English and modern Indian language newspapers continue to flourish in the country, Sudharma, which claims to be the only Sanskrit newspaper in the world, is struggling hard to survive as it enters its 42nd year next week.

'That's because no state or central body comes forward to assist us in any way and the response from various organisations in the private sector is indifferent,' K.V. Sampath Kumar, editor of the Mysore-based daily that has over 2,000 subscribers, said.

But then why publish a paper in a 'dead language' at all?

The editor's wife, Jayalakshmi, who is well versed in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, English and of course Sanskrit, reacts sharply: 'Who says Sanskrit is dead? Every morning, people recite shlokas, conduct pujas...all ceremonies including marriages, childbirth to death, are in Sanskrit. India is united by Sanskrit, which is the mother language sustaining so many languages in the country. It's growing and now even IT professionals are saying it is useful.'

Sampath Kumar said his father Pandit Varadaraja Iyengar started the paper July 15, 1970. 'When he was dying in 1990, he made me promise I would continue the mission, come what may. So this daily is now a dream mission continuing with the same passion and commitment, and I will continue till my death.'

Priced at Re.1, the paper mostly contains articles on Vedas, yoga, religion and also politics and culture, among others.

The husband-wife pair are the paper's contributors and publishers rolled into one.

'Credit for starting Sanskrit radio bulletins on Akashvani goes to my father, who successfully persuaded the then information and broadcasting minister I.K. Gujral,' Sampath Kumar said.

According to him, Mysore is the Sanskrit capital of India, with a fairly good strength of scholars. A large number of yoga enthusiasts also come to learn Sanskrit here. Interest in ayurveda and alternative medicines has also led to an increase in the demand for Sanskrit learning centres.

In India, Sanskrit was considered the 'language of the gods'.

Despite the contribution Sanskrit has made to Indian philosophical and literary traditions, vested interests have spread the impression that the language is dead, inaccessible and of negligible relevance to daily life, Kumar said.

Initially printed manually, Sudharma now has a modern computerised printing facility. An e-paper too is available online, making its reach international.

'We have lots of subscribers among the minorities also. Most academies and language centres are our subscribers. Each morning, the two-page tabloid-sized sheet is folded and posted to more than 2,000 subscribers. Every year, a special number is brought out during Dussehra celebrations to mobilise funds to support the mission,' Kumar said.

Lamenting the lack of official patronage, he said: 'Being in Sanskrit, Sudharma never had sufficient revenue from advertisements. Despite the ample lip service and words of encouragement, no concrete help comes our way. But the constraints have never deterred us and we will continue to keep alive this glorious tradition.'

The modest office in Agrahara has been visited by ministers, governors, Shankaracharyas, and other dignitaries. 'Words of encouragement and felicitation has come profusely from prime ministers and presidents over the years,' Kumar said.

He showed this IANS correspondent his vast collection of messages from politicians, scholars, intellectuals and business leaders, including late president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, social reformer Jagjivan Ram, L.K. Advani, Arjun Singh and others. The common strain was that Sanskrit was a unique unifying force and a treasure to be preserved. continue reading @ Samachar.com

On the same shelf:

Sudharma goes online, expands readership, R. Krishna Kumar, The Hindu
The country’s only newspaper published in the “Language of the Gods” has increased its readership base after its tryst with computers and the launch of an online edition.

LIS research in India dismal, says INFLIBNET's study

2011-06-04T15:36:00.000-04:00

Info courtesy: G Mahesh @ musingsofmahesh.wordpress.com

Extract fom Mahesh's Blog:

A recently published study of the INFLIBNET Centre on Indian national research productivity in library and information science states that out of the top 29 institutions that have published four or more papers during 2000 to 2010, only 8 are library schools apart from DRTC and NISCAIR [although I found 10 in Table 2 of the study!]. This is particularly interesting because the rest of the institutions which contribute the majority of the LIS research output, include IITs, BARC, IIMs, CSIR labs (NISTADS, CLRI, CGCRI and NPL), MSSRF, NCSI, INFLIBNET Centre and a few more such institutions that are obviously not library schools.

...I did a random check and found that some of the articles published in Indian journals during the same period have received more citations than some of the authors’ articles that have made it to the top 25 list of the INFLIBNET study. So, publishing in Indian journals does not necessarily mean that it has “fewer representations at the international level” despite not being indexed by the citation databases.
Conclusion @ Feature Article: Indian National Research Productivity
in Library and Information Science, INFLIBNET:
The study reveals factual information on library and information science research in India. The availability of e-resources through UGC -Info net Digital Library Consortium have made deeper impact on research productivity of the country in library science domain. During the period 2000 to 2003, the research productivity was almost static with "no growth". The trial access of e-resources under the Consortium started during the year 2003. The influence and impact of the availability of e-resources through consortium is visible immediate atter 2004. The research productivity is risen sharply atter 2004. In the year 2010, the research productivity has just doubled from the year 2004. The impact is very impressive, but compared to developed countries, the library science research in India is stil at infancy stage. The library science schools of the country need to introspect themselves and devote their time and energy towards conducting qualitative research on contemporary topics in library and information science.

PS. Thanks again to Mahesh for a link to Indian Citation Index, a tool that promises to be true in its local coverage (rather than global, e.g., Scopus and Web of Science) i.e., by and for India's literary output.

Library and Information Science: A Guide to Online Resources

2011-05-30T00:03:00.000-04:00

Home >> Library and Information Science: A Guide to Online Resources >> Online Repositories and Full-text Resources

The Library of Congress >> Researchers >> Virtual Programs & Services

Extract (sample):
While many scholarly library and information science publications are still available only in print or through subscription databases, there are a growing number of free online repositories and other full-text resources available on the Web. This page highlights major sources of Web-based, full-text content in the field.

Online Dictionaries: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science (ODLIS)
Online Repositories: CiteSeerX
Online Repositories: E-LIS: E-prints in Library and Information Science
Free Databases: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
Online Periodicals: Directory of Open Access Journals, Library and Information Science
Online Books: full-text books at the Library of Congress and other sources for online books.

The Musalman Urdu daily: only paper in the world still written by hand

2011-05-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

Extract:
"Chennai’s The Musalman is the last handwritten Urdu paper.

Because it looks like a curious remnant, The Musalman attracts curiosity. It is, they say, the oldest Urdu daily, and perhaps the only paper in the world still written by hand. Just as the recent announcement by Godrej & Boyce, the last big manufacturer of manual typewriters, that it would stop making the machines drew worldwide press, so The Musalman has since 2007 drawn media interest.

On May 11, the Ministry of External Affairs’ Public Diplomacy Division released on YouTube an 11-minute film on The Musalman, directed by Ishani K Dutta of Delhi-based Carrot Films. Dutta hopes that when the film is shown in Arab countries and Europe it will generate support. “It’s just passion that is driving them. The katibs really don’t get a lot of money, but they actually enjoy this whole process." in Handmade newspaper, Rrishi Raote / New Delhi May 21, 2011, 0:46 IST, www.business-standard.com

On the same shelf:

THE LAST CALLIGRAPHERS

Prospects bleak for Indian handwritten newspaper,

Five Myths About the 'Information Age'

2011-04-24T17:51:00.000-04:00

The Chronicle Review, April 17, 2011
By Robert Darnton
Extract:

The book is dead.
We have entered the information age.
All information is now available online
Libraries are obsolete
The future is digital

Continue reading the full article, hereOn the same shelf:

Tucked away in library, a slice of (India's) freedom struggle

2011-03-24T00:27:00.000-04:00

Extract:
By Ritika Jha | IANS – Yahoo news and Punjab Newsline

Chandigarh, March 24 (IANS) To relive the era of India's freedom struggle and hail the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, a library here has developed a 'freedom-special' section that also contains books once issued to him when he was in jail.

With over 500 books, this section at the Dwarka Dass library in Lajpat Bhavan has original copies of the court proceedings of the Lahore conspiracy case (1928-29) - which led to the trial of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

'A number of such books and documents which were compiled during the freedom struggle have been available in the library since it was established in 1921 in Lahore,' librarian G.S. Thakkar told IANS.

'We have put them in the special section to give our readers a real feel of the freedom struggle, as they enter it,' he added.

The library, which was named by freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai in memory of his friend Dwarka Dass, was re-located from Lahore to Chandigarh in 1966. It is housed in Sector 15.

The freedom section has more than 10 books read by Bhagat Singh in the Central Jail in Lahore, where he was lodged and later hanged along with Rajguru and Sukhdev March 23, 1931, for hatching a conspiracy against the British government.

Records of the library tell about the books, mostly revolutionary literature, that were issued to Bhagat Singh and that he read in Lahore.

Some of the books he took included 'Mother' by Maxim Gorky, 'God and the State' by Michael Bakunin, 'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo and 'Career of a Nihilist' by S. Stepniak.

He also got a pamphlet, 'Civil War in France' by Karl Marx, issued.

Original copies of the reports on each of the Indian National Congress (INC) sessions held since the party's establishment in 1885 till 1931 (when Bhagat Singh was hanged) are also available in the section.

George Allen's 'Jalianwalah Bagh massacre at Amritsar' and Surendra Nath's 'India's Struggle for Independence' are among the 'most-referred' in the library till date, Thakkar said.

While the former carries real pictures of the massacre spot, the latter is known to be the first book written by an Indian author on freedom struggle.

'Freedom fighters like Sardar Bhagat Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai are the real heroes. I am glad to know that the library offers such unique information relating to them,' said Sandeep, a regular visitor.

'Their contributions preserved in these books and documents can, in many ways, arouse a sense of responsibility and accountability among young readers,' he asserted.

The library was established by veteran freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai in 1921. He had established the Servants of the People Society in 1921 at Lahore, which was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi. In 1928, he led a silent, non-violent protest against the Simon Commission in Lahore (now in Pakistan). In the police cane charge, he was seriously injured and later succumbed to his injuries.

Bhagat Singh, an eyewitness to the event, was very upset and vowed to take revenge from the British.

'When the proceedings of the Lahore conspiracy case had begun in the Lahore court in 1928, police used to check the records of the Lajpat Bhavan library in search of information on Bhagat Singh,' Thakkar added.

(Ritika Jha can be reached at ritika.jha3@gmail.com )

Bound for Glory - Carleton University Magazine

2011-03-10T11:43:00.000-05:00

Historians of book, and library historians, will be glad to read this article on handmade books, and book as a physical artifact prospering even in the digital and ebook age:

"Handmade books glow with a vintage varnish when cast against the sleek gadgetry of the information age," Carleton University Magazine, Winter 2011, by Fateema Sayani, [Photos by Luther Caverly] continue reading

The Urban Affairs branch of the Toronto Public Library slated to close

2011-03-01T23:38:00.004-05:00

Daniela Germano, Toronto Star, March, 1, 2011
"The Urban Affairs branch of the Toronto Public Library will be closing it doors for good after months of budget negotiations between the board and city council.
On Tuesday the library board voted to approve its budget, which doesn't include money to keep the branch open..."

On the same shelf:

How the Urban Affairs Library Got Shut Down, Torontoist
The true cost of cutting Toronto's Urban Affairs Library
Workers protest planned closure of Urban Affairs Library
CTVNews : Library boom @ The Toronto Public Library

U.S. digital project signals the rise of versatile e-textbooks

2011-02-28T23:24:00.001-05:00

Michael Geist, Toronto Star, February 27, 2011

"The technology community is fond of referring to announcements that fundamentally alter a sector or service as a “game changer.” Examples include the debut of the Apple iTunes store in 2003, which demonstrated how a digital music service that responds to consumer demands was possible, and Google's Gmail, which upended web-based email in 2004 by offering one gigabyte of storage when competitors like Microsoft's Hotmail were providing a paltry two megabytes...." continue reading in Toronto Star

First public library in nation to drop Dewy Decimal

2011-02-06T13:44:00.000-05:00

Libraries can adapt and follow other models for arranging the library resources (esp., book shelves). Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress, and other classification schemes are one way to arrange books. Here is an innovative way to arrange library books, as in book stores. Does this, new way, help and increase user-friendliness? Too early to answer.

See the details here:

EXTRACT:
The Prelinger Library is a small privately owned "public library" in San Francisco with the unique philosophy that browsing library stacks can reveal new knowledge, if the books are arranged for browsing. This is counter to most public libraries who rely on computer terminal searching, databases and the Dewey Decimal system to atomize books and subjects, with stack browsing a sort of random after effect, and in some places--like the Library of Congress--normally not even allowed. Now a (real) public library in Arizona has joined the revolution and claims to be the first public library in the nation to drop the Dewey Decimal system. Instead, books will be shelved by topic, similar to the way bookstores arrange books. The demise of the century-old Dewey Decimal system is overdue, county librarians say: "People think of books by subject. Very few people say, 'Oh, I know Dewey by heart.' " continue reading:
First public library in nation to drop Dewy Decimal

8,029 Dravidian University PhDs rigged

2011-01-13T23:30:00.000-05:00

January 14th, 2011
Deccan Chronicle Correspondent

Extract:
Jan. 13: The state government is all set to cancel 8,029 PhDs awarded by the Dravidian University over the last two academic years.

While universities like Osmania and Andhra, which have been functioning for decades, registered less than 500 PhDs, the government was shocked that the 10-year-old Dravidian University awarded thousands of PhDs in a single academic year. continue reading

On the same shelf:

Follow norms, V-Cs told
Special Correspondent, The Hindu Jan 14, 2011

HYDERABAD: Minister for Higher Education Damodar Rajnarsimha has sent a strong signal to the Vice-Chancellors to follow the norms with regard to admissions strictly or else stringent action will be taken against them.

The Minister was speaking after the Dravidian University Vice-Chancellor C. Ramanaiah met him to explain the allegations of irregularities over the large scale Ph.D admissions. The university has admitted over 8,000 candidates for the Ph.D programme in just two years. continue reading

Dr. Omar Khalidi - A Rare Scholar-Cum-Librarian - Obituary

2010-12-01T00:01:00.110-05:00

C O N T E N T S

Daughter's Speech	What they Say about Omar
MIT's Obituary	Professional Profile
Media Coverage	Digital Collections

Dr. Omar Khalidi with Anwar Muazzam @ Flickr.com

Dr. Omar Khalidi was born in Hyderabad, India in 1953 ( who worked at the MIT Libraries from 1983 until last month as Librarian for Aga Khan Program at MIT, Boston, Mass.,), son of Professor Abu Nasr Muhammad Khalidi (a well known scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies at Osmania University, Hyderabad).

Commemorating Dr. Omar Khalidi @ Facebook

Follow the friends at Twitter.com

Remembering Omar Khalidi – Memorial service Friday 12/3
Posted December 2nd, 2010 by Heather Denny, MIT Libraries News
Remarks at the Memorial Service for Dr. Omar Khalidi
Memorial Service for Dr. Omar Khalidi by Robert M Randolph, MIT Chaplain

A speech given by his daughter, Aliya, at the MIT memorial service yesterday in his honor:

"On behalf of my family, I want to thank you all for coming here today. Thank you for your emails, phone calls, and all the other ways that you’ve shown that you care for my father and our family.

Being a part of the MIT community meant so much to my father. For 27 years, starting even before I was born, he devoted his life to academia and this intellectual community. He loved it so much that he wanted me to attend MIT for undergrad, and when I chose to attend Wellesley College instead, he would introduce it as “MIT’s sister institution, Wellesley.” Continue reading the Memorial Speech

Remembering Omar Khalidi Heather Denny, MIT Libraries
The longtime MIT research librarian is remembered as a colleague, scholar and champion of social justice for Indian Muslims.
Known for his kindness and patience as well as his passion for travel, politics, religion and culture, Khalidi was well respected by those in the MIT community.

MIT's official obituary: Omar Khalidi, longtime MIT research librarian, dies at age 57. He worked at the MIT Libraries from 1983 until recently.
It is with great sadness that I pass on the news of Omar Khalidi's tragic death yesterday morning in an accident.
May his soul be where he wanted it to be, and may his family and friends find solace in his scholarly legacy and the memories he left behind.
Nasser Rabbat
Aga Khan Professor
Department of Architecture
MIT

“This is sad and shocking news for all of us in the libraries who knew and worked with Omar, and our thoughts at this time are with his family,’’ Keith Glavash, associate director for administration at the MIT Libraries, said in a statement issued by the school. Man, 57, killed by train was a librarian for MIT - The Boston Globe

Media coverage:
Audio
Click here
Extract:

The untimely death of Dr. Omar Khalidi leaves a huge void in the field of Indian Muslim studies in general and in Hyderabad studies in particular. The author of more than two dozen books and scores of academic articles, his contributions are many. The subjects of his books include minority rights, history, architecture, economics, demography, politics, Urdu education, military history, library science, cataloguing, etc. But he will forever be remembered as the man whose incisive writings inspired the Sachar Committee to seek a community wise census of the Indian armed forces. This fact even though officially unacknowledged is widely known. Mohammed Ayub Khan, Omar Khalidi, Chronicler of Hyderabad and Champion of Minority Rights Is No More[a very detailed bio on works and life; Urdu Version of this news, is here]
Printed

Muslim community mourns former MIT scholar killed on Red Line
By Michael Wyner, GateHouse News Service, Dec 02, 2010:
"Cambridge — Estimates of nearly 1,000 people from across the country mourned Muslim scholar Omar Khalidi at a funeral service yesterday at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury."

Indian Muslim Scholar Dies in Boston
"India has become a little poorer with the passing of Dr. Omar Khalidi, a great scholar and the man who articulated the voice of the Indian Muslims during some of their darkest hours. He died at 11:15 a.m., Nov. 29, in Boston at age 57. Dr. Khaldi had worked at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) there for many years."

TRIBUTE: Omar Khalidi’s death shrouded in mystery SUMAN GUHA MOZUMDER, India Abroad - December 10, 2010

Friends suspect foul play in Omar Khalidi’s death, By Khabrein.Info Correspondent

Family, friends, community mourn Khalidi, IndUS Business Journal
A funeral prayer service for Khalidi was held on Dec.1, at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, followed immediately by his burial. A memorial service honoring Khalidi was held on Dec. 3 at the MIT's chapel, followed by a reception.

http://www.milligazette.com

http://www.ummid.com

Charminar Connection

Remembering Omar Khalidi,
"As a tribute, we reproduce an interview that Khalidi gave to rediff.com in December 2003 on the state of Muslims in India...."

“Hindutva’s Handmaiden”— Another Journalist Slain for His Work?

Omar Khalidi: An Icon says Goodbye, By Mubasshir Mushtaq TwoCircles.net

City-born scholar dies in US mishap, Deccan Chronicle 2010-12-01:

He was known for reflecting the views of Indian Muslims in the West.

Dr Khalidi had penned over two dozen books including the one on Muslim representation in the armed and police forces in India. That book is said to have provided the basis for the religion-based census in armed forces by the UPA. His areas of research included sociology, ethnic groups, Islamic architecture and Hyderabad history.

His famous works included Hyderabad: After the Fall and Import, Adapt, Innovate: Mosque Design in the United States.

Islamic scholar Muhammad Zaheeruddin said in Hyderabad: “Khalidi had pioneered research on Indian Muslims. The facts he unearthed were astonishing. His book on communal violence led to a furore in Parliament.”

In Memory of Omar Khalidi | ArchNet « Ismailimail

Professional Profile:
Librarian for Aga Khan Program,
Islamic Architecture, Regional Planning and Development
MIT Libraries, 77 Massachusetts Avenue|Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

He was an expert in research methods and library skills, with a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, and in his profile at MIT, he says:

Omar can help you with your research on art, architecture, and urbanism of the Islamic and the wider developing world. Regional and urban economic development and planning in the developing countries is also his expertise in the library. He enjoys helping faculty, students and the MIT community in their academic research on architecture, city planning and urbanism

Education/Experience:

* BA, Wichita State University, Kansas (1980)
* ALM, Harvard University School of Extension Studies (1991)
* PhD, University of Wales-Lampeter, UK (1994)

Refer to his Islamic architecture web pages for resources on the regional planning
and development:

libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/islamicarchitecture/index.html

libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/development/

Much more of his works is here

Digital Collections (Some of his research works on the Web are):
Audio

Crescent obscured: Indian Muslims in Britain - By Omar Khalidi

Printed Sources (Online)

The Caliph's Daughter by Omar Khalidi [Princess Dürrüsehvar was married to Azam Jah, Prince of Berar and heir apparent to the throne of Hyderabad; and her cousin, Princess Nilüfer, great-granddaughter of Sultan Murad V, married Muazzam Jah, the second prince of Hyderabad]

Charting digital history, [This is about Omar Khalidi's digital ventures, and is a part of "Guide to Architecture in Hyderabad"]
“Printing books has become very expensive, distribution is also a problem and digital publishing is the future and is the path to follow. Physical libraries are passé,” he says.
About the Guide: It contains images and maps of built environment in Hyderabad, Deccan, India.
In addition, the Guide provides short text to nearly 200 examples of civic, domestic,
and sacred architecture in the historic city.
He presented the Guide at Art, Patronage and Society in the Muslims Deccan, an
international conference held at University of Oxford, UK in July.[source]

A Guide to Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu Manuscript Libraries in India

A REPORT ON THE STATE OF URDU LITERACY IN INDIA, 2010

Wayland man identified in MBTA station death, GateHouse News Service
According to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, police, EMTs and subway personnel responded Monday morning to a report of a person under a Red Line train on the southbound side of the station. Pesaturo said the state medical examiner has not yet ruled on the death. The T wasn’t releasing any information on whether it was a suicide or accident.

KONKANI MUSLIMS: AN INTRODUCTION OMAR KHALIDI,

Indian Muslims and Palestinian Awqaf, Jerusalem quarterly

Mosques in North America, in Mosques in the United States of America and Canada

Waqayi'-i musafirat-i Nawab Mustatab Ashraf Arfa' Wala Mir Layiq 'Ali Khan 'Imad al-Saltanah Sir Salar Jang, edited by Omar Khalidi & Sunil Sharma. Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran, 2009.[19th century travelogue in Persian lithographed in Bombay in 1889,]

He was the past president (2008-2009) of Middle East Librarians Association, also associated with Indian Muslim organisations in the US including the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin, the Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, the Indian Muslim Council, the Association of Indian Muslims and H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online [See the comments and citations by Dr. Frank Conlon]

He was the author of more than two dozen books and scores of academic articles. His famous book 'Hyderabad: After the Fall' captured the events during the police action in then Hyderabad State in 1948 and the subsequent developments.

His other books include 'Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police, and Paramilitary Forces During Communal Riots' and 'Muslims in Indian Economy'. See all the books at Amazon.com

What they say about Dr. Omar Khalidi:
CONDOLENCE RESOLUTION

The Forum places in record its deep sense of sorrow at the sudden and tragic demise of Dr.Omar Khalidi Saheb in America. In him, the Muslim Ummah in general and Indian Muslims in particular have lost a dauntless fighter against injustice and discrimination. The Forum appeals to Muslim leaders to take suitable substantial steps to perpetuate his memory. May Allah admit him in the Jannath Firdouse, Aameen. Summa Aameen, S.M.PASHA, Convener, THE ALL INDIAFORUM OF MUSLIM JOURNALISTS

The Islamic Manuscript Association expresses sincerest condolences to his friends, colleagues and most of all to his family, whom we keep in our prayers. We remember him with much affection and respect. The Islamic Manuscript Association

SAMSA mourns the loss of a noted scholar of South Asian Muslim Studies, Dr. Omar Khalidi (1954-2010)
“I was shocked by this news of the premature passing of Omar Khalidi, a prolific scholar on Indian Muslims, both historically and currently. He was a longtime member of the board of the South Asian Muslim Studies Association and contributed constructively to many of the conference panels which it sponsored at AAS, Wisconsin, ACSIS and the European Conferences on Modern South Asian studies. He and I contributed a joint paper to a major conference on Muslims in South Asia in New York City in 1989. He was a goldmine of information on bibliography and on resources on South Asian Muslims; scholars often sought his help in locating hard to find sources. He courageously pursued his research on this important topic in the face of much unfounded criticism. His death is a great loss to his community and to scholarship on Hyderabad and on South Asian Muslims in general.” Prof. Theodore P. Wright, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Political Science, State University of New York at Albany, @ South Asian Muslim Studies Association

Dr. Kahlidi dedicated his life for promoting social equity in India. His legacy will continue to inspire the younger researchers to carry on the task of promoting social equity and justice for all ethnic groups in India. A Tribute to Dr. Omar Khalidi
By Dr. A. Khan, Chicago, IL.

With the death of Dr Omar Khalidi, an Indian-American scholar, on November 29 in Boston, USA, the world has lost a champion of minority rights. By Rauf Parekh

"The untimely death of Dr.khalidi has come as a shock to all who knew him as a crusader in his observations and in his writings.His death has raised many questions and personal memories for many.

It would take a lot of time for me to take the cause of his death as a mere accident? It is for the US govt and particularly Obama administration to conduct a fair Inquiry in to the circumstances of the death of one of close associates of US administration under Obama, working to bridge US and Muslim gap.Equally it is also incumbent on our Indian government to urge the US government to reach to the the bottom of the actual cause of the death of Dr.Omar Khalidi and press for an Inquiry by US administration."
A Tribute To Late Dr.Omar Khalidi: FOUL ACCIDENT? Ahmed Sohail Siddiqui [posted also here]

Omar Uncle was a man of great intellect, a Muslim scholar, and an excellent historian. He was a man who had pride for his heritage for his roots in Hyderabad, India and for Islam. Dr. Omar Khalidi – Gone Too Soon. @ 1000 Thanks & Counting

Dr. Khalidi was the type of person for whom it was said that, “you can get out of India, but India can never get out of you”. Without him, the Indian community in and around the Boston area can never be the same again. Tanvir Salim from Boston

Khalidi was well-known in three different circles - for his expertise on Islamic architecture, for his research on the economic situation of Muslims in India, and for his general knowledge of issues surrounding India. Attaulla Khan, Indian Muslim Council-USA, in 'Friends mourn Wayland scholar hit by train' The MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

Dr. Khalidi was a pioneer in the field of research on Indian Muslims and Contemporary Politics. He left behind him a monumental legacy that had a significant impact on the political landscape of India and a multitude of people were motivated and inspired by his work. Dr. Khalidi was born in Hyderabad and was the son of Professor A.N.M. Khalidi, a well known scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies at Osmania University. Rasheed Ahmed, Indian Muslim Council-USA

India has become a little poorer with the passing of Dr. Omar Khalidi, a great scholar and the man who articulated the voice of the Indian Muslims during some of their darkest hours. SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWS

Dr Omar Khalidi, the Muslim scholar who passed away on Monday, worked tirelessly to lift a mirror for the Indian polity to reflect on its secular credentials and to the Muslim community about the human potential that lay within, says Altaf Makhiawala recalling his association with him."
He was a strong advocate that Indian Muslims in the diaspora had a proactive role to play in modern India by funding modern secular education for all Indians and to work at rooting out bigotry from within our respective communities.

For India, which prides itself on her secular polity and communal harmony, voices like Dr Omar Khalidi, who kept a check on the excesses of the State, will be sorely missed. And as India carves a new global role for itself on the world stage today, I fervently hope it will pay serious heed to Dr Omar Khalidi's scholarly recommendations and take one of its largest and most backward minority groups along with it on its path to progress.

I have lost a dear mentor today. And the Indian Muslim community -- one of its intellectual guiding lights. Dr Omar Khalidi's voice will be sorely missed, Rediff.com[source]

"Noted Scholar Dr. Omar Khalidi Passes away. "Maut se kis ko rastgaari hai, aaj woh kal hamari baree hai." Mohd Tariq Intezar[source]

"This is a Great shock on the day when we all are trying to look into the concerns of Muslim community in India. The immeasurable loss to the academia after accidental death of Dr. Omar Khalidi may not be regained." Khwaja Mohd Ziyauddin [source]

Dr. Khalidi was a pioneer in the field of research on Indian Muslims and Contemporary Politics. He left behind him a monumental legacy that had a significant impact on the political landscape of India and a multitude of people were motivated and
inspired by his work. Abunaimath Shahab, IMC-USA Mourns the Death of Dr. Omar Khalidi, [source]

Kashif-ul Huda, Editor-in-chief, TwoCircles.net said “It’s a huge loss for Muslim community both in India and US. Dr. Khalidi wrote historic, path breaking book ‘Khaki and Ethnic Violence’. TwoCircles.net prays for highest place in Jannat for the departed soul. TwoCircles.net offers deep condolences to the bereaved family of Dr. Khalidi.”Source: newfrontworld.com

Dr Omar Khalidi's death is a big loss for the Indian Muslim community. Good writers come and go, but a fearless writer is seldom born. Syed U Rahman [source]

"Md Safiullah of Deccan Heritage Society remembers the man as the person “who traced out Christopher Armstead, who was the Mint Master between 1935 and 1945 in Hyderabad, and put me on to him and he proved to be a source of information for me."

"Sometimes passionate, sometimes combative, Khalidi held to his beliefs as he wrote Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police, and Paramilitary Forces During Communal Riots, Muslims in Indian Economy and Hyderabad after the Fall...Though a historian, Khalidi started pursuing other avenues to make his mark and make history accessible, one of them being digital. Using his social networking skills he put out a PDF file hosted on the MIT site sketching out the state of monuments in Hyderabad." Obituary In the passing away of Omar Khalidi, Hyderabad has lost a passionate historian. SERISH NANISETTI The Hindu : FEATURES / FRIDAY REVIEW : Chronicler of city: December 3, 2010.

Dr. Omar Khalidi is no more, a Great loss to Telangana NRI Community, www.etelangana.org
On a personal note, it is a great loss to us. We lost a good friend, mentor and a fellow activist. The days at MIT would not have been more richer but for Dr. Khalidi and our shared ideals of secular, pluralistic and democratic India where equality and justice prevail and all sections of Indians can access the fruits of democracy. We organized several events at MIT focusing on issues related to social justice in India

In the following, shared the last communication I had with him two weeks ago regarding Telangana/Hyderabad - When asked him about his thoughts on Andhra ruling class conspiring to alienate Hyderabad from Telangana. He replied the following way,

"No amount of Andhra money and muscle can (and should) separate HyderAbad from its base, Telengana. It is not like Chandigarh. The Andhrulus are far from the city. Let us chat one of these days..."

May his soul rest in peace.

Bottom line:

Dr Khaladi, was more of a researcher than an armchair commentator. He had advised me not to loose track of research and base my submissions on hard facts.

To hammer home the point, hard facts should be the only arrow, in one’s quiver, he told me, adding he had all the copies of Muslim India, because it contains huge data to rely upon. SYED ALI MUJTABA SYED for The Ground Report India.

==============More to follow here==============

Redefining the library in the age of Google and Wikipedia

2010-11-03T23:09:00.000-04:00

A summary of a talk given at Singapore Management University by Dr. N. Varaprasad, former CEO of Singapore's National Library Board. The themes covered are: Friends, not foes, Snacks, not full meals, Redefining and refining.
Published: November 01, 2010 in Knowledge@SMU

Extract:

Friends, not foes
"Despite the numerous issues, Varaprasad feels that libraries still stand a chance. For one, he does not see Google as a threat, but as an efficient gateway to the library’s resources. This complements library users’ search for information. As for Wikipedia, Varaprasad’s point of view is that the online encyclopaedia is useful as a jump-off point for preliminary research or a quick primer into a certain topic. However, despite the checks and edits done by Wikipedia’s army of contributors, there is no guarantee of accuracy." continue reading

Bottomline:
"Varaprasad imagines that libraries of the future might take a modular form, like that of Lego bricks; where there is one concept but many parts and multiple possibilities. So just like the evolution from stone tablets to scrolls to books, libraries need to innovate and evolve, so that they may continue to deliver knowledge to the masses; make reading experiences more interesting and social; and ultimately, keep from extinction."

Information courtesy: Bernie Sloan

International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)

2010-10-25T22:46:00.002-04:00

About the consortium: In July 2003 the national libraries of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, The British Library (UK), The Library of Congress (USA) and the Internet Archive (USA) acknowledged the importance of international collaboration for preserving Internet content for future generations. This group of 12 institutions chartered the IIPC to fund and participate in projects and working groups to accomplish the Consortium’s goals. The initial agreement was in effect for three years, during which time the membership was limited to the charter institutions. Since then, membership has expanded to include additional libraries, archives, museums and cultural heritage institutions involved in Web archiving. For a complete list visit our members page.

In the news / on the same shelf:

Archiving the web ~~ Born digital: National libraries start to preserve the web, but cannot save everything, coninue reading: The Economist

New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians - WSJ.com

"In this suburb of St. Paul, the new library branch has no librarians, no card catalog and no comfortable chairs in which to curl up and read. Instead, the Library Express is a stack of metal lockers outside city hall. When patrons want a book or DVD, they order it online and pick it up from a digitally locked, glove-compartment- sized cubby a few days later."

The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection, Revisited

Chennai now boasts South Asia’s largest library : The Anna Centenary Library (ACL)

2010-09-15T22:31:00.000-04:00

M R Venkatesh, Chennai, Sep 15, DHNS: Deccan Herald

In a big boost to book lovers, the publishing industry and to the public library networking concept, the Anna Centenary Library (ACL), a magnificent eight-storey structure said to be South Asia’s largest and most elegantly designed state-of-the-art library, was unveiled here on Wednesday evening. continue reading

See also:

Free access to Anna Centenary Library initially

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2010, Sweden

2010-08-22T13:07:00.001-04:00

World Library and Information Congress: 76th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, "Open access to knowledge - promoting sustainable progress"
10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden

News update, Post-conference:

A participant says: Exciting and well attended sessions, fruitful standing committee meetings, and a nice dinner: that was Gothenburg WLIC 2010. Christel Mahnke

Updates by:
IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group: Two sides to every gap
Stephen Abram --Stephen's Lighthouse--based on Gary's ResourceShelf
Sheila Webber's Information Literacy Weblog
Peter Scott's Library Blog
more updates

Programme and Proceedings:

Indian contributions:

Bandyopadhyay, Ratna; Majumder, K.P.; Bose, B.; Sengupta, P. "Come to your Library": BLA project for promotion of reading in West Bengal, India. Session 133, IFLA 2010.

Das, Anup Kumar. Library Advocacy in India in the Light of Education for Sustainable Development - Perspectives of an Emerging Economy. Session 87, IFLA 2010.

Dhiman, Anil Kumar. Evolving roles of library & information centres in e-learning environment. Session 107, IFLA 2010.

Singh, Jagtar; Begum, Dilara. Student awareness of health information initiatives of the Governments of India and Bangladesh: a study of Punjabi University, Patiala and East West University, Dhaka. Session 100, IFLA 2010.

See also:

IFLA 2010 - Papers from South Asia

Shelf Reading and Reading Between the Shelf: Needs Innovation

2010-08-08T13:40:00.000-04:00

Interesting (but boring and strenuous) activity in a library--i.e., familiarization with the library collection--is always a challenge, both for old and new staff. One way to do is shelf-read, read the shelves and what lies between the shelves.

Said Rochowiak" "Shelf reading is very important. If one book is misfiled it is lost to the library," [source]

Rebecca said: "I am all about librarians getting out in the stacks. How else do you know what your patrons see? How else would you know that your collection needs weeding and/or shifting? There is no better way to get to know your collection than by getting in there and getting your hands on the books. I think this is one of the reasons I love weeding so much." [ source]

Senior librarians must consider newer ways of shelf-reading, as well design better (challenging) guides to library orientation--in order to inspire new staff / volunteers (familiarize with the library's collections).

Extracts from a librarian blogger's post, Miss Information is not feeling challenged:

Instead of actual assignments, the recent recruit spends time “getting to know the collection”...
...There were a couple of people who actually needed help—one woman needed the ESL section and another asked where the French books were. Miss Information was useless here though because she hasn’t gotten to know the collection that well yet.

On the same shelf:

Reading between the Shelf - Thought for the day

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Shelf reading quote, from a survey, 'Librarians and Shelf-Studying Print Collections': "Shelf reading is still a valid technique for reference training and awareness of scope of materials at hand." See also: Online Shelf-Studying and Librarians

Library Advocacy Day from ALA Washington

2010-06-25T12:08:00.000-04:00

Countdown to National Library Advocacy Day
For one year only, Library Advocacy Day will replace National Library Legislative Day (NLLD). On June 29, 2010, library advocates from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. will meet at Upper Senate Park on the U.S. Capitol grounds. The event, which will begin at 11 a.m., will feature Lauren Myracle, photo ops, and a chance to cheer on libraries! After the rally, participants will meet with their elected officials and their staffs. Continue reading: Library Advocacy Day from ALA Washington
Countdown To

On the same shelf:

i need. i value. i love my library campaign

What is your Library worth to you?

Pull and Push Communications: Ranganathan's Laws re-interpreted

Market Research Techniques for Libraries

So what do we lose when we lose libraries? -- Thought for the day

2010-06-09T10:22:00.001-04:00

Extract:

"My librarian friend reminds me that President Barack Obama obtained his first job after attending Columbia University by going to the New York Public Library. He used something called Job Search Central, which provides all kinds of databases, books, classes and books on how to find a job that is both suitable and desirable, how to start a new business, how to write a resume, how to prepare for a job interview, even how to look for a job if you've just been released from prison. And you don't have to buy a $5 latte from Starbucks to enjoy the privilege.

In short, libraries are vital to creating an informed citizenry that is the hallmark of any democracy. So what do we lose when we lose libraries? We lose a lot." Continue reading the full article: The Death of the Library: Read It and Weep

On the same shelf:
Just released: Job Search The Canadian Way

Now entire library on chip developed by Indian-American

2010-04-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

By IANS, 29 April 2010

Washington: An Indian-American scientist has developed a computer chip that can store an unprecedented amount of data - enough to hold an entire library.
The new chip stems from a breakthrough in the use of nanodots, or nanoscale magnets, and represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology.
"We have created magnetic nanodots that store one bit of information on each nanodot, allowing us to store over one billion pages of information in a chip that is one square inch," says Jay Narayan, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU).
Narayan, a product of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, conducted the study. continue reading Economic Times

An Open Mind @ NYT

2010-04-18T19:35:00.001-04:00

by KATIE HAFNER, Published: April 8, 2010 - Education Life - NYTimes.com

This article tells you about the Education Life as an open source. It also tells you that this has ....

"... potential in “unbundling” the four elements of educating: design of a course, delivery of that course, delivery of credit and delivery of a degree. “Traditionally, they’ve all lived in the same institutional setting.” Must all four continue to live together, or can one or more be outsourced?"

But this article doesn't tell you about:

a) the value of 'open-educational system' for jobs, in this recession,
b) if there is a recognition at all for this open-ed in job market and
c) value of these informal learning opportunities within the formal world of education.

What do you think about this article and the point I have raised above?
Continue reading The NY Sunday Times:

Higher Education Reimagined With Online Courseware

Info courtesy: Giora Hadar

'Future library' goes on display in Abu Dhabi

2010-03-04T16:47:00.004-05:00

My Note: Sounds great, innovative and exciting book find through a vending machine. But, is it an experiment that has been tested, tried, and evaluated? Which e-books in which languages and which type of audience will be catered to? Needs more research [See, at the end of this post, the replies I am getting from Librarians about similar ventures: Cathy, Linda***].

The following is the news story:

Info courtesy: Ali Houissa, The Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Melanie Swan, March 03. 2010 UAE, The National Newspaper
The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage is modernising the emirate’s library service with the introduction of book vending machines. WAM
ABU DHABI // They will be places to borrow books and CDs, as well as catch up on the internet. But that is where the resemblance to the traditional library will end.

Abu Dhabi’s future libraries are likely to feature 24-hour, self-service facilities with vending machines stocked with books, CDs and DVDs, allowing people to take out and return them any time of the day or night.

There will also be Playstations and Xbox consoles for teenagers to play video games, as well as “lifestyle zones” where visitors can relax and listen to a CD or audio book.

The “future library” was on show at the 20th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair yesterday and is, according to Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach), a concept heralding “a new generation in libraries”.

Adach said the new libraries would use cutting-edge technologies and gadgets. Books, CDs and DVDs will be available in vending machines using radio frequency identification technology.

Juma’a al Qubaisi, the director of the National Library, said the new system “will spark the attention of all in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates”.

A range of materials will be available to library users, including periodicals, computer games, eBooks and audio books.

The project will be on display all week at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. mswan@thenational.ae

Go to the news story

On the same shelf:

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair underway

Library Culture on the Web

***Similar ventures reported to me:

info courtesy: Linda. We (the Marriott Library, University of Utah) have an Espresso book machine, which is a bit like a book vending machine. We are just getting started: http://tinyurl.com/yesncq5.

info courtesy: Cathy. If you are interested, please see our free book lending service called Library-a-Go-Go:

Ontario Library Association's Super Conference 2010 - Media Monitoring

2010-02-28T12:13:00.007-05:00

My 2 cent: I notice that this year's conference is totally shy of social media and news media. Even external factors (e.g., bloggers, aka virtual news media) are not so passionately contributing to this scenario.

I am not just talking in the air. See the list below. Compare this with the huge coverage (2008 media monitoring) I covered in 2008.

Why I say this is because in 2008 they invited bloggers, to join. In 2009 they had a 'blog' of their own. And in 2010, all of the above is gone. NO Blogging or Facebooking. Media has no news stories, whatsoever, so is the glaring absence of the social media, not many to blog about, no presence or links to facebook, twitter, etc.. Does this give any clue that we are fading or ready to fade. There are no social media buttons, that was the least to show the currency of the professional conference. A slide show (in 2010) with no dynamic approach (to make the show interactive or informative), is the only innovation and that's it.

There ends the story of media attraction, media presence, and social media in short. Incidentally, the theme of this year is: Step Up Your Passion.
The bottomline is: It pays to be a pessimist just for a better ROI!!!

Super Conference 2010 details are here
Are you in this Slide Show? Or you know someone in this show? See the Super Conference 2009 Slide show

Who else is blogging about this subject (NONE is reporting the scenario nor evaluating the sessions, as they did in the past):

Jane Dysart

mwblogger

Library-Child

Library Steph

BookPusher

J. Torres

k12digital

http://stephenslighthouse.com

Laura D. - KPL

Google for more bloogers's Updates here

More on the same shelf from the News Room

Five things to do this week: February 27-March 5

Public Library Service Award Winners Government of Ontario News - ‎Feb 26, 2010‎

More news updates here and here

Towers of knowledge: The Mitterand Library, Paris

2010-02-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

The Mitterand Library in Paris, one of the largest and most modern in the world, is a tourist hotspot as well. K. J. S. Chatrath checks out this attraction, The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum, Sunday, February 14, 2010

On a visit to Paris for research work, a fellow colleague suggested that I should visit the Mitterand Library. He gave me an introduction letter for seeking a short-term membership to the library. Incidentally, the word librarie in French means a bookshop and the library is called bibliotheque. So the next day I took the Metro to the library. Coming out of the Metro station at the destination, I had to walk about 500 metres to reach the awe-inspiring towers of the library. continue reading

See on the same shelf:

French National Library - Hall of Shame | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)13th Arrondissement, Paris, France
Contributed by Project for Public Spaces ; Why It Doesn't Work, History & Background, User Comments:

Middle Eastern Librarianship -- Resources, Programs, etc.

2010-01-23T22:06:00.013-05:00

Note: This post is part of area studies librarianship. See also: South Asian Studies -- Resources, Programs, etc.

New:
Digital Library of Arabic Manuscripts: a Questionnaire: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

LIS News: There are Arab books, but most not included in union catalogs

Bottomline: Hence, you will have to digg and digg, not just check the WorldCat, Library of Congress, British Library, etc. The list is long, and includes:

King Fahd National Library Riyadh
KACST Library, Riyadh + online Database
King Saud University Library, Riyadh
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES London
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Library Oxford
Copac National, Academic, and Specialist Library Catalogue
bibliotheca alexandrina
biblioislam.net
Microform Academic Publishers, UK

Resources at Amazon.com: A randomly selected list of recent publications

Amazon.com Widgets

Programs, Resources, etc. @ Middle East Librarians Association's web site, see also: MELA Notes

EThOS: Free Downloads Of UK Dissertations/Theses From The British Library
Quoted from A Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations. Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) p. 319

The Best Bottomline of the Year 2009 by Dan Lett

2009-12-25T21:10:00.002-05:00

If more city councillors were married to librarians, it would be an easy call. Is writing on the wall for city's libraries? By: Dan Lett,

Libraries discussed in the above article:

The new Minneapolis Central Library

The New York Public Library in Manhattan

Vancouver Public Library

Seattle Central Library with Rem Koolhaas

Winnipeg Public Library – Millennium Library

See on the same shelf:

The 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World

Librarians at the gate [Toronto Reference Library renovation]

Really Modern Library

Eight recipients announced for 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards

The Library of Alexandria by Kelly Trumble

Better by Design: An Introduction to Planning and Designing a New Library Building by Ayub Khan

Property tax boost to help libraries [Vancouver City Council], Globe and Mail - Wendy Steuck - ‎Dec 18, 2009‎

2009 I Love My Librarian Award Ceremony

2009-12-24T18:19:00.002-05:00

2009 I Love My Librarian Award Ceremony
December 21st, 2009 by Greg; Photos now available on Flickr

The 2009 I Love My Librarian Awards recognized 10 librarians who are making a difference in their communities in a December 3 ceremony. The award is sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times...

What should users expect in a great library? The 10 winners of the 2009 I Love My Librarian award share their perspectives on what users deserve, and how they've worked to achieve it.

When: Wed Dec 23, 2009 – Mon Jan 18, 2010
Where: AL Focus Video Village on ALA Island ...[source]

Winners of the I Love My Librarian award were selected by more than 3,200 library users from academic, public and school libraries nationwide. The 2009 award recipients are:

Sol A. Gómez
Branch Manager, Librarian II
Pima County Public Library, Sam Lena-South Tucson Branch
Tucson, Ariz.

Laura Grunwerg
Director of Youth and Young Adult Services
River Edge Public Library
River Edge, N.J.

Lucy Hansen
Lead Librarian
South Texas Independent School District, Biblioteca Las Américas
Mercedes, Texas

Alice K. Juda
Reference Librarian
U.S. Naval War College
Newport, R.I.

Karen E. Martines
Public Administration Library Department Head
Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland, Ohio

Dwight McInvaill
Director
Georgetown County Library
Georgetown, S.C.

Séamus Ó’Scanláin (Scanlon)
Librarian and Assistant Professor
Center for Worker Education Library (The City College of New York)
New York, N.Y.

Dana Thomas
Media Specialist
Cypress Lake Middle School
Fort Myers, Fla.

Carolyn Wheeler
Media Specialist
Conant Elementary School
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Rochester Hills Public Library
Youth Services Librarian
Rochester, Mich.

Oceana Wilson
Director of Library and Information Services
Crossett Library, Bennington College
Bennington, Vt. ... [source: ALA Public Information Office]

Reading between the Shelf - Thought for the day

2009-12-17T19:05:00.001-05:00

Virtual Dave Lankes' Tweet # 2009/12/13 "Why did the library go to the psycologist? To get in touch with its inner shelf." [source]

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Germany's Ph.D. Scandal: Were Degrees Bought?

2009-12-11T15:04:00.000-05:00

Germany's Ph.D. Scandal: Were Degrees Bought?

By Tristana Moore / Berlin Friday, Aug. 28, 2009, Time.com
"Getting a Ph.D. is the pinnacle of academic achievement, but appears that some aspiring students in Germany may have bribed their way to the top. On Aug. 22, German prosecutors revealed that they are investigating around 100 academics at some of the country's top universities on the suspicion that they granted doctorates to dozens of unqualified students after taking bribes from a consultancy firm. The scandal has shaken Germany's higher education system, revered abroad as one of the best in Europe.

The investigation follows a raid on an academic consultancy called the Institute for Scientific Counselling in the western town of Bergisch Gladbach in March 2008. At the time, the authorities uncovered a mine of information pointing to illegal activity and confiscated thousands of files, including contracts between the firm and lecturers, and evidence of bank transfers. Prosecutors in the city of Cologne say the institute helped doctoral candidates find a supervisor and paid lecturers to take on Ph.D. students. "Some Ph.D. students paid up to $30,000 to get their doctor titles," Günther Feld, a senior prosecutor in Cologne tells TIME. "Many people had received mediocre results in exams and they weren't eligible to do a Ph.D. in the first place." ... continue reading

See also: Germany: 100 professors suspected of Ph.D. bribes (AP): here

Books & Libraries @ Facebook

2009-12-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

Asian Classics Input Project:

"The Asian Classics Input Project was founded in 1988 to preserve and freely distribute ancient Asian classical literature, and to support refugees in doing this work. Millions of texts were destroyed during and after the 1959 invasion of Tibet, and many others are buried in libraries throughout Asia. During the past 20 years, the Asian Classics Input Project has saved thousands of these endangered masterpieces by combing monasteries, libraries and archives throughout Asia. After finding these..." (read more)

Books for a better Future Program 2009:

"The Books for a Better Future Program is a student initiative which seeks to collect old and unwanted academic textbooks, specifically from, but not limited to, tertiary students, academic staffers and libraries, for distribution to a number of tertiary partners in India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

We would especially like to collect books in the fields of commerce, law, history, nursing, women’s studies and engineering. VCE textbooks and language resources used to teach English would also be..." (read more)

The librarian of Mysore -- The Acorn

2009-11-10T20:49:00.001-05:00

Extract from The Acorn (The Indian National Interest) @ Star of Mysore:

"It’s been a hundred years since Rudrapatna Shamasastry published the English translation of Kautilya’s Arthashastra

The Star of Mysore has an article (link thanks JK) by A V Narasimha Murthy marking the centenary of the publication of the very first English translation of the Arthasastra:

Around 1905 there was a librarian by name Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868-1944) who hailed from the celebrated village Rudrapatna on the banks of Kaveri, famous for Karnatak music. He belonged to the Sanketi Brahmin community and by 37 he had mastered veda, vedanga, classical Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, Kannada, German, French and other languages. He had also learnt the various ancient scripts of India. ..."

continue reading The Acorn

International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL 2009) at University of Delhi Campus at Delhi, 5 to 8 October, 2009.

2009-10-27T10:25:00.012-04:00

Conference report. By, R. N Sharma, Ph.D. Dean of the Library, Monmouth University and Chair of the International Relations Committee of ACRL.

The University of Delhi, India hosted the first International Conference on Academic Libraries from October 5-8, 2009. It was a smashing success and attracted delegates from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. The speakers included Ellen Tise, President of IFLA; Jay Jordan, President and CEO of OCLC; David Kohl, Dean of the University Libraries; Professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati and Editor of the Journal of Academic Librarianship; Carol Tenopir, Guru of Technology, University of Tennessee; Ann Okerson of Yale University, James O’Donnell, Provost George -town University and R N Sharma of Monmouth University and Chair of The International Relations Committee, ACRL, United States. Other Prominent speakers included Ursula Georgy of Germany, Hazel Woodword and Elizabeth Chapman of United Kingdom, Jens Vigen of Switzerland and Joyce Chen of Taiwan.

112 Papers and 20 Poster papers were presented during the conference. A Pre-Conference Tutorial on Virtual Reference including “Question Point” was presented by Susan McGlamery of OCLC and it also attracted a large number of delegates.

The Theme of Conference was “Globalizing Academic Libraries: Vision 2020”. The speakers discussed academic libraries beyond the traditional stream digital libraries, Virtual libraries and the digital repositories and other technological changes which have made a deep impact on academic libraries. Information literacy, stronger working relationship between libraries and teaching faculty, and the changing role of academic libraries as centers of information from the centers of books were also discussed in this important conference.

The Conference was inaugurated by Ellen Tise, President of IFLA, who spoke about the change, partnership, transformation and the future of academic librarianship. She also discussed information literacy and the new academic librarian of the twenty first century. A special warm welcome was given to her and she was showered with praise for her leadership, and gifts by the organizers of the conference.

Jay Jordan, President and CEO of OCLC, spoke on the topic of “Collaboration in the Cloud – Web Scale for Libraries”. He offered a vision of the cooperative network effects of services and some specific things that OCLC is doing to make such a strategy a practical consideration for libraries.

In the plenary talk, David Kohl spoke on “Towards New Understanding of the Library Mission: Vision and Implementation”. He said redical changes are needed in the profession of librarianship due to the introduction of technology including active participation in the International coalition of library consortia. Availability of journal databases and book digitization of books have changed the profession for the benefit of all users. R.N. Sharma gave his Keynote address on “Technology and Academic Libraries in Developing Nations”. He discussed the challenges and key issues facing academic libraries such as budget, illiteracy, leadership, software, phones and electricity. He emphasized that equal access to information to students and faculty in all developing and under developed countries is a necessity and efforts should be made to remove the hurdles to make it a reality. Ann Okerson of Yale University spoke on the Digital Libraries in the 21st Century Global Environment. A majority of papers were quality papers and will have for reaching impact on the future of academic libraries for years to come. The conference was well organized and a two volume proceedings of the conference were released by Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission of India. Other attractions of the conference were an Exhibition by major national and international companies, and cultural programs of dances and music by the students of the University of Delhi, and Anuradha Singh, a well known Kathak dancer of India. The road map to 2020 was prepared by eminent experts to bring the much needed changes in libraries including introduction of technology and implement the recommendations effectively by 2020.

Report on an seminar on “Source Materials in India ... for the Study of Arab History”

2009-10-20T14:05:00.017-04:00

New Delhi: "A three-day international seminar on Indian Archives and Libraries as Source for the History of Arabian Peninsula began today at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. Before the formal inauguration of the seminar, Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung welcomed Hassan Faisal Trad, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in India and the delegation consisting of scholars from Saudi Arabia, who have come to participate in this seminar. ..."

"Dr. Ebraheem Al-Batshan, Cultural Attache, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Delhi delivered the key note address on this occasion. He stressed that this international seminar, the first of its kind being organized in India, would go a long way in strengthening ties between the two countries. His speech mainly focused on the historical dimension of the relationship between India and Saudi Arabia."
"Dr. Abdullah Arraqeebah, Director, King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia welcomed the idea of organizing this seminar and stressed the importance for greater cooperation between the Archives and Libraries in India and in Saudi Arabia." Continue reading the first day report: Seminar on Indian libraries as source for history of Arabian Peninsula, 6 October 2009 - By TwoCircles.net News Desk

Seminar's Concept Paper: Full description [pdf]: Centre for West Asian Studies, JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA, New Delhi 110025; brief outline: Anil Pinto

On the same shelf:

Conference: The conservation and preservation of Islamic manuscripts, 18-19...
Islamic Librarianship: A Bibliographic Survey
Persian manuscripts kept in two Indian libraries to be digitized

Who destroyed the Alexandria Library?
Islamic Studies in India : A survey of the human, institutional and documentary sources, by Mohamed Taher, New Delhi , Concept Publishing, 1991; Amazon.com

Oman to Fund a New Library in Uzbekistan: The ‘Abu Alraihan Albairuni’ library

2009-10-16T00:02:00.010-04:00

7 October 2009 MUSCAT — A new library at the Oriental Studies Institute in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent will be built with funds provided by the government of Oman, according to an agreement signed between the two countries on Monday, the second and final day of an official visit here by Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan.

The ‘Abu Alraihan Albairuni’ library will house more than 26,000 manuscripts, 85,000 historical messages, most of them in the Turkish, Uzbek and Farsi languages, as wells as 10,000 manuscripts in Arabic, currently in the possession of the institute.

Most of these rare documents date back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries. UNESCO has listed them in its World Heritage List as there are no similar copies anywhere else in the world.

The accord was signed by National Economy Minister of Oman Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki and Vladir Norov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of  Uzbekistan.

Several other deals were also concluded between the two countries including regularising air transportation and to promote cooperation  in tourism.

The two leaders, during the meetings, also exchanged views on the  latest developments at the regional and international levels, an official  statement said. [source: Khaleej Times Online
ravindranath@khaleejtimes.com]

Sultanate and Uzbekistan ink six pacts and nine MoUs

Visualizing Information based on primary and secondary research

2009-10-03T12:03:00.040-04:00

Diaries, are one form of primary resource for any research or study. Librarians classify diaries and such original information tools as primary source or tools from primary research. When people digest this information and create a summary (or an interpretation) such a publication becomes secondary, a digest of digests become tertiary (depending on the levels of input) and quaternary.

This categorization of primary, secondary, etc., is essential for those who teach the library users--or call it information literacy.
Whereras, such categorization in research helps (those involved in study and research) identify the resources: what to look and when to look.

William A Katz, in his book, Introduction of Reference Work, says: "If the ideal reference service, to paraphrase Andre Malraux is 'reference service without walls', the nature of information does impose certain limitations on that service. This side of tapping experts in the community for 'firsthand' information, the library generally must rely upon published data... A rough way of measuring the usual timelines of materials is to classify them as primary, secondary, or tertiary." (volume one, 1978, p. 15)

Interestingly, information professionals, esp. librarians have time, patience, motivation, and skills to name the process, at each stage: be it input, thruput or output. Taxonomies, metadata, tags and keywords are a big world today, but many don't know that librarians are trained both in school and in work to identify and standardize names, themes and so on.

In short, we had traditionally three types of reference sources, viz., primary, secondary and tertiary. Now, a fourth category has emerged, viz., quaternary [C. A Morlot, Swiss stratigrapher and archaeologist, Originator of the term "Quaternary" as used in Geology, and related fields]

As a reference source, the word quaternary, has different definitions, and this includes:

Anon. Catalogs like the Guide to Reference Sources could even be called quaternary sources.
Urban Dictionary: Quaternary Reference - An unauthoritative reference source based upon unlimited human input.

A good template (sample, model) to visualize bookreview of reference sources, e.g, diary or autobiography, posted on a blog for the autobiographical work, What World is Left, is here: books based on primary and secondary research

Dialing for Answers Where Web Can’t Reach

2009-09-28T16:32:00.005-04:00

By RON NIXON

Published: September 27, 2009

"Question Box connects operators like Phiona Joyo Tee, left, Lydia Apio and Charlene Rwemereza Abireebe with people who have questions, especially about agriculture.

KAMPALA, Uganda — "The caller was frustrated. A new pest was eating away at his just-planted coffee crop, and he wanted to know what to do. Tyssa Muhima jotted down notes as the caller spoke, and promised to call back in 10 minutes with an answer.

Each day, Ms. Muhima and two other young women at this small call center on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital city answer about 40 such calls. They are operators for Question Box, a free, nonprofit telephone hot line that is meant to get information to people in remote areas who lack access to computers. " continue reading

Two News Stories About the USA: Change is Within

2009-09-22T16:46:00.024-04:00

What a co-incidence, two today's news stories, one in India and another in America, both talk about the change that has to be within (aka think externally, act internally):

US needs to change lifestyle to save planet: India,
Betwa Sharma, Press Trust Of India,United Nations, September 22, 2009
Tom Friedman's Take On "Wimps" and "The Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" in Huffington Post
Bottomline from Real Men Tax Ga @ NYTimes.com: "We are hardly a nation of wimps. Sadly, we have a government that is barely functioning. We have a government class too readily looking after its own interests and those of their campaign paymasters, rather than the nation as a whole. This has not always been the case. The American people are and have shown themselves to be capable of extraordinary accomplishments throughout their history. But today, in this world, given the leadership of other societies, much needs be done to change the way we govern ourselves and the way our government functions." Full story: Real Men Tax Gas, By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/tfriedmans-take-on-wimps_b_294370.html

See on the same shelf: When did America become a nation of frightened wimps?

A tale of two countries' libraries - Canada versus USA

2009-09-21T00:30:00.003-04:00

[TARA WALTON/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Jane Pyper, Toronto's chief librarian, in the stacks; books are "the perfect format," the others are ever-changing.]

Click here to read the news story:

A tale of two countries' libraries - Canada vs USA

Private Circulating Libraries in India

2009-08-21T11:55:00.006-04:00

Note: This post is about non-public, i.e., privately funded &/or sponsored &/or independently managed libraries in India. This post is also about fee-based, or subscription based libraries. The public libraries in India, free for all, are funded by the state governments; University, college, research and school libraries are managed by respective institutions.

"The history of circulating libraries (in India) finds its place before 1770s. This was John Andrews Circulating Library in Old Fort premises at Calcutta. It survived for a short while and by 1780s it closed. Not only did this library circulate books to subscribers it also allowed its members to take home its catalog for consultation. What more user-friendly librarians did the people need? Why did this library so nice and so kind, close down? Perhaps, people did not know the value of such a friendly situation. This was also a book selling store. During this period we have historical evidences of existence of other similar circulating libraries." (p.77) Subscription or fee-based) libraries include Calcutta Book Society (founded 1817) with its branches in Bombay and Madras, Calcutta Library Society (f. 1818), and British Council's first library in Bombay (f. 1953) and American Library in Caclutta (f. 1943). Librarianship and Library Science in India : An outline of historical perspectives. (Mohamed Taher and Donald Davis) New Delhi , Concept Publishing,1994 Amazon.com

New age lending libraries for children
EasyLib.com: The Biggest Online Library in Bangalore
Eloor Libraries : For Love of Good Books!
Librarywala™ The Knowledge Library
Discussion @ Yahoo Answers: circulating libraries in India
Circulating & Public Libraries in Mumbai
User Expectations in Private-Public Libraries in India

Nalanda Digital Library, NIT Calicut

2009-08-02T23:50:00.001-04:00

Nalanda Digital Library, NIT Calicut is an integral constituent body of National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kerala and started functioning as the largest digital library of India since 1999. It renders its undistinguished services to about 3000 users from all walks of life including undergraduate, post graduate students and research scholars of different branches of Engineering and Faculty and Staff from various departments of the institute and Neighboring Institutions. Continue reading

The Best and Worst Jobs -- Ranking professions

2009-01-09T00:27:00.005-05:00

Ranked 43. Librarian
Selects and organizes materials to make information available to the public.

Overall Ranking: 43
Overall Score: 334
Work Environment: 385.200
Physical Demands: 7.56
Stress: 21.400
Income: $52,142
Hours per Week: 42.5

Read the full list and the article: Doing the Math to Find Good Jobs

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
Nineteen years ago, Jennifer Courter set out on a career path that has since provided her with a steady stream of lucrative, low-stress jobs. Now, her occupation -- mathematician -- has landed at the top spot on a new study ranking the best and worst jobs in the U.S.

International Workshop on Information Literacy 2009

2009-01-07T21:52:00.007-05:00

International Workshop on Information Literacy (IWIL) 2009
Date: 22-26 June 2009
Organized byIndependent University, Bangladesh
(IUB)Sponsored byThe International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions (IFLA)
Venue: Independent University, Bangladesh,
Baridhara, Dhaka
The Key resource person for the workshop is:
Professor Gary Gorman, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Click here for more details

EU's new digital library operational again

2008-12-28T10:59:00.000-05:00

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's first large-scale digital library, Europeana (www.europeana.eu), was online again Tuesday, a month after it crashed after being overwhelmed by readers' interest.

"Europeana works again ... after we have quadrupled server capacity," European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr told a daily news briefing. continue reading

See my previous post: Europeana ~ On hold

Europeana ~ On hold

2008-12-14T13:05:00.007-05:00

Info courtesy: Dawn Bassett @ A Librarian's ramblings

Please wait, you are in queue, Your Click is Important to Us: "We launched the Europeana.eu site on 20 November and huge use - 10 million hits an hour - meant it slowed to a crawl. We are doing our best to reopen Europeana.eu in a more robust version."

10 clues: A new bubble is blowing

2008-12-10T14:56:00.002-05:00

Book titles discussed By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- No bottom yet? No problem! Wall Street needs another bull, is already secretly blowing a newer, bigger bubble. How do we know? Simple. They're bubble-blowers by nature. It's locked in their DNA, controls their brain waves. It's the divine spark that guides their destiny and America's too. .... continue reading

How should national libraries archive blogs?

2008-11-28T18:35:00.010-05:00

November 27, 2008 — Graham Lavender
"I came across an article today at techno-geek site Ars Technica about a new initiative by the German National Library. The Library wants to archive blogs, which is reasonable enough, but through an odd piece of legislation, it appears that they have the authority to require that bloggers deposit their writing in the archives. If bloggers don’t comply, they could face a fine of up to 10 000 euros..." Continue reading

On the same shelf:

MEGA Website for Indian Public Libraries - Is there any?

Blog archives: Web 2.0 tools as sources for social history

German National Library causes blogger uproar

See also books at Amazon.com on related subjects:

Blogging a book ~~ Publish or Perish

2008-11-07T13:44:00.004-05:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Punchline: "Any popular blogger's book would sell, that's the way it works."

'Metrolife finds out that even though more and more bloggers are getting published, not all the books are selling' More from Nina C George @ Deccan Herald » Metro Life - Fri

Untouchables strive to get their hands on India's wealth

2008-11-01T00:18:00.008-04:00

"Bottom of the caste system, the entrepreneurial drive of the Dalits used to be stifled. But slowly that's all changing, writes Richard Orange in Mumbai @ Independent.co.uk

Stepping on to the factory floor of Suryatech Solar Systems is a test of faith. A welded patchwork of rusting scrap has been used to make a second mezzanine floor in a crumbling warehouse on the outskirts of Pune, south-east of Mumbai. Every move is followed by an unnerving boom of wobbling, creaking metal.
"This is the production line," says Mukund Kamalakar, Suryatech's founder, beaming proudly. "I started it in the last year. Before, I used to purchase panels – now we are making 700 to 1,000 each year."
It is a humble set-up – just a series of worktables and a few machines to cut and shape metal into solar-powered water heaters. But in founding Suryatech, Kamalakar – a strapping six-footer – has broken new ground for his caste, the Dalits, who lie at the foot of the old Hindu caste system.
According to Forbes magazine, India has more dollar billionaires than any country except the US and China. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani are, respectively, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-richest men in the world.
But all three of them, like 27 of the 39 Indians on the Forbes rich list, come from India's traditional merchant communities. India's untouchables, the "scheduled castes and tribes" who make up the bottom quarter of India's 1.2 billion population, are absent..." ... More @ The Independent

Businesses Accommodating Religious Festivals

2008-10-28T12:05:00.025-04:00

Latest: Google's Diwali

Diwali Celebrations @ Ikea Store:

See also:

Steve Jobs wishes everyone a belated Ramadhan Mubarak!

From Diwali to Chinese New Year: IKEA Canada Celebrates Holiday Traditions From Around the World
Dance@HCL%20on%20Diwali

Indian festivals: Ethos and health impact

Nod to Ramadan a trend in retailing
Celebrating Diwali the Telugu way Round-the-world
The calendar of commercialism does not reflect our spiritual rhythms
Culture Matters: Navigating India's Holidays

Googlism & Googlistan:

BlogAction Day 2008 ~~ Moment for Indian bloggers to reflect

2008-10-14T14:00:00.011-04:00

Netizens, Bloggers, and the readers (from, of and in India): Do you have a moment to reflect on Economic Competitiveness & Comparative Liveability of India Today:

There is much more to think about than the headlines of the India that glitters. Think, Think and Think of India that is not so as the media tells you.

Background:

This modernising democracy of 1.1 billion people has reached rates of economic expansion of 9% in recent years, with growing software outsourcing and hi-tech manufacturing sectors. However, India’s inefficient agricultural sector is still sustained by government subsidies, energy and transport infrastructure is severely underdeveloped, and natural resources face significant strain. Moreover, the recent dynamic growth seems to have lifted the nascent middle class with fewer benefits for the 80% of Indians who still live on less than $1 a day. India also faces challenges from widespread corruption, and from occasional violence between its many ethnic and religious groups. continue browsing the The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index

NB. Twittering before the BlogAction Day

PS. Info courtesy: Digg here ~~ BlogAction Day 2008 Poverty @ Success With Languages

Punchline: 15th October is also first ever Global Handwashing Day in India.
"Every day India loses around 1,000 children to diarrhoea due to poor hygiene and water borne infections. This means 41 children die every 60 minutes due to this highly preventable disease. Globally, every year, more than 3.5 million children do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday because of diarrhoea and pneumonia. " Global Handwashing Day in India.
Info courtesy: EMPSKHC

INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM as the BEST National Anthem in the World

2008-10-12T16:52:00.013-04:00

Free on the Web; E-mail forwards and turth researched @ www.hoax-slayer.com.
Internet Rumour - UNESCO Chooses ....
Commentary: According to this story, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), has announced that the Indian National Anthem is the best in the world.
©iStockphoto.com/Björn Kindler
The story is currently circulating via email, and has also been posted to many blogs and forums, especially those that target an Indian audience. .. continue reading
DNA - Opinion - World’s ‘best’ national anthem : The buzz on the Internet is that Jana Gana Mana, the Indian national anthem, has been declared as the world’s best national anthem by Unesco

The 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World

2008-09-16T23:25:00.010-04:00

I found this list of 25 on the Web, and surprisingly it misses, the most important world famous modern library, i.e, Library of Alexandria:
The 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World By Christina Laun
Libraries aren’t just musty places to store books with librarians shushing anyone who makes a peep. They’ve become much more than that and the modern library is often home to sleek architecture and the latest technology. These 25 libraries, in no particular order, demonstrate how libraries have become part of the cutting edge of information management, design and Web technology, and all of them can help you get some ideas on how to bring your library into the future.
My question: Are these ranked? Answer: no! Are these evaluated, nope!--
Reader: You will have to do it.
Yes, a few lilbrarians are happy that they are cited:
The 'M' Word - Marketing Libraries: 25 Most Modern Libraries in ...

UCSD Libraries: Geisel Library Named Among 25 Most Modern Libraries

Only one critique of something related: Tame The Web, Dear Fiona (if that IS your name)
See also on the same shelf:
100 extensive Universities Libraries around the World that anyone can access

Global ebook survey reveals encouraging results

2008-08-26T11:10:00.006-04:00

"New findings from a study on e-book usage landed in my inbox earlier this week. Conducted by e-content providers, ebrary the study has been attempting to measure the changing perceptions and patterns of e-book usage among students. It is now in its third run through.
Working with 150 Higher Education librarians throughout the world to design the survey, nearly 6,500 students took part. Such a cross section of academic respondents is certainly respectable. While there is an obvious North American slant to the findings, generally half of the participants were based elsewhere in the world. Around 400 academic institutions took part say ebrary and admittedly the patterns between the US and elsewhere show similar results. So even if there is little in the way of UK eBook habits, the results are revealing all the same." Continue reading the summary by Daniel Griffin @ IWR Blog: June 2008

From the same shelf: What are the advantages of e-books over print books

Who Has The Largest Individual Vocabulary?

2008-08-07T10:53:00.012-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Guess: Native speakers or non-native speakers?

Whatever may happen in the future, regardless of species, who has the largest English vocabulary right now? This is not a straightforward question. Michael Quinion explains why:
“What we mean by word sounds obvious, but it’s not. Take a verb like climb. The rules of English allow you to generate the forms climbs, climbed, climbable, and climbing, the nouns climb and climber (and their plurals climbs and climbers), compounds such as climb-down and climbing frame, and phrasal verbs like climb on, climb over, and climb down. Now, here’s the question you’ve got to answer: are all these distinct words, or do you lump them all together under climb? ...

"Of all the people I know, my meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy definitely has the largest vocabulary, however it’s measured. Growing up in East Bengal, English was not his first language, but I regularly come across English words in his writings which I have never seen before. Take my favourite example: sesquipedalian (meaning a very long word)." continue reading English as a Fecund Language @ Sumangali.org: In the Spirit of Serendipity
Much more about Sri Chinmoy from his fans: My Life with Sri Chinmoy / Photos of Sri Chinmoy / Sri Chinmoy on DVD

Interpreting Library Job Ads

2008-07-20T23:17:00.008-04:00

...from Biblia's Warrior Librarian Weekly:

" ... extensive collection ... "
no weeding has been done for 20 years

" ... maintain archives ..."
several hundred boxes of old papers need filing

" ... multimedia skills are essential... "
we really wanted to hire a computer technician, but the board insisted on a librarian for some reason

" ... must be well organised ... "
things are so chaotic here, someone has to sort out all the mess

" ...stimulating environment ..."
free coffee provided - no de-caff

" ... ability to communicate ... "
everyone is at each other's throats

" ... have appropriate qualifications ... "
that won't be considered in our decision - we just go on gut feeling here . Humor, Much more

To correctly cite this page:
Credaro,A.B.(2002). Interpreting Library Job Ads. Warrior Librarian Weekly [online]
http://www.warriorlibrarian.com/LOL/jobads.html [Accessed:insert date]

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2008

2008-07-01T18:14:00.018-04:00

World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

Access to information by the rural communities in Indian villages: the role of Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF)
M. SANKARA REDDY (Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata, India)
Course choice and equipage of the professionals: implications for restructuring LIS programmes in developing countries with special reference to India
M. BAVAKUTTY (Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India), T.P.O. NASIRUDHEEN and K. C. ABDUL MAJEED (Farook College, Calicut, India)
Creating reading environments: our initiatives in West Bengal, India
RATNA BANDYOPADHYAY (University of Calcutta, The LIS Department, Calcutta, India)
Designing of cultural knowledge portal: a South East Asian experiment
AJAY PRATAP SINGH (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India)
Development and use of humanities collection in hospital libraries in Hyderabad: a survey
V. VISHWA MOHAN and VAHIDEH ZAREA GAVGANI (Dept. of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
From Asian Federation of Library Associations (AFLA) to Regional Federation of South Asian Library Associations (REFSALA) and beyond: a journey incomplete
TRISHANKIT KAUR (Punjabi University, India)
Knowledge Sharing and Practice. RATNA BANDYOPADHYAY (University of Calcutta, India)
Medical humanities collection development: policy guidelines for Indian hospital libraries
MEDHA V. JOSHI (Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India)
The memories of Chinese Buddhist scholars in connection with Nalanda Monastic International University in India in the 7^th century AD
R.H.I.S. RANASINGHE (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka)
Supportive staff in libraries of Visakhapatnam City: an evaluative study
R.S.R. VARALAKSHMI (Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India)
The tele-cottage approach to the community development in the rural Karnataka, India
S.L. SANGAM (Karnatak University, Dharwad, India)

Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine: World Wide Webliographers' Revisited

2008-06-17T19:06:00.014-04:00

Classifying the World - A Film by Francoise Levie

SCIENCE | June 17, 2008
The Web Time Forgot
By ALEX WRIGHT
The Mundaneum Museum honors the first concept of a world wide wonder, sketched out by Paul Otlet in 1934 as a global network of “electric telescopes.”...

Extract: Historians typically trace the origins of the World Wide Web through a lineage of Anglo-American inventors like Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson. But more than half a century before Tim Berners-Lee released the first Web browser in 1991, Otlet (pronounced ot-LAY) described a networked world where “anyone in his armchair would be able to contemplate the whole of creation.”...

On the same shelf:

[Info courtesy: sdyck@hevanet.com ]

Guyana's Randall Butisingh is a blogger at the age of 96

2008-06-15T11:55:00.006-04:00

Making by Stealing of Un-cited (Recycled) Content in the Wiki Age: Role of Librarians?

2008-06-06T17:19:00.063-04:00

What comes to our mind by seeing the emerging open-source and open-gate information revolution? (most Netizens may think this as an avenue to be creative, in terms of manipulating and exploiting the deep Web--with the freedom and choice to use the Read-Write Web, 24X7, via blogs, wikis, and second life in nano-seconds)

"We the users turned creators and distributors of content are TIME's Person of the Year 2006, and AdAge's advertising agency of the year. We form a new Generation C. We have MySpace, YouTube, and OurMedia; we run social software, and drive the development of Web 2.0. But beyond the hype, what's really going on?" Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and B... >>>>>>-----

The following links may make us think (indirectly, albeit) about a role libaries may have in promoting best practices for knowledge sharing:

[KG Audit Disc] Is Knowledge inequality an open invitation to mass-destruction of knowledge? [Read my views on how a revolutionary timesaving approach, "cut and paste" has metamorphosed into a fancy synonym for organized knowledge piracy, and on a bigger canvas as a psychological disorder that needs to be checked.
Looking forward to your views.
Best wishesSaurabh]

Copyright, Copyleft & the Creative Anti-Commons
Cut/Copy/Paste - Three Shortcuts That Killed Creativity ...
CARL - The Cyberspace Is Not A "No Law Land"
ControlC: Turning Cut & Paste Into A Web Service

KnowledgePerson.com blog: Why understanding is knowledge

Knowledge as information in transition

YouTubers cut and paste at their peril - Technology - smh.com.au

Carnegie Mellon Libraries: Information Ethics Problem of the Month ...

Libraries Unleashed: the Guardian Tackles Library Technology Issues

Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values

Study of Internet's Impact on Museums and Libraries

Book publishers seek ways to adapt to Web SiliconValley.com

Encyclopaedia Britannica Goes -- Gasp! -- Wiki

Stealing slogans from the Web

Tragedyof the Commons Revisited: Librarians, Publishers, Faculty and ...

Hackers, phishers can't get away with it like they used to By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
Sell More by Sharing on Peer to Peer Networks
They say that piracy on the Internet decreases sales. Everywhere you hear figures in hundreds of millions dollars/euros of revenues lost by sellers of music, movies, software and books.
Is it really true? Can you have a different take on sales by sharing? Here is a different story.
Paulo Coelho, author of books such as “The Alchemist” and “The Witch of Portobello”, sold over 100 million books last year. He puts this success down to BitTorrent, as he saw a huge increase in sales when his books appeared on sites such as The Pirate Bay.

And this, too, shall pass away -- Multicultural, Multifaith, Multilingual, Multifaceted Ring

2008-05-17T12:36:00.015-04:00

Interesting resource, creatish and mindful: Avi Solomon's

GZY Resources

Obituary of Dr. George N. Atiyeh

2008-05-08T21:55:00.015-04:00

Dr. George Atiyeh's books at Amazon.

Dr. and Mrs. George Atiyeh at the 1999 Awards Ceremony:

The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) of the Library of Congress mourns the death of Dr. George Atiyeh who passed away on April 21st, 2008, at the Virginian Nursing Home in suburban Fairfax County, VA. Until 1995, and for almost three decades, he headed AMED's Near East Section, retiring from the Library when he became incapacitated by a stroke. His wife Daisy took care of him at home assisted by their three children. Throughout those years, AMED staff visited him regularly, and on occasions Daisy wheeled him to his beloved Library to visit with friends and former staff.

"George" as he was known to all in the Library of Congress, was born in Amyun, Lebanon, in 1923. He graduated from the American University in Beirut in 1950 with an M.A. in history, and in 1954 received a doctorate in the history of philosophy from the University of Chicago. That year he was hired at the University of Puerto Rico, where he became a professor and administrator, and later met his wife Daisy. He joined the Library of Congress in 1967, and became head of the Near East section, helping make its collections world renowned by acquiring rare materials, and ensuring that all current publications from the region were purchased for the Library. He organized major conferences, bringing the best scholars on the region to participate, and producing books based on their presentations including The Book in the Islamic World, in 1995, which he edited. He also wrote widely on Arab philosophy, Christian-Muslim relations, and Arab intellectual history.

Atiyeh played an important role serving on various boards including on a Department of State Commission on U.S.- Egyptian relations, and on a White House advisory committee on Islamic Affairs. He also served on the board of The Middle East Journal, the Arab-American Affairs Council, and the international board of al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in London. A lifelong member of the Middle East Studies Association, he was also a founding member of the Middle East Librarian Association (MELA).

A funeral service was held at Saints Peter & Paul Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, on Monday April 28, that was attended by many Library of Congress staff, friends and family. Survivors include his wife Daisy Roper, his three children Nicholas, Rose Marie, and Lancelot, his three sisters Jamal, Eugenie and Najla, and four brothers, Naim, Atiyeh, Maurice, and Michel, and two grandchildren.

Mary-Jane Deeb, Ph.D.Chief, African and Middle Eastern DivisionLibrary of Congress

email: mdee@loc.govphone: 202-707-1221 fax: 202-252-3180

Pangea Day: Kenya sings for India

2008-04-16T19:34:00.011-04:00

Info courtesy: SHIRIN S. BADLANI & Suresh Lalvani @ http://www.spectrascribe.com/

Pangea Day - May 10, 2008: A Global Film Event Harnessing the ...
Can Your Film Change the World? Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion, uniting millions of people to build a better ...

What other bloggers are saying:

Says Chris Anderson, TED Curator

Take a look at these films. They are each just one minute long. They feature a choir in one country singing another country’s national anthem: a simple idea that packs surprising emotional power.

France sings for USA
Japan sings for Turkey
They were shot by film directors looking to support the landmark TED project Pangea Day (which I hope you have calendared for Saturday, May 10)

Pangea Day Hopes to Bring the World Together Through Film
15 Apr 2008 by Paul

Is Pangea Day Coming to Your Library?
14 Apr 2008 by Nancy Dowd

Connections, Sharing of ideas, Pangea Day, May 10, 2008
1 Apr 2008 by Steve Doyne

Browse more via Google Blog search

Brampton Library's Sarala Uttangi makes headlines @ DesiTalk

2008-03-12T20:14:00.029-04:00

DesiTalk March 7, 2008

Brampton Library unveils new site for ‘Local History and Geneology’ collection at Four Corners branch. Sarala Uttangi, Multicultural Services Coordinator at Brampton Library leads the team that developed the multilingual collection. The local history collection includes the oral history of newcomers. (Photo: Gloria Elayadathusseril)

■ "Brampton Library at Four Corners branch New site for ‘Local History and Geneology’ collection unveiled" By Gloria Elayadathusseril

"The Brampton Library officially opened the new site for its ‘Local History and Genealogy’collections, on February 26, at the Four Corners Branch. The local history collection, includes interviews of prominent community members including several Indo-Canadians.

Sarala Uttangi, Multicultural Services Coordinator at the library, played a critical role in the team that put together the collection which includes books, photographs, maps, high school yearbooks, newspapers dating back to the 1800s, telephone books and community information about buildings and businesses and people of Brampton and the surrounding areas.South Asians currently have a very small presence in the collection, Uttangi noted. "To feature in the local history collection, it should be at least 99 years old. Similarly, with Genealogy, South Asians have not been in Brampton that long," she told Desi Talk. Through a media history project, the library has started to record oral history to include newcomers. Prominent community members were invited to come and be interviewed. They were videotaped and the tapes are available on DVD as part of the collection. Clips are available at the library's Web site, www.bramptonlibrary.ca. The interviews are about newcomers’ experiences as well as their progressive involvement in communities at large.

'
Among those featured in the media project are, Kalyani Bhattacharya, a teacher at the Bengali Language School; Gurbax Singh Malhi, Member of Parliament (Bramalea-Gore-Malton); Kuldip Kular, Member of Provincial Parliament (Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale), who arrived in Canada in 1974; and Monisha Ramgahan, a second generation Indo-Canadian.
A book entitled ‘Brampton Inspired Capacity’ published as part of the Urban Mosaic Series of photo-journals by Charles Owen and Company, scrapbooks and poster projects on the community are also part of the collection."Brampton is now one of the most ethnically diverse cities in all of Canada. But that's a recent development in terms of Brampton's history. So we made some effort to try and kind of level the playing field and highlight the newcomer community here in Brampton," Branch Manager Emma Duncan told Desi Talk.
The library system in Brampton, has however identified South Asians as a large multicultural and multilingual community, and materials on this community make up more than half of its multilingual collection, according to Uttangi.
"We are still depending on the 2001 census report. According to that, 48 percent of the visible minority were of South Asian origin in Brampton," she said. "Considering the internal statistics on circulation, Hindi followed by Punjabi tops the list of all multilingual languages.
Tamil, Urdu and Gujarati follow the two in the South Asian language collection circulation figures and overall, within the top 10.”
"We are waiting for the April 2 census report on ethnic origin and visible minorities," Uttangi said, adding, "I am sure Tamil which is now in the second tier will come into the top tier so we will buy more material in that language."
Hindi tops the circulation list because of the popular Bollywood DVDs and CDs, according to Uttangi. "All watch Bollywood movies.. whether Indian, Canadian, Japanese ... we don't even have a shelf to keep these because they are gone the moment they come in!"
If circulation in any particular language goes down, the library does not add more materials for that. "For example, there is a large Filipino community here but the reading material in Tagalog did not circulate much," Uttangi said. She found the community watched more Tagalog videos, but read basically English books. "When we started developing a DVD collection, we got so many requests for Tagalog... we build the material depending on the needs of the community."
For children's books "We have dual language picture books. It is almost like inter-generational books where a child may read the book to grandparents if they don't know English, and the grandparents can read the book in their own language to understand the story. So half the page will be in English and the other half in Hindi or Punjabi..." Uttangi said.
The library also offers programs for newcomers on settlement issues, money management, building self-esteem, Canadian culture in the workplace, foreign credentials recognition, "Anything that is useful for them," she stressed. "I collaborate and partner with different agencies in Brampton for this."
Uttangi has been in the Brampton Library system for the past 19 years. She occasionally makes presentations to the approximately 180 staff members on how to deal with multiculturalism including how to interact with members of various communities, religions and cultures. "The presentation is about two hours long. It is from the library's perspective." She has been the Multicultural Services Coordinator since the position was created in 2004, and also sits on various committees and boards that serve the multicultural community, such as the Brampton Board of Trade's Multicultural Committee which was one of the first to help ethnic businesses in Brampton integrate into mainstream.
"So you see it's not just a library but the community as a whole we are looking at serving."
"Brampton is now one of the most ethnically diverse cities in all of Canada. But that's a recent development in terms of Brampton's history. So we made some effort to try and kind of level the playing field and highlight the newcomer community here in Brampton," Emma Duncan, Four Corners Branch Manager told Desi Talk.

Tejinder Sibia, 70, dies; documented Sikhs' history in California

2008-03-10T10:16:00.014-04:00

I think by his great contributions, he continues to live in the digital memory of the World. For instance, view this documentary byte: 'Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965,' picture

"Remembered for: Documenting and promoting the history and culture of Punjabis and Sikhs in California and the Pacific Northwest; head of the Shield Library research unit for biology and agriculture at the University of California, Davis"
"He became an unofficial archivist of the Asian Indian pioneers in California, filling in the blanks of their little-known history with a collection of rare historic photographs and documents compiled on a Web site, http://www.sikhpioneers.org/" notes, Chris Bowman @ sacbee.com Source

News headlines:

Libraries News: Indian-American historian Ted is dead

Indian-American scholar Tejinder dead

Indian-American historian Ted is dead: After his retirement as a librarian from the University of California at Davis, he devoted his time to chronicling the history of Gadar leaders and early Indian Sikh pioneers through his web site www.sikhpioneers.com. It became a rich reference material for research on the Indian diaspora.

Death info courtesy: K Prasanna @ motorola.com

Now, Tata to help American poor

2008-03-05T01:06:00.000-05:00

Tata Group North America has joined First Book, Washington, February 28: Expressindia.com

The Tata Group has extended its philanthropic efforts to the United States, where it is bidding to acquire Ford’s Landrover and Jaguar automobile brands, to distribute 65,000 new books to children in need. Continue reading

"First Book, a non-profit organisation with the mission to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books, has provided more than 50 million new books to children in need in thousands of communities in the US. As the largest India-headquartered multinational in North America, Tata has more than 80 offices in the US and Canada and more than 15,000 employees." Thaindian News

Update: Tata Companies Unite to Support First Book and Distribute 65,000 New Books to Children in Need, http://www.foxbusiness.com/

Multicultural Canadian Website: Promotes History of Indo-Canadians

2008-03-01T17:57:00.019-05:00

The Government of Canada Supports Simon Fraser University Library under a project called "Documenting and Exploring Multicultural Canada".
"This project on the study and exploration of Canadian multiculturalism involves upgrading the Multicultural Canada website by digitizing various documents that record the contribution of different ethnocultural communities to Canadian society. Among other things, the website will bring together documents, newspapers, and sound clips currently scattered throughout different libraries and archive services. The site will be a unique source of information on the history of the Chinese, Ukrainian, German, Hungarian, Vietnamese, and Indo-Canadian communities in Canada. Information will be provided in English and French and in the language of each community."
"The goal of this project is to preserve and provide access to the record of individuals and communities of Canada’s peoples. Through newspapers, interviews, photographs, letters, family papers and oral histories, the people who have made Canada have documented their experience." Says Lynn Copeland, Dean of Library Services, Simon Fraser University Library. Project contacts
See also on the shelf:
Library and Archives Canada: Multicultural Initiatives
Japanese Canadian Story Telling
The Historical Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia (www.hclmbc.org)

eBooks from European Libraries

2008-02-21T16:21:00.002-05:00

eod eBooks - eBooks on Demand - is a European project to make millions of books in European libraries available electronically on demand.
From About eod: "Users will be able to order eBooks via the common library catalogues; the libraries will then digitise the requested item and send it to the user via the EOD service network. The books digitised in this way will simultaneously be incorporated into the digital libraries of the participating libraries and thus be accessible on the Internet."
Currently the project includes 13 libraries from 8 European countries. The UK and
France are not on the list of participating countries: Austria and Germany are.
Source: Gwen @ Internet News

Library Lovers Day

2008-02-16T22:10:00.009-05:00

That's a creative visualization of The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and their associates:

Library Lovers Day - An ALIA, PLA initiative. February 14th, 2008.
Interflora competition winners
We would love to get your feedback about
Library Lovers Day. Please fill in the form here.
For centuries February 14 has been known as Valentine's Day, a time beloved of romantics. Now a new era has begun with Library Lovers everywhere claiming the day for the objects of their special affection - Australia's libraries.
People are devoted to their library and not just on one day of the year. Millions of library lovers across Australia must be right!
Promote your collections - use lines like "go to bed with a book", or "share a book with someone you love". It's also a great opportunity to showcase your romance, relationship enhancement or true love (ie biography) titles.
Tempt users to have a blind date with a book and venture outside their comfort zone! Wrap it in brown paper (tied up with string!) and encourage them to take one home as an "extra". To make it easier write the barcode on the outside of the package.
Much more from the http://www.librarylovers.org.au/
This is cited in Book Patrol: A Haven for Book Culture; and Infobib
Interessantes aus Informations- und Bibliothekswesen

Pioneering library sparks volunteerism

2008-02-12T01:36:00.000-05:00

Launched after a successful international pledge campaign in 2007, the Bakul children's library in Bhubaneshwar is slowly turning into a node for various kinds of volunteering. Professors, young artists, students, organisers and others have started chipping in. Sailen Routray has more. @ India Together: 25 January 2008

To view a slideshow @ flickr click here!

Hope for British Library, Thiruvananthapuram

2008-02-06T01:57:00.000-05:00

The widespread concern over the plan to close down the British Library in Thiruvananthapuram seems to be paying off. Since no one is ready to let the library go, the idea now is for the Kerala government to take over its management. The BL has agreed to hand over the books and other facilities to the government. That's a significant breakthrough, since the earlier decision was to distribute the books to other British Libraries. The government chief secretary is preparing a report on the plan of action. (Report in The Hindu.)
continue reading @ Time and Tide [info courtesy: Mysore Blog Park]

Career Path of an "International Librarian"

2008-02-01T18:21:00.000-05:00

By Arthur Vespry*, Director, Library and Regional Documentation CentreAsian Institute of Technology
Special Libraries Association - Toronto ChapterVolume 33, Number 4, March/April, 1996
I grew up in Trinidad where as a student I worked in the Public Library. I took my first professional training from the Library Association (Britain) and came to Canada for my BA (Ottawa) and my BLS (McGill). continue reading
*See also: the Memorial to H. Arthur Vespry (1931–2008)

Reading now: International and Comparative Studies in Information and Library Science

2008-01-29T01:24:00.000-05:00

A Focus on the United States and Asian Countries

Series: Libraries and Librarianship: An International Perspective #3. Edited by Yan Quan Liu and Xiaojun Cheng

Introduction by Dr. Yan Quan Liu.

Contents:
NB. To read the following, point mouse over and scrolling stops!!!

'
Part 1: Research Methodologies
1. Comparative Librarianship Lalitha K. Sami
2. International Library and Information Science Research: A Comparison of National Trends Maxine Rochester and Pertti Vakkari
3. Comparison between the People's Republic of China and the United States in the Field of Library and Information Science Weina Hua
4. Introducing an International Cooperative Research Method Employed in Cross-Country Studies in Information and Library Science Yan Quan Liu
Part 2: Information Policy
5. The Impact of National Policy on Developing Information Infrastructure Nationwide: Issues in the People's Republic of China and the United States Yan Quan Liu
Part 3: Professional Education
6. Is the Education on Digital Libraries Adequate? Yan Quan Liu
7. An Investigation of LIS Qualifications throughout the World Pete Dalton and Kate Levinson
8. A Comparative Study of Library and Information Science Education: China and the United States Ziming Liu
9. A Comparison Study on the Confusion and Threat of the United States and Chinese Library Education Xudong Jin
10. Motivation to Manage: A Comparative Study of Male and Female Library and Information Science Students in the United States of America, India, Singapore, and Japan Sarla R. Murgai
Part 4: Information Organization and Services
11. Digital Library Infrastructure: A Case Study on Sharing Information Resources in China Yan Quan Liu and Jin Zhang
12. Cataloging Nonprint Resources in the United States and China: A Comparative Study of Organization and Access for Selected Electronic and Audiovisual Resources Yan Ma, Steve J. Miller, and Yan Quan Liu
Part 5: Academic Libraries
13. A Comparative Study of the Use of the Academic Libraries by Undergraduates in the United States and Taiwan Ting-Ming Lai
Part 6: Public Libraries
14. International Public Library Trends Nerida Clifford
15. The Use of the National Library Statistics by Public Library Directors Yan Quan Liu and Douglas L. Zweizig
16. National Public Library Statistics and Management: A Comparison between the United States and People's Republic of China Yan Quan Liu
Part 7: School Libraries
17. Teachers' Perceptions of School Libraries: Comparisons between Tokyo and Honolulu Yuriko Nakamura
18. An International Study on Principal Influence and Information Services in Schools: Synergy in Themes and Methods James Henri, Lyn Hay, and Dianne Oberg
Appendix A: Schools Offering International and Comparative Librarianship Related Courses
Appendix B: Journals Pertaining to International and Comparative Studies in ILS
Appendix C: International Conferences on Information and Library Science
Appendix D: Web Resources Relating to Information and Library Science Worldwide
Bibliography
Index

Picturing the Global Library: A Call for Photos of Libraries Around the World

2008-01-28T12:07:00.000-05:00

Calling all globetrotting librarians!
Super Conference 2008 is lookingat the library experience around the world. Do you have pictures ofphotos of libraries you've snapped in your travels? If you’ve got somehidden away on your hard drive or in a photo album please help us bysubmitting them to OLA. Photos of any kinds of libraries (or librarians)in any location are good: modern, classic, grand, humble, old, new,familiar, exotic, famous, obscure...all are good!Photos will be used in a gallery on the OLA Super Conference Web site,at plenary sessions throughout the conference and, most particularly, atthe closing plenary on Saturday, Feb. 2nd during the luncheon in whichincoming IFLA President Ellen Tise from South Africa will be speaking.Photos can be submitted in any of the following ways:
* Send digital photos to superconference@accessola.com (in any format but as high a resolution as possible).
* If you are a Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) member, you may submit photos to the “Libraries of the World – OLA Super Conference Pool” Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ola_worldlibraries//.
Again, as high a resolution as possible.
* Send print photos to OLA, 50 Wellington St. East, Suite 201, Toronto M5E 1C8.
Photos can be picked up at Super Conference from the Information Desk in the Registration Lobby. Any photos not picked up will be mailed to their owners following the Conference.For each photo, please provide your name, e-mail, the location of thelibrary, its name if appropriate and a sentence or two about anythingyou want to point out, either about the library or about what is in thephoto.----------------------------------------
Mark Robertson, OLA Super Conference 2008 Coordinator

Those who said libraries dead should eat their words

2008-01-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Shelving assistant Gabriela Rachkova, 17, restocks books at the soon to be re-opened Jane/Dundas Branch." />

A CITY OF READERS
Toronto Star, Jan 17, 2008. Philip Marchand Entertainment Reporter
Like `everybody's living room,' libraries are vital to civic life, their supporters say.

Toronto culture has its ups and downs, but the city's libraries have always remained solid.
We seem to be, relatively speaking, a city of readers and our library system is supreme in North America – far overshadowing in total circulation, number of branches and number of visits, the library systems of such cities as Chicago and Los Angeles. continue reading

Orient loses Longman

2008-01-14T20:36:00.000-05:00

Mumbai, Jan. 14: Orient Longman — the Hyderabad-based publisher of educational books — is losing its suffix. The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata),
Pearson Education group of the UK has reclaimed the rights to the Longman brand in India in an out-of-court settlement with Orient Longman.
In 2006, Pearson Education, the owner of the Longman name worldwide, had filed a suit against Orient Longman in a British court to assert its right to the Longman brand. Under the terms of the settlement, Orient Longman has agreed to stop using the Longman brand by November 2008. But it will be able to use the expression “formerly known as Orient Longman” for another year until November 2009. Continue reading

India's Contribution to Open Source Movement - NEWGENLIB

2008-01-12T08:02:00.000-05:00

Dear All,

I am happy rather excited to inform you that NewGenLib - Library automation/Management software finally became Open source. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Haravu and Mr. Siddarth, the main persons behind the software.

I always feel, India is more a downloading country, hardly anything to offer to the rest of the world.

Even Indian software industry is mostly service oriented rather than product oriented.

I feel rather proud that India's Open s/w happened in the field of Library and Information Science ( Am I communal, more biased to library profession, yes I do not mind being communal).

From technical point of view, NewGenLib has good back-end technology - Java based, Lucene Search Engine, postgreSQL, JBOSS.

Highly standards compliant - MARC21, Z39.50, UNICODE (Indian Language records can be generated), ILL -- you name any. It is more compliant than many of the so-called commercial software.

I am sure Library professionals all over the world will welcome it, encourage it and the keep it up-to-date. In one word, future-proof. (as technology keeps evolving, so is the software. Remember, how far we traveled from command-lines, to menus, to GUI and now Web-based).

We all can seriously, think of organizing the hands-on training courses, just as we all did in case of CDS/ISIS and DSpace. It can be deployed in any kind of library - public or academic or special

Yes, in my excitement, I forgot, You can download from Website
You all can help in preparing various user manuals. I look forward for you response. Perhaps, by next week, I should be able to configure and show a demo version of it on DRTC site.

Meanwhile, I look forward for you response.

with best regards
ard
Home Page
--
ARD Prasad, Ph.D.
Documentation Research & Traning Centre (DRTC)
Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)
8th Mile Mysore Road
Bangalore 560 059
India
Phone (Off): +91-80-28483002 Ext. 496

----Info courtesy: Dr. Abbas Khan, Moulana Azad National Urdu University

Report: Reagan library can't find items

2007-11-08T20:56:00.000-05:00

Thu Nov 8, 7:59 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum can't locate or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years according to a published report.
An audit by the National Archives inspector general concluded that the library in Simi Valley was unable to properly account for more than 80,000 objects out of its collection of some 100,000 artifacts, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Wednesday night. continue reading
see also: Thousands Of Items Missing From Reagan Library CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles

Librarians at the gate

2007-11-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

MILESTONES
Cities worldwide are investing in libraries as never before, hoping for that `Bilbao effect,' the kind of civic shot in the arm only an ambitious building can provide. In its modest way, Toronto is no exception
Nov 03, 2007 04:30 AM Christopher Hume Urban Affairs Columnist, Toronto Star
extract: "...Though long overdue, libraries are finally starting to get the respect they deserve. Despite reports of their demise, they have not only survived the onslaught of civic poverty and computerized knowledge, they have thrived.
Cities around the world are investing in libraries as never before. In some instances, new libraries have created their own "Bilbao effect," changing the very image and perception of a community. The most celebrated example is that of Seattle, which famously hired Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design its new main branch. The result is one of the most original buildings of the 21st century. Most remarkable, it isn't just another pretty face; it actually functions.
Even more interesting in some respects was the 2002 "reconstruction" of the legendary Alexandria Library in Egypt. Destroyed in antiquity, it has been now been dramatically replaced by the Norwegian architectural firm, Snohetta.
Though Toronto has nothing of equal significance, we are well into a library rebuilding campaign that for all its modesty has had impressive results. Most of the work has occurred in small neighbourhood branches such as Runnymede, Malvern and the Beach. A total of 12 buildings have been renovated so far; next year another six will be completed.
Now, the biggest city library of all, the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge St. just north of Bloor, is undergoing renovation. The fact that the building opened 30 years ago this week brings extra meaning to the project, which couldn't have come at a better time.
... But does our attitude toward libraries allow us to view them as cultural facilities?
In Toronto it seems we understand them as being somewhere between a public work and an educational institution.
They are both, of course, but more. In its essence, the library is a repository of knowledge, as well as an archive and place of learning. Nothing could be nobler, but we prefer they remain in the public sector, paid for with tax dollars." continue reading
See also in same shelf and aisle: Toronto Reference Library renovation update And a comment on the above article : "That is exciting news... Hume downplays the success of the Toronto Library system, but it is an extremely successful organization, with few equals on the continent. I would be very happy to see the Reference Library updated. The interior skeleton has potential, but it cries out for help."

Library behind bars gets forced into closet

2007-11-03T07:24:00.000-04:00

Oct 24, 2007 04:30 AM Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star
Darlene Soares helped a lot of guys escape from jail. Oh, relax. She put no files in cakes. She ran the library at the Toronto Jail. She gave out books.
Not any more.
We met in her apartment building the other day. She took me back to the beginning. "I was a legal secretary for 20 years. After I retired, I started working as a volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, at Old City Hall. One day we went over to the jail for a visit and I found myself filling out an application as a volunteer."
And then, almost just-like-that, the woman who had been running the library went on vacation and never came back, and Darlene had a library on her hands.
She said, "It was a mess in the beginning. There were empty shelves. There was no budget. I went to the Riverdale Library and asked for any books they were throwing out. I'd bring them home, clean them up, glue them, tape them, and bring them to jail in my bundle buggy." She became an expert at finding good used books for free; and in time – a nice touch, this – she began to get an annual donation of books from the Criminal Lawyers' Association. continue reading
Info courtesy [Found by Bookninja] @ Slow Reading

Stay in India for free via blogger Web site

2007-10-29T00:26:00.000-04:00

Tony Tharakan , Reuters & CanWest News Service, 27 Sep 2007

Hotel rooms in India tend to be expensive and hard to find, but a new Web site is helping visitors find a bed, with a warm conversation thrown in, all for free.
target="blank">

While most hosts on http://www.extrabed.in/ offer a spare bed and an Internet connection, some offer sightseeing tours, endless cups of coffee or even a game of Scrabble to add that personal touch.
The Web site was born after its founder, Kiruba Shankar, randomly contacted bloggers in Mumbai to see if anyone would put him up. He found several. continue reading

Bangla and Bangalooru: The Phonetic Similarity in Jeopardy

2007-10-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

PS. Bear in mind the newstory about the trend to restore original syntax & symantics (A.K.A. Indianization) that was announced in the State of Karnataka (India) -- It's official: Bangalore is now Bengalooru / Bangalore or Bangalooru?

Reference and Research Protests posted by Annoyed Librarian:
It can't happen often that a reference book draws more than yawns and mediocre reviews, but the OUP has stopped selling the Concise Dictionary of World Place Names because of some protests and outcries in India. (This was reported a few days ago, but I'm behind on my news.)
According to the story:"Among other errors, the book, the Concise Dictionary of World Place Names, says that the local language in Bangalore, Karnataka’s capital, is Bengali. Actually the language is Kannada. Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh and neighboring regions of northeastern India." Continue reading

Checking Out Tomorrow's Library

2007-10-20T11:25:00.000-04:00

In Paris, an International Working Group Shows Off the Prototype For a Multilingual 'Intellectual Cathedral' of Digitized Knowledge
By John Ward Anderson, Washington Post Foreign Service -- Thursday, October 18, 2007; A21
PARIS, Oct. 17 -- As ideas go, they don't come much bigger: Digitize the accumulated wisdom of humankind, catalogue it, and offer it for free on the Internet in seven languages.The first phase of that simple yet outlandishly ambitious dream is about a year away from being realized, according to a group of international librarians, computer technicians and U.N. officials who unveiled a prototype for the project, called the World Digital Library, in Paris on Wednesday.
Its creators see it as the ultimate multilingual, multicultural tool for researching and retrieving information about knowledge and creativity from any era or place. The WDL Web site ( http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/) will provide access to original documents, films, maps, photographs, manuscripts, musical scores and recordings, architectural drawings and other primary resources through a variety of search methods. ...
Info courtesy: "Ali Houissa"

Pachauri is the seventh Indian to win the Nobel Prize

2007-10-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief Dr Rajendra Pachauri 'stunned' on receiving Nobel

"I was not expecting any award for my efforts. I feel privileged to share it with Al Gore. I am only a symbolic recipient but it is the organisation which has been awarded,'' he said. "'With this award to the committee, the issue of climate change will come to the fore. It places a larger responsibility on me and I will ensure that more will be done."

Other Indians to win the coveted international recognition are: Rabindranath Tagore (1913) for literature, Sir C V Raman (1930) for Physics, Dr Hargobind Khurana (1968) for Medicine and Physiology, Dr Subramaniam Chandrasekar (1983) for Physics, Mother Teresa (1979) for Peace and Dr Amartya Sen (1998) for Economics. [see also: India Info Centre]

Climate Change and Peoples Capitalism @ Faith Commons
The Color Yellow. Run, Al Gore, Run! (Run, ICRISAT, Run!)

Al Gore ran for US President and lost; he has been running for Global Prescient for 30 years and just won the Nobel Peace Prize, October 13. When running, act locally, think globally. Now at peace, Al Gore is not running for President and losing again. He has been running a greater race. Run, Al Gore, run!

Participatory Librarianship: The Library as Conversation

2007-10-14T07:19:00.000-04:00

An introduction to the participatory librarianship test bed, by Dave Lankes.

See also:

Participatory Librarianship: The Library as Conversation [pdf format]

Participatory Librarianship « Ellen: Learning Library 2.0

The Participatory Librarianship Talking Tour 2007

Massive Scale Librarianship

Excerpts from the "Really Modern Library" blog entry:

2007-10-11T03:45:00.000-04:00

"The goal of this project is to shed light on the big questions about future accessibility and usability of analog culture in a digital, networked world."

"Our aim with the Really Modern Library project is not to build a physical or even a virtual library, but to stimulate new thinking about mass digitization and, through the generation of inspiring new designs, interfaces and conceptual models, to spur innovation in publishing, media, libraries, academia and the arts."

The blog entry also mentions "plans for a major international design competition calling for proposals, sketches, and prototypes for a hypothetical 'really modern library.' " The blog entry goes on to describe this competiton as follows:

"The call for entries will go out to as broad a community as possible, including designers, artists, programmers, hackers, librarians, archivists, activists, educators, students and creative amateurs. Our present intent is to raise a large sum of money to administer the competition and to have a pool for prizes that is sufficiently large and meaningful that it can compel significant attention from the sort of minds we want working on these problems."

For more info, go to: the really modern library

Info courtesy: Bernie Sloan.

RANGANATHAN REVISITED: FACETS FOR THE FUTURE

2007-10-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

ISKO UK meeting: Connecting communities: Content, knowledge, information: Same Difference?

Event Details:
5th November 2007
14:00 - 18:00
Venue
University College London
Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre (G08), Ground Floor, Engineering Faculty
Roberts Building, Torrington Place, WC1E 7JE
Programme

14:00
Vanda Broughton Facet analysis as a fundamental theory of knowledge organization

14:40
Claudio Gnoli ‘Classic’ vs. 'freely' faceted classification

15:20
Jan Wyllie
Simon Eaton Faceted classification as an intelligence analysis tool

16:00
Tea/coffee

16:30
Factiva Faceted Categorisation for the corporate desktop
Visualisation and interaction using metadata to enhance user experience

17:15
Aduna AutoFocus: An Open-source Facet-Driven Enterprise Search Solution

18:00
Networking, wine & nibbles

Click here for more Info

The BOBs - BEST OF THE BLOGS - My Electronic Library 2.0

2007-10-01T01:14:00.000-04:00

PS. If you see it deserves, vote this blog [request to circulate this message by Blogmaster Heyam Hayek, a Kids Librarian.]

Rare manuscript, textile from Northeast holed up in museums abroad

2007-09-30T14:15:00.000-04:00

Times of India, 25 Sep 2007

GUWAHATI: A number of objects from Northeast India, much more ancient than Mahatma Gandhi's handwritten letter recently recovered from a British auction, are preserved in museums and private possessions in Europe and Southeast Asian countries, researchers have claimed.

Samiran Baruah, a researcher in the Assam State Museum says manuscripts of Brahmabaibhatta Purana belonging to the 18th century is in the British Museum.

" Vrindavani Vastra -- the figured silks from Assam -- from the 16th-18th century are found preserved in the British Museum, Chepstow museum in UK and Gemau Museum in France," he told reporters.

Sachipath Puthi (manuscript book) is occupying a place in British Museum.

Vrindavani Vastra are rare silk textile fragments depicting scenes from the life of Lord Krishna in a floral, naturalistic and preciously elegant style. They were used in the worship of Vishnu in the ancient Assamese monasteries.

Baruah had earlier documented 33 manuscripts including 3,000 paintings scattered in many satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) in Assam.

"Probably during the British rule, researchers found these objects and took them to their country," claims Baruah.

On the Vrindavani Vastra , belonging to the times of Assamese Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankaradeva, Baruah cited the findings by Rosemary Crill, author and a curator in the Indian Department at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

Forthcoming Events in India and Malaysia

2007-09-21T11:43:00.000-04:00

53rd ALL INDIA LIBRARY CONFERENCE (ILA CONFERENCE), at Osmania University, Hyderabad, 13-16 Dec 2007. naglaxman@yahoo.com OR naglaxman@gmail.com

XXVI All India IASLIC Conference at Jamia Millia, Delhi, 26-29 Dec, 2007. gayas_makhdumi@yahoo.co.in gm@yahoo.co.in

Kolkata Book Fair, 2008
THE KOLKATA BOOK FAIR is the largest book fair in the world, with over 2.8 million people attending over the span of a week. US DELEGATION; More information at http://www.kolkatabookfaironline.com info@uskle.org

International Conference On Libraries 2007 (ICOL 2007), the continuity of ICOL 2005 will be held in conjunction with the celebration of 50 years of nationhood of Malaysia at Penang during October 31 - November 2 2007, icol2007@gmail.com

Indo-American Librarian Series - Dr. Sarla R. Murgai

2007-09-13T18:53:00.000-04:00

"Professor Sarla Murgai came to the university from Chattanooga City College in 1969 when it was absorbed into UTC as a result of the UT/UC merger that year. She had been with the City College for a year, and when she came to UTC the library was in Fletcher Hall. Over the years she has worked for four different library deans, and two interim library heads. She notes that every Dean brought a different personality and perspective, view, and vision to the library and the campus, as well as to librarianship and campus goals."

"She once served as Head of Circulation, and was in that position when the university converted its catalog to the online VTLS system in the early 1980s. The biggest changes she’s seen in her thirty-six years at UTC have been the move to the new library building in 1974, the digitization of records, automation of circulation and reference databases, and the acquisition of over one hundred databases. Prior to coming to the United States, Dr. Murgai was teaching Library Science at the Women’s Polytechnic in Delhi, India. She had received her first library science degree from the University of Delhi, and received another from Atlanta University. She also received certification in medical librarianship from Emory University in Atlanta. UTC and Lupton Library has benefited from having Dr. Murgai serve the campus community in Lupton Library!" [ source ]
She completed her Ed.D. degree in Education from UTK in 1987. More about Sarla Murgai is on her Web site and at the Faculty profile

Contact:
Professor and Reference Librarian
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dept., 6456, 615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN USA 37403-2598
phone: 423-425-2672
fax: 423-425-4510

14:00	Vanda Broughton	Facet analysis as a fundamental theory of knowledge organization
14:40	Claudio Gnoli	‘Classic’ vs. 'freely' faceted classification
15:20	Jan Wyllie Simon Eaton	Faceted classification as an intelligence analysis tool
16:00	Tea/coffee
16:30	Factiva	Faceted Categorisation for the corporate desktop Visualisation and interaction using metadata to enhance user experience
17:15	Aduna	AutoFocus: An Open-source Facet-Driven Enterprise Search Solution
18:00	Networking, wine & nibbles

International and Comparative Librarianship

Website Blocked & / or Removed - News & Views

Librarians in the Ancient Times (read as pre-modern age)

Library and Information Science Education in India - 100 Year's Celebration & Introspection

Single mom faces jail time after son laughs in library

Is SLA an International Organisation/Organization?

Sudharma: World's only Sanskrit daily turns 42

LIS research in India dismal, says INFLIBNET's study

Library and Information Science: A Guide to Online Resources

The Musalman Urdu daily: only paper in the world still written by hand

Five Myths About the 'Information Age'

Tucked away in library, a slice of (India's) freedom struggle

Bound for Glory - Carleton University Magazine

The Urban Affairs branch of the Toronto Public Library slated to close

How the Urban Affairs Library Got Shut Down, Torontoist

U.S. digital project signals the rise of versatile e-textbooks

First public library in nation to drop Dewy Decimal

8,029 Dravidian University PhDs rigged

Dr. Omar Khalidi - A Rare Scholar-Cum-Librarian - Obituary

Redefining the library in the age of Google and Wikipedia

International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)

Chennai now boasts South Asia’s largest library : The Anna Centenary Library (ACL)

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2010, Sweden

Shelf Reading and Reading Between the Shelf: Needs Innovation

Library Advocacy Day from ALA Washington

So what do we lose when we lose libraries? -- Thought for the day

Now entire library on chip developed by Indian-American

An Open Mind @ NYT

'Future library' goes on display in Abu Dhabi

Ontario Library Association's Super Conference 2010 - Media Monitoring

Towers of knowledge: The Mitterand Library, Paris

Middle Eastern Librarianship -- Resources, Programs, etc.

The Best Bottomline of the Year 2009 by Dan Lett

2009 I Love My Librarian Award Ceremony

Reading between the Shelf - Thought for the day

Germany's Ph.D. Scandal: Were Degrees Bought?

Books & Libraries @ Facebook

The librarian of Mysore -- The Acorn

International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL 2009) at University of Delhi Campus at Delhi, 5 to 8 October, 2009.

Report on an seminar on “Source Materials in India ... for the Study of Arab History”

Oman to Fund a New Library in Uzbekistan: The ‘Abu Alraihan Albairuni’ library

Visualizing Information based on primary and secondary research

In short, we had traditionally three types of reference sources, viz., primary, secondary and tertiary. Now, a fourth category has emerged, viz., quaternary [C. A Morlot, Swiss stratigrapher and archaeologist, Originator of the term "Quaternary" as used in Geology, and related fields]

A good template (sample, model) to visualize bookreview of reference sources, e.g, diary or autobiography, posted on a blog for the autobiographical work, What World is Left, is here: books based on primary and secondary research

Dialing for Answers Where Web Can’t Reach

Two News Stories About the USA: Change is Within

A tale of two countries' libraries - Canada versus USA

Private Circulating Libraries in India

Nalanda Digital Library, NIT Calicut

The Best and Worst Jobs -- Ranking professions

International Workshop on Information Literacy 2009

EU's new digital library operational again

Europeana ~ On hold

10 clues: A new bubble is blowing

How should national libraries archive blogs?

Blogging a book ~~ Publish or Perish

Untouchables strive to get their hands on India's wealth

Businesses Accommodating Religious Festivals

BlogAction Day 2008 ~~ Moment for Indian bloggers to reflect

INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM as the BEST National Anthem in the World

The 25 Most Modern Libraries in the World

Global ebook survey reveals encouraging results

Who Has The Largest Individual Vocabulary?

Interpreting Library Job Ads

Indian Contributions @ IFLA 2008

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine: World Wide Webliographers' Revisited

Guyana's Randall Butisingh is a blogger at the age of 96

Making by Stealing of Un-cited (Recycled) Content in the Wiki Age: Role of Librarians?

And this, too, shall pass away -- Multicultural, Multifaith, Multilingual, Multifaceted Ring

GZY Resources

Obituary of Dr. George N. Atiyeh

Pangea Day: Kenya sings for India

Brampton Library's Sarala Uttangi makes headlines @ DesiTalk

Tejinder Sibia, 70, dies; documented Sikhs' history in California

Now, Tata to help American poor

Multicultural Canadian Website: Promotes History of Indo-Canadians

eBooks from European Libraries

Library Lovers Day

Pioneering library sparks volunteerism