Public Libraries in US and Canada are now a great attraction with foreign language learning tools

• The idea was up in 2006 in the minds of a knowledge curator, JABRA GHNEIM, and he  said:

Public Libraries as a Resource for Foreign Language Learning

Public libraries in America are one of the best functioning and worth while public institutions. Making language resources available there is a wonderful idea. Language material is usually very expensive. Buying it through the public library system is a great idea. I have been learning Farsi for three years now using the resources of our great public library system here in the Salt lake City area. I also use it when I am designing curriculum or tests for other languages. Since we are now in a phase where we are trying to encourage the learning of critical foreign languages in this country I totally believe that public libraries should jump on board and use some of the available public funding to finance their purchases of foreign language learning material."

• Mango Language Learning @ Toronto Public Library: . A tutorial on how to use the Mango online languages system to help you learn languages such as French, Japanese, Greek and more

• Library Linguistics. By Ian Chant on August 4, 2014,  Library Journal

"More and more, libraries strive not only to be spaces for researching subjects of interest to their patrons but to offer options that let users learn new skills, whether they’re physically in the library or not. One area in which mobile learning through the library is making headway is language learning. Many online lesson providers offer programs through libraries that patrons can use in the building, at home, or even while waiting in line for a cup of coffee.

In our first language learning survey, which gathered information on language learning programs from 337 public libraries nationwide, LJ asked public librarians around the country what they’re doing to help patrons study a foreign tongue. From picking up enough French to order dinner on vacation to improving English-language skills to shore up job prospects, all sorts of language learners are learning in libraries to hone their abilities... 

A sample question and response: Which languages are most popular with your users?

continue reading... Library Journal

On the same shelf:

• The Status and Future of Canada's Libraries and Archives --- English language learning programs and books in dozens of other languages support newcomers.
• Expanding Their Vocabulary: Public Libraries Embrace New Language-Learning Programs -- The article discusses the growth of language-learning software, such as that designed by Mango Languages software company, in public libraries as a way to complement the public service mission of libraries. The article focuses on Illinois' Naperville Public Library (NPL) and Mount Prospect Public Library in particular. Topics include the NPL online platform for language learning according to librarian Monica Minnick, as well as comments by Steve Browne of Mount Prospect Library.
• Irving Public Library receives grant for new language learning program for adults

Shelf Reading and Reading Between the Shelf: Needs Innovation

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

Reading between the Shelf - Thought for the day

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

see also:

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Now, Tata to help American poor

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/

Nigeria's Library System - is It Collapsing Or Transforming?

3 July 2007, Uthman Abubakar, Kaduna, All Africa.com

Jemimah Markus Adams, a 200 level student, does not have to bother combing all the relevant book shelves in the Ahmadu Bello University main library, Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) or any other library, frantically or in the guard-of-honour-inspection fashion, to fish out a text book or journal to do some researches or assignments, or make some references on any of the course units she offers.

Whenever necessary, she goes to the library shelves. If she finds the material - textbook or journal - she needs, good! If she does not, she will not develop a headache, despair or worry at the thought of having to do the research, assignment or reference by some other devices, and face the lecturer with her failure to source the material she is referred to. After all, most of the relevant materials for her course of discipline now have either gradually vanished from most library shelves, or have been outdated by monumental quantities of new discoveries and wider frontiers of knowledge and information in the field of discipline globally. Virtually, hard copies of updated materials are no more acquired for the libraries. So, she seeks solace in the internet, where she sources most of her materials.
continue reading

Daily Trust (Abuja)

Info courtesy: David Dillard

Mahatma Gandhi praised Urdu in last letter

News update: Heritage saved! Auction of Gandhi letter stopped CNN-IBN, July 02, 2007
The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday's auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian Government.


Bapu's letter may be stolen: Grandson, CNN-IBN, June 27, 2007 at 22:16
New Delhi: The scheduled auction of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, possibly his last before his assassination, has sent the Indian government in a tizzy.
The letter, written on January 19, 1948, is part of a collection of manuscripts put up for auction at the famous auction house Christie's in London. Meanwhile, a harried Indian Government has started the process of bidding for it. Sources in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs have said that they are assessing the cost to bid for Gandhi’s letter, which is expected to fetch £ 12,000 or Rs 10 lakh.

Press Trust Of India, London, June 29, 2007,
In the letter, a rare manuscript that will go under hammer at Christie's in London on July 3, Gandhi said opposing Urdu will "put a wanton affront" on the Muslims, who "in the eyes of Hindus have become aliens in their own land".

Writing in his journal 'Harijan' on January 11, 1948, Gandhi, who appeared disturbed with the dwindling circulation of its Urdu edition, said in the letter that it is likely to be stopped.

Praising Urdu, which he said "is set free from bondage of orthodoxy", he asserted that those who learn it will "lose nothing but gain". At the same time he urged Muslims to learn Devanagari to "enrich their intellectual" capital and subscribe to his journal.continue

See also:

Mahatma in market

Mahatma manuscript up for sale, govt wakes up

India to participate in auction of Gandhi letter

Gandhians demonstrate against auction of letter

Rare letter from Mahatma surfaces

The Emerging-Semantics Web (”The Semantic Web is Dead”)

Mor Naaman, a research scientist with Yahoo Research Berkeley, stood in front of a roomful of semantic Web researchers and declared that the semantic Web is dead. This happened last week at the International World Wide Web Conference in Alberta, Canada, as Naaman describes on the Yahoo Research Berkeley blog. [Search Engine Watch]

The language used to describe the Semantic Web is complicated enough – at a glance, it looks a bit quantum theory-ish, just enough to make your eyes roll back into your head to look for ways to kill themselves – but Tim Berners-Lee, who's responsible for all those Ws littering your URLs, inspired enough faith that whatever the Semantic Web was, it could be accomplished. [Arguing The Semantic Web: Dead Or Just Not Alive?]

May 16, 2007 on 10:24 am | by Mor Naaman, a research scientist @ Yahoo! Research Berkeley:
Last week, I participated in a WWW2007 panel called “Multimedia Metadata Standards in a Semantic Web 3.0“, where I took the opportunity to declare the Semantic Web dead. As you can imagine, such a declaration in front of a crowd of semantic web researchers provoked many responses. While I believe panels should be provocative and entertaining, I also have specific reasons for why I went as far as calling the Semantic Web “dead”. Let me explain what I mean.

There is no way that we can engage the masses in annotating media with “semantic” labels. At best, we can get the people to annotate content (such as Flickr images or YouTube videos) with short text descriptions or tags. This works only because tags are simple; powerful (can be used for many tasks) and, in some systems, carefully engineered to match the user’s natural motivations. Our best hope is to be able to take this bottoms-up annotation, or folksonomy if you will, and try to assign some semantics to it later - Flickr’s Clustering is a great example, as well as Y!RB’s TagMaps and our upcoming SIGIR paper (”Towards Automatic Extraction of Event and Place Semantics from Flickr Tags”, available in pdf)... continue reading

See also my related posts:

WEB IS A FOREST ... SEMANTIC WEB A JAPANESE GARDEN ?

Seamless Structured Semantic Web -Will Tags, Clouds, Ontologies, Taxonomies, and Facet Analysis help?

Semantic Web and Facet Analysis

Bookstores everywhere are going broke

A state-of-the-art report by Jill Elaine HUGHES--a Chicago-based writer of stageplays, screenplays, journalism, and fiction

It's earnings-reporting season. I know this because I once (long ago) worked in investment banking. Earnings-reporting season is the time when publicly traded companies (i.e., those that have stock) report their quarterly earnings. In the past few weeks, the three big bookstore retail chains (Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million) reported their earnings.
Barnes & Noble and Borders---by far the largest two bookstore companies---both reported BIG losses. Borders is especially hemorrhaging cash via its Waldenbooks stores (the smaller, popular-fiction-based bookstores you usually see in malls), many of which it has shut down. Borders is losing money hand over fist---to read their earnings press release, click here. Barnes & Noble is also faring very poorly. (they reported big losses about a month ago)...

I know I'm part of the "problem", too. Since I moved to the 'burbs, I have greatly deceased the amount of money I spend on books. I have the benefit of living in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which has one of the best public libraries in the Midwest. The Arlington Heights Memorial Library has one of the most robust collections in the region, and it acquires multiple copies of almost every new book published----it's basically eliminated the need for me to go to the bookstore. I can get a copy of almost any book I want to read for free within days of its publication just by dropping by my library. My library also gets all the latest DVDs, which I can also view for free. With that, who needs a bookstore? Living in the expensive Chicago suburbs, with their high property taxes and such, does have benefits when it comes to the library.



continue reading @ Jill Elaine Hughes- The Blog!

Working Locally At Home and Abroad

World Literacy of Canada is a small NGO with big projects on the go. For 50 years now, WLC has been changing people's lives through literacy and community development programs, both at home here in Canada, and in homes throughout the world. Although the world has changed dramatically over the course of the past 50 years, the heart of WLC's programming philosophy has remained the same: global change begins at a local level. Continue reading

World Literacy of Canada
401 Richmond Street West, Studio 236
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
P: 416 977 0008
F: 416 977 1112
E: info@worldlit.ca
W: www.worldlit.ca

The lost world of libraries

posted by Blake on Sunday May 20, @12:23PM from the dusty-shelves dept.

The Business Standard - India has a look at some ooooollllddd libraries in India. But, however distinguished the provenance of these three, as also that of the Dayal Singh Public Library in Delhi and other public libraries elsewhere in the country, they are all rather sad places today. Only PhD students come here now to trawl the dusty shelves of uncared for books, rummage through the crumbling cards and brave the apathetic sloth of the staff for the early and rare editions of novels and journals. [Source: Librarian and Information Science News]

See also: Map of Libraries in New Delhi