Month: June 2006

Categories
Events

A Google Smorgasbord

SLA WCC and CASLIS present:
A Google Smorgasbord
Come learn about the latest Google developments while you meet and mingle with colleagues from SLA and CASLIS on a sunny Vancouver patio!
Thursday, June 22, 2006
5:00 – 8:00 pm
Terminal City ClubYour ticket includes a fabulous canape buffet. There will be a cash bar.
PROGRAM DETAILS
5:00 pm: Registration. Cash bar opens.
5:15 pm: Canape buffet opens.
5:45 pm: “A Google Smorgasbord” (panel discussion)
7:00 pm: Mingling, networking, nibbling and noshing
8:00 pm: Wrap-up

PRESENTATIONS
Geoff Peters: How Google Shapes Online Popularity
The craft of making websites that rank highly on the Google search engine has been shrouded in mystery until recently. Whether you have a personal interest web site or a business, Search Engine Marketing/Optimization is a topic that all webmasters should know about. Geoff will explain some basic techniques that led to his success on Google with his web sites. These techniques include: focusing on creating valuable and original content, keyword targeting, and linking.

Kay Cahill: Making Google Tools Work in an Information Setting
As more and more products and services emerge from Google Labs, how can information professionals make these tools work for them? Are they just flashy novelties designed to catch the eye and keep attention on Google, or are they genuinely useful ways of interpreting search results and delivering information?

Eugene Barsky – “Google Scholar and the Future of Searching”
During this 20 minute overview we will look at the context in which Google Scholar has been developed, its strengths and weaknesses, and its subject coverage. We’ll also see how different libraries work with this tool.

SPEAKERS:
Geoff Peters recently graduated with a joint major in Computing Science and Business from SFU. He has worked as a software developer for Nokia Mobile Phones and Canada Safeway IT. He is the creator of Googleduel.com, a web site which uses the Google search engine to analyze the popularity of people, products, and names on the Internet. He is also the webmaster for FoodVancouver.com, a popular Vancouver dining guide. Geoff’s personal web site is at http://www.sfu.ca/~gpeters/

Kay Cahill is Vancouver Public Library’s Training and Virtual Services Librarian. Originally from the UK, she graduated from the Information Studies program at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 2004 before moving to Canada. Recent projects include developing and delivering IT and information literacy programs, monitoring and reporting on technology trends, and collaborating in the implementation of new technologies and software to enhance library services.

Eugene Barsky is Physiotherapy Outreach Librarian at the new Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, where he enjoys every moment implementing new Web 2.0 technologies into his outreach work with BC practicing physiotherapists. Previously employed by QLT Inc, a Vancouver-based pharmaceutical company, he has an intriguing experience doing regulatory intelligence research in biotech industry. Eugene is the winner of 2005 SLA Scholarship and 2006 C. William Fraser Prize (Health Librarianship). Eugene’s blog – http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/physio/

REGISTRATION:
To register, complete the online registration form and mail it, with your payment (cheque made out to SLA WCC), to:

Deb Hutchison, Vancouver Director
West Vancouver Memorial Library
Vancouver BC
V7V 1J8

Fees:
$21 for SLA and CASLIS members, students, and unemployed
$35 for non-members
VENUE
The Terminal City Club is located at 837 Hastings Street. Note that there is a dress-casual dress code – please, no jeans.

Thanks to our program sponsor Micromedia ProQuest

Categories
News & Announcement

We are indexed by Google!

We just agreed to stay low-profiled at our first meeting two weeks ago. Now we are on Google, and cited by some library blogs in China.

Categories
Awards, Grants & Scholarships

A two-year scholarship and internship program

The Sacramento Public Library is delighted to announce the program funded by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) through the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) under the “Librarians for America’s ighborhoods” project. The Sacramento Public Library (SPL) will select three students, enrolled in an ALA accredited MLIS rogram, who will be graduating on or before the summer of 2008.

Application information can be found on our website www.sac.library.org

Categories
Reference Questions

Aquaculture data for China and Taiwan

The latest and general data are not difficult to find, but from 1950 – 2003 or present? quite detailed: mariculture (sea aquaculture) production data, in tonnes, broken down by species, for each coastal province.

This is why UBC needs the Access China project. We have to contact the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing for the older and more detailed data. Hope they can help us and free of charge.

Categories
News & Announcement

Way to Go, Mao!

叶茂当选为学生校董是康奈尔109年中国留学生史上又一重大突破。
I met Mao at the Asian Library when he came to request statistical data from China. I was impressed by his extensive research and suggestions of improving the library collection. He was just one of many graduate student users, but his passion and smile were unforgetable. I was so happy and proud to hear that he was elected as student trustee at Cornell.

Categories
Readings

The Birth of the Universal Library

Jonathan B. Bengtson
Library Journal (04/15/06) P. 2

While digitization projects in libraries have been around for a number of years, in the past 18 months the possibilities of digitization and the cultural impact of such scanning projects have leapt dramatically beyond the confines of academia. Making the full text of libraries’ holdings available digitally is without question a natural next step in widening access to our collections—and massive digitization projects, such as that of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), have brought us into a new era.

Asian Library’s rare books would make a good digitization project.

Categories
Readings What others are saying

Open Access Scholarly Databases – a bird's eye view of the landscape

The Open Access concept and movement are not new phenomena, but they only recently reached the level of international interest both in the developed and the developing countries. The time is right for the Asia and Oceania Section of IFLA to have an (appropriately) open session at the World Library and Information Congress on the theme of Open Access: Promoting Implementation in Asia and Oceania. The infrastructure seems to be available (and affordable and feasible for even the least developed countries with financial support from international organizations) to accelerate and to promote the implementation of open access systems to scholarly and other high quality information resources for education, research and development. Read the entire article.

Categories
News & Announcement

Protection of information network dessemination right

The new Chinese regulations will come to place on July 1st. Among them, the following one is related to our on-going collaboration with librarians in China. Non-profit libraries have the right to provide electronic format of the publications to their users on the web if they are more than three years old.

So far only the Chinese version of the new regualtions are available.

Categories
Children's Literature

E-Books for Children

Children’s books are available in an increasing variety of formats. There are not only fabric books, vinyl books, audio books, board books and hide-and-seek books, which I had introduced in previous columns; there are also e-books for children. The type of e-book I am referring to does not need special attachments to browse on the Internet. Its advantage is that it can be used anytime and can interact with other media. It allows the e-generation children to experience interest in learning. For immigrant parents like me, accompanying children in reading (listening or playing) the e-book can help improve my English.Anyone interested can go to Richmond Public Library’s web site to find out more information. This Library is the first and the model for using technology in readers’ services. This time, they are the first to order Tumble Books 60 e-books. Their contents include stories, folktales, living, learning, games, etc. Please go into the Library’s community site; next click Kids and then Tumble Books Library.

Electronic Storybooks:
Caillou Series – The Caillou series has quite a reputation in children’s storybooks. They let children learn all kinds of knowledge and self conduct through games and play. In addition to picture books, toys, television shows, they now have e-books, e.g. Caillou & Gilbert; and Caillou Tidies His Toys. The only difference between e-books and television shows is that e-books has words. The words change colour once they have been read.

Bad for Them, Good for Me – This is an incredibly funny e-book story. It allows children to learn opposites from household affairs. It is read by children in their childish expressions and tones of voice. Once the little readers are familiar with the concept of opposites, they can play a game of opposites with the book.

Electronic Folktales:
Jack and the Beanstalk – Mother sent Jack to market to sell their dairy cow, but on the way, Jack sold it to a strange old man for some colourful magic beans. When he got home, mother became extremely angry and threw the beans out the window. When Jack raced out, he heard a soft voice say:
“Bury us.” Soon afterwards, there was a little shoot, and the shoot grew into a little tree. It grew and grew. It grew higher than the roof of the house and into the clouds. It eventually became a giant tree. Jack climbed to the top and saw a world that he had never seen before and people that he had never met before. Something unexpected happened….

Easy to Read E-Book:
My Tooth is About to Fall Out – Every child will experience loosing his/her teeth at one time or another. This E-Book uses easy exercises and rhyming words to make this experience interesting and funny. After the reader finishes reading the story, they can learn how to pronounce the vocabulary and play several games.

Learn-about-Life Books:
The purpose of this type of e-books is to give children knowledge about life, e.g. community services, sharing, Internet safety, etc. These are some of the books: Helping Out is Cool; Light in the Darkness; and Little Red in Cyber Space.

Games Book:
The main purpose is to teach children the difference between colours and improve their memory, language and math skills. The games include puzzles, hockey and balloons. The colours and sound are compatible with each other. Children have so much fun with this book that they will not want to let it go.

Have fun, little one!

曾刊登于《环球华报》
Originally published in Global Chinese Press， translated by Wendy Jiang

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