Chinese Canadian Library Weblog

Driving with Bie-Hwa down to Seattle took no time. We had so much to talk about, no stop! parents, kids, cultural difference, career paths…After we grabbed free coffee in Skagit Valley, and had a quick chat with the coffee ladies on Mariners’ game, we were back into the heavy traffic and got excited talking about our projects and vendor records.

The 3-hour trip seems so short! We were impressed by the huge trees at the main gate. UW, I am back!

This reads like a true Toastmaster’s promotional speech!

Wisdom is in the telling of the tale: Ten tips to get them listening to you now
Rick Spence, Financial Post
Published: Monday, June 23, 2008

Excerpts from the article:
…
As a sometime speaker, I was asked to be a judge. Fellow judge, image-consultant Ayla Tezcan, and I were asked to critique each three-minute presentation and provide “constructive criticism” a la American Idol’s acerbic Simon Cowell.

Having to produce such quick, concise feedback gave me a crash course in public-speaking dos and don’ts. And since presenting capably and confidently is a skill required of every business leader, I thought I’d share my conclusions: 10 rules for standout public speaking.
——————————————-

The mountain loomed closer and closer. Suddenly the train whistle shrieked. From pot, he moved on to crack. Finally I began to believe in myself. And then the sick child began to laugh.

Those are a few of the riveting journeys shared at a recent public-speaking contest held by Speakers Gold, a Toronto speakers’ bureau searching for new talent. About 20 speakers, from as far afield as Winnipeg, were vying for their shot at podium prime time.

As a sometime speaker, I was asked to be a judge. Fellow judge, image-consultant Ayla Tezcan, and I were asked to critique each three-minute presentation and provide “constructive criticism” … a la American Idol’s acerbic Simon Cowell.

Having to produce such quick, concise feedback gave me a crash course in public-speaking dos and don’ts. And since presenting capably and confidently is a skill required of every business leader, I thought I’d share my conclusions: 10 rules for standout public speaking.

Tell stories! Don’t just tell your audience what to do. Don’t offer assorted bits of hard-won wisdom. Unless it’s rooted in memorable stories and relevant experiences people will identify with, your “content” means nothing.

Tell your own stories. No matter what your rank or title, if you want people to heed your messages, you must establish your own credentials through personal experience and original thinking.

There are many highly paid speakers who simply synthesize other people’s thoughts and recycle great quotations, but these are trusted experts who have been building their brands for years.

Whether you’re making a sales presentation or delivering a keynote speech, if you want to appear credible and authoritative, you have to earn your audience’s respect, one painful personal lesson at a time.

Own the platform. This means making the best use of both your movements and the “stage” on which you are speaking.

At the competition, the first few speakers stayed by the microphone stand. They spoke well enough, but as the succeeding speakers roamed the stage with the hand-held mike, they literally upstaged the podium-clingers.

A big part of public speaking is finding movements, gestures and body language that look natural and underscore your meaning — just as actors and dancers use precise movement to tell their stories. But don’t overdo it! Some speakers wandered aimlessly across the stage. Random movement detracts from meaning, rather than adding to it.

Develop a few “big” gestures for effect. One speaker strode confidently into the aisles to involve the audience in her story; another demonstrated an emotional crisis by dropping to his knees and slapping the floorboards to create a violent thunderclap. Learn to use grand gestures. But sparingly.

Stay within your time. Sadly, the most experienced speakers were among the worst offenders, some taking five minutes or more for their three-minute speeches. This is unfair to your audience, as well as to other speakers. Three minutes isn’t a lot of time for an after-dinner speaker. But it’s a lot more uninterrupted time than most of us ever get in day-to-day life, so you must make the best of terse opportunities.

Move us. Use descriptive language, tone of voice and telling details to get your message across. Don’t just tell us somebody was hurt; tell us how they suffered. Don’t describe someone as brave, wise or honest — explain how they demonstrated those qualities.

Use visual descriptions. Tell us how things looked, how big the mountain seemed, how close the train came. Create pictures in our mind and we will recall your message much longer than we will remember facts or rules.

Speak up. Develop your voice. On the contest night, some speakers unwisely chose to leave the microphone behind. (Perhaps they don’t realize the absurdity of asking, “Can you hear me in the back?”) You can’t move people if you can’t reach them. A quick way to lose credibility is to say, “I don’t need a mike,” and then prove you did.

Don’t try to say too much. One speaker tried to take us on a full mountain expedition in three minutes. Going overtime, she managed to give us glimpses of her journey but the story wasn’t coherent. She should have described just one dramatic situation, and used it to illustrate her key point. Better to leave the audience wanting more than to attempt too much, and not communicate a single clear idea.

Include a call to action. Tell us how we should use the information you’ve shared. What should it mean to your audience? How should they put your message into practice in their lives? Your compelling stories and brilliant insights mean nothing until you draw the line between your experience and the needs of your audience.

— Rick Spence is a writer, consultant and speaker specializing in entrepreneurship. His column appears Mondays in the Financial Post. He can be reached at

rick@rickspence.ca

Chinese Studies Librarian
Job Reference #080725116
East Asian Collection
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
University of Pennsylvania

Applicants may apply online via the Jobs@Penn Web site

I always miss New York Public Library, and the interesting reference questions and people back there. Heard they had to close some divisions, and this position Librarian I (Temporary through June 30, 2010) in the Asian Division means alot.
Position Requirements
ALA-accredited Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies and
relevant work experience in a research library or similar institution.
Master’s degree in the history and culture of China preferred. Successfully
demonstrates reading knowledge of the Chinese language, classical and
modern. Successfully demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the rules and
techniques of cataloging. Successfully demonstrated knowledge of cataloging
monographs and serials in the Chinese language following AACR2 rules, and
NAF and SAF guidelines. Experience in all aspects of maintenance of online
catalog records. . Successfully demonstrated experience working with the
Internet and other electronic resources. Strong interpersonal, oral and
written communication skills in English, including demonstrated ability and
flexibility in meeting the varied needs of a small and specialized division
and the ability to deal tactfully and effectively with staff. Experience
using the Chinese script in OCLC preferred.

Position Description
Under the direction of the Chief Librarian, Asian and Middle Eastern
Division, and in consultation with the Assistant Director of Special Format
Processing, catalogs Chinese language rare books and manuscripts in various
formats. Performs derivative and original cataloging, following AACR2 rules
and NAF and SAF guidelines, as well as the Cataloging guidelines for
creating Chinese rare book records in machine-readable form. Performs
bibliographic searching, catalog maintenance and revision of records in
various formats in OCLC and CATNYP and Millenium. Creates item-level
records for newly cataloged books. Performs other tasks as assigned.

Popular Web Site Adapted to Help Canadian Scholars Widen Exposure for Their Research

Ottawa ON & Washington DC–CARL (the Canadian Association of Research Libraries) and SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) announced the launch of Create Change Canada, a Canadian version of the popular researcher-focused Web resource on scholarly communication. The original Create Change Web site was developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and SPARC with support from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Caroline Arms is an information technologist who came to the Library of Congress to work on the American Memory project. The challenge of preserving digital content captured her interest, and her work since has focused on understanding and promoting formats that raise the probability that content will be usefully available to future generations. She is the co-compiler, with Carl Fleischhauer, of the Digital Formats website, and a member of the committee to standardize Office Open XML. Listening to the interview requires the MS Silverlight plugin but a full transcript of the interview is included.

Just finished reading “Career Choices and Advancement: Chinese American Librarians in the 21st Century”, a study published in the latest issue of “Internet Chinese Librarians”, and I’d highly recommend this article to all of you who are interested in Chinese American/Canadian Librarianship. A well-done research article with significant contribution to the minority librarianship literature as it is, this article also provides many practical suggestions in aspects like dealing with negative attitudes and overcoming different barriers faced by minority librarians’ career development. As a matter of fact, many of its findings go beyond the profession limitation and are also applicable to other professionals as well. I quoted, for example, the following paragraph and emailed them to two friends — one is working as a software engineer in Canada and the other a bio-statistician in the States:
“The respondents stated repeatedly that Chinese American librarians need to conscientiously adjust their attitudes of being quiet, humble, and obedient, which are often resulted from traditional Confucius teaching. These attitudes can be misunderstood and viewed as lack of motivation, lack of creativity, or lack of communication skills. The respondents suggested a cultivation of traits such as making oneself more outgoing, more open and direct about opinions, and more participatory by offering ideas. These traits are valued in the Western culture, and seem necessary for Chinese American librarians to develop if they want to be considered for leaders’ positions.” ( Ruan & Xiong, 2008)

Japanese Collections » Blogging at East Asian library collections Says:
March 13, 2008 at 2:19 am

“Chinese Canadian Library Weblog 加华图书馆博客… It has some good information about meetings and discussion of issues related to East Asian library services. In contrast to the other two that I found earlier, that are both “institutional blogs,” this one is more typical of the “blogosphere” — jottings, notes, etc — from librarians who are thinking about very interesting aspects of Chinese studies librarianship! Postings at the site are by Jing and Lingbo.”

The event lightened up this May, which was so dark and sad. President Toope’s speech emphasized on the freedom that education can give to people. I appreciate the invitations from SLAIS folks and enjoyed celebrating the moment with them. I missed all previous ones due to workshops, trips and library meetings. Very first UBC congregation for me after seven years of service, so inspirational!

Simon Winchester, the author of “The Man Who Loved China” published a piece in New York Times on May 15th. He compared Li Bing’s 2,300-year-old project, which still stands and works with the ruined school, less than a mile from Dujiangyan. On TV, we can see some buildings near those ruined schools are still standing. What a shame to have so many students buried under their own schools! The author popped the question that is much bigger than the earthquake.
Many proud Chinese readers may criticize the author, just like the way they sue CNN, but I do agree with him that “China, in its headlong attempts to modernize, has often demonstrated a dismayingly cavalier attitude toward the well-being of its people”. I experienced something similar last summer in Yunnan. Safety is not the major concern for those image projects.