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Quick Links - Reference Books and Other Stories - 25 September 2008

Isaak Kwok — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:54:33 +0000

- Reference Books
This Wall Street Journal article suggests some reference books that are essential for a home library. Do you think they are essential for your library as well? And in our increasingly online-oriented world, do you think printed references are still essential when anyone with Internet access can just search for it through Google or Wikipedia?
(via LISNews)

- Is the use of book covers legal?
A wonderful blog post, written by lawyer and librarian Mary Minow, on the legality of the use of book covers by libraries on their Web sites and blogs. Do read the comments in the post for more discussion. What are your views?
(via LibrarianInBlack)

- The Back Nine Stacks
Ever thought of converting part of your stack into a mini golf course! Well, there’s now a non-profit organisation, the Library Mini Golf non-profit group, in the United States doing just that. The mini golf course is meant to be a one-off event for fundraising purposes as well as a way to get people to have a fun day at the library. The founder, Rick Bolton, estimates that a library can raise about US$10,000 in just one day. Maybe we can just do something similar at V.A.T. at Jurong Regional Library for the teens. I think they’ll enjoy it.

Harry Potter News

Isaak Kwok — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:31:54 +0000

For the Harry Potter fans, the trailer (of higher video quality) for the upcoming movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released a couple of days back. I haven’t watched any of the movies except for the first one. And my wife is not a big fan of the movie interpretation of the Harry Potter series although she has finished reading all the seven books.

And in other Harry Potter news, JK Rowling has decided to publish a collection of fairytales to help raise money for a UK children’s charity, the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG).

The Tales of Beedle the Bard was mentioned in the final book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. Rowling had no intentions to publish the book initially and had personally written and illustrated only seven copies of the book. Six of those were given to friends and one was sold to Amazon at an auction last year for £1.95m.

There will be three editions of the book. Two are by regular publishers, Scholastic and Bloomsbury. And the third edition will be produced by Amazon, which aims to replicate the look and feel of the original tales. There will only be 100,000 copies of the Collector’s Edition.

Quick Links - Things Found in Books and Other Stories - 22 July 2008

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:10:09 +0000

- Found in Books
I’ve found money, bank passbook, a cash cheque, wedding photo, and other sentimental stuff in the books that are returned to us. The people most likely used those items as a bookmark, but forgot about removing it before returning the books. But I guess the one that beat all that in the article was the strip of bacon that was used as a bookmark. Quite an interesting read to see what some people keep in their books or use as bookmarks.
(via LISNews)

- Portraits of Librarians
A Flickr set of portraits of people attending various library conferences by Cindi Trainor.

- Reading Circle Books
I sorta of stumbled onto this site. Reading Circle Books is “a place for people who like to read & learn together with fellow-readers of all ages. Readers may often read in solitude, but ideas and expressions, like books and people, are formed in relationship and live by interaction.” Definitely a blog to take note of.

Quick Links - Gaming in Libraries and Other Stories - 09 July 2008

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:48:39 +0000

- Gaming for a book
Interesting article on the use of games to draw teens to the library. Although most of the teens were more interested in playing the games, the aim is to bring the teens INTO the library and then introduce them to the different books in the library.
(via LISNews)

- Students not as Web-savvy after all
If you always thought the younger generation is more web-savvy, think again! Here’s another report to show that students are the exact opposite of what most people have assumed. Personally, having interacted with students, while providing advisory services and during library workshops, I have found that a large number of students do not know how to evaluate information that they have found on the Internet or online databases. In addition, they may not know about the many uses of social media applicable to their studies other than the fun they have on MySpace, Facebook and Friendster.
(via Tame The Web)

- From Scuba Diver to Jet Ski Rider
The article doesn’t deal with water sports. But it is a metaphor of how the art of reading has evolved for the author of the article. I feel the same way when I previously was able to read through a book, but I now find myself more interested in reading short articles in magazines, newspapers and online.
(via LISNews)

- Once upon a bonzer time
Seems like an Australian publisher have adapted many of the popular fairy tales to add on a more Australian flavor. Cinderella has been re-named Cindy Ella whose evil stepsisters force her to bake meat pies for tea, clean the dunny (Australian slang for toilet) and feed the budgies. Other titles in the series include Three Little Bush Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Koalas and Three Kangaroo Gruffs. I wonder what my son would think of these fairy tales.

- Book in the movie ‘Sex & The City’ doesn’t exist
In the movie, Carrie Bradshaw, the lead actress, was reading Love Letters of Great Men” with Mr Big, her boyfriend. However, the book doesn’t exist. However, it has resulted in a rather similar sounding title “Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the Eighteen Century to the Present Day” (published in 1920 and recently re-published) to become a bestseller on Amazon.com. You can read the table of content on Google Books.
(via The Millions)

Books, Libraries and Librarians

Isaak Kwok — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:19:32 +0000

Robert Darnton recently wrote in the New York Review of Books (12 June issue) about “The Library in the New Age”. It is definitely a very intriguing read. In the first chapter, he asked the question of “what will become of research libraries in the face of the technological marvels such as Google?”

Talking about libraries, for those who have yet to watch the Sex & The City - The Movie, the New York Public Library was featured quite prominently in the movie as Carrie Bradshaw borrowed a romantic poetry book as well as the wedding venue of Carrie and Mr Big. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t happen because Mr Big got cold feet on the morning of the wedding. I’m sure it raised the profile of the New York Public Library a little. Hmmm … I didn’t remember seeing any librarians though.

And on the topic of librarians, an American writer and professor, Junot Diaz, wrote an opinion piece in the Syndey Morning Herald on 25 May about how a librarian may have played a part in keeping him on the straight and narrow by introducing books for him to read. I think I heard something similar at the recent Library Association of Singapore Conference at the keynote by Mr. Kishore Mahbubani. Junot Diaz won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Call No.: English DIA).

Books … the latest hip, new book is about James Bond, Devil May Care. Written by Sebastian Faulk as Ian Fleming, it is to commemorate the 100th birthday of Ian Fleming, who was born on 28 May 1908. Anyway, the book is not available at MPOW yet. If you are interested in getting the book, MPOW is currently running a “Devil May Care” promotion where you can win yourself a copy of the book. All you have to do is borrow 4 books at any of our public libraries, get a contest form from the counters, answer a very simple question and drop it into the contest box. The contest runs till the end of June. We’ll be awarding one book to a lucky winner at every one of our public libraries.

Quick Links - Teachers Not Reading and Other Stories - 07 June 2008

Isaak Kwok — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:55:30 +0000

- Teachers ‘Not Reading Children’s Books’
Research by the Centre for Literacy and Primary Education (CLPE) in the States has found that many teachers do not regularly read children’s literature. In addition, they tend to choose books from a narrow band of authors. I wonder if it’s true for teachers in Singapore as well.
(via LISNews)

- Report: Women Increasingly Choosing Dead-End Careers Over Dead-End Relationships
Although on the surface the report seems to have nothing to do with the library, there is a part in the report and I quote “… an overall increase in those settling for absolutely futureless secretarial or librarian positions …”. Hmmm … I wonder how many of my colleagues will agree with that. However, there is a need to take this article with a big pinch of salt as The Onion is a satirical news website.
(via LISNews)

- Kirby: A cemetery is like a library full of stories
Though it seems a little morbid, I do find cemeteries to be wonderful resources to look for things in the past. Unfortunately in Singapore, given our scarce land area, most of the cemeteries have been demolished though there are still a few left such as the ones at Kranji War Cemetery, Bidadari Cemetery and Choa Chu Kang Cemetry.
(via LISNews)

- This is not your parents’ library, or yours either
The Toronto Public Library has opened the first of several planned KidsStops - an indoor interactive literacy playground - to promote literacy development in children up to age 5. Hmmm … wondering if any colleagues will be going to Toronto after the IFLA Annual Conference in Quebec.
(via LISNews)

Thanks Heavens for the Book People Who Show The Way

Isaak Kwok — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:27:40 +0000

A wonderful opinion piece on the work librarians actually do in the New Zealand Herald. Sometimes we forget what the true calling of a librarian is with our constant chase for KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. Related posts:Quick Links - “100 Books Every Child Should Read” and Other Stories - 23 February 2008 Books, Libraries [...] Related posts:

A Look Behind the Scenes in A Library

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:39:26 +0000

YouTube Link

A very interesting video that gives a behind-the-scenes look of the happenings in the backroom of a library. Maybe my colleagues in our Library Supply Centre might be interested in doing something similar. A lot more fun than your normal corporate video. I particularly like the ending in the video.

(via Tame The Web

100 Must-Read Books for Men

Isaak Kwok — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:09:53 +0000

The Art of Manliness recently posted an article listing down 100 must-read books for men.

Unfortunately, most of the books are pretty alien to me even though I’m a librarian. I tend to read more nerdy stuff like techie books on HTML, CSS, and web design as well as business and current affairs magazines.

The ones that I’ve read before are:

Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (Call No.: English 158.1 CAR or here)
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Call No.: J English TWA)
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Call No.: J English MEL or English MEL)
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (Call No.: English DEF)
The Bible
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (Call No.: English LEE)

Although the book is not on the list, my personal favorite book of all time is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (Call No.:English ACH). Read this book for my literature class when I was 14 and the story remains quite deeply in my mind.

So, what do you think about the listing? If you are a guy, would you have read the books listed? Maybe someone should come up with a list for women.

(via LISNews)

Resources for Teens

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:40:20 +0000

Yesterday, I had a post more towards to children books. So, for today, I found two resources (via LibrarianInBlack) for teens.

The first one that you should check out is Turning The Paige. It’s a teens’ book review blog and is run by Paige Turner, who reads and reviews the books. You can search for books by genre, age level, series or grade through the categories in the sidebar. Turner has a rating system for the books reviewed which would not be foreign to students … A+ to F-. As the site was started only at the beginning of the year, there are not many reviews at the moment. But you might be interested in the “Top 10 Lists” category to find interesting reads.

As for the second resource, the name of the site is Ergo and is created and run by the State Library of Victoria, Australia. Information literacy for students and teachers at the high school / secondary school level is the focus of the site. It has great resources on research skills, essay writing skills and study skills. It has also many great resources for teachers as well. Although the site is quite Victoria- and Australia-centric in terms of the content, there are still many useful tips that anyone can use.