Thursday, May 03, 2007

Highlights from Singapore LibraryBlogLand: April 2007

Last month, in the Singapore LibraryBlogland...

More NLB librarians discover podcasting and vodcasting
Coleman shares his perspective in training some NLB librarians. They must have liked his content and training style, 'cos my colleagues rated an average of 4.5 out of 5 for content, and 4.6 (out of 5) for trainer's score. Coleman says "Librarians are so generous!"


Quirky book-alert from High Browse Online

"The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification"... Enough said! Read the High Browse Online post here.


How do animals communicate?
This was asked by a kid (posted at the ASK! blog).


How would you cope with this exasperating library customer?
Here's what QQ*Librarian did to cope with a reader who "kept badgering me to prove the existence of Christ":
"...a quick prayer of "Jesus, help me" first... Then, I tried to imagine [the customer as] Pierce Brosnan (which is super difficult) and put on the best smile that I can manage for him."

Ex-library colleague puts up photo exhibition
rainy day 2 (feel life)Ex-colleague, Wrkshy (whom I still regard as part of the Singapore Liblogarian family, even though she's not working in a library right now) shares her thoughts on a recent photo exhibition that she put up.
[Photo from WrkShy]


Our own (wiki) novel idea!
P1730880SG Liblogarian Damien blogs about a recent meeting, where some of my colleagues and I decided to test our own Wiki-novel idea. We were discussing (quite heatedly) about what might work and what might not. In the end, we decided the best way was to test the ideas ourselves. I created this wiki on the fly. We had more than a few laughs coming up with the story guidelines. What's "SLW07"? It's a secret for now ('cos I can't steal the thunder from my Corp Comms folks, or I might get dooced!)


Her first experience behind an Advisory counter
Another colleague of mine, who calls herself "novelet", shares her insights on what it's like to be the librarian behind the advisory counter (to set the context for her post, novelet volunteered to man the counter; her regular work doesn't involve face-to-face interactions with library customers):
Customer service is really a very different experience from office work. When you are facing the public, you must be at your very best! You must be perceived to be fair and know the operations at finger tips. In addition, you must also be able to understand the needs of your customers; especially when they are not able to articulate what they really need help on!

The DDC Headache
Jolinddiva, who's taking her MSc. (Information Science) exams at NTU, wrote that the DDC is giving her a headache.


The "Ah-beng" librarian, on Wikipedia
Liblogarian "tiny digit", who has a penchant for expressing himself as an Ah-Beng, defends the use of Wikipedia... I think, if my Ah-Beng-speak is up to speed. Not quite an open-letter like mine, but he makes some similar arguments.


revish - a Social Book Review site
Isaak, the Blogging Librarian, reviews a Social Book Review site called revish.


Tan Swie Hian at the National Library
[Photo credit: Walter Lim]
Walter Lim blogs about the launch and recital of Singapore artist Tan Swie Hian's Nine-volume works, poetry and songs, held at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. BTW, Tan Swie Hian is one of the current four donors at the LKCRL Donors' Collection at level 10.



Singapore musician's audio interview at NLB's Digi.talk blog
[Photo from: Digi.Talk]
60s-music enthusiast, modcentric, points us to three audio clips of an interview with Singapore musician, Vernon Cornelius (where he shares things like the Beatles' brief stopover in Singapore in the 1960s, and the general Singapore music scene in the 1960s).

BTW, it's about time I reveal that modcentric was a librarian with the library@esplanade (yeah, "was", 'cos she's left the library and will be pursuing another career. She was one of the librarians who played an instrumental part in putting this exhibition and video documentary together. Best of luck, mod!)


Cartoonist Mark Heath finds my blog post!
After almost three years of blogging, things like this still give me a kick, heh (oh, you should really check out Spot the Frog sometime).
cover
NLB Call. No: 741.5 HEA -[ART]

[Ref: Mar 2007 highlights]

2 comments:

  1. thanks, ivan! hopefully more people will check out those interview clips.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:50 am

    I feel honoured to have a mention in your article. Thanks Ivan. I like the highlights very much.

    I feel it's a great way to 'sum up' what has been going on in library blogland.

    ReplyDelete

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