Singapore Libraries Bulletin Blog : Library Association of Singapore

Andrew Wells, University Librarian of the University of New South Wales gave a talk on Australian university libraries: challenges and opportunities on 9 April 2007 at the UNSW Asia Library on Kay Siang Road. The talk was an event jointly organised by LAS and UNSW Asia Library.

Professor Greg Whittred, UNSW Asia President, welcomed all 63 participants and outlined the reasons for the event which were to contribute to professional development for librarians, to mark the birth of the newest university library in Singapore (in operation for 4 weeks since 12 March) and to thank the library community for its help and support. Professor Bruce Milthorpe, UNSW Asia Deputy President-Academic, introduced Mr Andrew Wells.

Andrew started with an overview of Australian academic libraries. In 2005, there were 38 universities with 230 libraries employing over 4,000 staff with a total budget of A$520m. There were over 300,000 inter-library loans and over 200,000 documents delivered which showed a strong level of inter-dependence and cooperation between libraries as interlibrary lending is voluntary.

It was highlighted that there was no magic formula for library funding. University libraries are jointly funded by state or territory governments and by the federal government, together with individual university self-funding sources.

Advocacy is important and is lead by groups such as Universities Australia, the Group of Eight (go and the Australian Technology Network. Collaboration is lead by the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) which seeks to provide a common voice and representation for all university libraries and to promote common interests.

CAUL also provides surveys of salaries, annual library statistics and instruments for performance management. It makes submissions for amendments to the Copyright Act. It employs a dedicated lawyer who focuses on lobbying copyright issues.

As part of CAUL, the CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee (CEIRC) has worked to improve access to electronic resources for Australian university libraries in a cost-effective manner. CEIRC negotiates with vendors to have licenses to which include appropriate clauses for areas like document delivery and course packs which are needed by university libraries. CEIRC takes a unified approach to electronic resources purchasing and has helped university libraries to save money when they opt in to the consortia pricing available. CEIRC achieved consortia pricing for 147 products from 98 vendors.

Challenges that Australian university libraries face could be grouped into the following categories:

Finance

University libraries face price increases without increases in their budget and allowances for currency inflation. They also have problems raising capital for buildings and for storage of collections. Andrew commented that many Australian libraries look “a little tired”. Universities are money-hungry places and libraries seldom get funding for refurbishment. He recommended the University of Queensland Library as one that had been successfully refurbished and worth a visit.

Organization

University administrators were not sure where to put libraries and they have been converged with IT, with learning and teaching, or separate but under resources or the academic section. Andrew personally felt that libraries belong under the academic section.

Libraries have also been wrestling with internal restructuring which became necessary as the environment they operate in has changed. For example, libraries needed to respond to the effects of the Internet which led to people not visiting libraries as much.  

Value

Libraries were being asked to show how they added value and to demonstrate their contribution by their hard-headed bosses. The data currently available does not clearly show the contribution of libraries. It is becoming increasingly important to show that investment in libraries pay off in terms of research and academic outcomes.

Research

Although the idea that libraries were necessary to support research is well established, there are still areas to build on. They were institutional repositories and the Research Quality Framework. With the Australasian Digital Theses Program, access to over 12,000 theses online is provided. Some of which are locally hosted or available via vendor sites. In response to the government’s call to promote access to Australian research, ARROW was started. It makes research literature which is not peer-reviewed available to the world. It uses VITAL and Fedora to manage the repositories created. These were projects led by university libraries.

The second area is the Research Quality Framework which aims to have a better assessment of the quality and impact of publicly funded research. Libraries could work to make the research accessible online but there are copyright issues involved.

Restructuring in UNSW Library

In UNSW Library, there had been a shift to online resources and the visibility of librarians was much reduced. They have looked at ways to respond to the changes but implementing the changes has been hard. One of the changes was to restructure the Information Services Department from a model of special libraries to teams focused on various stages of the service cycle with more librarians doing outreach.

They are also looking at the ways they report on the performance measures of the library. Most of the current statistics focus on areas that were important in the past but were not reflecting the library as it is currently. Online access to resources is growing but not reported, and loans of the print collection is not growing but is reported. Hence the need for more current performance measures for the library which is a project that they are starting on.

Andrew emphasized that we should not lose our traditions but we need to embrace new ones to help libraries and librarians remain relevant to their users.

Isabella Trahn, Director, UNSW Asia Library thanked Andrew Wells for giving the talk. She was grateful for his support of UNSW Asia Library. She also thanked DA for helping UNSW Asia Library to bring the collection together and sponsoring the refreshments for the talk.

Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin

The NTU Entrepreneur Seminar 07 was held on 3 March 2007 at the Traders Hotel. NTU Division of Information Studies hosted the Seminar and the LAS Special Libraries Section was invited to coordinate some participation from LAS for the discussion and sharing session on entrepreneurship opportunities in the information and knowledge sector.

The afternoon Seminar began with invited panel of entrepreneurs giving presentations. The speakers were:

• KC Wong, Sparky Animation
• Lim Bak Wee, Integro Techonologies
• Rakesh Kumah Gupta, Heuristic Lab
• Tan Beng Hiong, XYSoft

There was so much to share that the speakers inevitably ran over the time allocated. The speakers had no trouble capturing the audience’s attention with their inspiring, thought-provoking talks and savvy media presentations.  The section was useful with the participants rapt in attention listening to the entrepreneurs recounting their challenges and rewards.

The Entrepreneur Seminar ended with a dynamic question and answer session facilitated by Prof Margaret Tan, NTU. The Q&A session had 8 panelists. They consisted of the earlier 4 speakers together with the t other panelists on entrepreneurship opportunities in the information sector. The latter panelists were:

• Choy Fatt Cheong, University Librarian, NTU, a library consultant for 4 years before he joined NTU in April 2004
• Patrick Lambe, Principal Consultant and Founding Partner, Straits Knowledge
• Leow Kok Meng, Deputy Director, Business Development at Civica
• Wendy Lee, an entrepreneur with a firm providing legal information consultancy services to local and overseas legal professionals

On the whole, the speakers and the audience did a good job and the seminar went smoothly except for over-run in time. The panelists shed light on the skills needed by entrepreneurs used to build and manage their enterprise. Skills highlighted included integrity, human relations, communication skills, ability to operate out of the comfort zone, identifying niches and taking steps to fill that niche. In response to the question on the catalyst for their enterprise, their takes were as diverse as the speakers, which included:

• “Believe in yourself and keep pushing for it”
• “A sense of ownership”
• “Passion & drive”
• “Sense of adventure & take calculated risk”
• “Leave a legacy”
• “Experience life”

The speakers certainly gave the audience some food for thought. The seminar participants also consulted the entrepreneurs present on some issues. In response to the question on the usefulness of  a business plan, some of the speakers thought that although research needed to be done for information and direction, an outline of the plan seemed to suffice as the plan became obsolete quickly and the entrepreneur needed to adapt the plan along the way.

During the 3-hour seminar, we got to hear from some great speakers as well as to engage the entrepreneurs who came to share their experiences. The SLS was grateful that a total of 9 LAS participants attended the seminar even though short notice was given and scheduled on a non-working day. For the participants, it was a fruitful session.

Contributed by Foo Yan Chuin

The members of LAS gathered at Grand Plaza Park Hotel on 17 March 2007 for our Annual General Meeting. We enjoyed a sumptuous lunch.

Swets Information Services gave a presentation on their new product, SwetsWise Subscriptions.

The AGM started off with Sylvia Yap, outgoing President, addressing the meeting. She highlighted the main achievements of the Council in the past year which included:

• LAS Conference successfully carried out using solely the talents of its members
• Professional Development Scheme proposed
• LAS finances with a healthy surplus

Sylvia emphasized that a strong membership was crucial for LAS. She encouraged members to come forward to serve. She put on record her heartfelt thanks to all council members, committee members and leaders of the libraries in Singapore for their unstinting support and encouragement.

After the minutes of the previous AGM was passed, we dealt with matters arising. The main one being the IFLA Feasibility Study. There were significant changes to the IFLA bidding process which largely included the appointment of a professional conference organizer. After due consideration, the meeting agreed to LAS putting in a bid for the IFLA Conference.

The next item the meeting agreed to the renaming of the Building Fund to Development Fund.

The Professional Development Scheme generated the most debate. Everyone agreed that professional development was important but some were not in favour of the way the scheme had been proposed to be implemented. It was agreed to study the scheme further and to incorporate the concerns of members. It was agreed that the LAS Council would make a decision on the revised scheme after due consultation with members.

Choy Fatt Cheong recorded his thanks to Sylvia Yap and her council for their excellent work. He saw remarkable changes in LAS under her leadership. Dr Varaprasad also recorded his thanks to LAS for the go ahead for the IFLA bid. He asked members not to underestimate the strength of our libraries and our librarians who can achieve much when they put their minds to it.

The election for the next LAS Council was conducted next and there were enough nominations for a full council. The new council comprises:

• Ngian Lek Choh, President
• Pushpa Leow, Vice-President
• Kris Lim, Honorary Secretary
• Tey Lin Lin, Honorary Treasurer
• Cumaraswamy Mukunthan, Assistant Honorary Secretary
• Kho Su Yian, Council Member
• M Shaheen Majid, Council Member
• Catherine Tan, Council Member
• Tan Lay Tin, Council Member
• Wan Ho Wah, Council Member

Ngian Lek Choh addressed the meeting as the President-Elect. She viewed the IFLA bid as a channel for professional development and as a way for librarians to come together. For the Professional Development Scheme, she would ensure that all views were heard and to get the best scheme going. She would set up a taskforce to solicit feedback to ensure that LAS is relevant and useful to younger members. She also hoped to sow the seeds for greater cooperation between libraries and librarians and looks forward to the cooperation of members in the next two years of her term.

Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin

The LAS-YBP Award is given to recognize the contribution by a librarian in collection development or technical services which include acquisitions, cataloguing and serials management.  It also aims at providing an opportunity for the librarian to increase professional knowledge and experience through research or to present papers at conferences.  

We are pleased to announce the inaugural winner of this Award, Ms Saralee Turner. Ms Turner is currently the SILAS Authority Control Coordinator. She will be using the award to conduct research on how to optimize name authority work in the Singapore context. The annual award consists of a $2,500 grant donated by YBP Library Services/Lindsay and Croft.

Contributed by Judy Ng, LAS Business Development Committee

LAS sponsored Fiona Kwan, a LAS member, to attend the LAS Conference.

 Legal Library Services offered sponsorship to support the Special Libraries Section and to encourage new membership. Ms Noraishah Shaharuddin, Library Executive from the Civil Service, was the lucky winner out of the new members who joined in December 2006.

Congratulations to Fiona and Noraishah!

Registration was closed on 8 January 2007 for both the conference “Librarians: Learning -> Strengthening -> Moving Forward” to be held on 29-30 January and the related workshop to be held on 31 January.  We have had a tremendous response and thank you for your strong support. 

We look forward to a rewarding and enriching event.

Contributed by LAS Conference Organising Committee

The LAS Council and LAS Conference Organising Committee first announced the LAS Conference and Workshop 2007 – “Librarians: Learning -> Strengthening -> Moving Forward” back in September.  Since that time, much work has been done to ensure an outstanding and diverse conference.  Interest is high with over 75% of the maximum attendees registered as of late November.

• Conference: Mon-Tue, 29-30 January 2007 at Rendezvous Hotel
• Workshop: Wed, 31 January 2007 at NLB (Lee Kong Chian Reference Library – Level 5 - Imagination Room) 

If you have yet to register, visit http://www.las.org.sg/LAS_Conference2007/lasconference.htm for complete programme and registration details.

Contributed by LAS Conference Organising Committee

Mr Choy Fatt Cheong chaired a forum on Professional Development for Librarians in Singapore on 13 December 2006 at NUS Central Library. He spoke as the Chairperson of the National Committee of Library and Knowledge Professionals in Singapore.

The presentation he made is available at http://www.las.org.sg/pds-presentation.pdf.

There was a lively discussion after his presentation. More details coming!

Contributed by Tan Lay Tin

Ms Leslie Burger is the current ALA President and she spoke to a group of librarians on how she transformed her library, the Princeton Public Library. The talk was held at the National Library in September 2006.

Tips on Transforming Libraries

• Be passionate as it will drive you to talk about how wonderful libraries are and what they do for the community. Do not be shy about self-promotion, because if you do not promote your library, no one else would.
• Have a compelling and purposeful vision that engages all your stakeholders and use it to direct you.
• Walk on the wild side by hiring staff with have the right attitude and demeanor.
• Build a culture that welcomes change and allow staff to challenge the status quo and do things differently. Even when there are failures, learn from the failures. Be relentless in promoting the changes you want.
• Never give up and keep at it to achieve the results you want. Be aware that the results are not achieved overnight.

Most importantly, listen and respond to your users and provide responsible library service. She believes that we need to create exciting spaces in the library that overwhelm the users and get them excited by the library and the services it offers.

For the community that Princeton Public Library (http://www.princetonlibrary.org/ ) serves, some work long hours and some work from non-traditional work places, some have many career changes, some are very agile with information technology while others are not, some are immigrants whose first language is not English.

She aimed to create a great library space that makes users feel welcome by using open facades and transparency. She called her library the “community living room” with spaces for all age groups ranging from the very young, the working adults, the immigrants to the older adults.

Libraries were previously very much text based. In order to cater to different learning styles, her library offers current book collection in many different languages together with downloadable audio books and music. It also organizes many programs (from book clubs, film festivals, forums) to allow learning and sharing of information a social context.

They have also tried to use technology to make searching for information a more seamless experience with a structure. Their library catalog which uses Innopac has been customized to make it more user-friendly. See it at http://catalog.princetonlibrary.org/search. The summary list looks very attractive, with the book cover, buttons for “Is it available?”, “Reserve it”. The have tried to make the system less clunky and even forgiving of typing errors.

They are trying to think more like their customers and to be more accommodating and to provide personal service to them. They recognize that the library is in the service business.

They have changed their opening hours to suit their customers. They open on all public holidays as many of their customers are not able to visit the library on weekdays. They offer home delivery service to give the customers the materials they want at their convenience. To be able to answer the questions of the customers, they offer email, chat using Live Online, telephone and also a in-depth research advisory service.

Ms Burger sends an email to their customers at the beginning of the month to keep them informed about activities in the library and usually adds her own personal touches.

She believes in investing in collections and feels strongly that libraries are in the book business and that librarians “worship” books as evidenced in the ALA logo. She ensures that her library’s collection is current with sufficient copies of “hot” books and in good condition. They have arrangements with book suppliers to provide the latest titles. They have a link from their website to Amazon for their customers to buy a book that is on the library’s wish list. This helps them get books which they want instead of many titles that they do not need. They display books by topics and arrange them like a retailer would to make it more attractive and to increase the turnover of their books.

They use a wiki to allow users to upload a review of a book they have read on the library’s website. The library also offers technology training for its customers. They also lend laptops and mp3 players to their customers.

They have not forgotten about promoting reading. They reach out to the young by sending a goody bag to new-borns, they welcome children as young as 15 months to come. They organize activities like children reading out loud to patient and non-critical reading dogs.

She gave an example of how the library became a knowledge facilitator. It worked with a group called Service Corps Of Retired Executives (SCORE) to host talks and counseling sessions at the library which has been very successful. In response to these activities, the library added relevant titles for the topics their customers are interested in, like “How to write a business plan”, “How to start my own business” instead of buying directories which were not so useful. They have even organized web resources to support these activities.

Ms Leslie Burger has a blog at http://burgerforala.blogs.com/burger_for_ala/

So are you ready to have a library on steroids?

Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin

We are proud to present the new logo of the Special Libraries Section (SLS).  This logo serves to inaugurate the formation of the SLS and to underscore it as an unique entity within LAS.  As such, SLS has specially created a logo that both incorporates and is an extension of the LAS logo. Developed by professional graphic designer, Lindy Lou, the logo highlights the abbreviations - SLS.  It will be used in official documents and publicity materials as the Special Libraries Section moves forward in its endeavors to promote special librarianship and library professionalism in Singapore.

Design created by Lindy Lou, Graphic Designer