Unit Twelve: International Organizations

IFLA
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
I was interested to see that this organization has a 3 tier model for its operations which include: Society, Members and Profession. It's the Society Pillar that I find most interesting particularly since I have recently been doing research for another class which advocates using libraries as an information warehouse for community services. So I was pleased to that IFLA also advocates this (on a larger scale of course). I was also happy to see that many parts of the site are available in multiple languages.

I was also interested in the World Summit on the Information Society. IFLA's participation in the World Summit included articles/speeches on Using Libraries to help bridge the digital divide:

Christine Deschamps, President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) called for the forthcoming UN World Summit on the Information Society to recognise that libraries had a key role in tackling the growing "digital divide".

She pleaded that world leaders should avoid ‘re-inventing the wheel’. Instead they should concentrate investment in the existing library network. "A relatively modest investment in technology, training and content would work wonders in making information and knowledge available to the information poor", she said.

I agree that there is no sense in reinventing the wheel - existing infrastructure and resources should be used. This also addresses the role and place of the library in the future since many people wonder if its usefulness will fade with so much information being available online. I say NO. Let libraries evolve WITH the technology, not in spite of it.

ISO
International Organization for Standardization
I, for one, am glad that this somewhat invisible organization exists. While I hate to be regulated, if there were no standards, nothing would work. What if you had to buy a new cable for every connection for every computer? Suppose your new computer did not have a slot for your printer? It really does make our lives easier to have these standards even if we only notice their absence and rarely their presence.

Despite the fact that I had been previously made aware that the ISO has standards on non-technical items like wine glasses, I was incredibly surprised to see that they plan to release a new standard in 2008 on Social Responsibility. They intend to clearly define what it means for a company to be Socially Responsible. I wonder what impact this will have on the oil industry and others that can negatively impact the environment? Apparently there will be no certification from the ISO to prove that your company is 'socially responsible' but I'd be willing to bet that companies that meet the guidelines will advertise as such to gain good PR if nothing else.

UNESCO
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Building peace in the minds of men? Could there be a more daunting task? While I applaud their efforts, my first assumption has to be that whatever they are doing it's not working - just look at the state of the world. That's not to say that they aren't doing great things - they are. They are aiming at the "eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty; and the contribution of information and communication technologies to education, science, culture and information and the construction of a knowledge society." All noble goals.
Since I know someone who is leaving today to go to the Sudan to help eradicate guinea worm, I decided to look and see what programs UNESCO has in Sudan. It seems they've had a lot of success in the area of heritage preservation. They have also made strides in education despite the violent climate there. Overall, I think this is a great organization that does good things but, unfortunately, I don't think they will ever reach their goal of 'building peace in the minds of men.'

WIPO
World Intellectual Property Organization
This agency, part of the UN, is an organization "which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest." Intellectual Property can be a confusing topic and this website is a tremendous help in deciphering just what is intellectual property as well as other issues surrounding it, such as geographical indication (Roquefort cheese from Roquefort, France).
I was surprised to find an extensive section of the site dedicated to women. I was not that surprised, however, to learn that the US does not have many female inventors. According to this website of country rankings the US lags behind in many important areas, such as:

• Gender Equality (#17)
• Gay Rights (the US got off to good start here but we've moving backwards)
• Obesity (30+%)
• the Environment (#33)
• Quality of Life (surprisingly the US didn't make the top 10 here)

the EU
European Union
The above link gives the Wikipedia article about the European Union. This link, however, gives more specific information particularly for those living and working within it. I particularly liked the section that explains the rights of citizens, workers, travelers, etc. I found this to be very helpful since I have not traveled to Europe since the European Union came into being. Every possible question I could have about entry and passage between countries, etc was all explained in plain English for me. Since this site is available in many languages (I presume every official language spoken in all EU countries) it would also be useful for EU citizens to learn the new rules as well. Sites such as this are almost mandatory when making changes of this magnitude so that everyone can stay informed of how the new system works.

Geneva Conventions
While not exactly an organization, Geneva Conventions are, of course, a world standard (or at least ratified in 194 countries). I found this site to be of particular interest since I don't think I've ever read the actual conventions but only had a (more than vague) idea of what they contained. Article 3 is of particular interest in today's political climate. It seems fairly straight forward to me that the US has been consistently violating this article for the past several years. I don't find it vague at all although Pres. Bush seems to. IF you don't feel like reading through all the legalese of the actual Conventions, the Society of Professional Journalists have made an online quick reference guide.

Movie Recommendations
Maybe a little odd for this week's topics but... I thought some POW movies might be in order...
The Bridge on River Kwai
The Great Escape
...and on a lighter note, this old TV show always made me laugh..
Hogan's Heroes

Unit Eleven: Reflections on Africa

Left: Somewhere in the Sahara - Unknown photographer; Right: Djenne, Mali - Basil Pao, photographer from Palin's Travels.


National Libraries in Africa

Burkina Faso
Unfortunately, this site is entirely in French. I couldn't find an English button. It appears that the library site is really only one page of the website for the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism. I didn't see anything that looked like it could be an online searchable catalog. But at least they have something.

University of Namibia library
Namibia does have an online searchable catalog. This has become the first thing I look for on a National Library website. It looks like they also use the Millennium system that UNC-CH uses. I suppose they curse it as well. In addition, the have several digital collections. And links to Namibian databases. It's always exciting for me to find new databases I can search. The home page could really use some work but it has a lot of great resources - many similar to our own at UNC.

Rwanda
On Rwanda's site the first link is to the World Bank e-Library. See more about this later in my report (GESCI). Considering that Rwanda is aiming to lead Africa in bridging the digital divide (again see more on this later in this report) I was fairly unimpressed with this site. But it does have a link to an online catalog (that never loaded). The e-resources link did lead to outside links to many journal databases.

South Africa
As expected, the South African National Library website looks professional and more like other developed countries' National Library websites. Surprisingly, they do not, however, have an online searchable catalog. But they do have several databases that allow a patron to search for items in the library collection by type or subject. For instance, you can search the National Film, Video + Sound Archives. While I think this is great, I think a full catalog search function would be more useful.


Algeria
Language choices for this site are French and Arabic, neither of which is going to help me much. But at least I can read some of the French. The next thing I noticed was the incredible amount of JavaScript being used. I think they went way overboard with JavaScript which limits the usability. You end up having to scroll a very small window to read the information for each page. It looks nice but it's not very practical. And I don't see anything that looks like a catalog. out of curiosity I looked at the Arabic version to see if the design was any different. It's not.

Mauritius
This site looks pretty horrible and appears to be under construction but it does have a searchable web catalog. I was particularly interested to note that after choosing an item from my search results I was taken to a page that not only gave me more information about it but also provided a link entitled 'Nearby items on shelf.' This facilitates browsing just as you might if you were physically in the stacks. Browsing is something I believe is quite difficult to emulate online. Despite the fact that we refer to as browsing, we are usually searching which is not the same thing at all. It's very hard to serendipitously find something online without having searched for something related (as opposed to Barnes & Noble that makes it easy).

Tunisia
I could not get this link to work. While I was searching for a new link I ran across this: Africa Online. It's worth checking out. I have not been able to find another URL for the Tunisian National Library but I did find some information about it on Australia's National Library website.


Kgotla
The word Kgotla caught my eye almost immediately when I visited the University of Botswana's Library & Information Studies page. I was intrigued by it. It turns out that Kgotla is the name of the university's discussion board. The word Kgotla means courtyard but it is more similar to the European concept of a town square where people congregate for a multitude of purposes - one being to communicate. The University of Botswana believes that "public consultation is an important feature of Botswana's democratic traditions and the Kgotla provides a unique forum for open discussion and a free and proper exchange of ideas and views."

Bibliotheca Alexandrina Children's Library
I really enjoyed viewing the pictures of the architecture of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The site as a whole I think is great and at first glance the Children's Library site looks great too. But I think it could be improved greatly with more graphics and icons. They've used balloons that might appeal to very young children with words on them. They could have tried to use icons that conveyed meaning so that younger children might be able to use the site. However, there are some really great links on there> I just think that the design is a little off in that the graphics used might appeal more to children who cannot yet read or who are just learning. Perhaps the icons on Yahooligans (which it links to) would be more age appropriate.

Mali
Having studied ancient Mali Empire long ago as an undergrad, I was not surprised to read this article about finding and preserving "tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance." I remember being surprised when I took my African History class that I had never learned about the great societies of Africa before because they rivaled those in other parts of the world. I think more non-Western history courses should be taught both before and during college.


Kenya National Library Service Camel Mobile Library Service: I think this is my favorite part of this week's 'lecture.' Community Outreach to illiterate Nomads via camels. Priceless. I would really like to donate a female camel. But then there's the Donkey Library in Zimbabwe! I definitely agree with Christie that this is truly a unique and above-and-beyond approach to meeting the needs of your users and performing community outreach.

Rwanda: Bridging the Digital Divide
It's interesting to hear that Rwanda wants to lead Africa in bridging the digital divide so soon after its genocide and while it still does not allow its own history to be taught at least partly due to the fact that they cannot yet agree on it. I applaud the effort, however, and wish them success. It would seem that they are on the right track in offering IT training to help fill jobs. Apparently the whole idea is to introduce the people to new concepts and potentially new ideas for how to make money other than in agriculture. This is an extremely important concept and endeavor in drought-stricken Africa.

Global eSchools and Communities Initiative
I got pretty stuck on the camel and donkey library concepts and decided to look for more examples of pack-animals being used as bookmobiles. I didn't find any, probably because I abandoned the search when I started finding examples of bridging the digital divide in rural areas. The GESCI was founded by the UN ICT task force in 2003 (ICT=Information and Communications Technologies). A program called TECH/NA! was recently launched in Namibia. This program aims to:

• Equip educational institutions with hardware, software, connectivity, curriculum, content and technical support.
• Educate administrators, staff, teachers and learners in ICT literacy and ICT integration across the entire curriculum
• Empower whole communities in bridging the digital divide and meeting the goals of Vision 2030

Previous programs have found success in rural broadcasting in Ghana, empowering women in Nigeria, world education and connectivity in Uganda and matching young African writers with English writer mentors. Other such success stories can be found here. One of the most interesting things about this organization is the diversity of the programs. There is no cookie cutter program that they try to install in every country. Every program is unique and meets certain specific needs of the country.

Conflict Diamonds

It would appear that the Kimberley Process of 2003 has done quite a lot to help ensure that the general public is not purchasing blood diamonds. If the Wikipedia article statistic can be trusted (it's not cited), then 98% of the diamonds on the market are legitimate and accompanied by a Kimberley certificate. But, given the quantity of diamonds, perhaps that 2% is still quite significant. Speaking of the quantity of diamonds, why are they so expensive? Is it really DeBeers' fault?
It was easier than I thought to verify that statistic. The Kimberley Process has its own website and states: "Kimberley Process Participants account for approximately 99.8% of the global production of rough diamonds." If this is true, why are blood diamonds such an issue that there is a movie coming out next month about it? Ah... I found the Amnesty International website that says there are concerns about the self-regulation of Kimberley Process participating countries.
This article states that around 4% of diamonds world-wide are conflict diamonds. Not a very alarming statistic. It's who buys them that is alarming: terrorists. Well of course they buy them! They have to hide their money somehow and governments monitor anything that's in an account. While I obviously don't agree with the concept of conflict diamonds, it seems that they are currently only an issue because of terrorism. If 9-11 proved anything, it proved that terrorists can be VERY creative. If we eradicate conflict diamonds as a source of storing wealth for terrorists, I imagine they'll find another way. Perhaps they'll take up stamp collecting. Stamps, like gemstones, are small and portable and can be extremely valuable (although probably more traceable).

Ethiopia
Last night I ate Ethiopian food for the first time. I wish I had better news to report but I can't say that it was an enjoyable culinary experience for me. I'd be willing to try it again however.
Emily, Thea and I ate at The Queen of Sheba in Chapel Hill. It's a rather small restaurant, and last night it was doing quite a business which made it a little difficult to get past the crowd to the restrooms. But the ambiance is excellent. I don't know if it's an Ethiopian tradition or not but at the very least it was a refreshing change from the clapping Happy Birthday song sung at most restaurants. A group at a nearby table was celebrating a man's birthday. The restaurant staff went over to the table and began clapping and dancing in an attempt to lure the birthday boy out of his seat to get up and dance which he eventually did. It made for a fun evening for all.
I'd be willing to try the food again if I could order meat next time. We were with a group and everyone wanted to share the vegetarian platter so that's what we had. It was simply not to my taste. Although I did discover that I liked the lentil beans and I've always hated lentils in the past. I also learned that it is Ethiopian tradition to feed one another although we did not participate in that ritual.
Ethiopia looks beautiful! I had no idea it was so green. Click here.

Random Comments on this Unit:
Teri's pictures from Capetown are awesome! And I think it's great what she's doing over there is great. Kudos to Teri for all the work she had to do to get over there.
I applaud Jay-Z and MTV for their involvement in the world water crisis.
Kevin Sites' In the Hot Zone - What a fabulous resource! It can be so heard to keep up with these things in our busy lives. And many of these issues seldom, if ever, make the mainstream news. Kudos to Kevin Sites.


Movie Recommendations
I've decided to make this a regular section in my report

Lord of War
Hotel Rwanda
Black Hawk Down
The African Queen
Casablanca
The Constant Gardener
Wow. There are a lot of good movies about Africa.
Coming soon..... Blood Diamond

South Africa

I went to South Africa for a week on business back in 1998. I was in Johannesburg. I'm not sure what it's like now, but I thought I'd describe my experience there. There are no pictures to post because I really didn't go anywhere due to security and personal safety reasons.

My company hired bodyguards for us because Johannesburg was known to be extremely dangerous. So much so that I was advised not to even take a cab from the airport to the hotel due to the high incidents of cab-jacking. Indeed this did happen to one of our consultants. A consultant from another African country (I forget where he was from exactly) either 'did not get the memo' or chose to ignore this advice. He and his wife flew in (incidentally there are very few flights within Africa and often you have to fly to Europe to get back to Africa) and took a cab to the hotel. They were cabjacked. They were robbed of their personal belongings (mostly jewelry and cash) and the cab was stolen. The experience was so traumatic that the consultant's wife refused to leave their hotel room for the entire week. I followed instructions and was met by one of the bodyguards at the airport.

The bodyguards were a collection of scarred, gun toting mercenary-like guys who were veterans of little African wars you've probably never heard of. They were never without their guns (except once) and they took their job VERY seriously. If we wanted to go anywhere outside the hotel they went with us. They escorted us, ever vigilant, to and from the Trade Show we were there to attend. Anywhere else we wanted to go we had to coordinate group outings so that they could be with us all at all times. We did go barhopping one night to try and absorb a little local culture as a group and the first bar we went to required all weapons to be checked at the door (just like a coat check). At first they refused to enter and told us we would have to go somewhere else. Somehow we talked them into it but they were jittery and nervous the whole time we were there. It wasn't a great bar anyway so we left and went somewhere else where they did allow guns and drinking to occur simultaneously. An interesting concept for us Americans. We also went to a flea market type place so that we could buy some souvenirs but once again the crowd made them nervous. They couldn't possibly see everything going on within the crowd and they subsequently tried to herd us out as quickly as we would let them.

To put this all in a little better perspective, let me point out that they weren't the only people toting guns around Jo-burg. Virtually everyone carries a gun there. The only other place we could go on our own besides our hotel was a mall that had an entrance within our hotel. At that entrance, and all other mall entrances, there was a gun check. Everyone carries a gun and subsequently many establishments require you to check your gun at the entrance. Very weird experience.

In working our trade show booth I met people from all over but we also had a few locals working in the booth with us. I remember one woman in particular who gave me an earful about the state of Jo-burg as she saw it. She was most definitely of the opinion that ending Apartheid was a bad thing. Definitely very racist. I tried to listen to her to understand her perspective although I completely disagreed with it. I didn't live there - she did. Apparently, the white population (or at least some of them, perhaps the ones with some extra income) live in constant fear of the blacks. Whether this is warranted or not I couldn't say. In any case, it was apparently quite common to have a wall or fence around your home with a locking gate and an extensive security system installed in and around the house as well. By extensive, I mean that in addition to the gate outside your home, the dogs within said gate and the typical electronic security systems we are familiar with here, it was also very common to have additional metal doors or bars that would be activated by the system to close off all external entrances to the house as well as windows and doors to the bedroom so that you could lock yourself in your bedroom if someone gained entrance to the house. This is the type of security system I have only seen in movies and would think only paranoid people would have in their homes. And this is all in addition to a virtual arsenal of weapons (by my standards) that would be kept in the bedroom (or whatever room had been designated to seal the family in if an intruder managed to get through all the other security measures).

I don't know the crime details from back then but it's safe to say that Jo-burg was an extremely dangerous place to be in the late 1990s. In contrast, I found everyone I met to be very nice and polite. It was somewhat sad, however, that all the service staff in my five star hotel were black while the managers and desk staff were all white. And the black service staff were overly-polite and acted in complete deference to the white hotel guests (I believe there were some grumblings from black guests about not being treated the same by the black staff). While I believe a five star hotel should have overly polite staff and be as accommodating as possible, I think it was more due to race relations in South Africa (or maybe just Jo-burg) rather than the quality of the hotel. All in all, a very weird experience. I would like to go back to visit Capetown which I've heard is absolutely beautiful and does not (or did not then) have the crime issues of Jo-burg.

Unit Ten: Reflections on Oceana/Antarctica

LIS schools in the Region
I had previously checked out the University of Wellington - Victoria for their Information Management program as well as the Library and Information Studies program. I have not visited this area of the world and had been thinking of studying there. Edith Cowan University in Perth also looks like it may have some interesting programs but their website gives me database errors when I try to look at the specifics. There does seem to be a trend, however, in that area of the world to separate information studies more from libraries than we do here. There also seem to be better defined tracks in their information programs.

National Libraries:
New Zealand
The first thing I noticed about this site is that all the headers appear in Maori as well as English. The next thing I noticed were the links for school library resources and curriculum development. This is not something I've noticed on other National Library websites - or at least not at the top level navigation. I was disappointed overall by this site. There is a lot of promise but not much delivery. It takes too many clicks in my opinion to actually view many of the collections. And some of them are unavailable. However, they do seem to have a lot of great ideas - they just don't work so well. I also found a library site while looking at the Koha website (see below) that seems to indicate that New Zealand is doing some really cool things with their libraries.

Australia
This site has a wonderful online shop and many many resources including search of Full Text Australian Legal Resources. Even some oral history recordings are available as .mp3 files. All in all an impressive and useful site.

Philippines
See previous blog for my thoughts on this excellent site.

Koha
What a great open source software package! Not that I need it for my own collection but anything that could cheaply replace Millennium sounds good to me. I tested it on a few library sites. It works great if a little slow. By slow I mean not instantaneous as we have all come to expect of searches. But I can live with that. It's free.
One of the library sites I visited to test Koha was theHorowhenua Library site. I think it's great that it has sections entitled "Kid Space", "Teen Zone" and "Maori Resources." I also found that Koha is being used in the US at the Nelsonville Public Library in Ohio.


Australia

Climate Change
It seems that Australia is experiencing quite a drought and global warming may cause the the temperature to rise enough to basically ruin grapes for winemaking which is a large industry there. Winemakers are being encouraged to plan ahead and experiment with new/different grape varietals so that they will be able to stay in business as the temparature rises. I'm curious to know whether this will affect California (or other regions for that matter) or not since it grows many of the same varietals as Australia. In any case, information like this highly useful for planning ahead. I am a firm believer that humans should have more respect for nature and stop trying to conquer her. The wine industry is an excellent example of this. New grape varietals are constantly showing up on the international wine market as more and more countries experiment with growing grapes for winemaking. Years ago the French scoffed at Californians trying to grow Pinot Noir grapes. And now there is a movie practically dedicated to it: Sideways. There have been similar grumblings about the Australian winemaking industry in the past. The trick is to either plant a grape that you know grows well in a similar climate or to experiment and make your own new hybrid grape that grows well in your climate. This is why wine can be a fascinating hobby. Many people think of old stuffy wine snobs who look down their noses and talk about wine using snooty terminology. However, it is constantly changing and evolving and anyone who enjoys the taste should take part. Unfortunately, I think I've run a bit off topic here so I'll leave it at that.

University Library Removes Books
This seemed surreal to me. Not just any library, but a university library removing books from shelves due to paranoia about terrorism. What if a student wanted to do research on jihad? And where is it written that faculty will be more responsible with sensitive material than students? What I mean is that there are many cases of seemingly normal, responsible people becoming terrorists and I'm sure that university faculty are not automatically immune.
It seems odd that Australia would have such policies and institutions like the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Imagine if books were rated like movies and some of them were "refused classification." I believe all books have value even if their value is as an example of what NOT to do.

Warlpiri Media Association
I was rather disappointed in this site because nothing works. The home page promises all sorts of things but none of the links worked properly. I have all the necessary plugins installed. I normally use Firefox but I even tried it in IE (which is the browser the site recommends) and I still couldn't get anything to work. Very disappointing. I would have liked to hear some of the music. I think it's a great project but the site just doesn't really work. Perhaps it was just down when I visited.


Geocaching
Wow. According to geocaching.com Somebody found a geocache in Antarctica YESTERDAY. There was also one found yesterday in Chapel Hill. I think I had a very vague awareness that something like this was happening in the world somewhere but this is basically new to me. While I like the concept, and let's face it - I like gadgetry, I'm almost against using GPS. I think I like the concept of the letterbox better which uses clues instead of coordinates. It requires more skill, less financial investment (i.e. cost of GPS) and I like puzzles. There are several here in town that I can go look for some lazy afternoon over Winter Break.


Antarctica
I had no idea that Antarctica had its own library - located in the UK, of course. We can't have the climate ruining the books. The British Antarctic Survey maintains the library and the site and has tons of information about Antarctica. It's definitely worth clicking around. There are also a lot of pictures and videos if you want to see how desolate it is. I'm not sure why I've been stuck on movie references (see below) for this unit but I do recommend March of the Penguins. I not only learned about penguins and their mating habits but I also learned about Antarctica and enjoyed myself. By following the penguins through their mating cycle you get a sense of what a hostile environment Antarctica is - even for the creatures who are adapted to live there. While I find it fascinating I don't think I'll be booking a trip to look for one of those geocaches anytime soon.

For Your Viewing Pleasure
If you haven't seen any of these movies I highly recommend them.
Whale Rider- Maori in New Zealand
Rabbit Proof Fence - Aboriginals in Australia
March of the Penguins - penguin cycle of life in Antarctica
And of course, The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed in New Zealand and have generated a lot of movie tourism. I think it's great, personally. Movies and books convey information, whether real or imagined, and therefore the tourism is a product of information. It's not really a new phenomenon as many countries and states have used TV advertising (remember the 'Put another shrimp on the barbie' commercials that were inspired by the Crocodile Dundee movies?) in the past to encourage tourism. I think movies are better than books because they better convey the visual information and make it seem more enticing to visit through the use of moving pictures.

I haven't seen Eight Below(dogs in Antarctica) but it looks like it might be worth checking out.

Unit Nine, Part II: Reflections on Southeast Asia

WINE
First off, let me commend Mary's excellent idea of attending a wine tasting at A Southern Season. I find them to be a bit overpriced but, being a fan of wine and having been raised by a wine connoisseur, I think wine is an excellent way to learn about both wine and other countries/cultures. I have attended and enjoyed a wine tasting at A Southern Season and I believe they also have weekly tastings on Friday evenings that are popular with the graduate student crowd. For those who are interested, The Wine Merchant in Raleigh and Cary also offers tastings and some great deals (their website is horrible but the stores are nice and full of knowledgeable staff - most of whom I know).
With all that established, I must confess that I'm not at all familiar with wine in Southeast Asia. I've had wine from most other areas of the world but not this one. I had heard that Thailand was doing something with its wine industry so I started there in my exploration:

• Thai Wine Links
  http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/thai_wine.html
  http://www.chateaudebangkok.com/thai-wines.htm


• Monsoon Valley Winery

Apparently I'm not alone in not thinking of this area of the world for wine. It's an emerging market. http://www.chiff.com/a/wine-southeast-asia.htm. I think I might have to get a bottle of Monsoon Valley red to try with my Turkey this Thanksgiving. Or maybe I should try it with something spicy.

In other alcoholic news in the region... Has anyone ever tried Soju from Korea? It's pretty much like everclear in that it's strong and can double as paint remover. Just kidding. But it is really strong. Wikipedia claims it tastes like vodka but it's certainly not smooth like Russian vodka. It hurts going down. How can it be so popular in Korea? Oh right, it's cheap.

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEBSITES
I just discovered this website: http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/p2/national-libraries.htm so I went poking around in many national library websites in southeast asia. I wish I had found this earlier.
National Library of Korea (English)
National Library of Korea
National Library of Cambodia
National Library of Malaysia
National Library of the Philippines
National Library of Indonesia

General observations:

Korea
The first thing I noticed on the English version of the Korean site is that it's pretty sparse. It's well designed but given the type of institution a library is (i.e. information repository) I expect to see lots of links and there aren't that many comparatively. Following those links does not take me to the collections and there does appear to be search capability or even a list of specific items in the collection - merely statistics about the collections (e.g. number of publications). I have to say, it's pretty disappointing after having visited other national library websites. And I expected more from a country like Korea.

Cambodia
Whew! The entry page to the site is so horrible that I was pleasantly surprised when I finally figured out how to view something else and it looked better. There is not much information on this site - much less than Korea. However, I began with lower expectations so I suppose we should be glad there is any information at online about the Cambodian National Library.


Malaysia
This site still uses frames which is a current web NO NO. However, it does contain a link to National Library Catalogues Worldwide. This link proved most useful since it lead me to the National Library of Thailand website and the National Library of Vietnam which I had not been able to find before. But back to Malaysia... This is a case where the web design is behind the times but the functionality on the site is remarkable. As I've already indicated, one link alone proved to me that it would be a useful site. The links are relevant and in addition to the standard mission statement and statistics about the collections they have an online searchable catalog (which is what I expected from Korea but didn't find).

Philippines:
As you can see from the logo (which is prominently displayed on the splash page) the Philippines National Library also has an online searchable catalog. What they do not have is an 'About Us' section or mission statement. Functionality reigns here. They also have a link to other National Libraries of the World. The online catalog is a little slow to load but I think this site is great.


Indonesia
As an IS student who really likes databases, I was happy to see a search box on the main page with a dropdown menu to choose your database. However, there were a few database errors displayed at the bottom of the page. The site is more reminiscent of a news site than a library which is not necessarily bad but just different. In a sense libraries serve a news-like function so it's not too far off track but I hadn't seen it before. It does lack, however, the mission statement and general information about the library. I firmly believe that all entities should have this section so I think the libraries that have not included it are doing themselves a disservice.


Thailand
It took me awhile to get to the English version (the EN button doesn't work so I had to guesstimate the correct url) but I finally got the site up in English. They have a nicely worded history of the national library and an online searchable catalog. The search functions are only in Thai but it will return results if you search in English.


Vietnam
Unfortunately I can't find an English button so I can't make an analysis of this site. I do know that they have a searchable online catalog but it is only in Vietnamese. I'm more surprised by the lack of French than I am the lack of English. Although, perhaps Vietnam's history with the French and the U.S. is one reason they have neither. Given the information in this article about private libraries in Vietnam I did not expect there to be a National Library. I wonder what conditions must be met to use the National Library if private libraries are springing up all over the place? Or is it just that they need more location? I really wish I could read the site to know.


THAILAND:
Coup? What Coup?
It seems there is nothing much to report since the coup in Thailand a little over a month ago. I had been wondering what was going on. This article indicates that it's business as usual - at least for travelers. But the Thai people, from the few I've known personally to the overall view, are a kind, calm and resilient people. Tourism has been a big industry in Thailand for some time but more so in the past decade. They have recently had to overcome the damaging effects of the Tsunami to recapture that tourism. It's nice to see that the coup has not caused much turmoil in Thailand. Does it still qualify as a coup if it's peaceful? Yes. I looked it up to be sure: coup. The definition says nothing about violence.

Muay Thai
I can never mention Thailand without mentioning my favorite sport: Muay Thai Kickboxing. It has recently become more popular due to its inclusion in Ultimate Fighting Championship. This is basically because, and I admit I'm biased, it is the most awesome martial art style out there. It includes everything. It has been known in the past as the "Science of Eight Limbs" because the hands, feet/legs, elbows and knees are all used. You use virtually your whole body in combat and the traditional Thai style Muay Thai has relatively few rules. This also makes it pretty bloody and dangerous and not for everyone. But I love it. I love the exercise it gives me. I do prefer to use pads however - particularly since I managed to break my big toe and my ankle in the 2 years I practiced it.

Food Farang Style
Anecdote: When I was living in Vegas I worked with several Thai people who liked to cook for us every Friday. They always joked that they would prepare the food "farang style" for us. Farang apparently means "white foreigner" and although it can be used derogatorily it is not inherently a slur. In case, my coworkers were affectionately teasing us because Thai food is HOT and it was fun for them to watch us eat their spicy food and make funny faces and then tell us they had made it not so spicy for us. In any case, I got hooked on homemade Thai food and now can't find anything comparable in Chapel Hill. So spoiled!

KOREA
Paper Museum
What A great idea! It sounds a little odd and even boring at first but it's a great website and seems to be a wonderful interactive museum. The videos are cute even though I couldn't understand them (they're in Korean).

Korean Adoption
Foreign adoption has been in the news a lot lately due to celebrities like Angelina Jolie. There are opportunities to adopt children from many different places and Korea is one of them. Friends of mine recently came home with their newly adopted Korean baby boy. You can read her blog to find out more about the adoption process or to just look at the pictures (September 2006) from their trip to Korea at: http://www.ourthreelittleducks.blogspot.com/

History of Library Science in Korea
This was a very interesting read. I had no idea that library science was so young in Korea although it makes perfect sense given the history. I was especially excited to read about the methods of cataloging they used since I am all about cross-referencing. This is why I love databases. I like the idea several different paths leading to one item. Nothing is ever about only one subject. And things are not always catalogued or indexed in a way that makes sense to everyone. How often have you gotten frustrated with the yellow pages for instance? But I digress. It is puzzling that more library professionals are not in the higher library positions. Perhaps this is due to the (now dying) trend of placing business types in all management positions regardless of the field. But then our own Librarian of Congress doesn't have an MSLS either.



ORIGAMI
On this one I might just have to let the images speak for themselves. That's the beauty of a blog and the online format. To learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origami. While I was not able to take advantage of Christie's post about the sale on origami paper, nor did I make my own crane... I did find this picture of an origami crane mobile (right). I'm still trying to find the original legend about why folding 1000 paper cranes will bring good luck.

SINGAPORE
Food
What's a chili crab? Wikipedia knows everything.

Law
I was not previously aware of the chewing gum law (see above link) in Singapore. I must live under a rock. I had heard of the cleanliness and the seen pictures of all the highrises but I also did not realize that Death By Flowerpot was so common. Given the hefty fines for littering in general, I'm surprised that high rise littering is such a problem. It doesn't seem right that drug trafficking automatically gets you the death penalty but killing a person by littering from up on high just gets you evicted.
Internet Filtering
The government of Singapore actively filters what its residents can view online. However, a study conducted found the following:

The Republic of Singapore is an economic leader in Southeast Asia, with a vibrant information and communications technologies sector; however, the state maintains strong formal and informal controls over the information to which its citizens have access. Singapore's official position is that the state filters Internet content to promote social values and maintain national unity, with the goal of denying access to objectionable material, especially pornography and content encouraging ethnic or religious strife. The Media Development Authority (MDA) claims to block only a symbolic list of 100 Web sites (primarily pornography) as a symbol of the state's disapproval of this content. In addition, the MDA encourages, and each of Singapore's three primary Internet Service Providers offers, optional, filtered Internet access services that block additional sites for a minimal monthly fee.

In our testing, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) found extremely minimal filtering of Internet content in Singapore, as only eight sites of 1,632 tested (.49%) were blocked: www.cannabis.com, www.chick.com, www.formatureaudiencesonly.com, www.penthouse.com, www.persiankitty.com, www.playboy.com, www.playgirl.com, and www.sex.com. The limited blocking that our testing revealed focuses on a few pornographic URLs and one site each in the categories of illegal drugs and fanatical religion. Similar content is readily available at other sites on the Internet that are not blocked in Singapore. Thus, Singapore's Internet content regulation depends primarily on access controls (such as requiring political sites to register for a license) and legal pressures (such as defamation lawsuits and the threat of imprisonment) to prevent people from posting objectionable content rather than technological methods to block it. Compared to other countries that implement mandatory filtering regimes that ONI has studied closely, Singapore's technical filtering system is one of the most limited.

I can't say I'm a fan of censorship in general but this doesn't seem that bad to me. Here's another perspective. I couldn't find the official government internet policy on their website http://www.nlb.gov.sg/ but I did find this link to their Public Libraries. I admit I gave up my search for the internet policy after viewing the library site. It's quite impressive. I wish my local library had one like it. I'd love to have an RSS feed of new arrivals.

Whew! I've finally come to the end of my longwinded report for Southeast Asia and there's still more I could say. I'm left with what I'm usually left with at the end of a unit for this class: a strong desire to travel.

Bhutan

So.... we're sort of back in this area again and my uncle has now returned from his trip to Bhutan. For what it's worth, here's the postcard I got:



If I should get any other pictures or currency from my Uncle, I'll put them up. In the meantime I can entertain you with a few interesting facts he told me:

*Smoking is illegal in Bhutan for Bhutanese citizens. Tourists may smoke in designated areas. But apparently chewing on betel root is a national addiction - one that the government is attempting to discourage. They are not having much luck. My uncle says people spit out red all over the streets. Check out this link: http://www.keystobhutan.com/bhutan/bhutan_people_betel.php

Pullen Park

I interrupt my normal world-wide blogging to post the link to my very first Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullen_Park. I grew up in Raleigh and Pullen Park is a very special park, not only to me but to generations of Raleigh denizens. If you've never been, I encourage you to do so. You don't need kids to enjoy it but if you don't have any you can always borrow someone else's to help you see the park through their eyes. I'm a big kid anyway so I enjoy it either way.