Well, the summer draws to a close. It was very jam-packed for us; hence the delay with this newsletter. Anyway, here are some of the highlights.
1. KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: KEYNOTE LECTURE AND LECTURING APPOINTMENT!
Well, the real highlight for me was that leading on from me giving a Key Note Lecture at Kingston University (at the invitation of Victoria Perselli) I suddenly and unexpectedly received in the post an offer of a lecturing appointment at Kingston, in the Education Department!
The teaching will be up to 8 hours a week, working as a Part-Time Lecturer, based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and is effective from 1st October 2010. So, I am now very much looking forward to this of course, and to working more closely with Victoria.
Meanwhile, my keynote lecture was for the Education Doctorate programme. The programme includes four weekend sessions a year, with lectures, tutorials, presentations, workshops etc. The title of my talk, given on 19th September 2010, was: ‘I.T.: a form of liberation for females?’ The weekend also included a talk by Professor Keith Grieves on ‘Education and Globalisation’ (which has been one of Glenn Rikowski’s passionate interests of course). In fact, Keith and I briefly discussed Glenn’s Seattle book and his House of Lords paper.
I spoke for 75 minutes covering the topics of females in I.T. in general (and the gender inequalities that exist within it), social networking, the Feminist Library in London and digitisation. There were some 25 people there altogether; Education Doctorate students and academics (including an academic from Roehampton University, as Kingston and Roehampton run their Education Doctorate jointly).
I delivered an interactive lecture. There was a lot of lively interest, engagement and participation, which was great. The discussion included talking about Second Life; social networking in general (especially Facebook and Wikipedia); identity; the primary school sector, females and I.T; proactivity in general and ideas around the possible digitising of some of the Feminist Library in London material.
After the event Victoria and I went out to dinner and I stayed in a hotel, Brook Hotel, all courtesy of Kingston University, which was all very lovely. Upon my return Victoria emailed me saying that I had given the students a lot of food for thought and that my talk had generated much discussion over the whole weekend. So, that was all good to know.
Now, hopefully, in time we can raise some of these important topics still further in a meaningful way, which will hopefully result in some actual real and positive changes being made. One of my big motivations for writing has been the hope that it can all lead to some actual and real changes in society, particularly given the fact that today, the formal democratic processes and associated political activities can often seem to be just so inadequate (witness the current right-wing British government, for example; something that the electorate ended up with, despite having not given it a mandate).
Anyhow, leading on from being offered this lecturing appointment at Kingston I am now optimistic and hopeful that Victoria and I can raise some very important topics and make some difference. Victoria, by inviting me to give this Keynote, for example, inspired me to think about the possibility of digitising some of the Feminist Library in London material in order to assist with the preservation of the material. This, then, is a positive start.
Prior to me giving this Keynote Lecture, Toni Samek Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies and Research Fellow at the University of Alberta in Canada contacted me saying that she thought that some of the issues raised could hopefully be raised still further in various ways through videoing. Also that, in fact, she was using my filmed London South Bank University talk on globalisation and internationalisation (see http://www.libr.org/isc/events/minitalk.html) with her students, and was finding it helpful.
Perhaps, then, further such filming will be possible in the future. This is not something that I have done much of up to date, it has to be said although Martha Spiess did come over from the States to film the book launch for my globalisation book, including my own talk at it (see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=perform&sub=Ruth Speech). This is all food for thought for the future anyway.
In regard to Victoria herself, Victoria Perselli is someone that Glenn Rikowski first connected with. With her Marxist/Feminist stance she has become someone that both Glenn and I have both very much liked and admired over the last few years. She seeks to raise many important issues, particularly within the field of Marxist education.
Glenn first connected with Victoria through his passion about re-invigorating Marxism and Education. He invited her to speak at one of the ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD III) seminars that he organised at the Institute of Education, University of London: see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD. MERD III was held on 22nd October 2003 and this particular MERD was also reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Scott McLemee (over from America), on 5th December 2003. The article by McLemee was entitled ‘Scenes from the classroom struggle’. Other speakers at this particular MERD included Paula Allman, Carmel Borg, Helen Colley, David Guile, Peter Jones and Peter Mayo.
Victoria is now contributing a chapter to a book, for the Palgrave Macmillan series on ‘Marxism and Education’, which Glenn Rikowski and Tony Green obtained a contract for. This book, edited by Peter Jones, will build on MERD III, which was on the theme of ‘Pedagogy and Culture’ and will include contributions from many of the speakers at MERD III.
On a final note, interestingly we received a news item by email from Sebastien Budgen recently, about an article by the same Scott McLemee, this time with him writing about the C.L.R. James Library in Hackney. As McLemee points out C.L.R. James has been a real figure in society, writing a definitive history of the Haitian slave revolt in 1938, for example, providing (with his associates) an English translation of Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, as well as being one of the founders of Marxist Humanism. Shockingly, McLemee reports that there is a proposal to rename the C.L.R. James Library to simply the Dalston Library and Archives. A petition against this move can be signed at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveclrjameslibrary/
Glenn also inserted information about this on his blog – see
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/?s=clrjames+library&searchsubmit=Find+%C2%BB
Tony Green has also been circulating the information.
2. CHIBU ONYENDI, A LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY MASTERS STUDENT, MAKING CONTACT WITH ME
Just as I was on my way out to give this Keynote Lecture at Kingston I got an unexpected phone call from one Chibu Onyendi. Who was this, I thought? I was struggling. Then, gradually, as he explained, the ‘penny dropped’. He was a London South Bank postgraduate student that came to see me in my office about one year ago, requesting me to be his supervisor. He had seen my Globalisation, Information and Libraries book on display in the foyer at South Bank, read the abstract of it, and was convinced that I was the supervisor for him! His masters dissertation (for an MSc in Information Systems Management) was on the topic of ‘Globalisation and its potential effects on ICT in Nigeria’.
Having passed the taught part of the course, but not the dissertation, he then decided that he thought that I was the person that could guide him academically to a successful completion of his dissertation.
We had little time to play with, but managed to fit it in. Chibu kindly bought me lunch and we discussed his dissertation. I took it away to read and comment on and gave him some feedback (which I also forwarded to some other academics at LSBU).
Chibu is now in the process of re-registering. Let us hope that a successful outcome to it all can be found. All this is also, though, taking place within a period of restructuring, redundancies and early retirement at South Bank.
This leads me on nicely to refer to item 11 in my newsletter No 41. In this news item I highlight the fact that I had given a large number of guest lectures at London South Bank University and that:
“The understanding was that, through giving these guest lectures [to masters students] (which were on a variety of topics and proved to be both demanding and time-consuming, albeit also enjoyable), that I would then be integrated into the masters programme, but this never came about (at least, so far, to date it has not come about)!”
But to date, it has still not come to pass. Indeed, my situation at South Bank has deteriorated rather than improved! But let us not go into that right now.
3. CHANDOS BOOK CONTRACT FOR DINESH GUPTA ON MARKETING
As you presumably are aware, as well as university teaching I also commission books and articles. Recently, I secured a Chandos book contract for Dinesh Gupta on marketing (marketing being Dinesh’s specialist area). The proposed title for the book is:
A New Paradigm of Library and Information Services Marketing
Dinesh will be starting work on his book in November 2010, and of course I wish him all the very best with it.
4. 7 NEW ITEMS UP ON MY ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ BLOG
http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
There are 7 new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog. These are:
1. KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: KEYNOTE LECTURE AND LECTURING APPOINTMENT!
Well, the real highlight for me was that leading on from me giving a Key Note Lecture at Kingston University (at the invitation of Victoria Perselli) I suddenly and unexpectedly received in the post an offer of a lecturing appointment at Kingston, in the Education Department!
The teaching will be up to 8 hours a week, working as a Part-Time Lecturer, based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and is effective from 1st October 2010. So, I am now very much looking forward to this of course, and to working more closely with Victoria.
Meanwhile, my keynote lecture was for the Education Doctorate programme. The programme includes four weekend sessions a year, with lectures, tutorials, presentations, workshops etc. The title of my talk, given on 19th September 2010, was: ‘I.T.: a form of liberation for females?’ The weekend also included a talk by Professor Keith Grieves on ‘Education and Globalisation’ (which has been one of Glenn Rikowski’s passionate interests of course). In fact, Keith and I briefly discussed Glenn’s Seattle book and his House of Lords paper.
I spoke for 75 minutes covering the topics of females in I.T. in general (and the gender inequalities that exist within it), social networking, the Feminist Library in London and digitisation. There were some 25 people there altogether; Education Doctorate students and academics (including an academic from Roehampton University, as Kingston and Roehampton run their Education Doctorate jointly).
I delivered an interactive lecture. There was a lot of lively interest, engagement and participation, which was great. The discussion included talking about Second Life; social networking in general (especially Facebook and Wikipedia); identity; the primary school sector, females and I.T; proactivity in general and ideas around the possible digitising of some of the Feminist Library in London material.
After the event Victoria and I went out to dinner and I stayed in a hotel, Brook Hotel, all courtesy of Kingston University, which was all very lovely. Upon my return Victoria emailed me saying that I had given the students a lot of food for thought and that my talk had generated much discussion over the whole weekend. So, that was all good to know.
Now, hopefully, in time we can raise some of these important topics still further in a meaningful way, which will hopefully result in some actual real and positive changes being made. One of my big motivations for writing has been the hope that it can all lead to some actual and real changes in society, particularly given the fact that today, the formal democratic processes and associated political activities can often seem to be just so inadequate (witness the current right-wing British government, for example; something that the electorate ended up with, despite having not given it a mandate).
Anyhow, leading on from being offered this lecturing appointment at Kingston I am now optimistic and hopeful that Victoria and I can raise some very important topics and make some difference. Victoria, by inviting me to give this Keynote, for example, inspired me to think about the possibility of digitising some of the Feminist Library in London material in order to assist with the preservation of the material. This, then, is a positive start.
Prior to me giving this Keynote Lecture, Toni Samek Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies and Research Fellow at the University of Alberta in Canada contacted me saying that she thought that some of the issues raised could hopefully be raised still further in various ways through videoing. Also that, in fact, she was using my filmed London South Bank University talk on globalisation and internationalisation (see http://www.libr.org/isc/events/minitalk.html) with her students, and was finding it helpful.
Perhaps, then, further such filming will be possible in the future. This is not something that I have done much of up to date, it has to be said although Martha Spiess did come over from the States to film the book launch for my globalisation book, including my own talk at it (see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=perform&sub=Ruth Speech). This is all food for thought for the future anyway.
In regard to Victoria herself, Victoria Perselli is someone that Glenn Rikowski first connected with. With her Marxist/Feminist stance she has become someone that both Glenn and I have both very much liked and admired over the last few years. She seeks to raise many important issues, particularly within the field of Marxist education.
Glenn first connected with Victoria through his passion about re-invigorating Marxism and Education. He invited her to speak at one of the ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD III) seminars that he organised at the Institute of Education, University of London: see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD. MERD III was held on 22nd October 2003 and this particular MERD was also reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Scott McLemee (over from America), on 5th December 2003. The article by McLemee was entitled ‘Scenes from the classroom struggle’. Other speakers at this particular MERD included Paula Allman, Carmel Borg, Helen Colley, David Guile, Peter Jones and Peter Mayo.
Victoria is now contributing a chapter to a book, for the Palgrave Macmillan series on ‘Marxism and Education’, which Glenn Rikowski and Tony Green obtained a contract for. This book, edited by Peter Jones, will build on MERD III, which was on the theme of ‘Pedagogy and Culture’ and will include contributions from many of the speakers at MERD III.
On a final note, interestingly we received a news item by email from Sebastien Budgen recently, about an article by the same Scott McLemee, this time with him writing about the C.L.R. James Library in Hackney. As McLemee points out C.L.R. James has been a real figure in society, writing a definitive history of the Haitian slave revolt in 1938, for example, providing (with his associates) an English translation of Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, as well as being one of the founders of Marxist Humanism. Shockingly, McLemee reports that there is a proposal to rename the C.L.R. James Library to simply the Dalston Library and Archives. A petition against this move can be signed at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveclrjameslibrary/
Glenn also inserted information about this on his blog – see
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/?s=clrjames+library&searchsubmit=Find+%C2%BB
Tony Green has also been circulating the information.
2. CHIBU ONYENDI, A LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY MASTERS STUDENT, MAKING CONTACT WITH ME
Just as I was on my way out to give this Keynote Lecture at Kingston I got an unexpected phone call from one Chibu Onyendi. Who was this, I thought? I was struggling. Then, gradually, as he explained, the ‘penny dropped’. He was a London South Bank postgraduate student that came to see me in my office about one year ago, requesting me to be his supervisor. He had seen my Globalisation, Information and Libraries book on display in the foyer at South Bank, read the abstract of it, and was convinced that I was the supervisor for him! His masters dissertation (for an MSc in Information Systems Management) was on the topic of ‘Globalisation and its potential effects on ICT in Nigeria’.
Having passed the taught part of the course, but not the dissertation, he then decided that he thought that I was the person that could guide him academically to a successful completion of his dissertation.
We had little time to play with, but managed to fit it in. Chibu kindly bought me lunch and we discussed his dissertation. I took it away to read and comment on and gave him some feedback (which I also forwarded to some other academics at LSBU).
Chibu is now in the process of re-registering. Let us hope that a successful outcome to it all can be found. All this is also, though, taking place within a period of restructuring, redundancies and early retirement at South Bank.
This leads me on nicely to refer to item 11 in my newsletter No 41. In this news item I highlight the fact that I had given a large number of guest lectures at London South Bank University and that:
“The understanding was that, through giving these guest lectures [to masters students] (which were on a variety of topics and proved to be both demanding and time-consuming, albeit also enjoyable), that I would then be integrated into the masters programme, but this never came about (at least, so far, to date it has not come about)!”
But to date, it has still not come to pass. Indeed, my situation at South Bank has deteriorated rather than improved! But let us not go into that right now.
3. CHANDOS BOOK CONTRACT FOR DINESH GUPTA ON MARKETING
As you presumably are aware, as well as university teaching I also commission books and articles. Recently, I secured a Chandos book contract for Dinesh Gupta on marketing (marketing being Dinesh’s specialist area). The proposed title for the book is:
A New Paradigm of Library and Information Services Marketing
Dinesh will be starting work on his book in November 2010, and of course I wish him all the very best with it.
4. 7 NEW ITEMS UP ON MY ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ BLOG
http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
There are 7 new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog. These are:
‘Emily Christophers and Public Libraries’, ‘Some Ex-Colleagues in Newham Library Service’, ‘Inspiralled Café’ and ‘Urban Green Fair, Brockwell Park, Lambeth’. Also, three book reviews: ‘The Women in his Life’ by Barbara Taylor Bradford, ‘Thyme Out’ by Katie Fforde and ‘A Sweet Obscurity’ by Patrick Gale.
Emily Christophers used to be a student of Glenn’s and has been taking a lively interest in our writing, for example, whilst Victor Rikowski recited some poetry (or to be more precise lyrics to songs that he had written) at the Urban Green Fair at Brockwell Park, which proved to be a pretty successful event overall, I understand. I haven’t been reading as many novels lately as I usually tend to do (been just too busy!) but anyway, there are reviews of 3 novels that I have read recently on my blog.
5. ‘INFORMATION ETHICS’ EDITED BY MIKAEL BŐŐK IS NOW ONLINE (the latest issue, No. 30, of the ejournal INFORMATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE) – see http://www.libr.org/isc/toc.html
The latest issue of Information for Social Change is now out (inserted on the web by Mikael Böök this time, rather than by Paul Catherall, the formal ISC webmaster).
Here are the details of the Contents and the Editorial:
Contents and Editorial
Contents
Contributors
Google: An Ethical Corporate Pirate? (Mikael Böök)
Regarding the Google Interview (comments by Paul Catherall)
Articles, Part 1
Introduction to the Ethics and Ecology of Reading (Luca Ferrieri )
Talking About Information Ethics in Higher Education (Toni Samek)
Ethical Reflections on the 9/11 Controversy (Elizabeth Woodworth)
Data Absorptents, Data Emitters and Databases in Politics (Amelia Andersdotter)
On the Closing of the Scientific Library of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (Marke Hongisto)
Public Lending Right: General Considerations and Controversial Aspects (Marianna Malfatti)
Articles, Part 2
Introductory Note (Mikael Böök)
It Takes A Community to Create A Library (Kenneth Williment)
The US and the European Social Forum: Strategic Challenges for the WSF (Francine Mestrum)
Book Reviews
Elizabeth A. Buchanan and Kathrine Henderson: Case Studies in Library and Information Science Ethics (reviewed by Mikael Böök)
6. ‘WHY STUDY EDUCATION STUDIES?’ BY LOUISE JEMMETT and ‘WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY: EXPLAINING THE RISE OF UNIVERSITIES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE’ BY AMY LEACH – TWO NEW ARTICLES UP ON OUR ‘FLOW OF IDEAS’ WEBSITE
There are two new pieces up on our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website: both of which, originally, were essays written by two of Glenn Rikowski’s undergraduate students. The first is:
‘Why Study Education Studies?’ by Louise Jemmett (written in 2009)
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=374&slink=yes
Louise concludes by saying:
“...Education Studies provides the individual with skills and knowledge that will be relevant to life after education, helping them to become employed in a stable and financially rewarding career of their interest. It is because of this self-sufficiency and development it creates that I believe the individual should study Education Studies.
The second is:
‘What is a University: explaining the rise of universities in medieval Europe’ by Amy Leach (written in 2009)
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=375&slink=yes
And Amy concludes by saying that:
“...universities have risen in popularity and importance due to the overwhelming need to educate oneself further, whether at an undergraduate, postgraduate or research level. Universities are linked to the building or place in which they exist, but it is the people inside the university that are of most importance; the institution, and what they accomplish within it. The essential product of a university is “not a book but a man” (Christopherson, 1973, p.33).
7. ‘BUILDINGS FOR THOUGHT’ BY JONATHAN GLANCEY – AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN, 31st AUGUST 2010, FOCUSING ON MIKE NEARY’S WORK ON CRITICAL SPACE IN UNIVERSITIES
http://www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10612184
An article about the work on critical space on university campuses that Glenn Rikowski’s good friend, Mike Neary is doing, was published in The Guardian, on 31st August 2010. The article ‘Education: buildings for thought’ is by Jonathan Glancey, and ‘investigates the quiet revolution in university design that is transforming the way campuses are organised and run’.
Mike, who is Dean of Teaching and Learning and Director of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the University of Lincoln, says that university campuses are not ‘business parks’. With this in mind, over the last three years he has been leading a research project called Learning Landscapes in Higher Education. Working with architects and space-planners Mike Neary and his colleagues visited 12 universities in Scotland, England and Wales, conducting extensive interviews. The aim has been to “...help re-think what universities are, what they are for and how they might build, occupy and use space intelligently – even critically...”
Mike Neary wants to improve the way in which campuses function. With this in mind he says that: “It’s been an academic exercise, and this is just what it needs to have been. Universities are academic. What we need to do is to think of the ways in which the process of research, of critical, academic thinking by students and teachers alike can shape the physical environment around them.”
He thinks that the best new university buildings are those where “students are given real responsibility for managing and supervising the spaces within which they learn...” And that “The Learning Grid at the University of Warwick is the most developed form of this new kind of space.” Yes, utilising space effectively for meaningful discussion and dialogue is clearly very important.
Then Mike said the following, which I thought was an absolute gem and just so, so, right:
“What’s wrong is the whole approach to treating universities as businesses, as an appendage to the economy, rather than places where ideas can be dangerous.”
Absolutely! That is definitely what universities should be about, as far as I am concerned: about developing new, exciting, dangerous, life-changing and life-enhancing theories and ideas.
We wish Mike all the very best with this very important and worthwhile research that he is doing.
8. ‘LIBRARIES IN A DIGITAL AGE’: ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON 14th OCT 2010 TO BE HELD AT ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, LONDON
Martyn Everett kindly informed me about this very interesting conference (that he is also speaking at). I have booked a place on it, as it should fit in well with my forthcoming book on digitisation. Here is the information about the conference that is being circulated:
‘Why Study Education Studies?’ by Louise Jemmett (written in 2009)
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=374&slink=yes
Louise concludes by saying:
“...Education Studies provides the individual with skills and knowledge that will be relevant to life after education, helping them to become employed in a stable and financially rewarding career of their interest. It is because of this self-sufficiency and development it creates that I believe the individual should study Education Studies.
The second is:
‘What is a University: explaining the rise of universities in medieval Europe’ by Amy Leach (written in 2009)
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=375&slink=yes
And Amy concludes by saying that:
“...universities have risen in popularity and importance due to the overwhelming need to educate oneself further, whether at an undergraduate, postgraduate or research level. Universities are linked to the building or place in which they exist, but it is the people inside the university that are of most importance; the institution, and what they accomplish within it. The essential product of a university is “not a book but a man” (Christopherson, 1973, p.33).
7. ‘BUILDINGS FOR THOUGHT’ BY JONATHAN GLANCEY – AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN, 31st AUGUST 2010, FOCUSING ON MIKE NEARY’S WORK ON CRITICAL SPACE IN UNIVERSITIES
http://www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10612184
An article about the work on critical space on university campuses that Glenn Rikowski’s good friend, Mike Neary is doing, was published in The Guardian, on 31st August 2010. The article ‘Education: buildings for thought’ is by Jonathan Glancey, and ‘investigates the quiet revolution in university design that is transforming the way campuses are organised and run’.
Mike, who is Dean of Teaching and Learning and Director of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the University of Lincoln, says that university campuses are not ‘business parks’. With this in mind, over the last three years he has been leading a research project called Learning Landscapes in Higher Education. Working with architects and space-planners Mike Neary and his colleagues visited 12 universities in Scotland, England and Wales, conducting extensive interviews. The aim has been to “...help re-think what universities are, what they are for and how they might build, occupy and use space intelligently – even critically...”
Mike Neary wants to improve the way in which campuses function. With this in mind he says that: “It’s been an academic exercise, and this is just what it needs to have been. Universities are academic. What we need to do is to think of the ways in which the process of research, of critical, academic thinking by students and teachers alike can shape the physical environment around them.”
He thinks that the best new university buildings are those where “students are given real responsibility for managing and supervising the spaces within which they learn...” And that “The Learning Grid at the University of Warwick is the most developed form of this new kind of space.” Yes, utilising space effectively for meaningful discussion and dialogue is clearly very important.
Then Mike said the following, which I thought was an absolute gem and just so, so, right:
“What’s wrong is the whole approach to treating universities as businesses, as an appendage to the economy, rather than places where ideas can be dangerous.”
Absolutely! That is definitely what universities should be about, as far as I am concerned: about developing new, exciting, dangerous, life-changing and life-enhancing theories and ideas.
We wish Mike all the very best with this very important and worthwhile research that he is doing.
8. ‘LIBRARIES IN A DIGITAL AGE’: ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON 14th OCT 2010 TO BE HELD AT ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, LONDON
Martyn Everett kindly informed me about this very interesting conference (that he is also speaking at). I have booked a place on it, as it should fit in well with my forthcoming book on digitisation. Here is the information about the conference that is being circulated:
The Association of Independent Libraries
Libraries in a Digital Age
A one-day conference on the
problems and opportunities facing libraries
in the age of the Internet
to be held at the
Royal Astronomical Society,
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BQ
Thursday 14 October 2010
10.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.
Programme
10.30 Coffee and Welcome
10.45 Social networking: just a lot of twittering? Gwyneth Price
Gwyneth Price is Head of Collection Development Services at the Institute of Education (London) and is particularly interested in information literacy and the use of social networking software in libraries. Her presentation will focus on some examples of Web 2.0 technologies and how they impact on libraries in
the digital age.
11.30 A plan for the future of our public library service. Tim Coates
Tim Coates is an author and was head of Waterstone's bookshops in its early years. For the last decade he has become widely known for his pursuit of the improvement of the public library service. For his address to the conference on libraries in the digital age Tim has indicated his intention to use this opportunity to make a major statement on the state of libraries in England and what needs to be done for them to survive and fill a role for future generations.
12.15 The Oxford-Google Book Digitization Partnership. Michael Popham
Michael Popham is Head of the Oxford Digital Library, a core service of the Bodleian Libraries, serving the University of Oxford. Michael has been working in the fields of digitization and electronic text creation for more than two decades, and co-ordinates Oxford’s collaboration with Google Books. The Bodleian Library was one of the first five libraries to began collaboration with the Google Books Library Project (see http://books.google.com/googlebooks/partners.html) This presentation will outline the Partnership’s efforts to digitize the Bodleian's entire holdings of out-of-copyright C19th material, and the lessons we have learned from this challenging endeavour.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Merchants of Culture: the publishing industry in the 21st century.
Professor John B Thompson
John B. Thompson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. His publications include Books in the Digital Age (2005) and Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century (2010). The book publishing industry today is facing some of the greatest challenges it has known since Gutenberg. Caught in the pincer of an economic downturn and a digital revolution, everyone involved in the
book business - publishers, agents and booksellers - is being forced to rethink what they do. Based on ten years of in-depth research on the publishing industry, Thompson analyses some of the key changes that have transformed the industry in recent years and shows how publishers are seeking to rethink their practices in the face of an uncertain future.
14.45 Copyright and the Knowledge Commons. Martyn Everett
Martyn Everett, writer, historian, former librarian and Chairman of Saffron Walden Town Library Society. The internet and digitisation provide the opportunity to create a knowledge and information Commons in which libraries could play a key role. Yet the combination of new technology, commercialisation, and changes in the nature of ‘copyright’ threaten to constrict and regulate access to information as never before. Which side are you on?
15.30 Tour of the Royal Astronomical Society Library including a short talk about the Library’s digitisation programme by Librarian Peter Hingley.
16.30 Concluding remarks
Timings are approximate and the organisers reserve the right to change the programme without notification
Cost £40 per person including lunch.
Please make cheques payable to “The Association of Independent Libraries’
and send to:
The Association of Independent Libraries
c/o The Leeds Library
18 Commercial Street,
Leeds LS1 6AL
Tel: 0113-245-3071
enquiries@theleedslibrary.org.uk
9. POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION ‘MOST POPULAR ARTICLES’ CHART
The international ejournal Policy Futures in Education has a ‘Most Popular Articles’ chart. Glenn Rikowski’s article ‘Marx and the Education of the Future’ (published in Vol. 2, No, 3, 2004 of the journal) has been 1st or 2nd in the chart for some considerable time now, which is great. At the current time, it is 1st with 391 hits!
problems and opportunities facing libraries
in the age of the Internet
to be held at the
Royal Astronomical Society,
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BQ
Thursday 14 October 2010
10.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.
Programme
10.30 Coffee and Welcome
10.45 Social networking: just a lot of twittering? Gwyneth Price
Gwyneth Price is Head of Collection Development Services at the Institute of Education (London) and is particularly interested in information literacy and the use of social networking software in libraries. Her presentation will focus on some examples of Web 2.0 technologies and how they impact on libraries in
the digital age.
11.30 A plan for the future of our public library service. Tim Coates
Tim Coates is an author and was head of Waterstone's bookshops in its early years. For the last decade he has become widely known for his pursuit of the improvement of the public library service. For his address to the conference on libraries in the digital age Tim has indicated his intention to use this opportunity to make a major statement on the state of libraries in England and what needs to be done for them to survive and fill a role for future generations.
12.15 The Oxford-Google Book Digitization Partnership. Michael Popham
Michael Popham is Head of the Oxford Digital Library, a core service of the Bodleian Libraries, serving the University of Oxford. Michael has been working in the fields of digitization and electronic text creation for more than two decades, and co-ordinates Oxford’s collaboration with Google Books. The Bodleian Library was one of the first five libraries to began collaboration with the Google Books Library Project (see http://books.google.com/googlebooks/partners.html) This presentation will outline the Partnership’s efforts to digitize the Bodleian's entire holdings of out-of-copyright C19th material, and the lessons we have learned from this challenging endeavour.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Merchants of Culture: the publishing industry in the 21st century.
Professor John B Thompson
John B. Thompson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. His publications include Books in the Digital Age (2005) and Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century (2010). The book publishing industry today is facing some of the greatest challenges it has known since Gutenberg. Caught in the pincer of an economic downturn and a digital revolution, everyone involved in the
book business - publishers, agents and booksellers - is being forced to rethink what they do. Based on ten years of in-depth research on the publishing industry, Thompson analyses some of the key changes that have transformed the industry in recent years and shows how publishers are seeking to rethink their practices in the face of an uncertain future.
14.45 Copyright and the Knowledge Commons. Martyn Everett
Martyn Everett, writer, historian, former librarian and Chairman of Saffron Walden Town Library Society. The internet and digitisation provide the opportunity to create a knowledge and information Commons in which libraries could play a key role. Yet the combination of new technology, commercialisation, and changes in the nature of ‘copyright’ threaten to constrict and regulate access to information as never before. Which side are you on?
15.30 Tour of the Royal Astronomical Society Library including a short talk about the Library’s digitisation programme by Librarian Peter Hingley.
16.30 Concluding remarks
Timings are approximate and the organisers reserve the right to change the programme without notification
Cost £40 per person including lunch.
Please make cheques payable to “The Association of Independent Libraries’
and send to:
The Association of Independent Libraries
c/o The Leeds Library
18 Commercial Street,
Leeds LS1 6AL
Tel: 0113-245-3071
enquiries@theleedslibrary.org.uk
9. POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION ‘MOST POPULAR ARTICLES’ CHART
The international ejournal Policy Futures in Education has a ‘Most Popular Articles’ chart. Glenn Rikowski’s article ‘Marx and the Education of the Future’ (published in Vol. 2, No, 3, 2004 of the journal) has been 1st or 2nd in the chart for some considerable time now, which is great. At the current time, it is 1st with 391 hits!
What has happened recently though is that Jia Liu’s (who likes to be known as ‘Jessica’) article ‘Digital Library and Digital Reference Service: integration and mutual complementarity’ (published in Vol. 6, No. 1, 2008) has shot up the chart to No. 4, with 288 hits. There have been news items from Jessica in the last couple of issues of my newsletter. Jessica is also one of the contributors to my forthcoming edited book Digitisation Perspectives.
The chart can be seen at:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/stats/popular.asp?j=pfie&view=total
10. MORE VICTOR RIKOWSKI AND ‘COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON’ MATERIAL UP ON YOUTUBE
Our middle son, Victor Rikowski, has been busy putting some more songs up on YouTube. This includes some other numbers from his band, Cold Hands & Quarter Moon and some solo singing by him, with him singing various country and western songs. Here are the links:
5 country and western covers sung and played by Victor:
‘Heartaches by the number’ (Harlan Howard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBIiml2Yqg
‘I love you because’ (Ernest Tubb)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz7VdDYFKtQ
‘I want you out of my head and into my head’ (Loretta Lynn) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d6dN0_JQBc
‘Rock me to Sleep’ (Sally Timms)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxp_SEhrOY8
‘Slipping Around’ (Ernest Tubb)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETgP35qqEqw
3 ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’ numbers:
‘The Letter’ (live performance) - written by Alex Lowther-Harris and Victor Rikowski
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxE-icpvCr8
‘Mudane Maniacs’ (live performance) – written by Victor Vikowski http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3SyzOCIhg
11. ‘COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON’ ON STORM FM, THE BANGOR UNIVERSITY STUDENT RADIO ON 3rd OCTOBER 2010, FROM 3-5pm
Finally, just as I was about to circulate this newsletter, Victor suddenly phoned us to say that ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’ were about to go live on the local Bangor University student radio station – Storm FM. See:
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/studentlife/features/storm.php.en
Storm FM was set up in October 2001 by the then President of the Students’ Union, Niall Duffy. The station was also short-listed for the ‘Best Station Sound’ in the SR Association Student Radio Awards in November 2004 and these awards are supported by Radio 1.
So, as you can imagine, we were really excited about all of this! We quickly told a few friends and relations and got some recording material together. Then, we relaxed, listened and enjoyed (through Facebook)!
The programme was on Sunday 3rd October, from 3-5pm. The whole 2-hour programme was basically devoted to ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’, with a couple of other musical interludes and a musical quiz (which CH&QM also participated in). CH&QM were first discovered by Storm FM on the ‘Bangor’s got talent’ contest.
The band played four numbers altogether: ‘Human Herbs’ (their very first number); ‘Slaves and Masters’; ‘It’s a Dead End’ (a new song and an exclusive for Storm FM) and ‘The Animal Song’.
The band were asked a wide variety of questions by James McAllister, such as what gigs/venues they had played at; their best and worst gigs; where else they would like to perform outside of Bangor (Chester seemed a good idea next, they thought, perhaps followed by Manchester). They also liked the idea of playing at Leeds Festival; and later perhaps at Reading Festival.
Other questions included: what was the first album that they had each bought; what was the first band they saw and who would they most like to perform with. Victor said that he would most like to perform with Jon Langford from the Mekons, and that indeed the Mekons had been a big influence on his song writing in general. Victor was also asked to explain the background behind the songs, the inspirations and what messages they were aiming to convey. He said that some of the songs he writes are quite political. ‘It’s a Dead End’ is a wake-up call to people, for example, to warn them not to live a life that leads to a dead-end and ‘The Animal Song’ says something about working-class struggle. They were also asked some amusing questions such as who would they most like to be with on a desert island.
All the members of the band are very talented, I think. As they said on the radio programme, Louie Ashton-Butler, for example, is a classically trained singer, and sings various operas for the university, such as Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ and Nick Frost plays violin in the university orchestra. The band members also gave Victor full credit for being the leader and the main inspiration behind ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’, as well as for writing all the material of course. That was great, I thought, and raised my level of respect and admiration for the band members still higher. Victor says that they are all great people!
All being well, the programme will be going online in a few days time. And they are also planning to make a CD of it all, accepting donations for it at the moment, but in time (given all the hard work they have put into it), they might well decide to charge. Personally, I think they should, at some point. Also, in time, as they said on the radio, I am sure that they will start to play in various venues outside of Bangor, in places such as Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading and London.
So, the band goes from strength to strength, on to better and better things and we wish them all the very best of luck with it all. We will have to see what we can do our end, about getting them to play in some London gigs. Perhaps, even around Christmas. Who knows! But, anyway, watch this space!
Best wishes
Ruth
N.B. Many thanks to Martyn Everett for providing information for item 8.
8th October 2010
Best wishes
Ruth
N.B. Many thanks to Martyn Everett for providing information for item 8.
8th October 2010
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