Ruth Rikowski's 31st News Update

I hope you have all been having a good summer. Ours was something of a ‘social summer’; having various friends staying with us; having a dinner party and a summer garden party in our home; going to a friend’s wedding etc. It was all very lovely.

Meanwhile, this news update contains, amongst other things, information about my new blog, ‘Serendipitous Moments’; Martin Hodges new blog, ‘Square Sunshine’ which focuses around his young grand-daughters; some new additions to our website; further information about my grandfather’s books; a school librarians petition which I hope some of you will feel able to sign up to and some cultural events that I have been to this summer.


1. ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ – RUTH RIKOWSKI’S NEW BLOG http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
I have started up a new blog, which I have called ‘Serendipitous Moments’. As I state on the Welcome Page the purpose of this blog is:
“…for when I feel moved/inspired by something that I would want to record/write down/photograph etc. Much of what I read and think about gets forgotten - having this blog will mean that some of those precious moments and experiences can be captured, and hopefully treasured. Various circumstances that we go through can help to sharpen the mind - hence this decision.”


2. BLOG ENTRIES ON ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ - MICHAEL JACKSON, POND FOR WILD LIFE AND SUMMER GARDEN PARTY
So far, I have inserted three entries on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog – a short one about the death of Michael Jackson; one about a pond for wild life that we built this summer in our garden and one about the summer garden party that we held in our home at the end of August 2009. See: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/



3. ‘THE ARTISTIC OUTLOOK WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON THE NOVEL AND LITERATURE’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
For those of you that are interested, some insights into my artistic outlook can be read in a piece that I have written which has just been inserted on our website. It is entitled ‘The Artistic Outlook, with a particular focus on the novel and literature’. Well, I think most of my readers are now aware of my love of the novel! Anyway, this article can be viewed at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Artistic Outlook



4. REVIEW OF ‘DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT: the problem of expanding ownership rights’ by CHRISTOPHER MAY, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2007 – REVIEWED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=1689&ChandosTitle=1
My review of Chrisopher May’s book ‘Digital Rights Management’ is now available on our website – see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Digital Rights Management



5. MARTIN HODGES’S NEW BLOG, ‘SQUARE SUNSHINE’
One of my writing colleagues/friends has a new blog, focusing around his three young grand-daughters, which I think is rather lovely. See: http://square-sunshine.blogspot.com/

Here is what Martin himself says about his blog:

“Becoming a grandparent has transformed my life. Rather like getting married or becoming a parent for the first time, no one can really prepare you for the role.

I have very young children in my life once again and a different kind of responsibility from that which dictated my feelings and actions as a parent. In short, I'm enjoying it so much I thought I'd write down my thoughts and observations on a new blog. Hence, Square Sunshine was born, and is living and growing at http://square-sunshine.blogspot.com/

This was meant to be a vehicle for anything that came to mind about my being a grandfather. However, to my surprise, Susan Adcox at About.Com offered to promote my blog on hers at http://grandparents.about.com/b/2009/08/15/grandpa-blogger-alert.htm

Apparently blogging grandfathers are a bit rare. As a result I'm enjoying a regular band of visitors from all over the world, with new ones dropping by all the time.

Writing from the perspective of a grandfather allows me a lot of latitude. My posts can range from stories of my own grandparents to short accounts of what our grandchildren have been up to. I can share my very amateur photography or some relevant biographical episode or other.

The bottom line is that it's fun, and writing regularly is good discipline for anyone who chooses this medium for creative expression.”

It is great that so much interest has been taken in his blog already. As Martin says, ‘blogging grandfathers’ are rare. This highlighted a couple of points to me. Firstly, that you often get further in life by doing something different, and not just following the crowd; secondly, the joy to be had from seeing a male focusing on the rearing of children, rather than other more competitive pursuits. I am all for breaking through the compliancy trend. Martin is certainly doing something here to ‘make a difference’. I wish him the very best of luck with it all.



6. FINDING, ORDERING AND RECEIVING COPIES OF MY GRANDFATHER’S (CLEMENT AUGUSTINE VICKERY) BOOKS
I was able to track down, and actually purchase second hand copies of my grandfather’s (Clement Augustine Vickery) two books on amazon, both of which are on nautical matters. I am sure that you can all imagine how delighted I was about this. Here are the bibliographical details of the two books:

1. 'Navigation Figure Drawing: being an introduction to navigation by means of figure drawing', by Clement Augustine Vickery, published by James Brown and & Son, Glasgow, 1922

2. 'Stability of Ships for mates, masters and extra masters' by Clement Augustine Vickery, published by Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson, London, 1st edition - 1926, 2nd ed - 1930.

If you saw the books, I think you would agree that both books demonstrate the depth of his thinking. They are both very well-written technical books, with mathematical formulas and detailed diagrams. Totally incomprehensible to me though, by the way!

I also discovered a little more about my grandfather. I thought that he only became a nautical instructor when he retired from being a Captain of a Ship in the Merchant Navy, but the ‘Stability of Ships’ book shows to me that this is incorrect, as it says in the book that he was a nautical instructor when the book was published, in 1926. My grandfather was born in 1883 and died in 1944. This shows that he must have pursued both activities for many years.

My grandfather wrote ‘Stability of Ships’ because of his concern about the possibility of vessels capsizing. He says in the Preface that he wrote the book:

"...to investigate the laws of stability and place them before his brother seamen in a manner in which they can be grasped by all, without an advanced knowledge of mathematics."

The book was compiled from notes used in preparing candidates for the Board of Trade examinations.

He also emphasises his desire to want to help and serve, saying in the ‘Preface’ to ‘Navigation Figure Drawing’:

“That this little work will be of some service to those for whom it is intended is the sincerest wish of the writer.”

I never knew my grandfather; he died 13 years before I was born. So, this makes obtaining these books even more special for me; and it is, of course, something that I am very proud of.



7. ‘SCIENCE FICTION FILMS AND HORROR’ AND ‘RACES IN THE IMPERIAL FILM’ BY GREGORY RIKOWSKI’
Two pieces about film by Gregory Rikowski (which he originally wrote for the Certificate in Higher Education, Birkbeck College, University of London, 2007-09) have now been inserted on our website.

These are:

‘Science Fiction films and horror’ - http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Science Fiction Films and Horror

‘Races in the Imperial film’
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Races in the Imperial War

Gregory will be studying for a degree in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia, starting this September 2009 – which is something that he is very much looking forward to.



8. RUTH RIKOWSKI GIVING A TALK ON THE TOPIC OF ‘FEMALES AND SOCIAL NETWORKING’ AT A ‘LEARNING FOR LIFE’ MINI-CONFERENCE
AT LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY, ON 9TH JULY 2009
I gave a talk on the topic of ‘Females and Social Networking’ at a mini-conference that took place at London South Bank University, in the Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management, on 9th July 2009. My talk was based on an article of mine that was published in ‘Managing Information’ earlier this year (in Vol. 16, Iss. 3). Considerable interest was taken in the topic, and some useful and interesting questions and points were raised. There were quite a number of delegates there altogether, talking on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning. One delegate spoke about how she tried to get her students to blog, but unfortunately, with very limited success. Oh dear! The intention, next, is to produce a book from it all, I understand.



9. SCHOOL LIBRARIANS PETITION: THE RIGHT TO HAVE A SCHOOL LIBRARY
Carol Williams, a friend of mine who is a Schools Librarian, informed me about this School Librarians Petition. School Libraries, like so much else in life today, are under threat. I do hope that some of you will sign the petition (I have, of course, signed it). Here is the information that Carol sent me:

"Should Every School Have a Library? You might think they do already, but many don't, or at least don't fund and staff them adequately. Did you know that by law prisons must have a Library, but there is no such obligation for schools. If you feel you could support school libraries as a right for all our children, please sign the petition on the Number 10 website - 1900 people have signed already. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/literacy is the website."


Terence Blacker also wrote an article in the ‘Independent’ on 9th June 2009, entitled “You can’t kill off libraries, and call it ‘creative’”, where she argues the case for School Libraries. See:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-you-cant-kill-off-libraries-and-call-it-creative-1700208.html




10. TRANSLATING MY GLOBALISATION BOOK INTO ARABIC?
I was delighted to receive an email from Gafar Ibrahim, a Librarian & Information Officer and Translater in Doha Qatar. He said that he found my book ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries’ very useful and that he thought it would be very good if it could be translated into Arabic in order “…to disseminate its ideas to a great number of users around the Middle East.”

Gafar is currently investigating possible publishers, and will be contacting me further about this in due course. If any of you have any thoughts in regard to this, do get in touch.


11. PAUL STURGES SPEAKING ON THE TOPIC OF ‘COMEDY AS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION’ AT A CILIP IN LONDON MEETING, 8TH SEPTEMBER 2009
I enjoyed hearing Professor Paul Sturges talking at a CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) in London meeting on 8th September 2009, on the topic of ‘Comedy as Freedom of Expression’. Paul is very interested in the topic of freedom of expression for libraries and in this talk he focused on this in relation to comedy.

Paul Sturges, Professor Emeritus at Loughborough University, made the point that jokes are a form of intellectual property in their own right. Furthermore, that some comedians do not like people taking notes during their performances for this reason; you know, others could then ‘steal’ their jokes. After all is said and done, it is often very difficult to remember jokes if one does not write them down; it certainly is for me anyway! Paul made a number of good jokes throughout his talk, not that I can remember many of them, although I do remember the one about hardware and software. Yes, very funny, that one!
Thanks for that Paul!

Anyway, all in all, it was a very enjoyable evening and many thanks to CILIP in London for organising this successful and well-attended event, at a time when it is itself, suffering from cash cutbacks and related difficulties. Long may they continue to be able to run these events at the Sekforde Arms.



12. CULTURAL EVENTS ATTENDED THIS SUMMER
I have been to quite a number of different cultural events this summer (some with friends and some with family); all of which was very enjoyable.

In terms of music, this included going to see the wonderful Anastacia at Hammersmith Apollo on 25th June 2009. She has an incredible voice, I think, and such stage presence. She sung both some of her old numbers, and material from her new album, ‘Heavy Rotation’. The songs from the new album were so good, that I bought the CD at the end of the gig. I also went with some friends to the O2 on the night of what would have been the first of Michael Jackson’s London concerts (on 13th July 2009). Lots of fans were there (several hundreds), playing his music; dancing; putting messages up on a billboard; paying tribute to him; lighting candles etc. It was all very moving. I came away having a tremendous amount of respect for Michael Jackson’s fans. It also helped with my own personal grieving process in regard to it all (which also followed on from the death of my father-in-law earlier this year).

In addition, we went to one of the Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, and heard some Mozart as well as some music by a contemporary female composer. Then there was the Dagenham Town Show at Dagenham Central Park, which included a free open-air musical extravaganza. One of the bands playing was the ‘Searchers’ (yes, they are still going!). They have, in fact, now been going for 47 years, they informed us. Frank Allen and Spencer James were both at the festival. They sang many songs including ‘Beach Baby’, ‘Young Girls’, Tambourine Man’, ‘Needles and Pins’, ‘Sugar and Spice’. We danced around and it was all very enjoyable.

In terms of plays, this included going to see an interesting political play called ‘The Observer’ by Matt Chapman at the National Theatre (which explored the problems and issues around trying to introduce democratic procedures into a country in the developing world) and Shakespeare’s ‘As you like it’ at the Globe Theatre (the Globe always being a winner for us!). Also, J.B. Priestley’s ‘Time and the Conway’s’ and a comedy entitled ‘England People, Very Nice’ directed by Nicholas Hytner. The latter was about racial integration in the East End of London from the 17th century to the present day and it was really hilarious; a laugh in nearly every line and very clever script writing, I thought. Both of these plays were also at the National Theatre.

Finally, we visited the Whitechapel Art Gallery, which was interesting and enjoyable (I also discovered that it is more or less on our doorstep – well, at least relative to other art galleries, it is!) In addition, they have some interesting artistic workshops taking place there, which are free. The workshops are entitled ‘Live Words’ and they are “A free series of spoken word, poetry and innovative writers’ evenings in the intimate environment of the Café/Bar…” I might well go along.


Best wishes,

Ruth


N.B. Many thanks to Martin Hodges and Carol Williams for providing information for item 5 and 9 respectively. Also, for the help that Isaac Hunter Dunlap gave me in regard to tracking down my grandfather’s books (item 6).




12th September 2009

Ruth Rikowski's 30th News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.30

The summer approaches – something that we are certainly very pleased about and looking forward to, as I am sure you all are. For us, it is a time to recharge, take stock, reflect and rethink, sort, plan, write, relax, garden, get some fresh air and exercise, go to concerts, swimming etc. etc. I could go on and on. Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely summer with whatever it is that you choose to do, and that the weather is good for us all, at least for some of the time.

This newsletter includes quite a wide variety of different items. To begin with there is information about another article of mine that has just been published in Managing Information about ‘Females and Social Networking’. There are also details of some new additions to our website; the Redbridge Book and Media Festival; a Gurteen Knowledge Café at the British Computer Society on the topic of ‘Imagining the Knowledge Technologies of the Future’; the Zoological Society of London library; two CILIP in London meetings and some cultural activities that I have been to.


1. ‘FEMALES AND SOCIAL NETWORKING’ by RUTH RIKOWSKI IN ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’, Vol 16, Iss 3, 2009, pp. 50-59
I am very happy to say that another article of mine is in the latest issue of Managing Information (MI). This is on the topic of ‘Females and Social Networking’. In this piece, I consider some of the social networking tools that are in existence today, such as wikkis and blogs. In particular, I ask whether social networking tools can empower and liberate women. Within this, I consider gender and I.T. issues; females, social networking and knowledge management; females and blogs and the future for females and social networking. Many females are very much engaging and using these different social networking tools today, and many see it as a way in which females can shine through, working effectively, in particular, with I.T. of course. However, I suggest that we should exercise some caution here. Females can be vulnerable on sites such as MySpace and Facebook; they can also become addicted to the desire to be continually making new ‘friends’. In addition, whilst females collaborate, co-operate and work together on these sites males can look at the situation from afar, I think, and then smartly move in when they think that ripe opportunities have arisen and then ‘take the goodies’ – as they tend to be more output-driven. These, then, are some of my real concerns.

In this frame of mind, I also reflect in the article on the fact that many females who have had great ideas and theories, have produced great works etc, have largely been forgotten in history. Dale Spender’s book ‘Women of Ideas and what men have done to them’ (1982) is very informative in this regard and I quote from this book in my article. In addition, I bravely (well, I thought it was brave anyway) refer to the fact that my own father-in-law, who died a few months ago, was very patriarchical and domineering and suppressed women, in particular, in a variety of different ways.

Having said all this, I am very grateful to two males who first made me aware of the value and importance of some of these social networking tools: namely, Graham Coult and Robeel Haq. At the end of my piece I thanked Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information and Robeel Haq, the previous MI webmaster, who first made me aware of the value to be gained from blogs (Graham) and newsletters (Robeel). They were very much pioneers here. The MI newsletter began way back in 2001; MI had its own blog for a while and Graham now has his own blog (see item 2 below). In my view, the library and information profession should really give due credit to the MI team in this regard, and I very much hope that these newsletters of mine can help in some way, somehow, to achieve this.

On a final note, once again, Graham has included some lovely photographs in this article of mine. One of these is the frieze for the memorial to HM the Princess Elizabeth Queen Dowager and Queen Mother (as she was styled at her lying in state) which is on The Mall, London. This frieze highlights the changes that have taken place in the structure and attitudes of society towards women. The other images in the article show females within a more active, I.T. context.



2. GRAHAM COULT’S BLOG – ‘INFORMATIONAL’
http://wwwinformational.blogspot.com/
Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information now has his own blog called ‘Informational’. This is a blog about information, writing and communication.



3. ‘EVALUATING DIFFERENT TEACHING METHODS’: ACTION LEARNING GROUP (ALG) TASK FOR THE CERTIFICATE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION (CLTHE) UNIT 2 by RUTH RIKOWSKI
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Evaluating Different Teaching Methods
This piece by me, on ‘Evaluating Different Teaching Methods’ which I completed for the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Certificate, has now been inserted on our website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’. The teaching methods it considers are the tutorial relationship; teaching in large groups; case studies; virtual learning environments and teaching in small groups.



4. ‘REFERENCES, NOTES & REFLECTIONS ON READINGS FOR THE CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION (CLTHE) COURSE, UNIT 1’ by RUTH RIKOWSKI
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Readings for Teaching Course
Another piece by me, which I completed for the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Certificate, has now been inserted on our website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’. Hopefully, it will be of some interest and use to some others – particularly others that are studying on teaching courses.



5. REDBRIDGE BOOK AND MEDIA FESTIVAL, 16th APRIL – 3RD MAY 2009
http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/leisure__culture/arts_development_and_events/book__media_festival.aspx
There was a wide and varied programme at the Redbridge Book and Media Festival this year.

I went to three of the events, all of which proved to be both interesting and enjoyable. One was for the launch of Monica Ali’s latest novel, ‘In the Kitchen’, which was held at Wanstead Library on 1st May 2009. The second was a talk given by Liz Sullivan (a local author) at Ilford Library on 21at April 2009 about her experiences as an author, and her determination to write and publish a book (firstly, her memoirs, then moving on to fiction) as well as to set up her own publishing company. Finally, the third was hearing Hema Macherla talking about her book, ‘Breeze from the River Manjeena’ at Ilford Library on 30th April 2009.

Monica Ali’s book launch for ‘In the Kitchen’ (published by Doubleday) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Monica-Ali/dp/0385614586/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244787157&sr=1-3) started off with a glass of champagne, which was very nice. She read some passages from her book, and talked about the background to her book. She said that it took her one year to research the book, and two years to write it. She explained that writing was now her full-time occupation. ‘Brick Lane’ was her first book and this proved to be very successful and was made into a film. The event was very well-attended

Liz Sullivan explained that she is also called Leila Merriman. She uses one name for her publishing company (L.M. Publications), and one name for her writing. She originally came from Ireland but moved to England as a child, and lived in Upminster, Essex. She said that she always wanted to write her memoirs as she has had an interesting and unusual upbringing. Having written her memoirs she found that she had various problems and difficulties with getting them published, so she decided to self-publish. The first book of her memoirs was entitled ‘Twisted Threads’ (2004) whilst the second was entitled ‘Unravelling the Threads’ (2008) – see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unravelling-Threads-Leila-Merriman/dp/0955901502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244786860&sr=1-1. She said that she wasted a lot of money in the early days, trying to get her memoirs published, but once she decided to self-publish it became easier and she could control her expenses more effectively. Liz recommended self-publishing to others in the session, if they were keen and determined to get their writing published, but were experiencing difficulties with mainstream publishing.

Hema Macherla was born in South India. Her mother wrote constantly, and actually wrote a novel, but never got it published. So, Hema thought that it was probably her mother’s influence that encouraged her to write. In the summer holidays in India Hema used to write a lot. When she first came to England she could not speak English at all. It was all very difficult for her. She decided to learn English and borrowed some books from the library. She wanted to write but realised that she needed guidance. So, she went to John Farley’s creative writing course, which she said was the best thing she ever did in her life. People helped her and gave her a lot of constructive criticism. John Farley also introduced Hema at the beginning of the session and very much helped her to get her first book published. Hema read extracts from her book ‘Breeze from the River Manjeena’, which was published by Lynn Michell in 2008
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breeze-River-Manjeera-Hema-Macherla/dp/0955961815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244787052&sr=1-1)




6. ‘IMAGINING THE KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE’: A GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE CAFÉ HELD AT THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY
I went to a very interesting and enjoyable Gurteen Knowledge Cafés on 28th April 2009. This was entitled ‘Imagining the Knowledge Technologies of the Future’ and was held at the British Computer Society (BCS), London – see http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/lkc-bcs. There were two speakers from the BCS, Conrad Taylor and Chris Yapp, who both considered the rapid changes that have taken place in computing and I.T. and the likely possible trends in the future. Alan Pollard, this year’s President of the BCS was not able to be there in person but he addressed the audience and introduced the session through a video.

There were about 60 people at the session; a very large number for a Gurteen Knowledge Café. Many of the people there were extremely knowledgeable about the new technologies. However, I was also aware that it was very male-dominated. I did manage to inform the group though about the piece that I had just written on ‘Females and Social Networking’ (see item 1 above). Some lovely refreshments were provided afterwards; the first time, in fact, that I had ever had food like this at a Gurteen Knowledge Café. It was gorgeous and very yummy! A couple of people came up and spoke to me during the refreshments, saying how interesting and important they thought it was, what I was saying about females and social networking. Chris Yapp himself was one of these people, and he also informed me about the work of Sherry Turkle - http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/.

Some other people at the session also blogged the event; this included Gordon Harris, Matthew Rees and Richard Hare.

Finally, here are some pictures of the occasion that David Gurteen took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gurteen/sets/72157617509258170/show/



7. CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS (CILIP) IN LONDON MEETINGS AT THE SEKFORDE ARMS
I went to two CILIP in London meetings recently, held at the Sekforde Arms. One of the talks was by Jason Dark on the topic ‘How to improve passenger information’ on 14th April 2009 http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/Apr09.htm.
The other was by Franklyn Tancock on the topic ‘Past, Preent and Future Systems for Plant Recording in the National Trust’ on 12th May 2009 (see http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/may09.htm).


Jason Dark, Head of Information Services, National Rail Enquiries, discussed passenger train information service, particularly following on from the National Rail Enquiries service that was established in June 1996. He said that the railway industry had a very entrenched culture that was very difficult to change. Many of the various difficulties that passengers faced in regard to getting accurate and up-to-date train information were discussed.

Meanwhile, the National Trust has recently embarked on the largest and most comprehensive plant survey that has ever been undertaken in the UK. Franklyn Tancock, Plant Collections Curator, National Trust, considered the methods, from card indexes to the latest digital technology that the Trust has used to record its plant collection over the last 35 years. The National Trust is the biggest collection of plants in Europe in the world. There are 200 gardens and landscape parks and 400 years of garden history in the Trust. The National Trust obtained lottery funding and decided to use the money to build a database to bring all the information about the Trust together. The project has been very successful and goes from strength to strength. It later obtained 21.5 million from the Yorkshire Bank, for example, to continue its work. A lot of volunteers work on the project.



8. MEMBER OF ALISS – THE ASSOCIATION OF LIBRARIANS AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS AND VISIT TO THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON LIBRARY
I joined ALISS (the Association of Librarians and Information Professionals) a while ago – see http://www.alissnet.org.uk/. ALISS is a
“not-for-profit unincorporated professional society. It is an independent group which was formed in April 2005 by the former committee of ASSIGN (Aslib Social Science Information Group and Network)”.

ALISS organised an interesting tour of the Zoological Society of London Library, which I went to on 3rd June 2009. We had an introductory talk about the history of the zoo and then a tour of the library. There was a display of Charles Darwin’s work, with the original copy of ‘The Origin of the Species’ also being on display in the library, celebrating Darwin 2000.

I found the image library there particularly interesting - http://www.zsl.org/info/corporate/www-zsl-org-info-corporate-image-library,1120,AR.html. Many wonderful pictures of the animals and the zoo can be purchased. We also saw some old photographs of animals in the zoo.

In addition, I learnt that membership of the library is free to any member of the public (for reference use) – one just needs to bring along ID etc. I thought that was very good.



9. CHANDOS PUBLISHING WEBSITE AND CATALOGUE BEEN INCORPORATED WITH WOODHEAD PUBLISHING –
http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/ChandosHome.aspx
The Chandos Publishing website and catalogue has now been incorporated with Woodhead Publishing, where the large selection of Chandos titles that are now available can be seen.



10. ‘WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY? EXPLAINING THE RISE OF UNIVERSITIES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE’ BY MICHAELA STARKEY, 2009
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmZsb3dpZGVhcy5jby51ay8/cGFnZT1jb250cmlidXRpb25zJmFtcDtzdWI9VW5pdmVyc2l0aWVzJTIwLSUyME1pY2hhZWxhJTIwU3RhcmtleQ==
An essay by one of Glenn Rikowski’s students, Michaela Starkey, a First year Education Studied undergraduate student in the School of Education at the University of Northampton, is now available on the Rikowski website, ‘The Flow of
Ideas’.





11. SIR KEN ROBINSON VIDEO: ‘DO SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY?’
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4964296663335083307
This is an interesting and amusing video about the value (or otherwise) of formal education. Sir Ken Robinson considers how education can stifle creativity. Glenn Rikowski inserted the link on the Northampton Interactive Learning Environment (NILE), and his students found it interesting.



12. ART AND EXHIBITIONS
I have also been enjoying some other cultural activities recently. First of all, I had two enjoyable visits to the Tate Britain Gallery, London with two of my sons – Victor and Gregory. I bought a very interesting book whilst I was there by John Carey, entitled ‘What good are the arts?’, published by Faber and Faber, 2005. Carey values all of the arts, whilst also noting the importance and value of escapism saying that escapism:

“…seems to be a human necessity [and that] …escapism is fundamental to our sense of ourselves.” (Carey, 2005, p.37-38)

Carey looks at the value of art in general, but interestingly thinks that literature surpasses and is superior to, all other forms of art as a mode of expression.

“…literature…unlike the other arts…can criticize itself. Pieces of music can parody other pieces, and paintings can caricature paintings. But this does not amount to a total rejection of music or painting. Literature, however, can totally reject literature, and in this way it shows itself more powerful and self-aware than any other art.” (Carey, 2005, p. 174)

Furthermore, that literature is an “idea-bank and that no other art [can]…compete with it in that respect” (Carey, 2005, p. 213). Being a great lover of literature I found all that very interesting.

Going round the Tate was all very uplifting of course, looking at the paintings of Turner, Rothko, J.W. Waterhouse, Millais etc. etc. etc. I found the work of the contemporary British artists Gilbert and George at Tate Britain fascinating (although not all necessarily to my taste!). There was a major exhibition of their work at the Tate Modern Gallery, London, from 15th February to 7th May 2007 (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gilbertandgeorge/). These artists put their thoughts and feelings at the centre of their art, and their pictures capture human experience. In a caption under one of their exhibits that I saw at Tate Britain, Gilbert and George say that:

“We have no interest in reflecting or showing society – we are only interested to be forming it. What are believers tomorrow is what the artists are today. Already we see the world as very different from when we started.”

I thought this was an interesting idea; that art can and is shaping our future, albeit perhaps in subtle ways, and is indeed, perhaps shaping it more than our politicians in some ways. We cannot escape the fact that politicians, policy makers, and those in other decision-making roles in society, can and do affect our way of life in profound ways, but perhaps the art comes in not taking their decisions as seriously as they would like us to! There are always other ways of achieving things, and aiming to live the sort of life that one wants to.

Meanwhile, Carey concludes his book with his personal view that:

“It is time we gave active art a chance to make us better.” (Carey, 2005, p. 167)

I also visited the Imperial War Museum, London with my second cousin Sue and looked at the exhibition ‘In Memoriam: remembering the Great War’ (http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/conEvent.2495), which commemorated the 90th anniversary of the Armistice. The exhibition looked at “the personal stories of those who lived, fought and died during the First World War, both overseas and on the home front.” It interested but also greatly saddened me; all that loss of life.



13. MUSICAL EVENTS: ‘PETER GRIMES’ AT THE LONDON COLISEUM; ‘DAVE SHEPHERD AND HIS DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND’ AT THE KENNETH MORE THEATRE and ‘HAIRSPRAY’ AT THE SHAFTESBURY THEATRE
Here are details of some musical events that I have been to recently and enjoyed.

First of all, Glenn and I went to see Peter Grimes at the London Coliseum on the 9th May 2009. This opera, of course, is based on the poem by George Crabbe and composed by Benjamin Britten. I found it to be very musically dramatic. ‘Peter Grimes’ is regarded as being the most significant British operas for over two centuries. It is set in the Borough, a small fishing village on the East coast. Here is a quote from Crabbe’s poem ‘The Borough’ (1810):

“Yet sometimes comes a ruffling cloud to make
The quiet surface of the ocean shake;
As an awakened giant with a frown
Might show his wrath, and then to sleep sink down.”

Glenn Rikowski studied this poem for his A’ Level English Literature and it has had a very powerful and lasting effect on him; he thought it was really something.
There is a detailed review of the opera in Times Online – see http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article6261113.ece

The second musical event was seeing David Shepherd and his Dixieland Jazz Band performing at the Kenneth More Theatre on 10th May 2009. Digby Fairweather was one of the players, and our son Gregory also saw him speak at the Redbridge Book and Media Festival and he thought he was very interesting. Digby Fairweather worked in public libraries for a number of years before becoming a full-time professional jazz player. The majority of the members of the David Shepherd and his Dixieland Jazz Band have been British Number One on their instruments. The band included Dave Shepherd (clarinet), Digby Fairweather (trumpet/jazz broadcaster), Roy Williams (trombone), Chris Walker (baritone sax/jazz broadcaster), Nick Dawson (piano/vocals), Len Skeat (bass) and Stan Bourke (drums). It was a very enjoyable evening.
http://www.simoncurtis.com/kennethmoretheatre/currentdetails42.html

Thirdly, we saw the musical ‘Hairspray’ with my cousin Helen and Phil at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 30th May 2009. This was very light-hearted, colourful and cheerful on one level; whilst on another level it was making some important points; particularly in regard to
the problems that overweight people can have when wanting to perform. It is set in the 1960s. See
http://www.shaftesbury-theatre.com/



14. MARLENE, MY CANADIAN COUSIN MAKING CONTACT WITH ME, FOLLOWING ON FROM MY BLOG ENTRY
I had a very exciting email several weeks ago, from a second cousin of mine, Marlene Campbell. This led on directly from an entry I posted on my blog (in News Update No. 27 - http://ruthrikowskiupdates1-27.blogspot.com/2009/03/ruth-rikowskis-27th-news-update.html) where I wrote about my great grandparents, Charles Palmer Vickery and Emma Sophia Vickery (née Michael). Marlene emailed me to say that they are also her great grandparents. Wow! Marlene is the grand-daughter of Mabel Susan and Arthur Marcer. Mabel Marcer (née Vickery) was one of the five children of my great grandparents, Charles and Emma Vickery. The others were: Clement Augustine (my own grandfather); Edgar Charles; Alberta and Elma.

To explain a little more; my great grandfather emigrated to Canada and then three of his children went over there, but only one remained – Mabel (who my own mother, Mabel was incidentally named after). This is how I came to have all these relations in Canada. Mabel and Arthur had six children; one of which was Sylvia (Marlene’s mother). So, I have lots of cousins and relations in Canada.

Marlene Campbell suddenly and unexpectedly emailed me, shortly after I reinvigorated my blog on eblogger, saying that she googled in our great grandparents and came across my blog and that, hey, we have the same great grandparents, we are related and that she just had to get in touch. It was all just so amazing and so moving. This also demonstrates, once again, of course, the power of blogs.

After that we exchanged lots of really long and exciting emails. We could not believe it. Marlene is very keen on genealogy and I, of course and am very keen on writing. So, between us I think we could produce some really interesting material. But that is a long-term goal. Marlene has sent me lots of lovely photos of our ancestors. She also told me that one of our relations (from Australia) wrote two small books on our family history some years ago. I am now very much looking forward to reading these and to continue to explore all this further with Marlene in the fullness of time.

N.B. Many thanks to Martin Hodges for providing information for item 11.

Best wishes,


Ruth




12th June 2009

Ruth Rikowski's 29th News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.29


Feeling uplifted by my Michéle Roberts piece in Managing Information and wanting to look ahead, I decided to re-ignite my blog. So, my last newsletter (No. 28) is now on e-blogger, which hopefully will be safer than the AOL blog! (see item 1 below). Then, I thought I better send out another News Update quite quickly explaining all this. This newsletter is also a bit different as it includes some cultural events that I have been to over the last week or so. Hope you enjoy the various items.



1. ‘RUTH RIKOWSKI’S NEWS UPDATES’ BLOG NOW BACK ONLINE
www.ruthrikowskiupdates.blogspot.com
My blog has now re-emerged through e-blogger/blogspot, I am delighted to say. This is entitled ‘Ruth Rikowski News Updates Progression’. The last news update (No. 28) is on this blog and all subsequent updates will be inserted on it. I found e-blogger easy and quick to use; and overall I am very pleased with it.



2. ‘RUTH RIKOWKSI’S NEWS UPDATES RESURRECTION’ BLOG -
http://ruthrikowskiupdates1-27.blogspot.com/
I also discovered that more than one blog can be created under one profile on e-blogger/blogspot, so I created another blog and inserted all my previous newsletters (Nos. 1-27) on it. This is called ‘Ruth Rikowski News Updates Resurrection’. Ideally, some further checking of links and layout should be undergone (which I have been doing for the newsletters on our website –up to No. 13 so far – see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Ruth%20Rikowski%20Updates%20(Archives)), but the basics are now there and readily available, so my main aim has been achieved.



3. ‘SPOKEPERSON IN GROUP WORK AND GENDER-RELATED ISSUES’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
“Whenever your class does group-work the same students, usually men, always volunteer to do the feedback. Three quarters of the students in the class are women”
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Gender%20and%20Spokesperson%20in%20Group%20Work%20Issues
This piece of mine, originally written for my Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (CLTHE) course last year (2008) has now been inserted on our website. It considers many of the issues surrounding the fact that males are more likely to volunteer to be spokespeople in group work than females; why this might be the case, and some of the things that can be done to try to change and overcome this. I was surprised about the wide variety of points that came into my mind; it is a more complex issue than on first appearance. I hope you find it interesting.





4. ‘SUSTAINABILITY POLICY AT LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY AND RELATING THE SUSTAINABILITY POLICY TO MY OWN TEACHING PRACTICE’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Sustainability%20Policy%20at%20London%20South%20Bank%20University
This piece was also originally written for the Certificate of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (CLTHE) course in 2008, and has now been inserted on our website. ‘Sustainability’ is very much the ‘in’ topic at the moment. It seems to me that it says everything and nothing; it is certainly not just confined to environmental issues. Rather, it includes factors such as having sustainable lifestyles (i.e. healthy living and eating etc) sustainable development through curriculum, research and consultancy and the sustainability of teaching and learning. The danger, I think, though is that too much onus can be put on the individual in this regard, and that politicians and the wider society are not held to be so accountable. Anyway, various issues are raised in this piece.

5. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
I thought I would like to say a little something about University College London (UCL), which has been one of the real highlights in my life. I studied there for an MSc by day release (1991-94), whilst working in the London Borough of Newham Library Service. I really needed to do something different, and this course proved to be ideal for me. It was designed for librarians and information professionals to learn about computers; this was at a time, when computers were just starting to really take off. Many public libraries (including Newham) still had the brown ticket system at the time. I could see that it was really important, as well as being extremely interesting, to learn about the new technology. I really enjoyed the course, which was taught by two very enthusiastic and knowledgeable ladies, namely Gillian Martin and Helen Butcher, who also explained very complicated issues (such as programming) very clearly. Indeed, I really loved the whole intellectual atmosphere of UCL and also really loved the UCL library. Incidentally, Michéle Roberts also obtained her library qualification from UCL. Having obtained the MSc in Information Science (Computerised Systems), I then became involved in many interesting projects, implementing and upgrading various library computer systems, which began with me assisting with the implementation of Dynix in Newham libraries itself.

Leading on from this course, and with all this knowledge, I set up and ran an undergraduate course entitled ‘Computing Fundamentals’ (later renamed ‘Computing Applications’) at the University of Greenwich. This was my introduction to the world of teaching and lecturing – which was very much baptism by fire! I also gave my first ever guest lecture at UCL in 2001, which was based on my first article ‘The Essential Bridge’ (published in Managing Information in 2000), which was about the relationship between the library/information department and the computer/IT department of an organisation.

Andy Dawson subsequently took over the MSc course after I left, and has been running it for the last 15 years or so. His full title is ‘MSc Information Science Programme Director and Director of International Relations and Projects at UCL Information Studies’. Andy Dawson’s UCL Profile can be seen at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/andy-dawson/

Andy Dawson gave an interesting talk at a Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in London meeting on 14th October 2008 which I went to. His talk was entitled ‘Why doesn’t technology work?’ – see http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/Oct08.htm.
He considered why technology never seems to work the way we think it should and the problems that we suffer from today as we try to grapple with increasingly complex technology that no-one can really fully understand. This is in contrast to the early days of computing, where one could be more in control - Andy reflected fondly on those early days. Andy Dawson also particularly admires the work of Richard Stallman. A report on Andy Dawson’s talk by David Allen is in London CILIP: Newsletter for CILIP in London, available at http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/newsletter (Issue 18).


Furthermore, I met Anne Welch recently (also at a CILIP in London meeting), who has just become a full-time lecturer at UCL, Information Studies, on Cataloguing (taking over from John Bowman who took early retirement). We found that we had a lot of common interests, including feminist ones. We are both having some involvement with the Feminist Library. See, for example, Anne’s work with cataloguing the Feminist Library material:
http://annewelsh.wordpress.com/feminist-library-cataloguing/
Anne Welch also has her own blog on e-blogger/blogspot – see http://www.blogger.com/profile/06673706412763762709


Finally, I belong to UCL Alumni and receive their newsletter and a lot of the staff in the UCL Information Department receive these Updates of mine.



6. AUGUSTINE ADJEI’S DISSERTATION – ‘EMPLOYEES INFLUENCE ON MANAGING KNOWLEDGE IN BAE SYSTEMS’, 2008
I supervised Augustine Adjei’s Masters in International Management dissertation at London South Bank University, which he submitted in 2008. Why this is particularly significant for me is because of the interest and enthusiasm that Augustine Adjei took in my work; including buying and reading my book ‘Knowledge Management: social, cultural and theoretical perspectives’ (Chandos, 2007).

With careful supervision from me, and with me being a rather demanding supervisor at that, he built on a small part of my work in the knowledge management (KM) and culture field (which I wrote about in my KM book – pp. 140-148). I examined Bird and Metcalf’s model, which built on Hofstede’s 5-dimension model on culture, whereby Bird and Metcalf designed a 12-dimension model on negotiation. I took this model and applied it to knowledge management. This has been very much preliminary, brain-storming and ground-breaking work of mine.

It is quite unusual for a student to build on the work of an academic in this way, and I would like to give due credit to Augustine Adjei for his brave attempt here. He concludes his dissertation suggesting that “...further academic research should be done to find out employees influence on the middle-up-and-down strategy on managing knowledge in a global organization, using Rikowksi’s model for the cultural analysis.” (p. 109). I certainly hope that this work of mine can, indeed, be taken forward further in the future.

If anyone would like to discuss this with me, do email me at:
rikowskiruth@yahoo.co.uk or rikowskigr@aol.com


7. LATEST ISSUE OF ISC NOW OUT- ISSUE 28, WINTER 2008/09 ON THEME OF ‘LIFELONG LEARNERS’, EDITED BY JOHN PATEMAN– see http://www.libr.org/isc/toc.html or
http://www.libr.org/isc/issues/ISC28/Full%20issue%20ISC28.pdf%22
Information for Social Change (ISC) (Issue 28) is now out and is on the theme of ‘Lifelong Learners’ and is edited by John Pateman. The contents are listed below:

Editorial – John Pateman
Changes in Adult and Community Education – Dr Ray Shore
Learning, Learning Communities and Globalisation – Dr Ray Shore
Back to the Future? – Lifelong learning in libraries – Andrew Hudson
Developing a NEETS Based Library Service – John Pateman
Policing library users – John Pateman
Information and Liberation: writings on the politics of information and librarianship – Shiraz Durrani
Quality leaders project (youth) initiative – Jane Pitcher and Elizabeth Eastwood-Krah



8. REPORT ON 2 ESSEX BOOK FESTIVAL EVENTS IN MARCH 2009 WHICH I ATTENDED: SIMON BRETT AND AMINATTA FORNA
The 2 Essex Book Festival events that I attended in March (referred to in previous Update, No. 27) proved to be quite interesting. Further information is provided below.

8.1 SIMON BRETT, NOVELIST, TALKING AT SOUTH WOODHAM FERRERS, ESSEX, 26th March 2009
The first was a talk given by Simon Brett held at Champions Manor Hall, South Woodham Ferrers on 26th March 2009. Simon Brett is the author of no less than 78 novels, many of which have been performed on the radio.

There were over 40 people at the event altogether and Waterstones bookshop was also there, selling signed copies of some of Brett’s books.

Brett obtained a First Class Honours degree from Oxford University in English in the late 1960s. Following on from this he became a Trainee Light Entertainment Producer for BBC Radio in 1968. He has worked for both BBC Radio and for London Weekend TV and now is a freelance writer.

Brett informed his audience that he loves radio as a medium. He thinks that one can collaborate with the audience very effectively through radio and that radio really makes you listen and pay attention. Brett said that he has always been very pleased with the casting of his scripts on the radio, which have included many successful and prominent figures, such as Prunella Scales. He has also produced some of his scripts himself for the radio.

Brett is now a full-time writer, but still does some contract work for the BBC. 3 half-hour plays of his will be performed on the BBC radio this year (2009).

Brett has a number of book series, including the Mrs Pargeter mystery series, and the Charles Paris detective series. He also brings humour into his crime novels, and is pleased with the effect he is able to create here. One of his novels, ‘Shock to the System’ was made into a film starring Michael Caine, which he was paid a handsome amount for!

Simon Brett is a very humorous person in general and he made a lot of jokes throughout his talk, which made everyone laugh. He also made the point that he has worked with many famous people, such as Frank Muir, who he liked a lot.

When he first decided to become a writer he wrote 4 novels which did not get published. He tried changing his name, using various pseudo-names, hoping that might ‘do the trick’. Then he got his 5th novel published at the age of 29 years, so did remarkably well, despite these minor setbacks.

Brett spoke about the ‘Golden Age’ of the detective novel, with authors such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie. He said that he has a great respect for these writers and for this age. I loved Agatha Christie novels in my teens. And recently I have been reading some of Dorothy L. Sayers books which I found to be engaging with lively characters. She also brought humour into her detective novels. Furthermore, Brett has produced some of the Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey stories for the radio.

Brett is currently writing about mysteries around a fictitious village called Fethering (e.g. ‘The poisoning in the pub’), which was inspired by the area that he now lives in - West Sussex.

Simon Brett said he writes a lot about women and enjoys that. He said that nothing that is written is ever wasted – I thought that was a very good and uplifting thing to say (especially for those of us that are keen writers!).

Many of the audience were clearly devoted fans of Brett’s and found his work very engaging and enjoyable. Some spoke about listening to talking books of his novels in the car – clearly it made their car journeys a lot more pleasant.

I got to know about Brett’s work through his ‘After Henry’ series on the radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jnh1


For a full listing of Simon Brett’s books on Amazon see: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=simon+brett



8.2 ‘TURNING LIFE INTO PROSE’ WITH AMINATTA FORNA, LOUGHTON LIBRARY, ESSEX, 28th March 2009
This was a writers workshop (referred to as a ‘Masterclass’ in the publicity) that was designed to “help capture your own experiences and turn them into memoirs, essays and travel writing”.

There were 7 people at the Workshop and it was supported by New Writing Partnership

Aminatta Forna author of ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’ and ‘Ancestor Stones’ facilitated the workshop. Forna also writes for radio and television. Prior to her writing career, she was a journalist at the BBC for 10 years, reporting world events.

Aminatta Forna thinks that most people have the material in them to write a book (even if it is only one book). Furthermore, that we are interested in reading about the world of others, so she thinks it is a very good idea for more people to write their memoirs.

‘The Devil that danced in the water’ was published in 2002 and it is the memoirs of Aminatta Forna’s family. Her father was a political prisoner in West Africa; a forgotten political prisoner. Aminatta Forna first tried writing it as a novel but did not think she could get the message and information across effectively enough in that way, so decided to write it as her memoir instead. Upon reading ‘Wild Swans’ which covered 3 generations she realised that the form of that book was the form that she wanted her book to take. She undertook a lot of research for her book, interviewing people and inserting information on index cards etc.

Aminatta Forna also spoke very enthusiastically about the Arum Foundation which was set up by Ted Hughes and is heavily subsidised by the Arts Council. It provides residential courses on creative writing in 4 beautiful locations, including Devon and Scotland. Courses usually last for one week and it is a wonderful opportunity for people to write and explore ideas together. Most people, on completion of the course, decide what they want to do with their writing, she said. Aminatta Forna teaches on the course and recommended it highly.

Aminatta Forna said that trusting your own mind is essential for writing – I certainly agree with that! She read an extract from the book ‘Wild Mind’ by Natalie Goldberg. Natalie Goldberg said that sex and writing was essentially the same thing. Interesting!! Also, that we mix up the writer and the editor when we write; our fingers fluctuate between being writers and creators and editors – I have certainly found that to be true!

Aminatta read extracts from a number of different books and recommended quite a few authors – e.g. Maya Angelou, Blake Morrison, Roger Deakin

We all did some writing exercises. This included thinking and writing about a house that we had once lived in and describing a person that we knew well. We compared our writings, thoughts and reflections, which proved to be fascinating. It occurred to me that it would all make for valuable material for a book in itself; that the material could be bought together into an anthology.

I enjoyed meeting up, talking to and exchanging ideas with the others at the workshop. One topic that we spoke about was the gender issue in regard to writing workshops. There were 6 females at this workshop and only one male. Aminatta said that this was very typical of all writing workshops and courses – there are nearly always far more females than males. It is curious why this is the case. I mean, there are lots of male writers and novelists. Perhaps, they just prefer to ‘get on with the writing’ and do not like/want to be taught and trained. I think it is a problem, because in one sense creative writing cannot be taught; it is something from within, something that one has to feel inspired and motivated about. On the other hand, some can benefit from gaining some basic skills, and the interaction with others can be enjoyable and useful. Aminatta Forna said that some females do not actually attend the workshops with the aim of becoming serious writers and wanting to get their work published. Rather, some just attend because they enjoy the social interaction and the ‘time out’ that it provides from everyday life.

Aminatta Forna’s books on amazon (including 2 novels): http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Aminatta+Forna



For full details of the Essex Book Festival see: http://www.essexbookfestival.org.uk/EBF/




9. ‘MISCELLANY’ WITH MARY AND CLAUDIA AT WANSTEAD HOUSE, ESSEX, 1st April 2009
I had a very different, enjoyable and amusing evening on 1st April 2009 at this ‘Miscellany’ event in Wanstead House, Essex, listening to two ladies, Mary and Claudia reading poetry, prose and acting together in some sketches. In fact, I have never been to anything quite like it before. The ladies were very good – presumably drama trained. All the money that was raised from the event went to Wanstead House itself, so that it can continue to provide the wonderful service that it does for the local community, with its range of adult education classes, social groups etc (see http://www.wansteadhouse.co.uk/). With local authority cutbacks Wanstead House is now virtually self-financing, so raising this money is very important for it.

The evening explored ‘Ages of Man/Woman’, and was divided into 2 halves. The first half focused on ‘Children’, followed by a half hour break for wine and tea/coffee etc, and the second half focused on ‘Marriage, Careers and Onwards’. Below are a few snippets from their readings.

‘Children’ with Mary and Claudia
Children are going to Heaven, but not being very decisive about it. St. Peter says – “Can you either stay in or stay out for goodness sake?”

Child leaves his mum a note saying that a lot of things have gone wrong in the home (such as a broken cup, sink overflowing), but cannot understand how it all happened! Says:
“Knowing you’re going to have a fit
I’m going to gran’s for a bit.”

Another verse:
“Mum is having another baby,
I’m shocked and all at sea,
What does she want to have another baby for?
What’s the matter with me?”


‘Marriage, Careers and Onwards’ with Mary and Claudia
Mary read from a letter written by Anthony Trollope to a lady in 1861. In the letter he says that his wife is healthy, but if and when there comes a time when she is not, then he would like to invite this other lady into his life! That letter was certainly a surprise to me!

‘Wishes of a man’ by Walter Raleigh:
“I wish I loved the human race,
I wish I loved its silly face.”

Sketch – 2 friends, Pam and Felicity:
One says to the other “You’ll have to meet your husband’s requirements.”
“Your husband will have to perform – in the village hall.”

Later, Felicity had a son, but she said that she didn’t know what caused it. Pam said “How sad” followed by “What did cause it?”


The ladies did not give full references to all their readings, so hope I can be forgiven for not providing them all here. It was a very popular event; the room was packed. These gatherings are held periodically.



10. KUNIYOSHI EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/
I went to see the Kuniyoshi Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts with my artistic cousin Sue on 31st March 2009. Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) was one of the last great artists of the Edo period (1600-1868).

This exhibition of Kuniyoshi’s print work came from the Arthur R. Miller collection.
In the booklet which I purchased there, Pilbeam says that Kuniyoshi:

“…was prepared to take on any subject, and he is widely admired for this versatility and his highly original, often eccentric, imagination.” (p.1)

(booklet: ‘Kuniyoshi: from the Arthur R. Miller Collection, The Sackler Wing of Galleries, 21st March – 7th June 2009’, written by Mavis Pilbeam)

There were prints on topics such as warriors, beautiful women and landscapes.

I really enjoyed the exhibition and Kuniyoshi’s art work.

Best wishes as ever and may your best dreams come true!

Ruth



Email: rikowskiruth@yahoo.co.uk or rikowskigr@aol.com


3rd April 2009

Ruth Rikowski's 28th News Update

RUTH RIKOWSKI
News Update No.28

Some time has lapsed, once again, since I sent out my last Update. This is largely due to the fact that my father-in-law died a month or so ago, and it has been, and continues to be, a very difficult time for us – both emotionally and practically. This also means that I have not found the time, as yet, to start up another blog. However, I have begun the process of archiving all of my old AOL blogs, which I am very pleased about – see item 3 below (although admittedly, it is taking me rather longer than I thought it would, but such is life!). Meanwhile, I was delighted to see my article about Michéle Roberts published in this months Managing Information, and presented in such a lovely way as well. This prompted me to send out this latest Update. Hope you all enjoy it.


1. ‘MICHĒLE ROBERTS: LIBRARIAN, NOVELIST, AND RADICAL INSPIRATIONAL WRITER AND THINKER’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI, IN ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’, Vol 16, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 64-69
It was great to see my article about Michéle Roberts published in the latest issue of Managing Information. And presented is just such a lovely and colourful way as well. Many thanks to the editor, Graham Coult, for the thought and care he gave to it all. With all Graham’s artistic flair, his skill as a photographer along with the quality of his writing and editing of course, the result is always a very enticing and engaging magazine, I think. I remember having such thoughts when I very first saw Managing Information (MI), when I was working at Clifford Chance in 1999 – it really grabbed my attention, as a magazine that was exciting, eye-catching and dynamic. In regard to my Michéle Roberts piece - it was also the main feature article in this issue. My article is surrounded by photos of lovely sunflowers, which conveys a wonderful, attractive and cheerful message – a good idea, particularly in this time of recession. There is also a beautiful photo of a sunflower on the cover. The sunflowers as portrayed in my article have @ in the middle of them, thus conveying a message about my IT background as well.

So, what about the article itself? It was inspired by me going to see and hear Michéle Roberts speaking at CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Members’ Day, organised by CILIP in London, at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) on 16th October 2008. I went to hear Tony Benn speak 2 years prior to that at CILIP Members’ Day, which I really enjoyed (see my long piece about this on our website - http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Tony%20and%20Caroline%20Benn. So I went along to this event full of hope and I was not disappointed. It was also wonderful and it really inspired me.

In regard to Michéle Roberts herself, she is the author of 12 novels; including ‘The Looking Glass’ and ‘Daughters of the House’, which won the WHSmith Literary Award and was short-listed for the Booker Prize (1992). She has also held Creative Writing posts in academia, and been Chair of the British Council literature advisory panel.
But what particularly surprised me was that I found that I had quite a lot in common with Michéle Roberts – both of us loving books from a young age, and wanting to write books ourselves, for example; both having religious upbringings, which we rejected in our teens; both training to be librarians; both writing books and both being socialist-minded, feminists and radicals. Although Michéle Roberts is considerably more famous than me of course, and goes on the radio regularly etc!

In my article I conclude by saying that:

“All in all, attending Michéle Roberts talk at CILIP, reading her autobiography, feeling her passion for books, relating it all to my own experiences etc has been quite a wonderful and unique journey for me.” p.69)

A considerably longer version of this article is available on our website, at http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Michele%20Roberts



2. ‘MEMOIRS OF A LAPSED LIBRARIAN’ BY RUTH RIKOWKSI IN ‘LONDON CILIP: Newsletter for CILIP in London’
A short piece (a news item) by me about the Michéle Roberts talk was also published in CILIP in London Newsletter - see
http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/newsletter -
scroll down to Issue 19, Feb 2009, p.1



3. ‘RUTH RIKOWKSI UPDATES’ – RUTH’S AOL BLOG ARCHIVES CURRENTLY BEING INSERTED ON OUR WEBSITE - see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Ruth%20Rikowski%20Updates%20(Archives)
I am in the process of inserting all of my old AOL blogs on to our website (following on from AOL shutting down all their blogs last October 2008). This will mean that they are all widely available again, and will ensure that the material is not lost. I felt this was particularly important as the blogs are a kind of diary, and ‘tell a story’’, particularly in regard to how I have grown and developed in the writing and publishing world of late. It also, hopefully, helps to connect many different types of people together that would not otherwise be connected. However, it is taking me longer than I thought it would! I am currently up to the 13th News Update, and as you can see, this is the 28th Update. Still, I will get there in the end – although it will have to be fitted around many other things, of course.



4. CHANDOS PUBLISHING IMPRINT BEEN SOLD TO WOODHEAD PUBLISHING
The Chandos Publishing imprint was recently sold to Woodhead Publishing Ltd., Cambridge.

Now, to order Chandos Publishing titles please contact:
Woodhead Publishing Ltd
Abington Hall, Granta Park, Great Abington,
Cambridge, CB21 6AH
Tel +44 (0) 1223 891358 Fax +44 (0) 1223 893694


This decision will help to enable Chandos books to be distributed more widely throughout the USA.

Visit the Chandos website at http://www.chandospublishing.com



5. MICHAEL PETER’S CONTRIBUTING TO A CHANDOS BOOK - ‘FUTURE OF THE ACADEMIC JOURNAL’ EDITED BY BILL COPE AND ANGUS PHILIPS, 2009, ISBN 1843344165 (pbk); 1843344173 (hdbk) http://www.chandospublishing.com/chandos_publishing_record_detail.php?ID=213
I was interested to discover that Professor Michael Peters is contributing a chapter to a Chandos book and on the important and highly topical subject of the ‘The Future of the Academic Journal’. Michael Peters has been very much at the forefront himself in the ejournal scholarly publishing field of course.

In the book summary on the Chandos website, it says that the book:
“…looks at a range of key topics that are of vital importance to academics and publishers alike. Will the journals business continue to grow? Open Access initiatives still form a relatively small part of journals publishing, but will they become the norm? How do librarians, publishers and academics see the future for journals? Will other forms of access to knowledge become more important? How will this part of publishing be affected by public policy, changes in copyright law, and the views of learned societies and research bodies?”

This should prove to be a very useful, timely and interesting book, I think.



6. GREGORY RIKOWSKI’S NEW BLOG, ‘GREGSWORLD’ AND HIS MYSPACE PROFILE FOR REVIEWS OF CULTURAL, MUSICAL AND FILM EVENTS
Gregory Rikowski, our youngest son, who is now 19 years old, started up his own blog a little while ago, and reviews various cultural and musical events that he has been to on it. There are entries for Herbie Hancock performing at the Barbican, London on 13th December 2008, for example; for the Sleeping Beauty ballet performed by the European Ballet in October 2008 at the Kenneth More Theatre and for Handel’s opera ‘Partenope’, held at the London Coliseum on 7th November 2008. See: http://gregrikowski.blogspot.com/2008/12/first-blog.html

Gregory also has a MySpace profile, which includes a film review section. See:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=92945414




7. ‘ALFRED HITCHCOCK: CLASSIC AUTEUR’ BY GREGORY RIKOWSKI
A piece by Gregory Rikowski about the film director Alfred Hitchcock (who he greatly admires) has recently been inserted on our website. See
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Hichcock



8. ESSEX BOOK FESTIVAL, MARCH 2009
http://www.essexbookfestival.org.uk/EBF/
The Essex Book Festival is currently taking place, and includes many really interesting events. The programme includes talks by people such as Francis Wheen and Simon Heffer, Joan Bakewell, Roy Hattersley, Alison Weir and Irma Kurtz. On a personal basis, I am very much looking forward to going to hear Simon Brett talk on 26th March and am going to a writers group, with Aminatta Forna on 28th March.


9. ‘PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITISATION’ – EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI, SENSE PUBLISHERS, ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS; FORTHCOMING: LATE 2009
I am currently working on my third book, at the invitation of Professor Michael Peters – which is an edited collection on digitisation, which will include a significant input from me, and will be published towards the end of the year, with Sense Publishers (https://www.sensepublishers.com/about_us.php?osCsid=1a7).
This builds on a special issue on ‘Digital Libraries’ which I co-edited with Isaac Hunter Dunlap for the refereed international ejournal, Policy Futures in Education – see http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp

The book will be divided up into 6 parts, with 22 contributors and a Foreword by Simon Tanner, Director, King's Digital Consultancy Services, King's College London. The book will includes sections on digitisation and higher education; digitisation and inequalities; digital libraries, reference services and citation indexing; digitisation of rare, valued and scholarly works; and the futuristic developments of digitisation.

That’s it for now.

Best as ever,

Ruth

19th March 2009

Welcome

Ruth Rikowski's News Updates Are Back

I am delighted to announce that Ruth Rikowski's News Updates blog is now back - re-emerging through e-blogger. It contains information about my latest happenings, publications, talks, interests, connections etc. For those of you that have been following my work, you will know that along with all other AOL blogs, my Ruth Rikowski Update AOL blog was terminated last October, 2008. Since then much else has been going on in my life but now - well, here we are again.

I am currently in the process of inserting all of my archived AOL blogs on to the Rikowski website, 'The Flow of Ideas' - see http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Ruth%20Rikowski%20Updates%20(Archives. This is taking some time (up to the 13th News Update), but getting there.

This blogs starts at the 28th News Update - this being the newsletter that I recently sent out to subscribers (which now totals over 400). To subscribe and/or submit an item for inclusion, email me at: rikowskiruth@yahoo.co.uk or rikowskigr@aol.com. Subsequent newsletters, sent out on an irregular basis, will then be inserted on this blog.

Best wishes

Ruth

25th March 2009