Ruth Rikowski's 32nd News Update

Victorian Gardens, Norwich

So, now we are in Autumn! How quickly the time flies; can be quite scary! Some say, or at least try to persuade us, that Christmas is only just round the corner. Heavens! Anyway, here is another newsletter from me. I was prompted to send it now because of the article that Anne Welsh and I have written about the Feminist Library in London, which has just been published in ‘Managing Information’. The Feminist Library houses an important collection (material from the Feminist Movement in the 1970s) and it is something that we should very much be cherishing and preserving, in our view.



1. ‘FEMINIST LIBRARY IN LONDON’ BY RUTH RIKOWSKI AND ANNE WELSH IN ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’, Vol. 16, Iss. 5, 2009, pp. 65-71
Anne Welsh (who lectures on Cataloguing at University of College London) and I have been taking a lively interest in the Feminist Library in London, which is currently facing challenging times. Anne is also engaged in a cataloguing project there, helping to ensure that the whole collection is kept together as a whole in a virtual way, as well as providing some cataloguing instruction to her students in the process.

We were very fortunate in being able to hear Gail Chester and Ruth Harris talking about their experiences of working in the library. Based on this and our own reading, thoughts and understanding, we wrote an article about the Feminist Library, which has just been published in ‘Managing Information’.

We hope that, in some small way, our article will help to draw people’s attention to the importance of the library and the wonderful and important resources that it houses there. If anyone would like to make contact with either of us, to get more involved, and to help to preserve and promote the collection, do feel free to do so. Anne’s email address is a.welsh@ucl.ac.uk. And/or if you would like to be a volunteer for the Feminist Library, email admin@feministlibrary.co.uk.



2. ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’, the MONTHLY ASLIB MAGAZINE
Leading on from item 1 above, I would like to say a little something extra about the award-winning magazine, Managing Information (MI) itself.

As it says: “Managing Information is a leading and very well respected (i.e. well read) magazine for information managers, knowledge managers, librarians, web masters and anyone else who has to manage information effectively.”

MI is an Aslib (The Association for Information Management) subscription-based publication (available in both hard copy and electronic copy), with ten issues a year. It includes regulars and columnists with people such as Kevin Carey, the founder Director of humanITy, a UK based charity that focuses on eInclusion. There are also News and Briefing Regulars, including ‘Freedom of Information Update’, ‘Data Protection Update’ and ‘Product News’. In addition, there are feature articles on a wide variety of subjects, such as ‘Access to Knowledge’, ‘The College of Law’ and ‘Females and Social Networking’. And there is also, of course, information about Aslib itself. This, and much more, is in the magazine. In general, 'Managing Information' addresses many very important topics within the information profession, and is very much at the cutting edge.

The magazine is always very tastefully laid out and includes many wonderful coloured photographs, particularly scenic views (skies, flowers, the sea etc), many of which are taken by the editor, Graham Coult, himself. The use of such artistic flair and imagination can help to overcome some of the negative stereotypes of the library and information profession, I think, which we are all well-aware of (e.g. the stereotype of the female librarian with the bun and tweed skirt!) Hopefully, in time, the leading role that Graham Coult has placed in this regard will be even more fully appreciated. Significant improvements have been made over more recent years, for example, I think, in the monthly magazine for the professional body for librarians and information professionals, currently entitled ‘CILIP Update’ and was previously called the ‘LA Record’ (CILIP standing for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and LA standing for the ‘Library Association’ of course).

Furthermore, MI set up its own website (www.managinginformation.com)
and newsletter, around the beginning of the new millennium and it was very much a pioneer in this field. Both Paul Pedley and myself were so inspired by it all that we started up our own newsletters. Paul Pedley’s is a Law Newsletter entitled ‘Keeping within the Law’; which is now subscription-based and is published through Facet Publishing – see http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=661-9
Paul Pedley, who is Head of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, was, at one time, a regular columnist in 'Managing Information', and it was very much Managing Information that inspired him to go down the newsletter route, whilst he was a fee-earning columnist for MI. At that time and in the early days, he provided the newsletter for free, and indeed, I was one of its recipients. We were also both inspired to set up our own blogs, through MI.

In my opinion, 'Managing Information' is a very important and valuable publication and resource within the library and information profession. Long may it continue! Further details about subscribing to the magazine can be found at:
http://aslib.com/publications/managinginformation.htm




3. MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES (MERD) XII: FROM CRITIQUE TO CONTESTATION
Another MERD (Marxism and Education: renewing Dialogues) Day Seminar is to be held on Saturday, 21st November 2009, from 10.30am to 4.30pm at the Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1, Committee Room One.

This is MERD XII and is on the theme ‘From Critique to Contestation’.

Speakers will include: Vincent Carpentier, Richard Hatcher, Ken Jones and Gurnam Singh

The seminar is free but places are limited. To reserve a place and receive a numbered ticket, please contact Joyce Canaan at: joyce.canaan@bcu.ac.uk

A waiting list will come into operation when all the places have been allocated.

The convenors of the seminar are Joyce Canaan, Tony Green, Richard Hatcher and Alpesh Maisuria


The Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) seminars were founded by Glenn Rikowski and Tony Green and were run by them both at the Institute of Education, University of London, from 2002-2007: MERDs I – X.
For more information about these events, see our website - http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=events&sub=MERD.

Whilst it is great that this initial impetus is now being very much built on by Cannan, Green, Hatcher and Maisuria, I think it is unfortunate (to say the least) that the publicity for MERD XII does not include this basic information about the founders, and where to obtain information about the first ten MERD seminars. Hopefully, this anomaly will be rectified in future publicity.



4. ‘RENEWING DIALOGUES IN MARXISM AND EDUCATION: OPENINGS’, EDITED BY ANTHONY GREEN, GLENN RIKOWKI AND HELEN RADUNTZ, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN: Hampshire, 2007; ISBN 13 978 1 4039 7496 9
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renewing-Dialogues-Marxism-Education-Rikowski/dp/1403974969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254652861&sr=8-1 : further thoughts and reflections
Leading on from information about MERD XII, in item 3 above, now would seem a timely moment for me to briefly reflect on the first book in the Palgrave Series, on ‘Marxism and Education’, as this series came into existence purely through the MERD seminars. It was decided that the talks that the speakers gave should be documented given their importance and a book series seemed to be the obvious solution. The series now includes both edited collections (largely from and building on the seminars) as well as monographs.

The first book in the series (bibliographical details in the heading of this item) consisted of papers from the first two MERD seminars (I and II). The contributors in the book were Paula Allman, Elizabeth Atkinson, Pat Brady, Mike Cole, Helen Colley, Rachel Gorman, Anthony Green, David Harvie, Dave Hill, Gregory Martin, Jane Mulderrig, Mark Olsen, Michael Peters, Helen Raduntz, Glenn Rikowski, Geraldine Thorpe and Paul Warmington. Unfortunately, for various complex reasons, Glenn Rikowski himself was not able to write a chapter on his own.

In the Introduction Anthony Green and Glenn Rikowski say that the book is:

“…an open form of Marxism attempting to address a multiplicity of contexts around the continuing struggles for socialism in a world in which the value form of labor and commodification are central to neoliberal globalization of capital in all its educational-dimensions.” (p. 3)

A number of different and important topics are addressed throughout the book, including chapters on Marxist-Feminism, academic labor and neoliberalism and education.

For, me, I was particularly delighted to read the chapters by Gregory Martin and David Harvie, who seemed to have a very clear understanding and appreciation of Glenn Rikowski’s work and the important and ground-breaking contribution that he has made to Marxism and Education, particularly in his work on labour-power theory. David Harvie, for example, refers to ‘subject benchmark statements’ which catalogues generic learning outcomes, and which all university degrees must now produce, he says. He points to Glenn’s work in this field, where the various skills required to meet the learning outcomes are “desirable labor power attributes” (p. 233) (cited in ‘That other great class of commodities: labour-power as spark for Marxist Educational Theory’, 2002/03. Available at Education-line http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001624.htm

Whilst Gregory Martin draws our attention to the fact that:

“Expanding upon Marx, Rikowski notes that as a distinctly human force, labor power – which he defines as our ‘capacities’ to labor in the form of epistemological paradigms, language codes, technical skills, attitudes, dispositions and behaviours – has reality only within the human subject.” (p.253) He also rightly refers to the fact that Glenn Rikowski identifies labor power as being ‘capital’s weakest link’. Also, to the fact that Glenn says there is a need for more empirical research into ‘ “how, why and in what ways” individuals can resist their interpellation as particular subjects within the “total productive processes” they experience, interpret, and negotiate in their everyday lives.” (p.262) (Rikowski, 2002, p. 27 – in a paper entitled ‘Methods for researching the social production of labour power in capitalism’).

Meanwhile, Helen Colley notes in her chapter ‘Myths of mentoring: developing a Marxist-Feminist critique’, that Glenn refers to a social drive to recast the ‘human’ as human capital.

On the other hand, I was not so uplifted by Mike Cole’s chapter – quite the reverse, in fact! Mike Cole, Dave Hill, Peter McLaren and Glenn Rikowski have edited material together, yet in his chapter Mike Cole still hedges his bets where the Richard Hatcher and Glenn Rikowski ‘debate’ are concerned. Over the last few years, Richard Hatcher has systematically attempted to attack and to undermine Glenn’s work. Glenn responded to this, and Mike then interprets this as simply being “two differing perspectives”. Mike Cole concludes his chapter by saying that in his chapter he examined “…two different perspectives from within the Marxist tradition on New Labour’s Five-Year Strategy. Only time will tell which of these differing interpretations is more accurate” (p. 113).

As I am sure the reader can now appreciate, the whole topic of ‘Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues’ is not an easy one for us these days! Still, we carry on, whilst also continuing to come to terms with our bereavement earlier in the year.



5. DEIAN HOPKIN AWARDED KNIGHTHOOD
Professor Deian Hopkin, who recently retired from being the Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2009, on 13th June 2009. The award was for services to Higher Education and Skills, and reflects, I feel sure, the energy and enthusiasm which he put into endeavouring to meet and comply with the Labour government’s agenda for higher education whilst he was the Vice-Chancellor, with its emphasis on skills and employability.



6. SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS – 2 MORE BLOG ENTRIES: ‘POND WITH PUMP, FOUNTAIN AND LIGHTS’ AND ‘UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA (UEA) AND NORWICH http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
There are 2 new entries on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog: one about our pond and one about UEA. There are digital photographs on both of the entries.

To begin with, the idea was to have a pond for wild life in our garden, but then we realised that this was not very practical. So, now we have a pump and a fountain in the pond, so that the water circulates more. We have also put a net over the pond, to stop leaves from falling into it. We have also bought more fish.

The second blog entry is about our visit to Norwich. We took our youngest son, Gregory with all his stuff up to the University in East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, to his room on campus. We had a lovely couple of days there and took lots of photos of the UEA campus, Norwich itself and the Victorian Gardens in Norwich (which we stayed nearby to).



7. CULTURAL EVENTS ATTENDED
I have been to a couple of enjoyable cultural events recently. One was about the life of Tom Paine, which was entitled ‘A New World’. The play, by Trevor Griffiths was performed at the Globe Theatre, London and it was a very powerful play. Tom Paine was just so far ahead of his time of course, with works such as ‘The Rights of Man’ and the ‘Age of Reason’. Amazing to think that at the time that he died over 1,500,000 copies of ‘The Rights of Man’ had been sold in Europe. What was also quite something was that we met Professor Peter Linebaugh there. Peter used to be a student of E.P. Thompson and has edited material with him. He told us that he has just written a ‘New Introduction to the Works of Thomas Paine’ – see http://info.interactivist.net/node/13090. He had come over from the USA specifically to see the play!

The other was an event that was organised by the Hackney Society in East London, held at Pages Bookshop, Hackney, about the life of Hackney resident Eddie Noble (1917-2007). Patrick Vernon has made a documentary film about Eddie Noble’s life, which he entitled ‘A Charmed Live: the legacy of the Windrush Generation’. He spoke to us about it all and the value to be gained from documenting the lives of those people that make a valuable contribution to their local communities. Eddie Noble was self-taught; and it became clear that he had been a very interesting and important member of the local community. Compiling documentaries like this seems like a very good idea to me, and as Patrick said, it is so much easier today, with all the technology that we now have at our disposal.


N.B. Many thanks to Patrick Ainley for providing information for item 3 and to Monica Blake for inviting us to the Eddie Noble event, outlined in item 7.


Best wishes

Ruth

5th October 2009

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