Ruth Rikowski's 41st News Update

I hope you are enjoying the summer. In one way or another, there always seems to be quite a lot going on in my life, and I can only ever really report on some of it. So, anyway, here are some of the latest highlights from me below.



1. VICTORIA PERSELLI INVITING ME TO GIVE A KEYNOTE SPEECH AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
I received a lovely, unexpected email ‘out of the blue’ from Dr. Victoria Perselli, Chair of Programme Directors, Education Doctorate and Course Director, MA Education (English Language Teaching), School of Education at Kingston University, inviting me to give a Keynote Speech at Kingston. Giving a Keynote will be a first for me, so is obviously special and something that I am excited about.

My talk will be in mid-September, 2010 and will be entitled ‘Information Technology: a form of liberation for females?’ I will look briefly at the traditional computing industry, which is very male-dominated, and then consider whether specific areas of IT can provide a new form of liberation for females; and in particular, whether social networking tools can help in this regard. I will argue that whilst these tools are useful they need to be used with care and they do not necessarily empower females; instead, they can even help to create new levels of vulnerability and can be time-wasting. Rather, females need to be more pro-active in general. I will then look briefly at the Feminist Library in London and drawing on my forthcoming book on digitisation, will argue that in order to preserve this wonderful collection the digitisation of some of this material could prove to be highly advantageous.



2. ALEXANDER RIKOWSKI OBTAINING AN UPPER SECOND HONOURS DEGREE IN PHILOSOPHY FROM KING’S COLLEGE...AND NEWS OF SOME OTHER RESULTS
Our eldest son, Alexander Rikowski recently obtained a 2:1 for his Philosophy degree at King’s College, London, which we were obviously all delighted about. He worked very hard for it; it was a very demanding degree, with weekly essays and involved reading the raw material of many of the great philosophers. Also, most of the other students there had been to public school, so came from very different and privileged backgrounds compared to Alex; so he had that to handle as well. Alex thought that these people were definitely being groomed specifically to enter into the upper class/upper-middle class. Interestingly, Alexander got his best mark (69%) in Marxism. In particular, he has worked out some ground-breaking and very important ideas in regard to justice; but more about that on another occasion.

Meanwhile, our middle son, Victor, got a good upper second overall at the end of his second year at Bangor University, working towards his degree in Music and Creative Writing there. He also got Firsts in courses on Music Composition and Creative Writing for Children; so that was all great, and once again, demonstrates the extent and range of his artistic and creative ability.

Finally, my second cousin Neil Whitehead (who designed our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website – www.flowideas.co.uk) got a Double Distinction for his Foundation Degree in Photography at Southampton University, so he is safely through to the degree programme! He is also already planning to self-publish his second book – showing great initiative for someone that is just embarking on a first degree, I think.


3. WRITING CONSULTANCY WORK
For the last few months I have become very passionate about dancing (something that I have always loved but have not taken quite so seriously before). But now, I am determined to learn many of the steps properly. So, believe it or not, I am now learning ballroom, sequence, salsa and argentine tango dancing. It has, and continues to be, truly wonderful!
Anyway, a few weeks ago, someone at one of the dances noted that I was writing something down, and came over and asked me if I was a writer. To cut a long story short, having established that I was indeed a writer, he then asked me if I would help him with some of his own writing, offering to pay me for this. This assignment has now been successfully completed. Which now leads me on to say that if others are interested in me working for them on this basis (in whatever writing/editing/publishing capacity), then please do feel free to get in touch, and we can explore the possibilities together!



4. FOUR NEW ITEMS UP ON MY ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ BLOG
There are four new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog: 3 items about some events in our local community which we not only went to but were involved with and one book review. The 3 local events were: the Forest Gate Carnival, the Big Lunch and Forest Roots. The choir that I am in, Forest Voices sang at both the ‘Forest Gate Carnival’ and ‘Forest Roots’ and our son Victor, played acoustic guitar and sang at both the ‘Big Lunch’ and ‘Forest Roots’. The Forest Roots event was a first for Victor; he has played at lots of venues in Bangor, North Wales (both with his band and on his own), but it was the first time that he had performed solo to a musically-appreciative community-based London audience. He played one of his own compositions, ‘Today’ (which he composed just the day before) and a country and western song ‘Choices’ by George Jones, from the album ‘Cold Hard Truth’. There were many different musical acts throughout the evening at ‘Forest Roots’, with the main act being the band ‘Acoustica’ – all very enjoyable.

The book review is a short one of a bestselling novel, ‘Highland Fling’ by Katie Fforde, which I found to be a pleasant read.



5. PROPOSAL FOR A THIRD INTERNATIONAL MEETING FOR PROGRESSIVE LIBRARY ORGANISATIONS
Having completed his interviews with progressive librarians in various parts of the world, Al Kagan, African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration Africana Collections and Services at the University of Illinois Library is now hoping to bring about a third international meeting for progressive library organisations. He is currently pooling ideas and I wish him every success with this worthwhile project.



6. NEWS ITEM FROM JESSICA (JIA LIU), ONE OF THE CONTRIBUTORS TO MY FORTHCOMING BOOK PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITISATION, FOCUSING ON A PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATION BETWEEN Dr. JIA LIU & Prof. ELMAR MITTLER
Below is another news items kindly sent to me by Jia Liu (who likes to be known as Jessica (following on from 2 news items from her in my last newsletter, No. 40, in item 4). This news item focuses on a professional discussion that she had with Professor Elmar Mittler.


“VISIT BY PROFESSOR ELMAR MITTLER
Recently I visited Professor Elmar Mittler, my former supervisor when I implemented a research project with the fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, in the historical building of the Göttingen University and Lower-Saxony State Library (SUB Göttingen).

Prof. Elmar Mittler (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmar_Mittler) had been the director of SUB Göttingen from 1990 to 2006. Before that he had been the director of the Heidelberg University Library and the Bad State Library in Karlsruhe. The deepest impression I have had about him was his open mind and kind attitude. With his leadership, SUB Göttingen has been one of the biggest research libraries all over the world and he has a very high reputation in the worldwide library circle. Though he retired in 2006, obviously he’s still been very energetic and active in a variety of fields. During our last meeting, I invited him to talk a little on several points. This is what he said:

“ “ Activities for the time being
In respect of librarianship, I’m currently the chairman of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL, http://www.cerl.org/web/), which is aimed at promoting Europe's cultural heritage in manuscript and print. On the one hand, it develops the database, the Heritage of the Printed Book in Europe, c. 1450 - c. 1830, a database of records from major European and North American research libraries. Also, it develops services and tools. The CERL Thesaurus provides multi-lingual information about names of persons and places found in catalogues of books of the hand-press period. And the CERL Portal offers cross-searching of catalogues of European manuscript materials, with the option to search selected early-printed books databases. So far 30 European libraries have been involved in CERL.

In the meantime, I give lectures on the book history in the Department of History of the Göttingen University. My main interest is how historians take advantage of modern techniques in the virtual research environment. I focus on the book heritage and book database. I teach in the Department of Book Science of the University of Mainz as well.

Cooperation with libraries of the United Kingdom

In addition to cooperating with some libraries of the United Kingdom within the activities of CERL, the Göttingen University Library collaborates on LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche, in English, Association of European Research Libraries, at URL http://www.libereurope.eu/) with some English leading academic research libraries. The Göttingen University Library plays the leading role in these two organisations. I had been the president of LIBER for 4 years and now my successor continues the work.

On the other hand, the other European project my successor is running is open-access.net (http://open-access.net/de_en/homepage/), the platform providing open access to scholarly information.

Cooperation between your library and Chinese libraries
In the last two years, the Göttingen University Library had cooperation with the Shanghai Library. In the meantime, our library takes part in information exchange with Chinese libraries. This activity is mainly driven by the German National Library of Science / Technology and University Library Hannover (Technische Informationsbibliothek / Universitätsbibliothek Hannover, TIB Hannover). The main field related is nature science.

Current status of the German libraries
German libraries have the same financial problem[1]. The background is that the price of the science journal increases but the library budget keeps the same as before. There is no difference between the staff cost and the maintaining cost and they belong to one budget. Under the case that the whole budget shrinks, in order to keep the maintaining cost, the library director has to reduce the personnel. The libraries are really under great pressure and such situations started about 6 years ago in Germany.

On the other hand, German research libraries get additional funding these years. The German students began to pay the tuition, some part of which is used to maintain and develop the library. A part of the tuitions has been taken advantage by the Göttingen University Library to provide longer service time. Besides, there are some investment programmes of the government to support the library. The additional funding is used to refresh the new building of the Göttingen University Library. That’s the similar situation in other German libraries. “ “





7. MICHAEL WILBY – WINNER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY PRIZE 2010: ‘THE SIMPLICITY OF MUTUAL KNOWLEDGE’
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a923143368~frm=titlelink Michael Wilby, a former A-level philosophy student of Glenn Rikowski’s (in the early 1990s) at Epping Forest College, won the Philosophical Essay Prize, 2010, for his essay on ‘The Simplicity of Mutual Knowledge’. Upon leaving Epping Forest College, Michael went on to obtain a degree in philosophy and then a PhD from the University of York, and he now teaches at Anglia Ruskin University, on the Cambridge campus. We were obviously delighted to find out about Michael winning this prize and wish him every success in the future. Michael is the son of the famous journalist, Peter Wilby, columnist of the Sunday Observer and the Guardian, and former editor of the Independent on Sunday and the New Statesman.



8. RECENTLY RELEASED FILM ‘INCEPTION’ INCLUDES SYNTHESISER PROGRAMMING BY HOWARD SCARR, A FRIEND OF GLENN RIKOWSKI’S
http://www.loudouni.com/people/2010-07-23/music-behind-inception
Some of my family went to see the newly released film ‘Inception’ recently, which they thoroughly enjoyed. What was particularly exciting for Glenn though was that his friend Howard Scarr from undergraduate university days, (they played in a regressive band called ‘Wavering on Ether’ along with Vincent Woodward and Derek Roche, at the University of East Anglia), did the synthesiser programming for the music in the film, working with Hans Zimmer in the process. Glenn said that the music was powerful and intense and really made the film tick. Howard went on to become a member of England’s first all-synthesiser band, ‘Zorch’, which came back to the University of East Anglia (UEA) to perform in 1976 (where we saw them play). See Zorch at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/zzorch



9. ‘BLUE SEAS THINKING’
Glenn spotted in the Guardian (EducationGuardian, 20th July 2010, p. 9) an article about the sociologist Dr Karen Throsby, from Warwick University. ‘So what?’, you might well ask. Well, Karen used to be a neighbour of ours, and then by a total coincidence, she went to work at Warwick University with Glenn Rikowski’s good friend, Mike Neary. The article ‘Blue Seas Thinking’ by Chris Arnot, looks at Karen’s research which explores what motivates people to engage in extreme sports such as Channel swimming. Karen has obtained funding from the Economic and Social Research Council in order to undertake this research. She herself enjoys swimming long distances and says that it is relaxing and ‘empties the mind’. I love swimming, but do not think I would at all enjoy long distance swimming. Anyway, we wish Karen every success with her research.



10. CLARIFICATION OF THOUGHT, EXPLANATIONS, WRITING AND COMMUNICATION
In my previous newsletter (No. 40), item 9 focused on the utilitarian philosopher, J.S. Mill. In this item, I referred to the benefit to be gained from the clarity of thought and communication, and remarked on the fact that J.S. Mill was particularly good in this regard. Also, that he was assisted in this process by his wife Harriet Taylor. In this news item I would like to explore this a little more.

I am of the opinion that the fact that Mill was a child prodigy and that he had to think so deeply and intensely from such a young age, must have helped him in the long-run to improve the style and clarity of his writing. Mill had a mental breakdown when he was just 20 years old, following on from his rigorous childhood upbringing. This must have resulted in him having to rethink his whole way of thinking and of expressing himself quite radically in various ways, I would have thought, the result of which led to his having greater clarity of thought, and also probably assisted with his production of beautiful, enticing and pleasant writing. This feel for his writing was what came across to me very powerfully when I first read his work as an undergraduate.

Now, a talent and ability like this can be very under-estimated, I think. We can take it all too much for granted; it all seems so obvious. But the person has probably gone through a lot of pain; a lot of deep and complex thought-processes, grappling with complicated topics, in order to arrive at what can then seem to be a simple conclusion and outcome; whilst also perhaps creating something beautiful. After all, J.S. Mill’s philosophy has been the bedrock of western democracy in many ways, but few people really clearly recognise this as such (most everyday people do not really appreciate where much of it comes from). It has just all become embedded in the bedrock of our society. In this way, Marx probably gets more credit than Mill actually. Whilst I think, obviously, that Marxism in the long-term is the most effective way forward; we clearly need to analyse capitalism and then move beyond it, at some point. But meanwhile, Mill has helped to make the world that we currently inhabit far more pleasant and tolerable. Also, many philosophers really write quite badly when it comes to style and clarity (take Kant and Aristotle, as examples), and Mill really stands out as someone very different; as someone that cares about his readers and the experiences they are having. Indeed, such writing is an art form in itself.

Similarly, I also aim to write clearly and to give readers something of the ‘feel good’ factor when I write. I now think that this can also probably be partly explained by the fact that, like Mill, I also had to think so very maturely as a child. But also like Mill, this can mean that my work is not always appreciated as much perhaps as I would like it to ideally be (both for my own satisfaction and for the long-term benefit of society at large). In my first book, on globalisation, for example, I grappled with many very deep and complex issues. Once I had sorted these out I was then able to explain these issues fairly simply and clearly to my readers. But then, some people rather than appreciating what I had done just seemed to think that it was all very obvious really; indeed, that perhaps I had even been repeating myself in parts (this became apparent from some of the book reviews). Heavens! Marx was also sometimes criticised for repeating himself; but that is because capitalism is circular and mad in so many ways, so in our efforts to explain it all, we can indeed, sometimes seem to be going round in circles. But rather what we really witness is a genius endeavouring to deal with something very complex.

So, people who develop important new theories can often summarise the main theories/conclusions simply; perhaps, in just a couple of lines. Others can then say, ‘well that is easy – what is all the big fuss about?’, without appreciating the pain, struggles, work and depth of thought that the person has gone through to arrive at this ‘oh so simple conclusion’. So, as and when some of us do develop new theories, we need to be careful about how we handle and present them to the world, I think. This is something that I am very mindful of these days.

Meanwhile, thinking about this further and building on the work of Wittgenstein, we should remember that the purpose of language is to communicate and understand each other, and within this we use different words and concepts to convey meaning in order to arrive at the same conclusion. The important thing is that we understand each other. So, for example, Existentialism means that ‘existence precedes essence’. But some will say, ‘well, what on earth does that mean?’ So, then we need to offer a simpler and clearer explanation. Whilst others might say that existentialism means ‘freedom and responsibility’. But this could be interpreted as being quite right-wing; this would then have to be explained in more depth. The existentialist, Sartre, for example, was after all, very left-wing. And so these are the sorts of problems that we can come up against and why we need to be mindful of the people that we are conversing with and remember that we communicate in order to effectively understand each other. And coming full circle, Mill was brilliant at this.

Making something that involves a lot of hard work and/or heart ache appear afterwards to be easy, can apply to many areas of course, and not just to writing. It can apply to organising a successful music gig, for example, or to the beautiful decorating of a house. We do not always want to go into details about the mundane effort undertaken in order to arrive at the beautiful outcome; rather, sometimes we just want people to enjoy and celebrate the finished result. And on that note, I will end this section.



11. VIDEO OF MY PRESENTATION ON ‘GLOBALISATION AND INTERNATIONALISM’ AT LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY (PART OF THE CERTIFICATE IN LEARNING AND TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION) NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:
http://www.libr.org/isc/events/minitalk.html
As part of the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (CLTHE), that I studied for a couple of years ago at London South Bank University, we had to give a talk that was observed by half a dozen other people (both fellow student-teachers and teachers) and we received feedback on our performances. The presentations were also videoed. Now seems an appropriate time to inform subscribers about this video, and the fact that it has now been made available on the Information for Social Change website – see http://www.libr.org/isc/events/minitalk.html

In my talk, I drew on some of the material from my book, ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries’; and considered, in particular, the terms ‘Globalisation’ and ‘Internationalism’, in themselves. In addition, I delivered the presentation through the interactive lecture approach. This involved inviting participation from the audience as I was giving my talk.

Prior to this, I had been asked on a number of occasions by George Bell to give some guest lectures to masters students (on the MBA and International courses) on the topic of globalisation at South Bank. I related this to the term ‘Internationalism’, which was the term that George had been using, trying to obtain funding on this topic. The understanding was that, through giving these guest lectures (which were on a variety of topics and proved to be both demanding and time-consuming, albeit also enjoyable), that I would then be integrated into the masters programme, but this never came about (at least, so far, to date it has not come about)! The topics I spoke on included: ‘Globalisation’; ‘Leadership in the New Economy’; ‘MBA: the way forward – what next?’; ‘Knowledge Management and the Knowledge Revolution’; ‘Knowledge Transfer’ and ‘Knowledge Management across Cultures’. In regard to my lecture about possible ways forward for the MBA, for example, I suggested that it could prove to be highly beneficial if ‘hot topics’ such as globalisation, knowledge management and the knowledge revolution, IT and transferring knowledge across cultures were clearly incorporated into the MBA programme. The students found my lectures very interesting and seemed to be very pleased indeed excited, to be engaging with a published author. Also, many of them, like me, approached the topics from a left-wing, critical stance, which I found to be very heartening.




Many thanks to Jessica (Jia Liu) for providing information for item 6.


Best wishes

Ruth

30th July 2010




[1] The problem means that since the budget of the Canadian libraries was reduced, the personnel had to be shrunk again and again.

Ruth Rikowski's 40th News Update

Well, the weather in London recently has certainly been lovely – reminded us of when we went to Rhodes 2 years ago! I wonder how long it will last; still enjoy it while we can. Our youngest, Gregory Rikowski, has just celebrated his 21st Birthday. Goodness – so, now they are all ‘fully-fledged adults’, as they say. So, anyway, in the throws of mid-summer, here is the latest from me below.

1. ARCHIVING OF OUR ‘FLOW OF IDEAS’ WEBSITE (www.flowideas.co.uk) WITH THE BRITISH LIBRARY (www.webarchive.org.uk)
We received a lovely email ‘out of the blue’ from the British Library (BL), saying that they would like to archive our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website. As you can imagine, we were very delighted about this, as it means that hopefully, our website will be preserved over time, and will not be disappearing through changes in companies, technologies, decision-making and policies (which was what happened to our AOL blogs).

The British Library web archiving programme selects and archive sites to represent aspects of UK documentary heritage. These websites will then remain available to researchers in the future. It works closely with leading UK institutions to collect and permanently preserve the UK web. The BL archive can be seen at www.webarchive.org.uk.

As the British Library say this means that selected website owners have an historical record of their websites, and it aims “...to develop preservation mechanisms to keep your publication permanently accessible as hardware and software change over time.”

Various quality insurance checks are currently taking place on our website, but soon all-being-well our website (along with my blog) will be added to the archive and made available to the public through the British Library archive website. I will keep you informed of progress.

2. TONY WARD VISITING US
Tony Ward, one of the contributors to my forthcoming, edited book Perspectives on Digitisation, came and visited us a couple of weeks ago, which was lovely. It was the first time that Tony had been to the UK for many years! Tony was born here in the UK, then went to work as an academic in the USA (at the University of California, Berkeley); and then on to New Zealand (at the Auckland University). He has had a very interesting and eventful life, and it was good talking to him and finding out lots more about it all.

Tony’s background is in architecture, but he moved into the area of critical pedagogy some years ago, and of course, that is where we overlap and have some common interests.
At Auckland University Tony directed the Commuity Design Studio for 20 years, working with marginalised communities, on areas connected with social equity across cultural boundaries. Much of his work in New Zealand has been with the Maori community. Tony has recently completed a year, working as a Wiepking Distinguished Visiting Professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA.

Tony has a website (www.TonyWardEdu.com), which is a free educational resource with downloadable essays, articles and projects. He is also currently writing a book on The Ward Method of creative consensus-building and social transformation. In addition, he circulates a newsletter.

We informed Tony about some other academics/friends of ours that are involved with critical pedagogy in the UK, and we look forward to continued fruitful discussions and communication with Tony and others in the future, on these and other related important matters.

3. FIVE NEW ITEMS UP ON MY SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS BLOG
http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
There are 5 new items up on my Serendipitous Moments blog; two events and three book reviews. The events were: the Folk Festival at Leigh-on-Sea, and Janet Daniels Open Garden. The book reviews and reflections were on Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre and Past Secrets by Cathy Kelly.

Janet Daniels lives near to us, and her garden is truly amazing – never seen anything like it before. And the Folk Festival at Leigh-on-Sea was wonderful – singing and dancing all day. At the two events I took some photos and these are also on my blog. In regard to the books, Past Secrets was another best-seller, but Nausea and The Age of Reason saw me going back into classical-reading mode. The Age of Reason, a very important book, addresses the issue of trying to marry up Existentialism with Marxism (a difficult, if not impossible task), and Nausea addresses the issue of how important it is to have direction in life; to avoid going round in circles, and indeed, feel sickened by ourselves. I think it is wonderful that Sartre could see the value of writing both fiction and non-fiction in this way; presumably he must have decided that certain philosophical issues can be addressed better and more effectively through fiction than non-fiction.

4. TWO NEWS ITEMS FROM JESSICA (JIA LIU), ONE OF THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FORTHCOMING BOOK PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITISATION
Another contributor to my digitisation book, Dr Jia Liu (who likes to be known as ‘Jessica’) sent me 2 items for inclusion in my newsletter; one of the items is in regard to her professional work and the other is about Verena, her lovely little baby girl.

Jessica’s two news items are below.

“Online Presentation for the Zhongsan University
Recently I was invited to release an online presentation to the graduate students of the Department of Information Management, Zhongsan University, China. The topic was my research supported by the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation, the world famous institution aiming at promoting the international academic communications and cooperation between German and foreign scientists. The Foundation maintains a network of more than 24,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in over 130 countries worldwide - including 43 Nobel Prize winners and so far only one of them is majored in library. The presentation was given on the platform supported with Elluminate Live! (http://www.elluminate.com/), a virtual environment optimized for learning. This was actually the first time for me to use such networked learning suite and the experience was really fresh to me. Later my former colleague of the Peking University told me that the Peking University has already supplied such software to the instructors of the university and some of them have taken advantage of it for teaching. Doubtlessly the online education is becoming one of the main types of instruction all over the world.

Baby Meeting
Our family and two families of Su (my husband)’s colleagues had another meeting (in German, Babytreffen). The common thing of we three families is that each of us has a baby and all the babies (Alina, Mark and Verena) were born around September 2008. The director of the Physics Institute, Goettingen University, Professor Samwer, even took the birth of these three babies as the top news of the institute of 2008. It’s well known that nowadays few German families would like to give birth to a baby. That’s why the German population has declined for years. The first baby meeting happened not long before Christmas of 2008. I just brought my baby Verena from Toronto to Germany to settle down with her dad. During that meeting, all three babies were held by their mothers and fed twice with the breast milk. Occasionally one baby burst out of tears possibly because he or she just wanted to have some attention and soon another babies followed. This time the babies have been 21 or 22 months old and they had been busy in playing on the ground by themselves. It was interesting that Alina and Mark seemed to have no interest playing with other babies and they only needed their parents’ attention every now and then. Only Verena went to the other babies and tried to communicate with them but got no reply. My poor baby! Hopefully in the next meeting the babies could react well with each other. On the morning next to the latest meeting Kasten, Alina’s dad, put a photo of the three little ones on the poster wall in the Institute and proudly wrote some words about their growth there. Prof. Samwer might also, perhaps, smile if he could see the three lovely standing babies.”



And here is a picture of Jessica’s lovely little baby girl, Verena.



Some Biographical information about Jessica
Jessica has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing, China. From 2004 until 2006, she had been a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH Foundation), Germany. During that period, hosting in the Lower-saxony State and Goettingen University Library, she implemented a project on the subject of metadata and its applications in the digital library. Later, with two resumed fellowships from the AvH Foundation, she conducted two other projects on digital reference service in Germany. After that, as a Visiting Scholar, she visited the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, Canada. Her main research interests are metadata, digital library and digital reference services. Jessica is the author of Metadata and Its Applications in the Digital Library, Libraries Unlimited, USA, 2007 and Evaluation of the World-Wide Reference Service in the Libraries, Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2007.

5. JOHN PATEMAN AND JOHN VINCENT’S NEW BOOK ‘PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE’, TO BE PUBLISHED WITH ASHGATE, SEP 2010
John Pateman and John Vincent have a new book coming out in the autumn with Ashgate Publishing, entitled ‘Public Libraries and Social Justice’.
978-0-7546-7714-7 (hdbk); c. £40.00 It will also be available as an eBook
ISBN 978-0-7546-9432-8, see: www.ashgate.com

This is what it says in the information that is being circulated:

“The need for public libraries to tackle social exclusion and engage in social justice becomes ever more urgent as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, and the very survival of public libraries in the heart of the community is open to debate.

If public libraries are to develop and grow in the future and become relevant to the majority of their local communities, then they need to abandon outmoded concepts of ‘excellence’ and fully grasp the ‘equity’ agenda. This book examines the historical background to social exclusion and the strategic context in terms of government and professional policy. The authors propose a compelling manifesto for change and outline practical ways in which public libraries can be
transformed into needs-based services.”

The book includes an historical view of social exclusion, how to tackle social exclusion, developing a needs-based library service and where to go next.

Alistair Black, Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA has this to say about the book:

“Created a century and a half ago by the middle classes partly for their own use, the public library has nonetheless from the start professed itself to be the servant of the social whole. However, although over successive generations it has catered
well for a traditional auto-didactic working-class clientele, the public library has been less successful in addressing the needs of those at the margins of both society and social opinion. In light of this historical legacy as well as the ongoing diversification of society, Pateman and Vincent’s call to prioritise the social-justice purpose of the public library is not only appropriate but also timely’.”

I wish John Pateman and John Vincent all the very best with their forthcoming book.


6. MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES (MERD) XIII, 24th JULY 2010, ‘LATIN AMERICA AND EDUCATION’
MERD XIII on the theme of ‘Latin America and Education’ will take place on July 24th 2010, from 10.30 – 4.30, at the Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, WC1, in the Drama Studio.

The following papers have been confirmed:

‘Education for the Creation of a New Venezuela’
Dr Francisco Dominguez (Head of the Centre for Brazilian and Latin American Studies, and secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign)

‘The Bolivarian Revolution, Twenty-first Century Socialism and Counter-hegemonic Education in Venezuela’
Prof. Mike Cole (Centre for Education for Social Justice, Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln)

‘Nicaragua’s “Participative Education Revolution”: Development and the ALBA Education Space’
Dr Thomas Muhr, (Centre for Globalisation, Education and Societies, University of Bristol)

The seminar is free but places are limited. To reserve a place email: amaisuria@ioe.ac.uk

Convenors: Tony Green and Alpesh Maisuria

7. GLENN RIKOWSKI IS ON THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ILLICH STUDIES
http://ivan-illich.org/journal/index.php/IJIS/index
Glenn Rikowski is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Illich Studies.
The journal is an open access interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal “dedicated to engaging the thought and writing of Ivan Illich and his circle.” It welcomes contributions that “intersects with the wide range of Illich’s ideas, or that represent a version of the social critique for which he became famous on matters such as modern developmentalism, industrialized ‘progress’, institutional bureacratization, the heuristic role played by historical consciousness, the moral life, and/or the privatization/publicization of the lay commons.”

Illich’s book on ‘Deschooling’, in particular
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deschooling-Society-Open-Forum-Illich/dp/0714508799/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278232873&sr=8-1)
had a powerful effect on me when I read it as an undergraduate. I remember thinking that it was a bit extreme, but never-the-less that it made many good points.

8. ANNIVERSARY OF MICHAEL JACKSON’S DEATH
Of course, the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death has now been and gone. I tried not to think about it too much; I got just so upset last year! I have noticed though, that several people recently have been looking at my Michael Jackson article, which is on our website – http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=362&slink=yes
Let’s just hope that it will make a few people think!

Some while ago, ‘Jackopedia’ (http://www.jackopedia.com/wiki/Main_Page) said that I had written a ‘great Michael Jackson article’. So, that was nice. ‘Jackopedia’ (a wikki) is the only online encyclopedia and community dedicated to Michael Jackson.

I also recently watched the Michael Jackson film ‘This Is It’ on DVD, which of course, consists of clippings from the rehearsals for his planned 50 ‘This Is It’ London concerts. I was quite loathe to do this for some while, as I thought it was somehow yet another way of exploiting him. Instead, society should have been looking further into how he died (which was basically the result of so many wanting a ‘piece of him’). But no – instead once again, money was made out of him. The cruelness of capitalism in its raw extremities (also without a truly loving and caring family) knows no bounds, it seems.

Anyway, in the end, I decided to watch ‘This Is It’; me not watching it wasn’t going to change anything. It was amazing; sensational; one could never have seen from that, that he was about to die. The concerts would certainly have been spectacular. I guess Michael Jackson was probably just too full of drugs which had become necessary to keep him going throughout it all, did not have enough sleep and did not eat enough. He should never have had to endure such a rigorous regime.

Still, what it said on the blurb on the back of the DVD was nice:

“In raw and candid detail, MICHAEL JACKSON’S THIS IS IT captures the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius and great artist at work as he creates and perfects his planned final London shows.”



9. J. S. MILL: THE UTILITARIAN PHILOSOPHER AND ANOTHER CHILD PRODIGY
What happened to Michael Jackson got me thinking a bit more about child prodigies. Well, that and talking specifically to my eldest son Alexander, about the philosopher J. S. Mill. Mill is a philosopher that I have liked and admired, since my undergraduate days. I particularly really enjoyed reading his book, Utilitarianism. As well as conveying many important and worthwhile messages, the book also in itself gave me a good and happy feeling; which was what his utilitarian philosophy was about anyway – ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’. It was also very well-written of course. So, strange that it had this immediate effect on me, on such a personal basis and at such a young age. I felt that whilst Marxism was so right on such a deep level; his work was very complex and difficult, and also that the world that needed to be created leading on from his work could not come about over night. In contrast, Mill’s work gave one a certain feeling of happiness and contentment in a more immediate and direct way. On reflection, I now think that perhaps I took Mill’s work a bit too much for granted for this reason; it seemed very simple and straightforward. Someone who does something well can make it look easy, and many others have just no idea about the amount of work and effort that has gone into producing that simple, wonderful and very effective result. I am sure that some of you must have examples of this on a personal basis.

Anyway, it was only more recently that I found out a little more about J. S. Mill, the man. I found out, for example, that his wife Harriet Taylor, wrote some of his material with him; even some of it for him. From then on I understood a little more about his work, and I thought that this probably partly explained why some of his writing had that slightly softer approach. Mill was a feminist before people hardly knew what feminism was. And it has to be remembered that quite a few philosophers in the past held dreadful views about women, seeming to think that they were almost incapable of thinking for themselves; take the philosophers Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, for example. So, Mill was brave, standing out from the crowd, in this way.

Then, more recently still, I found out some more about Mill’s rigorous upbringing; and how like Michael Jackson and myself, he was not able to have a proper childhood. But at least, Michael Jackson and J.S.Mill’s parents pushed them because they wanted them to be big in their own fields; whereas mine was really more clearly a case of child exploitation. Having said that, I was brought up to believe that I was bright; indeed, that was necessary, in order that I could and would look after my confused mother, apart from anything else. Once I became an adult I sought to use that to my advantage, and indeed, have sought in various ways to do that ever since then.

Anyway, I think the seeming simplicity of Mill’s work on one level is probably also a result of his upbringing and in this way, I also think that his work can be under-estimated. Because he could explain his views and ideas so clearly they seemed simple and easy; but that is an illusion. It must have taken him a long time to work it all out; to clear his mind. Indeed, he had a mental breakdown when he was just 20 years old (after having been pushed so hard from such a young age), and he then had to rethink things somewhat. So, in all probability being pushed from so young an age forced him to have to think simply and clearly to avoid him having any more such breakdowns. This is in contrast to a book such as ‘Nausea’, which I read recently (see item 3 above). Jean-Paul Sartre wrote this book before he had properly ‘sorted his own mind/head out’, I think. Not that one can ever completely sort this out, but hopefully, you get my drift. So, although ‘Nausea’ does have some important messages to convey, and for this reason it is a valuable book, it would have been a better book if Sartre had taken his time over it more, I think, and sought to engage the reader more effectively and just basically made it a more enjoyable read.

Strangely enough, I am also battling myself with some similar issues at the current time. Whereas someone without such complex backgrounds can, in all probability on one level, more easily write simple and engaging fiction plots (but not saying or indeed, attempting to say, anything very deep and profound). Take a pleasant book that I am reading by Katie Fforde at the moment, for example. This is what it says about the author on the cover of the book: “Katie Fforde lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and some of her three children. Her hobbies are ironing and housework but, unfortunately, she has almost no time for them as she feels it is her duty to keep a close eye on the afternoon chat show.” I say no more.

In regard to Mill’s childhood, he was educated by his father, with the advice and assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place. He learnt Greek at 3 years old, Latin at 12 years old, and by 16 years of age he was a competent logician and a good economist. His father and Bentham were both utilitarians and wanted J.S. Mill to continue and further the work. But after his mental breakdown, J.S. Mill had to rethink things somewhat, and he added some humanism and idealism to the basic utilitarian philosophy.

J.S. Mill, like Michael Jackson aimed to live life at the high level, with high pleasures, I think; and that is also what I am about. This way of thinking and behaving is perhaps partly a result of not having a proper childhood, and being denied some simple, childlike pleasures.

10. NEIL WHITEHEAD’S BOOK, WHISKY BREATH CONFESSIONAL, BLURB CREATIVE PUBLISHING SERVICE, 2010, ARRIVED IN THE POST http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1356191
We have now received in the post our own copy of my second cousin, Neil Whitehead’s book, Whisky Breath Confessional. The photographs are very colourful, powerful, reflective, convey certain moods and are all on fine quality paper. They include photographs of the sea, trees, the sun, buildings, hedges, roads and of Neil himself. The self-published book was compiled using the Blurb software (Blurb creative publishing service, for self-publishing books) which seems to be quite something. This is a trend that we might well see increasing in the future. I wish Neil all the very best with his book, and hope that he sells lots of copies.



11. PHOTOS OF ‘COLD HANDS AND QUARTER MOON’ BAND
And in the final item, here are some photos of Victor Rikowski’s band, ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’ - see
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=527173812

Best wishes

Ruth

N.B. Many thanks to Jia Liu (Jessica) for providing information for item 4

6th July 2010

Ruth Rikowski's 39th News Update

My newsletters seem to be settling down to around a monthly distribution, but there has been some delay in sending out this 39th one. This is because I have been working on the final stages of the manuscript for the digitisation book that I am currently editing. I am very pleased to say that this is now with the publisher (Sense Publishers) and the book should be published around autumn/winter 2010. This newsletter includes some further information about this, along with a number of other news items, including two new pieces that are now up on our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website; me meeting up with Al Kagan from the USA; some of my thoughts and reflections leading on from the results of the UK General Election and some book and book review matters. This and much else besides is included in this newsletter.


1. MANUSCRIPT FOR ‘PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITISATION’ EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI – NOW WITH SENSE PUBLISHERS
I am delighted to say that the manuscript for the book that I am currently editing entitled Perspectives on Digitisation is now with Sense Publishers. As readers know, Glenn and I have been through a very difficult period over the last 18 months or so, with the death of my father-in-law and the related emotional and practical issues that have arisen from it all. All this has caused quite serious delays with this book, but finally now, we are getting there. Now, we are very much looking forward to seeing it published of course, and hopefully, we can have another book launch for it. We certainly feel that, by then, it will probably be time to party again!

The book had to prepared and formatted according to Sense Publishers instructions, and for camera-ready copy, which was also what really took up a lot of the time. This means, of course, that a lot of the preparation in the final stages has to be done by the author and editor, rather than by the publisher. On the positive side, though, this also means that the final stages should go comparatively quickly and smoothly. Altogether, there are 22 contributors in the book along with a Foreword by Simon Tanner, Director, King’s Digital Consultancy Services, King’s College, London. The book is divided up into 6 parts: ‘Background and Overview to Digitisation and Digital Libraries’, ‘Digitisation and Higher Education’, ‘Digitisation and Inequalities’, ‘Digital Libraries, Reference Services and Citation Indexing’ and ‘Futuristic Developments of Digitisation’. Further information about the book will follow in future newsletters.




2. ‘DIGITAL LIBRARIES’ ISSUE EDITED BY RUTH RIKOWSKI AND ISAAC HUNTER DUNLAP IN POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION IS NOW FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE
The issue on ‘Digital Libraries’ edited by Ruth Rikowski and Isaac Hunter Dunlap in the international refereed ejournal, Policy Futures in Education, 2008, Vol. 6, No. 1, is now freely available online. See:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp



3. ‘LEARNED HELPFULNESS’ BY STEVEN OSMOND IS NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR ‘FLOW OF IDEAS’ WEBSITE - see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=contributions&sub=Learned Helpfulness by Steve Osmond
OR
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=372&slink=yes
(for print-friendly version)

Another article by Steven Osmond, entitled ‘Learned Helpfulness’ is now available in the Contributions section of our website. This article should ideally be read in conjunction with Steve Osmond’s other article in this section, which is entitled ‘A Staff Development Model for Cost Effective Mental Health Provision’. In ‘Learned Helpfulness’, Osmond “Reflects on the educational experiences of emotionally and behaviourally disturbed young people and the impact of the human givens in the secure care system.”



4. ‘CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT THROUGH LIBRARY AUTOMATION SYSTEMS: SOME THOUGHTS’ BY INDRANI BHATTACHARYYA IS NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR ‘FLOW OF IDEAS’ WEBSITE - see
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=contributions&sub=Customer Relationship Managment through Library Automation Systems by Indrani Bhattacharyya



OR

http://www.flowideas.co.uk/print.php?page=373&slink=yes
(for print friendly version)

An article by Indrani Bhattacharyya is now also available in the Contributions section of our website. As Indrani says, her article: “...aims to relate functions of a library automation system in the context of a large library in Kolkata with CRM concepts and practices.” She argues that the application of CRM concepts can help to lead to an overall increase in the usage of library services. Indrani Bhattacharyya was one of the contributors to the book ‘Library Management: trends and opportunities’, edited by Roshan L. Raina, Dinesh K. Gupta and Ramesh C. Gaur, (Excel Books: India, 2005). I was also one of the contributors, and wrote a chapter entitled ‘Change Management Processes’, which assessed the change management procedures for the initial implementation stages of the Unicorn library automated system at the international law company, Clifford Chance. I was the Project Manager there, at the time (1999-2000) and managed the initial implementation of Unicorn. The chapters by Indrani and I appear in a section entitled ‘Change Management’ in the book.



5. FOUR NEW ITEMS UP ON MY ‘SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS’ BLOG
http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.com/
There are four new items up on my ‘Serendipitous Moments’ blog – again, they are all book reviews of novels that I have been reading recently. These are ‘Laceys of Liverpool’ by Maureen Lee; ‘Taming the Beast’ by Emily Maguire; ‘The September Girls’ by Maureen Lee and ‘Second Chance’ by Janet Green. ‘Second Chance’, by strange coincidence, is also the name of a choir that I belonged to for a while. In addition the novel is set around school friends reuniting after some 20 or so years, and I had a reunion myself with my school friends a year or so ago. So, these factors, amongst others, drew me to pick up the book and try reading it. And it proved to be an enjoyable read. Also, interestingly, the author Janet Green, was a former journalist, who decided to write an account of a real woman being single in the city, and this then became her first novel, Straight Talking. Indeed, as Douglas Kennedy remarked, how useful is that messy thing called ‘Life’ for the writing of good novels! And this of course, helps to bring fact and fiction together, and emphasises the point that I have been feeling very keenly lately, that some things simply cannot be expressed adequately in non-fiction and that this is where fiction comes very much into its own, and indeed, where it becomes so crucially important. But watch this space for more on that one!



6. MEETING UP WITH AL KAGAN FROM THE STATES
Al Kagan, African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration Africana Collections and Services at the University of Illinois Library came over from the USA to meet up and talk to various progressive librarians in the UK and Sweden. Leading on from this, he plans to write a book with MacFarlane about progressive librarians and progressive library groups. Al emailed me about all this, saying that he would like to interview me. We met up at London South Bank University on 1st May 2010 and he asked me some set questions, which he tape-recorded. We also had a nice informal conversation together. Al also interviewed various other members of the Information for Social Change editorial board. I wish Al Kagan every success with his project.



7. UK GENERAL ELECTION MATTERS: SOME THOUGHTS OF MINE
Well, I wonder how Britain will fare with this new coalition government! Personally, I feel pleased, at least, that the voters got the politicians into a bit of a flap. I am also a little hopeful that, perhaps, Labour will return to a few of its roots (but won’t get carried away with it all mind – had too many disappointments!). My hope (rather thin perhaps) is founded on the hope that one of the Miliband brothers will lead the Labour Party and that from that, they take on board some of the wise words and thinking of their father, Ralph Miliband. The work of Ralph Milliband, the Marxist intellectual, political theorist and sociologist had a profound effect on me, and indeed, really helped to deepen and alter my ways of thinking in various ways, with its critique of capitalism. It was Ralph Miliband’s book ‘The State in Capitalist Society’ (Quartet Books, 1973) (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Capitalist-Society-Analysis-Western/dp/0704330822/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274729902&sr=8-2) that really did it for me. This book was almost like the Bible on my Sociology degree at the University of East Anglia, 1974-1977 (well, it was a Social Studies degree, but I majored in Sociology). Both Glenn and I thought it was a truly fantastic book. Reading that book along with some very other worthwhile and important text at the time, such as the writing of C. Wright Mills, Stephen Luke’s little book on ‘Power’ and Richard Hyman’s book, ‘Strikes’ really helped to deepen and change my whole perspective on how I saw the world. And all that gave me an even more critical radical left edge.

My thinking now is that, although both David and Ed Miliband seem rather to have embraced the Blairite/New Labour message, the current situation (with the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition) might well led them to want and need to return to some Old Labour Party principles. That within this framework and ways of thinking both of the Milibands might well think further about and return to the profound words of their father, and embrace some of it more in their positions in the Labour Party, and then try to influence the Labour Party accordingly. It is interesting here, perhaps, to bear in mind the fact that Ralph Miliband himself joined the Labour Party in 1951 and sought to influence it. Anyway, all that is my hope.

Meanwhile, a couple of people that we know personally, stood in the general election, and I thought that I would like to mention them here briefly. They are Anneliese Dodds, Dave Hill and Anne Gray.

Anneliese Dodds stood in Reading East, against the Conservative Rob Wilson, a former shadow minister for higher education. Rob Wilson retained his seat of course (with 21,169 votes), the Liberal Democrats came second (with 13, 664 votes) and Anneliese came third, with 12, 729 votes. I think this is a good result for Anneliese, and I wish her every success in her future political career. There was also a report by Melanie Newman about Anneliese Dodds in the Times Higher Education, 15th-21st April 2010, p. 10, talking about Anneliese standing as a Labour candidate for Reading East.

I first got to know Anneliese Dodds when she was a student and involved in a student political group called ‘People and Planet’. At the time, I was editing a special issue on ‘Globalisation and Information’ for the ejournal Information for Social Change. I was looking for people to write for it; I approached Anneliese and she agreed to write a piece. Her article was entitled ‘GATS, Higher Education and Public Libraries’ and was published in ISC, issue 14, winter 2001/02 - see http://www.libr.org/isc/articles/14-dodds.html. At a later date, in December 2005, both Anneliese and I were invited to speak about globalisation issues at a mini-conference that was held at Swansea University. The mini-conference was organised through the Career Development Group, Wales (of CILIP – the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals). For more information about this, see http://www.libr.org/isc/events/swansea.html.

Anneliese Dodds is currently based at the Institute for the Study of Public Policy, King’s College, London and her research interests include regulation and risk in health and education. She has been involved in politics since she was 18 years old. As a student as well as being involved in ‘People and Planet’ she was involved in a campaign to wider access to university and Melanie Newman said that Anneliese was ‘appalled’ by the ‘closed nature’ of institutions such as Oxford.

Meanwhile, our friend Anne Gray stood in Tottenham, London for the Green Party. She secured 980 votes, but unfortunately found herself in a position where she was standing against a like-minded person – Jenny Sutton of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (so that split the vote of course). Jenny obtained 1057 votes and Anne obtained 980 votes. Still, all in all, a very respectable result, I think. Once again, I wish Anne every success in the future in her work in the Green Party.

Whilst Dave Hill stood in Brighton Kempton for the ‘Trade Union and Socialist Coalition’, but unfortunately only obtained 194 votes. He was also competing against a Green candidate, Ben Duncan, who obtained 2,330 votes. The Conservative won the seat with Simon Kirby securing 16,217 votes; Simon Burges of the Labour Party came second with 14,889 votes and Juliet Williams, the Liberal Democrat came third with 7,691 votes.

Finally, personally, I was delighted to see Caroline Lucas of the Green Party become the first Green MP - the MP for Brighton Pavilion. I certainly wish her every success.



8. CUTS IN PHILOSOPHY?
Philosophy at university seems to be getting quite a lot of attention lately in various ways.
King’s College, London were all set to make cuts in Philosophy (including the redundancy of 3 Professors) as part of the cuts in the Arts and Humanities programme there. Suddenly, now they have decided that there will be no cuts in the School of Arts and Humanities at all at King’s, and that all the necessary savings can now be made without job losses (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/ - for more details). Indeed, in the Philosophy Department, instead of redundancies, they are going to create two new posts! Strange times indeed! I can’t help thinking that the newly formed Conservative/Liberal Democrat government might have had something to do with this change in thinking and decision-making.

Meanwhile, though, as far as I know the proposed cuts in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London and Middlesex University are still going full-steam ahead.

First of all, let us then look at the Birkbeck College, University of London situation. There is a proposal to reduce the range of courses offered by the Certificate in Philosophy from September 2010. Following a review by the university, the Department of Philosophy has decided that the courses are no longer financially viable. It intends to cut the number of courses down from more than 30 currently on offer to just 8; these are Epistemology, Metaphysics, Politics, Ethics, Logic 1&2 and History of Western Philosophy 1&2. Certificate students would then not have their own separate sessions, but would have to attend the undergraduate lectures on the same subjects. This would be followed by a ‘back up’ seminar to discuss the issues raised in the lecture.

Currently the programme is very approachable to everyone; no matter what their background. This is something that our son, Alexander Rikowski, very much benefited from. He went to Birkbeck with no A’ Levels. He did not like the formal, test and assessment-based school system; instead, he wanted the opportunity to be able to engage in independent, critical thinking. Studying Philosophy at Birkbeck provided the perfect solution. After successfully obtaining a Diploma in Philosophy at Birkbeck, he then went on to study for a degree in Philosophy at King’s College, London. He is now in his final year and it has been a wonderful, rich, albeit demanding, experience for him.

The Sessional Lecturers at Birkbeck College, University of London informed Alexander and other Birkbeck students that they intend to protest against these cuts and also to suggest ways to continue with something like the current programme but in a more financially viable form. They think that the costs of the courses could be considerably reduced if they were ‘non-accredited’, without leading to CATS points and the accompanying costs of assessment. Unfortunately, all Birkbeck courses now are starting to move to a ‘CATS-based agenda’.

If they cannot continue to run these non-accredited courses at Birkbeck then the Sessional Lecturers are considering running them independently.

The online petition in regard to this (which I have just signed) can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/bcpcp/petition.html

The situation at Middlesex University is even more dramatic, with a proposal to close the whole of the Philosophy department – heavens! The following information is being circulated by Jeremy Gilbert of Radical Philosophy. At Middlesex:

“... Philosophy is the highest research-rated subject at Middlesex University, with 65% of its research activity judged 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' in the UK government's recent Research Assessment Exercise. It is now widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world. Its MA programmes in Philosophy have grown in recent years to become the largest in the UK, with 42 new students admitted in September 2009. Middlesex offers one of only a handful of programmes left in the UK that provides both research-driven and inclusive post-graduate teaching aimed at a wide range of students, specialist and non-specialist. It is also one of relatively few such programmes that remains financially viable, currently contributing close to half of its total income to the University's central administration.Needless to say, Radical Philosophy very much regret this decision to terminate Philosophy at Middlesex, and its likely consequences for the teaching of philosophy in the UK. This is a shameful decision which essentially means the end of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, a hub for internationally renowned scholarship (http://www.web. mdx.ac.uk/ crmep/; staff include Eric Alliez, Peter Hallward, Mark Kelly, Christian Kerslake, Peter Osborne and Stella Sandford). This act of wilful self-harm by the University must be resisted.

Please join the facebook group and spread the word:
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=11910256 1449990

Campaign email: savemdxphil@ gmail.com

A video of interviews with those protesting to save Middlesex University Philosophy Department from closure:

http://vimeo.com/11523774

More information about the protest & campaign here:

http://savemdxphil.com/”



What is also tragic about all this is that Continental/European Philosophy is only being taught at a few universities in the UK, such as at Warwick University and at Essex University.



Philosophy is an important subject, I think; if approached correctly, it can aid with clarity of thought, as well as critical and independent thinking. Let us hope that some positive ways forward can be found in regard to all of this.



9. CULTURAL LOGIC: AN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF MARXIST THEORY AND PRACTICE: NEW DOUBLE ISSUE NOW OUT
The latest issue (a double one) of ‘Cultural Logic’: an electronic journal of Marxist theory and practice, is now out and is available at: http://clogic.eserver.org/

Issue 2008: http://clogic.eserver.org/2008/2008.html

Issue 2009: http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/2009.html

***********************

Cultural Logic
ISSUE 2008


http://clogic.eserver.org/2008/2008.html





Articles





Stephen C. Ferguson II: "Contractarianism as Method: Rawls contra Mills"Melissa Hull Geil: "Shakespeare and the Drama of Capital"



Nigel M. Greaves: "Intellectuals and the Historical Construction of Knowledge and Identity: A Reappraisal of Gramsci’s Ideas on Leadership"





Sven-Eric Holmström: "New Evidence Concerning the 'Hotel Bristol' Question in the First Moscow Trial of 1936"





Nicola Masciandaro: "Consciousness, Individuality, Mortality: Basic Thoughts about Work and the Animal/Human Boundary"





John H. McClendon III: "The African American Philosopher: The Missing Chapter in McCumber on McCarthyism"





J. C. Myers: "Traces of Utopia: Socialist Values and Soviet Urban Planning"





Garry Potter: "Humanism and Terror: Merleau-Ponty’s Marxism"





J. Jesse Ramirez: "Rage Against the Dying of the Light: Herbert Marcuse and the Politics of Death"





Jacek Tittenbrun: "Between Subjectivism and Individualism: A Critical Appraisal of the Austrian Case for Private Ownership"





Reviews




Lukas MacKenzie: Mark S. Blumberg, Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior, and Michael Tomasello, Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition




Poetry





Bruno Gulli: "Hölderlin's Window"





Howard Pflanzer: "The Endless War"

***********************

Cultural Logic Issue 2009





http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/2009.html





Articles





Jeffrey Cabusao: "The Social Responsibility of Filipino Intellectuals in the Age of Globalization and Empire: An Interview with E. San Juan, Jr. and Delia D. Aguilar"





Alzo David-West: "The Literary Ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il: An Introduction to North Korean Meta-Authorial Perspectives"





Barbara Foley: "Rhetoric and Silence in Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father"





Grover Furr: "Evidence of Leon Trotsky's Collaboration with Germany and Japan"





Bülent Gökay and Darrell Whitman: "Mapping the Faultlines: A Historical Perspective on the 2008-2009 World Economic Crisis"





Dave Hill: "Culturalist and Materialist Explanations of Class and “Race”: Critical Race Theory, Equivalence/Parallelist Theory, and Marxist Theory"





Michele Frucht Levy: "'For We Are Neither One Thing Nor The Other': Passing for Croat in Vedrana Rudan’s Night"





Gregory Meyerson: "Post-Marxism as Compromise Formation" (Foreword by E. San Juan, Jr.)





Michael Joseph Roberto: "Crisis, Revolution, and the Meaning of Progress: The Poverty of Philosophy and its Contemporary Relevance"





Spyros Sakellaropoulos and Panagiotis Sotiris: "Peter Gowan’s Theorization of the Forms and Contradictions of US Supremacy: A Critical Assessment"





E. San Juan , Jr.: "An African American Soldier in the Philippine Revolution: An Homage to David Fagen"





Daniel F. Vukovich: "Uncivil Society, or, Orientalism and Tiananmen, 1989"





Reviews





Paul M. Heideman: Michael E. Brown, The Historiography of CommunismDavid Schwartzman: Eileen Christ and H. Bruce Rinker, eds., Gaia in Turmoil: Climate Change, Biodepletion and Earth Ethics in an Age of Crisis





Poetry





Christopher Barnes: Selected Poems



10. ‘POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION’, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 and Vol. 8, Iss. 2, 2010 ARE NOW OUT - see http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/8/issue8_1.asp
(Vol. 8, Iss. 1)
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/8/issue8_2.asp
(Vol. 8, Iss. 2)
The latest two issues of the international refereed ejournal, Policy Futures in Education, which Glenn and I are on the Editorial Board of, are now out. Vol. 8, Iss. 1 includes an article by an academic colleague of mine, John Opute, at London South Bank University. John approached me a while ago, asking me if I could help him to get his first article published. The article, entitled Managing Reward in Developing Economies: the challenge for multinational corporations, forms a small part of his PhD. I read the piece through for him, thought it was something that was worthy of publication and sent it off to Professor Michael Peters. So, now it is good to see that it is published. I look forward to working further with John Opute in terms of both publications and teaching in the future.



11. IRENE SENDLER: ‘THE PRIZE DOESN’T ALWAYS GO TO THE MOST DESERVING...’
My cousin, Helen Whitehead kindly sent me this information about Irene Sendler. I thought it was important stuff, so decided to circulate it in my newsletter. Please forward to others as and when you can.

”There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' .... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the! war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.”




12. DINESH K. GUPTA’S BLOG: ‘MARKETING MANTRA’
www.marketing-mantra-for-librarians.blogspot.com
Dinesh K. Gupta, one of my ex-book reviewers for Managing Information and one of the editors of the book ‘Library Management Trends: trends and opportunities’ (referred to in item 4 of this newsletter) informed me recently about his blog, ‘Marketing Mantra’ and sent me some useful and interesting information about it, which I said I would be happy to circulate on my newsletter. This information was originally published in a journal from the University of Barcelona, entitled ‘Bid’. The piece that was published is reproduced below, with kind permission from ‘Bid’.



“Marketing-Mantra-for-Librarians"



Dinesh K. Gupta
Associate Professor of Library & Inf. Sc.
V M Open University, Kota, India



dineshkg.in@gmail.com



It was a pleasant surprise for me to receive a communication from Angels Massisimo of the University of Barcelona requesting me to write about my blog ‘Marketing-mantra-for-librarians’ for the Faculty's e-journal "BiD" (http://www.ub.es/bid). In her email, she wanted, “…..just an introduction to the blog itself and its goals, etc. and a vision of its power in making librarians aware of the crucial role of marketing in the modern librarianship”...

In all modesty, I shall attempt to do that here.

Marketing of library and information services has been my area of work for the last decade or so and I have been authoring research and review papers on a regular basis in journals and conference proceedings, apart from three edited books (including IFLA book ‘Marketing Library and Information Services: International Perspectives)(1). However, these being the traditional scholarly media, they were no suitable avenues to dash off those occasional ideas, random thoughts, comment on issues or even aggregate works that I thought would be of interest to librarians involved in marketing. Further, having been following a few blogs myself, I found that there were no blogs from this part of the world on marketing for librarians. Thus, in September 2008, I began my saga with my blog


www.marketing-mantra-for-librarians.blogspot.com.



Blogging was slow in the first few months as I managed just about one post in the first year, later tried to post at least a post per month. Even for the most avid blogger, many times, the sheer lack of time to text thoughts can make the blog go blank. Besides, keeping in view that the aim of the blog is to act as a focal point for scattered information on marketing for librarians, I began to incorporate posts from other blogs and websites and also syndicate videos from other sites, most often, Youtube. Through RSS feeds, I regularly scan the contents of about 50 blogs and websites that occasionally have content on marketing for librarians and re-post relevant content on my blog giving the appropriate out links to the original.

A list of ten other blogs that I think is a must-read for librarians interested in marketing is also given on the home page of my blog. Likewise, details of relevant new books, articles, bibliographies, etc. are also given. Having got into a blogging rhythm, the frequency of posts increased and currently, I post at least once a week.

The blog posts include from simple themes of ‘what is marketing’ to the newest theme ‘marketing 2.0’ various activities, conferences, taking place on the marketing area is taken care.

The blog has had its share of, what I consider high points. The first was when, using my rudimentary digital videography skills, I recorded an exclusive interview with the then IFLA President, Claudia Lux during her visit to India and made it available on my blog through YouTube. A few more such videos are available through the blog. These are about IFLA International Marketing Award, Award distribution ceremony, and video clips of conference photos.

The IFLA Management & Marketing Section in collaboration with Emerald Group Publishing Limited offers the IFLA International Marketing Award (www.ifla.org/en/management-marketing/marketing-award) to recognize libraries in the global community that develop and implement effective marketing programs, Presently I serve as Chair of the Jury of the Award. Award Applications for the year 2011 will be announced in July on the IFLANET. The winner receives airfare, lodging and registration for participation in the next IFLA conference and a cash award of USD 1000. Concorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona (CBB), Spain won the Award in 2003 for its project ‘Literary Pathways’.

Of late, I have been attempting to have worldwide experts on library marketing to write for the blog. The first one by Christie Koontz was posted and later two more posts from colleagues from India and USA who are runner ups for the IFLA International Marketing Award-2010.

These features of the blog have not gone un-noticed. The blog has been recommended as a part of readings in marketing classes at the Florida State University (USA) and Tallinn University(Estonia). It has so far been accessed from 63 countries, Spain among them. Evidently, the blog has been useful to professionals from around the globe for connecting, sharing and facilitating communication on the subject of library marketing.

As we are aware, mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are capable of “creating transformation”. My pursuit is to establish continuous dialog among library marketing practitioners and researchers from around the globe so that the libraries are transformed to more marketing-centred libraries. I hope, the blog Marketing-mantra-for-librarians, is of some help for those seeking the transformation.

1. Gupta, Dinesh K. et al, Marketing library and information services: International perspectives(Edited on behalf of IFLA), Munich: K. G. Saur




13. GRAHAM COULT AND ‘MANAGING INFORMATION’
Those of you that follow my newsletters fairly closely, will know something (at least) of my relationship with the monthly Aslib magazine Managing Information and with its editor Graham Coult. In this item, for historical reasons and for clarity, I would now like to expand on this somewhat. Getting my first article published (10 years ago now – wow!) was a very exciting experience for me. But once I had decided that I was really going to make it happen, then I sure as hell was going to make it happen! And of course I did. I am like that in general about things; once I really decide, then that’s it! Anyway, I thought clearly about just how to get something published, and made absolutely certain that I wrote an article that could and would be published. And indeed, as I say, that is exactly what I did!

To cut a long story short Graham Coult initially made contact with me, in regard to writing an article, having been given a tip-off from Paul Pedley, Head of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, who I had been having some phone conversations with about implementing I.T. systems, writing and other related matters. From there, possible topics were discussed with Graham Coult and the theme of writing about the relationship between library/information departments and computer/IT departments was decided upon and I wrote the article in a short space of time. It was entitled ‘The Essential Bridge: a new breed of professional’ and it was published immediately in the very next issue (April 2000, Vol. 7, Iss. 3). All great stuff!

Then, however, I quickly became disillusioned. My managers did not see things the way I did; they did not congratulate me as they should have done; neither did they take the important messages seriously enough that I was endeavouring to convey. The problems that I was trying to tackle were, indeed, very real and serious. These included problems and issues around communication, thought and expression; status and pay and recruitment procedures. In regard to the communication problem, I said for example that:

“Computer experts and information professionals think and express themselves very differently. The former tend to think in terms of numbers and logic (and are far more likely to have mathematical minds) and the latter in terms of language. How many times have we heard information and library professionals complain about the lack of easily readable and understandable documentation for their computer systems, or user-friendly front-ends? We need to find a means of enabling these two types of experts to communicate effectively and understand each other, as past experience shows there can be strong benefits.” (p. 40)

My thoughts on these communication issues very much developed leading on from the MSc in Information Science (Computerised Systems) that I studied for at University College London (1990-1994). Also, from my subsequent work in the I.T. field, implementing library computer systems where I witnessed firsthand, some of the difficulties that people had in understanding each other. I think that a greater awareness is needed in regard to all this; then, perhaps, some more effective ways to overcome this quite serious communication problem can be found.

In essence, I argued that a ‘new breed of professional’ was needed that could tackle these complex I.T. issues effectively within the information profession. Also, that there was a need for information professionals to be much more pro-active in this regard. I concluded by saying that:

“We need to take control of events and initiate rather than letting things happen to us. What do we need to do to change? Then, let’s go for it! The computer world world is changing rapidly – it won’t wait for us. It is up to us to do the moving. Then, perhaps, we can start to shape the future ourselves. Information professionals could be responsible for the design of their own software products and start to dictate the pace and direction of change in the future – i.e. be proactive. Learning to think differently is more important than learning a particular product or skill.” (p. 45)

Indeed, I am very much ‘for’ people being more proactive in general.

I thought that writing about all this in a published piece might help to solve the problems, that people would listen and pay more attention, but alas ‘no’. So, I quickly became disillusioned; I left my work, working as a ‘Project Manager’ for the international law company, Clifford Chance, where I took them through the initial implementation stage of the Unicorn library computer management system. (See also item 4 in this newsletter for further information in regard to this – in addition, if anyone would like a copy of either my chapter in the book on the topic and/or the article ‘The Essential Bridge’ then do let me know, and I will send it to you).

So, anyway, I decided to ‘go for it’ with the writing and publishing, and to obtain some university teaching work, to do alongside it all. It became a rich and rewarding experience, and far removed from my previous 9-5 library world!


Whilst pursuing this very different path, and also whilst preparing an issue on ‘Globalisation and Information’ for the ejournal Information for Social Change (ISC), I got a phone call ‘out of the blue’ from BBC Radio 4, asking me if I would like to go on a radio programme. I was delighted; I accepted. I went on ‘You and Yours’ in October 2001 talking about the General Agreement on Trade in Services and Libraries (GATS). The transcript for the programme can be found here at: http://www.libr.org/isc/media/ruth1.html. Graham Coult got to find out about this via Paul Pedley (as I was still keeping in contact with Paul). Graham then also emailed me ‘out of the blue’ asking me if I would like to write an article based on the radio programme for Managing Information. This was all very exciting; I agreed very enthusiastically, wrote the article, and again, he published it straightaway. Graham Coult then invited me to be the book reviews editor for Managing Information. I accepted enthusiastically, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I loved the book review work; I made contacts with many interesting people and writers (some of who now receive this newsletter) and then made contact with Dr. Glyn Jones at Chandos Publishing, Oxford. I got several Chandos books reviewed; Glyn then asked me if I would like to write a book myself. Wow – great! I accepted enthusiastically; I was away. Finally, I was to get to write that book; something that I had dreamed about doing from childhood. Although, then it had been very much a novel that I had wanted to write as a child; certainly not non-fiction. I didn’t like reading non-fiction stuff at all much in those early childhood days to be honest; in fact I only really read religious books!

So, anyway, my first book was then published with Chandos Publishing in 2005 of course on the topic of ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries’. At the same time, Dr Glyn Jones also asked me if I would like to work for him as a Series Editor and later as a Commissioning Editor. Again, I accepted enthusiastically. Although, unfortunately, that also meant that I had to give up the book review work for Managing Information, because of the ‘conflict of interest’. Somehow, ever since then (i.e. since 2003), I have had to try to deal with this difficult situation as best I can.

Over the last few years I have written many articles and reviews for Managing Information on a wide range of different subjects. Last year (2009), for example, three articles of mine were published in the magazine. These were:

1. ‘Michéle Roberts: librarian, novelist and radical inspirational writer and thinker’, Vol. 16, Iss. 1, pp. 64-69
2. ‘Females and Social Networking’, Vol. 16, Iss. 3, pp. 50-59
3. ‘The Feminist Library in London’ by Ruth Rikowski and Anne Welsh, Vol. 16, Iss. 5, pp. 65-71

In regard to the article about the Feminist Library in London, for example, I wrote this piece with Anne Welch, who is a lecturer in cataloguing at University College London, and is someone that is also, like me, passionate about feminist-type issues. We both value and treasure the Feminist Library in London and want to do all that we can to help to preserve it and we wrote this article with all this very much in mind. The Feminist Library houses the material from the Feminist Movement of the 1970s and is distinct from the Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University, which houses the material from the Suffragette Movement of the 1920s. The Feminist Library has over 10,000 books and 1,500 journal titles, pamphlets and research papers. It is now run solely by volunteers; in contrast to when it was under the GLC (Greater London Council) when there were three paid librarians working there. We conclude our article by saying that:

“The way in which the Feminist Library has survived over the years, maintaining its independence is really quite something...It is important, we think, to try to help to preserve, safeguard and cherish this wonderful collection.” (p. 70)

Anne and I are keen to raise awareness further on this important topic, and with this in mind, we have discussed the possibility of giving a talk about the Feminist Library in London at a future CILIP in London meeting. Hopefully, in time, we can start to raise awareness still further. Meanwhile, if anyone would like a copy of the article, and/or would like to discuss this topic further with me, then do feel free to get in touch.

Returning once again to Graham Coult specifically, I would like to thank him once again for being right there for me straight after my father-in-law died, and at such a difficult time in my life. Graham lent me books, he recommended books to me, he sent me music links to songs on YouTube that he thought I might like and provided me with further information about the singers and the bands, and he recommended various book talks to me. He really helped me to pull through a very difficult period, and as I say, I am very appreciative to him for all of that.

Now, of course, Graham Coult works for Emerald Publishing. I wish him every success with his future work with Emerald, from where he will be continuing to edit Managing Information.

On another level, though, it has to be said that this writing game has brought some difficulties. Overall, it has been very positive, and life-changing. But a part of me felt sure that getting my writing published would also bring about some new and different problems from those that I had encountered before in my life. And this has, indeed, proved to be the case - job insecurity being one of them. But one thing I had not anticipated was the extent to which single-mindedness is key as is the need to be vigilant in regard to ‘opening possible cans of worms’, as the saying goes. Anyway, I continue to aim to do all I can to overcome the difficulties and set-backs.

Anyway, now, finally, I am in a position where I can turn my attention to writing a novel, so that’s great!



14. STEPHEN BARBER – REVIEWS EDITOR FOR ‘SOCIAL EUROPE JOURNAL’ AND NEW BOOK OUT ENTITLED ‘GREED’
Stephen Barber, an academic colleague of mine at London South Bank University informed me recently that he is the reviews editor for the ejournal ‘Social Europe Journal’ – see http://www.social-europe.eu/. Leading on from this discussion, he said that he would get our friend Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen’s latest book, ‘The Lost Generation’ reviewed in it. If you are interested in writing a review for the journal yourself, do contact Stephen at barbers@lsbu.ac.uk.

Stephen also informed me about his latest book, ‘Greed’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), which he has co-edited with Alexis Brassey – see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Greed-Alexis-Brassey/dp/0230201482/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274776350&sr=8-1



15. ‘WHISKY BREATH CONFESSIONAL’ BY NEIL WHITEHEAD
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1356191
My second cousin, Neil Whitehead, who also designed our ‘Flow of Ideas’ website, has just (May 2010) self-published a book on photography, using the Blurb software. By strange coincidence this is the same software that Martin Hodges used to self-publish his little book, ‘Word of Eye’, which I referred to in a previous newsletter.

As it says in the publicity for Neil’s book:

“Whisky Breath Confessional is a visual narrative into the world of Neil Whitehead, an undergraduate to an art photography degree. He is a diligent and observant photographer that searches out intriguing insight into life in the cities of England. The book Whisky Breath Confessional-as the name suggests-shows a confession to an outlook of the artist. Showing a poetic and suspenseful series of photographs that take the viewer on a quiet tour of his environment.”

Furthermore, that Neil Whitehead:

“...is a photographer that pursues opportunities to express emotions, and raise questions and intrigue in all of his photos. His photographs pertain to a style and philosophy that is unique and is growing.”

37 pages of the book can be previewed online. There are some lovely scenes in it, with some very interesting and different views and perspectives.

Neil is currently studying at Southampton University for a degree in Photography.

I wish Neil all the very best with his book, and hope that it sells lots of copies. I shall, of course, be ordering and reviewing the book myself.



16. MERCANTILE MARINE BRONZE WORLD WAR ONE MEDAL AND POSSIBLE LINKS WITH MY GRANDFATHER, CLEMENT AUGUSTINE VICKERY
I received an interesting email from someone a while ago who informed me that one of his hobbies was collecting and researching World War One medals. As part of his research he told me that he had done a quick "Google" search on medals listed on the "Ebay" site and that my "Blog" came up in his search. My grandfather, Clement Augustine Vickery was in the Merchant Navy for those that having been reading my newsletter closely enough and remember! He also wrote two books on nautical matters.

This person then went on say that there is a Mercantile Marine bronze war medal which may have been awarded to my grandfather, Clement Augustine Vickery for his Merchant Navy Service during Word War 1. He said that service details for these medals are held at the National Archives at Kew.

He thought that other "collectors" on discovering that this medal was awarded to a ships Captain/Master may also find this to be of interest, and that the medal may sell for quite a lot more than its starting price. He suggested that I might want to get involved in the bidding, to secure the medal for the family. I was very busy at the time, so did not pursue that option, but perhaps it is something that can be thought through further on a future occasion.

He also made the point that it might be beneficial to make contact with the staff at Kew in regard to this. He did not know whether archives are available for the Merchant Service in WW1 (as he specialises in Army medals/research). But what he does know is that there are "Index Cards" for the Seamen which give brief service details and usually a copy photograph. Also, that as my grandfather was an officer he thought that there might well be many more records held. So, this is something that I might well pursue further at a future date.

I have been doing a little research into my family history over the last couple of years. I concluded that it would probably all make for a very interesting book, especially if I related it to the history of women’s education in the UK. So writing such a book is something that I might well do at a later date (but certainly not for some while though, given my busy schedule). Also, I think it would be more appropriate for me to write at some more distant time in the future.

Anyway, in conclusion, the person that contacted me said that he was happy for this information to be included on my blog (and so I have been able to include this as a news item, and I thank him for this) but that he did not want to be named in person. So, hopefully, this information will be of interest to my family, and is something that we can in time explore further. I certainly appreciate the time, effort and trouble that the person took in making contact with me and informing me about it all and I would like to publicly thank him for that.


17. WILL ROBERTS ‘DAYSTAR’ VIDEO
Will Roberts, a band member of ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’ and a friend of our son Victor Rikowski recently composed a song, entitled ‘Daystar’, and made a video of it. This is now up on YouTube. We thought it was very good, so wanted to share it with you. The URL for it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6f_pA5XUPk

Will Roberts, like Victor, is studying Music and Creative Writing at Bangor University.



18. ‘COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON’ – TWO OTHER SONGS NOW UP ON CH&QM’s MYSPACE PAGE AND NOW c 6,800 PROFILE VIEWS IN TOTAL
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
There are 2 other songs now up on the band ‘Cold Hands & Quarter Moon’s’ MySpace page - ‘Stagnant’ and ‘Slave and Masters’. ‘Slaves and Masters’ is a new, quite complex, song, composed by Victor Rikowski, and this is the first time that it has been made available on the internet. Interest in the band continues to grow, and there have now been around some 6,800 profile views of the band on their MySpace page.


Best wishes,

Ruth

N.B. Many thanks to Jeremy Gilbert (in regard to Middlesex University), Helen Whitehead, Dinesh Gupta, Stephen Barber and Neil Whitehead for providing information for items 8, 11, 12, 14 and 15 respectively.


28th May 2010