TraLIS blog

Saving our farms and our Documentary evidence

2010-10-05T12:42:00.000+13:00

Last Saturday the Dominion Post newspaper and others published this full page advertisement from the Save the Farms group. The issue of foreign ownership is big in New Zealand right at the moment.

At the moment our largest export commodity depends on farms, and therefore it is an issue for exporters and international trade since foreign owners may not wish to continue to use the land in the same way. The big question is do we want to protect our golden goose and keep the proceeds in NZ.

But there is also the issue for information specialists of how do we in the future find the documentary evidence within our media - is it likely that this particular advertisement will be indexed? What are we doing about this?

Another Conference - FREE!

2010-08-12T14:07:00.001+12:00

The 3rd International Koha Conference is being held in Wellington, New Zealand from Monday 25th October to Wednesday 27th October. And like the software it is FREE - can you believe it?

If you are not familiar with Koha, the New Zealand School of Export uses this software for its catalogue - ELIScat: http://ets.kohalibrary.com/ and so do hundreds of other libraries around the world.
The conference speakers are also from around the world: UK, France, Nigeria, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. You can find the full programme here:
http://www.kohacon10.org.nz/2010/program/day1.html and registration is now open. The Conference Organiser is Chris Cormack who works for Catalyst IT in Wellington.

LIANZA Centennial Conference

2010-08-05T13:44:00.000+12:00

At the Edge -- Te Matakāheru
LIANZA Centennial Conference
28 Nov – 1 Dec 2010
Dunedin, New Zealand

The Conference Programme, the Conference Registration Brochure, and the online registration form are available on the Conference website – http://www.conference.co.nz/index.cfm/Lianza10 or at http://lianza.org.nz/ (click on the Conference logo).

The Centennial Conference theme is ‘At the Edge - Te Matakāheru’. This allows us the freedom to celebrate the many aspects of librarianship including history, innovation, space, integration and people. Matakāheru is the face of a Maori digging tool and the term is used figuratively in much the same way as the English ‘cutting edge’, particularly in relation to knowledge.

One hundred years ago the Libraries Association of New Zealand was formed. The Centennial Conference celebrates both our history and looks forward to the profession forever being at the [cutting] edge of the developing information landscape.

I have copied the above information from advertising for the LIANZA Centennial Conference but I did want to add a personal note. I was a member of the Otago-Southland Branch of LIANZA (or NZLA as it was then), in the 1970s and 80s. Through that membership I became familiar with people such as Ada Fache, Dorothy Ballantyne, Mary Ronnie and Jock McEldowney. All of them contributed so much to librarianship in Dunedin and in New Zealand. I gave my first ever conference presentation at a LIANZA conference in Dunedin - on collecting posters in libraries. My focus was of course on the Hocken Library collection which is where I was working at that time. Michael Hitchings, who died earlier this year, was so encouraging and supportive of my efforts. This paper was later published in New Zealand Libraries.

I am sure the Centennial Conference will be a superb event for everyone.

Tātarihia tō Reo Pākihi - Assess your business reo - Kōrero Māori

2010-07-26T10:35:00.002+12:00

Tātarihia tō Reo Pākihi - Assess your business reo - Kōrero Māori

If staff at your company or organization have asked about resources for Maori Language Week - here is one place you can recommend from the Maori Language Commission website. You can also try this quiz from Stuff:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3957277/Place-names-quiz

Adult Learners Week 6-12th September 2010

2010-07-14T10:30:00.002+12:00

Adult Community Education Aotearoa

The Week is a UNESCO initiative to celebrate adult learners.
It also incorporates International Literacy Day, Wednesday September 8 2009. Exporters studying any aspect of international trade are of course adult earners par excellence and thus to be celebrated during this week.

Time to Celebrate

2010-07-08T09:27:00.002+12:00

The Catalogue of the New Zealand School of Export has reached a milestone - it now has over 1000 catalogued items! This is a significant achievement, not only because each of these items has been manually described, but because each has been selected for what it can contribute to the international trade community and of course to the work of the School.

Over 10% of all the items in the Catalogue are digital resources: pdfs, html, php, or websites which are immediately available to the user's desktop. We hope that this proportion will grow as time goes on.

Besides being a unique collection, the thesauri used to describe the items are also different and a different combination. We have used the International Trade Center's Thesaurus of International Trade Terms and where a resource focuses on a Maori aspect of trade we have used the Maori Subject Headings which are hosted by the National Library of New Zealand.

All of which is a real cause for celebration with some export quality New Zealand beverage!!!

Do take a look at our Catalogue http://ets.kohalibrary.com/ and if you want to see how a Maori suubject heading has been used - try "tauhokohoko"

Five Principles of Trade Librarianship

2010-07-04T17:11:00.001+12:00

Looking back to the previous post, I see that there seems to be a very philosophical trend emerging! It was clearing out a folder of filed photocopies and course notes that uncovered Maurice Line's five laws of librarianship which lead me to thinking... So here are my five principles with a short intro:

Various notable librarians have set forth laws of librarianship: Ranganathan 1931, Line 1996, Gorman 1998, and in 2008 librarian Carol Simpson recommended that editing be done to Ranganathan's law because of the current richness of media available within libraries.

Ranganathan’s original five laws were:
1. Books are for use
2. Every reader his or her book
3. Every book its reader
4. Save the time of the reader
5. The library is a growing organism

Simpson suggested the following variations:

1.Media are for use.
2.Every patron his information.
3.Every medium its user.
4.Save the time of the patron.
5.The library is a growing organism.

Recently I re-read Line’s five laws of librarianship in The Library Association Record 98 (3) March 1996, and decided that it would be useful to enumerate some principles for the very specialised section of librarianship which I call ‘trade librarianship’. I use the abbreviation LIP here to mean a “Library and Information Professional”.

Principle 1
The LIP will serve the organisation in which he/she is working by the provision of a wide range of evaluated, high quality resources in whatever format is most appropriate. This may be through a digital information portal for example such as the one we call ELIS on the website of the New Zealand School of Export: http://www.export.ac.nz/library.html.

Principle 2
The resources will for the most part be digital in nature and available to the desktop. The LIP will ensure that appropriate help in using various media is available to all clients, and that the principles of information literacy are integrated into each transaction.

Principle 3
The LIP will use traditional methods such as subject headings in the catalogue and recently developed social networking tools, such as blogs, Twitter and facebook, to make links between related pieces of information and between information and users.

Principle 4
The LIP will be committed to his/her organisation’s ethos and will play a full part in achieving its goals while also ensuring that information sources used, and knowledge disseminated retain balance and integrity.

Principle 5
The most immediate focus for the LIP will be the provision of accurate and timely information that meets the needs of usersw. However he/she may also need to store and promote the preservation of information and knowledge produced by their organisation, through archiving, knowledge management and transfer.

What do you think? Any need for principles 6 or 7 or...?

Strands of international trade information

2010-06-04T11:38:00.000+12:00

This photo taken by James Siddle is of some living weaving. It is harakeke or flax found near Paritutu, New Plymouth, and is still on the plant.

This reminded me of all the strands of information that might be needed to answer a query within our organisations. To fulfil the need for information on exporting to a new market for example, we may need to gather cultural and 'doing business in' information, phytosanitary guidelines, competitor lists and so on.

It is also information that needs to be refreshed and updated or 'kept alive' for the time of the project.

Appropriately Paritutu is a volcanic rock which is located near Port Taranaki, New Plymouth - a port with a lively international trade.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina || The Library of Alexandria

2010-05-28T14:09:00.002+12:00

Photo: Plaza of Bibilotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt. Bibliotheca Alexandrina 24 Sept. 2007 Creative Commons image.
The BA or Library of Alexandrina http://www.bibalex.org/home/ built in 2002 and is regarded as an attempt to rekindle of the brilliance of the ancient Library which was partially destroyed in 48 BC and completely destroyed by the the 6th century AD. From the photographs it appears to be a stunning building, and although it does not have a dedicated trade libary or collection, I thought it was worth posting about.
Wikipedia suggests that it will never be funded properly and will always be subject to censorship. Certainly the trade resources seem a little dated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina
It has four objectives and aspires to be:

The world's window on Egypt
Egypt's window on the world
A leading institution of the digital age
A centre for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding

In accordance with the third of these objectives the BA has developed a Digital Assets Repository (DAR) to create and miantain the Library's digital collections. There are over 115,000 books available through the DAR. These include 178 titles in Arabic on 'foreign trade'.
Tomorrow the BA will host a conference entitled: The Legal and Economic Aspects of the Development of Seaborne Trade in the Euro-Med Region. This is being held on the occasion of the establishment of the Free Trade Area for Euro-Med based on the Barcelona Process and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP).

PS. There is a tribute to Paul Reynolds on the Exportersblog posted yesterday: http://exportersblog.blogspot.com/

Mineral export index

2010-05-21T10:06:00.001+12:00

Can any information specialist out there help with finding a "Mineral export index"? There are lots of energy indexes but a search hasn't produced a mineral export index. Any ideas?

And BTW following on from the Quiz post, here's a question for you?

Q. What is the world’s largest harbour for supplying coal?

A. selaW htouS ni tsaoc tsae eht no eltsacsweN troP s’ailartsuA

What's in a name?

2010-05-20T09:58:00.000+12:00

Obviously plenty when it's 'trade'. The word dates from the 14th century and it came from the Old English tredan = to tread. It is a little like the Old High German trata meaning track or course.
There are so many uses of the word trade or trades:

the rag trade meaning the clothing industry
terms of trade as in the ratio of the prices a country pays for its imports to the prices it receives for its exports
'vast crude finds excite oil trade' - presumably all the people involved; drillers, venture capitalists, oil companies etc.
international trade - the selling and buying of goods across national borders
trades - used on the stock exchange
a trade as in bricklaying
trade wind - one of the prevailing winds which facilitated the passage of ships carrying goods for trading.

There are almost certainly lots more with slightly different shade of meaning, and you can see that some have a core of that original meaning. For example when you choose a trade like bricklaying, you choose a path for your immediate employment future. Or even in 'international trade' there is a track to follow conforming to the rules, Incoterms and so on.

Just thought I would share with you some of my random thoughts...

Country Quizzes

2010-05-04T15:08:00.000+12:00

Ever needed country quizzes for your colleagues as an activity at a Professional development session? Or even for a party? Go no further than this page on the New Zealand School of Export website:

http://www.export.ac.nz/countryquizzes.html

It is being added to each week or fortnight and eventually will be a compendium of Quizzes, or a Quire of Quizzes! The latest quiz is on Greece - very topical given Greece's current woes.

Industrious Kiwis: Archives and Industry

2010-04-29T14:33:00.000+12:00

Records and Archives Week May 1-7, 2010

This is the stunning poster that has been produced for RAW 2010. You can look at it by going to: http://www.aranz.org.nz/Site/events/RAW.aspx

The theme for RAW 2010 is archives and records of industry. New Zealanders are renowned for our ingenuity and clever ideas (our No.8 wire mentality). Archives and records are an important means of preserving our history of industry, innovation, trade, enterprise, research, science, technology and economic development. This is particularly relevant in the current economic state in helping us to reflect on our history of enterprise and ingenuity.

The organisers have suggested that these themes are considered:

Retaining our archives and records of industry is important to our economic and social history.

The economic development of New Zealand has been based on our primary industries, such as agriculture and horticulture.
Our sense of pride and national identity is linked to industry; from the first export of frozen meat from Port Chalmers in 1882 to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy in 2001-2003
The industries that New Zealand is engaged in is widening and changing from predominantly primary industries into more secondary industries.
We need to be aware of the risk to these records that may be lost to future generations if these records are not retained

Exporting companies - of both merchandise and services are vital to this country. This is a week when you might think about where your archives are, how they are being preserved and whether you should be asking for help from your local library or archival repository. As you can see from the poster, photographs are so important as a record of what has happened in our international trade history. Perhaps you have photos from when you went on a Trade Mission, or when you received an export award. Or maybe you still have design materials from when you were developing your marketing for your overseas markets. Better still do have the packages or containers? All these are a very important part of our heritage and exporting companies are a part of that.

Company archives and records - THINK and ACT this week - 1-7 May 2010

Expo 2010 Shanghai - NEW Pathfinder

2010-04-21T10:15:00.002+12:00

Looking for material on Expo 2010 - here is a short guide/pathfinder for you and your colleagues. I would have liked to use the logo of the Expo which now starts in 9 days but haven't had any joy from the Expo people about using it!!

Click on the title to go to the Pathfinder.

TraLIS will be harvested in May

2010-04-21T10:08:00.008+12:00

The National Library of New Zealand will be running its second harvest of the New Zealand internet from May 12th to 25th. As the National Library exists to preserve New Zealand's social and cultural history, this includes the Web. All internet sites with the .nz country code will be harvested. Other sites and blogs which have New Zealand content but which don't have the .nz code have to be nominated. Accordingly I have nominated this blog to be included.

The Library estimates that 130-140 million URLs will be captured. Click on the title to see more on the Web Harvest from the National Library website.

Beehive - Groser Welcomes Release of ACTA Negotiating Text

2010-04-20T10:19:00.000+12:00

Beehive - Groser Welcomes Release of ACTA Negotiating Text

The text of the ACTA negotiations will be released tomorrow in the US Eastern STandard time.

Wellington Declaration

2010-04-15T10:01:00.000+12:00

The Wellington Declaration which has arisen out of the PublicACTA Conference held on 10 April 2010, makes some important points for the business or international trade librarian/information specialist. For example it says and I quote one only:

We recognise that the Internet has enabled creativity and innovation, the sharing of knowledge, citizen engagement and democracy, and is an engine of economic growth and opportunity.

Brenda Chawner has alerted the New Zealand library community to the Declaration on nz-libs and this morning LIANZA has issued this statement:

LIANZA supports Wellington Declaration regarding trade agreement on copyright

LIANZA, the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa / Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa, supports the points made in the Wellington Declaration (http://publicacta.org.nz/wellington-declaration/ ), which is addressed to the parties negotiating ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, meeting in Wellington this week.

LIANZA firmly believes that one of the principal purposes of copyright law is to encourage the dissemination and sharing of information, and is strongly opposed to any measures which inhibit these.

ACTA is a trade agreement being negotiated in secret. LIANZA considers that any agreement relating to intellectual property should be negotiated openly and transparently, so that all potential stakeholders have input to the process.

The Internet has become a vital tool for communication and dissemination of knowledge, and LIANZA believes that any measures, such as peremptory disconnection as envisaged in the now-abandoned section 92A of the New Zealand Copyright Act, that have potential to damage the open principles of the Internet should be avoided.

LIANZA also considers it is essential that exceptions currently included in copyright law, such as copying for research or private study, fair dealing, copying for educational purposes, and copying by libraries for library users and the users of other libraries, must be retained.

These and other exceptions are vital in maintaining an appropriate balance between encouraging creativity and protecting the rights of authors, publishers and other creators of literary, musical and artistic works, and providing for the needs of society to benefit from and make use of the ideas and knowledge incorporated within publications and other artistic works. Maintenance of this balance is fundamental to good copyright law.

We recently had Richard Stallman in New Zealand and I posted about his talk in Levin (see below)

Op-Chart - How Green Is My iPad? - NYTimes.com

2010-04-15T09:47:00.000+12:00

Op-Chart - How Green Is My iPad? - NYTimes.com

Here's a slant on iPads from the New York Times which I picked up off the nz-libs list.

Smartphones again - Love at First Touch

2010-04-11T20:50:00.000+12:00

Ever since I attended the m-libraries workshop in January, I have been mulling over the potential benefits of a smartphone. The December quarter issue of Exporter Magazine p.13 has an article by Mary McKinven in which she gets some feedback from users on the Blackberry versus the iPhone. New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser uses a Blackberry!

Two of her key points were:

the iPhone is simple to use and is like a personal assistant
the Blackberry fits nicely into a suit jacket pocket

Well since then we have had the launch of iPad which from what i can gather it does not fit into a suit jacket pocket. Has any one out there who reads this blog, bought an iPad? Care to share your thoughts? They aren't available in New Zealand yet so any advice on how you are using your iPad, and how you are finding it would be great.

The Internet in New Zealand 2009

2010-04-07T14:04:00.000+12:00

The World Internet Project New Zealand Team has published its reports on The Internet in New Zealand 2009.   You can find the full report and an Executive Summary at the AUT website:

http://www.aut.ac.nz/research/research-institutes/icdc/projects/world-internet-project

As most of us are aware from the what is happening in our information services, the Internet is rated very highly as an information source. In this report the Internet comes out on top as the most important information source in New Zealand in 2009: 65% rated the internet as important whereas libraries rated only 45% . Libraries were less important than TVand newspapers.   I guess it highlights our role in making sure that the internet sources our clients use are the best!

The World site is to be found at: http://www.worldinternetproject.net/ so you can check reports for other countries.   It could be useful for the marketing department as well.

Export strategies

2010-04-01T14:33:00.000+13:00

Export strategy documents are often hard to find especially on national governement websites. Today I located one for a single industry: the Textile Industry in New Zealand. . Therefore I thought it was worth sharing. It includes a SWOT analysis and an implementation plan. It doesn't include too many dates however and I can only conclude that because the website is current that the strategy is also current.

It is entitled Natural Fibre Export Strategy and you can find it at:

http://www.textilesnz.org.nz/sitedocs/keyactivities/marketdev.aspx

Your international trade department might find it useful!

By the way Happy Easter to all readers of this blog wherever you are!

Aokautere Park, Autumn 2010

2010-03-25T12:09:00.000+13:00

Having posted a photo of fungi growing on a tree in the grounds of Aokautere Park outside the New Zealand School of Export in June 2008, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this one:

Different tree, different fungi and earlier in the year! March 2010.

Joann Ransom - Congratulations

2010-03-17T12:18:00.002+13:00

The American Library Association has honoured Joann Ransom of the Horowhenua Library Trust (New Zealand) as one of the Movers and Shakers for 2010. This is the first time a New Zealander has ever been nominated. Joann is the inspiration behind Kete Horowhenua, software which has been picked up and used by hundreds of libraries in New Zealand and around the world. For the full story go to The Library Journal.com at:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/MS2010Inductee/2140493436.html

When I attended the VALA 2008 Conference Joann spoke about Kete and Kete Horowhenua.   It was very inspiring and it sparked in my mind the possibility of having an Export Kete, or an New Zealand Trade Kete.   There is so much information available about our export/import trade out there which needs to be brought together so that it can be used in the future. When our exporters go into their markets they must have heaps of prepared resources and information about their products, photos of their company premises and factories - all of which could go into a Kete. And then there are the interviews and reminiscences that could be recorded from exporters.

Hopefully some of this information is being kept in company archives and going into local and national repositories for safe-keeping.

Not far from the School are the buildings which remain from the East Fitzherbert Dairy Factory located at the turnoff to the Pahiatua Track.   Perhaps that could be a starting point...

By the way the link to the Horowhenua Kete is: http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/

From Library Automation to Library 2.0...

2010-03-11T22:21:00.001+13:00

Paul Sutherland's paper presented at VALA2010 is worth reading for anyone trying to come to terms with Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 in the international trade environmen, even although it foucuses on the experience that he has been a part of at the Christchurch (N.Z.) City Libraries. Paul is the Digital Innovation Librarian at CCL and a frequent contributor to nzlibs.

If you were only to look at the ground rules for blogging on p.7 and the bullet-pointed strategy for Web 2.0 on p.17 it would be useful.

Here is the record from the New Zealand School of Export catalogue:
http://ets.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=629

Historical Trade Stats for New Zealand - BLUE Books

2010-03-02T13:15:00.000+13:00

Yes this is a Blue Book - in fact the Blue Book for New Zealand for the year 1842. Archives New Zealand have digitised the 23 books of national statistics for the period 1840-1855. They are known as blue books because of the colour of their covers (most are blue!) and they contain statistical information including trade. They take a while to download but be patient - they contain some fascinating handwritten information.

Photo: Archives New Zealand | Te Rua Mahara o te Kawanatanga

SCRIBD.COM

2010-02-22T09:55:00.002+13:00

Has anybody out there use the resources on scribd.com? A quick search on 'exporting' retrieved a lot of hits. The first resource I looked at was on 'export finance' and was a student paper from an Indian tertiary institution. But as well I located a recent World Bank publication on Mongolia.

This is the first time I have looked at it - the help screens and support appeared to be useful. If you have used in your company or trade library please share your thoughts with us.

m-learning Symposium

2010-01-23T15:49:00.000+13:00

Professor Mohamed Ally. Photo from Athabasca University website www.athabascau.ca

Professor Mohamed Ally’s symposium held at Massey University Library yesterday was really worthwile. You will notice that the title has changed between posts and that now I have called it m-learning. The Symposium highlighted the fact that the boundaries between m-libraries and m-learning are very blurred and that in effect m-libraries are really only the library that supports m-learning. This blurring also seemed to obscure any divisions between the library and academia.

Professor Ally surveyed the developments from the e-words to the m-words: e-learning to m-learning, e-libraries to m-libraries, and e-training to m-training. In the course of these sessions he covered some really notable and noteworthy areas: the ‘hole in the wall project’ in Mumbai run by Sugata Mitra, the Millenium Development Goals (which most other people have forgotten), the $100 laptop for developing countries and of course the way in which his own institution Athabasca University in Canada is moving into mobile delivery.

In developing mobile learning and preparing materials for mobile dissemination Professor Ally listed four requirements:

· Break your content into chunks (chunking information)
· Design material as learning objects with clear learning outcomes
· Share in repositories for easy access
· All learning objects should be meta-tagged for retrieval and re-use.

He also suggested that each piece=chunk should have no more than seven pieces of information, and that Advance organisers or summaries were vital.

For the exporter studying the course at the New Zealand School of Export, I could imagine him/her being able to search ELIS and downloading Sample Contracts at the point of need, checking country information, reading Module materials and completing activities specially designed for m-learning. A great deal of food for thought!

In trying to come to grips with my own personal computer/cellphone needs/wants, the symposium clearly pointed the way forward to some kind of mobile device – smartphone. By chance the Dominion Post’s Indulgence magazine iDom page today covers E-readers, Smartbooks and Nexus One. Neither Nexus One nor dedicated e-readers are sold in NZ. Next week it the iDom column will cover NZ iPhone applications.

Professor Ally has recently edited the following book: Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training published by AU press in March 2009. It is available in e-book format and can be freely downloaded from this URL: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155 Professor Ally and Athabasca University have a policy of open access to information which they produce.

m-Libraries: Planning and Implementation

2010-01-18T08:30:00.000+13:00

On Friday of this week I am attending a Symposium with the above title which features international speaker Professor Mohamed Ally, from Athabasca University in Canada. There are three sessions in the Symposium which is being held at Massey University Library in Palmerston North and I am particularly interested in Keynote 2 presentation which plans to look at 'Effective practice with m-learning in tertiary and vocational education, trends, measures and remerging resources', to see whether it is something that can be incorporated into our programme here at the New Zealand School of Export.

Have any other trade librarians/information specialists had experience with m-learning which they could share on this blog? It would be great to hear from you before January 22nd and before I post you with further thoughts after I have heard Prof Ally.

Design without Computers

2010-01-15T11:00:00.002+13:00

Librarians and information specialists, including those in trade libraries and information centres, are often called upon to produce reports which need a well thought-out cover design, or to produce brochures and pamphlets to advertise services. We don't usually have the services of computer design people to help with this and so fall back on our own resources! This short pdf (5 pages) may give you some ideas or confirm the ideas and principles that you already work with. Have a look at it on the Learning Connexion site: http://www.tlcstudents.ac.nz/onlinelearning/index.html It is by Elidh McDowall.

Slow learner and Dashboard

2010-01-11T10:28:00.000+13:00

I am a slow learner - have just come across Google Dashboard which was launched last year! Found it when I was trolling through some of the many emails that I receive in nz-libs list. If you haven't come across it before either - it brings together all the Google tools which you may have subscribed to. If you are like me, you subscribe because you think better to do it now knowing that you won't do it later!! Then of course your subscriptions are lost in the mists of time... By logging into Dashboard you can see all the tools you have subscribed to, what activity has taken place and you do get the opportunity to change settings and the information you have provided.

For the busy trade librarian, this could be really useful. For example if you had forgotten that you had set up alerts for "exports to Liberia" and "illegal arms trade", checking your Google Alerts may be just what you need to refresh your alerts for 2010.

The Dashboard site does have a short video explaining what it does. BTW you need your Google account and password

11 Of The Coolest Bookcases (PHOTOS, POLL)

2010-01-07T09:01:00.000+13:00

11 Of The Coolest Bookcases (PHOTOS, POLL)

If you would like to arrange your Trade Library Collection by colour and in an interesting bookcase, have a look at these photos! For growing collections I liked the Platzhalter...

Colour coded collection

2009-12-09T12:08:00.001+13:00

Have you ever threatened to arrange your library or trade collection by spine colour? Well here is an example from the Booksellers Association (NZ) collection in Wellington. It is very arresting and the green Christmas tree at the right is very appropriate for the season.

The only problem was, that nothing could be found!

NZ companies web-aware

2009-12-08T12:13:00.001+13:00

Homepage of Thermaflo, a Palmerston North (New Zealand) small business and exporting company http://www.thermaflo.co.nz/ - Managing Director Kevin Gilbert. Photograph used with support and permission.

It was reported recently in the Dominion Post newspaper of 30 November 2009 on p.C6 that New Zealand businesses are more likely to have websites and ‘engage in e-commerce that their Australian counterparts.’ Statistics New Zealand has compared the technology industries of the two countries in a study entitled: Information and Communication Technology in New Zealand and Australia which can be found at:

http://www.stats.govt.nz/Publications/BusinessPerformanceEnergyAndAgriculture/ict-in-nz-and-aust/business-use-of-ict.aspx

54% of small businesses in New Zealand have a web presence compared with 48% in Australia, and overall 60% of businesses in New Zealand have a web presence as opposed to 53% in Australia.

What does this mean for the information professional in international trade? It is very frustrating being unable to find exporting companies on the web and it is obvious that 40% of businesses in New Zealand don’t have a web presence. It means that we cannot use the web as the only source of business and product intelligence. We will still need to rely on other means such as yellow pages, trade and business directories, and personal networking.

Write me a web page Elsie

2009-11-24T14:14:00.000+13:00

This is the cover of Rachel McAlpine's book Write me a web page, Elsie. Photo from the publisher. We at the New Zealand School of Export think this is a really useful guide to writing on the web. We have used it to re-vamp some of our pages on the School's website http://www.export.ac.nz/ I have been guilty of some of the worst of faults - using generic photos - well almost! McAlpine says that eye-tracking research shows that most people ignore the pictures. I am now trying to use images which fit really closely with the text and add to what it is saying! She also recommends captions - sounds very simple. That is the essence of this book - she gives down to earth advice in a style which makes you want to change!
If I have any gripe about the book, it is that the index doesn't cover everything in the book e.g. ACHOs and AFFLOs. That aside I can thoroughly recommend it.
By the way, Rachel McAlpine is a dramatist, poet and novelist besides writing books on writing.

New New Zealand datasets website

2009-11-05T14:47:00.000+13:00

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has just produced and gone live with their data.govt.nz website which is an index to publicly accessible government datasets. These are not necessarily new datasets, but this website brings them all together.

A search on exports retrieves four results, but a search on trade is more productive and produces 13 hits.
This is a good way to ensure that you or your international trade colleagues have picked up all the relevant and available information.

Deals Open Important Markets - How Important?

2009-10-22T12:11:00.000+13:00

A column by Jon Morgan in the Dominion Post October 21, 2009 reports that the farmer-owned meat cooperative Silver Fern Farms has negotiated a deal with French grocery cooperative Intermarche. Silver Fern Farms will supply chilled lamb under their own brand to Intermarche which has 1500 stores in France.

Intermarche also has 500 stores in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Romania. This is where the opening of important markets comes in. I wondered what the size of New Zealand’s current export trade to those five countries is currently, and so set myself a reference question to find out. Here are my results:

In the June year 2007-2008 New Zealand exported to:

Belgium    Goods worth NZ$587,414,000 of which sheep meat (HS code 0204) was 28.04%

Spain       Goods worth NZ$299,865,000 of which sheep meat was 9.2%

Portugal   Goods worth NZ$ 42,201,618 of which sheep meat was 44.9%

Poland     Goods worth NZ$ 20,245,916 of which sheep meat was 1.02%

Romania Goods worth NZ$ 4,756,880 . No sheep meat has been exported to Romania in the period 2000-2009.

So certainly it seems that with the exception of Portugal where exports of sheep meat made up over 40% of New Zealand’s trade, then the Silver Fern Farms initiative could indeed open up markets for our products in the other countries and especially Romania.

Photo: from Flickr Creative Commons-licensed content for noncommercial use requiring attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/67858560/

Sources:

Statistics New Zealand (2008) Global New Zealand international trade, investment and travel profile. pp.41 and 47

Figures for Portugal, Poland and Romania from Statistics New Zealand. Infoshare. Retrieved 21 October 2009.

RSS Feed Search Engine

2009-10-15T10:55:00.000+13:00

I have just discovered this search engine and wonder if anyone else has used it or is using it. The AboutUs information says that more than 75 million blog posts and news articles have been indexed and are searchable. Has anyone tested out the "Deep Search" which RSSMicro uses?

This links back to the post on Trade Content Curators (TRACCs) as well. Your comments? (BTW there is no need to have a Google account before you post to TraLIS anymore)

Richard Stallman and Copyright

2009-10-13T14:43:00.000+13:00

Richard Stallman speaking in Belgium. I chose this picture because he was wearing a similar red t-shirt in Levin - no evidence of the Pepsi though!
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and free software activist, spoke in Levin, on 7th October 2009. He is also a keynote speaker at the LIANZA Conference being held in Christchurch this week.

He spoke for almost two hours and in spite of the seats in the Salvation Army Complex becoming harder and harder, he kept audience attention throughout. He is also an outspoken advocate for copyright reform and his Levin lecture was directed towards copyright and its impacts.

He states his Four Software Freedoms as follows:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour (freedom 2).

• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this

but in this talk they were expressed as

Freedom 0: being able to use a work – to read it

Freedom 1: to study the work and change it

Freedom 2: to being to lend or give away a copy to friends

Freedom 3: to change the work and give away/lend the changed work

Because we use a wide variety of media in trade libraries and information services, the idea of DRM or ‘Digital Restrictions Management’ also expressed as ‘digital handcuffs is very relevant. DRM takes away our freedoms and in our context may prevent us from making copies from e-books, watching some DVDs except on certain types of technology and from giving away material to other people within international trade.

Although he was obviously preaching the movement’s message, he did put forward some ideas as to how copyright laws could be changed – by changing the period from 50 years to 10 years, and distinguishing different kinds of works based on their contribution to society. In particular ‘works that tell what people think’ category would allow non-commercial sharing of exact copies – this would cover our situation in trade libraries.

I came away thinking about the way we use the © symbol to protect works which we produce in our companies – should we encouraging usage and development with statements like: Please feel free to use this material with an acknowledgement to...

Some of his pithier statements:

Analog holes = eyes

Amazon’s Kindle = the Swindle

Home cooks are kitchen pirates and break all the copyright laws

To attack sharing is to attack society

Presidential Proclamation National Information Literacy Awareness Month October 2009

2009-10-11T20:25:00.001+13:00

The White House - Press Office - Presidential Proclamation National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Presdient Obama said: "we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decisionmaking."

Are we TraCCs?

2009-10-02T16:53:00.004+13:00

Is a Trade Library and Information professional a content curator?
On his blog David Lee King asks the question What’s a Content Curator? http://www.davidleeking.com/ and in answer he quotes at length from Rohit Bhargava’s job description. Here is a piece from it:
‘Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward. The people who choose to take on this role will be known as Content Curators. The future of the social web will be driven by these Content Curators, who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online…’
This was originally published on his Influential Marketing Blog http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9wvhv7
I think the information literacy skills involved in such a role are those that an information professional has, and which we use all the time. The challenge for us within the sphere of international trade is to identify which online and social media sources: websites, trade blogs, Facebook, might be useful. Of course once we have done that we need to work out how to organise the information, make it available and then store it for future use.
Trade Content Curators (TraCCs) having the skills of an information professional will of course have a client or potential user in mind i.e. their export section, the company chief executive. This activity would always be done within that context and David Lee King admits that ‘special librarians in corporations’ may be doing that already.
I have posted a reply to David on his blog and expressed the thought that the use of the word ‘curator’ conjured up thoughts of museums and art galleries and the idea of custodianship and preservation. By chance yesterday I heard a curator from Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery speaking on the radio about curating, in which he used the expression ‘making sense of’. I could go along with that!
Do any readers of this blog feel that they are already TraCCs and are making use of online and social media information in this way? It would be great to hear from you.

There is also a post by Anne Gentle on 'How do you curate content?' http://justwriteclick.com/2009/08/06/how-do-you-curate-content/ which uses this image from Flickr- it is by L.Marie from Flickr.com available under Creative Commons licence. I thought it was a great image for this topic although this particular post takes a slightly different angle.

International Trade Library no.6 Better By Design Media Library

2009-09-23T11:25:00.004+12:00

Photo from Better By Design website.

Well it may be stretching things a bit to call this an international trade library! However it does hold and make available resources which a TraLIS should know about. Better By Design is a New Zealand organisation set up to assist the design needs of businesses including exporting companies. Brett Hewlett (pictured) from Comvita a company which focuses on bee-derived health products and which exports to China, Hong Kong and Australia, is featured in one of the videos which can be watched at: http://www.betterbydesign.org.nz/news-and-resources/media-library

Bing Harris & Co - trade history

2009-09-17T13:46:00.002+12:00

Sir Jack Harris Bt died on August 29, 2009 aged 103. Sir Jack made a huge impact as a pioneering manufacturer and civic leader in New Zealand, and was chief executive of importing/exporting company Bing Harris and Co.
In 2007 he wrote Memoirs of a century, in which he remembered events and people across his life. There is no pretence that this is a scholarly work and Sir Jack is the source of all that is included. It is indexed and this does help the reader to refind references to companies and places.
Bing Harris and Co. was established in Dunedin in the mid-1850s and Wolf Harris, Sir Jack’s grandfather began by importing goods from Melbourne. The discovery of gold in Central Otago meant that Dunedin developed quickly and that there was a market that needed the goods, largely clothing, that Bing Harris offered.
Before WW II it became clear to Sir Jack that the company should become a manufacturer of clothing and this proved to be a profitable move in the wartime period. After the war New Zealand economic policy focused on self-sufficiency – everything should be produced in NZ. To do this raw materials had to be imported. Of course the United Kingdom continued to be an important source, but it is suggested that Bing Harris were one of the first postwar importers from Japan, with contacts also being made in North America, India and Hong Kong.
Bing Harris had factories in Wanganui, New Plymouth, Christchurch, Auckland, Levin and Palmerston North. It also diversified into motor accessories .
Shortly after the war Sir Jack went to Japan to establish business contacts and his deputy George Milne followed. Arising out of that visit the trade in forest logs was opened up and Bing Harris obtained the agency for the logs from the Nissho company.
There is much anecdotal writing included which is to be expected in a volume of memoirs: comments on political figures both here and in the UK, the Harris’s house Te Rama at Waikanae and a piece written by Sir Jack’s wife, Patricia.
For the trade historian, Memoirs is a taster, and a full biography of Sir Jack, or a company history of Bing Harris will I am sure fill in many gaps.
Sir Jack Harris Bt: memoirs of a century. Steele Roberts, 2007. ISBN 978-1-877448-04-1

The Trade Librarian and Trade History

2009-09-07T15:51:00.005+12:00

Photo: Chinese garden - Dunedin 27 August 2009 / Graeme Siddle.

Last month I was on holiday and visited Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand. We visited the new Chinese Garden which was opened in 2008 located near the Early Settlers' Museum and Railway Station. As can be seen from the photo it looks new, the rocks and structures have not developed any coverings such as moss or lichens and the plantings are all young. This photo shows new growth on the willows.

There is a wall near the entrance listing supporters and benefactors - one of these has been the Sew Hoy Family - well-known in Dunedin's business circles. The Sew Hoys were a long established Dunedin Chinese family, and Hugh Sew Hoy formed a company Sew Hoy and Sons in 1958 for the manuafacture of clothing. Between then and its closure in 1989 the company esstablished five factories in the Otago region and one in Christchurch. The company employed up to 600 staff and won an export award in 1971 and formed substantial overseas holdings chiefly in clothing.

Because the company relied heavily on New Zealand's protective tariffs, when these were reduced from 1988 this impacted badly on the company and Sew Hoy and Sons in New Zealand was placed in receivership in December 1989.

For 30 years the Sew Hoy company had been a major employer in Otago. Hugh Sew Hoy did not want to shift the company's Head Office and manufacturing elsewhere. He also had great pride in the accomplishments of his grandafather Choie Sew Hoy.

Information source:

http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=5S10 retrieved August 18^th 2009.

Unlike the Sew Hoy story, there is a great deal of unwritten trade history in New Zealand and maybe in other countries as well. Is it the role of the trade library and information professional to collect and preserve it? What are we doing about this in our own companies and organisations?

Guanxi in the library world

2009-08-19T14:26:00.005+12:00

Rosalie Blake - recently retired Library Manager of the Horowhenua Library Trust. Photo used with permission.

Rosalie Blake was the guest speaker at the Ikaroa Region of LIANZA's AGM held at the Palmerston North City Library on 12 August, 2009. Her talk entitled Blake's Blasphemies included some of her axioms for managing libraries, but she also covered some of her achievements most notably the development of the Koha and Kete open source software programs.

Speaking about the early genesis and the development decisions, Rosalie noted that her library staff did not like many of the ILSs on offer, and couldn't afford the ones they did like. She therefore talked with a family member who was working in IT who said that he thought 'something' could be developed quite easily along the lines of what Horowhenua wanted.

This posed a problem for Rosalie with possible accusations of nepotism and best use of money. She consulted with the Chair of the Library Trust who happened to be Chinese - he responded by using the traditional Chinese apporach of 'guanxi'. Understanding guanxi is critical to the international trade professional working in China. 'Deep guanxi is a strong feeling of interpersonal relationship, loyalty and trust, and moral obligation to maintain the relationship from both parties'. From "Navigating China for New Zealand businesses" p.43

He said: 'Do you trust x and believe that they will deliver on their promises?' From that agreement based on guanxi, the development of Koha progressed until it has become a vital part of the library world. It is used worldwide including all the Parliamentary Libraries in Africa. However Rosalie did note that uptake in Australia and New Zealand has not been as enthusiastic. The New Zealand School of Export Library and Information Service uses it and Rosalie was part of the consultation process we undertook.

Underpants and other products

2009-08-13T12:41:00.003+12:00

This is the cover of Joe Bennett's recent book "Where underpants come from" in which he traces a pair of underpants from the retailer back to the manufacturer and to the sources of the materials used. In this case from a New Zealand retailer to a Chinese manufacturer and to sources in Thailand and Xinjiang, China's western-most province. It was a fascinating read - does anyone know of any other similar books? It would be good to know about them for trade and business libraries and information services.

As a side benefit this book described the situation of the Uighur people, the indigenous majority of Xinjiang. As it happened I had just finished Joe Bennett's book before the July 5 riots in Urumqi.

Got the numbers...

2009-08-06T14:30:00.007+12:00

Photo: Marie-Louise Siddle

Reflections at Chaffers Bay, Wellington Harbour

July 25, 2009

It goes without saying that statistics are an invaluable source for the information professional. They are also the most frustrating area to deal with, which is probably why many people working in international trade are happy to take any sets of figures they can find. Three points illustrate some of the difficulties faced.
1. I was checking all my links yesterday on the New Zealand School of Export website and discovered that the freely available Trade and Banking statistics that I had had for Russia no longer were available. In fact the Russian government doesn’t appear to provide any free statistical service. There are statistics available in other compilations and I will be using those.
2. Statistics New Zealand has just given its website a makeover and as a result has caused mayhem among New Zealand libraries with links to Statistics New Zealand pages. Even the Library at Statistics New Zealand has over 900 links to fix! Our website had only one – a measure perhaps of the fact that we haven’t come to terms with all the information that is offered there.
3. Today I had an information enquiry about exports from the Manawatu-Wanganui region. Locally we don’t have a port from which goods are exported so that has proved difficult. A report from BERL economics entitled: Economic Profile and Projections for the wider Manawatu Region:

http://www.visionmanawatu.org.nz/downloads/BERL%20projections%20to%202026.pdf

has digested a lot of statistics and provides some help. Statistics New Zealand may have some way of tracking these figures but neither Table Builder or Infoshare on the revamped website have helped.

All in a day for the information trade professional I guess!

LIBRARY WEEK 2009

2009-08-03T12:01:00.005+12:00

A young information trade professional! But it did get your attention... LIBRARY WEEK 2009 runs from 10th to the 16th August in New Zealand.
The theme this year is ESCAPE, EXPLORE, DISCOVER Ki te whai ao, ki te ao marama. ESCAPE from your office - EXPLORE this blog and some of the international trade libraries and information services that have been featured. and DISCOVER all the information that is available through these services for the trade professional.

If you are interested in Library Week and what happens go to:
www.libraryweek.org.nz But here are some ideas youcould try in your organisation:

1. Run a quiz based on your catalogue (with prizes of course - fair trade products for example)
2. Suggest some useful YouTube links for your colleagues
3. Get your colleagues to nominate their best international trade book giving 5 reasons. Make these into a short bibliography for everyone in the export section.

Enjoy Library Week 2009!

International Trade Library no.5: ELIS - Export Library & Information Service

2009-07-31T12:48:00.007+12:00

ELIS is the Export Library & Information Service of the New Zealand School of Export. This service supports the teaching, exporters’ study and research of the School. Although it has a physical location ELIS is freely available through the web http://www.export.ac.nz/library.html and also through the Catalogue http://ets.kohalibrary.com/

Resources can be borrowed by enrolled exporters, but because there is an emphasis on digital materials many are made accessible through the Catalogue.

The New Zealand School of Export is housed in a building at Aokautere Park which in a former life was used by the Water and Soil Division of the New Zealand Ministry of Works. As a result of the Water and Soil Conservation Act 1967, soil conservation work moved from the Department of Agriculture to the newly created Ministry of Works Water and Soil Division.

Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand says: ‘The Soil Conservation Centre was set up at Aokautere near Palmerston North, and investigated the impact of soil erosion on pasture productivity in the East Coast, and on Taranaki hill country. Research included testing poplar and willow species for controlling gully and slip erosion, and using remote sensing – such as satellite imaging and aerial photography – to assess the effects of erosion on the landscape.’ (Source: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/TheSettledLandscape/ChangingTheLandscape/SoilErosionAndConservation/en )

In 1986 the Ministry of Works was disbanded and the work which had been done here was continued by a Crown Research Institute in Palmerston North.

The room used by ELIS was a laboratory and there is still evidence of its scientific use in the continuing presence of a workable extractor fan.

International Trade Library no.3/4

2009-07-23T09:39:00.005+12:00

The Jules Léger Library situated in Ottawa, Canada at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. It has as its main mandate support of the research needs of departmental employees both at Headquarters in Ottawa and at missions abroad. In addition, the Library supports the needs of Canadian and foreign clients conducting research in the subject areas mandated to the Department such as foreign affairs and international trade.

http://www.international.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/index.aspx?lang=eng

Also on the Canada Foreign Affairs and International Trade website is the Multimedia Centre:

http://www.international.gc.ca/canadexport/multimedia/index.aspx?menu_id=25&menu=R

This Centre holds a collection of podcasts and videos. CanadExport podcasts connect Canadian companies to industry experts and leaders in business, not to mention the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service—Canada's most comprehensive network of international business professionals. These podcasts explore hot topics as well as pan-sectoral exporting and investment opportunities, not to mention science and technology partnerships.

Trade happens

2009-07-16T12:10:00.003+12:00

Photo: Simon Upton. Image from: http://4.bp.blogspot.com

In his column "Upton at Large" published in The Dominion Post and possibly in other New Zealand media, former New Zealand politician and former chair of the OECD's Round Table on Sustainable Development, Simon Upton wrote:

'Trade happens. It can significantly enlarge human welfare. It can also be a conduit for new and intensified environmental pressures.' July 14, 2009 The Dominion Post p.B5

He suggests that the ECA or environmental cooperation agreement which accompanied New Zealand's Free Trade Agreement with China, could provide New Zealand with a valuable platform for exporting expertise and environmental technologies.

I find Simon Upton's columns worth reading - they are well-written and I think 'wise'.

Why BLOG?

2009-07-09T11:59:00.003+12:00

Photo: Sushrutha Metikurke Hole in fence, Wellington

I've been looking at Valeria Maltoni's 'e-book' called "Why Blog + 25 tips to make it work" which I downloaded from http://www.conversationagent.com/ Thanks Conversation Agent - I've found it pretty useful - it makes some simple but obvious suggestions which I have already put in to operation. It also highlights some gaps in my understanding...

A TraLIS? What's that?

2009-07-03T20:41:00.006+12:00

Diagram: Graeme Siddle. Click to enlarge.

It is a library and information service which serves the needs of people who work at all levels of international trade. This is what it looks like diagrammatically. It may be located in a company, a government organisation or an educational institution.
Central to its success is a person with qualifications and experience in librarianship or information and knowledge management. A trade library and information service staffed by a suitably qualified and expereinced person is able to match a person's information need with appropriate resources in the format that delivers the best result. This may be a book, image or academic peer-reveiwed journal in electronic format.
A TraLIS ideally would include an information portal which presents gateways to evaluated sources of trade information, but a website or information portal alone is not a TraLIS.
It would also include a catalogue which recorded available resources particularly but not exclusively in digital formats. The catalogue software used would make it possible for the TraLIS manager to fully exploit information sources with subject headings, tags and analytical entries. www.ets.kohalibrary.com/ - the New Zealand School of Export Library catalogue using Koha software is an example of how this can be done.
A Trade Library Information Service would also be embedded within an organisation which includes experts such as practitioners in all aspects of international trade, or teaching staff and adjunct faculty. They are living information sources which the enquirer can tap into through links made by the TraLIS manager.

Can you add or expand, critique this explanation?

International Trade Library no.2

2009-07-02T12:12:00.004+12:00

JETRO Business Library is the second featured trade library and information service. It is located across the JETRO Tokyo and Osaka headquarter offices, and has a wide selection of materials and resources devoted to international trade, business and investment, including numerous Japanese and foreign books, newspapers and magazines. Library users can also access commercial online databases, company directories and CD-ROMs containing recent trade and economic data.

The OPAC is searchable in English: http://tinyurl.com/myjsx8

Tough Times for Exporters

2009-06-30T09:44:00.004+12:00

Fern growing in rock wall - Esplanade Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland Photo taken June 19, 2009

From all the media reports as well as figures coming from Statistics New Zealand, international trade is difficult at the moment particularly for exporters. It seems to me that this tenacious fern encapsulates the situation perfectly - find a niche and hold on!

World Trade Organisation

2009-06-26T11:29:00.004+12:00

The WTO site is a fund of information as can be seen by clicking on the Trade Topics link. The WTO also has a library and the catalogue can be searched by anyone, but it is intended primarily for WTO Staff and Delegates. Here is the OPAC link:

https://elibrary2.eosintl.com/W10300FRStaff/OPAC/index.asp

It specializes in economics, statistical and legal materials related to international trade. The Library holds some 40,000 monographs, more than 1,000 periodicals, and over 800 current yearbooks. In addition, it is home to the GATT Archives. A search on 'New Zealand' retrieves 37 items.

Blind Search

2009-06-23T09:59:00.003+12:00

'The goal of this site is simple, we want to see what happens when you remove the branding from search engines. How differently will you perceive the results?
This site is built as a fun experiment by Michael Kordahi.'
Michael says: 'The system has many flaws that I know about already, the primary one of interest is the lack of localisation. So, all searches are going through the US as US searches. The other deficiency worth noting is that there is much missing from the actual experience of using these search engines eg, image thumbnails, suggestions, refine queries etc.
Ohh, and this site is very very beta, expect it to break!'

I did two test searches using the following:

1. New Zealand's top exports
2. New Zealand's top ten export destinations

For Search 1 Google produced the best result which was a Statistics New Zealand page. For Search 2 Bing produced a result which was helpful although not exactly what I wanted - it gave the top seven destinations one of which was North America which is too general when an enquirer might want to know whether Canada figures in the top ten.

In both searches the results were the wrong way round e.g. US exports to New Zealand. This may be explained by Michael's comments above. There were also Australian results like this some of which came at the top of the list. Other results were very specific and focussed on one products e.g. wine or electronics. And there were results which focussed on one export destination e.g. Thailand.

See also post on Bing below. The URL for Blind Search is: http://blindsearch.fejus.com/ I'd be interested in what others might have found.

Picking up information

2009-06-22T11:14:00.004+12:00

It's amazing where one picks up information related to aspects of international trade. I regularly read a magazine from the Columban Fathers which often has items which I have not seen in other media. Last year they ran a series on the Millennium Development Goals which didn't seem to get much publicity in the mainstream press. The June issue of The Far East included a reprinted article by Ruth Dearnley entitled "A glass and a half" in which it was announced that Cadbury's Dairy milk chocolate would become Fairtrade certified later this year.

Under the Fairtrade scheme, Cadbury will pay a guaranteed minimum price for cocoa even if the open-market proce falls below it.

Photo: www.unicef.org.uk depicts cocoa beans drying in Ghana. Cadbury's will triple the amount of Fairtrade cocoa imported from Ghana to about 15,000 tonnes a year.

Bing Bing!

2009-06-10T12:51:00.003+12:00

And no not this Bing. There has been a lot of discussion on Google News about Bing and no doubt in other blogs and discussion forums. Here's a quote from Tom Krazit writing on Cnet News June 9, 2009: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10261061-2.html in a piece entitled: 'Google's Schmidt dings Bing'.

"Bing has been well-received in its first trip around the Internet, but it obviously has an awfully long way to go before it makes a dent in Google's business. Still, with some in the search industry now wondering if Yahoo really intends to compete in search over the next few years, Bing may shape up as the only true alternative to Google."

Has anyone in international trade really had a good look at Bing - care to share your findings?

Kiwifruit

2009-06-05T20:22:00.003+12:00

Today's article in the Dominion Post's Business Day p.C1 entitled 'Attack on Zespri monopoly' by Andrew Janes contained an interesting piece of IP information. The name kiwifruit, coined to replace Chinese gooseberry, was first mooted in 1956 by the company Turners and Growers. Now of course, that name is commonplace throughout the world.

The remainder of the article outlined Turners and Growers' challenge to kiwifruit company Zespri to allow them to become an 'international, branded, year-round supplier and marketer of kiwifruit,' with accusations of monopolistic and protectionist actions.

Useful websites: www.turnersandgrowers.com
www.zespri.com

YouTube videos

2009-06-03T22:00:00.002+12:00

Has anyone come across a list of useful videos that are available through YouTube? A search on the phrase "international trade" brings up a lot of short clips which look interesting e.g. one from mishymail about an academic course on International Commercial Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. If you can recommend any clips that you have watched that would be great - thanks. By the way if you are searching and use "exporting" you will get heaps of computer related results.

Barack Obama and Libraries

2009-01-29T10:32:00.003+13:00

Barack Obama is a library supporter - check out these links: http://www.mla.gov.uk/news/comment/obama_libraries . http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/obama05.cfm

He keynoted the opening general session at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, June 23–29, 2005, while a U.S. senator from Illinois. This article, published in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries, is an adaptation of that speech, which was entitled Bound to the Word.
He said that librarians must be thanked for their role as champions of privacy, literacy, independent thinking, and most of all reading.

Export Potential?

2008-11-12T13:59:00.003+13:00

Recently on our trip overseas, we came across Elderflower cordial offered on a menu in a Dresden (Germany) restaurant. The picture to the right is of elderflowers in full bloom across Staces Road from the New Zealand School of Export. I know elder trees are widespread in New Zealand - maybe there is export potential here in harvesting and producing a marketable product?!

Photo taken 12 November, 2008 Graeme Siddle

Looking for Other Trade Blogs

2008-11-07T13:18:00.002+13:00

http://fita.org/webindex/browse.cgi/Entering_International_Markets/International_Trade_Blogs_Podcasts_and_Forums

This is a link to the blogs which are listed on the FITA site - most are very specific to trade leads and making links between products and buyers. However it is interesting to see what is happening and the kind of talk going on. The TraLIS blog with its emphasis on the information aspects of international trade seems to be unique. It would be good to be proved wrong.....

Graeme

Kowhai and Repositories

2008-09-17T13:10:00.003+12:00

Kowhai at Aokautere Park September 17,2008. Photo taken by Graeme Siddle.

In line with the natural theme which this blog has developed, I wanted to put up a picture of kowhai. This is a photo of flowers on a kowhai in the grounds of Aokautere Park flowering at the moment, but there is also a larger tree in the bush remnant across Staces Road from the School. I don't have a particular connection between kowhai and repositories except that I guess kowhai is a repository of plant dna particular to this place.

I discovered this blog this morning and repositories are a tool which the Director has raised with me. John Mark Ockerbloom says:

At the same time, though, you can't plan the development of a library without thinking about its repositories. Repositories really are essential infrastructure for libraries but not simply as a place to "capture and preserve the intellectual output of university communities" (as a 2002 SPARC white paper put it), or, more pessimistically, as "a place where you dump stuff and then nothing happens to it" (as a 2005 JISC workshop annex put it).
Repositories: what they are, and what we use them for John Mark Ockerbloom post June 26, 2008.
The issue of repositories raises the issue not only of what do we do with the intellectual output of the New Zealand School of Export, but also of what is happening to the particular intellectual output in New Zealand which is related to international trade. Is this just for the National Library of New Zealand to look after, or an institution such as ours?
Graeme

Swedish Vice Minister for Trade opens IATTO Forum in Stockholm

2008-09-10T10:36:00.004+12:00

Gunnar Wieslander, the Swedish Vice Minister for Trade who gave the opening address at the 34th IATTO Forum in Stockholm, recognised the importance of people and the knowledge they have and can use. He said 'One under-utilised resource in this context is Swedish entrepreneurs of foreign origin who have contacts and unique knowledge of the business culture, politics, religion and language in th countries where they previously lived. The Government is committing itself to making better use of the expertise of Swedes of foreign origin...'

His full paper can be accessed at http://www.export.ac.nz/news.html and was delivered last week.

Graeme

International Trade - 17th century style

2008-08-25T11:59:00.004+12:00

"Noting that the unenlightened Europeans preferred to serve their exotic product from a pot, the Chinese saw the potential for yet another lucrative Western market, and began making pots for export from their own Yixing red stoneware, probably based on shapes copied from silver or delftware pots made in Europe.
When China's copies of European forms were seen by Bottger, he borrowed them back, realising that his material was even finer than Chinese stoneware... Thus the circle of fashion revolved in a curious cross-pollination of ideas and customs: a design from Europe was transported to China and then welcomed back to Europe again.'
from The Arcanum: the extraordinary true story by Janet Gleeson. pp.98-99

This history focuses on the development of Meissen porcelain in Saxony. As well referring to international trade there is information on the trade fairs that were held in Germany at this time.

Graeme

LIANZA meeting at the New Zealand School of Export

2008-08-21T11:48:00.006+12:00

18 members of the Ikaroa Region ventured out to Aokautere Park on the evening of Tuesday 19 August, 2008 to visit and hear about the Library & Information Service (ELIS) run by the New Zealand School of Export.

The Director of the School Dr Rom Rudzki enthusiastically shared his story and the story of the School. This fitted the Library Week theme for 2008 What's Your Story Nou te Korero admirably. The Head of Marketing, Alison Vickers outlined the marketing efforts being made by the School to get exporters for the Diploma course and also delighted librarians with her prizes!

I finished the evening by talking about ELIS and the usefulness of my attendance at VALA 2008 (sponsored by Hydestor through the Ikaroa Region) - where I learned about the 23 things and came back with 50+ things to do!

As a result of the meeting and sharing between friends and colleagues, I now have a quick way to check all my website links using a Firefox add-on (Googled 'link evaluator firefox), and have added a Site Meter (www.sitemeter.com/) to this blog. Thanks to Barbara and Judi.

And thanks for organising it: Jane, Rom and Alison.

Graeme

Other Kinds of Information

2008-08-14T14:53:00.003+12:00

The photo right, shows in the middle the small peak called Ahu-a-Turanga. This peak is located on the Ruahine Range between the Manawatu Gorge and the Saddle Road. For those who know, this is the burial place of Turanga and therefore became a place of religious and symbolic significance to the Rangitane people who lived on both sides of the range. A pathway between east and west crossed the range at this point, perhaps used by Maori trading food, and when travellers reached this peak they recited prayers for a safe journey.

Landscape, physical and geographical features are often carriers of information as much as books, CD-ROMs, and files.

Photo taken from Staces Road, Aokautere, 26 March 2008 by Graeme Siddle.

Keyword-rich searching

2008-08-08T12:03:00.003+12:00

In his piece International Trade Article Visits published at http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/blog_print.cfm/international_trade_article_visits Daniel Workman writes: 'Studies show that people using search engines quickly look for answers to specific questions and will leave if not found within a couple of seconds.'
This comment highlights the need for people using search engines to think carefully about their keywords before they search, and especially to think about other possible synonyms or variants of their keywords. If they are searching for "export organisations" in a specific country they may need to also search for "organizations". This can be done effectively by using a Boolean search, or by using the Advanced search features which search engines provide.
The fact that Daniel Workman highlights the need for writers to use 'keyword-rich' articles should make us think about 'keyword-rich searching'.
Graeme

A Maori Dimension

2008-07-30T21:31:00.004+12:00

Last week July 21-25th was Maori Language Week in New Zealand. During that week searching and using Google in the Maori language or te reo was launched. Go to www.google.co.nz and try it out.

In the catalogue of the New Zealand School of Export I began using Maori subject headings from the thesaurus Nga Upoko Tukutuku hosted by the National Library of New Zealand. Some of the terms I will find useful are:

tauhokohoko - trade
hua - food produce sold for profit
putea - finance
tapoi - tourism

As the thesaurus is developing and evolving I am sure there will be more terms which can be used to make the ELIScat more useful to Maori. Are there any lists of trade terms in First Nations languages which others are using?

Graeme

Weightless economy

2008-07-19T14:44:00.007+12:00

I was having a look at technorati today and came across this video clip on the weightless economy and New Zealand:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JFdr7IIh6R8

If you can't open this clip, copy it into your browser and it should open from there.
Here is a URL for weightless economy at the NZ Institute:

http://www.nzinstitute.org/index.php/weightlesseconomy/

Zoomii

2008-07-08T12:41:00.004+12:00

There has been quite a bit of discussion on another list which I am subscribed to about zoomii.com. It is fascinating to be able to 'go into' this bookshop and browse... I thought I would have a look at their stock of books on exporting. The search 'export' brings up 18 matches today. There are one or two titles which are not to do with international trade but the majority belong to the 'how to start-up an export business' or 'how to build your exports'. There were/are two titles which could be regarded as academic covering export theory and practice.

Has anybody used it? Any comments?

Graeme

Thesaurus of International Trade Terms

2008-06-25T12:45:00.004+12:00

Autumn fungi at Aokautere Park. Well it's now winter, but that is a good time to be indoors cataloguing materials for our exporters. I have just purchased a copy of Thesaurus of International Trade Terms Rev. 4, 2004 and am finding it most useful. It is not vastly different from what I was doing previously but I am already adding to it. For example I have added the sectoral terms used by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise - Food & beverage sector.

Does anyone else out there use it? Do you have any comments which might be useful to share?

Graeme

aka-aki

2008-05-24T21:38:00.005+12:00

Have you heard about this social networking software which has been developed in Germany? It may have applications for business and international trade. Have a look at the website - when it comes up it is in German but you can change that to English. There is a video too to show you how it can work.

Check out the article in DominionPost May 17, 2008 E8

Libraries in the 21st century

2008-05-20T16:25:00.003+12:00

In 2005 OCLC published a report to its members entitled Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. Many of the surveyed respondents were speaking of their public libraries. However there is much in the report that is important for specialised library services. On the final page the authors write:

"Libraries will continue to share an expanding infosphere with an increasing number of content producers, providers and consumers. Information consumers will continue to self-serve from a growing information smorgasbord. The challenge for libraries is to clearly define and market their relevant place in that infosphere - their services and collections both physical and virtual.

It is time to rejuvenate the "Library" brand."

Graeme

Records & Archives Week May 1-7

2008-04-28T09:02:00.004+12:00

Records & Archives Week celebrates the importance of records, archives and the recordkeeping professions. The theme for 2008 is 'Protect Your Records'. Everyone keeps records of some sort and those of us involved in some aspect of international trade are no exception to this, having photographs, contracts, marketing materials, supply chain flow-charts and so on. The thing they all have in common is that we would hate to lose them, because it would be very expensive and in the case of older material, it may mean a loss of our heritage.

The Records & Archives Week site has Advice on protecting your records. Have a look at it and do something this week!

MATAPIHI

2008-04-25T12:57:00.006+12:00

During the VALA Conference as a result of listening to the presentation by Joann Ransom from Horowhenua District Libraries on the use of the 'kete' software, I was thinking about using photographs particularly for the history of international trade. Local History Week at the Palmerston North City Libraries also prompted me to think about the use of images for the history of any country's exporting and importing activities.
The National Library of New Zealand plays a lead role in the management and promotion of Matapihi, which is a digital collection of images from 14 collections around New Zealand. The images are varied: photographs, drawings, paintings and museum objects.
I did searches on 'exports' which retrieved 58 images, 'exporting' six images and 'imports' 47 images. Among the cartoons and photos was an image which really caught my eye of three labels from cans of exported meats:- West Coast Meat & Produce Export Co Ltd (Patea). New Zealand boiled beef, and New Zealand brawn; and, Mitchell & Richards Tinned Meats, Wanganui. Ox tongues. 1890-1920]. A search on the site for 'west coast meat' will retrieve the description and image quickly.
The images can be freely used for study or research purposes, but you need permission for use on a website or intranet, or in a published work. The Matapihi site tells you how to obtain permission.
Graeme

NZSOE at VALA 2008 (3)

2008-03-24T20:18:00.006+13:00

Kathryn Greenhill, Murdoch University, WA. Do we remove the walls? Second Life Librarianship.

This was one of the conference sessions which was most surprising and challenging for me. How could it relate to a Trade Library and Information Service?

Kathryn had created a whole world - 'a cultural archipelago with 40 islands' - a consistent fictional world

curating an Australian Libraries Island

Avatars, Islands, Buildings, Objects

Could we have exporter avatars? Lucy Commodity and James P.Roduct?

Could they go to a building to get information on exporting to Sweden where is a SL Embassy?

Could LIS set up a building? At what cost?

In following up Second Life, I found there is already the concept of businesses and organization in second life

Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

Graeme

Photo: Outside the New Zealand School of Export, Aokautere Park. Autumn morning 25 March 2008 / Graeme Siddle.

NZSOE at VALA 2008 (2)

2008-03-22T11:51:00.003+13:00

Peter Johann Lor, Sec-General of IFLA. International dimensions of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

These are some of the points Peter Lor made which were particularly applicable to International Trade Librarianship:

Modern ICTs have brought a shift from economies of things, to the economies of information - the weightless economy concept cf. David Skilling of The New Zealand Institute
physical controls are eliminated in the weightless economy - logistics?
information is being commodified therefore knowledge is a strategic resource
new Enclosure Movement cf. Britain 1700s - we are now seeing the enclosure of intellectual property via digital locks (fences)
Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are also locking up information and in some case forcing developing nations to adopt policies for information and intellectual property which are more appropriate for a developed nation.
FTAs have been responsible for affecting the affordability of school textbooks therefore access to information - a negative impact cf. Costa Rica.
Free Trade not necessarily fair trade.
Web 2.0 will speed up the process of disintermediation or deprofessionalisation
Lor introduced his paper by showing us a Library 2.0 Meme map attributed to Bonaria Biancu (Wikipedia 2007c). - I really liked this as a guide to Library 2.0.

Graeme

For Easter

2008-03-18T16:08:00.000+13:00

Two letters X and P I saw set down
in order, clean and white as bones
upon a neglected earthpage covered with fungus
like grey moss but the propelling letters shone through
and a thumb-nail nicked corner of the sky
while human heads leaned dark across the mountain.

from the poem 'A Painting by Colin McCahon'
written by Janet Frame published in The pocket mirror
published Pegasus, 1968 pp.105-6

NZSOE at VALA 2008

2008-03-17T10:16:00.000+13:00

Schubert Foo: ‘Going Virtual for Enhanced Library Experience’
VALA 2008 Conference Wednesday 6 February 2008

One of the new terms that Shubert Foo used in his presentation was the notion of ‘information-object’ as ‘info-concierge’.

Foo says on p.2 of his written paper that when the information object is discovered it becomes an info-concierge ‘with the ability to connect the information seeker, to other content, both within and outside the library, or other information seekers. Each information object in the library thus serves as an info-concierge, connecting people to content, people to people, and content to another piece of content. ‘

The concept of concierge has an inherent notion of guarding in it, although the meaning he was keen to use was ‘the opening up’ or ‘letting through to’. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierge (16 March 2008) says that: ‘a concierge is often expected to "achieve the impossible", dealing with any request a guest may have, no matter how strange, relying on an extensive list of personal contacts with various local merchants and service providers.’ I liked this information source concept and it certainly fits with what he writes:

‘An information object, as an info-concierge, connects through various means. These include:
(1) simple hyperlinks within an article [an information object]
(2) putting own content on different platforms [information objects that presents information in a different context] for discovery
(3) ‘push’ information to suggestion for exploration of other related categories of Resources’[1]

The ELIS Pathfinder on Country Information could be seen as an example: http://www.export.ac.nz/downloads/Pathfinders%20Countries%2018%20February%202008.pdf

· Hyperlinks point to other sites of country information Content to content
· If this was linked to one of the exporter blogs where the country information has been discussed then this would be Content to People linking
· If within the blog exporters had been commenting on the usefulness of the information in the Pathfinder then this would be People to People linking
· If those exporters then pushed or suggested another information source or website then would be People to content

His implication was of course that the librarian and information professional should be exploiting this ‘info-concierge’ role of information objects.
[1] Foo, Schubert, (2008) paper from VALA Conference, p.16

Graeme

MarketLine database

2008-03-12T11:50:00.000+13:00

Are there professionals working in International Trade Library and Information Services who use this product? What do you think of it? What do your clients think of it?
Graeme

LIS for trade professionals

2008-03-11T13:57:00.000+13:00

It is quite surprising that large organisations which are either promoting international trade or educating for international trade don't appear to provide a library and information service to their clients. I visited Melbourne in February 2008 and hoped that I might be able to visit the local office of Austrade. I was not able to as there is no office in Melbourne. The World Trade Centre in Melbourne didn't have a library and information service either. I hope that through this blog those of us who are involved in this specialist area will be able to share ideas, thoughts and tips on how they serve their clients in the area of international trade.