LIANZA meeting at the New Zealand School of Export

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

MATAPIHI

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)

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)

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

NZSOE at VALA 2008

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