Kowhai and Repositories

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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