[Outgoing] First Lady, [Inaugurating] US President and the [Existing] SL President

Its only a few hours left for Obama's inauguration. I don't think that the world at large had this kind of an interest about US presidency before.

We have a point. From their past sayings and employments we all know that the outgoing First Lady; Laura Bush and incoming President Barack Obama share some common interests - books, reading, and positive attitude towards libraries!

Laura was a librarian. She loved reading. In her own words,
"I learned [how important reading is] at home from my mother. When I was a little girl, my mother would read stories to me. I have loved books and going to the library ever since. In the summer, I liked to spend afternoons reading in the library. I enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie books and Little Women, and many others... Reading gives you enjoyment throughout your life."[1]

In 1973, Laura attained a Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She was soon employed as a librarian at the Kashmere Gardens Branch at the Houston Public Library [2].

Some first ladies need a long time to pack and go when their husbands have to vacant office to enable the incoming president. Laura is different! Anita McBride, chief of staff to first lady, tells CNN that the Bushes have moved almost all of their belongings out of the White House ahead of schedule [3]. "It's probably the librarian in her," McBride said of Mrs. Bush, and continued saying "Maybe we've got a bit of a Dewey Decimal system of move-out process".

Meanwhile Brookdale and Central Minneapolis Libraries (US) are planning things to show the ceremony on a big screen. He is very popular among the patrons. "There is a long waiting list for Obama’s ‘Dreams from My Father’ (Current Requests:133) and books about him have been very popular" says Brookdale youth services librarian Ginger Gomes [4].

Librarians have a few reasons to love Obama, including the fact that he gave libraries a shout-out in his weekly address on Jan. 3: "To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries" [4].

As Sri Lankan librarians, we also have a reason to love OUR President, Mr.Mahinda Rajapaksha. He was one time a Library Assistant in a University Library! Three cheers for the leaders who care books, reading and libraries!!!

[1] "Mrs. Bush's Remarks at Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries Grant Awards". The White House (May 20, 2003). Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
[2] "Laura Welch Bush" (PDF). CBS. Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
[3] "No moving trucks needed for Bushes on Inauguration Day". CNN Politics. Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
[4] "A president librarians can love". Minnpost. Retrieved on 2009-01-20.

University Librarians Take Action Towards Environmental Protection

University librarians of Seatle University, US urge students to reduce printing and help save the environment. They have cut concessions and increased printing costs to support this campaign. Also, the librarians advice students to use a small font and print on both sides to reduce the number of pages utilized.

ULASL.ORG Surpasses 3000 Hits Milestone

(Left) Countrywide statistics for visits of ULASL.ORG (Green-unresolved, Orange-Sri Lanka, D.Blue-US Commercial, L.Blue-Canada, Yellow-India, White-Other).

Recently the current version of ULA web site surpassed its 3000 hits milestone. Considering the limited potential membership of the association compared to bigger communities, this is really an achievement. On the other hand, ULA doesn't have a physical entity of its own. Therefore its headquaters is at this cyberspace address. This way, the web site's significance is quite substantial. With our experience we know that it has an enormous potential to offer the same service that a physical entity do.

Here are some statistics obtained using Webilizer, for the month of January.

ULASL.ORG Statistics for January 2009 (below)

Total Files Accessed 9853

Total Pages 5666

Total Visits 1499

Total KBytes 164688

INSAP Funding Continues This Year

INASP will continue to fund for selected journals database subscriptions for Sri Lanka during the year 2009. This is a happy news for most of the libraries who solely depend on the country-wide access facilities provided by INASP for e-journals. However, some libraries have gone far beyond and are now subscribing to other e-journals too, which are not covered by the above project.

Will Music Libraries be Filled with Personal Music?

Microsoft has made composing easier by introducing its new product; Microsoft Songsmith! Using the reverse concept of 'Karoke', it enables a computer to compose a suitable music for what it hears. The musician/singer sings to the computer for it to make music.

In order to do this, the software processes the pitch and tone of what's recorded and lets users hear how it might sound if they had a little backup in the form of a virtual piano, drums, and keyboard. Microsoft is expecting them to use the new track either as inspiration for further song development or as a simple way to create karaoke-quality recordings for friends and family members.
It has been priced at USD 29.99.

Happy New Year

After a One Month's Silence...Its not a silence though. We were busy adding new features and knowledge to the site. A new drive to popularise the ULA e-Library is also going on.

Here are a few developments added over the past month.

E-Greetings: Added E-Greetings for ULA membership to greet their friends and partners for the new year with a brand of their own.

Do you Know: Under the ULA e-Library, a new menu item was added as a fun activity, at the same time enabling the membership to acquire knowledge about ULA, and other information.

Festive mode: Falling snow flakes were introduced to add a festive atmosphere (Christmas and New Year) to the ULA site. A new colorful theme was introduced to the home page. On the first of January 2009, ULA new year wishes were published.

Retrospective relfections - 2008: It was the time to do a reflection on past activities during the fiscal year. It was published along with the new year greetings.

Techtips: It is necessary for librarians to equip with necessary skills and knowledge on new technological developments. Techtips is an attempt to assist in this.

More about Abram's speech

Last time when I updated this blog I was in a hurry. The brief was small but not beautiful. Therefore the message I tried to give may not be clear.

Abram was speaking from New Delhi, and we were watching him real time from Colombo thanks to Video Conference facilities available at the American Center, Colombo (Thanks Padma, for inviting us).

When we talk about the Web 2.0, there are many 'application oriented web sites' such as Wikipedia (society updated encyclopedia), Ning & Facebook (social networking), etc.

These are the playgrounds of today's youth; exactly the ones who are our patrons.Therefore, we must make use of these and appear there as librarians whom our patrons can directly contact. This is like educating them while playing with them in the common playground. 

However, what we see is library professionals hiding in their own comfort zones, and keeping their email addresses and other stuff as secret as possible (I agree with the security concerns and spam, but there are other methods to counteract, if we really want to).

As a first step, we'll try to introduce common rooms for all University Librarians and all University library patrons in the above mentioned social networking and social encyclopedic sites...Meanwhile, individual libraries can have at least introductory information on their libraries (opening hours, circulation policies etc.), and directions to their web sites, and online catalogs if available, in the Web 2.0.

Stephen's PPT used in the teleconference is available here, as a pdf file