This annual event, which attracts
visitors from other parts of Asia, prides itself on an agenda
in tune with current concerns and issues.
 Chulalongkorn University library
charts new territory
Dr. Kamales Santivejkul, Director, Center
of Academic Resources (CAR), Chulalongkorn University, spoke
on the challenges of e-learning in academic libraries. CAR was
the first organisation in Thailand to load Blackboard,
charting new territory as far as e-learning in Thailand is
concerned. Careful preparation at CAR and training of
lecturers led to dramatic use of the system. Once a critical
mass of often young and enthusiastic faculty members had begun
using it, the popularity of Blackboard snowballed, so much so
that CAR is having to upgrade its hardware to cope with the
use and demand. The success of e-learning at Chulalongkorn
University, has turned many eyes on CAR eager to learn more
about this groundbreaking case
study.
E-learning touches on copyright issues especially if books, chapters,
journal articles or teaching materials are loaded on the system. Thai librarians are
enthusiastic adopters of full text digital databases and journals. So an
overview of copyright issues in Thailand which emphasised the challenges
to librarians posed by digital materials couldn't have come
at a better time. Judge What Tingsamitr Chief of
Chamber 4, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, Bangkok, put
into perspective the do's and don'ts and 'be carefuls' of copying, loaning,
changing and downloading digital documents.
Metadata and quality assurance
workshops draw the crowds
Australians were much in evidence both
as trainers and conference speakers. Lynn Farkas and Brenda McConchie both
consultants from the Australian information industry, conducted two days of
workshops on metadata and quality assurance and benchmarking
respectively. Metadata is a 'dry' subject and there were some
people with good knowledge of it who wondered if it couldn't
all be said in and hour or so. But Lynn proved them wrong,
taking the trainees step by step through an Australian
metadata manual developed by the National Archives of Australia and
the Office of Government Online; and then having them create their
own metadata using the Metabrowser software.
While the
application of metadata in Southeast Asia by librarians,
webmasters and webmistresses is almost non-existent, the
Australian government has taken it very seriously. It
recognises that government information should be readily
accessible to the public which in turn means that it needs to
be described accurately. And, if Australian companies are to
do business on the Web, their websites must be easy to find
which again means metadata principles being applied by web
developers. Of course, the major Web search engines like Yahoo
and Google have to be convinced to go look for metadata...but
that's another story.
Librarians
should be bolder about KM
Two presentations
urged librarians to take advantage of new labels and
technologies. Lynn Farkas speaking on knowledge management
urged librarians to be right at the centre of their
institutions' KM plans since they are the experts in
information management. She felt that not enough librarians
are prepared to venture from their cataloguing and lending
mindsets into the world of intangible information (people and
what they know), archives, company records and so on. ACCESS
has noted in earlier issues that the people filling KM
positions in Southeast Asia tend to be expatriates, technical
rather than content people, and definitely not from the world
of libraries. Yet by expanding their definition of
information, librarians could be key players on the Asian KM
scene.
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Lynn Farkas
The second paper
which clearly showed that librarians had missed the boat was
called Survival of the information industry in the wake of the
dot.com saga and delivered by Randy Marcinko. The central
message for librarians is best summarised as 1) you didn't
react quickly enough to the dot.com revolution thereby handing
information management and creation on the Web to geeks and
businessman; 2) the geeks and dot.com newbies became so high
profile and vocal in their 'we don't need librarians, we have
machines and technologists' that librarians couldn't get a
foot in the dot.com door; 3) but the geeks had no idea how to
create quality information that people would pay for and when
the dot.com bubble burst, they sank without a trace; 4)
consumers now realise that if they pay for information its
quality will be far better and authoritative than free stuff;
5) finally, librarians have the chance to regain their
rightful place on the Web because their information management
and creation skills produce services that companies will once
again pay for. How many Asian librarians are using their
skills in a Web business? Very few we think.
In addition to the conference sessions,
many publishers and technology partners from around the world
mounted an exhibition of their products and services. Links to
their Websites along with Conference information including
PowerPoint presentations, can be found at www.igroupnet.com/online2001
. Online Information and
Education Conference 2002 will be held in Bangkok in the
second half of
2002.
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