NSF Workshop on Library 2.0

The National Science Foundation (NSF) of Sri Lanka organized a Workshop on Library 2.0 related applications for library professionals in Sri Lanka. It was held on 29th May 2009 from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm at the NSF Computer Center.

Dr. Ruwan Gamage of University of Moratuwa and I my self conducted the workshop.

For more info.: http://slbloggers.blogspot.com/

Gold Prize of the 2009 Korean Speech Contest

The 2009 Korean Speech Contest was held on Saturday 16th, May 2009 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was organized for the 3rd time by the KOICA and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea. I won the Gold Prize (금상) of the Contest.

9 contestants were participated the event. We were supposed to make a speech for five minutes on an unforgettable event or person in the life. I spoke about my "second marriage" with my Philippine friend Maricel. Actually, we participated a traditional wedding ceremony in Seoul in 2008 as the bride and bride groom. The crowed and the panel of judges were very interested about the speech.

Five prizes were given to the contestants including the Grand Prize, Gold Prize, Silver prize, Bronze Prize and KOICA Prize. The award encourages me to study Korean language and culture more and more.

Fore more information with photos, please visit: CPI Website

I love Korea!!!

Paper Presentation - NILIS Symposium

I presented a paper on 21st March at National Institute of Library and Information Sciences (NILIS), University of Colombo in its' annual research symposium.

Topic of my paper was "From user education to information literacy : changing role of university libraries in Sri Lanka".

You may view my presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/tharangad/from-user-education-to-information-literacy-changing-role-of-university-libraries-in-sri-lanka

Presentation on the University Library System in South Korea

Since my return from South Korea after a successful six month training program, my first professional activity was to present a paper on my experiences.

Accordingly, I made a presentation on the "University Library System in South Korea” at the Achievers Colloquium organized by the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka on 5th December 2008 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI), Colombo.

There I discussed about various aspects of the university library system in Korea including Library Organization, Bibliographic Control, Library Cooperation, Using modern ICT, Library Space Planning.

The audience was the university librarians and they were really interested about the present status of the university library system in Korea. They identified the university library system in Korea as a well planned and a well developed library system and there were so many examples and practices to be noted and applied for the university library system in Sri Lanka.

Also, I plan to make several more presentation in near future including the “National Library of Korea and It’s Services”.

Using Weblogs for Reference Services in Library 2.0 era = Library 2.0시대에 블로그를 이용한 참고봉사

Today, (Monday 24th) I made a presentation at the National Library of Korea on "Using Weblogs for Reference Services in Library 2.0 era".

In my presentation I discussed following things:

*What is Library 2.0?

*Changes in Reference Services in Library 2.0 era

*How to use Weblogs for Reference Services in Library 2.0 era?

The event was attended by directors and librarians of the National Library and also my colleagues in the training program. You may access the presentation that I made in Korean Language, by following this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/tharangad/using-weblogs-for-reference-services-in-library-20-era-library-20-presentation-782718

Preservation Workshop in NLK

The National Library of Korea (NLK) established it’s Preservation Office (자료보존실) in 2003 with conservation specialists and state-of-art equipments for systematic conservation and management of nations’ treasures. It is comprised with:

• A Conservation Laboratory
• A Fumigation Room
• A Microfilm Laboratory &
• A Deacidification Room

Parallely to the National Library’s 63rd Anniversary, the Preservation Office of NLK conducted a workshop on Preservation on 15th Oct. In that workshop, participants were able to obtain hands-on-experience on various steps of preservation process from diagnosis of the health of the book (책 건강진단) to book-binding. The Workshop was an effort to bring the whole conservation process out of the preservation office, and exhibit it to the library community in the Country.

Library 2.0 environment in South Korea

Dear All,

As I have mentioned earlier, South Korea has a well developed library system. At the same time, they are well aware about the changing environment in the field of library and information science, and always try to keep the library community in the country aware regarding these changes. Also they are keen in finding solutions and developing strategies to address those changes.

Accordingly, the "The Library 2.0 Technical Seminar" was held today at the COEX Mall located in the Gangnam-Gu, Seoul with the participation of around 100 library professionals. Some interesting papers were presented and some of them are as follows:

• Evolution of Library 2.0: semantic and the Library
• Semantic Technology and the Future of the Library
• PYXIS: Library 2.0 portal for a successful library service
• Social Semantic Digital Library
• Digital Library improved by SOLARS DLi II

Among them, there were some case studies which describes how the Library 2.0 concept has been adapted and will be adapted in library services in Korea.

It was an useful and interesting session.

If you need more information pls. do not hesitate to contact me.

With Best Regards,

Tharanga Ranasinghe (from Seoul)

Library Song

There’s a place for you and me,
it’s the local public library.
They have books and things that they lend for free
It’s the latest, it’s the greatest, it’s the library.

Educational, informational
Entertainment that’s sensational.
It’s the way of life, it’s for you and me
It’s the latest, it’s the greatest, it’s the library.

They have histories, they have mysteries
And for mothers, books of recipes
See a movie show, hear a symphony
It’s the latest, it’s the greatest, it’s the library.

- Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services (2001)

September 2008 Web Server Survey

Dear All,

September 2008 survey of Netcraft has received responses from 181,277,835 (181 million) websites.

This is an increase of 4.5 million sites, compared with the last month (176 million websites).

For more information, visit: http://news.netcraft.com/

Regards,

Tharanga Ranasinghe.

Article on Library 2.0

Dear All,

Library 2.0 refelects the transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. The focus is on user-centered change and participation in the creation of content and community. It changes the traditional, one directional services offered by libraries for centuries. In this environment, user is a participant, co-creator, builder, and a consultant.

The following article titled 'Library 2.0: Service for the Next-generation Library' published in 'Library Journal' 2006, discusses the concept in detail:

Pls. follow the URL to access the article:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

Regards,

Tharanga Ranasinghe.