Confucius Institute display

For those who missed this recent display - this is what it looked like. The guy in the pic is the new Professor of Mandarin in the Institute at the School of Languages, Prof Ma Yue.

Chinese Leader Gives 200,000 E-Books to U. of Cambridge

Chinese Leader Gives 200,000 E-Books to U. of Cambridge
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/?id=3629&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Fee-Based Journals Get Better Results

Fee-Based Journals Get Better Results, Study in Fee-Based
Journal Reports
http://chronicle.com/news/article/?id=6026&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The Hollywood Librarian

The Media Education Foundation has acquired the rights to The Hollywood
Librarian: A Look at Librarians through Film, and is bringing out the film
on DVD.
They are now taking orders from both US and international customers
through their web site at
http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=actionkey=138
The Hollywood LibrarianA Look at Librarians Through FilmAn Overdue Productions FilmThey have more cardholders than VISA, more customers than Amazon, and more outlets than McDonald's. Meet America's librarians. The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject of librarians. A vivid blend of factual documentary, feature film and storytelling, it reveals the history and realities of librarianship in an entertaining and appealing context of American movies. Interviews with actual librarians, intercut with film clips of cinematic librarians, examine such issues as literature, books and reading, censorship, library funding, citizenship and democracy. For the first time, we see and understand the real lives and real work of American librarians who for decades have been a cultural force hiding in plain sight.This film's subject is librarians: who they are, what they do, why they do it, and the impact of their work in people's lives. The underlying meaning is how we express our own humanity, how we listen to ourselves and one another in the realm of the written and read word -- a uniquely human privilege.Audiences will be surprised and delighted by the fascinating librarians in this entertaining and enlightening film, and will emerge with a greater appreciation for the range of literature and materials available to them thanks to our nation's librarians.

Web 2.0 use by librarians

(Interesting article which include questionnaires which we could perhaps use at RUL???)
Web 2.0 use by librarians / Noa Aharony
Library & Information Science Research Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 29-37
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2008.06.004
Abstract
The current research explores whether librarians, whose main work focuses on information, are familiar with new technological changes and innovations, and whether they make use of different Web 2.0 applications. The research examines whether personality characteristics (resistance to change, cognitive appraisal, empowerment and extroversion or introversion), as well as computer expertise, motivation, importance and capacity towards studying and integrating different applications of Web 2.0 in future, influence librarians' use of Web 2.0. Different questionnaires were distributed to 168 randomly Israeli librarians throughout the country. The research revealed that personality characteristics as well as computer expertise, motivation, importance and capacity towards studying and integrating different applications of Web 2.0 in the future, influence librarians' use of Web 2.0. These findings have theoretical as well as practical implications.