[17200] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Congratulations to the BBF!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon May 15 20:28:35 2006
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Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.58.0605091650400.7210@well.com>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 20:42:45 -0700
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
FYI France: Congratulations to the BBF, on its 50th birthday!
They say that the *Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France*, le BBF,
was born on this day 50 years ago -- May 15, 1956 -- and a fête
is under way today at the BnF in Paris to celebrate the event:
http://bbf.enssib.fr/cinquantenaire/
So, congratulations, vous tous! The BBF makes for great reading:
good presentation, elegant format, fascinating subjects -- a star
among library journals, and not just for the French.
I thought it might be interesting here to explore a few among the
many, worldwide, who read the BBF regularly nowadays: among (per
WorldCat) the subscribers --
* The University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, Sistema de
Bibliotecas, Puerto Rico
[Europeans always have difficulty, in my experience, imagining a
multi-cultural and particularly a multi-lingual "United States".
Here, then, is a part of the USA which is both. Their main
website in English even warns, in fact, "For a complete
information about our campus, please visit our Spanish Version
page. Most links in this page refer to the Spanish..."
Other places in the US which rapidly are becoming multi-cultural
and multi-lingual include the entire state of Texas, most of our
large US cities wherever they are located, and my own not-small
state of Calfornia.
The BBF offers a glimpse to all of us, here, of the differences
and complexities of the broad world outside of the narrowly
anglophone one we once -- for a while, anyway -- had here in the
US. It is a promising picture, especially for those of us at
times not feeling comfortably part of that older tradition.
Founded in 1903, with 173 students, the University of Puerto Rico
in its entirety now involves -- mostly in Spanish -- 5200
professors, 14,000 employees, and over 70,000 students...]
W3: http://biblioteca.uprrp.edu/ (the library system)
W3: http://www.upr.edu/ (the university)
W3: http://www.upr.edu/historia1600.html (history)
Servicios:
Centro Computacional
Conexión Inalámbrica
Microfilmación
Préstamos Interbibliotecarios
Instrucción al Usuario
Bibliotecas y Colecciones:
Administración de Empresas
Administración Pública
Artes
Caribe y Estudios Latinoamericanos
Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Información
Ciencias Naturales
Ciencias Sociales (Reserva)
Circulación-Reserva
Colección Puertorriqueña
Comunicación Pública
Documentos y Mapas
Educación
Estudios Generales
Filmoteca
Libros Raros
Música
Planificación
Referencia-Revistas
Servicios Bibliotecarios para Personas con Impedimentos
Trabajo Social
Zenobia-Juan Ramón Jiménez
* The National Central Library, Taiwan
[Another BBF subscriber... also _not_ English-medium...]
W3: http://www.ncl.edu.tw
W3: http://www.ncl.edu.tw/english/
"The National Central Library (NCL) is the sole national
library of Taiwan. The library's mission is to acquire,
catalog, and preserve national publications and to make
these resources available to government agencies, private
organizations, researchers, and the general public to
advance national learning and cultural preservation.
"The library also assists academic research, sponsors
educational activities, promotes the professional
development of librarianship, and carries out
international exchange activities aimed at strengthening
cooperation between domestic and foreign libraries. In
addition, the library also supports the Center for
Chinese Studies (CCS), which is devoted to the enrichment
of resources for Sinological research.
"Over the years, the NCL has been forced to relocate
several times due to political instability. The major
dates in the library's development are chronicled below:
* 1933 : Founded in Nanjing
* 1949 : Followed the ROC government to Taiwan
* 1954 : Re-established in Taiwan within the Botanical
Gardens in Taipei
* 1981 : Began sponsorship of the Resource and
Information Center for Chinese Studies
* 1984 : Established the Information and Computing
Library in Taipei
* 1987 : Renamed the Resource and Information Center for
Chinese Studies as the Center for Chinese Studies
* 1986 : Library opened in new facility on Jhongshan
South Road in Taipei
* 1988 : The Information and Computing Library opened
"When the NCL was first relocated to Taiwan, its
collection consisted of only about 136,000 titles brought
over from Nanjing. After more than 50 years of book
acquisitions, the library's collection as of the end of
2003 was as follows:
* Chinese books 1,289,039
* Western books 461,198
* Japanese & Korean books 134,084
* Rare books 259,114
("Includes... string-bound editions...")
* Non-book materials 882,413
("Includes Han dynasty histories, rubbings...)
* Databases 260
* Total volumes 3,026,108
* Periodicals 20,897
* Newspapers 408
* The University of Adelaide, South Australia
[Yet another far-flung BBF set of readers -- this time literally
at "The Antipodes", as the Aussies so proudly say, sometimes --
my granddad was an Aussie, and he spent a lifetime touring the
wide world he thought he hadn't had "at 'ome down unda". Yet
several times and in his old age he went back. He'd have had a
better time of it if he'd been able to keep contact more easily:
nowadays the Internet at least gives us that -- wandering Aussies
in London check in at their library in Adelaide, wandering French
scholars look up a reference at the BMLyon when they're in Perth,
librarians in all three places read the BBF.
Among the libraries of the globe, those of the "antipodean"
Australians are among the greatest beneficiaries of online
digital communication: they're a long, long, way away, by plane
or boat. Nowadays, though, more and more, they are connected to
France and to other places, and France and other places are
connected, daily and even continuously, to them...]
W3: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/ (the library)
W3: http://www.adelaide.edu.au (the university)
"Established in 1874, the University of Adelaide is the
oldest of the three universities in the State of South
Australia. The University is located in the central
metropolitan area of Adelaide and has a student enrolment
of approximately 14,000, with a relatively high
proportion of postgraduate students. It covers a wide
range of academic and professional disciplines, and has a
strong research emphasis. The University and its
libraries have successful co-operative relationships with
many local institutions, including the Flinders
University of South Australia, the University of South
Australia, and professional, research, governmental and
commercial organisations.
"The University of Adelaide Library comprises:
* the Barr Smith Library serving approximately 85% of the
University's population
* the Elder Music Library, in the Hartley Building on the
North Terrace campus
* the Law Library, in the Ligertwood Building on the
North Terrace campus
* the Roseworthy Campus Library, at the Roseworthy campus
some 50 kilometres north of Adelaide
* the Waite Library, at the Waite campus some six
kilometres to the south of the city centre
"The Waite Library and the Roseworthy Campus Library both
support the research and teaching of the Faculty of
Sciences and also provide library services to the staff
of Primary Industries and Resources South Australia and
the South Australian Research and Development Institute.
"The Barr Smith Library is the central library of the
University and accommodates materials and services to
support all faculties and departments not specifically
served by the branch libraries. It has study seats for
1,300 persons, with an additional 700 study places in the
branch libraries. Organisationally the Barr Smith Library
supports the branch libraries with central services,
including acquiring, cataloguing, and classifying new
materials, purchasing supplies and equipment, collecting
and recording management information, and developing and
managing computing systems.
"Library holdings exceed 2,000,000 items, and the
libraries receive approximately 11,000 journal titles,
with 20,000 new monograph volumes catalogued each year,
and a similar number of bound volumes of journals
accessioned. Collection strengths include medicine,
dentistry, biological sciences, agriculture, music,
nineteenth century English literature, and Australian
history. 400,000 volumes are accommodated in the Joint
Library Store, shared with the Flinders University
Library on the campus of Flinders University. A daily
courier service delivers volumes and requested articles
between all libraries of the University and the Joint
Library Store.
"The Library lends 500,000 items annually, including
20,000 items to other Australian libraries, and 6,200
item are borrowed from other libraries to support
researchers in the University. Membership of the Library
is open to the staff and students of the University of
Adelaide, to staff and students of Flinders University
and the University of South Australia, and to other
persons on payment of a modest fee; members of the public
are welcome to consult items in its collections..."
* Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa
[And this is the newest challenge, to us all: a faraway place
I've never been, as too many of us haven't, and yet a place we
all ought to visit -- a home of magical thinking and incredible
ideas, such as their "Truth & Reconciliation" commissions -- and
a home of terrible problems, such as AIDS, which will redound to
the discredit of the entire world if we neglect them, and will
require the close cooperation of the entire world if they are to
be addressed and resolved -- and a home of great achievements,
and of genuine modern heroes, such as Nelson Mandela.
And they read the BBF... The "outside world" grows closer and
closer together: for South Africa, for France, for all of us...]
W3: http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=761&bhcp=1
(library and information services)
W3: http://www.nmmu.ac.za
(the university)
"Welcome to a new generation university. An institution
inspired by the greatest leader of the modern world. A
people-centered nucleus of activity where innovation,
creativity, technology and diversity thrive. An
environment where excellence is the benchmark.
"Welcome to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University!
"Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), situated
in Nelson Mandela Bay, opened on 1 January 2005, the
result of a merger of the PE Technikon, the University of
Port Elizabeth and the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University
"Mission:
"Our mission is to facilitate access to quality
information resources and services for excellence in
research, teaching and learning by:
* Providing an environment in which users of all
abilities and backgrounds feel welcome and secure;
* identifying, evaluating and satisfying the information
needs of our users;
* structuring systems and developing gateways to provide
prompt, integrated, convenient and user-friendly access
to resources;
* partnering with users to ensure that they become
skilled in discovering and using information;
* and participating in cooperative and collaborative
programmes with other institutions to enhance resources
provided and services offered.
"Vision:
"We aspire to be the leading library and information
service that is recognised as an innovative, creative and
accessible partner in advancing the teaching and
learning, research and community goals of the University.
"To achieve our vision we must be characterised by:
* A well-resourced library and information service;
* a people-centred quality service;
* competent, value driven and professional staff;
* new technologies and methods to enhance access to
information resources; and
* organisational effectiveness and sustainable strength.
"Having attained our vision we will be able to:
"Empower our users to be self-directed life-long
learners; contribute to the development and enhancement
of a knowledge-based society and play an important role
in the sustainability development of our community.
"Purpose:
"The Web Site of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University Library & Information Services has primarily
been created as a marketing tool. It aims to guide
prospective visitors virtually through the libraries by
way of photographs and text, to direct them to the
different campuses via maps and to inform about the
material and electronic collections to be located via the
electronic catalogue.
"The NMMU LIS Web Site creates opportunities for its
academic visitors to enhance their research projects by
providing lists of Internet search engines as well as
peer-reviewed scholarly publication and journal sites.
"The NMMU LIS provides not only a link to its own online
Catalogue but also to catalogues of other South African
tertiary institutions and specialised libraries.
"The seven campus libraries house close to half a million
books as well as audiovisual material and journals."
The collections are:
* The Archives
* Art and Architectural material
* Multimedia and Videos
* Government Documents
* Indexes and Abstracts
* Law collection
* Oberholzer special collection of books on education
* Pamphlets
* Protecta -- Rare, valuable books
* Reference books and maps
* Serials
* Short Loans -- Prescribed books and lecture notes
* Theses & Dissertations in paper and on CD.
[Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University has over 20,000 students,
now... The South African literacy rate ("age 15 and over can read
and write") recently has been 86.4% (male 87%, female 85.7%), and
it has been getting better and better...]
A General & Concluding Note:
All of the above represents a world much-changed, since the BBF
began back in 1956: particularly in the eyes of those of us who
personally remember 1950s education -- the Bad Old Days, back
when "Blacks", pretty much anywhere, did not attend school at all
or attended sub-standard schools, and even "Women" did not attend
universities... in spite of myopic daily headlines which try to
paint a different picture, the world has become a better place...
And all four of the very-varied list above now read the BBF!
Journals which "scale up" to the international & trans-national
& globalizing world pull us all together.
So again, BBF, Happy Birthday!
Jack Kessler
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071-5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
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archives may be found at http://www.cru.fr/listes/biblio-fr@cru.fr/
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(PACS-L archive), or http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/FYIFrance/
or http://www.fyifrance.com . Suggestions, reactions, criticisms,
praise, and poison-pen letters all gratefully received at
kessler@well.sf.ca.us .
Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as indicated above.
--hjlm--
