The Opening Ceremony of the 2013 IFLA WLIC was a feast of color–a fitting preview of the colorful experience awaiting us all in Singapore, a city of unbounded diversity.
The Section on Serials and Other Continuing Resources (SOCRS) met four times at the 79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly
Our Standing Committee met officially twice during the congress, sponsored a well-attended programme, and met informally for a delicious dinner in the Singapore district of Little India. Here are a few photos of our dinner:
Members of our French contingent, from right to left, Francoise Pellé , ISSN International Centre, France, and Jean-Louis Baraggioli, Director Centre Technique du Libre de l’Enseignement Supérieur, enjoying a tasty dish of Indian curry.
Chair Helen Adey, right, Resource Acquisition & Supply Team Manager, Nottingham Trent University, with her delightful family.
Americans, from left to right, Christina McCawley, Serials & Acquisitions Librarian, West Chester University, and Martha A. Spoers, Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan. Martha was one of our programme presenters.
Incoming Secretary of our committee, Margaret Mering, Coordinator of Cataloging and Metadata, University of Nebraska Lincoln, smiling in the foreground, with (right) outgoing Secretary Helen Heinrich, Chair, Technical Services Department, California State University, Northridge, with her husband (far left), enjoying the spicy dinner and hearty companionship.
Conference Session 165, Congress track 3: Users driving access and services.
The panel of speakers at our session (from left to right) were Wilma Mossink (MC), Ann Okerson, Helen Heinrich, David Tempest, and Martha A. Speirs.
Our committee’s session was titled: Gold mining! Text and data mining of journals: librarians, publishers and researchers excavating the treasure trove. Panelists were from Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA, and included librarians, administrators, and publishers. Individual presentations were as follows:
- Text & data mining – a librarian overview ANN OKERSON (Center for Research Libraries, Chicago USA)
- Text mining in libraries: a panoramic view HELEN HEINRICH (California State University, Northridge, Northridge California USA)
- Data mining of scholarly journals: challenges and solutions for libraries MARTHA A. SPEIRS (Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan)
- Librarians and publishers working together to support text mining DAVID TEMPEST (Elsevier, Oxford England)
Memories of Singapore
Each of us took away many memories from this unique, lovely city-state. For instance, Singapore has modernized to the extent that when one asks directions, they are given in the number of shopping malls one has to pass, rather than streets. The citizens of this lovely island haven are friendly and polite. And how does one describe the food? I can’t do it justice in one short blog-post, but it’s a tropical paradise for the most discerning of gourmets. Take, for instance, the prickly durian, that most iconic of Singaporean fruits:
Durians!! Smelly, but utterly creamy and delicious, durians are an icon of Southeast Asian fruit. You have to try one to believe why a Malaysian friend once told me, “Americans have their watermelons, we have our durians!”
Finally, a personal memory, for this wasn’t the first time I visited Singapore. About 27 years ago, my Dutch wife, Tecla, and I spent 3 months here on our honeymoon. The lengthy stay was a fortunate consequence of the slowness of the bureaucratic process: we were waiting for her “green card” application in order to return to and reside in the USA. We found an economic and centrally located place to stay at the Singapore YMCA, which I revisited while I was at the conference. I stayed for breakfast, and sure enough, I was greeted with the same hearty welcome and friendly smiles 🙂 –Paul Hover 