Welcome!
Welcome to Volume 2 Issue 1 of the NTU Library Xpress!
This is the first time the NTU Library is using a blog to publish the Library Xpress online.
We hope the interactive features of a blog will allow you the reader to participate in our conversations.
Feel free to navigate to specific sections via the Right Navigation Bar under Categories: Do You Know, Editorial, Events & Activities, Feature, InfoBuzz, New Resources, and Snapshots.
You can also select the articles you want to read under Recent Posts.
We hope you will enjoy this issue and look forward to your comments to make the bulletin more relevant and useful.
The Library Xpress Editorial Committee
The Four Areas of Focus for the Library
Choy Fatt Cheong :: librarian@ntu.edu.sg
University Librarian
Like many other academic libraries worldwide, we have witnessed rapid and disruptive changes in the information industry and learning environment in the last few years. We need to continuously respond to these often unpredictable changes, while at the same time gradually build up our infrastructure to support the expansion of NTU.
When in the midst of sweeping changes, it is easy to get lost or become rudderless. To ensure that the library is responsive and yet remains focused, we have laid down a framework to guide our work and direction. This framework consists of 4 areas of strategic focus which was first articulated in late 2005. I would like to highlight this framework briefly in this issue of the bulletin so that our users have a better understanding of our current as well as future programmes and services.
1. Preparing students for the knowledge economy
It is widely accepted that rapid obsolescence of knowledge and skills in the modern global economy requires continuous lifetime effort in learning and re-learning. Acquisition of content-based knowledge, while forming the foundation and basis for professional practice in various disciplines, is no longer sufficient for life-long employability. More importantly, process oriented skills such as independent learning and information literacy will provide our graduates with the keys to success in the new economy and also in achieving personal fulfillment in life.
Libraries have always been the tool and vehicle of life-long and independent learning. They do not prescribe what one should learn, but instead allow each to fashion their own learning paths and goals. People use libraries to learn at any point in their life and when it is needed. Therefore, libraries organize themselves to provide tools and services to facilitate and encourage independent and life-long learning. Countless individuals throughout history have benefited from this non-intrusive but highly individual-oriented approach.
Today, the abundance of information in the Internet world has created new concerns in learning and education as well as a new paradigm in communication. Having access to an abundance of information does not necessarily lead to effective use of information and learning. The role of libraries now focuses on helping people become more discerning and effective users of information.
Our Library aims to reinforce and strengthen this role, by inculcating independent and life-long learning habits in our students. We do this by direct and indirect means. Direct means include our librarians providing instructional courses on information literacy to beginning and advanced students. These courses show students how to be effective and responsible users of information in general and also in their areas of study.
Our goal is to have every NTU student attend at least 2 library instructional classes before they graduate. We achieve this goal indirectly as well. Through exposure to the myriad of quality information resources, services and awareness activities, our students will gain a deeper understanding on the nature and use of information and thus grow into strong and effective independent learners by the time they graduate.
2. Creating a vibrant learning community on campus
Libraries will continue to be important physical fixtures in the future campus for the simple reason that they are important social and community space in addition to being depositories of books and other information objects. In a hybrid library where many media co-exist, space is essential to mediate between users, collection and services. Even when everything has gone completely electronic, we will still have to invent new spaces to cater to other aspects of learning. Learning is a social and multi-dimensional activity that relies on human interaction, multiple senses, chance encounters and serendipity for it to be effectively carried out.
The increasing adoption of collaborative approach in learning demands a different approach to designing our library space. Seats and space would most likely be designed and built to facilitate discussion and collaborative work between learners. This will lead to a different ambience in the library from what we are used to today. It will probably be much noisier, with more activity and equipped with more gadgets and service points (manned or unmanned).
At the same time, libraries will also need to cater to traditional needs for a conducive environment for study and reflection. It will be an interesting architectural and planning challenge to cater to such competing requirements. The academic library of the future will be designed with a focus on creating useful, innovative and attractive space for users rather than solely for physical collections.
3. Supporting scholarly communication and research
Research activities occur within the framework of scholarly communication. This framework, traditionally based on journal publications and books, serves many functions in academe – such as providing quality control, lending legitimacy, establishing priority and dissemination of research work. In recent years, the scholarly communication system has been widely discussed as a result of serious challenges on the economic and technological fronts. The so called “scholarly communication crisis” (the continued escalating costs of journal subscriptions) takes center stage, as it seriously undermines libraries’ financial ability to sustain their services. The development of open access journals and other similar initiatives and movements are gathering steam to meet these challenges.
At the same time, technology has also transformed the way in which the scholarly communication system works. Most of these changes center on the transformation of the scholarly publication from print based to electronic formats and structure.
Information and communication technology has also enabled scholars and others to collaborate in very effective ways regardless of the physical and temporal distance that separates them. Instant access to common virtual workspace, resources and even equipment has given scholars the facility to work with their global partners thousands of miles away as though they are beside each other in a laboratory.
Our Library will monitor these developments and will prepare itself to meet the practical challenges arising from them. Libraries are essential components of the scholarly communication system and it is important for us to anticipate the impact of these changes in scholarly communication.
The Library also recognizes that the work of our academic staff and scholars in the scholarly communication network contribute critically to the reputation of the University and will find ways and means to provide support. Besides building rich and relevant collections, we have started work on an institutional repository (IR) that will archive and provide access to the intellectual work of our academic staff. This is also in line with developments in other universities where eventually all IRs will form a significant international network of scholarly information resources.
4. Focusing all activities on the user
The University’s goal of creating a student and professor centric approach and culture fit in very well with the user-oriented philosophy of libraries. Our Library recognizes that it is primarily a service organization and we exist to meet the information and learning needs of all users, whatever their level of attainment or status. The Library aims to inculcate in all staff member the strong satisfaction of a service oriented approach in our work and also filter all our work flow and policies through the lenses of our users. All our policies will be reviewed and combed through to identify areas that are lacking in user-oriented approach.
A drastic reform in our organization structure has been the Library’s transformation into a subject-librarian system in late 2004. All professional librarians, including some Heads of Divisions have been assigned subject responsibilities which focus on identifying and meeting the information needs of specific target groups of users according to subject discipline. This has effectively brought all librarians to the front-end of service work and emphasizes the importance of serving our users directly. Over time, this will also help the library staff develop better and stronger rapport with our users. Our users will also develop a strong sense of ownership and identity with the respective libraries and our services.
The strategic focus described above will guide us in responding effectively to a rapidly changing information environment. It will help us to clarify, prioritize, plan and develop our services and programmes so that we will always remain relevant and valuable to all our users.
Essential Science Indicators (ESI)
Jean Koh ::kph@ntu.edu.sg
Head, Engineering Subject Cluster
A tool that compiles and analyses the publication citations of scholarly research – that’s what the “Essential Science Indicators” (a Thompson Scientific database) has been designed for.
It offers research performance statistics and trend data with raw data drawn from Thompson Scientific-indexed journal articles, review articles, proceedings papers and research notes over a 10-year period from 22 broad fields.
How does ESI determine the scientific influence and impact of publications?
It employs the method of total citation counts and cites per paper scores to provide the following data:
- Citation Rankings – Analyzes research performance of scientists, institutions, countries, and journals.
- Most Cited Papers – Ranks top papers, countries, journals, scientists, institutions and companies by field of research.
- Baselines – Track average citation rates by fields.
- Research Front – identify core papers and hot research area and trends.
- In-cites, Special Topics & Science Watch – provides commentaries, interviews, and newsletter about the latest citation analyses and research.
How to find a scientist or the standing of an institution?
Scientists’ name may appear with or without initials depending on the way they are being cited. The tip is always to search by the author’s last name with an asterisk e.g. Rothman* retrieves Rothman with any initials, Rothman AJ, Rothman DL, Rothman JE and from the lists pick the correct one. However, for common and Chinese names, the tip is to search by last name with initials, e.g. Zhang HM to avoid scrolling through a long list of names.
If a scientist happens to have compound name, try searching both with or without hyphen but asterisk must be included to handle name variations, e.g. Garcia-molina* or Garciamolina*. The same search strategy goes for locating an institution. Use an asterisk with the institution name, e.g. Harvard* finds Harvard University and Nanyang* finds Nanyang Technological University.
How to access ESI?
ESI uses the same platform as ISI Web of Science and is accessible at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/lib/collections/db/alpha1.htm#E
中文新书介绍
Ruan Yang :: ruanyang@ntu.edu.sg
Subject Librarian for Chinese Studies
为了密切配合相关院系教学和科研的需要，最近图书馆中文部有大批新书上架，内容涵盖文史哲、政治、经济、商务、公共管理、社会学、语言等各大门类。这里撮其重点，扼要介绍如下：
回朔历史，体验辉煌
– 读《中国哲学发展史 (先秦、秦汉、魏晋南北朝、隋唐) 》/ 人民出版社 1998年版
中国哲学源远流长，已经有了近三千年的发展历史。这套丛书系统地讨论了从先秦到隋唐这一历史时期内重要哲学家与重要哲学流派的哲学思想与问题意识，主要内容包括先秦诸子学，两汉哲学，魏晋玄学，魏晋南北朝道教和佛学，隋唐儒教、道教、佛教以及三教会通的局面。本丛书写的是一家之言，内容力求新颖，形式不拘一格，不求每个章节字数按比例分配：作者认为重要的，或研究得比较多的问题，就多讲；认为不重要或没有多少新见、学术界都已注意到或讲得烂熟的问题，作者就少讲或不讲。让我们乘上哲学史这条船，在历史的长河中积淀文化，体验辉煌。
散文聚珍，光彩可鉴
– 读《百花散文书系 • 现代部分》/ 百花文艺出版社 2004年第2版
散文是中国文艺百花园中的一朵奇葩，古往今来，有多少精美的散文象珍珠般在熠熠生辉！《百花散文书系》将它们串成珠联，以便于读者阅读、欣赏。《百花散文书系》分为现代、当代和古代三大部分。现代部分选收一九一七至一九四九年期间散文家的名篇佳作，按人专集分册。有朱自清、茅盾、郭沫若、叶圣陶、冰心、巴金、老舍、郁达夫，徐志摩，梁实秋、丰子恺、林语堂、曹聚人等凡50 家。所选篇章侧重于抒情、叙事性散文；题材大至社会、人生，小至离情、花草；风格既有雄浑、酣畅，亦有委婉、含蓄；广采博取、兼容并包。散文聚珍，光彩可鉴。
轻轻松松学管理，从从容容做投资
– 读麦格罗．希尔（McGraw Hill）国际出版公司的经济商务管理书系
在这个追求速度、讲求效益的时代里，知识的吸收与应用已经成为通往成功的必经之路。麦格罗．希尔（McGraw Hill）国际出版公司秉着“管理不用太严肃，轻轻松松也可以立即上手，做好管理！”的信条，特地为读者精心筹划了《经营管理系列》、《创业管理系列》、《轻松管理系列》、《投资理财系列》、《行销规划系列》、《职涯发展管理系列》以及《商务英语学习》等几大书系，凡140 本。这些书內容精要易懂，知识全面系统，编排简洁活泼，可以让读者在最短的时间内，以最快的速度、最轻松的心情，吸收当前最流行的商务和管理新知。
Selamat pagi, terima kasih and more! ~ New malay language titles at the library
Wong Oi May :: omwong@ntu.edu.sg
Subject Librarian for English & Foreign Languages
Want to learn Malay at your own pace?
Being in Southeast Asia, it is useful to know Malay especially when Malay is also the national language of Singapore. Knowing a language also gives you an insight into the culture and the countries from which the language originated.
The Library has recently added some new Malay language titles to its collection. Besides these, the Library also has Malay language learning audio kits such as “Teach yourself Malay” which is available at the Media Resource Library.
Books on Malay handicraft and ethnic clothing such as “The traditional Malay handicraft design” and “baju” also gives Malay language learners some interesting perspectives about the Malay culture.
If you have queries about these titles, approach our library staff.
Library E-Resources – Your Global Companion
Mrs Hazel Loh :: ktvoo@ntu.edu.sg
Head, Digital Resources Division
“Prof Tan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences settles down comfortably in his hotel room in San Francisco after dinner. He turns on his laptop and looks through the presentation that he is delivering at a conference the very next day.
Towards the end, he realizes that he has inadvertently omitted the citation for an important article that he made reference to from the database ‘Web of Science’. Without hesitation, he navigates to the at NTU Library Homepage. He selects the database, authenticates using his network account, searches for the citation and copies it to his presentation. With that, he happily saves his work and proceeds to get a good night’s rest.”
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The above scenario is a norm nowadays as faculty travel globally in the course of their work, be it conferences, study trips or meetings. Having access to information at one’s fingertips is achievable in this time and era for information that is free on the internet. However, fee based and scholarly e-resources are not so easily available and are primarily accessible via authentication from the Library portal.
For NTU, seamless access to these resources was made possible by the implementation of our Ezproxy in 2005. It is a vast improvement in terms of convenience and ease of use as access is anywhere, anytime as long as one has a network account and access to the internet. Before this, staff and students had access only on campus or they had to set up the Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to access our e-resources remotely.
In addition, there are also some databases which offer email alert services. Subscribing to an alert service meant that an email is automatically generated to a user with the URL links to articles that have just been added to the database. It is a convenient way to keep track of new entries in the database.
Previously it was impossible to have direct access to articles sent through email alerts if staff or students were accessing form home or remotely. They had to log in to the database to search again for the articles. We have simplified this process by creating a proxy bookmarklet for users to do a one time installation of a plugin to their favourites on the web browser. Once they receive email alerts, they need only invoke the bookmarklet to gain authenticated access to the articles without leaving their email.
Instructions on how to install the proxy bookmarklet can be obtained from http://www.ntu.edu.sg/lib/collections/db/dbfaq.htm.
Should you have further queries regarding this, please contact the Digital Resources Division at drd@ntu.edu.sg and we will do our best to assist you.
Journal Articles at Your Fingertips
Wendy Ong :: wendy@ntu.edu.sg
Subject Librarian for Library & Information Science
Did you know, as a student or staff member of NTU, you can easily locate journal articles from the comfort of your home, hostel and office? And even when you are traveling overseas! So long as you are connected to the Internet.
With more than 27,000 electronic journals subscribed by the Library, you now have access to a vast collection of articles over a wide range of disciplines at your fingertips to enhance your research capability. Try it out today!
Easy steps to access e-journals:
- Go to the Library Homepage at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/library
- From the drop-down menu on the left, choose E-Journals
- In the E-Journals page, click on A to Z List
- In the search box, type in the journal title you want and click on Search
- Click on the links provided under each journal to obtain the articles – provide your network account username and password if prompted)
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Need help? Contact the Library’s Information Desk (Lee Wee Nam Library, Level 2) at 6790 6312 or email infodesk@ntu.edu.sg
Civil Engineering feats!
Lim Kong Meng :: ckmlim@ntu.edu.sg
Subject Librarian for Civil & Environmental Engineering
Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Eiffel Tower, Millau Viaduct, the Panama Canal, the Channel Tunnel and the list goes on … all feats of Civil Engineering.
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Do you know the Great Wall of China spans some 3,500 km across China and was created over a period of 1,800 years from the 3rd Century BC?
Look at the wall section of the Great Wall of China. It’s amazing!
Picture taken from “Amazing Achievements : a celebration of human ingenuity” by Nigel Hawkes.
The Panama Canal, linking the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, took more than 40 years to build and was one of the largest and most expensive engineering projects ever undertaken during the 19th Century.
If you are keen to know more about these feats or about other civil engineering feats, take a look at some of the books (with beautiful pictures and illustrations) found in our library collections:
“Amazing Achievements : a celebration of human ingenuity” by Nigel Hawkes.
“The seventy wonders of the modern world: 1500 years of extraordinary feats of engineering and construction” by Neil Parkyn.
“The Builders : marvels of engineering” published by the National Geographic Society.
For those who likes to know more about these feats online, our Media Resource Library has a collection of video recordings showcasing these interesting engineering feats which you can view online.
To find the titles we hold, just enter “Extreme Engineering” in OPAC. You should retrieve about 30 titles.
Look out for the video recording on the construction of the Millau Viaduct of France, a suspension bridge which has the tallest bridge piers in the world, some 343 m high! Eiffel Tower is only about 302 m high.
There are other interesting titles as well, for example, the widening of the Panama Canal, tunneling under the Alps, and building of the Hong Kong Airport.
Free Art Resources on the Internet!
Mei Tan :: Mei_Tan@ntu.edu.sg
Subject librarian for Art
It is a known fact that one can find all kinds of information on the internet ranging from health matters to entertainment. Resources of all kinds abound. It is no less true in the area of art, design and media. Nevertheless, websites are not easily maintained. Sites are often not updated or else found to be broken.
With that in mind, the subject librarians of Art, Design and Media have found some pertinent and reliable art resources that may offer interest to art students working on projects or looking for some initial relevant materials for a term paper or simply looking for study tools that might help them along in their revision.
The following are some of the resources :
Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm
In the area of art history for instance, the Timeline of Art History administered by The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a comprehensive site where the history of art is arranged in three different approaches: chronological, geographical and thematic. This is a site that is highly recommended for any beginners in the history of art as it offers easy navigation across a vast art historical period of over 20,000 years. For those who may find the dates a trifle confusing, the site can also be accessed through special topic categories. There are also special write ups at the end of each entry often by leading experts in their area of specialty.
Artcyclopedia
http://www.artcyclopedia.com
Another recommended site is Artcyclopedia that functions like any print encyclopedia taken off the shelf. It has a database of 8,500 artists listed, 2,300 art sites indexed and users are given access to 180,000 works of art. Users can search the database through a number of ways (artists, artworks or even by art museums). The site can also be browsed by the different art movements ranging from Early Renaissance to abstract expressionism. This is a helpful site for quick reference for any art student looking into a particular art period or for quick biographical information of an artist.
Visible Language
http://www.id.iit.edu/visiblelanguage/
A site worth exploring for any serious art student in graphic design is the reputable Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)’s Visible Language. This site consists of an index of feature articles dealing with issues in typography, design, hypertext, psychology of reading.
Information Design
http://tech-head.com/info.htm
Other equally helpful sites in communication and design include Information Design. This site offers various links to information design and also the practice of gathering, filtering, and presenting information through effective design principles to further enhance understanding and communication.
There are thousands of other sites that may prove more useful and we recommend some internet evaluation tools that could be use to assess the sites for such purposes.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html
This website provides information regarding evaluating internet sites with helpful online examples.
Teaching undergrads WEB evaluation: A Guide for Library Instruction http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues1998/julyaugust6/teachingundergrads.htm
This is an article that offers five basic guidelines to use when evaluating a site.
TechXtra: Searching through the hidden web of engineering, mathematics computing
Teng Soek Leng :: slteng@ntu.edu.sg
Subject Librarian for Materials Engineering, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
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TechXtra (www.techxtra.ac.uk) is a service which helps you find full text content of freely available engineering, mathematics and computing articles, books, industry news, job announcements, technical reports and technical data.
TechXtra cross-searches 25 different collections such as Aeronautical Research Council Technical Reports, Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information and Euclid Mathematics and Statistics Journals. Many of the things you find through TechXtra come from the ‘Hidden Web’, which may not be indexed by Google.
New Librarians
from left: Phoebe, Ruan Yang and Mei
Ms Phoebe Lim
Library Promotion Division
Subject Librarian for Communication
phoebelim@ntu.edu.sg
Phoebe joined the NTU Library late June 2006 and is with the Library Promotion Division. She is also subject librarian for communication studies.
She graduated from National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons) majoring in History and Political Science. From her own admission, she is a half-hearted undergraduate as she already knew she wanted to be a librarian during her first year of study at NUS. One of her history lecturers saw it fit to “subject” her classmates and her taking his course on Modern History of the Middle East and Africa to a library lecture and tutorial. She never enjoyed a lecture so much even though half her class dozed off.
She wanted to switch course till she found out that library studies is only offered at the postgraduate level, and none was offered in Singapore at all. She had to complete her basic degree. After graduation, it took her a while but she finally landed a librarian job with the National Library Board. 3 years later, she was in Melbourne Australia pursuing her library studies degree.
Phoebe has varied interests and likes to learn new things. Her pet learning projects at the moment are her websites at http://www.chinese-soups-recipes.com and http://www.oriental-furniture-guide.com which she is collaborating with her sister.
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Ms Tan Lay Peng (aka Mei Tan)
Art Librarian, Art, Design and Media Library
Mei_Tan@ntu.edu.sg
Mei is an art librarian with the Art, Design and Media Library. She has a Masters in Art History from Tulane University and a Masters in Library and Information Studies degree in Library Science from University of British Columbia.
Mei has worked for a couple of years as a counselor at the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE) and later on, as a programme coordinator at the Asian Welfare Women Association (AWWA) Family Service Centre. Before joining NTU, she worked as an administrator at a non-profit arts organization called Sculpture Square.
She hopes to use her specialized background in art history to assist the NTU community in their research. Her most immediate goal is to help develop a comprehensive art collection at NTU.
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Ruan Yang
Cataloguing Librarian, Bibliographic Services Division
Subject Librarian for Chinese Studies
ruanyang@ntu.edu.sg
Ruan Yang is a cataloguing librarian as well as a subject librarian for Chinese Studies. She had worked as an editor for a university press after she obtained her MSc degree (Publishing Science) from the School of Library & Information Science, Wuhan University, China. When she came to Singapore in 1999, she worked as a content developer in 2 local educational dot.com companies. She became interested in web technology and decided to go back to school to pursue a Masters of Applied Sciences in Information Studies at NTU. After her graduation, She thinks it is the right time and right place for her to start her library career right here at NTU Library.
“Reading is my good fortune (读书是福)!”
Neil Humphreys – The Expatriate Who Is Not
Loh Wei Li ::1st year Bioengineering (BIE),
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (SCBE)
A few years ago before my National Service, while working as a sales assistant at Isetan, I chanced upon this book entitled “Notes from an even Smaller Island” that was written by someone called Neil Humphreys. At that point in time, I had absolutely no idea who this “Brit” was. I thought he was probably the typical Caucasian expatriate (also known as ‘Ang Moh’). Feeling an overwhelming sense of curiosity that was generated by the unique title of the book, I succumbed to my curiosity and decided to buy the book.
For those of us that are still not in the know, Neil Humphreys is a columnist who writes for the Today newspaper. His weekly columns are well received by many people as they generally touch on very Singaporean issues in a very light hearted manner. 10 years ago, Neil Humphreys decided to travel to Singapore. Armed only with an Arts degree from the University of Manchester, he served as a speech and drama teacher for nearly 3 years before embarking on his career in the mass media. His first book, “Notes from a even Smaller Island”, became an immediate best-seller. This book was on the Singapore best-seller list for over 3 years.
In 2003, his second book, “Scribbles from the Same Island”, a compilation of his popular humour columns in WEEKEND TODAY, was launched in Singapore and Malaysia and also became an immediate best-seller.
Some of you may wonder, why do I call him “the expatriate who is not”? Well, Neil Humphreys lives in a HDB flat, uses Singlish very well, and has lived here for the past ten years. If that still makes him the typical expatriate, I have no idea what isn’t. Like what PM Lee mentioned in his National Day Rally speech, Neil Humphreys has come to represent one of the many British Singaporeans. But of course, he prefers to call himself a “Global Citizen”. Now, aren’t we all?
In his books, he uses colloquial English. What do I mean by that?
Well, Singlish, of course! Neil Humphreys is not averse to using terms such as ‘Ang Moh’ on himself in his books, and that is perhaps one of the many reasons why he has proved to be so endearing to Singaporeans. Each chapter that you flip through as you devour his books, tells of anecdotal tales that seem to follow him wherever he goes. From the moment he landed in Singapore with his good friend that he affectionately calls “The Ang Moh Midget from Yorkshire”, Scott, he has experienced and done things most Singaporeans would never have thought could ever happen in Singapore. From mistaking a Chinese funeral as a hawker centre on his first night, to crazy taxi drivers, Neil Humphreys has seen it and done it.
His recently released third book, “Final Notes from a Great Island”, tells of his final farewell tour around Singapore before he closes another chapter of his life and leaves for the land Down Under. I’m currently halfway through this book, and one observation I have made is that Neil Humphreys has been to a lot more places in Singapore than I have ever been despite having lived in Singapore for 10 more years than him.
In his usual humorous manner, he elaborates on places like Kent Ridge, Chinese Garden, Kusu Island and many more. To be honest, I have been learning about the more intriguing histories of these places he has visited that I have never known about before. Imagine that, a Singaporean learning things about Singapore from a Brit! Besides being a humorous book, it has even proved to be educational! Either that or I’m just plain ignorant, which I profess not to be.
Why should you read his books? I believe this quote from the Singapore FHM says it all ,”A thoroughly enjoyable read on the virtues (or hazards) of living in Singapore through the eyes of a 6-foot-4-inch Briton whose style is so disarmingly honest, you will laugh at the things you once considered the bane of your existence… Decidedly Singaporean, distinctly British.” His books will definitely lift your spirits and cheer you up. But of course, you have to read his books to judge for yourself.
Finally, I have to make a confession. I am a Neil Humphreys’ fan (isn’t that obvious?). During his book signing and final public speech held at CSLT1, School of Communication and Information (SCI) in NTU recently (which was fantastic), I morphed into a kiasu. Like a schoolboy screaming for his idol, this kiasu Singaporean here clamored for the Ang Moh’s signature on his books… And got it! With a wave, I bid this author/journalist/editor/ang moh a fond farewell and wish him all the best in whatever he does in Australia. I will miss this funnyman that Singapore has come to love so much.
Neil Humphreys at NTU
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NTU Library together with School of Communication and Information and Marshall Cavendish jointly organized Neil’s Tour of Singapore…in 60 minutes, on 29th August 2006.
More than 200 people from SCI, Engineering, Science, Business and Humanities and Social Sciences turned up to catch Neil Humphreys talk.
Andrew Duffy from Division of Journalism and Publishing introduced Neil Humphrey who shared some of the highlights of his 10-year stay in Singapore.
After the talk, he spent the next hour signing his books for his fans and posing for pictures. He also accepted a radio interview by some students from the Electronic and Broadcast Media division.
Neil may have relocated, but he continues with his columns in Weekend Today.
Read TODAY newspapers online at : www.todayonline.com
Interns from Philippines and Thailand
from left: Sonia & Sarapee
In the month of October, NTU library hosted 2 interns:
- Ms Sonia David from Ateneo De Manila University, Professional Schools Library, Phillippines
- Sarapee Srisuk, Head of Reference and Information Services Section, Kasetsart University Library, Thailand
Professional Visitors to the NTU Library
NTU Library hosted several librarians around the Asian region. There were visits by:
May
Ms Diep Kim Chi (Director); Ms Huynh Thi Trang (Vice Director), Cantho University Central Library, Vietnam
Assoc Prof Indahsah Hj Sidek, Puan Fadliah Darini, Cik Azhani As’ad and Puan Immazura Othman, Universiti Teknologi MARA
July
7-member delegation led by Mr Wu Yin, Curator Secretary, Teda Library (Tianjin, China)Ms Liaozhu : Librarian, Jia Ying University
August
Mrs.Mantana Charoenpaed, Mrs. Napapas Sudparn, Ms. Anchalee Tumthong and Ms. Doungporn Phonmark, Central Library, Srinakharinwirot University, ThailandIan Smith, Senior Librarian, La Trobe University Library AustraliaHeather Mansell, Manager, Innovative Projects, State Library of NSW, Australia
6 member delegation led by Ruzita Ramly, Manager,Tan Sri Dr. Abdullah Sanusi Digital Library
33 member delegation from Kasetsart University, Thailand
If you like to visit the NTU Library, please send an email to : librarypromotion@ntu.edu.sg
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