Touching Base with Librarians Around the World

German Librarians on the pitch

Never underestimate a librarian" is probably the most widely heard phrase at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), a German national research center, after an internal soccer tournament in September. Nine soccer teams competed to become the FZJ champions of 2005. A team of librarians representing the Central  Library and captained by Head of User Services Dr. Bernhard Mittermaier proved their skills on the pitch by coming in second overall. Of course, they did have the advantage of being kitted out by Elsevier in smart black t-shirts bearing the slogan "Never underestimate the importance of a librarian." They certainly proved this slogan right! Congratulations.

Elisabeth Husem

Another librarian recently receiving a well-earned accolade was Elisabeth Husem, of the University of Oslo’s Department of Psychiatry, who was awarded the "King’s Merit Medal in Silver" in Norway in November. King Harald V presented the award for Husem’s work in the medical library profession, especially in the Baltic States. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Husem served two terms as president of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) and for over 15 years as president of the Norwegian medical library association (SMH).

Elsewhere in Scandinavia, the Library Connect Nordic Library Directors’ Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, in October focused on the theme “Strategy with the Customer in Mind.” The keynote speaker was Hans Jansen from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national library of The Netherlands, and other speakers included Kristiina Hormia of Finland‘s FinELib, Kari Stange of Sweden’s BIBSAM, and Elsevier CEO Erik Engstrom. Archival issues and open access dominated the Q&A session.

Archiving was again a hot topic, along with the move from print to electronic libraries, at the Library Connect UK Library Directors’ Forum in October. Celebrity BBC Radio 4 presenter and former librarian Laurie Taylor capped off an informative day which had also included speeches from Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, Hazel Woodward, University Librarian and Director of Cranfield University Press, Sarah Porter, JISC Head of Development, and Diana Leitch of the University of Manchester.

President Vladimir Putin’s former speech writer Simon Kordonsky speaks in his own words these days, now that the professor at the Moscow School of Economics has become a member of the government’s Committee for Science, Innovation and Education. Kordonsky was just one major figure from Russia’s science and education community to speak at the first major Library Connect forum in Russia, on the theme of the digital library and its impact on Russian science and education. However, it was Professor Nikolay Zefirov of the Russian Academy of Sciences who stole the limelight when he picked up a prize for being the Russian scientist with the most articles published.

Al-Hosaini and Shoeb Nomani

The month of Ramadan saw Library Connect seminars held in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Yemen. Pictured are librarians Mohammed Al-Hosaini and Mohammad Shoeb Nomani of Oman’s largest university, Sultan Qaboos University.

Over 80 Vietnamese researchers saw 719 Elsevier books presented to the National Center for Scientific and Technology Information (NACESTI) in Hanoi in September. The gift was part of Elsevier’s employee donation program, “A Book in Your Name.” NACESTI Deputy Director Dr. Phung Minh Lai said the books would “strengthen NACESTI’s information resource in particular as well as the national information resource in general.”

Elsewhere in Asia, five “Getting the Scoop on Scopus” presentations in Thailand took place in November shortly after similar events at Kyoto, Shinshu and Aichi Gakuin universities in Japan. The next planned stop? India, with Jadavpur and SASTRA universities and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on the schedule.

Every four or five years, members of the medical and health library profession gather for the International Congress on Medical Librarianship. In September the meeting took place in Latin America for the first time — in the tropical Brazilian resort of Salvador. Hundreds of delegates attended, including a large number of Brazilian librarians. A hot topic was how to deliver the benefits of digital information services to health libraries in the developing world, for example via the World Health Organization’s HINARI program for which Elsevier served as a founding partner.

International attire and Halloween costumes prevailed at the International Reception of the ASIST Special Interest Group in International Information Issues (SIG III). Elsevier contributed $1,000 to the event, at which Lukman Ibraheem Diso from Nigeria was awarded first prize in the International Paper Contest. Since 2000, the paper writing contest has attracted over 283 information professionals from over 50 countries.