Eid Mubarak and Happy New Year

i3 Conference - Information: Interactions and Impact

i3 is concerned with the quality and effectiveness of the interactionbetween people and information and how this interaction can bring aboutchange in individuals, organisations, communities and society. The conference will look beyond the issues of use and accessibility oftechnology to questions about the way interaction with the informationand knowledge content of today's systems and services can make adifference to people's lives.

We invite the submission of high quality papers that report originalresearch or critically discuss underlying methodological issuesassociated with the main themes of the conference. Papers may reflectongoing or completed research studies and should not have been previously published or currently being considered for publicationelsewhere. Preference will be given to papers which address two or moreof the following conference themes:
* the quality and effectiveness of user/information interactions (e.g. information literacy);
* patterns of information behaviour in different contexts;
* impact of information or information services on people,organisations, communities and society (e.g. social, learning, cultural and economic outcomes of engagement with information).

Criteria for acceptance
Criteria for acceptance will be based on the following elements:
* the relevance of the paper/poster to the conference themes;
* the extent to which the paper/poster demonstrates awareness ofthe current state of knowledge in the field (i.e. in relation to theoryor practice);
* the originality and significance of the arguments and results presented (i.e. based on new findings and addressing a new problem orfocusing on a novel synthesis and in-depth discussion of existingresearch, which provides a new perspective);
* the appropriateness, validity and robustness of the methodology chosen displaying awareness of limitations;
* the contribution to knowledge and understanding of the issuessurrounding information interactions and impact;
* the quality of the written abstract (e.g. organisation and clarity).

Submissions will be anonymously reviewed by two members of aninternational programme committee specialising in one or more of theconference research streams. Notification of acceptance will be emailed to authors and will also include the comments of the reviewers. A listof titles of accepted papers and posters will be published on the i3website.

Types of submissions
Submissions are invited for full papers, short papers, posters and round table discussions. The conference language will be English

Full papers
Full papers will be allocated 40 minutes (35 minutes for presentationand 5 minutes for questions). Presenters of full papers should submit an extended abstract of 1000 words. Authors who are accepted to give fullpapers at i3 are also invited to submit a full paper for publication ina special issue for Libri ( http://www.librijournal.org).

Short papers
Short papers will be allocated 10 minutes for presentation withopportunities for questions at the end of each session. Presenters ofshort papers should submit an abstract of 300-500 words.

Posters
Poster presenters will be allocated space for a poster, which should beno bigger than A1 size (594 x 841 mm). The poster should include thetitle, the author(s) name and affiliation(s) and a description of the research findings. The size of lettering should be legible from adistance and the inclusion of excessive amounts of information should beavoided. Printed copies detailing the main elements of the research maybe prepared for distribution. Posters will be displayed throughout theconference (although a specific poster presentation session will beallocated). Presenters of posters should submit an abstract of 300-500words.

Round Table Discussion
Proposals are welcome from persons interested in chairing a round tablediscussion (of between 60 and 80 minutes) centred on the majorconference themes. Chairpersons should submit an abstract of 300-500 words, explaining the background and goals of their discussion.

How to submit a paper
Contributors should submit abstracts electronically using the onlinesubmissions form, located at: http://www.i3conference.org.uk/call/abstractsubmission.htm . Paperswill not be accepted via email or by post.

Important Deadlines
* All abstracts should be submitted by 22nd January 2007.
* Notification of acceptance will be emailed in early March.
* The final copy of full papers for Libri should be received by1st August 2007.
Acceptance of a paper for the conference does notnecessarily mean acceptance of the full paper for publication.

Further details about the conference are available from http://www.i3conference.org.uk
Dept of Information Management
Aberdeen Business School
Robert Gordon University
Garthdee Road
ABERDEEN AB10 7QE
Tel. +44 1224 263967
Fax + 44 1224 263553

InfoBiz - IT and Telecom Trade Exhibition

Today is the official opening of INFOBIZ ‘06 exhibition.

Description
INFOBIZ is Kuwait’s 3rd IT & Telecom Trade Exhibition that gives global IT & Telecom industry leaders to present and demonstrate their latest technology based business solutions that meets SMEs in Kuwait and its neighboring countries. The event is held under the patronage of Ministry of Communications and sponsored by local leading firms in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry. Last year the event attracted 58 direct exhibitors including local, regional and international. For the first time in Kuwait 22 ministries launched their e-government services through INFOBIZ.
There will be built-in conference/seminar hall for presenting and demonstrating product launches and services during the exhibition.

Date
18 December 2006 - 21 December 2006

Organizer
Global Connection for Exhibitions, Conferences & Marketing Services
P. O. Box 26626,Safat, Kuwait.
Tel: +(965)-(965)-2455855
Fax: +(965)-(965)-2465553

Venue
Kuwait International Fair Ground, Mishref - Hall No.8

LIS Cafe's Mailbox

Hi Asma,
I'm Simona, Italian teacher and librarian in Catania and Siracusa; I always see your blog and I have written a paper published in may 2006 (BiblioWeblog - p. 55 LIS Café: un weblog dal mondo arabo) on "Biblioteche Oggi" (translation: libraries today) an Italian magazin on librarianship (www.bibliotecheoggi.it).
On my blog you can find a link to lIS cafè!
I'm interested on librarianship in arabic world, my husband studies arabic and he teaches Arabic language at the University in Catania!

ciao!
Simona Inserra,Università di Catania - Facoltà di Lettere
simona.inserra@unict.it - simoins@libero.it
http://www.simonainserra.splinder.com
http://www.bisiblog.splinder.com



LIS Cafe is a *wonderful* blog--great content, good graphics, good coveage of events. Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary.You may want to link to my blog, OPL Plus--check it out at http://opls.blogspot.com

Judith Siess
Judith A. Siess, B.A., M.A., M.S.L.I.S.
Cleveland, Ohio,USA
Email: jsiess@ibi-opl.com,
On the web at http://www.ibi-opl.com blogging at http://opls.blogspot.com/
Publisher and Editor of :

• One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and Management
• The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries, Information Today, Inc., 2006, ISBN 1-57387-241-5
• The Essential OPL, 1998-2004: The Best of Seven Years of The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and Management, Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5429-5
• The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value With Marketing and Advocacy, ALA Editions, 2003, ISBN 0-8389-0848-9
• Time Management, Planning and Prioritization for Librarians, Scarecrow Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8108-4438-9

Dear Asma and friends in Kuwait:
Thank you for sharing the information and the SLA photos. I am glad you continue to be active professionally and socially and I wish all the very best. All is well her, just finished my paper on Libraries and Democracy to e presented at the Standing Conference on African Libraries to be held in dare s Salaam, from July 10 to 14, 2006, as well as finishing editing volume 15. no. 2 of the Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES). This issue includes four articles written by Kuwaiti professors in the College of Arts and Sciences and Education. They are excellent articles based on funded research from KU or KFAS, and more will be published in the next issue. I continue to enjoy my daily swim and will be going to Minnesota to visit my two grandchildren there. Best wishes to all of you and keep in touch.

Mohammed M. Aman, Ph.D.
Dean Emeritus and Professor
Editor-in-Chief, DOMES
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
School of Information Studies
P.O. Box 413
Milwaukee Wisconsin 53201

Good job and I wish you the best
Hassan A. Alsereihy, Professor
Vice Dean of Library Affairs (KAU)
P.O. Box 80202Jeddah, 21589

thanks for this - you are actually the first "media" outside the Netherlands (my home country) to dedicate an article to my book. Much appreciated!
I browsed the blog and learned a lot about LIS in Kuwait. Seeing the community you have gathered, there is a lot going on. Do librarians in Kuwait work in "traditional" libraries, or do they also work in related areas like web-design, taxonomy design, etc. I was just curious how this is in your country.
Best Regards,
Dennie Heye

Hello
I have just visited your blog - congratulations - it is an impressive outcome of a group activity. As Editor of the LIS journal Program I clicked on that link - and found that the link led to the previous publisher (Aslib). The journal is now published by Emerald - and the link should be http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/prog/prog.jsp
Good luck!
Lucy Tedd, Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth and Editor of Program: electronic library and information systems.

As-Salamu Alaikum
Thanks for inviting me to join this blog. I hope to see more and more librarians and information specialists from the GCC libraries participate in this informative blog. My best wishes to each and every member of the blog.

Sincerely yours,
SYED SAJJAD AHMED
Senior Cataloger
Box 1910, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

Kuwaiti-British Poetry Evening in Al-Babtain Central Library

Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry has organized a collaborative poetry evening with the British Embassy in Kuwait. The groups were hosted in the diwaniya in the library building and mixed and shared a love of their language and poetry. Both groups wanted to learn from each other the poetic heritage they share. In fact the evening showed that we have more in common than that which divides us.

Kuwaiti Poets who participated in the event were: famous poet Mr. Yaqoub Al-Rushaid, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Khaldi, Mrs Thuraya Al-Baqsami, Mr. Mohammad Al-Moghrabi, Miss Hawraa Al-Habib and the talented 13 years old Al-Zaina Shams. Performers from the British side were Miss Stephanie Fayerman who has been a professional actress since the early 1980’s. She trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Art and has appeared in many Theatrical and screen roles since, the wife of the British Ambassador Mrs. Sibella laing, Mrs. Joanne de Lange, Mr. Matthew van Grutten, Mr. Paul Harradine, Mr. Des Norton, Mr. Tom Harradine.
Guests have performed poems on six themes– Love, Children, War, Britain (country), Death and Comedy.

The evening started with a heartfelt welcome from the library director Mrs Suad Al Ateeqi and then Asma Jamal the information specialist in the library has presented the poets and launched the evening.

Short Course on Knowledge Management. Register Now

Dear colleague

As you know that Department of Library and Information Science is conducting a 3-day short course on Knowledge Management Competencies for Information Professionals on 28-30 November 2006. The course will be held in the College of Social Sciences, Al-Shuwaikh, Room 113 (Training room), ground floor. There will be two sessions every day; one in the morning 9-12, and the second one in the afternoon from 1 to 4 pm.

We have adequate registration for the course. However, some colleagues have been keen to find out if they can attend the course for one or two days. Since we have some openings, we have reached an agreement with the Training Unit that we may prorate the registration charge and it will be KD 50.000 for one day and100.000 for two days.

The payment is only accepted in the name of Kuwait University. Cash payments are not accepted. If someone has approval of the department, one may bring it along and the university may bill the organization later.

I would like to give you short course program, which may help you in planning your attendance of selective session/s.

1. 28 Nov. (morning) Fundamental concepts, technological support and roles and responsibilities of information professionals Sajjad

2. 28 Nov. (afternoon) Knowledge sharing concepts and applications Dr. Laila Marouf

3. 29 Nov. (morning) KM implementation, organizational readiness assessment Dr. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry

4. 29 Nov. (afternoon) Identifying knowledge assets in organizations Dr. Shaheen Majid

5. 30th Nov. ( morning) Environmental scanning for surveying external knowledge Dr. Shaeen Majid

6. 30th Nov (afternoon) Knowledge architecture for storing and organizing knowledge Dr. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry

If any of you is interested, please contact me. Sajjad

ShortCourse.pdf

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--
Sajjad ur Rehman, Ph.D.
Professor & Director, MLIS Program
Department of Library and Information Science, College of Social Sciences
P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait

Phone: +965 498 4242
Fax: +965 484 0718
email: rehman05@gmail.com

Digital Pics 'Read' by Computer

Digital Pics 'Read' by Computer
Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

Nov. 9, 2006

"A computer able to label digital images in real time, as they are uploaded to the Internet, could greatly improve a photographer's ability to share, organize and retrieve images....."

to read full story click Here

Upcoming Events by DLIS

Dear colleagues

As part of our 10th Anniversary Celebration Program, we are organizing two major events of a short course on KM competencies for information professionals (November 28-30) and a symposium on information education in the Arabain Gulf region (14 March 2007). Brochures of the two programs are provided below. I personally encourage that each of you spreads a word about these events among your friends and any organizations that might be interested in them. At the same time, I expect that each of you actively participates in these events in whatever capacity it is possible.

Wishing you all the best

Sajjad ur Rehman, Ph.D.

Professor & Director, MLIS Program

Department of Library and Information Science, College of Social Sciences

ShortCourse.pdf

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Symposium Brochure...

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DLIS Opening Ceremony

The department of Library and Information Science at Kuwait University has celebrated 10 years of its MLIS program last Tuesday. The celebration started with speeches by

• Dr. Yaqoub Al-Kandari, Dean for the College of Social Sciences
• Dr. Samir Hamade, Chairman of the Department
• Prof. Sajjad ur Rehman, Program Director
• Dr. Taghreed Al-Qudsi, Founding Program Director and Founding Chairperson

Awards were distributed to deans, professors, administrative staff, contributing institutions and newspapers, and to everybody contributed toward the success of the event and the development of this program. A short movie showing some department events and memories was viewed. At the end, guests were invited to a reception were they had the opportunity to communicate and share their ideas in a social and friendly atmosphere.

Check the news in the local newspapers

• Al-Watan
• Al-Qabas
• Al-Seyassah

DLIS 10th Anniversary Celebration

You are Invited !

Date: 31 October 2006
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: University Club -Shuwaikh Campus

The Department of Library and Information Science at Kuwait University is organizing an opening ceremony to celebrate its 10th anniversary. It will be a social event and the faculty, students and alumni are expected to have a colorful event with many ideas. Deans, Administrative staff and information professionals willl be among the guests. The event will take place on Tuesday 31st October 2006 at 7:30 PM in the University Club. Don't miss it!

Workshop by SLA-AGC

The Special Libraries Association-Arabian Gulf Chapter is organizing a workshop entitled "Skills for Using Library of Congress Classification Web" in cooperation with Libraries Deanship-United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ein in from 6 to 8 November 2006. For subscribtions, please contact Dr. Naeema Jabr , SLA/AGC Professional Development Chair
Tel. +968 24142024, Fax. 24141802, Email. mnjaburh@hotmail.com.

To recieve an electronic copy of the workshop's brochure, send an email to MLIS_Cafe@hotmail.com

تنظم جمعية المكتبات المتخصصة -فرع الخليج العربي ورشة عمل حول "مهارات استخدام تصنيف مكتبة الكونغرس على الويب" بالتعاون مع عمادة المكتبات الجامعية - جامعة الامارات العربية المتحدة - العين. في الفترة ما بين 6 إلى 8 نوفمبر 2006. للتسجيل والاشتراك، يرجى مخاطبة د. نعيمة جابر ، رئيسة لجنة التطوير المهني لجمعية المكتبات المتخصصة - فرع الخليج العربي على العناوين التالية

mnjaburh@hotmail.com هاتف: 96824142024 + ف: 97824141802 + ايميل

للحصول على نسخة الكترونية من البروشور الخاص بورشة العمل ، يرجى ارسال بريد الكتروني الى

MLIS_Cafe@hotmail.com

G. Robert Vincent Voice Library

The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library is a collection of over 40,000 hours of spoken word recordings, dating back to 1888. The collection includes the voices of over 100,000 persons from all walks of life. Political and cultural leaders and minor players in the human drama are captured and cataloged to serve the research needs of a local, national and international user base. Clients include students and faculty of Michigan State University, other scholars and researchers, broadcasting networks, news agencies and film, video, and Web production companies.

Visit the VVL library at http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/index.cfm .
A nice video about the library can be seen at http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/media/vincent.ram

New Look.. Happy Ramadan!

Its been a year! Yeah it's been a year since this blog was created. I'm pleased to celebrate with you virtually LIS Cafe's First Anniversary. I hope it helped you in a way or another to communicate your ideas, share your latest news, or find a good resource for your study or work. In this occasion I would like to thank all members whose existence was essential in setting up such a web tool.

Since its establishment, LIS Cafe offered the following:

• Open Area for discussion
• Links to libraries, librarians and library resources
• Photo Gallery consists of several albums
• Chatroom to allow live discussions
• Yahoo search engine

As a start, this seems quite good, But we could do more! So don't hesitate to submit your suggestions and comments.

Numbers:

• Members: 52
• Posts: 82
• Page viewed: 8171 times

Finally I'd Like to thank the Department of Library & Information Science for their support and encouragement, and special thanks go to:

• Alyaa, for her support and passion to work
• Hayat, for providing her own collection of SLA-Kuwait photos
• Dr. Taghreed for providing a great collection of SLA past and current conferences photos
• My youngest sister Eman for offering her best shots of Kuwait

SLA-AGC Calls for Papers

SLA-AGC invites you to participate in its 13th annual conference that will be held in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain on April 2007. The conference theme is: Information and Knowledge Management in the Arabian Gulf Society. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Spetember 25. If you would like to read more about the conference sub-themes, guidelines, and deadlines, check the conference page.

RFID and Libraries

RFID (Radio Frequency identification) is one of the latest technologies used in library security systems. it is based on placing special microchips which stores about 2,000 bytes of data, known as RFID tags, to be read using radio frequency technology. the system consists of RFID tags, readers, software and server. This technology has already been implemented in around 300 libraries in the United States. It is a promising yet controversial technology. It have proved many advantages such as rapid check-outs, high reliability, long tag life, inventory efficiency and automated materials handling. A large group of specialists suggests that this technology have many advantages over the traditional barcodes. they hold more data than barcodes, thus they can be used for tracking individual items. The item can be individually tracked as it moves from one place to another, ending up in the reader's hand. But do the advantages of RFID outweigh its deficits? The high cost and pivacy issues constitute the main problems of this technology. Imagine that the tag placed on a single item costs 0,500 K.D. In this case, implementing the system in a large library that contains 100,00 books for example would be very costy. However, the price of the RFID tags is falling gradually and might be more reasonable in the coming years. Also, there is a perception that RFID represents a threat to patron privacy.

DLIS Graduation 2006 .. Congratulations!

Biographical Directory of Kuwait Librarians/Information Specialists

We are glad to let you know that two MLIS graduates (Asma J. Yaqoub and Alyaa Al-Mousawi) are working on a project under the supervision of professor Mumtaz Ali Anwar to prepare a bi-lingual (Arabic/English) biographical directory of LIS professionals in Kuwait. It will provide essential biographical and contact information about those who practice librarianship in Kuwait. Since no such work has been done in this area before, there is an urgent need to compile and publish it in print, electronically or both formats. It will be of interest to the general public and an essential tool for information specialists.

We have sent forms in both electronic and paper formats to a quite good number of librarians and information specialists. If you have not recieved your copy yet, please contact us as soon as possible. We urge you to participate in this project and encourage others to do the same. Your participation is valuable for the success of this project and would be most appreciated. If you need any clarification, feel free to contact us at
Asma_project@hotmail.com
Alyaa_project@hotmail.com

يسرنا أن نعلمكم أننا بصدد إعداد دليل ثنائي اللغة (عربي/انجليزي) خاص بأخصائيي المكتبات و المعلومات في الكويت. كما نود أن نحيطكم علما بأن هذا الدليل سيغطي كافة المعلومات الخاصة بالسيرة الذاتية لأخصائيي المكتبات والمعلومات في الكويت و بيانات الاتصال الخاصة بكل منهم. نظرا لعدم وجود مثل هذا النوع من الأدلة التي تغطي هذا الجانب, فقد ارتأينا ضرورة إعداد نسخة مطبوعة أو الكترونية أو كلتاهما من هذا الدليل, و سيكون هذا الدليل محل اهتمام المستخدمين بشكل عام و أخصائيي المكتبات بشكل خاص.

وقد قمنا بإرسال نسخ الكترونية ومطبوعة من الاستمارات لعدد كبير من أخصائيي المكتبات. وفي حال عدم حصولكم على نسخة من الاستمارة, نرجو منكم مراسلتنا في أقرب وقت ممكن. نتمنى منكم المشاركة في هذا المشروع وحث زملائكم على المشاركة وتعبئة الاستمارة بالعربية أو الانجليزية, حيث أن مشاركتكم ستسهم في نجاح المشروع.

لمزيد من التفاصيلو الجاء مراسلتنا على العناوين التالية

Asma_project@hotmail.com

Alyaa_project@hotmail.com

E-form_Arabic.doc

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E-form_English.doc

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Updated on Monday, November 27, 2006

Kuwait University Graduation Ceremony

College of Graduate Studies Open Day

The College of Graduate Studies celebrated its open day. Dr. Anas Al-Rasheed and the Dean of the College opened the ceremony.

Bashayer Al-Khateeb represented the Department of LIS and has presented an interesting topic about " Library Anxiety"

If any one is interested in the topic and would like to have more informatoin about , you can contact Bashayer @ :
chopard1@hotmail.com

A research project on the current situation of Master in Library & Information Science

Conduct of Focus Groups

The LIS Department in Kuwait University is conducting a research project about the current situation of Master in Library and Information Science and the ways in which it needs to be developed, considering the needs of the Kuwaiti market. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered among alumni and both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. An analysis of the data indicated that there was a need for focused discussion in the form of focus groups on most vital issues that needed further deliberation. Three focus group sessions have been conducted on 17th, 23rd, and 25th April. Altogether, 33 participants took part in the sessions. The participants represented employers from both public and corporate sectors, managers of library and information organizations, DLIS alumni, current students of Master’s, and faculty members.

Questions

The following questions have been discussed in the three sessions. Deliberations were audio-recorded and some notes were taken.

What are the specific areas in which Kuwaiti companies have a need to recruit information professionals? The possible areas could include: knowledge management, portal and Intranet management, databases, digitization, document management, indexing, archiving, workflow management, etc.?

What are the best ways, in your view, in which the Kuwaiti companies and the Department of Library and Information Science can create meaningful partnership?

What are the primary deficiencies in the LIS graduates that need to be addressed in the current MLIS program?

What are the specific skills/competencies you wish to recommend to be taught in the MLIS program that are absent from the current coursework?

Do you think that the names of the department and degree need to be changed from DLIS and MLIS? Will any change help in improving the image of the profession?

Keeping in view the needs of the market, in what way the MLIS program needs to be changed during the next five years?

Deliberations and Results

These focus group discussions have generated highly rich data. Deliberations were lively and engaging. Concerns and viewpoints of different stake-holders have been highlighted. These data will be analyzed during the next month. The results will appear in different forms such as seminars, conference papers, journal articles, and a research report. We will be delighted to post an essence of these results on "LIS Café".

By Prof. Sajjad ur Rehman

Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry

Watch the opening ceremony live on Kuwait TV , Sat. April 8, at 6:00 pm
Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry can be considered the first and largest library specialising in Arabic poetry.

The foundation stone of the library was laid in Kuwait on the 6th of January, 2002 by Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, then First Deputy Prime Minister.

This initiative by Mr. Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain, the library owner and founder, fulfilled his dream as of thousands of Arab poets looking forward to having a certain institution, repository or library dedicated to Arabic poetry that protects their works against the winds of carelessness, oblivion and loss and preserves it in one place for Arabic poetry lovers, readers and intellectuals.

The library building was designed in such a way that reflects the spirit of Kuwait, Arab culture and poetry in general, from the Pre-Islamic era to the present time.

Mrs. Suad Al-Ateeqi, one of the highly qualified Kuwaiti professionals in the field of library and information science who had a great experience in Kuwait University libraries, was selected for the position of "Library Director", along with a qualified staff of technicians, paraprofessionals, executives, poets and librarians.

The library collection totaled more than 72,000 books excluding periodicals and electronic resources. Collections are still being received from all over the world. Users can find almost all the resources related to Arabic poetry such as references, books, periodicals, divans, manuscripts, theses and electronic resources.

The library is planning to open its doors to the public in the near future. The inauguration day will be the day of Arabic poetry in the eyes of all Arab poets coming from different artistic and intellectual schools and directions.
This article was published in Middle East Online

ندوة رقمنة وتطوير المحتوى العربي

ينظم معهد الكويت للابحاث العلمية بالتعاون مع مؤسسة الكويت للتقدم العلمي ندوة علمية بعنوان:

رقمنة وتطوير المحتوى العربي تحت شعار (نحو ثقافة التجديد)

4 - 5 ابريل 2006 م

ويأتي تنظيم هذه الندوة في إطار احتفالية يوم الوثيقةالعربية التي تستضيفها هذا العام دولة الكويت ، كما تدور محاور الندوة حول ثلاثة محاور اساسية :

المحور الأول: الاقتصاد المعرفي وحفظ الانتاج الفكري

المحور الثاني : التكنولوجيا في حفظ المحتوى العربي

المحور الثالث: البيئة التميكينية والتحول الرقمي

وسوف يشارك في الندوة مختصين من داخل و خارج الكويت

للتسجيل في الندوة اضغط هنا

DLIS Public Lecture by Prof. Mamtaz Anwar & Mariam Abdulrahman

You are
Cordially invited to a public lecture

Titled

Nutrition Information Seeking by
Kuwaiti Obese Women

by

Professor Mumtaz A. Anwar
And
Mariam Abdulrahman

Monday, March 27, 2006
At 7:00 pm

Global Hall - Shuwaikh Campus
Kuwait University

Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional by Dennie Heye

Summary
This book is intended for professional Library and Information Services (LIS) staff and LIS students who want to be more successful as information professionals. The LIS profession is one of the most challenging in the 21st century, combining expertise in information management with information technology skills and knowledge of marketing. The author has written a practical and concise book on the key characteristics, with practical tips and techniques. Readers will find this book to be a guide to the diverse characteristics of the information professional, helping readers to achieve greater success in their jobs and careers.

Key Features
Written by an enthusiastic, creative and knowledgeable authorBased on the practical, day-to-day experience of the authorProvides a good overview of the key LIS profession characteristics plus techniques and tips to improve themCan be read as a whole or as selected chapters. Each chapter is focused on one characteristic with an introduction, techniques and tips and a conclusion

The Author
Dennie Heye is an information scientist at a Fortune Global 500 company, focussing on innovative information management projects and global library development. He has lectured and written about different topics on library and information science. Dennie has a Master degree in Marketing and a bachelor degree in Library and Information Science. http://www.dennie.heye.nl

Contents
Each chapter contains a characteristic of the successful information professional; each has an introduction, techniques on how to improve them and a conclusion. Examples of characteristics include:

• Become an Internet search engine expert
• How to market yourself as an information professional·
• How to use persuasion
• Learning to say no and focus on what is important·
• Effective time management

Order the book via:
The publisher: CHANDOS
Amazon.com

Excerpted from Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional by Dennie Heye. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
(excerpt from chapter 7)

You can persuade others
As an information professional you will have to convince your management, your colleagues or customers about your ideas. Whether it be the case that you want to upgrade a software application, adopt a new strategy for your department or implement an organisation-wide project – you will need to persuade others. Simply put, persuasion is the way of changing someone else’s point of view or behaviour to your own.

Persuasion is a game we all play on different levels every day. Commercials and advertisements use persuasion to sell products. At home, we use persuasion with our family to influence our loved ones to go and see the movie we like or eat at that restaurant we really like.

For the Ancient Greeks, the ideal method of persuasion was to use reasoning alone, which they named logos – the appeal to reason. They understood that humans do not follow reason alone, but that other persuasion techniques should be used as well: the appeal to character (ethos) and the appeal to emotion (pathos).

By combining logos, ethos and pathos you can define the optimal mix of persuasion techniques for a particular situation. In this chapter, I will describe different techniques you can use to persuade others. Persuasion is close to coercion, as they both aim to change the other person’s attitude or behaviours. But where coercion uses fear and intimidation, persuasion refers to more positive methods by using emotional or rational appeals based on common values and understandings (Pruitt, 1986).

Techniques
By using persuasion you apply reasoning, urging or convincing to get others to change their behaviour or point of view. In order to motivate others to the best effect, you must use different persuasive techniques, such as the following.

Understand other people’s interests
With every new idea, people always think ‘what’s in it for me?’ Your idea might be very logical, but bear in mind that people usually put their own interests first – their personal interest, the interest for their team or organisation. Be aware of this, and look at your idea from the other side. What benefits can you offer people to persuade them?

For example, early in my career I had to convince the general manager of the company I worked for to implement a web-enabling module for our library catalogue which contained our library collection and customer files.

This meant a significant investment in times when IT spending was declining and the acquisition of new software was challenged every time. I knew, however, that the general manager was very keen on making all employees work more efficiently. The board of directors had set several targets for him in this respect, and the general manager was always looking for proposals in the area.

So when I put together a short proposal for the investment, I referred to his efficiency programme and explained how all employees now had one-click access to all relevant customer information. Rather going to the library about a customer file or specific letter, employees could now easily search and browse the catalogue and access it immediately. The vendor was able to deliver a case study of another company, where the implementation of the module was a great success regarding efficiency.

So rather then seeing my proposal as just a cost, the general manager saw it as an investment in making the company work more efficiently and enabling him to score on his targets.

Expertise
Expertise is a convincing factor in persuasion, as people tend to be influenced by experts on topics they know less about. When we want to read a book on a certain topic, we select the book not just by the content, but also by the author’s credentials. Knowing you have expertise also makes you feel more confident, as you have the knowledge and are prepared for questions or issues. Of course, it takes quite some time and effort to acquire expertise. Identify experts in your organisation or industry and learn from them, and make sure you are up to date with the latest developments via courses, journals and conferences. You can gain recognition as an expert on a topic by expressing your ideas in articles, giving advice or presenting papers at conferences.

Many thanks to the author Dennie Heye for providing the required information with an excerpt of his book especially for LIS Cafe, and to his willingness to participate in discussions.

Check the photo Gallery

A photo gallery has been added to the blog recently. It will cover events, celebrations and lectures related to LIS. It may also provide pictures of some libraries in Kuwait.


So far, the gallery contains three albums:

1. SLA-AGC 10th Annual Conference in Kuwait
2. DLIS Graduation 2005
3. Kuwait University

More Pictures and albums will be added soon, so stay tuned!

Note: all Pictures are right-click protected. If you have comments, suggestions or complaints, please email me at MLIS_Cafe@hotmail.com. Participating in providing photos is highly appreciated.

A-LIEP Asia-Pacific Conference on Library and Information Education and Practice

Dear colleague

You might be interested in attending an upcoming conference that also allows an excellent opportunity for professional development through pre- and post-conference events. It will be held in the first week of April 2006 in Singapore. You can visit the website of the conference at: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/A%2DLIEP/

If any of you wishes to get more details, I will be pleased to share.

Being a member of the organizing commmittee, I have been approached to make you aware of the event.

Please feel free to bring it to the attention of anyone you may like to inform.

Sincerely, Sajjad

دعوة لحضور ندوة بعنوان قانون المطبوعات والنشر

تتشرف

جمعية المكتبات والمعلومات الكويتية
بدعوتكم لحضور ندوة بعنوان
"قانون المطبوعات والنشر"

يشارك بها كل من المحامي عماد السيف والدكتورة ابتهال الطاهر
وذلك يوم السبت الموافق 4/3/2006م في تمام الساعة السابعة مساءً في مكتبة اليرموك العامة بمنطقة اليرموك.

"الدعوة عامة"

للاستفسار : موبايل : 7369724 – المكتب : 7/5316638

Happy National Day & Liberation Day