Archive for September, 2009

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Tuesday was a pretty intensive day, starting off with the Green Flash rounds. Green Flash is a new conference feature meant to highlight short topics like new online tools, an interesting activity at your library, something funny you found (I apologize again to Marie-Pascale for losing her picture; thankfully she had a copy), etc. For those of us who are presentation-impaired, these are great for getting a bit of experience with standing in front of our peers and talking coherently. The Green Flash presenters and topics were:

Following the coffee break, Jill Cousins showed off Europeana, the European Digital Library. This amazing library aggregates resources from all over the European Union including national libraries, museums and other cultural resources. Items include audio and video files as well as documents.

Following this presentation, we were supposed to have country reports from Euraslic participants, but only France chose to present. Off we went to another delicious lunch featuring Flemish beef stew and fries with a selection of patés, coleslaws and cold meats with rolls. Dessert was another chocolate concoction. YUM.

So, after lunch, Jan Haspeslagh was the moderator for European Information Environment Evolves with Bart Goosens and Dimitri Brosens presenting on the Research Institute for Nature and Forest’s development of their data and information center. Jan was charged with keeping us all awake, although he delegated that responsibility to the speakers. Ludmila Koval was unable to present. Each of the poster authors were also required to present briefly on their poster.

A small change in the program had the posters for the next session presenting before the papers, which included topics on the theme of Evolving Through Collaboration with Guillermina Cosulich moderating. We took a quick break, okay, not so quick, to have the group photo taken on the front steps of the Provincial Hof. After the photo session, we recongregated for the papers by Jean Crampon and Sonja Kromann.

Our vendors/sponsors were then asked to present to the group, including ProQuest, Inter-Research Science Center and NHBS. Other sponsors who did not present include Ebsco, Annual Reviews, and Elsevier. Our hosts include IOC/UNESCO Project Office for IODE and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ).

Once again, we adjourned for the day and were free to party as we saw fit.

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September 30, 2009 · Filed under Conference News

Monday, 28 Sept 2009

Keynote address (sponsored by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission). Dr Claude Belpaire addressed the Decline of European Eel populations. Anguilla anguilla spawns in the Sargasso Sea and migrates to the European continental shelf then into freshwater rivers all over Europe. After completing the maturation process in freshwater, the eels then return home to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Many factors have lead to the decline of the eel populations. Pollution, hydropower, overharvesting, etc. Pollution has farther reaching effects than just inhibiting the reproduction of eels. Pollution is also having a significant effect on human health. So, the 4 H’s come into play in other fisheries besides the Columbia River, although hatcheries don’t seem to be as much of a problem with this species as habitat, harvest and hydropower. One of the effects of the loss of habitat has been the loss of fat stores in the silver eel. The fat stores are necessary for the eels to migrate back to the Sargasso Sea. Dr Belpaire likes to say that with eels are “survival of the fattest, not survival of the fittest.” Eels are in the experimental stages of aquaculture.

What would an IAMSLIC conference be without loads of delicious food? We had coffee breaks with selections of sweets, coffee, tea, and water. Rather than waiting for noon, many participants chose to surf the large selection of items in the Guin Auction. There are many very tempting items this year. If you’d like to get an idea of what’s up for bid, point your web browser of choice to http://www.flickr.com and search for #IAMSLIC2009. Note the hash mark (#) and lack of spaces.

Euraslic and IAMSLIC both had business meetings, one after the other giving each group some extra time with the coffee and treats. And then (definitely not starving here), we had lunch with a variety of fish entrees, curried side dishes, spicy tomato soup and chocolate mousse for dessert.

Following the break, we were treated to motivating accounts of digital repositories in Eastern Europe. We would have heard from Fred Merceur as well, rounding out the continental coverage, but he was delayed after a woodworking accident. (Perhaps we’ll find out what happened when he arrives later in the week).

Another break with more coffee to wake us up again and we began again with interesting discussions about digital natives and digital immigrants by Elizabeth Connor from The Citadel. The difference in research styles between the two classes of people can be quite startling and has a huge impact on the way we teach information literacy. Steve Watkins followed with a presentation about open source software and how the class of software may or may not save our institutions money.

At that the conference closed for the day and we all went off for various evening activities. A large group followed Bart Goosens on a pub crawl, but since many pubs are smaller in size, they only invaded a couple. Reports are that everyone had a great time and a few people were late on Tuesday morning for the opening sessions.

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September 29, 2009 · Filed under Conference News

Welcome Reception, 27 September 2009

Around 1730, attendees couldn’t seem to wait to see each other any longer and folks began congregating in the large hallway outside the Welcome Reception. Sitting quietly, I watched as old and new friends began catching up and getting to know each other in a variety of languages. At 1800, the crowd moved into the room and listened to the welcoming words from various dignitaries. We were regaled with stories of Brugge and the Provincial Hof. The Provincial Hof looks medieval/gothic, but is really less than 100 years old. Quite an incredible reproduction. After that, food was served and conversation volume increased. I don’t know when the party finally broke up or moved as I left to take myself off to bed.

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September 28, 2009 · Filed under Conference News

Arrival in Brugge, Belgium : Where the wild things are

After traveling for a year and a day, I and my daughter, Lily, joined the rest of the “Wild Things” in Brugge, Belgium.  Some of you know the wild, hair-raising details of me shepherding a 15 year old through the wilds of continental Europe, others don’t need to know.  Thank you to Marcel Branneman, who we met on the platform in Brussels, for a calming, interesting and enlightening conversation (all on his end, I’m a blond) then helping get my darling child to the hotel in Brugge. We’re here and we’re ready for action.

Ok, so the IAMSLIC membership is not really “Wild Things”, but we are quite a rambunctious lot of librarians who are ready to take on all things aquatic, marine and library-related in order to serve our customers better and improve the return-on-investment for our various institutions.  Some of us have so little investment to begin with, this trip is pure profit for our organizations.

I look forward to tomorrow with the walking tour of Brugge, though I may send just my daughter with my camera as my body is in revolt from the stress of the past 36 hours of travel. If nothing else, I’ll be getting the Guin Auction ready for bidding action and helping with registration. Can’t wait to meet all my new friends and see all my returning friends.

PS For those who are unfamiliar, “Where the Wild Things Are” is a children’s book by Maurice Sendak.  The movie adaptation is due to be released in the U.S. on October 16, 2009.

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September 26, 2009 · Filed under Conference News, Uncategorized

New Members / July – September 2009

Inoque, Daniel
Instituto Nacional de Investigacao Pesqueira
Address: Mao Tse Tung
City: Maputo
Postal Code: 4603
Country: Mozambique
Telephone: +25821490307
Email: daniel_inoque@hotmail.com

Peimer, Elizabeth Ann
Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport (MRC), Environmental Plannning and Biological Analysis
Address: 1176 Howell Street
City: Newport
State/Prov: RI
Postal Code: 02841
Country: United States
Telephone: 401-832-3568
Email: elizabethann.peimer@navy.mil

Panouse, Marie-Therese
Observatoire Oceanologique de Banyuls, Laboratoire Arago
City: Banyuls-sur-mer
Postal Code: 66650
Country: France
Telephone: 33 4 68 88 16 99
Email: biblio@obs-banyuls.fr

Mayer, Marina
Rudjer Boskovic Institute
Address: Bijenicka cesta 54
City: Zagreb
Postal Code: 10000
Country: Croatia
Telephone: +385 1 4561 043
Email: marina.mayer@irb.hr
Brumnic, Virna
Center for Marine Research Rovinj, RBI Zagreb
Address: Giordano Paliaga 5
City: Rovinj
State/Prov: Istria
Postal Code: 52210
Country: Croatia
Telephone: 385 52 804 730
Email: brumnic@cim.irb.hr

Le Maire, Johan
Flemish Environment Agency (VMM)  Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij
Address: A. Van de Maelestraat 96
City: Erembodegem
Postal Code: 9320
Country: Belgium
Telephone: 32 53 72 64 45
Email: j.lemaire@vmm.be

Hines, Susie
Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland, CES
Address: 5745 Lovers Land ; PO Box 775
City: Cambridge
State/Prov: MD
Postal Code: 21613
Country: United States
Telephone: 410-221-8450
Email: hines@hpl.umces.edu

Kaumi, Pricilla Maigu
Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority
Address: Douglas Street
City: Port Moresby
State/Prov: National Capital District
Postal Code: 121
Country: Papua New Guinea
Telephone: (675) 309-0490
Email: pmaigu@fisheries.gov.pg
 

Roga, Valina
Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority
Address: Douglas Street
City: Port Moresby
State/Prov: National Capital District
Postal Code: 121
Country: Papua New Guinea
Telephone: (675) 309-0047
Email: vroga@fisheries.gov.pg

Gardner, Sue Ann
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Love Library
Address: 302S Love Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
City: Lincoln
State/Prov: NE
Postal Code: 68588-4100
Country: United States
Telephone: 402-423-4771
Email: kc0mwl@gmail.com
Sepe, Theresia Alesa
Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority
Address: Douglas Street
City: Port Moresby
State/Prov: National Capital District
Postal Code: 121
Country: Papua New Guinea
Telephone: (675) 309 0472
Email: talesa@fisheries.gov.pg

 

 

Kristen L. Metzger, Membership Committee and Membership Database Chair

 

 

 

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September 14, 2009 · Filed under Committee news

Tracking the Conference

For all you social networkers out there, IAMSLIC 2009 will be all over the web.  Facebook and MySpace both have groups.  You can join one or both.  Those of you who like to keep up-to-the-minute can follow the conference on Twitter.  Each year, these groups will be changed to reflect the new conference location as the home location.

Those of you on Facebook, we even have the conference listed as an event and you can RSVP.  I know most of the attendees already have by paying their conference fee, but it’s fun to say maybe.

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=97187258540
We’ll be posting to the wall or generating discussions during the conference.

MySpace : http://tinyurl.com/nq75bf
Same as Facebook.

Twitter: @IAMSLIC2009
I’ll be posted where we are in the program and what we’re doing next. Personally, I use Tweetdeck (http://tweetdeck.com/beta/) to manage my Twitter accounts.

As usual, I will be posting daily blogs about the conference events to summarize the presentations and the day for all those stuck at home.

Stay connected,

Lenora
StreamNet Regional Librarian
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
http://www.fishlib.org

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September 14, 2009 · Filed under Announcements, Conference News