Straits Times Journalist (and part-time poet) Grace Chua (left) gets a well deserved award. And books – print and digital  – get a welcome boost at the Summit of the Book, where we meet the man – Ismail Serageldin (right) – charged with running one of the oldest literature treasure stores in the world at Alexandria, Egypt, where rioters come too close for comfort. We also come clean on three book projects we’ve kept close to our chest so far. Read More

Ken Hickson reports:

We met Ismail Serageldin, the keeper of the great Library of Alexandria at the Singapore Summit of the Book. An eloquent and educated lover of books and all literary treasures old and new. He told me – and  an audience at the National Library in Singapore  – of his mission to protect one of the great libraries of the world in The Library of Alexandra  along with the challenges faced every day in the troubled country of Egypt. He told us how library loyalists joined hands to circle the place and protect it from destruction. He told us of how some stray bullets came to close for comfort. We can read of his visit and his words in a Straits Times report, but first a report from the website of the library:

What Happened in the Library on the 14th of August

On August 14 2013, amidst the unfortunate violence and turmoil that Egypt has witnessed lately, the Library of Alexandria, a neutral cultural institution, was subjected to a number of attacks. The brave and heroic staff of the Library’s Internal Security team, alongside the Egyptian Police Force, protected the building from these irresponsible actions. Apart from the breaking of some glass panes on the Plaza, the bridge and the entrance to the Conference Center, as a result of random gunshots fired aimlessly, the Library remains intact. The Library’s security staff are competent and prepared to protect this international institution which so many Egyptians had protected, by forming human chains, during previous incidents. The Library of Alexandria hopes that peace, security and stability will reign for the benefit of our country.

Source: www.bibalex.org

 

By Janice Heng  in The Straits Times (19 August 2013)

Over 1,000 years ago, the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt was destroyed. Two years ago, its modern counterpart seemed under threat again as an angry mob marched towards it during the Arab Spring.

But protesters themselves stepped forward to protect it, recalls Dr Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In early 2011, protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak – with whom the library was associated – were sweeping Egypt. In Alexandria, Dr Serageldin watched one such protest approach.

“Standing there with a few of my colleagues, and watching 200,000 people coming and chanting… I think, ‘What am I going to try to tell them, will they listen?’

“Then out of the crowd, young people… start making a human chain, holding hands and saying, ‘This is the library! Nobody touches the library!’”

He and other library experts see a bright future for libraries even in the digital age: as archives, a means of connecting people with knowledge, and important community spaces people will protect.

Dr Serageldin and other experts are among 3,000 delegates from 150 countries in Singapore for two library-related conferences, the Second International Summit of the Book and the 79th International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ World Library and Information Congress.

The summit was held last Friday, with experts discussing the historical role of the book and the future of books and libraries. The Congress began on Saturday and runs till Friday. It includes an industry fair and free public talks. The congress theme is Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities, and technology’s enabling role is a major topic.

To some, the rise of e-books may seem to sound the death knell for libraries, or even printed books. But librarians see no cause for alarm.

As Dr Serageldin says, classic texts of the ancient world were written and read on scrolls, before the codex – today’s book – arrived. “We don’t really care that, ‘My god, people have been reading scrolls for millennia, now they’re going to be reading codexes’.”

To librarians, it is content that matters, says Shanghai Library director Wu Jianzhong. “Printed books and digital books, they are all carriers of content.”

Mr Bill Macnaught, who heads the National Library of New Zealand, says that even if print gives way to e-books, libraries need not lose relevance. After all, many now lend e-books and even electronic devices to read them, making these available in the same way that they have long made available more books than anyone could buy.

Libraries are also archives, and technology aids this role in the digitisation and hence preservation of historical material, converting old documents into image files. This means someone elsewhere in the country need not go to the National Library in Wellington for research, but can look at a digital copy from their local library, says Mr Macnaught. “We’re making it easier to provide equity of access.”

So the digital age is not something for libraries to fear. But it does mean they have to go beyond being collections of books.

“In the past, we were just transactional,” says National Library Board chief executive Elaine Ng. You went in, borrowed a book, and that was it. “Today, the library space is about what people want, which is an experience.”

Before, when information was far less accessible, libraries were a source of knowledge. But with the rise of the Internet, libraries now have to reach out and work harder to get readers in, Mrs Ng adds. Architecture and design, for instance, have become more important in creating a “customer experience”.

Dr Serageldin lists four spaces which libraries should provide: “Noisy, messy, dirty, creative places” with a coffee bar, say, and whiteboards, where young people can let their imagination run wild; smaller rooms for group study; conventional quiet reading spaces; and a space which “reaffirms the role of the library as a centre of the community”, for events and exhibitions.

At Shanghai Library, creative space takes the form of a room with 3-D printers and a digital sandbox in which visitors can play with ideas. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina aims to recapture the spirit of its ancient predecessor, which was part academy, part archive. It now has research institutes, museums and art galleries, and a planetarium.

The library’s useful services and cultural vibrancy may have helped it earn a place in local hearts. But Dr Serageldin thinks there was more which spurred those young Egyptians to join hands to protect it. “The other aspect is the values we defended.” After all, the 700-odd lectures and debates at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina each year are not just interesting public events. They represent the library opening its doors to pluralism and discussion, and it is such values for which the library stands, he adds.

Freedom of expression, intellectualism, pluralism, rationality, science, debate, the arts – “We defend all of that,” he says.

Source: www.edvantage.com.sg and

 

Joanna Seow In The Straits Times ()16 August 2013):

SINGAPORE – Straits Times environment correspondent Grace Chua has been named Singapore’s winner of this year’s Siemens Green Technology Journalism Award.

Ms Chua, 28, triumphed for her commentary “Towards a robust clean air strategy”, which covered a wide spectrum of causes and effects of air pollution, strategies proposed by academics, and government and private sector efforts to manage it.

Dr Faizal Yahya, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies and one of the judges, said: “The article will be useful for policymakers and provides a brief but informative piece on an evolving clear air strategy in Singapore.”

This is Ms Chua’s second award in a year – last August, she bagged the City Developments Limited Environmental Journalist of the Year award.

She has been with The Straits Times for five years and was a recipient of the Singapore Press Holdings journalism scholarship in 2003. After her undergraduate studies, she completed a master’s degree in science writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has since covered a wide range of topics such as land use change and biodiversity.

“The environment beat is fascinating,” said Ms Chua. “A lot of issues can be boiled down to environment and science, and you’re always learning something new with every story.”

In the Siemens contest, the second of its kind, Ms Chua faced four other journalists in Singapore. In all, Siemens had more than 170 entries from the Asia-Pacific region, including those from local news dailies, trade publications and online media.

Ms Chua wins $1,000 and a trip to the award ceremony in London, where she will also attend an environmental conference. She will be considered for the regional round of the competition along with six other country winners from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The results of this round will be announced next month.

Source: www. news.silobreaker.com

Ken Hickson reports (23 August 2013):

Good things Comes in Threes

For those who might want to know what I’ve been up to on the writing front – after four years of relative quiet on the print front at least – this year I expect three books to see the light of day under my authorship.

1. 1.     “Race for Sustainability”

It is expected to hit the bookshelves and the digital reader library early October. It is being billed thus by the publishers World Scientific:

Ken Hickson advocates and entertains in this portfolio of stories, profiles

and case studies, covering what he calls the four E’s of Sustainability:

Energy   Economy   Environment   Ethics

He writes convincingly and persuasively that we need to get on the fast

track…

• • To clear the air and drive to a sustainable, low-carbon future.
• • To focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• • To stop the burning and stop wasting resources.

 

“Even with the latest and best vehicles, machinery, technology and

buildings, if we continue to use resources irresponsibly — to waste

food, water and energy — we are not even in the race.”

 

Expect to hear more about this from me and others. It has a wide selection of sustainability stories from near and far.

 

1. 2.     “Forty: Building a Future in Singapore”

I’ll leave it to the publishers of this book to tell you more once it’s officially released by the end of this month. All I can say is: it is set in Singapore and profiles the people who have made a particular property company one of the best around when it comes to sustainability and safety, green buildings and green leases.

 

1. 3.     Business Leadership Series

The first in an expected series on business leaders and leading businesses. It focuses on the achievements and legacy of one leading businessman who was instrumental in creating an iconic Singapore brand and taking on the world.

 

Expect an official announcement with more details in the coming weeks. The book is expected to be released by the end of this year.

 

And if three is not enough, we are re-working “The ABC of Carbon” (first released in 2009) and giving it an updated introduction and some new material to come out afresh in e-book form in the near future. To those of you who missed the original first edition (in print), there are still some copies around in Australia and Singapore.

Email me direct for more information or to place your advance order!

 

kenhickson@sustain-ability-showcase.com