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APSIG Newsletter March 2005Feature articlesTransvestites and treasures of the Malay archipelagoMarie Sexton Asia-Pacific Special Interest Group lunchtime seminar, Tuesday 8 February 2005, at the National Library of Australia, Canberra. We were lucky enough to hear two excellent presentations at this provocatively titled seminar on the Malay archipelago. Anna Reid, information access officer Southeast Asia, ANU Library entitled her talk on 'Discovering Malay world collections: around the world in 20 minutes'. Anna spoke on the riches to be found in Malay collections around the world. She was fortunate to be one of the overseas participants invited to a conference in Malaysia organised by the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization in August 2004. Those present were librarians from Malay study centres throughout the world and the purpose was for them to become familiar with one another and with the collections available. There were representatives from the United States, Great Britain, Europe and Australia with Dr Aline Scott-Maxwell, head of the Asian Research Library, Monash University, also attending. The Malaysian government has been a generous supporter in the development of Malay study centres in a number of overseas countries. With a very rich and varied program, Anna felt that the program had succeeded. Anya Dettman, Indonesian unit, National Library of Australia, entitled her talk 'From tattered page to high-tech stage: I La Galigo, Indonesia's unknown epic'. She had attended its inaugural stage production of I La Galigo performed last year in Singapore, produced by Robert Wilson of Einstein and the beach fame. I La Galigo is an extensive Bugis text from South Sulawesi, Indonesia and is possibly the world's longest and least known epic poem. It is set in another middle earth with its own lord of the rings. The Singaporean production employed all elements of modern theatre technology in a lavish stage production. Anya showed pictures of fantastical scenes set in another time zone, played a tape of some of the songs and music and provided a visual and musical look at the cultural background and history of I La Galigo. The audience was struck with its similarity in theme to Wagner's Ring Cycle in its literary and theatrical forms. A unique aspect of the epic is its incorporation of transgender characters and transvestites which are part of Bugis beliefs in five genders (masculine and feminine men, feminine and masculine women and priests incorporating characteristics of both). Anya refers to Dr Sharyn Graham's research on gender in Sulawesi with two of her papers available on the web.
One about Calalai' (masculine women): One about the Bissu (trangender priests) at the website for Inside Indonesia magazine April-June 2001 issue. There is an introduction to the text and the play summarized the Latitudes magazine, published in Denpasar, Bali, vol. 37. (Available online to subscribers). For the performance, there is a little on the website for Change Performing Arts, the company that produced it, click on the links there for images from the production, credits etc. Asia Pacific Week
31 January to 4 February 2005 Postgraduate researchers met at the Australian National University in Canberra on 31 January to 4 February 2005 for Asia Pacific Week. Asia Pacific Week was launched by Fiona Buffinton, chief executive officer of Australian Education International (Department of Education, Science and Training) which funds the main sponsor of the event, the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies (ICEAPS) at the ANU. ICEAPS is funded out of a four-year grant from the Commonwealth of Australia and is designed to raise the profile of Asia Pacific studies in Australia. Asia Pacific Week featured a program of collaborative events, intensive courses and workshops, book launches, film screenings, cultural performances and social events. In addition there were a number of public lectures and other public events. More than 100 academics guided 218 honours students and postgraduate researchers, from 16 countries, through the week-long programs. Participants presented papers on their research and gained practical advice on enhancing research skills from senior scholars in the field of Asia and Pacific studies. Scholarships have been provided for Australia-based honours and postgraduate students. Asia Pacific specialists from the ANU Library provided tours and gave presentations on the highlights of the East Asian, Pacific, South Asian and Southeast Asian collections in the RG Menzies building. Similar sessions were provided by Asian Collections staff from the National Library of Australia. Participants had access to the considerable research and teaching resources at the ANU and the National Library of Australia. The Menzies Building which houses the Asia Pacific collection had over 400 visitors per day during the conference and extended the opening hours to give participants more access to the collections. The rich program of activities and events provided an opportunity for scholars to come together from all over the world and showcased Australia as a thriving centre for Asia and Pacific studies. Cambodian king's archive donated to libraryReprinted with acknowledgement to Monash memo The Monash University Library has been presented with a substantial portion of the former King of Cambodia's personal archives. It is the first time a head of state has made a donation of this type to the university. His majesty, King Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, retired in October 2004, in favour of his 51 year old son Prince Norodom Sihamoni - a former ballet dancer and cultural diplomat. King Sihanouk's generous donation was celebrated at a special function at the Sir Louis Matheson Library at Clayton campus in late February attended by the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia's ambassador to Australia , his excellency Mr Meas Kim Heng. The donation was facilitated by Mr Julio Jeldres, King Sihanouk's official biographer, and Emeritus Professor David Chandler, a former Professor of History and now a research fellow at the Monash Asia Institute, who is regarded as one of the foremost western scholars of Cambodia's modern history. 'The material so generously presented by his majesty contains invaluable memorabilia and documentation from Sihanouk's life-long involvement with Cambodia and the wider world,' Professor Chandler said. 'The gift includes rare photographs and archival footage as well as fascinating materials in several media that testify to Sihanouk's wide range of talents - as a musician, a writer, a movie-maker and most importantly, as the man who led his country to independence and has served it tirelessly for over 60 years.' The materials will be housed in the Norodom Sihanouk Archival Collection within the Monash University Library's Asian Studies Research Collection, which has significant research resources on countries from the region. Bibliography re-discovered!Geoffrey Roper, bibliographical consultant, Cambridge Index Arabicus is a bibliography of Arabic periodical articles, 1870-1969. Modelled on Index Islamicus, it was originally compiled on cards by members of MELCOM-UK in the 1970s, sent to Beirut for printing, and apparently lost in the turmoil of the Lebanese civil war. More recently the cards came into the possession of the University of Imam al-Ouzai in Beirut, who have entered their contents into an online database, provided by Multidata Services. It is an invaluable research tool for most aspects of Arabic and Islamic studies in that period (1870-1969). Searching must of course be done in the Arabic script, but an on-screen keyboard is available. Assistance to Aceh ProvinceAmelia McKenzie The National Library of Australian has obtained a copy of a report compiled by the National Library of Indonesia (NLI) on the destruction of libraries in Aceh province caused by the tsunami. The director of the National Library of Indonesia, Mr Dady Rachmananta reported that the Provincial Library building in Banda Aceh is still standing but most of the library's collection was destroyed and 23 staff of the Provincial Library lost their lives, including the library's director. The Aceh Information and Documentation Centre, a small library with a specialist collection on Aceh, was completely destroyed and all the collection lost. At least two of Aceh's eight public library branches have been destroyed while several mobile library vans were swept away in the floods. Several school libraries were completely destroyed, along with the schools. The situation in outlying districts is not known yet. The National Library of Indonesia has made its report available on its web site (in Indonesian), along with pictures of the devastation at: http://www.pnri.go.id/sorotan/tsunami_aceh/main.htm. The National Library of Indonesia has begun assistance and relief efforts. Its own staff contributed cash donations of over 30 million rupiah (about $5000.00), which has already been given to library colleagues in Aceh. Several fully equipped mobile library vans have been despatched to Banda Aceh and NLI staff will be seconded to Banda Aceh to assist with re-establishing library services. The NLI noted in its report that reading materials are urgently needed by those now living in temporary refugee camps with rudimentary shelter and makeshift classrooms for children. With this in mind, the National Library of Australia has asked its regional officer in Jakarta, Ralph Sanderson, to purchase Indonesian children's books and light reading materials to be sent immediately to the refugee camps for distribution. $13 000.00 has been allocated for the purchases. These are materials that will probably not end up on library shelves, but will hopefully alleviate an immediate need in the refugee camps and classrooms over the next few months. The National Library of Indonesia will provide safe transport for the books from Jakarta to Aceh. In the longer term, it is hoped that ALIA will play a role in providing advice and expertise on library reconstruction in Aceh to the Australian aid agencies. IFLA committee meets in CanberraMeredith Hinchliffe In early February 2005, the management of library associations standing committee of IFLA met in Canberra at ALIA House. Matilda House, an elder from the Ngunnawal people, welcomed Edita Bacic (Croatian Library Association), Arlene Cohen (Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives, Guam), secretary, Keith Fiels (American Library Association), Britt Marie Häggström (DIK Association), Jennefer Nicholson (ALIA), Jan-Ewout van der Putten (Netherlands Public Library Association), Sabine Stummeyer (Berufsverband Information Bibliothek e.V.) and Winnie Vitzansky (The Danish Library Association) and Janice La Chance (Specialist Library Association) was present as an observer. Several ALIA members were observers during the proceedings, including Alex Byrne (IFLA vice-president, president-elect), Marie Sexton (ALIA APSIG secretary/newsletter editor) and Deveni Temu (ALIA APSIG convener, and International Relations Policy and Advisory Group). A main item of discussion was the IFLA three pillars document. The MLAS section supports this document because it recognises the importance of the 'societal' functions of IFLA, such as advocacy and information policy work. The MLAS supports establishing a method for association and individual members to provide additional support for specific projects and purposes, in addition to basic support provided through the IFLA budget. Considerable time was spent discussing the global library association development (GLAD) program and the next steps. They acknowledged the importance of a viable GLAD program designed to provide leadership development to library associations, which would then flow into promoting the growth of IFLA association membership. Several ways of progressing this were discussed such as a formal program of twinning and mentoring and establishing a comprehensive database of library associations for benchmarking and planning purposes to include statistical, as well as organisational information. Members agreed to work on a communications plan to get information out to library associations throughout the world and to work on a method for evaluation of the GLAD program. MLAS considered the empowering library associations workshop held in Kathmandu in October 2004 was a good model to use in implementing regional workshops. The IFLA 2005 Conference in Oslo presents an opportunity to discuss the GLAD program with people on scholarships and gather information on library association needs. There was some discussion about regional workshops focused on library association development, using the MLAS guidelines brochures as a syllabus for the training. It is hoped that the MLAS program and other activities will grow out of the GLAD project and regional relationships that develop in this next year, in preparation for the 2006 Conference in Seoul. Sabine Stummeyer reported that the IFLA new librarians discussion group had a successful program at the IFLA 2005 Conference in Buenos Aires and is now planning a workshop, 'New professionals, new experiences and new ways of thinking' for the IFLA 2005 Conference in Oslo. MLAS agreed to financially support the workshop planning and implementation and to co-opt key people to the MLAS to facilitate the workshop. Observer Alison O'Connor, ALIA New Graduates Group convener, described their group in Australia. Within two weeks of establishing the e-mail newsletter and discussion list, 200 participants had signed up with discussions ranging over many topics of interest to these new professionals. In his report, Alex Byrne discussed the three pillars document and the IFLA relief and development partnership proposal. Alex's main points were that the IFLA's priorities are changing and much effort will be going into strategic planning, with a full day given over to strategic planning in the next IFLA governing board meeting. Deveni Temu and Marie Sexton gave a short presentation about APSIG and distributed an information sheet and copies of the APSIG newsletter. The MLAS Annual Report for 2004 [pdf 120kb] is on the IFLA MLAS website. ALIA National Policy Congress 2004
Celebrating success The ALIA National Policy Congress 2004 was held at the ALIA House in Canberra on 19 and 20 November. Thirty five delegates participated: ten regional representatives, nine invited group delegates, seven members of the ALIA Board of Directors and nine observers composed mainly of local liaison officers. On the afternoon of the 19 November, the delegates were welcomed at an afternoon tea party. This was followed by the launch of the ALIA online shop by Imogen Garner. The highlight for me was the five-minute presentations on the success stories from the various groups represented at the congress. It was very encouraging to hear about what our colleagues achieved with so little resources; such as the strong networking groups operating now in Alice Springs, Cairns and Northern Territory. These success stories demonstrated to me the real commitment, enthusiasm and support given by ordinary librarians doing their bit for the library and information profession in Australia. I was fortunate to have been nominated by the ACT groups to represent the region. Our success stories were:
All delegates were given the opportunity to review and comment on the ALIA 2005 - 2006 plan. Many of the comments were accepted for inclusion in the final draft of the plan. It was a privilege to represent the region and I found the experience very encouraging and professionally rewarding. The fact that I met so many like minded people face-to-face and share in their stories was truly worth half the weekend doing ALIA business. I can certainly recommend being involved in ALIA activities for anyone out there.
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