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Library Connect in Mexico, Berlin, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia
Mexico City Welcomes Library Connect Seminar
Left to right: Lindi Belfield, Darrell Gunter,
Adriana Acosta, John Tagler, Sylvia González
Marin, Margarita Lugo Hubb, Claritza Colon,
and Lisa Layton.
Nearly 200 librarians, faculty, and information specialists gathered in Mexico City on June 30, to attend the Elsevier Library Connect Seminar held at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). Speakers from the university joined Elsevier representatives in the one-day program.
Silvia González Marin, General Director for Libraries, DGBUNAM, opened the proceedings. Darrell W. Gunter, Senior Vice President, Sales and Services Americas, Elsevier, welcomed the attendees.
The first speaker, Margarita Lugo Hubb, Associate Director of Library Services, DGB-UNAM, provided an overview on the importance of electronic resources at the university, where there is a long-standing commitment to digital solutions. UNAM was one of the first adopters of ScienceDirect, starting in 1998 when thefull-text database was available in an on-site installation only. In recent years UNAM migrated from on-site to online delivery. Also, access to ScienceDirect has expanded from the main campus in Mexico City to a network of six UNAM locations throughout the country.
Having a selection of electronic resources is one thing; promoting awareness is something else. Susana Olivares, Informatics Manager and Sergio Marquez, Associate Librarian for Collection Development, recounted their experiences in creating user awareness about the university's growing collection of digital resources.
But it is the users who ultimately determine the value of electronic resources. In a panel moderated by Aurelia Orozco, Head of Acquisitions, researchers from four disciplines discussed their experiences in using electronic full-text databases, with particular attention to ScienceDirect. Speakers included Claudia Ramirez Jauregui, Science Librarian; Mauricio Aguilar Gonzalez, Science Librarian; Teresa Vazquez Meija, Materials Department faculty; and Bernardo Frontana Uribe, Chemistry Department faculty.
Speakers from Elsevier were Lindi Belfield, Senior Product Manager, ScienceDirect, and Lisa Layton, Account Development Manager, as well as Darrell W. Gunter, who commented, "UNAM is an extraordinary university and with more than 250,000 students, it's quite different from the large American universities."
He continued, "Building a collection and managing electronic resources for a large, diverse faculty and student population distributed over a sprawling campus is a challenge indeed. The UNAM speakers at the seminar made it clear that they are serious about digital information management." 
Contributed by John Tagler, VP Account Development & Library Marketing, Elsevier, NY, USA
Left to right: Leo Voogt, Global
Director, Library Relations, Elsevier
and Bozena Bednarek-Michalska,
Deputy Director, Nicolaus Copernicus
University Library, Bielany, Poland on
the Elsevier Booth at IFLA, Berlin,
Germany.
Elsevier Sponsors IFLA Delegates
By donating its three complimentary full registrations that are part of being a general sponsor of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Elsevier enabled a university professor and two librarians to attend this year's conference in Berlin, Germany.
Professor S.B. Ghosh from the Faculty of Library and Information Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was able to attend following the IFLA Pre-conference Satellite Meeting in Geneva, where he presented a paper.
Our two additional registrations enabled the IFLA selection committee to support Oksana Zavalina, a librarian at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, and Bozena Bednarek-Michalska, Deputy Director, Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Bielany, Poland. These sponsorships were in addition to the twenty-four librarians from across the globe that IFLA had already supported through the “Bibliothek & Information International” for the Berlin conference.
Bozena says, "This was my first time at the IFLA conference. Thanks to Elsevier, I was able to meet many experts in the field and discuss modernizing our libraries and collections. I also learned how other libraries and companies worldwide operate. It was a very fruitful experience for me."
Contributed by Leo Voogt, Global Director, Library Relations, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Librarians from Doshisha University, posing
with Dr. Rush Miller during the farewell
reception after the seminar in Kyoto, Japan.
(Left to right: Haruko Nakajima, Dr. Miller,
Fumie Hibino, and Tomoko Kitajima).
Library Connect Seminars Get Thumbs up in Asia Pacific
July was abuzz with events for the Asia Pacific Office - we held Library Connect Seminars for a total of 345 librarians in ten locations across Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The seminars varied in form depending on the country but always had the same emphasis - to provide participants with a platform to hear about a current hot topic in the library arena from a keynote speaker, share best practices with fellow librarians, and discuss issues with the Elsevier Asia Pacific team.
In Japan and Korea, we had the honor of having Dr. Rush Miller, Library Director, University of Pittsburgh, lead the seminars. In Australia and New Zealand we were delighted that Mr. Alex Byrne, University Librarian & Deputy Chair of the Academic Board, University of Technology, Sydney, and Dr. David Bainbridge, Senior Lecturer, University of Waikato, agreed to be our keynote speakers. Special thanks also go to all our customer speakers who unreservedly shared their valuable experiences with participants.
In our post-event feedback forms, many participants gave their thumbs up for Elsevier's refreshing approach. With such encouraging responses, we will continue to feature Library Connect events in Asia Pacific. Keep an eye out for them in “Upcoming Events.”
Contributed by Bee Lan Swee, Communications & Channel Marketing Manager, Elsevier, Singapore
Librarians in Perth kicked off the first of five Library
Connect Seminars held in Australia. The seminar was
repeated in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
"It was an interesting mix having a customer speaker. Also, I valued the opportunity for librarians to represent their views and found the digital library talk interesting.”
- Alison Bogdanowicz, Department of Human Services, Australia
Participants taking a group picture at the end of the
two-day seminar in Jechoen, South Korea.
"This seminar is a really exciting opportunity for me to learn what Korean librarians have to do to survive in this electronic age.”
— Ms Shin Kwang Seon, Hanyang University, South Korea
The Library Connect Seminar in Tokyo
witnessed a big turnout of 103 participants.
“I was deeply impressed by Dr. Miller's words that librarians have to change first.”
- Mr Tatsuji Tomioka, Kyoto University, Japan
“Learning more about the concept of partnership between Elsevier and libraries left me with a good feeling about the cooperation and possibilities for flexibility on what is offered.”
- Maggie Dyer, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science, New Zealand
