And Now for Something Completely Different

Citation

Calvert, P. (1999), "And Now for Something Completely Different", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.17308hag.003

And Now for Something Completely Different

And Now for Something Completely Different

Reviewed by Philip Calvert Associate Editor of Asian Libraries

ASIA/PACIFIC Regional Forum (PAM-APF)http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/pam/project.htm

This is the Web site of the Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics (PAM) and Computer Science Libraries, Asia/Pacific Forum (PAM-APF) Project ­ a regional forum for librarians and information specialists with an interest in these subjects. The Forum's aim is to foster the exchange of information among colleagues with similar interests and to establish closer relationships between librarians, publishers and associated specialists. They say that special attention will be placed on fostering information exchange among colleagues and ensuring that publishers are aware of technological weaknesses in the developing world, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region; hence this Web site is relevant to many readers of Asian Libraries.

The PAM Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) is an international professional organisation that represents information specialists who seek advancement in their skills. The International Relations Committee of PAM and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) are jointly sponsoring the Forum as its latest project.

On the Web site you can find the aims of the project, news of recent activities, a list of working group participants, a list of countries covered in the Asia/Pacific region, and sign-on instructions for the PAM-APF electronic discussion list. The first meeting of the Forum's members will be at the ALIA Conference in August 1999, and details of that can be found here. Look for the Chinese version of this site at http://lib.zju.edu.cn/pamhome.html

The Astronomical Society of Singaporehttp://tasos.org.sg

This is a very well-designed site. A nice feature on the home page is a frame that displays the current phase of the moon. Information is available about the Society's aims and activities, though of more use to information managers may be the articles and photographs that can also be retrieved from this site. The articles are more of the "popular science" variety than of a scholarly nature, but they are current and that is sometimes very useful. For example, one piece describes the Leonids shower as seen from Singapore, and then gives a simple explanation of why it was so disappointing. Apparently, professional astronomers got the time of the shower's peak wrong by more than 12 hours, so the best had passed long before the crowds arrived at Sentosa!

The Asiaweek Best Universities 1999http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/universities/schools/index.html

The ranking list for "best multi-disciplinary institutions" includes 79 universities. Congratulations to Tohuku University (Japan), which came out on top. Everyone will want to find his own organisation or Alma Mater in the list ­ the Editor and Associate Editor of Asian Libraries appear to work for the 68th "best" university in Asia. There is a separate ranking list for science and technology institutions that has been topped by the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology.

Thwart Not the Librarian!http://www.msu.edu/~olseneri/library.html

This is just a Web page rather than a site, but it's fun and should boost your self-esteem provided that you don't take it too seriously.