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The authors discuss the case of Whang-od, a renowned and revered tattooist in the Philippines, whose skill with batok (traditional tattoos) has generated worldwide attention. While batok was originally designed for a warrior class to signify their power and elite status, it has been transformed into a commodity for national and global audiences and promoted via social media. Utilizing participation observation of, and interviews with, visitors to the village where Whang-od lives, the authors show how this form of “ethnic tourism” is built around the status of batok as an authentic practice that influences both the ways that locals present, and tourists, try to consume, the culture of the village.

Establishes that, in Singapore, which has a minority of Muslims in its population, both Muslims and non‐Muslims are generally unaware of the culture of Islamic banking. Also the two separate groups have different attitudes towards the Islamic banking movement, with the degree of difference depending on the nature of the respective matter put to them. For example, when asked what they would do if an Islamic bank did not make sufficient profits to make a distribution in any one year, 62.1 per cent of Muslims said they would keep their deposits within the Islamic banking movement, while 66.5 per cent of non‐Muslims said they would withdraw their deposits. In relation to bank selection criteria, there was general accord as between Muslims and non‐Muslims on the rating of the various criteria. Five significant differences were noted, the most relating to “being paid higher interest on savings”. The desire to be paid higher interest was far stronger with non‐Muslims.

Discussions on the implications of power relations among the state, market, and society in urban plans and planning processes are usually centered on urban issues. Studies on suburbanization generally look at suburbs and satellite towns as “spillovers” of high density in the cities, deteriorating conditions of the innercity – particularly in the case of the United States – as well as the longing for living closer to nature. During the twentieth century, both the garden suburb and garden city movements in Britain influenced the planning of new communities overseas. The garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard, emphasizing new and attractive planned towns with their own socialisitic administration, employment, and local facilities, has strong echoes in Singapore's new towns, although the adaptation of the concept in Singapore is more towards the physical landscapes and built greeneries rather than embracing the whole idea of the garden city.

The paper aims to provide up-to-date analysis on how a country like Singapore, with a rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage associated with burial customs, approaches heritage preservation while ensuring modernisation and sustainable growth.

The paper is an exploratory analysis of the association between cultural heritage preservation, particularly the one associated with elaborate burials, and the need for modernisation in Singapore. It mainly uses desk research tools, fieldwork and interviews with death services providers to build a set of conclusions. It employs a historical review approach and uses comparative analyses with other countries in the Asian region to substantiate the arguments.

The paper provides insights about how, since its independence, Singapore has switched to pragmatic models of growth and development which imply maximising the limited space available, often at the cost of precious cultural heritage. The rapid development has had a significant impact on the country's burial customs and legacies, particularly on elaborate graves and tombs, which traditionally use a considerable amount of space. The analysis concludes that Singapore is in the constant challenge of exploring alternative ways of handling death and its ramifications.

This paper presents a new outlook on the relationship between the preservation of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage associated with death practices and a sustainable approach to modernisation in the context of Singapore.

To highlight content of interest to this journal’s readership that promotes current thinking and activities in Information Technology.

Selective conference report of the annual meeting of the American Library Association and pre‐conference.

The largest conference of librarians, the variety of programs, activities, exhibit halls, creates one of the best professional development opportunities for librarians. Attracting librarians from all sectors and work environments from around the globe, this conference is hard to describe in a brief way except to say it is an experience. The article documents relevant programs about information technology was the goal of this contribution.

Contains information of particular interest to readers who did not attend these sessions. Introducers them to presenters and important hot topics. Provides an alternative to not being present while gaining some information and coverage.

The objective of this paper is to investigate perceptions and stereotypes associated with the library and information profession and to determine whether the public image of library professionals has improved with the extensive use of ICT.

The areas covered in this study include: perceptions of the nature of work performed by librarians, their personality traits, social status, education level, employment opportunities, income level, and contributions made to society. A pre‐tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were collected at three academic and three public libraries in Singapore. A total of 214 individuals participated in this study.

It was found that library users in Singapore do not have a flattering image of librarianship and perceived the status of librarians to be low as compared to certain other professions. They also believed that library work does not require higher education and is routine‐based, easy, and boring work. On the one hand, the personality of a librarian was described as helpful, friendly, orderly, and polite; on the other hand, it was perceived to be a person who is bookish, boring, quiet, and conservatively dressed.

The paper offers some suggestions for improving the image of library and information professionals in society.

Knowledge management as a business concept has been traditionally applied to money‐making organisations with the aim of enhancing and improving operations to gain competitive advantage and increase profits. Knowledge management can also be applied to non‐profit organisations such as government bodies and statutory boards. It can be used to improve communication among staff and between top management. It helps to instil a culture of sharing and promote and implement a performance‐based reward system for its employees. Knowledge management involves a complex process of aligning the company’s mission statement with the best practices that enable the company to be competitive and profitable in its sector. This paper investigates the current practices of knowledge management in the National Library Board (NLB). It also seeks to show how knowledge management can effectively be applied to the NLB to tie in with its mission statement of expanding the learning capacity of the nation, enhancing the nation’s competitiveness and promoting a gracious society. The NLB also has a mission to deliver a world‐class library system, which is convenient, accessible and useful to the people of Singapore.