Wednesday, November 19, early morning (4 am) and everybody was awake and ready to go to railway station. It is big station full of passengers, and when the train came we took our seats. The train car had 28 seats and the training group are 27 with Dr. Ravi, our coordinator. I found all seats beside the windows are booked and I felt bad because I wanted to watch out along the way. Lucky for me that Noor al Dien Ibrahim (from Nigeria) give me his seat – he is a nice man who has done so many nice things for group.

After awhile the breakfast was ready and served, and then some of us went to see the view from the train door – that was wonderful for me – wow! The view outside is hard to describe. Green trees all over and we can see mountains from time to time. The fresh air smelled of many kinds of flowers, so I spent the four hours standing this way and not using my seat.

When we reached Bangalore, two buses were waiting to pick us up to go to the hotel. After one hour rest and lunch we went to Informatics India Limited. It is a private institute for digitizing resources – books, journals, with abstracting to articles. 20% of these resources can be used freely and 80% can be used by payment. The database is updated every day with links to other resources. For more information, visit http://www.informindia.co.in

Then we went shopping, after which we went to the ISKON temple, a big temple for Hindu people. We then went back to the hotel more than tired.

The next day we went to visit J.R.D. TATA Memorial Library / Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. It was established in 1911, and this library is regarded as one of the best scientific and technical libraries in India. The library has a collection of 175,000 books & manuals, 186,000 bound volumes of periodicals, 6000 theses & 85,500 reports (there are also CDs, etc.).

The National Bureau of Higher Mathematics has recognized the institute library as the regional center for mathematics for the south region. They use DDC classification and computers are located at various locations mainly to access the OPAC with internet facilities and services. For more information about this library, visit http://www.library.iisc.ernet.in

What I loved in all Indian libraries I visited is that I found librarians who are so cooperative and you feel them love the work they do.

After lunch we went to a park (a big garden) that was very nice with so many old trees (you can find the date of birth for each tree). We enjoyed this place and saw many children come with school trip. We kept saying “Hi” for them and taking photos.

Then we went shopping and in Bangalore you can find so many kinds of souvenirs… At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel to be ready next day for another trip by car to Mysore.

We were ready at 7am for this trip, and the way was green green – we enjoyed it a lot. The first stop was in a big shop on the way for sale of so many wooden souvenirs – I heard Mysore is famous in good kinds of wood (sandal wood) and also for silks. We stopped to visit a temple, and when we reached Mysore went directly to a restaurant for food – Mysore food is delicious.

We next went to a big ZOO…then to the wonderful place called Mysore Palace. It is a maharajah’s home. Wow, it is a place that deserves a visit …the architecture outside & inside is incredible!

Then more wood shopping. Sellers started out by giving big prices, then we keep going in our way so they follow us give us lower prices and then lower until we agree to buy. The things hand made from wood are so nice. I found an expensive nice swing made from wood – ohhh I loved it, but no way to take it to Iraq.

On our way back to Bangalore we stopped in a big garden in Brindavan that was close to a dam. There, they did wonderful shows using colored lights. After the show, we had our dinner and continued our trip to back to Bangalore. We reached hotel at 12 midnight. It was wonderful trip to Mysore.

Next morning we checked out of the rooms, left hotel at 10:30 am to visit the University Industrial & Technological Museum. It is amazing in the way that they display the technology specially for school students, and interesting that made you learn how the sciences developed and that it is full of so many funny things suitable for all ages.

Then we went for lunch to be ready for train travel back to Chennai. We were all feeling sorry to leave Bangalore – it is nice city and we spent wonderful time there and I will not forget it all my life.

Best for everybody,
Thana

From November 10-14 our lectures were about “soft skills.” I was so tired on the first day I didn’t go to class (lazy student) – that happened for the first time in my life that I am absent from a training class. At the time of break, my friend came to see if I was well and told me that I was missing this interesting lecture. So I changed my clothes directly and went to the class. The lecture was about motivation management.

In the evening, Dr. Rajendran lectured about stress management. What is the meaning of stress, and types of stress – psychological stress, social stress, and also the causes of stress. He then discussed how to deal with stress. Next, he gave us a stress symptom checklist to fill out to know if we are stressed or not. About me, no stress while I am enjoy my time here and learning more.

The next day our lecture was about “presentation skills,” done by Dr. Mahadaran, a human resources manager. Our evening lecture was about “presentation skills and behavior,” by Dr. Amuthalakshmi. She explained to us a Johnnie window and SWOT analysis. She gave us pictures and we must say a story about this picture and what we see. I loved this lesson and enjoyed it as did my colleagues – the way of her teaching and discussing is so attractive and we didn’t feel the time going by in the lecture.

At the end of lecture I wrote down a statement she said: “Observe around you and be thankful for all that you have in this transitory lifetime.”

The Next day Dr. Giridharan lectured us about team building and team work and how it is necessary for success in our work, especially in a library. Our evening lecture was about interpersonal relationships and transaction analysis. She was also so good a teacher. Thanks for all of them.

I appreciate Indian teachers because they are excellent. I learned more here about teaching skills but I found ladies better than males, because their English pronunciation is clearer.

Monday morning, November 17th, the lecture subject was “World class library for building global information society” by Dr. Harish Chandra.

We discussed the characteristics of information society, information power, information filtering, then how can we make our library not only for storing books but as a gateway to knowledge.

Our evening lecture was interesting too – it was about bibliographic data exchange formats, MARC, and the machine-readable catalog. Dr. V. Chandrakumar of the Library & Information Department of the University Madras presented the lecture. He discussed bibliographic data elements, bibliographic standards, international formats, data field structure, and various consortia – DELNET, MALIBNET, etc. The lecture was so good and full of information and the lecturer did his best to outline information for us.

The next day, Tuesday, the lecture was about HTML and hosting a web page on the Internet. It is so nice that we can create our page and then host it on net.

At evening there was no class because we must be ready next day early morning for traveling to Bangalore.

Greetings to everybody…. Thana

Monday morning November 10th our lecture was about TQM, total quality management. Dr. Harishchandra (head of central library, Institute of Technology Madras) gave the lecture. We didn’t meet him when we visited the central library because he was out for a work meeting.

The lecturer focused on: What quality means. Why we need quality. Quality design. Quality of performance. Also, he asked us about how we found the central library and our points about it. He wanted to know if this visit effected us to improve our libraries in our countries and he talked about his experience when he visited the library of Cambridge University. Then he showed us how we can use many sites which we need to use as a librarian .

He next showed us his web page full of interesting things. It is http://www.harishchandra.com

The last message he said to us was “Do not be afraid of growing slowly, but be afraid of standing still.”

Want to say a big thank you Dr. Harishchandra – all of us in the training group appreciated what he did for us, and we hope for him a long life full of success.

At evening, we went to visit the American Library Chennai. It is in the United States Consulate, Gemini Circle, Chennai, India. All visitors are requested to conform to security regulations and produce a valid photo ID at the entrance. And, camera is not allowed to use!!! For that we haven’t picture there.

This library offers a wide range of resources, programs and services to provide accurate and up to date information on contemporary American government, its policies, institutions, society, culture & values, literature, history, international relations, US economy & global issues. The library serves people from all walks of life – student, teachers, politicians, etc.

Collection is more than 14000 books, 140 scholarly journals, and electronic databases which provide access to more than 10,000 full text journals and 30,000 other electronic documents. Also there are about 500 video programs and multimedia CDROMs. They also have US government publications, newspapers, and special collections on American studies.

The collection is classified in DDC classification and you can access the catalog at http://americanlibrary.in.library.net For more information you can visit it using http://chennai.usconsulate.gov

At 6:30 we were ready to celebrate Mildred’s birthday – she is from Zambia. We spent a nice time together, listening to music and dancing, and so many talents appear this night! Happy Birthday, Mildred!

Thana

Saturday morning November 8th after breakfast we went for shopping at the Saravana store. It is 7 floors with 1 ground & 1 underground and an excellent place for shopping. Everything is there. If you plan to spend 4 thousand rupis, you will spend 8 thousand!!!! As my friend Yogani (from Fiji ) said, India is the place for shopping till you lay down.

Sunday morning November 9th we had a trip. The bus was ready at 8:30 am, early for us. The first stop, after one hour of driving, was in a park. It’s a place for huge number of crocodiles & snakes. For me, it is the first time to see a crocodile. Some people even tried to put a snake on our necks – Dr Ravi did this with his son.

After snakes and crocodiles, we continued our trip to visit some temples. The first one was a cave temple. After lunch, we went to another temple named Mahabalipuram, then on to the third one – a Shore temple. All of them are close to each other, and it was amazing to see all of that in the same day.

After that, we went to the beach. Ohhh, it is the favorite place for me, the Indian Ocean. While we were tired from this long tour, we had a fun time together. Before sunset, we left the beach. I was hoping to stay more time…..but…

I am lucky to have chance visiting India.

Yours, Thana

For that, everything was ready to do a small celebration in Chennai. I bought my Sari and my Iraqi friend Anaam bought me a cake as gift for my birthday. We spent a wonderful time with the training group. In addition, Dr Ravi. and his family come to share with us this celebration. All of them were really wonderful, and we heard Arabic songs, and had Indian with dancing with each one of the group showing us his country dancing. All of them was really wonderful and nice, and I want to say THANK U for everybody for sharing me this time, and thanks for gifts, but truly meeting them is my gift.

Friday morning November 7th we had a tour of the British Council Library. It is a public library, and there are 9 branches for it in India. Collections are focused on UK and promote British ideas. The collection contains books, music CDs, DVDs, and Journals. There is no local cataloging because the books come from UK ready for shelving using DDC classification. Sure it is an automated library where computers are available. Only the children’s collection is classified according to age. The main goal of this library is to satisfy users needs and to provide services in all of the 9 regions. The member types are: Organizations (like NITTTR); College students; School students; NGOs members; and Individuals. Many services are available …like reservations, inter library loan facilities, and on borrowing books. There is also a staff ready for helping.

Also, there is a program for marketing workshops – like workshops on interview skills, etc.

As a librarian I found this library a model in furnishings & architecture. While it is a small library, it is a good place to read in that most libraries are closed with walls, but here you can find the sunlight give you more comfort.

So if you want to read, visit the BCL. If you want to study, visit the Central Library at Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

The last thing that I didn’t like – we were not allow to use cameras, and for that I have only 1 picture outside the building…enjoy it.

Thana

We keep progressing in MS front page for making web pages – much practice needed. Wednesday, November 5th was the last lecture in this subject, but practicing didn’t end yet, and we will work on our front page and our lecturer, Mr. Malliga, will check it. Also, Mr. Shanmughaneethi will give us more information about HTML…and he will check what we did.

Wednesday afternoon we went to visit the Central Library at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. This library site is in a big green forest, it’s a natural green forest so we saw amazing big trees. There are many institutes close to this library.

This library is open from 8am till 12.00 midnight. The membership eligibility are:

• Individual members
• Industrial associate
• Corporate members
• Outside members
• Special members

All kinds of resources are available, with so many facilities: self check out, e-books, drop for RFID, a digital knowledge center, a children’s library corner, and an I-portal for accessing the collection. There is also a student discussion hall, a media resource center, photocopying and wireless networking.

Visit this library, you will really enjoy it, use: http://www.cenlib.iitm.ac.in

Till next blog, my greetings,

Thana

October 30
On Thursday morning our first lecture was on Library Networking & Internet Facilities, given by Dr. G. Kulanthaivel.

He discussed what is information & communication technology, and about CBT, CBI, WBI and also storage devices. Then we discussed what are the major components of communication – and then LANs, WANs…etc.

At evening there was no class, so we enjoy being free. A small group went to visit GRT House of India Jeweler for silver & gold…it’s amazing and so hard to choose because everything is WOW – so many designs and models, especially the pieces containing stones. I saw chairs made of silver and table & chairs for dining room. We also saw an amazing swing made of silver. They didn’t allow me to take pictures for this place but everyone can visit this place using the web ….(GRT) Google it ..u will enjoy it sure.

On my way back, I found people dancing in the street and cars covered by flowers. I was so happy to see that I guessed they were celebrating a wedding…but while I kept looking I saw a man laying inside this car was dead and covered with flowers too. I was surprised so I asked the man who drive the car why those people dancing if he is dead. He respond it is Hindu culture. Oh, my, it is strange for us. Then I said okay, may this man now have a rest from this hard life for that they are happy for him?

October 31
Friday morning our lecture was about web technology, web architecture, and internet topology. Then we learned about internet protocols and HTML. The lecturer usually uses Data show to explain – he teaches us how to create our own page as an exercise, then he asked us to do our page. After, he came to check our work at evening lecture. At evening, he gave us more information about the topic – it was a wonderful lecture and all of the group found it useful.

We have holiday for Saturday & Sunday….early morning Saturday Dr. Ravi. come to our dorm – he wanted to check if we need something because he knows five from training group have flu. He took the sick students to hospital for treatment. He is so nice a man do his best for us .

Till next blog…greetings to everybody

Thana

October 28
Our lecture today was on Electronic Research tools for information Access and was given by Dr. Samyutha Pondcherry – University . The lecturer focused on:

• Search engines.
• Electronic Databases
• Electronic theses
• Electronic Journals
• E . Books
• Subject gateway

We also discussed scholarly material, and SCI, AHCI, SSCI that is used in citation analysis. Then, we searched (for practice) many of free sites that specialize in Lib & Info Sci – some of them offer full text for journal articles.

I found the lecture very interesting as did my colleagues. The lecturer, Mr. Samr. was skilled and her pronunciation in English language was very clear and easy to understand.

At evening, our lecture subject was on the public library systems in India. The lecturer was a man but he didn’t introduce himself. Usually a lecturer did that and writes his name on the board, that almost all Indian names are long. He started to talk about public libraries in India, and his pronunciation in English was hard to understand. When the lecture ended I found myself know only this information ….the libraries that responsible in legal deposit in India are: The National Library Kolkata, Delhi Public library, Central Library Mumbai, and Conmemare Library Chennai.

October 29
We went to registration in office, then we back get lunch and rest and then to another lecture. This one was cute and we enjoyed it – it was about Indian culture & people. Dr. T. Jasath Rakshakan did it for us, and he talked about Indian languages, clothes, weather, religions, marriage, and how one can greet Indian people. One gathers 2 hand close to the heart say Vanakam!

Vinakam to everybody in Simmons college.

It is so nice that we are free three days, Saturday & Sunday we are having holiday, and it’s a long weekend Monday because we celebrating Diwali over here. It’s a Hindu celebration.

On the first free day we used it for shopping, and India is amazing place for shopping. As everyone in previous Simmons training programs who knows can tell, I am good in bargaining.

On Sunday we went to visit an ancient place (temple) 60 KM far from Chennai – it is named Mamllapuram. The way to this place was wonderful and green green green. You can not find 1 meter without trees and also from time to time we were able see the Ocean.

The temple is carved on so many big rocks, and all the places around rocks covered with natural plants and flowers and so many butterflies in all colors you can only imagine. So, I added to my collection more butterflies (farashah in Arabic).

After lunch we went back to Chennai,. It was so nice day for me and also for my friends.

When we reached Chennai we saw it was busy and more crowded than before as people start to be ready for Diwali day – shopping and fireworks are everywhere.

Monday morning after breakfast, all the training group was in net center trying to prepare articles for our project work. Then, we went to Marina beach, a nice place full of people today celebrating Diwali day. The women wear very nice saris and tied flowers in their hair.

You can see all colors in India, and children are happy buying things from many carriages that sell many things.

We left after sunset and the fireworks started again….

Our dinner was in the Marina Mall on the top floor with the restaurant on the roof, a nice design, overlooking a tower over the beach & main street in Chennai. The site was exciting while we can see from all directions fireworks.

As I said, INDIA is a colorful world, full of life, and full of sad and poor people who live there…we hope all good for them.

Till next post…thanks for reading my blog, Thana

Today was so busy – a rainy day for us. We started the day with a lecture on library management in digital environment. Dr. Ravei. gave the lecture, and he focused on automation & digitization. He also talked about SWOT analysis. In addition, we covered digital resources, preservation, library security (RFID, security gates, CCTV, and fire alarms).

We then divided into groups to discus our experience in managing our libraries.

At evening, we went to visit the main library at Madras University. It’s a library that deserves a visit – and we showed our respect to people who works there.

They use colon classification that was done by Ranganathan. They have many e-resources and also books, theses, journals and magazines. The plan was also to visit the Lib.& Info. Sci. Department …but heavy rain made the director put off the plan.

On our way back, the traffic was bad as the roads were almost filled of water. Everybody in streets was hold his / her umbrella and some of them didn’t have one, so they got very wet. I saw a beautiful young lady riding a motorcycle. It is exciting, women here are so brave. The life here is hard here but with all this you can find Indian people nice & friendly.