Nanyang Technological University Library Research Articles

Sowing the Seeds: Towards Reaping a Harvest Using Social Web Applications in Nanyang Technological University Library

In this paper, we share why and how Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library has explored and implemented Web 2.0 technologies extensively to reach out to our users using a range of social web tools such as blogs, share this widget, library toolbar and RSS feeds as well as online services like Facebook, Flickr, and Google Analytic. These digital library innovations have enabled us to meet the needs of our users more effectively and resulted in a tremendous growth in online visitorship.

Sowing the seeds : towards reaping a harvest using social web applications in Nanyang Technological University Library

In this paper, we share why and how Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library has explored and implemented Web 2.0 technologies extensively to reach out to our users using a range of social web tools such as blogs, share this widget, library toolbar and RSS feeds as well as online services like Facebook, Flickr, and Google Analytic. These digital library innovations have enabled us to meet the needs of our users more effectively and resulted in a tremendous growth in online visitorship.

NTU (Nanyang Technological University) Library as a Learning Organisation

With the advent of the Internet and info-communication technologies, academic libraries all over the world have been undergoing rapid changes to take advantage of new technology to meet the information needs of their users. However, the provision of technologies such as digital resources is only part of the management puzzle. The fostering of a learning culture for staff and students is equally important. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Library in Singapore had been in the process of developing resources and services in order to better serve the university community since its inception in 1981. The researchers were curious to find out if the NTU library met the criteria of a learning organisation. This study concludes that the library had a majority of the characteristics characterising learning organisations. New mindsets had to be cultivated and greater trust fostered amongst the employees to leverage the library's knowledge assets. Individuals had to be rewarded based on their ability to collaborate, champion learning and share knowledge. The managers had to take on new roles to empower their staff to do their best work. Such changes were necessary in order to actualise the goal of becoming a world-class academic library.

The Century of the Dragon

The rapid economic growth in Asia over the past few decades has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in advertising. Today, billions of dollars (US) are spent on mass media advertising in the region all aimed at enticing the burgeoning middle class to consume everything from perfumes to Pentiums. The gradual build-up of multinational business activity has resulted in ideological debates about the role of advertising in development. On the one hand, dependency theorists charge that advertising promotes the consumption of non- essential products, concentrates economic power into the hands of a few large transnational corporations and creates a consumer culture that is damaging to indigenous values. Convergence theorists argue that advertising fuels economic growth and thus helps to diminish the distance between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. The purpose of this paper is to examine the criticisms of advertising that have accompanied economic growth over the past few decades and to discuss how current trends in economic development in the region are shaping the practice of advertising in Asia. 21 ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library