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Friday, June 15, 2007

white classic : the national library | (+ talk by Kevin Lim on youtube & beyond)

This is a side view of the very elegant National Library of Singapore. It consists of 2 16-storey blocks. It's a beautiful white building with fluid clean curves and lots of glass. It is located in the city at 100 Victoria Street, Singapore 188064.

This elegant building is also a very energy efficient building and it has won the Singapore Green Mark Platinum Award.

The National Library Board is having a Read Singapore project. Read about it at: http://readsingapore.nlb.gov.sg

Hey Daily Photo bloggers in other cities, do you have reading projects in your countries?





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While we are talking about this building, let me include a promo for Kevin Lim, who is giving a talk on "Youtube and beyond..." (sounds like Buzz from Toy Story? haha...) in this building!

Here goes:

“Youtube and beyond: What you want to know but never knew who to ask”
A public talk on the present and future of online video sharing by Kevin Lim

When
Tuesday, 19 Jun 2007
7:00PM - 8.30PM (Kevin will be there at 6pm for the early birds!)

Where
Multi-purpose Room, Central Lending Library
(Basement of National Library, Victoria Street)

What
Youtubers, Videobloggers, Video podcasters, or anyone who wants to get started with sharing videos online, this interactive session is perfect for you! Here are 5 reasons why you have to join in:

* Explore the world of free video sharing services -> going beyond Youtube
* Learn tips to producing great video for web -> high quality, small file size
* How to protect yourself by staying legal -> copyright, Creative Commons
* See the future of online videos -> Lifecasting and searching within videos
* Make friends and show your clips with fellow video bloggers!

Plus: If there’s time, learn how to videocast without spending a bomb on web hosting, by integrating Internet Archive with your blog.

Who
Kevin Lim [of theory.isthereason.com] is currently pursuing his PhD in Communication and is teaching in the Educational Technology Center at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He studies the wide-ranging cultural affordances of technology, focusing particularly on the pedagogical aspects of social media. Being passionate about making and sharing videos, Kevin is currently challenging notions of virtuality through his modular “sousveillance” backpack. In an attempt at enhancing the usefulness of video, this unique backpack allows him to experiment with lifecasting, ambient intimacy, and video as a form of memory prosthetic (also see eyetap and wearcam).

13 comments:

Emilieee said...

Haha.. you went up north while I went down to south.

I think I will be going there soon. May be in few months time? Anyway will let you know then. :))

I think I've seen this building when I was on my way to Bugis. (walked from Orchard all the way to Bugis) It looks clean. Indeed, the whole Singapore looks very clean. :p

Zannnie said...

i recalled there was one about mobile library in budapest sometime ago

isa said...

That's the impression I get - Singapore looks streamlined and clean!

Lori said...

Wow! I love that building and your photo is beautiful. I wish I could see the inside. I don't know of any reading projects in NYC right now. A few years ago the NY Times printed short books for free in the paper - one a week during the summer. I thought that was a good idea.

Victor said...

Oh you know Kevin Lim too? Do you happen to know Ivan Chew as well?

Kevin said...

Hey man, thanks for the plug. I hope people will find it interesting and get into videoblogging. Who knows, you might be interested too!

Ming the Merciless said...

Awesome building and photo. And the lecture series with Kevin Lim looks interesting.

JaamZIN said...

I like that everything is soooo clean!

Anonymous said...

I am sure we have reading projects where I live however I'm not involved. My sister Norma, from Sequim WA Daily Photo has been heavily involved helping in this area for years ... Bravo for the "green" approach on the library.

TORUĊƒ DAILY PHOTO said...

I love the modern architecture of Asia!

Z said...

Looks like someplace where I would spend a lot of time! Is the library usually very busy? Do you know how many people are members, i.e. have cards and borrow books from there?

Meg said...

Beautiful indeed. And energy efficient? Can we please have one tower over here, too, please.

I watched a very interesting discussion program on bloggers in Singapore and Malaysia on Al Jazeera English the other week; kept thinking about you and Eddie and Zannnie; they were talking about how much influence bloggers have and whether the government should block some of them. Of course they reached no conclusions, but I hadn't realized that some of you (well, not you ) were seen as such threats.

Unknown said...

emily
just email b4 u reach!

zannnie
you should post for us to see! the mobile library.

isabella,
come for a visit!

lori,
hmm that's would be interesting to have. short books for free in the paper. can't take photos of inside the library though...

victor,
kevin lim's famous. but not personally lah. Nope, don't know Ivan.

kevin,
your talk last nite was great. too bad time ran out.

ming,
yes it was quite interesting when i went for it last nite.

zsolt,
remember, singapore has tonnes of cleaners everywhere. hahaha..

denton,
Bravo to Norma too. She's such a wonderful lady from reading Sequim WA DP.

glenn,
haha.. you know there are others who like the olden architecture of Europe more!

z,
yes the library is always full of people!
every singapore citizen and permanent residents are members i think. just need to activate it at the library using our national ID cards.

Ordinary members can borrow 4 books at a time. You can pay a nominal fee and become a premium member. You get to borrow 8 items which include Audio/Video stuff as well as musical scores from certain libraries.

This is reading month, so you can borrow double of the usual allowance. ie. 8 or 16 items!


meg,
Haha. you want to move the library over? haha..

Thanks for your thoughts about us. You know when I shop at supermarkets and see NZ ice cream, I always think of Nelson DP! I dunno why? haha...