Re: Ho.c Xa~--Qua?n Thu+ v.v..

["Toan" <toan@usa.net>]

Hi anh A'i Vie^.t

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From: Aiviet Nguyen <aiviet@cat.syr.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Re: Ho.c Xa~--Thu+ qua?n gia v.v..
Date: Tuesday, 15 April, 1997 2:01 PM

===========
Hi Anh Toa`n,

  I don't have an intention to underestimate your work. The Library 
Management is a very sophisticated and close to the Information System 
Management. You used a so strange word to me, that is why I asked.
===========

Not that feeling at all. Please be reminded that I am in good spririt about
most things, most of the time, and did not speak or think or feel about any
alterior sense of intention from your words at all.

It is my way to often go at length to explain things. In no way does that
mean I had been offended or anything to that effect.


===========
  I admire the Library System in the US, The most impressive experience was
that when I asked the " Thu? Thu+"( the title does not matter) who was 
keeping a certain book. To my surprise, he said that was forbidden by the 
US law. Amazing, in VN and few European countries, the books you used to 
read can also serve an evidence of a crime.
==========

Yes, this is a good thing. Ususally, there are two implications:

1. Avoid abuse by authorities who use their position or power to infringe
on the right of the reader based on the record of what the person reads.
This realm belongs to the laws, the state, and the citizenry (usually
<grassroot>local activists).

2. Poster a positive environment of Intellectual Freedom. All Libraries in
the US that belong to the American Library Association must subscribe to
the <pledge> of Intellectual Freedom. 

The library's part is thus can be put in two words: Information Acess. Help
in whichever way for people to access and connect to the information they
need.

Sometimes, this might mean getting an article from Playboy, let's say,
about prostate cancer, or an interview therein. Then you have an uproar of
protests; then you have counter protests. This kind of thing happens at the
local level all the time. It is often written about in the local press. In
the past years, AIDS literature, gay literature, were very hot topics
fought bitterly and at times violently across the many public libraries in
the US.  

Intellectual Freedom provides for people a non-threatening environment to
pursue their interest. The Library's role is to facilitate the access to
that information the best it can.

The Freedom to Read is an active concern of the profession, especially in
public libraries where there are many competing intests.

If interested, you my want to look at the Library Bill of Rights and other
notes on this at

http://www.ala.org/oif.html

======
  In my new place, I could not find Vnmese books as in the old place. Do 
you know how I can access to Vnmese books from a public library?
======

Acquiring library materials is handled by a group called <Collection
Development>. This group is the central group that takes refernces from
other sources, including, for example, a committe called <Cultural
Minorities> that comprise of Viet, Campuchia, Chinese, Russian....readers
as well as librarians that make suggestions for purchase.

You can get into this committee at your local library department, as a
library user. 

The purchase decision is also a budget dicision. And it is also a
population distribution decision.  

A libray is usually part of a library system, like a county-wide system of
libraries. There are larger regionals ones, and there are smaller community
or city ones. The system usually work together as one. If there is a Viet
book at a large community library that you do not see at a small branch,
you can request it be sent over for you. If even the large branch does not
have it, you can ask it to be loaned (borrowed from elsewhere). This is
called Inter Library Loan (ILL). This is when your system goes to other
system to fetch for a book it does not have in the collection. You only
need to supply the title and author and year if you know.

So, either you can request Viet books sent to your branch, or be active and
fight for a Viet collection to be established right there.


=======
   Is the private library better than the public one, if I am interested 
in the latest computer books...?
=======

Private libraries are often small and dedicated-collection libraries. In
our words, there are Co^ng La^.p and Co^ng Co^.ng that better describe some
of the systems here. Co^ng La^.p are <public> libraries but are <privately
funded by the citizens, let's say, of a small community or city.  Usually
these are very small and weak libraries that are geared to serve the dialy
needs like magazines and newspapers and other more often used materials.
Co^ng Co^.ng are public ones that are funded both by contributions and by
local tax money. It depends almost entirely on a steady budget of tax money
from the local government.

The public libraies do buy quite updated computer books, like the Novel CNE
materials, the JAVA programming books, etc.

The problem is most collection development people do not have enough sense
of this area. Along with the competing interest to serve a broader
population, they might buy the <for Dummies> type a lot more. An example at
my place was the collection people not knowing the difference between JAVA
and JavaScript. They put the two together and gave the two equal status in
purchase decision.

However, if you volunteer just sometime to advise the collection
development people, you will get what you want (you paid your taxes, after
all!).

There is usally a Library Advisory Committee, which is a volunteer
citizen-reader group involved in advising the library collection and
policy. 

For highly technical books, no place is better than an academic one.

For reasonably technical, like C++ or JAVA, or Novel or NT, or Visual Basic
etc..., a public library should have some good, updated materials. You
might have to request for it from a different branch since some books are
not available at all branches.

So, have you found what you needed?
(the above is a follow up question we ask in the profession after having
helped people. It is either that or <does that answer your question?>). 

cheers,

Toa`n