Very good article on the Google Print initiative, with information from participating libraries, Google, and prominent print and electronic publishers, as well as librarians.
Says one interviewee, "Google is a disruptive technology. This Google project will fundamentally change what we do in our business, but, that being said, it’s a great opportunity. It’s bringing so much to the table in one fell swoop; the opportunities are outstanding.”

Friends in Sri Lanka say that the need for medical supplies (IVs, sutures, etc) and medicines (especially tetanus vaccine) is most urgent.

Singapore residents may wish to consider donating to the local Red Cross. See their
Humanitarian Assistance To The Victims of the Bay of Bengal Earthquake and Tidal Waves press release from yesterday.

Anthony Paul has written a strong article on methamphetamine and ecstasy abuse in Southeast Asia, with a discussion of Yaa Baa, by Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy and Joel Meissonier. He calls it "a riveting new book" which tells "a disturbing tale". (Note: registration is required to read Straits Times material, and I'm not sure how long they'll keep it online.)

We are looking for people to help us with the Singapore National Biography project. We are looking for a managing editor, resource managers and biographers. Biographers may be research or editorially-oriented, but in all cases will have a good familiarity with research into Singapore history subjects. The advert appeared in Saturday's Straits Times, and can be downloaded here.

Totally useful and interesting library lookup tool from Jon Udell. When you are next on Amazon click on this "bookmarklet" to perform see if the relevant book is listed in the NUS LINC catalog.

To get it to work, drag the link below to your browser toolbar. Then when you are next on a Amazon or other book-related site (one that uses the ISBN number in the URL), give it a try. Very useful! We've tried it for the new Firefox browser and it works a charm, but have not fully tested it on Microsoft Explorer.

NUS Library Lookup


Click here for more on Udell's tool.

Google sees this as an extension of their Google Print program. It could also potentially interact with Google Scholar in interesting ways. The Chronicle of Higher Ed asserts that there is still some caution and skepticism among university librarians about this project. The power of Google grows...

Among the pleasures of a trip to Taipei are the city's many bookshops. The first stop is usually the Eslite or Chern Piing bookshop on Dun Hua South near the corner with Renai Road. While commercial realities have tempered its vision a bit, when it launched the Eslite bookshop was the model of a globalized bookstore, with great books in their original languages, plus Chinese and or English translations, as applicable. In any case it is still one of the great bookshops anywhere, open 24 hours. See this article for more on Eslite.

Many academics remember the Dunhuang or Caves bookstore on Chungshan North. It is not as useful a place to get academic books as it used to be, though it is still the place to pick up a set of Needham's Science & Civilisation in China. Of more interest may be the Southern Sky or SMC bookshop off of Roosevelt Road, near the entrance to Taida, the National Taiwan University. They publish books on Taiwan in English and Chinese, as well as license US university press editions for the Taiwan market.

For Chinese literature in particular, one might try the new My Library of Kingstone, near the Da-an Park.

Newest superstore bookshop on the scene is Page One, in Taipei 101, which has a strong collection of English books.

Our stand at the IAHA conference in Taipei, at the Academia Sinica.

Yesterday we welcomed colleagues at IAHA Taipei to a small reception after Anthony Reid's special lecture "Indonesia and Aceh: Democratising the Post-Imperial State". We had munchies and fruit punch, and a few words from recent authors in attendance, including Tony, Tim Barnard, editor of Contesting Malayness: Malay Identity Across Boundaries, and Nola Cooke, co-editor of Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750-1880, a much-anticipated collection which we will publish in Asia and Australia in January. Also with us was Jerome Su of B.K. Norton, our newly-appointed representative for Taiwan, China and Korea.

We've taken delivery of this in our bookshop on the NUS campus, and will be launching it next week in Taipei. However the book will not be scaled out to bookshops in the region till after the end-of-year holiday rush.

From the blurb:

This book is the fruit of 40 years' study of Sumatran history, from the 16th century to the present. While seeking patterns of coherence in this vast island, it focuses on Aceh, which has both the most illustrious past and the most troubled present of any Sumatran region.