One way that the Czech Republic is focusing on eGovernance is by creating a safer environment for web usage. In April of 2009 the Czech Republic held a ministerial conference called "Safer Internet for Children - fighting together against illegal content and conduct on-line."
Topics addressed at the conference were cyberbullying, grooming, and sexual abuse among others. There was further work done to strengthen legislative steps in combating online child sexual abuse and pornography. Also, national alert systems were set up collaborating throughout European countries.
A European Financial Coalition was set up to fund efforts in fighting commercial child sexual abuse. This effort streamlines the financial backing of several stakeholder groups who share an interest in creating a safer internet atmosphere for all to enjoy the benefits.
Prusa, J. (2009, April 20). Eu: prague declaration on 'safer internet for children'. Retrieved from http://www.epractice.eu/en/library/289517
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Educational Programs in the Czech Republic
The Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers gave a presentation at the Book World Prague 2009 gathering on Growing with the Book, a campaign whose goals are to raise knowledge growth and assist non-reading groups of children and adults through widespread collaboration and partnership with other organizations with like goals. They plan on meeting their goals through promoting a nationwide push for reading National Year of Reading, promoting in bookstores, and cooperating with libraries and schools.
Book World Prague is a book fair and literary festival put on by the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers each year. The 2010 focus is on literacy for children and intercultural understanding through literature. The guest of honor this year is Poland, presenting presenting their current workings on literacy (Book World, Ltd., 2007).
Many of the websites I’ve used for my research were offered in Czech and English. There seems to be a balanced approach of speaking English in order to communicate with the world at large yet speaking, and teaching Czech as the primary language of the country in order to preserve cultural heritage. There is a saying in Czech that translates to “you live a new life for every language that you speak,” illustrating the ethnic richness that is garnered from learning more than one language (Kabelova, 2010). The article, Summer Schools of Slavonic Studies makes a case for learning Czech which is a language based upon inflections (Kabelova, 2010). The use of a word in a sentence can mean different things based upon the inflection of the word (Czech language, 2010). The most popular reason for learning the language is to become a resident of the country. There is a test that foreigners wishing to become legal residents of the country must take before they may do so (Kabelova, 2010). The language is rich and beautiful but a challenge to learn. It shares something with English in that it can be played with. Much like in English we have puns, simile, and metaphor, the Czech language lends itself to poetry and literature (Kabelova, 2010).
Book World, Ltd. (2007). Book world prague 2010. Retrieved from http://www.svetknihy.cz/en/menu/
Czech language. (2010 , January 11). Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/67019-czech-language
Kabelova, A. (2010, April 27). Czech for foreigners second part - language courses in the czech republic. Retrieved from Czech language. Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/67019-czech-language
Kabelova, A. (2010, March 18). Summer schools of slavic studies. Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/93900-summer-schools-of-slavonic-studies
Book World Prague is a book fair and literary festival put on by the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers each year. The 2010 focus is on literacy for children and intercultural understanding through literature. The guest of honor this year is Poland, presenting presenting their current workings on literacy (Book World, Ltd., 2007).
Many of the websites I’ve used for my research were offered in Czech and English. There seems to be a balanced approach of speaking English in order to communicate with the world at large yet speaking, and teaching Czech as the primary language of the country in order to preserve cultural heritage. There is a saying in Czech that translates to “you live a new life for every language that you speak,” illustrating the ethnic richness that is garnered from learning more than one language (Kabelova, 2010). The article, Summer Schools of Slavonic Studies makes a case for learning Czech which is a language based upon inflections (Kabelova, 2010). The use of a word in a sentence can mean different things based upon the inflection of the word (Czech language, 2010). The most popular reason for learning the language is to become a resident of the country. There is a test that foreigners wishing to become legal residents of the country must take before they may do so (Kabelova, 2010). The language is rich and beautiful but a challenge to learn. It shares something with English in that it can be played with. Much like in English we have puns, simile, and metaphor, the Czech language lends itself to poetry and literature (Kabelova, 2010).
Book World, Ltd. (2007). Book world prague 2010. Retrieved from http://www.svetknihy.cz/en/menu/
Czech language. (2010 , January 11). Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/67019-czech-language
Kabelova, A. (2010, April 27). Czech for foreigners second part - language courses in the czech republic. Retrieved from Czech language. Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/67019-czech-language
Kabelova, A. (2010, March 18). Summer schools of slavic studies. Retrieved from http://www.czech.cz/en/93900-summer-schools-of-slavonic-studies
Saturday, April 24, 2010
What I Learned the Second Class Weekend
I enjoyed the conversation on Friday night surrounding the Adele Kenneally article, Public Libraries in Learning Communities. The phrase "there's nothing new under the sun" comes to mind when thinking about this conversation. Many in class thought that the ideas in the article weren't anything new that libraries aren't already trying to do. I think this phenomenon is something that happens in much of life. Ideas about our world are repackaged by new thinkers who are experiencing these ideas for the first time. This is actually encouraging to me because it is conveys a sense of togetherness with those of the past and future who have and will experience the same struggles, and solutions.
The presentations on Saturday were also really interesting. It was a great way to encourage my interest in the different aspects of GII. The group who presented about loosing native languages due to the world becoming more global was great! It is seen as such a good thing that a global language is learned so that all my communicate more easily. However the consequence of loosing the cultural heritage by way of loosing languages is one that should not be considered acceptable. I also loved the African proverb that was shared during this presentation: "Every time and old man dies it is as if a library has burnt down." This is a great quote which speaks to the story telling nature of humanity.
The collaboration groups were also interesting to hear. Ways in which the Nelson Adkins, KU, and other information agencies are collaborating are really inspiring and it goes back to the discussion of the article in that these community collaborations are already happening in and among community organizations today. I love the title that group 3 used for one of their power point pages: Blurring the Boundaries. That is a great way of describing the relationship information agencies should have with their community. The boundaries should be there, definitely, however maybe they should be drawn with more of a dotted line instead of a solid line.
Also, collaboration seems to be a theme of this semester for me. In another class I learned of an extreme version of collaboration in Charlotte, NC between a youth library and a childrens' theater called Imaginon. It seems pretty cool. And in another class, I am working on putting together a program plan for children in a library and the program I'm planning involves collaborating with culinary arts individuals within the community.
The presentations on Saturday were also really interesting. It was a great way to encourage my interest in the different aspects of GII. The group who presented about loosing native languages due to the world becoming more global was great! It is seen as such a good thing that a global language is learned so that all my communicate more easily. However the consequence of loosing the cultural heritage by way of loosing languages is one that should not be considered acceptable. I also loved the African proverb that was shared during this presentation: "Every time and old man dies it is as if a library has burnt down." This is a great quote which speaks to the story telling nature of humanity.
The collaboration groups were also interesting to hear. Ways in which the Nelson Adkins, KU, and other information agencies are collaborating are really inspiring and it goes back to the discussion of the article in that these community collaborations are already happening in and among community organizations today. I love the title that group 3 used for one of their power point pages: Blurring the Boundaries. That is a great way of describing the relationship information agencies should have with their community. The boundaries should be there, definitely, however maybe they should be drawn with more of a dotted line instead of a solid line.
Also, collaboration seems to be a theme of this semester for me. In another class I learned of an extreme version of collaboration in Charlotte, NC between a youth library and a childrens' theater called Imaginon. It seems pretty cool. And in another class, I am working on putting together a program plan for children in a library and the program I'm planning involves collaborating with culinary arts individuals within the community.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Collaboration and Cooperation
National
The NLCR is part of an ongoing Research and Technology Development (RTD) project for the Czech Republic in both the long term and the short term. Long-term projects include focusing on organizing, maintaining, and archiving a digital library, setting up bibliographic records of full texts of newspaper and journal articles, and developing a national catalog.
Short-term or current projects include continued efforts toward creating and maintaining full text databases for professional foreign periodicals, and national periodicals. Other goals include cataloging historical music collections, and “optimizing the structure of Information Resources in the Library of Library Science in the National Library of the Czech Republic (Corradini, 2006)
International
Internationally, the NLCR is involved in the Eureka! Project which focuses on endangered cultural heritage and the preservation, investigation and copyright thereof (Corradini, 2006). They also support IDAP (Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment) to conserve and restore documents.
Corradini, M. (2006, January 3). National library of the czech republic, research and development. Retrieved from http://www.nkp.cz/_en/pages/page.php3?page=weba_hl_ukoly2003_en.htm
The NLCR is part of an ongoing Research and Technology Development (RTD) project for the Czech Republic in both the long term and the short term. Long-term projects include focusing on organizing, maintaining, and archiving a digital library, setting up bibliographic records of full texts of newspaper and journal articles, and developing a national catalog.
Short-term or current projects include continued efforts toward creating and maintaining full text databases for professional foreign periodicals, and national periodicals. Other goals include cataloging historical music collections, and “optimizing the structure of Information Resources in the Library of Library Science in the National Library of the Czech Republic (Corradini, 2006)
International
Internationally, the NLCR is involved in the Eureka! Project which focuses on endangered cultural heritage and the preservation, investigation and copyright thereof (Corradini, 2006). They also support IDAP (Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment) to conserve and restore documents.
Corradini, M. (2006, January 3). National library of the czech republic, research and development. Retrieved from http://www.nkp.cz/_en/pages/page.php3?page=weba_hl_ukoly2003_en.htm
Saturday, March 6, 2010
What I learned in our first class weekend
This class weekend was really good for me. I have been confused about many things in the class so far and the weekend of face to face class time was useful in helping to solidify the content of the class work for me. I liked the discussion time that we had both Friday night about the United Nations document that we'd read previously, and about the articles that we all read on Saturday morning.
The article I read was really interesting in the way it talked about Complex Adaptive Systems as being similar to a flock of birds; when one bird changes course the course of the whole is altered. This made me think of facebook. I wonder if when facebook was created anyone ever thought that advertisers would look at it as a legitimate form of advertising or that programmers would create so many different ways to use the technology. Facebook has changed because of a collaboration of several people.
The article I read was really interesting in the way it talked about Complex Adaptive Systems as being similar to a flock of birds; when one bird changes course the course of the whole is altered. This made me think of facebook. I wonder if when facebook was created anyone ever thought that advertisers would look at it as a legitimate form of advertising or that programmers would create so many different ways to use the technology. Facebook has changed because of a collaboration of several people.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Relevant History to the Czech National Library
I watched an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain this week in which the location was Prague, Czech Republic. I also began reading Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague by Myla Goldberg.
This episode of No Reservations focused on the up and coming cuisine of this nation which is already well established in so many other ways. Czechoslovakia was ruled as a communist state for 45 years until, in 1993, it dissolved into two states; The Czech Repuplic, and Slovakia. Prague is the Capital of the Czech Republic. During the years that communism ruled in Czechoslovakia, the country's cuisine suffered due to government regulations placed upon restaurants and chefs. Creativity in cooking was hindered and all restaurant's menus became very similar. In this way, the Czech Republic is very new, less than 30 years old. The cuisine of this nation is just now beginning to regain it's place amongst the great cuisines of the world (Bourdain, 2010).
The book, Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague, gives a great overview of Prague from many venues. The Czech National Library is one of these venues. I just recently began the book, but am hoping that it will shed a little light on the a question that No Reservations brought up for me. What happened to the library during the years of Soviet rule? Was the library hindered as was the cuisine? If so what effects did it have on the ability of GII to be of benefit to the Czech Republic and how far has the nation come since 1993? All very interesting questions which will benefit my research.
Bourdain, Anthony (Host/Writer). (February 1, 2010). No Reservations [Television Broadcast]. Travel Channel
Goldberg, M. (2004). Time's magpie: a walk in prague. New York, New York: Crown Journeys.
This episode of No Reservations focused on the up and coming cuisine of this nation which is already well established in so many other ways. Czechoslovakia was ruled as a communist state for 45 years until, in 1993, it dissolved into two states; The Czech Repuplic, and Slovakia. Prague is the Capital of the Czech Republic. During the years that communism ruled in Czechoslovakia, the country's cuisine suffered due to government regulations placed upon restaurants and chefs. Creativity in cooking was hindered and all restaurant's menus became very similar. In this way, the Czech Republic is very new, less than 30 years old. The cuisine of this nation is just now beginning to regain it's place amongst the great cuisines of the world (Bourdain, 2010).
The book, Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague, gives a great overview of Prague from many venues. The Czech National Library is one of these venues. I just recently began the book, but am hoping that it will shed a little light on the a question that No Reservations brought up for me. What happened to the library during the years of Soviet rule? Was the library hindered as was the cuisine? If so what effects did it have on the ability of GII to be of benefit to the Czech Republic and how far has the nation come since 1993? All very interesting questions which will benefit my research.
Bourdain, Anthony (Host/Writer). (February 1, 2010). No Reservations [Television Broadcast]. Travel Channel
Goldberg, M. (2004). Time's magpie: a walk in prague. New York, New York: Crown Journeys.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Prague it is...or Maybe the Czech Republic
I’ve decided to do my individual assignment on the GII in the Czech
Republic, specifically Prague. Although as I begin to research I am
noticing that the specificity of topic might prove difficult in finding
sources for the project. If I continue to find this is the case I will
broaden my scope to Czech Republic. I chose this location both because
of its history as a nation and because, from what little I’ve heard the
libraries there are quite good. I also work with a woman at Gardner
Public Library who is from Prague and may be able to provide some
first-hand insight or suggestions for my research. Another reason for
researching this location is that my husband and I are tentatively
planning a trip there in October of this year.
I began by looking at the website for the National Library of the Czech
Republic. There is tons of information here about the library’s history
and practices. There is a page on the site listing the national and
international organizations that the library belongs to. I think this
will be a good first resource for me because it will lead to other
sources. I’ve also found a few articles through Google Scholar which I
hope to use.
National Library of the Czech Republic, 2006. Retrieved on 1/23/2010 at http://www.nkp.cz/_en/index.php3
Republic, specifically Prague. Although as I begin to research I am
noticing that the specificity of topic might prove difficult in finding
sources for the project. If I continue to find this is the case I will
broaden my scope to Czech Republic. I chose this location both because
of its history as a nation and because, from what little I’ve heard the
libraries there are quite good. I also work with a woman at Gardner
Public Library who is from Prague and may be able to provide some
first-hand insight or suggestions for my research. Another reason for
researching this location is that my husband and I are tentatively
planning a trip there in October of this year.
I began by looking at the website for the National Library of the Czech
Republic. There is tons of information here about the library’s history
and practices. There is a page on the site listing the national and
international organizations that the library belongs to. I think this
will be a good first resource for me because it will lead to other
sources. I’ve also found a few articles through Google Scholar which I
hope to use.
National Library of the Czech Republic, 2006. Retrieved on 1/23/2010 at http://www.nkp.cz/_en/index.php3
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