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The American Movie Club
The weekly American
Movie Club was held on Sunday, September 19, 2004. The club was hosted by a local
Peace Corps volunteer and the movie shown was "Army of Darkness".
Before the movie began, the volunteer explain some American slang terms that would
be used in the movie. Following the movie, the volunteer answered some additional
questions about terminology used in the movie.
The movie was a sort of "slap-stick"
comedy about a man who was transported back in time to the mid-evil period and
was easily understood by most attendees.
"Alumni Day"
On
the 20th of August there was an "Alumni Day" in IATP center. Ayazhan
Seitkazina, FLEX alumna made a seminar called "Exchange programs in USA".
The workshop participants were listening and writing down all the information
necessary for them, and they got a list of web-sites where they can find information
about exchange programs.
The aim of this work-shop was a search of programs
and criteria for participation in them and preparing students for the contest.
Also the full review of the Edmund Muskie programs and UGRAD program was made.
The work-shop participants were invited to the American Culture Center, where
they were suggested materials to prepare for TOEFL, GMAT, GRE and SAT programs.
After the genuine questions were answered Ayazhan gave the contact information
of regional representatives of the programs and wished good luck to the potential
leaders of exchange programs.
Independence Day
On
the 4th July exhibition dedicated to this great holiday - Independence Day - was
organized in the American Culture Centre. Exhibition included books, video films,
citations of the great people and other materials concerning this data.
Independence
Day is the national holiday of the United States of America commemorating the
signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July
4, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Exhibition drew attention of the
Center users.
D-Day
On the 16th of
June there was a meeting at the Pushkin library conference hall about the 60th
anniversary of the second front opening of World War II, which was organized due
to initiative of the U.S Embassy in Kazakhstan.
Sixty two years ago, on the
16th of June the U.S Troops, Great Britain and their allies started a debarkation
of the expositional forces in Normandy (northwest of France). The aim was to bring
a force through the English Channel and a strategic beachhead formation to further
attack Germany's boundaries. It was one of the greatest successes during the whole
War, and has the Name - Normandy's. It was lasted until the 24th of July 1944
and signified the opening of the Second Front in Europe.
The Second Front
did play a considerable role in the shared struggle against Fascist's Germany.
A telltale military success of the anti-Fascists coalition was achieved only in
the second period of 1944. The military-political and strategical support, all
helped achieve the victory of the War.
The program of the meeting included:
the lecture, prepared by Steven Guice - U.S Embassy cultural Attache in Kazakhstan,
and a film by Steven Spielberg 'Saving Private Ryan'.
The review of the history
of War did get the peoples attention. And the film of Steven Spielberg with excellent
casting and special effects was the conclusion of the lecture of the U.S Embassy
Attache.
The visit of the U.S Embassy Attache was supported by the workers
of the American Culture Center - U.S State Department shared project and the East-Kazakhstan
Association of the librarians.
"American Voices" Concert
On the 17th of May at 18.30 p.m. the concert of the
American musicians - John Ferguson (pianist) and Ira Spolding (vocalist) will
take place in the Concert Hall of musical school ¹2. The concert is organized
by the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan and public fund "American Voices".
The fund "American voices" was founded in 1993 in order to give
an access to qualitative and constructive American culture. The fund operates
in those countries which have a deficiency of information on American culture.
The organizer of the fund is John Ferguson who is also a pianist and art director
of the "American voices". As a performer he gives more than 100 concerts
in countries of Europe, North and South America and the East every year, makes
records on the radio and television, and holds master-classes.
Ira Spolding
teaches in the conservatoire of Amsterdam and takes part in numerous projects
of the "American Voices". Recently he performed as a conductor and soloist
of "Porgy and Bess" in Bolivia, Bangkok and Kazakhstan.
Here, in
our country, John Ferguson and Ira Spolding will present the program "American
variations". They will perform Afro-American spirituals, ragtime, blues and
church music.
Virtual Meeting of Kazakhstani and Tajik Librarians
by: Bibigul Shagieva, IATP Access Site Administrator, from: Ust-Kamenogorsk at April 30, 2003
On April 24 there was a virtual meeting chat with the librarians of Tajikistan. For Tajik librarians it was the first experience of such kind. Chat was conducted in the framework of the Internet-training – the joint project of the "Open Society Institute”, Soros Foundation Tajikistan and the East-Kazakhstan Regional Pushkin Library. "Open Society Institute” promoted Pushkin library as the training-center for the librarians of the Central Asia. Soros Foundation Tajikistan took the initiative of expenses on organizing and conducting the trainings and inviting the specialists. Pushkin library provided with the trainers, the leading librarians Raushan Myazova and Irina Naletova. These certificated specialists were trained on the basis of Ust-Kamenogorsk Access site. On the basis of Access site they conducted a lot of trainings for different auditorium and that’s why accumulated the experience on their conduction. More than once Access site gave an opportunity to conduct such events in its room and now made the same for the Kazakh-Tajik project.
During the chat the Tajik participants shared their impressions about the Internet-training and expressed their gratitude to its organizers and trainers. Noticable , that almost all libraries of Tajikistan have no access to the Internet, such work has started and the applications for training the librarians were put in. We hope that the first Internet-training and the first chat for Tajik librarians will be a great stimulus for implementation of the Internet technologies in its activity on organizing unlimited access to the information
Internet training for the government representatives
On February 11 the Internet training for the government representatives of akimat in Ust-Kamenogorsk began. The main specialists of the home policy, social sphere and finance departments and the press-secretary of akimat of Ust-Kamenogorsk were among the participants of the training.
This training is being conducted on the basis of the partner project "Transparent city", which is upgrading due to the joint attempts of the akimat of Ust-Kamenogorsk city, NGO "Center of Development of Local Self Management" and East-Kazakhstan Regional Association of Librarians.
In accordance with the project the official site of the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk was created, by which citizens can ask a question and express their opinion on different points of social city life. (http://www.oskemen.kz)
Knowledge and skills, acquired during the training of Access site help the specialists of the city akimat take an active part in the project and answer on-line and also consult the citizens on the framework of their competence.
"A World of Woman in American Literature"
On March 14th there was an interesting meeting in Pushkin library "A World of Woman in American Literature". What was particular in this meeting? That are - the books of American writers in the original language and all participants spoke English. Note, that among the guests there were the graduates of American programs, the English language teachers, Peace Corps volunteers, listeners of English courses.
The classical music was playing and the participants were talking about women-writers, who are the proud of America. They are Willa Cather, who showed the main aspects of the history of the first settlers of the prairies; Zora Hurston, she continued the great tradition of Mark Twain; Hertrude Stein, who worked out the abstract experimental poems in proze; Eudora Welty, the author of the comic and grotesque, eccentric or exclusive characters, and other.
The exhibition of the same name was arranged in the conference hall and every person could take a book and read familiar lines from favorite writing. "Uncle Tom's cabin" by Hurriet Beecher Stowe. Everybody knows this outstanding book of the nineteenth century. Passionate challenge to stop slavering in the USA that ran in the novel caused outrageous debates which in a decade led to the civil war (1861-1865). Abstracts from the books "A Backward Glance" by Edith Wharton, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Hurston, "My Antonia" by Willa Cather and other. All these books are from collection donated by the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan to the Pushkin Library as a mark of gratitude for its deserts in society.
Peace Corps Volunteers Debra Zelansky and Eric Hilsman introduced to their favorite women-writers and told about their works.
The meeting lasted for two hours. But they were the hours of touching another culture, touching American women prose. That was a small festival.
The program was prepared by the Regional Department of ACCELS, the Access Center, financed by IREX, English Teachers' Association and the Pushkin Library.
"Web site evaluation" workshop
On February 25 "Web site evaluation" workshop started. The most advanced librarians of the East-Kazakhstan regional Pushkin library took part in this work. Aliya Sarsembinova conducted the workshop for her colleagues.
Quality of web resourses varies tremendously. The target of the workshop was to teach librarians-consultants define the best web-sites that are more relevant to the users' demands. Librarians need to know traditional criteria of web-site evaluating. During the workshop they learned about accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage criteria.
Off-site workshop for ecologists
On February 28 there was a workshop "Modern sources of information for the specialists-ecologists". The librarians of the Pushkin Library and volunteer of the Peace Corps Debra Zalansky took part in its organization.
25 specialists of the East-Kazakhstan regional department of environmental protection were participated in the workshop. The experience of the previous meetings were taken into account while organizing the workshop. Particular attention was paid to the resources, which demonstrated the ecological issues. They are: the issues of atmosphere protection and water resources, ecological monitorings and expertize, international ecological standards, ecological law and education. There were also representations of the electronic editions on ecology: bulletens, magazines, monographs.
During
the workshop, participants got to know the ecological web-sites of America, Europe
and Kazakhstan. The ecologiests took into consideration the usefulness of Internet
resources and are ready now to take advantage of them in their professional activity.
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Successful Project
On the 26th of February there was a consultative workshop for the "Successful project". The meeting was conducted by Akzhigitova Khabiba, director of the Pushkin Library.
Under her leadership nearly 15 projects are successfully realized in the library. That's why her experience was particularly interesting for present. The topic of the meeting was made on principle: "Why some projects are supported by the sponsors, and the others are not?" There were analyzed the typical mistakes, made by the authors, working out the project.
Participants were informed about the program of small grants IREX, and also gave the web site lists of organizations-grantmakers.
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Out - of site Information Workshop
On 10 February the trainers
of our access site's “ Aliya Sarsembinova and Alexander Kaller
have visited
the East Humanitarian Institute. The meeting aim is â?“ the conducting of the
out-of site information workshop for professional teaching staff of the given
institute.
According to the Institute's claim the workshop focused on the Internet usage and its opportunities in teacherâ's scientific-research work. The participants were got to know the educational site resources (www.bilim.kz; www.www.uditorium.ru; www.nature; www.sonoteka.ru and so on ).
Today,
new technologies, including the Internet promote the information access. However,
not everybody can find necessary resources on the net, most of them donâ?™t know
about opportunities, which can help them in the research work..
Undoubtedly,
this problem was also taken into account by the access trainers. Alexander Kaller
told about the service of electronic documents delivery and introduced Russia
databases: the State Public Scientific Technical Library (www.gpntb.ru), the Institute
of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (www.inion.ru), the State Scientific
Educational Library named after K.D. Ushinsky (www.gnpbu.ru), the State Public
Scientific Technical Library of Siberian Department of the Russian Science Academy
(www.spsl.ru) and others.
We are sure, that new information will contribute to the work and successful defense of candidates and doctors dissertations of teachers and professors of East-Humanitarian Institute.
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On
November 25 2002, the East-Kazakhstan Pushkin Library specialist Natalia Kharlamova
flew to Germany (Munchen) for three-week internship.
She took a presentation,
which will introduce Kazakhstan, the East-Kazakhstan Region, the East-Kazakhstan
Pushkin Regional Public Library to German colleagues.
The presentation (Power
Point) is of high quality. Except texts, it includes audio fragments, pictures
and diagrams.
She could prepare this kind of presentation, thanks to
Ust Pub Site and its trainers- Oleg Hegay and Aliya Sarsembinova. They provided
her with practical help in creating the presentation.
Moreover, Natalia is
a constant visitor of the pub site. She has been involved in Ust pub site’s information
workshops as a moderator.
It is interesting to mention, that since November
2001 to November 2002 she has visited the pub site thirty one times, attended
two trainings and one workshop.
We hope, she benefits more from this
internship, share her knowledge and experience with German colleagues and all
her obtained knowledge will activate a collaboration with Ust Pub Site.
In
October 15, Ust Pub Site has been visited by honorable guest. Stephen Guice, Cultural
Affairs Officer of US Embassy in Kazakhstan came to the East Kazakhstan Regional
Pushkin Public Library. He was introduced with the Library functions and innovative
services provided to the patrons.
Moreover, he visited the Ust Pub Site and
learned its work.. Work with alumni and activities conducted by them has drawn
his attention.
Besides, he gave lunch to alumni to, which took place at Pushkin
Library Central hall. This meeting gave an opportunity to alumni to ask their
questions to attaché and get answers to them.
Teaching
of small town and village librarians and other specialists Internet or Basic Computer
literacy has become a good tradition at Ust Pub Site in Pushkin Library
This time Ust Pub site and its specialists devoted their weekend time to
the group of specialists from small town called Ridder. (former Leninogorsk, the
East-Kazakhstan region). The group consisted of specialists of various spheres
such as: Culture Ecological Association “Bumerang”, representatives of the Ridder
Town Administration, journalist of the newspaper “Leninskaya pravda”, Crisis Center
for women “Nesabudka” and others.
During two days, from 10 a.m to 13.a.m
Ust pub Site trainer Guzal Durdieva taught them how to search for information
in the Internet, how to work with e-mail and remote databases, told about search
engines and directories, how specialists can use Electronic Document Delivery.
At the end of the training participants took a test to show what they learned
from the training and filled a questionnaire to evaluate the pub Site work.
You are sure remember, that three Ust-Kamenogorsk grant winners began their work on creating web site development in April. Now, we are proud to mention, that all three of them finished their work on web site creation. Now, Kazakhstani Internet has been filled with other three web sites, which will be helpful for those who need them. They are the site of the East –Kazakhstan Regional Psychiatric Clininc’s site, called “Podderzhka” (Support) http://www.psy.freenet.kz , the site of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Central Library System http://www.cls.freenet.kz , and the Creative Lab “Bright idea’s ” site for librarians http://www.idea.freenet.kz . All these sites were tested and evaluated. The specialists in the sphere of psycho- therapy and users who need psychological help viewed “Support”, and the site was highly appreciated. Patrons and specialists found the Central library’s system useful and in time for its users. The site of the Creative lab “Bright Idea” is worth to be mentioned especially. It was highly estimated by the librarians from all over Kazakhstan, and serves to promote the Kazakhstani librarianship.
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