Libraries offer solace in hard times

Sunday, November 30, 2008
Last updated: Sunday November 30, 2008, BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE STAFF WRITER

PATERSON — Before heading to his job at a carpet company in Hackensack, Jorge Maradiegue stopped by the main library on Broadway to check out three DVDs and browse the Internet from his personal laptop.
"You know how much this [costs] to rent at Blockbuster?" Maradiegue asked, motioning to copies of "The Bourne Identity," "Las Mejores Canciones Del Mundo" and "Da Vinci Code" he had borrowed. "It's more than $4 [each]. That's a lot of money.
As consumers continue to look for ways to save money in a slow economy, more and more are heading to the local public library.
People who otherwise would have gone to Barnes & Noble to buy the latest thriller or to Blockbuster to rent a new release are now giving the public libraries a second look, library directors across Passaic County say.

...They are finding that the library is not just a place to get books. Some libraries now allow users to download entire movies online, something that was unavailable until recently, they said. Others offer yoga classes.
But if the downturn continues, libraries could see their funding decease while having to serve more people.
"If the economy is down and the tax base continues to dwindle, and you have to share services for the dwindling pie of funds, it's not a pretty picture," said Alire of the American Library Association. "We are all affected by the bad economy."... continue reading

Info courtesy: Gail Zimmer

Why musicians make us weep and computers don't?

New Study of Public Library of Science.
Info courtesy: Forhad @ Research Directory Headline

Music can soothe the savage breast much better if played by musicians rather than clever computers, according to a new University of Sussex-led study published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.

Neuroscientists looked at the brain's response to piano sonatas played either by a computer or a musician and found that, while the computerised music elicited an emotional response – particularly to unexpected chord changes - it was not as strong as listening to the same piece played by a professional pianist. continue reading

Introduction to Judaica Librarianship @ video.google.ca

Introduction to Judaica Librarianship Part 1, 1 hr 6 min 15 sec - 28-Aug-07 ,
Introduction to Judaica Librarianship Part 2 51 min 6 sec - 28-Aug-07 ,
source : http://www.jewishlibraries.org/

Sherry Wasserman hosts the 2006 Association of Jewish Libraries Freshman Seminar designed for those new to Jewish libraries, especially ... those who are not professional librarians. This session focuses on preparing for library automation. This workshop is appropriate for day school libraries and synagogue libraries. Handouts for this session are available. Click here

Thought for the day by Koans of the Zen Librarian

A patron asked the Zen Librarian to look on MapQuest to see whether a pick-your-own apple orchard was north or south of the interstate. The Zen Librarian answered, "Although people make distinctions between north and south, in buddha-nature and on the Web south and north do not exist." source

British Library’s Sacred exhibition: Interactive learning resources

Info courtesy: William J. Kopycki, University of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth Beaudin, Yale University Library @ "melanet-l"

"One of the key messages of the Sacred exhibition is about learning how sacred texts can be interpreted today; do they still have relevance and meaning to life in 21st century Britain? We've created two interactive resources on our Learning website to help explore these questions. Try them out here and let us know what you think!"Continue

Articles of Faith: Cleric offers tips to living in multifaith society - Faithwise Review of the Week

By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON
GUEST COLUMNIST

IT WASN'T all that long ago that what most Americans knew of religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism came from books, not personal encounter or experience. That's changed. Not only have travel and technology made the world smaller, but America has become a religiously pluralistic nation. Islam is now the fastest- growing religion in North America.

There are more Buddhists than Methodists in this country. Twenty-first century America is a land of many faiths. You are as likely to have a Muslim or Buddhist as a neighbor or co-worker as you are a Presbyterian or a Jew. continue

Brazilian President, Lula impressed with India's multi-faith heritage

Muslim author advocates multi-faith dialogue

Westminster multifaith pilgrimage

Japanese robot likes sushi, fears president:

TOKYO,Japan, June 5-- Kansei frowns when he hears the word "bomb," smiles at "sushi" and looks scared and disgusted when someone says "president" -- and he isn't even human.
Japan's latest robot, called Kansei and created by a university research team, can pull up to 36 different facial expressions based on a program which creates word associations from a self-updating online database of 500,000 keywords.

Apocalypse now: Why extending religious discrimination laws to include personal philosophies exposes the flaws in protecting beliefs, 05 June 2007 00:00This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine

Using science to question religious belief

Modes of Faith: Secular Surrogates for Lost Religious Belief

Divorce increases risk of Ritalin use, study finds
Divorce increases risk of Ritalin use, study finds
Updated Tue. Jun. 5 2007 9:07 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Divorce puts children at a "significantly higher" risk of being prescribed Ritalin compared to kids whose parents don't divorce, finds new research by a University of Alberta sociologist.

Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before Columbus

Faith and Rights of Ownership

New Report Shows Rise in Religious Book Sales

Israel Displays Rare Religious Manuscript

The BJP and Muslims: The twain can meet by Sudheendra Kulkarni

Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism: Spiritual and Ethical Affinities, Reza Shah-Kazemi

The Founding Fathers and Islam: Library Papers Show Early Tolerance for Muslim Faith,By JAMES H. HUTSON, The Library of Congress, Information Bulletin, May 2002
With more than 55 million items, the Library's Manuscript Division contains the papers of 23 presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. In this article, Manuscript Division Chief James Hutson draws upon the papers of Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other primary documents to discuss the relationship of Islam to the new nation. ["Interesting to learn "The expressions of tolerence. " which dwindles now!" said: (late) Syed Aslam, Mysore.]

What's wrong with praying in a library?

posted by Blake on 08:55 AM March 16th, 2007, from the serpent-handling dept.

In The Bakersfield Californian Marylee Shrider asks What's wrong with
praying in a library?.
"Freedom of religious expression and equal access is a constitutional right of every American. So, unless the congregants of Hopkins' Faith Center Church are of a serpent-handling sect, have the volume turned up on their tambourines or are attempting to proselytize book-reading bystanders, it's not the business of Contra Costa County or even the 9th District Court of Appeals to determine when their "speech" crosses that invisible frontier into "service." [source: Librarian and Information Science News]

Information Seeking Behavior of the Believers

The information-seeking behavior of pastoral clergy : A study of the interaction of their work worlds and work roles, WICKS D. A, Library & information science research 1999, vol. 21, no2, pp. 205-226 (4 p.)

The role of the research phase in information seeking behaviour of Jewish studies scholars: a modification of Ellis's behavioural characteristics, by J. Bronstein Information Research, Vol. 12 No. 3, April 2007,

[pdf] INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA LAW FACULTY MEMBERS, by Shaheen Majid1 and Gava Mugeraa Kassim, Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, Vol.5, no.2, December 2000: 1-17

Information seeking behaviour of the Catholic religious in Ibadan, Nigeria, Airenobeuan Edale Adetimirin, Information Research, Vol. 10 No. 1, 2004,

 Investigating the Seeking Behavior for Religious Information in Social Media: International Journal of Information Systems and Social Change (IJISSC) 7(4) ... Volume 7: 4 Issues (2016).

Information-Seeking Behavior of Clergy: The Research, the Results, and the Future Jacob Dankasa

Neelameghan, A. (1999). Lateral relations and links in multicultural, multimedia databases in the spiritual and religious domains: Some observations. Knowledge Organization, 26 (2), 74-79.

Dervin, Brenda (1992). From the mind’s eye of the user: The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. In Jack D. Glazier & Ronald R. Powell (Eds.) Qualitative research in information management. (pp. 61-84). Englewood: Libraries Unlimited.

[pdf] Web Searching in the Context of Information Seeking in Everyday Life: The Cases of Civic and Spiritual Action A Research Proposal, Jarkko Kari and Reijo Savolainen,

Information-Seeking Behavior of the Humanists, by Li-min Cheng Journal of Educational Media and Library Sciences, Volume 29 No. 4, pp. 388-410 (June 1992)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFORMATION SOURCES AND CREATIVITY IN SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS, by CONRAD J. Human Communication Research Volume 4 Issue 2 Page 113 - January 1978

Ferahian, Salwa, "Analysis of the reference questions at the Islamic Studies Library" Middle Eastern Library Association Notes 37, 1986 pp. 9-17.

Heinström, Jannica, 1970- Fast surfers, broad scanners, and deep divers : personality and information-seeking behaviour / Jannica Heinström, Åbo [Finland] : Åbo Akademis förlag : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2002. Thesis (doctoral)

[ppt] Joseph Owen - Presentation: Children and Religious Information




See also previous posts:

Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

Save the Time of the Godly: Information Mediators Role in Promoting Spiritual & Religious Accommodation

Multifaith Stacks: A New Book for the Information Professionals

KM, IM, DM - Survival of the Fittest

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Book Reveiw # 4 - Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

This is most recent review of my book: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives. Previous reviews [published in Sept 2006, Scarecrow Press]

"Visit the Sistine Chapel, attend the Church of Satan, have a question (dial a priest)... would be a useful addition to high school and university reference collections. " ARBA (American Reference Books Annual), vol. 38 (2007)

NB. American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) is Free this week (April 15 - 22, 2007, to celebrate the national library week), read my review online for free:
Publisher: Scarecrow, Lanham, MD (2006)
Price: $45.00pa
ISBN/ISSN: 0-8108-5257-8
Content Area: RELIGIONS
Handbooks and Yearbooks; General Works; Religion; Philosophy and Religion
John W. Storey - Professor of History, Lamar Univ., Beaumont, Tex
ARBA 2007

Several scholars have noted the zest with which American Pentecostals in the twentieth century have taken to the airwaves via radio, television, and satellite to proclaim an "old fashioned gospel," as if there were something anomalous about using cutting-edge means of communication to advance an "old" point of view. In fact, however, religious leaders and institutions have always embraced the latest marvels of modern technology to spread their message. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that religion has found the Internet, and the resulting opportunities for cyber worship are practically unlimited. This study by Mohamed Taher, educated in Indian universities and currently an information specialist at the Ontario Multifaith Council on Spiritual and Religious Care in Toronto, Canada, provides the most comprehensive "map" to religion on the Internet.This is not a guide to "everything one needs to know" about various religious expressions. Instead, it shows how religion functions on the Internet and points toward the remarkable array of religious practices available at one's fingertips. From mainline religions, whether Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, or Buddhist, to "alternative traditions," such as new age movements, paganism, cults, nonconformists, or nonmainstream spiritualities, Taher has cataloged them all. Visit the Sistine Chapel, attend the Church of Satan, have a question (dial a priest)-it is all possible through cyber worship. Without leaving one's living room an individual can have a simulated religious experience from around the globe. Circumnavigation is made earlier with this study, which would be a useful addition to high school and university reference collections.

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part1

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part2

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part3

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part4

Two New Books in Multifaith Perspectives

I came across two new books today, with common threads that explain the emergence of faiths and belief systems (in physical and virtual, respectively), focusing on theories (sociological, anthropological), forces (philosophical, theological) and most importantly, my favorite, i.e., taxonomies.

A word about what makes these distinct:

One deals with evolution of the world religions' influence on European geography; and the other is all-ado-about the cyberspace, with samples from virtual domains in online religions / religions online (or e-religions).
Furthermore, the first title drew my attention with its sub-title on pluralism; and second, for Web analytics, my yet another favorite.

The invention of world religions, or, How European universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism / Tomoko Masuzawa (U Chicago, 2005). Table of contents @ Library of Congress
* reviewed in:

Boettcher, S.R. "The Invention of Worls Religions: Or, How European Universalism was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism.(Brief article)(Book review)." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries 43.8 (April 2006): 1419-1420. InfoTrac Information Science & Technology eCollection.
[Tomoko Masuzawa teaches European intellectual history and critical theory at the University of Michigan, where she holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Program in Comparative Literature. She is the author of In Search of Dream Time: The Quest for the Origin of Religion, also published by the University of Chicago Press.]

E-religion : a critical appraisal of religious discourse on the World Wide Web / Anastasia Karaflogka (Equinox, 2007). @ Table of contents @ Library of Congress
About the author:

[Anastasia Karaflogka is lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, She has designed and teaches a course on religion and cyberspace. Her research interests include religion and: Information Communication Technologies; immersive virtual realities; cyberrituals; robotics and theory and method of cyverreligious discourses. She has contributed to various publications, most recently to the journals Predicting Religion and Religion.]

My related books and publications:

Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

Taxonomy of Faiths: A semantic journey

My related book reviews:

Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices. Gale Thompson, 2006. Journal of Religious and Theological Info [in press]

Birgit Schabler and Leif Stenberg, Editors. Globalization and the Muslim World: Culture, Religion, and Modernity Syracuse Univ. Press, 2004.. MELA Notes [in press]

Linda Main. Building Websites for a Multinational Audience. Scarecrow Press, 2002. Information Processing and Management, 40, 2004, 583-585.

Julie M. Still. The Accidental Webmaster, Information Today Inc. 2003. Information Resources Management Journal 17, 2004, 79-80.

Melody Y. Ivory. Automated Web Site Evaluation: Researchers' and Practitioners' Perspectives. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. Information Processing and Management, Jan2007, Vol. 43 Issue 1, p. 288-290

Ali Mirsepassi and others, editors. Localizing Knowledge in a Globalizing World: Recasting the Area Studies Debate Syracuse Univ. Press, 2003.MELA Notes 78 (2005): 71-74

Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, Edtors. The Internet in Everyday Life. Blackwell Publishers, 2003. Information Resources Management Journal, 19(1), 98-100, January-March 2006 [Other reviews from my desktop]

My related blog posts:

Cyber Worship Revisited - Balaji, a Hindu priest offering prayers
Special Issue from Religious Studies Review on Religion & Internet

Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds

Christian Librarianship

Web Vastu or A Spiritual Worldview for Marketing Website

Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet

Thought for the day by John Selby

"A primary teaching throughout the Koran, repeated over and over by the faithful in ritual prayer, is the fact that "God wants to give you clarity and guide you, and to be present for you ... for God is most knowing, most wise ... God wants to lighten your burden, knowing the humanity was created weak." (p. 127)
...In the Islamic tradition, God already knows what is in our hearts, and we don't have to tell Allah what help we need. All we need to do is call on God, by whatever name, surrender our ego center to our spiritual center, and shift from broadcast to receive mode. As I understand it, this is what Muslims are doing at a spiritual level five times a day when they pause for ritual prayer." (Chpater 5: Emotional healing, Mohammed; p. 127)
Quoted from: meditation secrets from the world's greatest teachers, by John Selby. (2003) Contents: Succeeding with meditation - Breath watch, Patanjali - Quieting the mind, Lao-Tzu - Accepting the truth, Buddha - Heart awakening, Jesus - Emotional healing, Mohammed - Self-remembering, Gurdjieff - Experiencing bliss, Krishnamurti - Your daily meditation program.
Author: Psychologist John Selby has spent over thirty years practicing and teaching meditation and its benefits and has studied meditative techniques and traditions all over the world. The author of seven meditation and self-help books, Selby has sold more than half-a-million copies of his books worldwide. His books have been translated into eight languages.
From The Critics: "While some adherents may not be comfortable with the yoking together of these often disparate traditions, Selby knows his audience, and his work will find a receptive readership among those interested in New Age spirituality." [Library Journal @ Bn.com]

Archbishop of Canterbury defends muslim veil - Faithwise Review of the Week

post updated 31 Oct., 2006

Archbishop of Canterbury defends muslim veil, Phil Hazlewood, Agence France-Presse, Published: Saturday, October 28, 2006 National Post

LONDON - The leader of the world's Anglicans yesterday waded into the debate over the Muslim veil, warning politicians not to interfere with people's right to wear visible symbols of their faith.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that to ban veils, turbans, crucifixes or other pieces of clothing would be "politically dangerous" and that the British government should not become a "licensing authority" for what people can wear.

Copyright row over ancient monk

The life and times of a 5th Century Cornish monk has sparked an unholy row over a manuscript in verse.
St Ke or Kea is reputed to have helped King Arthur solve a family dispute.

But a play about him written in medieval Cornish has sown discord between the National Library of Wales and the Cornish Language Board.

The library is still working on a translation of the verses kept in its vaults. But the board printed its own version, and says it is "selling well".

The copyright dispute centres on a previously unknown 16th Century manuscript bequeathed to the library in 2000 by the late Professor JE Caerwyn Williams, an expert in Celtic languages.

Bill Gates Watched Pirated Movies on Internet, By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor
The fact that even Bill Gates downloaded and consumed copyright materials is not necessarily a surprise. The quantity of such products distributed free of charge on the Internet can only be measured in terabytes, the peer-to-peer technology accounting for the largest part of the traffic of copyright materials that, in the BitTorrent world is in no way regarded as stealing or copyright infringement. Even Bill Gates proved how easy it is to access pirated products online.

Echoes of Sikh turban tizzy in recent niqab debate, Oct. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM, TORONTO STAR
Since when is covering women's faces feminism?

The atheist as fundamentalist,
Richard Dawkins on why religious faith tends to create more evil people than, say, Stalinism, TORONTO STAR, Oct. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM, OLIVIA WARD

Halal beats dosa in New York food fight, 29 Oct, 2006 ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ask a witch, Globe and Mail Update,

With Halloween nearly upon us, who better to answer reader questions than a real, live, 21st-century witch?

Meet Nicole Cooper, a Wiccan High Priestess who proudly embraces the name of witch.

Ms. Cooper practices her religion at the Wiccan Church of Canada and works at The Occult Shop in Toronto, so, as she says, "Magic is pretty much my life."

The Religion of Self, Submitted by BLG2319 on Sun, 10/29/2006 @ Faith Commons
The message of the Gospels seems to me to be constantly returning to this theme: those who set themselves up as arbiters of moral correctness, the men of the book, the Pharisees, are often the furthest from God. Rules can only go so far; love does the rest. And the rest is by far the most important part. Jesus of Nazareth constantly tells his fellow human beings to let go of law and let love happen: to let go of the pursuit of certainty, to let go of possessions, to let go of pride, to let go of reputation and ambition, to let go also of obsessing about laws and doctrines. This letting go is what the fundamentalist fears the most.

This is a passage from Andrew Sullivan's latest book "The Conservative Soul". It sums up for me nicely what I have come to believe. Letting go of self obsession is the only way to salvation. Full article

[pdf] Philipp Reichmuth & Stefan Werning's 'Pixel Pashas, Digital Djinns' ISIM Review 18 [source: Virtually Islamic, October 25, 2006]
"...covers a neglected area of study, namely the depiction of Islam and Muslims in computer and video games, and ideas associated with orientalism."

Humphrys in Search of God, 31 October 2006, Tuesday 31 October 2006 9:02-9:30 (Radio 4 FM) Repeated: Tuesday 31 October,
John Humphrys talks to religious leaders about his unfulfilled desire to believe in God. His guest is the Right Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Listen to an extended version of this interview, John Humphrys talks to Dr Rowan Williams
The next programme will be on: Tuesday 07 November 2006 09:00
John Humphrys talks to religious leaders about his unfulfilled desire to believe in God. 2/3. The guest is Professor Tariq Ramadan, Muslim academic and author.
The week after with a rabbi

DIWALI FUSION PARTY
--Models from Material Thangs styling group during the Diwali Fusion Festival at the 5th Elementt in Toronto Wednesday, October 25, 2006. Brent Foster/National Post

Afghan mother of 6 murdered in suspected California hate crime mourned, October 28, 2006 - 4:47 pm

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) - An Afghanistan-born mother of six who was gunned down in California while wearing traditional Muslim dress was mourned Saturday during an interfaith service to unite local residents rattled by what some called a hate crime.

Women in Islamic head coverings sat near Christians and Jews during the memorial to honour Alia Ansari, 38, who was fatally shot Oct. 19 as she walked to pick her children up from school.

Church leaders hoped the service at Centerville Presbyterian church would bring together people of different faiths in Fremont, a San Francisco Bay-area suburb of 200,000 that is home to the largest Afghan community in the United States and a neighbourhood called "Little Kabul."

"Our commitment is to say: 'How can we be better neighbours in the midst of a changing community?"' said Rev. Greg Roth, the church's pastor.

Court rules that cartoons not intended to make fun of Muslim community
DENMARK: Publishers of blasphemous cartoons acquitted, AsiaMedia, Dawn, Friday, October 27, 2006

Copenhagen --- A Danish court on Thursday acquitted the bosses of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper who had been sued by Muslim groups for printing 12 cartoons of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) in September last year.

The judge at Aarhus district court ruled the cartoons were neither offensive nor were they intended to denigrate Muslims, according to court papers.

"Even if the text accompanying the pictures could be read as being derogatory and mocking, the cartoons are not offensive," the court said.

Denmark Sikh loses kirpan battle, Ramaninder K Bhatia [ 25 Oct, 2006 0130hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
CHANDIGARH: In a major blow to the Sikh community's efforts to get their distinct identity recognised abroad along with their religious symbols, a Sikh youth in Denmark on Tuesday lost his right to wear a kirpan (dagger), one of the five religious symbols that a baptised Sikh is required to wear.

Tower of power divides hamlet, Residents opposed to proposed cellular tower in churchyard, A service to the community, says parish priest, Oct. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM
JIM WILKES, Toronto Star, STAFF REPORTER

Multifaith Resource Series - Religious Diversity in Society

Readings:
----Religion, Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding Australia

See also my previous post:

Diversity Resources - Accommodation, Tolerance and Coexistence

Emotional Communication Interface - Revisited

updated, Oct 26, 2006

Putting feeling into content
Government bodies, academia and information providers are increasingly adopting podcasts to exapnd the reach of thier message. IWR discovers the benefits of podcasting
By Tracey Caldwell 06 Oct 2006
del.icio.us Digg this reddit!

From GUI to E(motional) UI, September 11, 2006

"In 1988, Apple Computer produced some video scenarios showing how future computers would be able to understand hand gestures, read text, and respond to voice commands. Almost 20 years later, the world is still waiting for a natural way of using computers—though we are beginning to see some of our wildest dreams slowly emerge from the chaos of high technology and become real. In 2006, it is easy to believe that the masses will soon be able to use a computer without any keyboard or mouse. Beyond the constrained space of our personal computer's monitor, keyboard, and mouse, I'm looking for the sort of revolution that would overtake the wild dream of Blade Runner. I can envision huge 3D virtual worlds and systems that are smart enough to feel a user’s mood and respond intelligently. Now, where do you want to go today?" (Leandro Agrò - UXmatters) continue reading

See also:

computers and emotions... by Jean-François

My related posts:

Toxicity in the library workplace - a survey

Emotional Communication Interface - Revisited

Multifaith Resource Series - Mindfulness

Reframing sad thoughts
Mind-based therapy created to fight depression, Daily meditation is used to stop negative thinking, Sep. 8, 2006. ROBIN HARVEY, LIFE WRITER The Toronto Star,

Sandra, a Toronto woman in her early 40s, has a problem with recurrent depression. For four years, she tried "almost every approach there was" to stop it.

"Nothing worked for long," she says. "I'd take medication, they'd say increase the dose, then I'd get worse."

Then she heard of a study at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) run by psychologist Zindel Segal, who was testing a program of therapy that has shown promise in patients who frequently relapse into depression.

Called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, it was developed to help people with depression and is being tested at CAMH with a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.

Mindfulness is the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Largely associated with Buddhism, in which it is called sati, the practice of mindfulness is also advocated by such people as medical researcher and author Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, psychologist Nathaniel Branden and philosopher Ayn Rand. Psychologist Ellen J. ...
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness

Self-correction, by Velveteen Rabbi

Mindfulness and the Present Moment @ Health, contentment and trust.

Media:
Sacred Sounds:

Related phrases: mindfulness relaxation mindfulness of breathing

An audio tour of multifaith meditations. Prayer Finder Beliefnet's library of prayers

Library of Congress Subject Headings (23 books with this title, as of 17 Sept, 2006):
Meditation--Therapeutic use.
Cognitive therapy.
Behavior therapy.
Behavior Therapy--methods.
Meditation--methods.

Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

My new book is released now:
Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives, Lenham, MD. Scarecrow Press, 2006. ISBN: 0810852578
Click here: WorldCat

Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives, as is implied by its name, explores worship (i.e., Prayer, Praise, Scripture, Sacrament, Rituals, Confessions, Eucharist, Rites, Pilgrimages, Reflection, Contemplation, etc.) on the Internet. It is not an "everything you need to know" guide about the subjects of faith and belief, religions-online, religions on the Net, or religions in cyberspace. Rather, it is a book about religious and spiritual experience under the rubric, cyber worship, which is the variety of ways religious devotion is performed and carried out on the Internet. The term 'Cyber Worship' is a catchall phrase, which includes variants such as online worship, virtual worship, electronic prayer, cyber puja, cyber synagogue, and so on. Dr. Mohamed Taher has thus assembled a quick reference for two groups: those communities that are involved in Cyber Worship and business Webs that collaborate in sustaining wired environments. As such, this book provides an interesting and current perspective on a practice that will continue to grow in the future.

The book has a number of research-based articles (full text, see chapter four), taxonomies, business resources, and more importantly, Web metrics and web analytics (see Appendices). A detailed list of contents (and cataloging info) is at Library of Congress

Contents (in brief)
1. Cyber Worship/Meditation Webwise: Noah, Abraham and Beyond
2. Cyber Worship as-is On the Web
3. Fast Track to Multifaith Resources for Cyber Worship: What's Hot
4. Navigating the Deep Sacred Space via Experiences of the Wise
5. Glossary: A Pathfinder for Future History

What Scholars Are Saying:

"Mohamed Taher's new book provides an indispensable guide for considering the resources of worship online, whatever the faith, wherever believers are located."—Bruce Lawrence, Duke University

"Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives is an important and significant contribution to the new field of scholarship examining the religious dimension of the Internet. By employing Webmetrics, Dr. Taher presents readers with the most comprehensive and up-to-date mapping of the religious websites available, providing essential information for those wishing to better understand how religion functions and flourishes on the WWW and also those interested in using this new medium for their own spiritual quest."—Christopher Helland, Dalhousie University

my previous publications

My previous posts in this area:

Who is Who: Multifaith Hall of Fame of the 21st century

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Multifaith Stacks: A New Book for the Information Professionals

God.com: Web Analytics Series no.2

Beliefnet.com: Web Analytics Series no.1

Save the Time of the Godly: Information Mediators Role in Promoting Spiritual & Religious Accommodation

Cyber Worship - Look & Feel

New Media and Religious Information Seekers

Overseas Indians turn to Web for festival prayers

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part1

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part2

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part3

Cyber worship in Multifaith perspective - part4

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Random quote series. The following quote is yours faithfully:

The quote of the month comes from a much-publicized design document by Microsoft, which details how computers made to order to run Vista should look like. "We want PCs to be objects of pure desire" the document says. Interpreting this is left to the astuteness of our readers. [quoted in BitDefender Newsletter]

See the full picture about the desire: Microsoft, Design Guru It's pushing a sleek new hardware vision to PC makers. Will they bite? Business Week, JULY 27, 2006

More business like innernet content from my previous post:
Visualizing the Innernet or Visual Display of the Website's Infostructure

All the above is not above the Desire Under the Elms (1958), the play by Eugene O'Neill.

More quotable quotes from my other blog: Library & Information Science Quotations

Rant of the day - Magic, Technology...

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
- ARTHUR C. CLARKE [ source: CIOL - CyberTimes News Daily ]

Google for magic and IT

see also: my other blog on quotable quotes: Library & Information Science Quotations


And, my review: Harold Billings Magic and Hypersystems: Constructing the Information-Sharing Library American Library Association, 2002.
Information Resources Management Journal, 18(3), 88-91, July-September 2005

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

People are fond of reading between the lines. And, librarians are not just fond of shelf reading, rather religiously adhere to this as a best practice. A question is how often librarians get an opportunity to read between the shelf reading process? I have no clue. Do you know if any librarians read between the shelves?
The bottome line: In the words of William Faulkner, “Read, read, read.”

Got the new ALA catalog in the mail yesterday, and my 3-year-old son was going through each page yelling: "READ! READ! READ! READ! READ!" through each spread of READ posters. His take: "This is a FUNNY magazine. Why does it say READ so much?" continue reading

I think it is a reminder from to stay current with best practices.

I found one interesting book (thanks to Prof. A Neelameghan):

Reaching Out to Religious Youth: A Guide to Services, Programs, and Collections (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series) by L. Kay Carman (Editor), Libraries Unlimited (2004) ISBN: 0313320411; Table of Contents @ bn.com

Book Description
Do religious teens in your community think your library has "nothing for me"? Shouldn't your library be actively embracing all of the diverse populations in your community? For many the teen years are times of intense spiritual and religious growth. Public libraries, charged with serving all facets of their communities, must reach out to all people, including religious youth. If that prospect seems daunting, this book can help. It provides you with a vision and a plan for enhancing your library service to religious teens with pertinent information that helps you understand the different belief systems and traditions of various religious groups and practical guidance for developing services and collections to serve their needs. Chapters cover the major religious groups in the United States today: Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity, Seventh-day Adventist, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu. In each chapter, a snapshot summary introduces you to the basic aspects of the religion, such as origins, beliefs, and practices. A discussion of the history and core beliefs and values follows. After describing common misconceptions and stereotypes, the authors detail the formative experiences of teens in these groups, and discuss what types of services they need in the library. Advice on building your collection is accompanied by helpful booklists; and ideas for services and programs supplement the resource. Lists of pertinent publishers and helpful Web sites make this an invaluable guide.

About the Author:
L. KAY CARMAN is Youth Services Librarian at Hillsboro Public Library, Oregon. She also serves the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints as a Stake Relief Society Education Counselor.

Reviews:
From School Library Journal
This resource belongs in the office of all librarians who want to understand the religious backgrounds of their patrons and thus serve them better. Many librarians have at least a basic understanding of Christianity and Judaism but lack knowledge of some of the other major religious followings, and thus aren't sure where to obtain appropriate materials. continue reading:

see also:

information seeking behvaior and reading between the shelves

An article “The loneliness of a conservative librarian” by David Durant, in Chronicle of Higher Education – Libraries, [includes author’s reaction to ALA’s position following the 9/11 event.]

Christian Librarianship: Essays on the Integration of Faith and Profession
by Gregory A. Smith (Editor), Donald G. Davis (Foreword by). McFarland & Company, 2002. Table of contents

Working in the Virtual Stacks: The New Library and Information Science, by Laura Townsend Kane

Secularism, Laicism, Diversity, Pluralism: What's In A Name?

This is a running post: Updated 16 Nov, 2006

Tolerance and Diversity in Islam
11/16/2006 - By: Asma Afsaruddin, IslamiCity
Long before the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution were formulated, medieval Muslim jurists developed what may be called an Islamic bill of rights ... continue reading Audio

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."
--From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) [source. See more on Allah Oath, Google]

Any searcher must be clear about two things. First, what to search (for e.g., what keywords or terms); and second, where to search (such as, databases, library catalog, books, encyclopedias, or the Web's search engines) [If you are wondering where does this twain come from, let me make it clear. This is a part of systematic approach to information seeking, and information literacy considers this as an important strategy. See a guide to literature searching that illustrates this approach.]

Incidentally, what to search doesn't mostly apply in case we are searching the free text (for instance, a database, or Web-based search engine). Google as a search engine, for instance, promotes free text search (rather than browse thro' Web directories; use a controlled vocabulary, thesaurus, subject headings for a uniformity in search terms, etc.).

Interestingly, performing a free text search is possible by using all the keywords we may imagine. And, we may sometimes remember to include an alternative spelling, plurals, synonyms, homonyms, etc. Obviously, with such a powerful searchable tool, Google is facilitating a drastic change in our behavior about the way we seek and / or search information on the Web.

Whereas, library catalogs and databases tend to continue to facilitate search by a term or recognized subject heading (not to say that free text or keyword search is missing; they do include this as well).

But, the mian question relevant here is: Where are the uniform terms? In other words, is there any thing as a conceptually clear, systematic controlled vocabulary, that can be used for search of terms that are related, but used with different shades, used in different contexts, etc.? -- as in the case with terms such as, Secularism, Laicism, Diversity, Pluralism... is there any authority list? [If you are new, read more on Social Tagging for Library Science or on authority list discussion at LibraryThing, amidst the influence of clouds, free floating tags, etc. Click here]

For this type of difference in terms, let's check the Library of Congress catalog:



This much about the controlled vocabulary. I have a plan to analyze this variation and differences in providing a user-friendly controlled vocabulary. In the meanwhile, have a look at my Taxonomy of Faiths: A semantic journey.

In the following are some samples of Web-based resources. This is not exhaustive, but gives a semblance of what are the real problematic areas for an indexer, bibliographer, etc.

Allah oath

Dismissing a PIL seeking that 11 MLAs who had taken oath in Allah’s name be disqualified, the court said if such oath is prevented, it would defeat the secular character of the nation [source: The Telegraph July 22, 2006]

Web resources:

Time ripe for Islamic awakening, Dr M Iqtedar Husain Farooqi, HindustanTimes.com, July 21, 2006

SecularIndia.com

Islam and Laicism. Knowing Islam Abbés Jirari. 2003

LAICITY AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY. THE QUEBEC’S APPROACH - Report to the Minister of Citizen Relations and Immigration Conseil des relations interculturelles, Montréal (Québec). 2005 Article

Trying to Create an "Italian" Islam. Rigid Laicism Has Been Rejected Nikos Tzermias. Published: 27.12.2004 - Last modified: 11.01.2005

Islamic Concepts on Cultural Coexistence. Theory and Practice al-Khoei , Sayyed Abdol Majid. Centre for World Dialogue al-Khoei Foundation, London. London 1997 Article

Teaching Tolerance: Pioneering Anti-Bias Education

MULTIFAITH AND MULTICULTURAL MEDIATION SERVICE, The Global Green University, School of Nonviolence

Sandwell Libraries and Information Service Website. Multicultural Multifaith Resource Collection

Diversity

Multicultural Library and Information Services Education

Faculty Diversity Web at UCLA

Diversity Web: An Interactive Resource Hub for Higher Education

Religious Identity and Intellectual Development: Forging Powerful Learning Communities, Victor Kazanjian, [Diversity in Higher Education: Why Corporate America Cares]

My other similar post:

Searching Revisited: Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal, etc.

Searching Is Polarized; Will The Five Laws Get a New Revised Version: Every Search Engine Its Searcher