A Librarians' Reunion

Thirteen former Librarians of Universiti Sains Malaysia had a reunion in Petaling Jaya recently. It was great to be able to catch up with ex-colleagues to find out what they were up to now and to especially reminisce about 'the good old days' working in the Library of USM.

Siti Kulthum is all the way from Greece, Penelope from Sabah, Noor Ida from Johor, Rashidah and Ramli from Pulau Pinang. Sook Jean, Siw Lai, Mary, Sakinah, Nurin, Habsah, Pang and I now reside in Selangor. Of course we all agreed to start a whatsapp group immediately to enhance our camaraderie. We look forward to more joining the group, and to more reunions of course.

The Jah Hut of Kampung Kol

My first and only encounter with the Jah Hut Orang Asli, a Senoi sub-tribe, was in Kampung Kol, Jerantut (Pahang) way back in 1976. We were on our way to Taman Negara and stopped by to visit a Universiti Sains Malaysia researcher there and also to donate clothes and food to the villagers.

Marie-Andree Couillard was living with the Jah Hut to study their culture and traditions. She later published her Master's research as "Tradition in Tension; Carving in a Jah Hut Community".

Marie-Andree lived in her own hut there, built by the villagers of Kampung Kol. We noted her very primitive temporary home and kitchen, a reflection of all the other homes there. She kindly invited some of the villagers to show us their wood art - carvings, which we inevitably bought*. Three men also showed us their skill in making their traditional music using flutes. The children were curious and came around to view their visitors. Some of the children were naked and had protruding bellies, signs of undernourishment. But they seemed blissfully happy, like all children should be.

Among the Orang Asli, the Mah Meri and the Jah Hut are well-known for their wood art. Marie-Andree noted that the Jah Hut's modern carvings are based on their traditional beliefs related to the invisible world, more particularly to the bes or illness-causing spirits. She concluded that "the modern carvings illustrate the changes going on in Kampung Kol. They are representations of bes which are intrinsic to Jah Hut's conception of the invisible world, but they are produced so that they can be sold to outsiders. As 'exotic' objects the carvings bring money to the Jah Hut and give them access to the outside world. By the same process it allows this outside world to permeate the Jah Hut community and modify it".

(This post is in progress as I try to learn more about the Jah Hut.)

(Pic)

References:
1. Tradition in Tension; Carving in a Jah Hut Community/Marie-Andree Couillard. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1980. Ex Libris CNB 0155
2. Peoples and Traditions (The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, vol.12). 2006 Ex Libris CNB 2081
3. Orang Asli and their Wood Art/Anthony Ratos. 2006. Ex Libris CNB 1921

* Note: Sad to say my collection of three bes carvings were 'given away' by my family while I was overseas for some time. So I do not have any beautiful Jah Hut memorabilia from my visit to Kampung Kol except for some slides, courtesy of Dr Afendras. The above pictures (except the last) were developed from these slides.

Puisi: Bougainvilla

              semua bougainvilla
              dicipta dari kertas cahaya.

warna dibaur
sehingga tercampur
putih bersih lembut
dengan mawar dara,
merah melawan marah,
kuning raja langit.

              dan yang terindah
              dikait
              serta disidai di ampai petang.

semua bougainvilla
dinikmati dengan mata 
berkolam cahaya.

              muhammad haji salleh


dipetik dari 'Sebutir Zamrud di Deru Selat; Sajak-sajak Alam USM'
Penerbit USM, 2006. Ex Libris CNB 1591
Gambar A & Bougainvilla @ Taman Pekaka, Gelugor, Pulau Pinang oleh CNB

PTPM/CITM, USM

PTPM staff  (199?)

During my working years at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Pulau Pinang, I was a librarian, mostly at the Main Library or Perpustakaan Utama (later named Perpustakaan Hamzah Sendut; after the first Vice Chancellor of USM). But for a good number of years I was also with the Pusat Teknologi Pengajaran dan Multimedia/Centre for Instructional Technology and Multimedia (previously the Pusat Teknologi Pendidikan dan Media/Centre of Educational Technology and Media, which started as the Unit Teknologi Pendidikan/Educational Technology Unit). Err ... have I got you confused already? Never mind, even some of the USM folks are, about all the name changes that happen when an educational unit becomes a centre becomes a department becomes a school/faculty!

With the Media Library Staff: Hasan, Annanda & Shidah

Anyway at the CITM, I worked at the Media Library, mostly dealing with the lecturers and future teachers. If our library meetings (at the Main Library) were quite sedate, the meetings here were quite an eye-opener for me. I never knew that educators could be quite a riotous bunch - in a nice way.

The Director of CITM plants a tree for the renovated centre

One very traumatic if not unforgettable event was a fire that razed the building, and destroyed the library almost totally! So we had to move to a temporary place until the building was renovated and the library collection built up again from scratch.

(In progress)

Books I Love: The Middle Ground

My Penguin copy of The Middle Ground (CNB 2013)

The Middle Ground by Margaret Drabble was first published in 1980. Her ninth novel is the story of middle aged Kate Armstrong and her relationships - with her children, her parents, and other characters - friends, women and men, facing mid life crises.

The author Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield, England in 1939. She read English at Cambridge and received a double first. She has written several novels (A Summer Bird-Cage 1963, The Garrick Year 1964, The Millstone 1965, The Radiant Way 1987, A Natural Curiosity 1989, The Sea Lady 2006, etc.), articles, plays, biographies, and edited The Oxford Companion to English Literature.

Note: When Margaret Drabble was visiting Universiti Sains Malaysia in the 1990s I had the opportunity to meet her during a session at the School of Humanities. I confess that at the time, I was not familiar with her work except for The Oxford Companion to English Literature which she edited in 1985.

With Zaharah, Margaret Drabble, & Dr Wong at USM
(199?)

Ex Libris CNB 0584
**Update: "The Sea Lady" borrowed from the Raja Tun Uda Library and read in June 2013.

Raft & Rail at Bukit Merah Lake

On our 'makeshift' raft, ready for a race

During a USM 'PIMPIN' (Leadership) programme sometime in 2003, we were stationed at the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. One of the trials we had to endure was to co-operate in building a raft, float it on the lake and ride it against other groups in a race to ensure the raft stayed in one piece!

By the way, the Bukit Merah Lake has our KTM railroad passing through it. I recall the numerous times in the 1960's during school term breaks, when we traversed the lake during our rail journeys from Seremban/KL to Butterworth/Pulau Pinang and vice versa. No wonder the trains were going ever so slowly along this narrow ridge with scenic views of Bukit Merah Lake on both sides. A bit scary when you really think about it!

A Librarian in a Garden Campus

USM Library in the 80s (CNB)

In retrospect, everything that happened in our past always seem to have been good, sometimes even great. Maybe that is why many memoirs get written - we get very selective in recalling our past, our memories of life lived then. The passing years tamper our version of the 'truth', and our perspective would be quite different from someone else's anyway. But for me, as far as being a professional librarian for nearly three decades at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (Pulau Pinang), I can say with all honesty that ... mostly, I enjoyed it.

For one thing, the Universiti Sains Malaysia is set in a beautiful campus on Minden Hill and it is a garden setting, (later) complete with a lake. There are plants and flowers all over the place and come 'Spring time', the flowering trees burst into colour. Although in the beginning many trees had been sacrificed to make way for new buildings, later it became the policy to not cut down trees or to replant if need be.

Unfortunately the flowering tree behind me, in front of the
Library, was cut down to make way for a gazebo (1994)

The back gate into USM (CNB)

So every morning for me, it was a seven minute-drive to the garden campus, to the USM Library to work amongst books, students and lecturers. The USM experience spanned 25 years from 1982-2007 and another earlier one in 1976, immediately after library school. The Chief Librarian Mr Lim Huck Tee had no qualms about reemploying me again after nearly six years. In fact that very encouraging first year for this rookie librarian somehow ensured she stayed in the profession as long as she did.

Was it challenging to work in an academic library? You bet! First there were books and journals, then there were computers. And then IT (Information Technology) came into the library and a while after that it was ICT (Information & Communications Technology) and KM (Knowledge Management). Librarians had to keep up, and our card catalogues became obsolete and were replaced by online systems. From guiding students (and lecturers) how to search for information from printed sources in the beginning, to how to 'mine' authentic information from the Internet. Our information literacy skills workshops had to cater to every student and lecturer, at the appropriate levels. But I really did enjoy our teaching/guiding role.

Flame of the Forest trees near the Language Centre (CNB)

In the last couple of years before retirement though, I was involved mainly in human resource management. Simply put, I had to deal with the library staff and their myriad programmes and problems. Not so enjoyable, but lucky for me, I had a nice big office with large glass windows that overlooked a beautiful huge tree and greenery. All part of the garden campus.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need - Cicero

A Career & Parenthood

Back in Malaysia, I got myself reemployed at the Library of USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia), Pulau Pinang. I was also quite preggers with my second child. As the Chief Librarian said, "Better to employ a known devil (?), than a new unknown angel". Huh? Anyway I got back into career mode a.s.a.p.

I underwent orientation at all the divisions again, because after all I had been away more than six years. Then I tried to be an examplary librarian, complete with glasses (but no bun on my head). I worked in several Divisions, including the Readers Services, Referernce, and also the Media Library at the Centre for Educational Technology & Multimedia.

A section of the Media Library, CETM (CNB 2003)

The visit of the Minister of Education to the Media Library, CETM

I also tried to balance between work and family, but it was not easy. As I recall, someone said to me, "You seem to be running around like a headless chicken". Of course I was. I was driving to work, sending the kids to kindergarten, fetching them from the kindy, taking them to lunch, sending them back to afternoon classes, going back to work, fetching the kids from classes, and going home to cook and clean, etc., etc.

Did I mention kids? Yes, B and her sister. Our second daughter A was born in August 1982. I remember that she was quite a big baby because I was huge as a whale at the end of nine months. I had a near death experience soon after her birth because the attending physician was careless and left the afterbirth in my uterus. When they wheeled me into the operating theatre, I distinctly heard another doctor say, "I think we're losing her, she's going". Anyway I lived (else I would not be blogging about it here, would I?).

Little A all ready to go home from the PP Maternity Hospital (1982)

Little B, little A and me (1982)

Working at the Library meant that apart from the routine, we also had to upgrade our professional skills as librarians and update ourselves by training sessions, attending Workshops, Seminars, and Conferences. Later, after some experience and as senior librarians, we conducted the training (for both students and library staff) and delivered papers at Seminars and Conferences. I was privileged to attend, and sometimes deliver papers at seminars/conferences at national, regional, and international Conferences.

A photo session after a Senior Library Staff Meeting

Welcoming the guests at a Regional Conference organised
by the Library (1994)

It was not all work at the Library. This was our Boria
performance at the above Conference (1994)

In all I was a librarian for almost three decades. I enjoyed my library career, having started as library officer at USM, worked overseas at the Stockport Public Library and the Salford College of Technology in England, then worked at USM Library again before retiring as Deputy Chief Librarian. Meanwhile, B and A grew up (and graduated from uni), and M and I brought them up as well as we could. Que sera, sera.