By Kho Su Yian
The second Researcher Unbound Symposium (RUS), held on October 10th and 11th at the new Medicine+Science Library, focused on strategic partnerships and initiatives within NUS to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and scholarly communication.
The symposium’s theme emphasized achieving translational impact in areas like innovation and entrepreneurship, underscoring the importance of scholarly communication to reach a broader audience.
Presenting alongside keynote speakers Prof Bernard Tan (Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education) and Prof Virginia Cha (Adjunct Professor, NUS Business School and College of Design and Engineering) were our librarians Richard Ho and Patrick Pu on Bridging the Gap Through Library Partnerships to Shape Future-ready Talent. They highlighted the library’s role in facilitating interdisciplinary education through strategic collaborations with faculties and school, focusing on three areas.
Sense-Making: In the age of information overload, the library plays a crucial role in imparting essential skills — such as applying strategies to discover relevant and authoritative information; evaluating information; and effective scholarly communication — for navigating the information landscape.
Place-Making: The library functions as a nexus for knowledge exchange. We provide a safe and accessible community space that caters to a spectrum of academic requirements. We further complement this by collaborating with faculty, schools, and students to co-create experiences that brings our community together to promote shared ideas and new discoveries.
Resource-Matchmaking: We evaluate, curate and introduce relevant information sources tailored to the needs of students and researchers.
Speakers from various disciplines took turns to share their stories and experiences over a series of lightning talks and panel discussions.
(From left): Prof Ignatius Rasiah, Jovan Tan, A/Prof Sarah Cheah, Kong Qi Herng, Magdeline Ng
(From left, clockwise): Prof Bernard Tan, Dr Leong Lai Peng, Richard Ho, Patrick Pu, Prof Audrey Yue
(From top left, clockwise): Dr Chng Hui Ting, Debashish Pal, Dr Elliot Law, Prof Virginia Cha, Dr Chitra Venkataramani, Ryan Fan Ruiming, Prof Sow Chorng Haur
The event has not only celebrated thought leadership but has also brought together a community of innovative thinkers and learners. We hope the conversations ignited here continue to spark new discoveries and positive change. Till then!
