World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"

10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

Call for Papers

National Libraries and Statistics and Evaluation Section

Theme: Ensuring quality in national libraries: performance measures and quality evaluation supporting cultural heritage and research

The IFLA National Libraries Section together with the Statistics and Evaluation Section are holding a joint 4 hour Session in 2008 during the IFLA conference in Québec, Canada on the aforementioned theme.

The session will be composed of invited papers and selections from this call. There will be two invited papers, one covering the current work being carried out in ISO on performance indicators for national libraries, the other addressing the impact and quality of national libraries or university libraries in research and learning. It is planned to illustrate these topics by case examples on implementation of indicators and quality measurement, including examples of measurement of online services, followed by a panel discussion on experiences and plans.

Proposals are therefore invited for short discussion papers addressing the theme: "Ensuring quality in national libraries: performance measures and quality evaluation supporting cultural heritage and research"

The overall theme of the 2008 World Library and Information Congress is "Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding" and proposals should also take into account how measuring and improving quality can contribute to this overall goal world-wide.

Submission

Please send an abstract, in English or French, of the proposed paper (1/2 page ), plus relevant brief biographical information for its author(s), by 30 January 2008, via E-mail to:
Genevieve Clavel
E-mail: genevieve.clavel@nb.admin.ch
or:
Natalia Verbina
E-mail: n.verbina@nlr.ru

The abstracts will be reviewed by a Programme Committee, and successful proposals will be identified by 28 February 2008.
Full papers will be due by 15 April 2008 to allow time for the review of papers and preparation of translations.

The paper should be in one of the IFLA official languages. It is hoped that simultaneous interpretation will be available for this session, but we strongly recommend that the presentation slides should be in English, even if the presentation is delivered in one of the other official languages.

At least one of the paper's authors must undertake to be present to deliver a summary of the paper (up to 20 minutes, including immediate questions) during the Section's programme in Québec.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Genevieve Clavel and Natalia Verbina

Genevieve Clavel-Merrin
National and International Cooperation
Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA
Swiss Federal Office of Culture FOC
Swiss National Library NL
Hallwylstr. 15, CH-3003 Bern
Phone +41 31 322 89 36
Fax +41 31 322 84 63
E-mail genevieve.clavel@nb.admin.ch Website www.nb.admin.ch

Please note that the Programme Committee has no funds to assist prospective Authors: abstracts should only be submitted on the understanding that the expenses of attending the Québec conference (including travel, expenses and conference fee) will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers. Some national professional associations may be able to help fund certain expenses, and a small number of grants for conference attendance may be available at: http://archive.ifla.org/III/members/grants.htm.