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UAP NewsletterArchive - Historical Material |
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Newsletter of the Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) Core Programme
News from the UAP OfficeAdministrative mattersDue to an increase in the workload, the Office is in the process of being restructured. It is anticipated that some changes will take place and should be implemented by the end of the year. After over 7 years in the post Margaret Barwick will be leaving the Office at the end of October. ProjectsLibrary TwinningThe IFLA Twinning Database, established in August 1996, was created to act as a focal point to which all libraries can turn when seeking partners for a twinning arrangement. There has been an enormous amount of interest in the project and out of 103 initial enquiries 50 completed questionnaires have been received. The interest has been shown by various types of libraries from many parts of the world, especially from less developed regions. From the applications 10 "twinnings" have been identified and contact details sent to each library, together with a brief description of the other library's activities. It is then up to the libraries themselves to decide whether a suitable library has been chosen with which they might wish to pursue a relationship. However, the Office still maintains the details on file and will send a follow-up letter if no information has been received from either library in the ensuing months. On the basis of its initial success the Office is seeking more funding as maintaining and adding to the database involves a considerable amount of staff time. If more time could be allocated to the project, not only would it improve the efficiency of the current management of the database but there is also huge potential for promoting it even further. Meanwhile, we shall be delighted to hear from any library interested in forming links with another library, particularly with one from a less developed country. The IFLA Voucher SchemeThe final progress report on the IFLA Voucher Scheme was presented to the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) recently. This brings the two-year trial period to a formal close, and CDNL were asked to approve the continuation of the Voucher Scheme in its present format. We are delighted to confirm that the Voucher Scheme will continue to operate and there are no plans to change any part of its operation. The number of participating libraries continues to grow, and much interest was expressed recently at both the IFLA General Conference and the 5th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference, at which a paper about the Scheme was presented. A group of experts met recently to discuss the idea of an "electronic Voucher Scheme". There have always been plans to investigate ways to extend the existing Voucher Scheme to an electronic format for those who make requests in this way, and this initial meeting allowed us to consider all sorts of options for developing the Scheme electronically. We now need to find the time to carry out more research into what exactly is required from an electronic Scheme before producing more definite plans. Sara Gould would be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to comment on the idea of an electronic Voucher Scheme, particularly if you have considered using the Scheme but have not done so because you would like to use them in an electronic system. World Directory of Union CataloguesThere has been little progress on this project recently due to a shortage of staff time in the Office. The project was discussed recently by the IFLA Section on Serials during the IFLA General Conference, and the plan is still to compile an IFLANET listing of all national and international union catalogues which are now current. Document Supply for AfricaAs part of the IFLA Document Delivery in Africa project which is focusing on Ghana and Kenya, a group of 6 Ghanaian librarians visited the UK and Denmark recently to take part in a document delivery training course. The librarians attended a basic training course which looked at the mechanics of interlibrary loan and document supply. The course was organised jointly by the IFLA UAP Office and the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and consisted of classroom training and visits to support the classroom work, with the aim of providing a firm theoretical training in all aspects of interlibrary loan and document supply. The librarians then moved on to London where they studied Africa-related Internet resources, and then travelled to Denmark for three weeks of on-the-job interlibrary loan training, where they were able to put their theoretical training into practice. The Ghanaian project is being funded mostly by Danida, the Danish research funding agency. The Autumn training workshop which will take place in Ghana as a follow-up to the UK/Denmark training will not now include participation by UAP Office staff. MURIELThe MURIEL (Multimedia Education System for Librarians Introducing Remote Interactive Processing of Electronic Documents) Project was set up to create, demonstrate and evaluate a multimedia interactive training system for librarians and librarianship students. Courseware has been produced on two topics - Library Ethics and Libraries and the Internet. This courseware has been integrated into the software, which has been designed for the training of librarians. International field trials of the software have been held. The results of these are being evaluated and exploitation plans for the software are being drawn up. The project ends after the Final Review with the Commission in mid-October. After that it is envisaged that the software will be available for purchase by the library community, to be used to develop and host in-house courseware. Information about the project is available from the Office or on: http://www.teles.de/de/eu/muriel.html COPEARMS (CO-ordinating Project for Electronic Authors' Rights Management Systems)The next COPEARMS SIG and Workshop will be held in Athens in October. The underlying theme of both events is whether or not electronic copyright management systems help or hinder the availability of electronic information. There will also be presentations from COPEARMS Partners concerning the help they can give to other projects developing ECMS. It always useful to hold SIGs and workshops in conjunction with other events so if anyone is planning anything over the next twelve months and would be interested in a COPEARMS presence please contact Judy Watkins at the usual address (unfortunately we are limited to EU countries). The ECMS Conference, planned to be held in London in November, has been postponed until next year. Anyone interested should contact Judy Watkins or Pauline Connolly for details of the date and venue. IMPRIMATUR (Intellectual Multimedia Property Rights Model and Terminology for Universal Reference)One of the aims of this project, in which The British Library Copyright Office is involved, is attempting to establish consensus within the information industry as to the balance of rights in the electronic environment globally. To this end the Office held an Special Interest Group meeting at IFLA `97. Discussions centred around the role of libraries in the electronic age and the skills needed to be able to adapt and prosper. During discussions it was obvious that copyright problems were still an important obstacle to providing electronic services, and licensing was seen as the best way forward. It was also agreed that reliable statistics on library usage would be a useful tool in convincing publishers and other copyright holders that their fears of giving away electronic rights might not be justified. Co-operation between libraries as well as between librarians and publishers was also seen as critical if libraries are to survive. It was also noted that there was a need to educate the profession as there were still librarians who resisted change, the need to widely advertise services was also stressed. A copy of the report is available from Pauline Connolly. We hope to run a similar workshop at IFLA `98 so look out for further announcements. COPYSMARTThe COPYSMART project, in which the Office participates wearing its British Library Copyright Office hat, has suffered delays in the delivery of the software. Our role is to carry out user trials which have only just begun, so more information should be available next issue. SEDODEL (SEcure DOcument DELivery for blind and partially sighted people)In March 1998 the Office begins work on a new project sponsored by the European Commission. At the moment most information is still visual in nature which makes it difficult if not impossible for blind and partially sighted people to access. The obvious solution to this problem would be to increase the availability of electronic information which can be easily converted into a usable form for these groups of people. However, there are technical and legal problems that have to be addressed before electronic information to blind and visually impaired people becomes widespread. SEDODEL will develop existing ECMS (Electronic Copyright Management Systems) technology for use by blind and partially sighted people. At the same time it will be investigating (and attempting to solve) the copyright problems that currently restrict access to electronic information by blind and partially sighted people. Other partners in the project are The University of Bradford (UK), EURITIS (FR), INSERM (FR), Katholieke Universitet Leuven (BE), Open University (UK) Royal National Institute for the Blind (UK) and ARTTIC (FR). Other ProjectsThe Office is exploring one or two possibilities to take part in projects dealing with linguistic barriers to availability. This is an area which has not been addressed seriously by the Programme in the past. UAP WorkshopsUAP Workshop For Latin AmericaFinance for this has been provided and discussions with colleagues in Argentina to hold the Seminar there have begun. IFLA ConferencesThe Role of Libraries in Economic Development, 21 -23 April 1997, Ljubljana, SloveniaThe event was organised jointly by the IFLA Programme for Universal Availability of Publications (UAP), and the Central Technological Library, Ljubljana, and sponsored by the Slovenian Ministry of Science and Technology, Open Society Institute, British Embassy, Chamber of Economy of Slovenia, UMI, EBLIDA, EBSCO Subscription Services, and OCLC. The conference attracted around 90 delegates from 9 European countries. Delegates represented libraries, University Faculties of Information Science and of Economics, and commercial organisations. The conference was split into 6 sessions:
The conference ended by compiling a list of recommendations for further action. A lot of the conference was devoted to discussing the changing roles of libraries in countries in transition from a socialist to market economy. One of the most noticeable similarities between these countries was the recognition that librarians had to change their own attitudes as well as those of their customers and budget holders. At several points in the conference it was stressed that librarians reduce their reluctance to charge for information. Particularly when the customer was a big business, the information provided could help generate a great deal of money. Another theme that ran through the conference was the need for librarians in different countries to co-operate. Although there were a lot of differences between the transitional states there were still a lot of common problems. The conference provided a useful opportunity to share experiences, discuss the merits of different strategies, and to promote their own library services. The proceedings have been published by the IFLA Office for UAP. For further information please contact Pauline Connolly. Interlending and Document SupplyThe 5th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference was held in Aarhus, Denmark from August 24 - 28 1997. The Conference was a great success with many interesting and stimulating papers and discussions, on the theme of "Resource sharing: possibilities and barriers". The papers will be published by the UAP Office, and are likely to be available early next year. Forthcoming eventsRights, Limitations & ExceptionsOrganised jointly by IFLA and Project IMPRIMATUR, an international conference on rights and exceptions to copyright will take place at the end of October in Amsterdam. Rights, Limitations & Exceptions: Striking a Proper Balance will be an open forum for debating the issues in the digital environment. Working groups chaired by prestigious experts in the field will look at a range of topics to include the scope of rights in copyright, non-commercial uses, commercial and technical solutions and public interest issues and participants from a wide range of businesses will attend. WIPO, the European Commission, the US Copyright Office and a spokesperson from eastern Europe will also give their views. For more information contact Sarah Keates. The role of libraries in community economic growth UAP is co-operating with a commercial firm called ASM in Canada to organise a conference, following up the Ljubljana conference earlier this year, on the role of the library in economic regeneration. The Conference is to be held in Victoria, British Columbia, 16-17 June 1998. Committee on Copyright and Other Legal MattersA Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters has been established by IFLA and will be administered by the UAP Programme Office. The Committee will have 3 layers: persons nominated by member associations; a number of specialists who will be responsible for implementing policies and decisions; an administrative focal point which will be the UAP Office at Boston Spa. The Committee will deal with copyright, trade barriers to the exchange and importation of scientific, technical and educational materials, problems of transmitting material on the Internet; and ownership of international collections which are disputed because of boundary changes or hostilities and authenticity of materials. Section On Document Delivery & InterlendingTwo projects were identified by this Committee for action. One is the design and supply of packaging for interlibrary loan of fragile and rare books. The second is to provide a comprehensive list of codes to reply to unfulfilled interlibrary loan requests. Much of the latter has already been done through the ILL protocol but the list will be reviewed and translations into various languages prepared. RepresentationAt the last AGM of OiEG (Opportunities in Europe Group) Pauline Connolly and Judy Watkins were elected Secretary and Treasurer respectively. The future role of the Group was discussed and it was agreed that it should continue, mainly as an information service. A regular Newsletter is compiled by staff in the Office and is distributed either as a paper copy or electronically, according to members' preference. The Office is still also a member of the Information for Development Co-ordinating Committee (IDCC). Representation still continues on various copyright committees, particularly in the UK, and a careful watch is kept on legal trends which may limit availability and access. The Director continues as a Trustee of the Share the Vision project, which deals with public library services to visually-impaired people. The Project is currently exploring the possibility of holding a special conference on Large Print Books and another on a specific project on public libraries and visual impairment in Gloucestershire in the UK. PublicationsA complete list of current publications for sale may be requested from the Office. In addition, the following titles are available free of charge:
The Office has also continued to publish semi-annual reviews and bibliographies in Interlending and Document Supply. It has also continued to compile the Miscellany section of the journal. A chapter on National Libraries, comprising a review of the year's literature, has been written for Librarianship & Information Work Worldwide and will be published shortly. CommunicationsDirector of the UAP Programme and
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| Latest Revision: November 2, 1998 |
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