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Newsletter of the Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) Core Programme
May 1999, Number 27
Programme Director
The Programme Director, Graham Cornish will be extremely busy next year. In addition to being President of the UK Library Association in the Year 2000 he has been appointed a Trustee of the UK National Library for the Blind and also Honorary Librarian of St. Chad's College in the University of Durham.
New Office Administrator in the UAP Office
Tracy Bentley
We welcome Tracy as a new member of the UAP team. Louise Huddlestone, who was previously the Office Administrator, had a baby boy in March.
The IMPRIMATUR Project, co-funded by the European Commission, aimed to build consensus and widen the debate over issues relating to intellectual property rights management. The Project has now come to an end and a copy of the final report can be found on the website which continues to be active. Check it out at http://www.imprimatur.alcs.co.uk
SEDODEL (SEcure DOcument DELivery for blind and partially sighted people), a project sponsored by the European Commission, aims to develop and implement secure document delivery that can be used by blind and partially sighted people at all levels.
At the present stage in the project, three main components have been designed. The first one is the Document Transformation System (DTS), converting texts from a variety of source formats into HTML 4.0. The second component, the Document Reader System (DRS), is a secure and accessible Web browser, which downloads, accesses, and reads SEDODEL Electronic Material (SEM). And the third major development is the adaptation of the CopySmart Electronic Rights Management System (ERMS) taking care of, among others, security issues.
These three rather autonomously developed components now have to be integrated into an operational Internet based SEDODEL service. The SEDODEL Web site will contain a catalogue of documents in the HTML 4.0 format that users can browse and buy (if they have the rights). The catalogue has a search mechanism, and users can check and update their credit. The selected documents have to be accessed through the DRS.
Following the integration user trials will take place at the Open University, Milton Keynes, the Royal National Institite for the Blind, London and by INSERM at various educational sites in France.
Further information about the SEDODEL Project can be found at http://www.arttic.com/projects/sedodel/
World Directory of Union Catalogues
The IFLA World Directory of National Union Catalogues is now available on IFLANET, at
http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/duc/index.htm
The Directory will be continually updated and amended. If you are responsible for maintaining a national union catalogue (especially for specific subject areas), which is not listed in the Directory, please get in touch.
For further details about the Directory, for a paper copy of it, or to notify us of amendments, please contact Richard Ebdon.
IFLA/UNESCO Survey on Digitisation and Preservation
 
As reported in the last issue, we are working in collaboration with IFLA PAC (Preservation and Conservation) to investigate activity in the area of digitisation of cultural collections in libraries and other institutions. A great deal of material is currently being digitised by many libraries, but there has never been a comprehensive listing of digitisation projects, and therefore no complete record of which works have already been copied to digital format. UNESCO have recognised the urgent need to record these types of collections, and it is within the framework of UNESCO's Memory of the World Project that the work is being undertaken.
A survey was carried out by questionnaire which asked a wide range of questions relating to digitisation policies, and the practical procedures of digitising documents. Areas covered included:
- Existing or planned digitisation programmes and policies
- Selection of material for digitisation
- Co-operation with other national institutions
- Staffing and costs
- Digitisation techniques
- Format of digitised material
- The documents themselves
- Access to the digitised collections, charges,reproduction and copyright
- Products produced from the digitised documents
- Policies for the preservation of the digitised documents
- Future developments
A report of the survey is currently in the process of being written, and will be available from this Office, and via the UNESCO Website.
At the same time, the project is also developing a website to provide access to the major digitised collections of national libraries, universities, archives and other institutions. This "virtual library" will include brief descriptions of the listed collections, and will provide hypertext links to the site of the collections themselves.
If you are responsible for digitising cultural collections in your institution, please contact Richard Ebdon, who will be happy to include the details of your programme in the new website.
Survey of Repository Libraries
The Office has been busy carrying out research into the present state of Repository Libraries throughout the world in conjunction with CDNL. The findings will be presented at the International Conference on Repository Libraries in Kuopio in May.
ILL Response Codes
Following the report in the last issue about this small IFLA UAP project, several libraries who may already use response codes have been contacted and their replies are currently being analysed.
Meanwhile, if you use a set of reply codes when handling ILL requests we would be pleased to receive a copy. Please send them, in paper or electronic format, to Richard Ebdon. A full report and recommendations are expected to be presented at the 1999 IFLA General Conference.
SEDODEL Workshop at Philadelphia, 1 February 1999
Following the success of the workshop held at the IFLA conference last year a workshop was held at the ALA Midwinter conference in Philadelphia.
One of the common problems we have encountered during the project so far is trying to convince librarians in traditional libraries that they can and should provide a service for visually impaired people (VIPs).
In the past the need for Braille and alternative format material meant that VIP users were forced to use specialist libraries, however, with an increasing amount of information being made available electronically they should be able to benefit from the convenience of mainstream public libraries. One of the main aims of the workshop was to try to change the attitude of librarians.
As always the workshop provided a good opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences. A lot of the concerns had already been aired at Amsterdam, but it was interesting to note that our American colleagues placed far more emphasis on privacy.
A copy of the full proceedings is available from Pauline Connolly. Further information about the SEDODEL Project can be found at http://www.arttic.com/projects/sedodel/
Museums on the Web 1999, New Orleans, 11-14 March 1999
The Programme Director attended this international conference and was able to build a number of links between the UAP Programme and the Museums community world-wide. As the boundaries between libraries, archives and museums become less clear, it is vital they work together whilst not forgetting their distinctive roles. The conference made it clear that museums have a big contribution to make to improving access to information.
6th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference, 25-29 October 1999, Pretoria, South Africa.
Planning is well in hand for the conference. Further details can be found at http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/p6/oct99.htm
Any volunteers to host the 7th. ILDS
Conference in 2001?
UAP Latin America Seminar
Plans are now underway for another UAP seminar, this time in Argentina to serve colleagues in Latin America.
The Argentinian Library Association are making the arrangements and it is hoped the seminar will take place in late September. Representatives from all Latin American countries will be invited and the objective of the seminar will be to influence senior decision-makers in each country to improve mechanisms for improving access to publicly-available information of all types. Funding is being provided by NCLIS and other sources will be sought.
ABTAPL/CONSEIL Conference September 2000
The Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries (ABTAPL) are to hold their conference in conjunction with the Conseil Meeting at The University College of Ripon and York, St. John York, UK.
The Conseil Meeting Wednesday 30 August to Saturday 2 September
ABTAPL Conference Saturday 2 September to Monday 4 September.
For more information please contact Richard Ebdon at the UAP Office.
Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters (CLM)
The Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters (CLM) has been able to represent ILFA's view on copyright law reform at the WIPO meetings in Geneva, thanks to the willingness of Annabelle Herd of Australia to attend and the Australian Library & Information Association for helping to fund her visit. Annabelle made a very positive intervention on behalf of IFLA and we hope that this work can continue.
The various sub-groups of CLM have now been set up and it is hoped they will become active very soon.
Blue Shield
The Blue Shield initiative aims to develop systems to protect items of cultural importance in the event of man-made or natural disasters. It has its origins in a Convention signed in The Hague in 1954 to protect buildings but is now being extended to other items such as archives and books. The lead in this initiative is being taken by PAC but the UAP Programme is playing its part in the UK by trying to arrange a meeting between major organisations in libraries, archives, museums and historical monuments to see if it is possible to develop a national Blue Shield strategy for the UK.
Interlending & Document Supply
As part of our work for the Office for International Lending, we have representation on the Editorial Board of the journal Interlending & Document Supply. The journal (ISSN 0264-1615) is published 4 times a year by MCB University Press, in association with the British Library Document Supply Centre. The editorial board is always interested to receive submitted articles on all aspects of document delivery and interlending, for consideration for publication in the journal. Opinion papers or brief communications are also considered. For a copy of the guidelines for authors, or to submit articles for consideration by the editorial board, please contact the Assistant Editor, Dave Johnson, at the British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ, UK. Email dave.johnson@bl.uk
A complete list of current publications for sale may be requested from the Office. In addition, the following titles are available free of charge:
- National Libraries of the World: an address list (updated regularly)
- IFLA Fax Guidelines
And finally......
Failed ILL requests
Graham Cornish is preparing a report on ILL systems and arrangements that have failed for whatever reason. If anyone has information or stories about failed ILL systems please contact Graham at the UAP Office.
Director of the UAP Programme and Head of IFLA Office for International Lending
Graham Cornish
Research Officers
Judy Watkins, Sara Gould, Pauline Connolly and Richard Ebdon
Officer Administrator
Tracy Bentley
The Office is fully linked to the Internet system. All staff can be reached on a general Email address IFLA@bl.uk and individual members of the team can be reached by using the formula:
firstname.lastname@bl.uk.
The General Office telephone number is +44 1937 546124 (which is also the number for Richard Ebdon). Other numbers are:
- 546123 (Graham Cornish)
- 546255 (Judy Watkins)
- 546254 (Sara Gould and Pauline Connolly)
- 546465 (Tracy Bentley)
The UAP Office has a home page on the WWW at:
http://www.ifla.org/VI/2/uap.htm
The UAP newsletter can be received electronically by contacting Pauline Connolly.
Published by
The IFLA Offices for UAP and International Lending
c/o The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ
UK
Fax: +44 1937 546478
ISSN 0264 - 2441
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