National Libraries Section

Annual Report - September 2000 - August 2001

Author: Mrs Alix Chevallier, Director for International Relations, Bibliothèque nationale de France and Secretary for the IFLA Section on National Libraries

Strategic Plan

• 2002 - 2003

Membership

174 national associations and institutional or personal members are registered for the section per October 2001.

The Section Standing Committee numbers 20 members from 18 countries.

Officers

During the Boston Conference in August 2001, election of new Standing Committee officers took place for the 2001-2003 term.
Mr Winston TABB, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, achieving his second term as chair, was not authorized to apply for a new mandate. Mrs Alix CHEVALLIER has agreed to stand for re-election as secretary.

Secretary:
Mrs Alix CHEVALLIER

Information coordination
The secretary of the section

Meetings

The section has held no special meeting between the two annual conferences.

Projects

No running project

Publications

Newsletter of the IFLA Section on National Libraries, June 2001

Conference Programmes

During the Boston Conference, the section organized two workshops, jointly with two other sections.

1. The workshop organized jointly with the Section on Management and Marketing was on the theme "Marketing national libraries".

National libraries face many challenges in building on effective strategy to market library products and services. The discussion was organized around four questions that had to be answered with presentation of experiences.

• National Central Library - Rome, Italy
  NATALIA SANTUCCI (Bibliotheca Nazionale Centrale- Roma, Rome, Italy)
  
• National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague, Netherlands
  PERRY J. MOREE (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands)

• National Library of Latvia
  ANDRIS VILKS (National Library of Latvia, Riga, Latvia)
• National Library Board, Singapore
  R. RAMACHANDRAN (National Library of Singapore)
• National Library of Scotland
  IAN McGOWAN (National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)

• National Library of Australia
  PAM GATENBY (National Library of Australia, Canberra Act, Australia)
• Royal Library of Belgium
  WILLY VANDERPIJPEN (Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium)
• The British Library
  MICK OSBORNE (The British Library, London, UK)

• Library of Congress
  JILL BRETT (Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA)
• National Library of New Zealand
  CHRISTOPHER BLAKE (National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand)
• National Library of France
  VIVIANE CABANNES (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France)

From these case studies, participants tried to determine necessary steps that should be taken to create a marketing strategy that works and results that take place as a consequence of building a successful strategy.

2. The workshop organized jointly with the Section on Bibliography was on the theme "What makes a good national bibliography even better? Current situation and future prospects".

It started with the dissemination of the findings of a recent study regarding the status and trends concerning the production of national bibliographies throughout the world and was followed by a presentation of specific case studies. Then emphasis was put on the changes in the national bibliographies in a changing information environment and a range of questions was raised about dynamic electronic publications, national bibliographies production and the role of the national bibliographic agencies.

1. National Bibliographies and the International Conference on National Bibliographic Services Recommendations: Introduction
   ANNE M. HASUND LANGBALLE (Associate Professor, Bibliographic Services Department, National Library of Norway, Oslo Division, Oslo, Norway)
   BARBARA BELL (Government Information Librarian, College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, USA)
2. National bibliographies and the International Conference on National Bibliographic Services recommendations: Europe; North, Central and South America; and Oceania
   ANNE M. HASUND LANGBALLE (National Library of Norway, Oslo Division Oslo, Norway)
3. National bibliographies and the International Conference on National Bibliographic Services recommendations: Africa, Middle East and Asia
   BARBARA BELL (Government Information Librarian, College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, USA)
4. Perspective on names in the South African National Bibliography: Past, present and future
   TIENIE DE KLERK (Project Leader, BibSA, National Library of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa)
5. Transforming the Swaziland National Bibliography (SNB): vision of currency, access, coverage and quality
   PAIKI MUSWAZI (Head of Special Collections, University of Swaziland Library, Swaziland)
6. Cooperation + Web Access = Timeliness
   EVA TEDENMYR (Head, National Bibliography: Monographs, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden)
7. The National Bibliography concept in a changing information environment
   JANNE ANDRESOO (Coordinator of Bibliographic Activities, National Library of Estonia, Tallin, Estonia)
8. Changes in the National Bibliographies, 1996-2001
   UNNI KNUTSEN (Head, Bibliographic Services Department, National Library of Norway, Oslo Division, Oslo, Norway)
9. Uses and usefulness of national bibliographies : which perspectives?
   MARCELLE BEAUDIQUEZ (Director, Agence bibliographique nationale, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France)
10. Legal Deposit of on-line materials and National Bibliographies
    MARIANNE SCOTT (Former National Librarian of Canadam Ottawa, Canada)

Relationship with other Bodies

Other Events

Activities of the IFLA Section on National Libraries at the 68th General IFLA Conference

Glasgow, 18-24 August 2002

1. Open session (Monday 19 August, 14.45-17.15)

Organized by the Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Core Activity with the support of the Section on National Libraries, "A Blue Shield for the protection of our endangered cultural heritage". This session is led by the director of the PAC core activity and will focus on how to protect our cultural heritage from armed conflicts and natural disasters. The National Central Library of Florence will explain how it has been recovering from the river Arno flood (1966-2002).

2. Open session (Tuesday 20 August, 15.15-17.45)

Organized jointly with the Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters on "Legal deposit and Copyright laws: how they meet the National Libraries mission", particularly in the environment of electronic publishing. with an introduction of Jon BING, professor dr jurist and writer, and presentations of different legislations and systems across Europe, South Africa, North America and Australia.

3. Open session (Wednesday 21 August, 14.00-16.30)

Organized jointly with the Section on Bibliography on "Bridging the gap between the publishing industry and national bibliographies", with examples of collaboration and conflict between deposit libraries and publishers.

4. Half-day workshop (Thursday 22 August, 8.30-12.00)

Organised jointly with the Section on Bibliography on "Bibliographic control or chaos? How to treat remote electronic resources in the (national) bibliographies", with presentations of case studies from Europe, North America and Australia.

5. Half-day workshop (Thursday 22 August, 12.15-15.45)

Organized jointly with the Section on Information Technology on "Capturing the web: learning from experience in the National libraries" with an introduction of Brewster Kahle, director of Internet Archive.

From some experiences made in U.S.A. and Europe, this workshop will raise important questions about the handling of the incoming electronic material: how shall we collect, store, preserve and present this material to meet the needs of future researchers.

6. Half-day workshop (Thursday 22 August, 12.15-15.45)

Organized by the Section on School libraries and Resource centres and the Section on Libraries for children and young adults with the support of the Section on National Libraries, on "Reading development with young people in public, school and national libraries". As regards the national libraries, the National Library of Malaysia will give the results of its experience.