School Libraries and Resource Centers Section

Minutes of the Standing Committee meetings held at the IFLA Conference, Glasgow, Scotland

17, 22 and 23 August 2002

Present: Chair Tove Pemmer Saetre, Secretary Glenys Willars and 32 members and observers. Names and email addresses are at the end of the minutes.

1. Tove welcomed everyone to the meeting, members and observers. She noted that this is a special year with the 25^th anniversary celebration and new publications.
2. Members and observers introduced themselves.
3. The agenda was approved after a slight re-ordering of items.
4. No apologies for absence were received.
5. The committee welcomed observers and their contribution to discussion. It was clarified that they have no voting rights.
6. The minutes of the meetings held in Boston 2001 were approved as a correct record. Tove and Glenys will clarify the terms of office.
7. There were no matters arising. J.Linda Williams asked for notes about conference
   events for inclusion in the newsletter.
8. Scheduling of meetings and programmes.
• Glenys outlined the programmes for the open session and workshop.
• Tove described the plans for the 25^th anniversary of the inauguration of the section celebrations.
• Tove presented 'The school library: today and tomorrow', our visions which will be freely available. Glenys apologised that Barbara Immroth’s vision for the USA had not been included, but it appears on the website and in the newsletter.
• Other meetings were discussed, including IFLA booth staffing, Books for All celebration, children’s library guidelines consultation and the Division III open forum.
9. Tove, the Chair, reported on progress through the year, including the completion of the school library guidelines and her attendance at the UNESCO conference on the world summit on the future of the information society.
• The translation and promotion of the guidelines will be discussed with IFLA HQ, including regional workshops.
• Various IFLA matters were raised:
• Registration and costs for speakers
• The proposed reduction of time for meeting was raised. The concerns about the effect of this on the section’s work are being stressed to IFLA’s professional committee (PC).
• The role of committee members was discussed and the enthusiasm of members to work during the year shared.
• J.Linda Williams will establish a section list.serv.
• Barbara Immroth agreed to represent the section with Division VIII, and will attend the meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean regional section.
• Tove reported that the Section of School Libraries and Resource Centres will be called the School Libraries and Resource Centres Section.
• Tove told the committee about the future of Rotnac.
  
10. The Secretary reported on various matters.
• Model Children’s Library in the exhibition
• The proceedings of the school library conference in Rabat are published.
• School library guidelines. Drafting and writing had taken place by a working group in London, Helsingor and Bergen. The meeting in Bergen also included the Visions document.
• IFLA/UNESCO manifesto is still being translated, several coming through IASL. These are being put onto the IFLA website.
  
11. Projects: Dianne Oberg reported on the project The role of the principal and school librarian in an information literate school community. The results are to be published shortly and presented at the section’s open session.

Anne Weekes joined the committee and introduced a 5 year project on a digital library for children in many languages. The committee supported this interesting work.


12. Berlin Conference: Tove asked the committee to consider ideas for the section’s programme. The Education and Training Section have invited the school library section to organise a joint workshop. James Henri will be part of the workshop planning to take this forward. Claude Morizio was able to give information as a member of that section.

Second and third meetings.

13. Strategic plan: the actions have been carried out, the anniversary, the publications and the conference programme. It was suggested that a poster of the IFLA/UNESCO manifesto be printed. This will be discussed with IFLA.
    
14. Future planning:
• Ideas for the Berlin conference were put forward. James Henri discussed the workshop on the training of school librarians, and the group gave him their views. The issue of competencies was favoured. It was suggested that a new edition of the IFLA publication on competencies for school librarians be written after the workshop.
• Suggestions were made for the open session theme and the topic of social responsibility and partnerships was agreed. The role of libraries and the school librarians in school library programmes which are anti bias, gender, refugees, HIV/AIDS, drugs, child labour, human rights issues etc and the community need for information. This will incorporate the way in which the librarian confronts controversial issues, perhaps in partnership e.g. with health professionals.
  Translations of papers should be available, at least the abstracts. Powerpoint presentations should include enough information for delegate to understand easily.
• A joint workshop with the Information Literacy section was suggested for 2004.Tove raised the idea of a pre-conference in Norway 2005, with support from the Norwegian Board of Education. Tove will email Kathy Lemaire about this, as it could potentially be a joint conference with IASL. This will be raised with the President of IASL.
15. School Library Guidelines. Many offers were made, by members and observers, to translate the guidelines into many languages, Danish, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Icelandic, French, Spanish, Catalan.
16. The section leaflet is to be revised, led by J. Linda Williams, and will be on IFLANET. She will also check on the membership numbers.
17. Tove thanked everyone for their valuable contributions and hard work during the conference.