Minutes of Standing Committee meetings August 2001

Members present: Werner Stephan (Chair), John Byrum (Secretary), Kristin Waneck (Information Coordinator), Marcelle Beaudiquez (Honorary Advisor), Barbara Bell (Project Consultant), Francoise Bourdon, D. Whitney Coe, Alan Danskin, Pilar Dominguez Sanchez, Tuula Haapamaki, Talbott Huey, Unni Knutsen, Anne Langballe (Project Consultant), Eva Murtomaa, Bohdana Stoklasova, Eva Tedenmyr, Alexandra Teplitskaya, Claudia Werner, Beacher Wiggins, Maya Zumer. Guests: Carmen Perez Pais, Muzhgan Nazarova.

Introductions were performed, including the seven new members.

The agenda was approved, with the addition of discussion to choose a location for a Sunday get-together luncheon.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved and the Secretary thanked.

Elections were held for new Section officers. Bohdana Stoklasova was nominated by Francoise Bourdon and elected by acclamation. Unni Knutsen was nominated for secretary but withdrew; Talbott Huey was nominated and elected. Kristin Waneck was thanked for her past work as Information Coordinator, and she agreed to continue in the position. John Byrum and Werner Stephan were unanimously asked to be Honorary Advisors to the Section as they retired from their positions.

Reports were presented on Section work.

1. In the annual report Byrum acknowledged the hard work of Section members in accomplishing important points of the Action Plan, including:

• the valuable reports by Barbara Bell and Anne Langballe on national bibliographies and by Unni Knutsen updating the Holley survey of 1996,
• arranging the Divisional Open Forum presentations by four speakers,
• organizing the Section workshop, involving twelve speakers, including translation.

1. In the financial report, Stephan announced that this year the Section had Hfl 1350 for administrative expenditures and Hfl 2000 for projects. The latter had been paid to Bell and Langballe for travel expenses, but was insufficient, and it was proposed and agreed that a balance of $77 would also be offered. The Section income in 2000 was Hfl 930, which IFLA supplemented to Hfl 1350; most of this was spent on travel and newsletter postage, leaving a balance of DM720. Stephan announced that the Coordinating Board has money available for small or short projects—perhaps Hfl 1800 for a year; application should go through Ia McIlwaine at division level. Bourdon suggested that our current metadata project might apply.

Reports on projects: Bell, Langballe and Knutsen were thanked for their valuable accomplishments.

1. Bell commented on the preparation of the report, noting that the field of national bibliographies was moving rapidly, and that the report was a "snapshot" of the current situation only. Langballe commented that some of the latest national bibliographies were difficult to obtain. The report contains suggested actions in each area of the world, and in general can be summarized as 1) the need for updating legal deposit arrangements; 2) stressing timeliness; and 3) producing effective introductions to the bibliographies. Knutsen and Waneck stressed in response that the Section must plan and act to improve national bibliographies by concentrating on the suggestions of the report, by increasing cooperation with other sections, and by attempting further to reach the 57% of National Bibliographic Agencies which did not respond to Bell/Langballe requests for information. Stoklasova urged the Section to actively inform NBAs of the advice in the report and of new and available information models such as electronic publishing. Beaudiquez also stressed Section action in cooperation with NBAs and pointed out that it has long been clear that it is in the interest of NBAs to make their nations’ publications better known; universal bibliographic control still seems a long way away. Stephan agreed that the Section must take action to make the results of the report known to the public, to librarians, and to NBAs in our own countries and elsewhere. Bell noted that the ICNBS recommendations were still not well known in some areas of the world. The discussion raised the question of whether the report could be considered indiscreet or offensive in pointing out the shortcomings of individual efforts. Tuula Haapamaki suggested there should be mechanisms to measure future progress, such as updates to the current report. Stephan suggested the report be published in some form by Section action, and the possible modes of editing and publication were discussed. A small group was set up to discuss further in connection with our strategic plan.
2. Knutsen briefly described the scope and method of her survey following up the survey of NBAs done by Robert Holley in 1996. She concentrated her questions and analysis on bibliographic control and inclusion, pricing, and anticipated future developments. Many of the reporting NBAs talked of revision and greater inclusiveness, and the materials under control were more varied than five years ago. Some, however, seemed to be moving too rapidly into electronic media to the slighting of the print version; the question of preservation was thus raised. The breadth of inclusion of materials remained a debated topic. Beaudiquez agreed, noting that the relationship between legal deposit laws and NBAs was not always clear, and standards of inclusiveness were not clear. Stephan referred to the experience of the Deutsche Bibliothek as of interest.

Stephan gave an overview of the relevant sessions planned for the Boston conference, namely the Division Open Forum (8/20), the Section’s public session (8/21) and the workshop on national bibliographies held jointly with the Section on National Libraries (8/23). Two Section members (Bourdon, Stoklasova) volunteered to join a working group set up by the Section on Classification and Indexing on subject gateways.

A guest from Azerbaijan rose to request that the Section make a point of taking action to give advice and assistance to NBAs not yet familiar with the proper methods of producing national bibliographies. The Chair took the suggestion under advisement.

The meeting convened at 8 AM.

Members present: Stoklasova (Chair), Huey (Secretary), Stephan, Byrum, Beaudiquez, Bourdon, Coe, Danskin, Dominguez Haapamaki, Knutsen, Tedenmyr, Teplitskaya, Waneck, Werner, Wiggins, Zumer; Bell (observer).

Stephan distributed information on the 2002 Glasgow conference, stressing that programs should follow the "red thread" theme. He urged all to complete the evaluation form for the 2001 conference, and thanked the workshop and open forum speakers for their good programs.

Stephan turned to a review of the August 23 meeting of the group to consider goals for the new two-year strategic plan. First, in connection with the goal "Monitor and promote publication of bibliographies in electronic form," actions to be taken for the Berlin conference of 2003 were discussed. Stoklasova suggested a working group be formed at this time; Tedenmyr, Danskin, and Wiggins volunteered. In connection with the goal "Promote creation and improvement of bibliographic information and the use of international standards and guidelines," discussion centered on how to disseminate the Bell-Langballe and Knutsen reports. A working group of Beaudiquez, Knutsen, Coe, and Waneck was formed, with the charge to meet and forward proposals to the chair. It was decided in any case to submit the Knutsen report to Maurice Line for publication in Alexandria.

Zumer felt that more action was needed on the goal "Monitor and promote the inclusion of Internet resources in bibliographies," specifically to develop guidelines for criteria to assist national bibliographic agencies in deciding which resources to select for inclusion. Stephan noted that this was a relatively long-term project, and financial support should be sought from IFLA. Discussion favored working toward a presentation at the Berlin conference. Byrum and Waneck agreed to form a working group. Further discussion revealed interest in a related aspect of the topic; i.e., guidelines regarding publication of national bibliographies on the Web.

At this point Stephan suggested we move further discussion of the strategic plan and its actions to e-mail communication with the goal of completing a final draft by the end of September, and next discuss specific programs for the Glasgow conference. Stoklasova suggested there be the usual reports on best practices, with a focus on the host country. Knutsen suggested attention should be paid to use of the Internet in creating bibliographies, as this would be a big issue in coming years. Byrum felt this was a project for presentation in 2003. Waneck stressed that such work should focus on the end users’ needs (e.g., what information they wanted to find in national bibliographies, such as tables of contents and pictures of book jackets); experiences from Denmark and Germany might be relevant. Stoklasova noted that many different but related topics were involved here, and that the Czech experience also was particularly concerned with user-friendly aspects.

Stoklasova directed attention to the proposal for a presentation at Glasgow on the book trade and its relation to national bibliographies. Waneck said the book trade presentation should be an open forum. Danskin will explore recruitment of local speakers. Stoklasova felt the proposal on criteria for selection of online electronic resources could be a workshop topic, possibly in cooperation with another section such as National Libraries. Waneck, Bourdon, and Haapamaki will develop a more specific proposal for submission to the chair and thence to Division IV for approval. For the Berlin conference, Zumer agreed to make a project proposal on guidelines for the presentation of national bibliographies in electronic form, assisted by Danskin, Teplitskaya, Stoklasova, Bourdon, and Knutsen. The Section will revisit the proposed action in 2002. Waneck suggested possible cooperation with museums, archives, etc. in this effort. Stoklasova suggested that the topic of format harmonization should be addressed in connection with assistance to inquiring national bibliographic agencies.

Stephan provided information on the Berlin conference, noting that the president of the Federal Republic had agreed to be the chief patron. He went on to open a review of the Section’s activities in 2001. Bourdon reported that she and Stoklasova met with the working group of the Section on Classification and Indexing dealing with subject gateways. They prepared a form to help members check and analyze websites to note searching possibilities, so as to be able to compare different methodologies. The form is available on the C & I website (http://www.ifla.org/VII/s29/sci.htm). Waneck reported on the meeting of information coordinators. There will be a new web host for IFLANET, which has meant some delay in posting. Newsletters and much other documentation will now appear in pdf format. Stephan brought up matters concerning IFLA Journal. We’ll send in our annual report for the news section. International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control will be leaving K.G. Saur for various reasons. Beaudiquez’ revised workshop paper will be submitted to it. Bourdon and others lamented that there was no effective mechanism to make papers—especially translations—available to participants during the conference.

Stoklasova asked for a discussion about the Section newsletter. Can we distribute it entirely by e-mail? (Some members don’t have e-mail). Should its appearance be revised? Can we publish more current work? It was decided to take the matter under discussion for the next year.

Parting gifts, thanks, and well-wishings were tendered to retiring Chair Stephan and Secretary Byrum.

Stephan urged in closing that the Section organize a get-together in Glasgow like the one we enjoyed in Boston; there was general assent. Danskin agreed to take charge of arrangements for the social gathering.

The meeting was adjourned at 10 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Talbott Huey, Secretary