Minutes of the Acquisition and Collection Development Standing Committee meetings held at the 2001 IFLA Conference at Boston

The Standing Committee of the Section on Acquisition and Collection Development met twice during the Annual IFLA Conference in Boston. The first meeting was held on Saturday 18 August 2001 at 11.30-14.30 and the second on Friday 24 August 2001 at 08.00-10.00. These minutes cover both meetings.

1. Attendance and General Introductions

1.1 Committee members attending were:

T. Afanasieva (Russia), T. Bakker (Netherlands), D. Biblarz (USA), J. Byford (UK), N. Davenport (USA), D. Farkas (USA), C. Friström (Sweden), R. García Blanco (Spain), C. Girard (France), J. Hewitt (USA), Sook-hyeun Lee (Korea), S. Nutter (USA), A. Okerson (USA), M. Oliván Plazaola (Spain), A. Romanov (Russia), L. Rustviken (Norway), L. Sipe (USA), I. Skorikova (Russia), M-J. Tarin (France), P. Vattulainen (Finland), J. Vickery (UK) and S. Yontan (France).

Members not able to be present at Boston were: A. Brovkin (Ukraine), M. Distad (Canada), R. Griebel (Germany), M. Nasu (Japan) and A. Virtanen (Finland). Apologies were received for the first SC meeting from Sook-hyeun Lee.

1.2 Sara Yontan as Chair welcomed all Standing Committee members, especially new members John Byford, Rosa García Blanco, Christine Girard, Susan Nutter, Irina Skorikova and Lynn Sipe.

1.3 The Chair said that Observers were welcome to contribute to discussions, and informed the meeting that business would be conducted in English. The second meeting in particular attracted a large number of Observers.

2. Adoption of the Agenda

3. Elections

3.1 Elections were held at the beginning of the first meeting for the offices of Chair and Secretary for 2001-2003. As there were two candidates for each post, a secret ballot was conducted under the auspices of the outgoing Secretary Jim Vickery. The Chair reminded members that only those serving on the Committee for the next year were entitled to vote.

The result of the ballot was:

Elected: Nancy Davenport

Not elected: Ann Okerson

Elected: Pentti Vattulainen

Not elected: Doina Farkas

3.2 The new Officers were congratulated by the Committee, and the disappointed candidates thanked for their commitment. Nancy Davenport agreed also to take on the duties of Financial Officer, and Pentti Vattulainen agreed also to serve as Newsletter Editor and Information Co-ordinator.

3.3 The Chair informed the new Officers of a training session scheduled for Friday 24 August.

4. Adoption of the Minutes from the 2000 Standing Committee Meeting at Jerusalem

4.1 The minutes of the Jerusalem meeting were approved as written.

5. A&CD events at the Boston Conference

5.1. Open Programme

5.1.1 At the first meeting Ann Okerson summarised the content of the Open Programme, to be held on Tuesday afternoon. The Open Programme would be devoted to the evaluation of electronic collections, and would feature four presentations: on Ohiolink, eIFL, Israeli universities and JISC. All four papers were to be in English, but much of the information was embodied in Powerpoint charts and graphs.

5.1.2 At the second meeting Ann Okerson reported that much useful data had been presented. All the presentations had been professionally prepared, and well-received. The unscheduled intervention by Michael Kay, formerly of eIFL, proved to be a talking-point after the event.

5.1.3 One conclusion from the Open Programme was that although the data was of real interest, it was still subject to local interpretation; there is much work to be done on standardisation before meaningful statistics on the use of electronic material are routinely available. Ann Okerson proposed that the theme should be followed up in more detail next year as a Workshop, covering a wider range of countries. [See minute 10.3 below]

5.1.4 A technical problem noted by the Committee was that the Powerpoint presentations were not posted on IFLANET. As it was too expensive to provide paper copies for everyone present, people were unable to read the slides at their leisure.

5.2 Workshop

5.2.1 At the first meeting Sara Yontan described the Workshop, which was scheduled for Monday morning. The A&CD Workshop would focus on the status of exchange agreements. Presenters from four continents would describe current practices and make predictions for the future. Two of the scheduled papers would not be presented, as Riitta Autere had not produced her text and Catherine Gaziello was not present at the conference. The workshop would be conducted in a mixture of English and French.

5.2.2 At the second meeting Sara Yontan said that the ‘language problem’ had worked out satisfactorily through a combination of translated texts and summaries, proving that a successful event did not have to be conducted entirely in English. There was general agreement by participants that a reduced need still existed for exchange agreements, despite the economic, political and technological changes of recent years. The exchange of licensed material was, however, thought to pose major problems.

5.2.3 The idea of an electronic forum for exchanges arose from the Workshop. Committee members and Observers thought this could be of practical help, although IFLA HQ staff preferred it to be hosted by an individual library. Pentti Vattulainen offered to take this forward, and Sara Gould added that the UAP Office may be able to assist in setting it up.

5.3 Discussion Group on Licensing

5.3.1 At the first meeting Ann Okerson, convenor of Sunday’s Discussion Group on Licensing, reported that she had replaced her advertised event at the last moment in order to debate an important new development. Speakers from WHO, Elsevier, Highwire Press and other organisations would speak on their efforts to provide free or very low-cost access to electronic journals for developing countries. The Standing Committee endorsed this flexibility, and agreed that it showed that IFLA Sections could act swiftly in the best interest of their members. It was inevitable that some of the audience would be surprised by the change of topic, but this was thought to be a small price to pay.

5.3.2 At the second meeting Ann Okerson reported that the topic had generated much interest and enthusiasm from the capacity audience. Nancy Davenport said the event was ‘splendid’, and the Committee agreed that the change of topic had been fully vindicated. [It was mentioned in the Professional Co-ordinator’s summary of the conference in the Closing Session of Council.] Also, it was a breakthrough in terms of IFLA procedures.

5.4 Discussion Group on Repository and Storage Libraries

5.4.1 At the first meeting convenor Pentti Vattulainen outlined the theme of Sunday’s meeting of the Discussion Group on Repository and Storage Libraries, which would include papers on both traditional printed material and bold new electronic initiatives.

5.4.2 At the second meeting Pentti Vattulainen reported that the event had attracted much interest. In particular, the paper on robotic retrieval and scanning had intrigued many delegates.

5.5 Publishers Relations Advisory Committee

5.5.1 At the first meeting Ann Okerson brought the meeting up to date on the history and aims of the Publishers Relations Advisory Committee (PRAC), on which she represents A&CD Section.

5.5.2 At the second meeting Ann Okerson said that PRAC was still discussing its place in IFLA’s structure, but that the meeting had been productive. Agenda items included: an analysis of licensing agencies in different countries; the WHO initiative, for which a webpage would be helpful to promulgate information; whether IFLA should pay $10,000 to join the International Digital Object Identifier Foundation; and digital preservation.

5.6 IFLA booth

At the first meeting the Chair asked for volunteers to represent the Section at the IFLA booth on Monday. Christina Friström, Marie-Joëlle Tarin, Nancy Davenport and Rosa García Blanco agreed to join her at the stand. At the second meeting it was reported that there had not been a great number of enquiries on the day, but a number of publications had been given away to interested parties.

5.7 General assessment of the conference

At the second meeting the Committee agreed that the quality of presentations at Boston had been generally better than in previous years, and with 5,300 delegates there had been a feeling of excitement and active involvement. The local volunteers had been especially helpful. Several Committee members felt that sessions were often too long, particularly when they were scheduled over lunchtime without a break.

6. Report on the other meetings

Jim Vickery reported on some highlights from the first meeting of Division V Co-ordinating Board from Friday 17 August:

6.1 Reference Work now had an interim Standing Committee, and would become a full Section of Division V in 2003. [Over 300 people attended the first Reference Work Open Programme on 20 August]

6.2 Ways of improving the quality of IFLA Conferences were again under consideration, including differentiating between plenary and specialist events in different parts of the week. The Professional Board repeated that it was not necessary for Sections to hold both an Open Programme and a Workshop; one top-quality event was preferable to two mediocre ones. It was likely that not all proposals for Workshops at Glasgow would be approved.

6.3 Round Tables were to become Discussion Groups, with a lifespan of 2+2 years. The concept of Section Working Groups had been discussed, for evaluation by the new Professional Committee in December 2001.

6.4 The format of the Sections’ Strategic Plans, and their relationship to IFLA’s Professional Priorities, was clarified. The Plans are to be sent to the new Chair of the Co-ordinating Board, Mary Jackson, (Nancy Davenport is the new Secretary) by 1^st October 2001.

6.5 Any outstanding events of a Section should be notified to Ralph Manning by Wednesday, 22 August, for inclusion in his summing-up at Council II. [See minute 5.3.2 above]

6.6 The Co-ordinating Board had decided to put forward a Resolution urging ways of filling unexpected vacancies on Standing Committees. [This was later noted by Council II and referred to Professional Committee for consideration.]

6.7 The question again arose of using Divisional funds to support invited speakers.

6.8 Jim Vickery reported at the second meeting on the Information Co-ordinators’ meeting. The main change was that IFLANET was to be transferred to a new host from January 2002, so delays would be possible until the New Year. No new electronic discussion lists would be created during the interim period; it was noted that this may affect plans for an exchange forum.

7. Report of the Financial officer

7.1 Sara Yontan as Financial Officer presented the following report.

7.2 Sara Yontan explained that the only significant item of expenditure had been for the printing of the French Guidelines.

7.3 The Committee approved the financial report as submitted.

8. Activities of the Standing Committee

8.1 Action List from Jerusalem

The Action List from the Jerusalem 2000 Conference was reviewed. The Committee was pleased to note that 15 of the 18 tasks had been completed. Two outstanding issues (Exchange Handbook and Acquisitions Bibliography) are covered elsewhere in these minutes; the investigation of posting the Section’s brochure on IFLANET in all languages would be taken up by the new Secretary.

8.2 Projects

8.2.1 Acquisitions Bibliography

Nancy Davenport reported that Library of Congress staff had verified and indexed the 1,200 entries, and that the revised file should be ready for loading on IFLANET in a few months. The Committee expressed gratitude for this work, and agreed with Tatiana Afanasieva’s suggestion that staff who had contributed significantly to the production of the Bibliography should be individually acknowledged.

Ways of updating or expanding the Bibliography were discussed, preferably by means of a standard electronic input form. [For an account of the relevant proposals arising from the second meeting see minute 9.2.2. below]

8.2.2 Handbook for the International Exchange of Publications

Sara Yontan regretted that the proposed editor of this publication, Catherine Gaziello, had not fulfilled her promise to carry out the task. A meeting with Sjoerd Koopman, scheduled for 23 August to discuss possible ways forward, left various options open. The unspent 16,000NLG remained in the Section’s project budget.

Pentti Vattulainen offered to take over responsibility for the Handbook from Sara Yontan. He agreed to explore alternative ways forward, including working with UAP to formulate a research survey.

8.2.3 Section Brochure
The Chair reported that the Section’s printed brochure was now available in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. It was agreed that a revised version of the English-language brochure should be produced later in 2001/2002, reflecting the new Strategic Plan.

8.3 Publications

8.3.1 Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy

The Chair reported that that the Guidelines had been published in English, French and Spanish editions, and that an Italian version was in preparation. All involved were warmly thanked.

8.3.2 Newsletter

Jim Vickery said that the usual two issues of the Newsletter had been produced in the last year, and pointed out that printing and postage costs would no longer be met by the British Library. Nancy Davenport kindly offered to carry on this support work at the Library of Congress, if the new Editor Pentti Vattulainen could send her an electronic version of the document.

8.3.3 IFLA Journal: questionnaire

The Chair reported that a questionnaire on contributions to the IFLA Journal had been passed to Standing Committees for comment. She then briefly ran through the questions, for response by the Committee. Susan Nutter pointed out that if IFLA Journal were to seek refereed articles it would need to reflect interests beyond IFLA’s. Also, the Committee raised the question of the accessibility of IFLA’s archives, if its 75^th anniversary were to be commemorated.

9. Medium Term Programme / Strategic Plan

9.1 The Chair reminded Committee members that the Medium Term Plan (MTP) was about to be replaced by a Strategic Plan for 2001-2003. The Committee agreed that the Mission could be taken from the existing ‘Scope’, and the Priorities from the ‘Goals’, with Actions remaining as such. At the second meeting Nancy Davenport related the Goals to IFLA’s Professional Priorities, and offered to draft a complete statement of the Strategic Plan for comment by members, in time to meet the deadline for passing the approved version to the Chair of the Co-ordinating Board by 1^st October 2001.

9.2 Some of the key points concerning the MTP made at the second meeting (excluding those covered elsewhere in the meeting) were:

9.2.2 Acquisitions Bibliography

Nancy Davenport proposed that the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography should be kept up to date by a nominated Committee member for each country/region submitting 3-5 key publications per year, on a rolling monthly basis. A brief annotation would accompany each entry, and electronic publications articles could be included. Pentti Vattulainen and Trix Bakker volunteered to act as co-ordinators with Nancy Davenport. It was suggested that the entries could be published in the Newsletter, as well as posted to IFLANET. Lynn Sipe noted that American acquisition and collection development articles were already assessed by ALCTS for its award.

9.2.3 Open Programmes

The idea of a Open Programme on collection development policies was to be reconsidered.

9.2.4 Workshop

The idea of a Workshop on gifts would be reconsidered.

9.2.5 Legal deposit

Developments in the deposit of electronic publications would be discussed with the National Libraries section.

9.2.6 Checklist for electronic selection

The idea of a checklist would be reviewed. Some members felt it may already be unnecessary, but others thought it still could be useful for smaller libraries and developing countries.

9.2.7 Other ideas, for consideration, were to:

10. Glasgow Conference, 2002

10.1 At the first meeting the Chair noted that the deadline for proposing Satellite meetings at Glasgow was 22 August 2001; it was agreed that A&CD Section was not planning a Satellite meeting for 2002.

10.2 At the second meeting the Chair reminded the Committee of some ideas for events raised at Bangkok. [See minutes 9.2.3 and 9.2.4 above] The theme at Glasgow was to be ‘libraries for life’. Suggestions put forward for the A&CD Open Programme at Glasgow related to this theme were: life-long learning (John Byford); library support for alumni organisations (Ann Okerson); and collection development for distance education (Susan Nutter). The Committee agreed that these topics gave scope for fruitful links with other IFLA groups such as Reading, School Libraries and University Libraries. As she had links with the University Libraries Standing Committee, Susan Nutter agreed to work on this with Nancy Davenport .

10.3 The meeting approved the idea of continuing the theme of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of electronic resources, as a Workshop for Glasgow. This should aim to include smaller counties and directly involve publishers. Ann Okerson said that she was willing to play a part in organising this, with the possibility of setting up a wider working group before the conference which would report its findings during the workshop.

11. Berlin Conference, 2003

11.1 The Chair noted that proposals for Satellite meetings at Berlin needed to be notified to IFLA HQ by March 2002. Observer Klaus Kempf agreed to investigate the possibilities locally, and to liaise with the new Chair.

11.2 No firm topics were identified for Berlin at this stage.

12. Any Other Business

12.1 Sara Yontan and Jim Vickery were thanked for all their work as Officers of the Standing Committee, and were each presented with a card and gift. Other departing members were also warmly thanked for their contribution to the work of the Committee.