   
Minutes from the meetings of the Standing Committee of the Section of University Libraries and other General Research Libraries during the 66th IFLA General Conference, Jerusalem
SC I : Saturday, 12 August 2000, 8:30-10:30
(Points 1-10 of the Agenda)
Present SC/URL members:
Toby Bainton, UK; Alex Byrne, Australia; Kirsten Engelstad, Norway (Chair); Barbara Ford, USA; Heinz Fuchs, Germany; Vipa Goysookho, Thailand; Jesus Lau, Mexico; Elisabeth Lemau, France; Niels Mark, Denmark; Susan Nutter, USA; ; Cristobal Pasadas Ureña, Spain (Secretary); ; Hannelore Rader, USA; Gunnar Sahlin, Sweden; Paul Soetaert, the Netherlands; Toby Gail Stone, France.
Present corresponding member:
Helen Kay Raseroka, Botswana.
Present informal observers:
Martha D. Castro, Mexico; Marianne Julin, Norway; Kjellaug Scheie, Norway.
1. Opening
The Chair, Kirsten Engelstad, welcomed the SC members. The SC consists of 19 members from 14 different countries, and the URL-Section continues to be the first one in terms of membership with almost 25% of total number of members in IFLA.
2. Adoption of the agenda
The provisional agenda had been sent to all SC members by e-mail in June and again in August. It was decided that point 9 (The proposed new statutes for IFLA) would be dealt with after point 4 (Apologies for non-attendance) to allow for Kay Raseroka to be present at the discussion of point 9. It was proposed that performance standards in information literacy be treated under point 13 (Report on ongoing projects). With these comments the agenda was adopted.
3. Attendance of informal observers
The Chair welcomed the informal observers to the meeting.
4. Apologies for non-attendance
Apologies for absence had been received from Graham Bulpitt, UK; Jean-Pierre Coté, Canada; and Frank Willems, the Netherlands. Jean-Pierre Coté has notified the Chair that he must resign from our SC for professional reasons and Frank Willems has made it clear that he wants to contribute actively as a member of the SC, and regrets his non-attendance to two consecutive IFLA Conferences.
5. Minutes of the SC-meetings in Bangkok
The minutes of the two SC-meetings in Bangkok had been sent to all SC-members by e-mail in November 1999 and again in June 2000. They are translated to Russian and Spanish, and the English and Spanish versions are also on the SC/URL web-pages on IFLANET. The minutes were adopted with no amendments.
6. Annual report 1999-2000
The Annual Report 1999-2000 had been sent by e-mail by the Chair to all SC members in June. The annual report was adopted. It will be distributed to IFLA HQ and the PB via the CB. SC-members wanted to make the annual report more accessible and available to the section's membership through the section's webpages on the IFLANET and by short notices in IFLA Journal.
7. Financial report 1999-2000
The Chair handed out copies of the financial report. Most expenses are now going to translations into the official IFLA languages, according to priorities approved by the SC. The financial report was adopted with the remark that the finances are well under control.
The management of finances in IFLA will face changes in the near future and in Jerusalem there was a special event for IFLA officers on financial issues.
8. Report on matters of the Professional Board (PB) and the Coordinating Board (CB) of Division I
The Chair reported on issues dealt with in CB I, 11 August, Friday, 14:00-18.00:
- Winston Tabb, the Chair of CB for Division I, and Vice-Chair of PB , informed that the PB in November 1999 approved the new Discussion Group on Marketing of Library Services to Academic Communities. URL/SC convenor is Barbara Ford.
- IFLA will offer a new benefit to the membership by granting members a discount of US$50 for registration in Boston.
- In the future as now, workshops have to be sponsored by sections, Round Tables (RT)or professional groups and be approved by the PB one year in advance. However, there is a proposal to reduce the number of workshops to be held in one single IFLA Conference to 4 full-day and 6 half-day workshops. If this reduction is finally approved and enforced, there will be a strong competition between sections and Round Tables to arrange workshops. The reasons behind the proposal seem to be the concern for quality and also a problem of capacity. The SC-members reacted negatively to this proposal. SC-members argued that open sessions might be reduced before thinking of reducing workshops, which are the most convenient and flexible fora to deal with very up-to-date and specific professional issues. Workshops are also the best way to attract librarians from developing countries to exchange professional practices. For most professionals in developing countries IFLA conferences present some sort of continuing professional development. If the reduction of workshops is enforced, this would imply that only 500 participants could take advantage of workshops; that is, only a quarter of the average number of participants in any IFLA Conference. The Chair was asked to take this unanimous concern for reduction of workshops further to our CB and PB.
- Commitment of several sections and Round Tables in one workshop was recommended by the PB. The SC-members recommended that library visits should not be organised simultaneously with workshops next year in Boston.
- The PB encourages all SC and RT to produce newsletters, at least two issues per year. A prize will be distributed this year for the best newsletter in terms of content, design, etc.
- The PB will put in place a stricter control of projects, because many projects receive money without presenting some visible product. SC-members were concerned that this was another example of the many small moves by the PB recently in the direction of more IFLA bureaucracy, which might result in preventing innovation and flexibility to react to inexpected but vital issues for all of us. Stage payment in project funding would be a more fruitful approach. The Chair was asked to pass on this recommendation on stage payment for projects to IFLA HQ and the PB.
- The ACRL Pre-Conference in Boston on Leadership in Academic Libraries needs to be officially sponsored by our Section. A draft of the letter on this issue was presented. Susan Nutter and Hannelore Rader will act as contact persons and facilitators on behalf of our SC.
- New projects will be assessed and approved by PB if they concur with the priorities in a new document on "IFLA's professional priorities for the Medium Term Programme". A draft was distributed to the SC members to allow for comments in SCII.
9. The proposed new statutes for IFLA
It was reported that 25% of the membership participated in the previous postal ballot on the proposed new statutes for IFLA. 99% of them voted for the proposed new statutes.Two public hearings would be arranged during the week before the final vote the coming Sunday.
The Chair asked Helen Kay Raseroka, as a member of the IFLA Executive Board, to comment on the proposed new statutes for IFLA. She said that in her opinion the proposals will be beneficial for IFLA. However, the most crucial issue is what happens afterwards and what will be the real benefits for developing countries. She was concerned about people coming from countries where communication infrastructure is not so well developed as to take full advantage of the proposed new voting procedures. According to Raseroka, IFLA does a very important contribution to developing countries, e.g. in terms of professional standards, but should also put a strong focus in helping people to gain professional recognition in their countries. It might be an idea to seek to influence in some way the Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of African universities and other authorities so that they act more positively on library and information issues. She was also concerned with the difficulties to involve new and young professionals in IFLA programs and activities.
It is not clear whether the system with Round Tables will be included in the new IFLA statutes, and Kay Raseroka promised to follow up this issue in the Executive Board.
A lively discussion followed on new ways to make it easier and more profitable for newcomers to attend IFLA conferences. Among the suggested recommendations were that it should be more marketed that the SC-meetings were open for informal observers. Experienced IFLA members and participants should be encouraged to be more helpful and more proactive in welcoming newcomers. It was also suggested that SC members together with local organising committees could contact pre-registered colleagues by email.
10. Review of the SC/URL Programme in Jerusalem
The SC-members went through the different SC-programmes in Jerusalem. The programmes would be evaluated at SCII.
SC II: Friday, 18 August 2000, 10:30-12:15
Points 10 (continued) to 19 of the agenda
Present SC/URL members:
Toby Bainton, UK; Alex Byrne, Australia; Kirsten Engelstad, Norway (Chair); Barbara Ford, USA; Heinz Fuchs, Germany; Vipa Goysookho, Thailand; Jesus Lau, Mexico; Elisabeth Lemau, France; Niels Mark, Denmark; Susan Nutter, USA; ; Cristobal Pasadas Ureña, Spain (Secretary); Alexander Plemnek, Russia; Hannelore Rader, USA; Gunnar Sahlin, Sweden; Paul Soetaert, the Netherlands; Toby Gail Stone, France.
Present informal observers:
Christoph Albers, Germany; Cécile Arnaud, France; Nicole Le Brenn, France; Gérard Briand, France; Martha D. Castro, Mexico; Els S. van Eijck van Heslinga, the Netherlands; Laurence Fioux, France; Marie-Dominique Heusse, France; Marianne Julin, Norway; Petr Lapo, Belarus; Christian Lupovici, France; Bernard Naylor, UK; Kjellaug Scheie, Norway; Clare M. Walker, South Africa; R. Watson-Boone, USA; Robert Wedgeworth, USA; Tom Wilding, USA.
1. Opening (as for SCI)
Apologies for non-attendance were the same as for SCI.
The Chair specially welcomed Alexander Plemnek who explained the reasons of his non-attendance during SCI.
The Chair specially welcomed the many informal observers.
10. Review of the SC Programme in Jerusalem (continued)
Alex Byrne reported on the programme for the Discussion Group on Performance Measurement in Academic Libraries. On behalf of Roswitha Poll he presented some features of the recently published manual on Cost Analysis in Academic Libraries, before speaking about the conclusions in an Australian project on Benchmarking in Academic Libraries, financed by the Higher Education Public Authorities at a national level. Kirsten Engelstad together with Kari Christensen presented a working paper on quality indicators for libraries in academic institutions in Norway,and three pilot projects to test them. Cristobal Pasadas offered some new developments in Spain. Toby Bainton reported on the benchmarking exercise for degree programmes in UK universities, its impact on academic libraries, as well as other issues in the UK. 50 persons attended this early Sunday morning session and the discussions were lively.
Alex Byrne will send the SC-members a written report on the session.
Barbara Ford acted as SC/URL co-facilitator together with Tom Wilding (Section on Management and Marketing). for the Discussion Group on Marketing of Library Services to Academic Communities. The speakers made very short presentations on three main topics: marketing academic libraries beyond the university campus as part of a campus-wide strategy; strategies for raising the profile of academic libraries; and developing a marketing plan. There were more participants than seats and some had to stand. Most of the time was saved for discussions. Persons from 12 countries spoke and the audience was very large.
The Open Session on Library Education was led by Hannelore Rader. Alex Byrne and Jesus Lau reported on the professional competencies issue as seen in Australia and Mexico, Sharon Hogan concentrated on core competencies for library professionals defined and developed by an American Library Association Task Force, and Ken Haycock offered a summary of conclusions of the Congress for Professional Education in the United States. Approx. 140 persons attended.
The Workshop on Copyright: a Question of Balance was led by Kirsten Engelstad and Marianne Scott from the Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters. The topic is difficult, and the content of the presentations was of very high quality. The papers will be available at the SC/URL webpages on the IFLANET. Alexander Plemnek will translate the papers of the workshop into Russian.
As the previous year, the SC-workshop got less audience than expected (approx. 20 persons when started, 50 persons by the middle, coming and going). One reason was that it was competing with the organised library visits which are very popular. Another was the poor quality of the premises with two concurrent meetings in the same room. The SC-members wanted the SC/URL-workshops in Boston to be arranged off-site in combination with a visit to an academic library.
11. Programme for IFLA 2001 in Boston
Pre-Conference on Leadership joint with ACRL
Responsible: Hannelore Rader and Susan Nutter . They will be in touch with the organizing committee.
Discussion Group on Performance Measurement in Academic Libraries
Responsible : Gunnar Sahlin. He will be in touch with Roswitha Poll to try to combine the presentation of the Manual on Cost Analysis,with a special focus on the electronic environment, and with a presentation of the project EQUINOX and the performance measures for electronic services they are testing in several libraries. Gunnar Sahlin will get in touch with the chair of the Statistics Section for a possible cooperation.
Discussion Group on Marketing of Academic Libraries
Responsible: Barbara Ford and Tom Wilding (Section on Management and Marketing). They will continue with the format of very brief presentations and lively discussions. They will continue work on a list of topic to be addressed.
Open Session on New Partnerships for Academic Libraries
Responsible: Toby Gail Stone, Toby Bainton and Niels Mark. The open session may be followed up by a workshop on a related topic.
Off-site Workshop on Managing Partnerships
Responsible: Hannelore Rader, Alex Byrne and Alexander Plemnek . They will prepare the workshop in close cooperation with the open session convenors. The workshop will be in line with the content of the open session, but focused more on how to manage partnerships.
Off-site Workshop on Information Literacy Materials in Spanish: a Model
Responsible: Cristobal Pasadas, Barbara Ford and Jesus Lau. The findings and outputs of the ongoing two-year project on Information Literacy Materials in Spanish (to be covered under point 13 of the agenda), approved by PB in November 1999, will be presented. The presentations would be preferably in Spanish and every effort should be made to contact well in advance pre-inscribed colleagues who might be a target audience for the workshop. The content could include presentations of the ACRL Competency Standards, the ACRL-IS Objectives, the SCONUL model, and experiences in Sweden, as well as the model developed in Spanish as an outcome of the project. Speakers include Toby Bainton, Jesus Lau, Cristobal Pasadas, Gabriela Sonntag and Christina Tovote. The Section of Management and Marketing might be a co-sponsor.
General remarks
Susan Nutter invited the SC members as her library's guests for the SC dinner in Boston.
Barbara Ford reminded the SC of the availability of American volunteers to participate in the preparation of open sessions and workshops.
If the SC/URL wants to have a wide range of views from different countries in an international forum such as IFLA, we have to take into account the difficulties of many persons in speaking fluent English.
12. Programme for IFLA 2002 in Glasgow
Open Session on Change and its Impact on Staff
Responsible from SC/URL: Heinz Fuchs and Cristobal Pasadas. The Open Session will focus on human resources and staff issues, new skills and staff training for librarians in an academic setting. The SC/URL responded positively to an invitation from Tom Wilding from the Section of Management and Marketing to cooperate. Cristobal Pasadas had already been in touch with Clare M. Walker, South Africa, and Judith Elkin, UK. They had agreed to be engaged in the preparation of such an event for Glasgow. The local organizing committee had agreed to name Judith Elkin as their contact person for the open session.
Workshop on Distance Learning and Digital Learning Material
Responsible: Alexander Plemnek and Elizabeth Lemau. It was reported on the Russian-French project "Encyclopédie sonore" dealing with the production of multimedia teaching materials by academic libraries. The contact persons for the project are Elena Krepkova, Russia and Christiane Guillard, France. They will be invited to include a report on the project in the workshop.
Workshop on the Role of University Libraries in Promoting Democracy and Diversity
Responsible: Alex Byrne. He will look into the possibility of organising the workshop, together with FAIFE and Division VIII.
13. Report on ongoing projects
Alex Byrne reported on the outcomes of the project on Cost Analysis in Academic Libraries. The project started as a venture of our SC and with financial support from IFLA, but the nature of the subject and the absence of practical expertise forced the project leaders to take quite a different approach and change it to a German project funded by the German Higher Education authorities. The results have already been published in German as a handbook plus software, but the problem is that there is no mention to the support of IFLA. The Chair reported that Roswitha Poll and the German publisher have agreed to an English version being published as an IFLA publication. These problems lead to the conclusion that the SC need stricter and clearer guideliness on how to monitor the development of projects funded by SC/URL.
The Chair asked Alex Byrne to thank Roswitha Poll on our SC's behalf for the very successful work done and to exchange with her views on how to proceed with translation into Russian. (Alexander Plemnek), Spanish (Cristobal Pasadas) and French. Cristobal Pasadad reported that Asociación Andaluza de Bibliotecarios is interested in translating the manual into Spanish. Cristobal Pasadas will clarify with IFLA HQ if these translations will be IFLA's official publications.
Cristobal Pasadas will report on the project "Information literacy in Spanish", which is proceeding well and according to scedule, in a special workshop in Boston.
Alexander Plemnek reported on the translation of "Performance Measurment" into Russian. The translation is very timely for the Russian environment. He further gave some highlights on the situation of libraries in Russia. The Chair asked him to send his report by e-mail so that she can distribute it through IFLA-UNI. He announces that the Foros Foundation had agreed to finance the publication and the distribution of the Russian version of "Performance Measurement" to Russian libraries (more than 3.000).
Marie-Dominique Heusse announced that the French version of "Performance Measurement" was finished. She was permitted to add new and more recent French items to the references as a separate appendix. She also needed to know if the French version will be an IFLA publication. Cristobal Pasadas will ask IFLA HQ and report to Marie-Dominique Heusse.
The Chair reported on the ongoing planning of the Alexandrina Conference, Autumn 2001. She is now acting as representative for both IFLA and FID in the planning committee. Our SC is very well represented in the provisional programme handed out to SC members, but the final programme will surely be different. The final programme will have to be accepted by Egyptian authorities.
14. New major projects
There are many ongoing plans and projects for translations of key documents into the five official IFLA languages. Proposals for new projects will be further discussed in Boston. Christian Lupovici reported on a project on standards for electronic submission of thesis based on the Virginia Tech experience. The Chair asked him to report by e-mail, so that all SC members may have more information on this very important issue. Alex Byrne reflected on the role of university and academic libraries in a civil society. The Chair asked him to develop this further and report to the Chair and the SC members by e-mail.
15. Medium Term Program and Action Plan
The Medium Term Porgramme and the Action Plan of the SC/URL had been included in the Annual Report. While working on the draft for the brochure, Graham Bulpitt had achieved a shortened but more effective text for the MTP. The Chair asked the SC members to read goals and actions proposed carefully and report back the comments they might have.
16. How to secure information to our Section's membership?
An outline of a new brochure was handed out. Toby Gail Stone will translate it to French, Henz Fuchs to German, Alexander Plemnek to Russian and Cristobal Pasadas to Spanish.
As soon as the brochures are ready from the printer, the Chair will send a letter to all registered members of our Section together with a brochure, and the annual report. She asked the above translators to translate this letter into French, German, and Spanish.
17. Overall evaluation of the Jerusalem Conference
The Chair encourages the SC members to fill in the evaluation forms. Many had complained about the poor premises for smaller meetings.
18. Any other business
Niels Mark reported on the IFLA-Danida project in Ghana, which will be running for the next year as well. The Chair asks him to send the SC members more written information about the project and suggested that the project will be included in the SC agenda for Boston.
The Chair asks for comments and reactions to the draft on IFLA's eleven professional priorities, as a new way of drafting Medium Term Programmes. SC members were satisfied with this new approach. Toby Bainton had some written remarks which the Chair would hand it over to the chair of the CB.
Next year there will be changes in the SC membership; some will be eligible for re-election, but others not; and all should be concerned with the process of securing good new members for our SC.
19. Closure
Before adjourning, the Chair declared that it was a pleasure to be in a committee which for several years had been working so well together. She thanked everyone for the job they had promised to do before the SC-members will meet again in Boston next year. She also hoped for many informal observers at the two URL/SC meetings in Boston.
CP/KE Sept2000
|
