University Libraries and other General Research Libraries Section

Minutes

Standing Committee II
8 August 2003, Berlin, Germany

Attendees:

Magnhild Boyum Aase, NHH, Bergen, Norway: magnhild.aase@nhh.no
Babakisi T. Fidzani, University of Botswana Library: fidzanib@mopipi.ub.bw
Barbara J. Ford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA: bjford@uiuc.edu
Heinz Fuchs, State & University Library of Goettingen: fuchs@mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de
Frances Groen, McGill University Libraries, Canada: frances.groen@mcgill.ca
Nidaa Al Ghazal, Lebanon Chamber of Commerce: nalghazal@ccias.org.lb
Melita Ambrozic, National & University library, Slovenia: melita.ambrozic@nuk.uni-lj.si
Helena Asamoah-Hassan, KNUST Library, Kumasi, Ghana: maadwoa2000@yahoo.com
Rookaya Bawa, Carnegie Corporation of NY: rba@carnegie.org
Lawrence Chikwanha, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe: lawrence.chikwanha@cut.ac.zw
Kurt De Belder, University of Amsterdam: k.f.k.debelder@uva.nl or k.belder@uva.nl
Omnia M. Fathallah, Bibliotheca Alexandrina: omnia.fathallah@bibalex.org
Stephney Ferguson, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica: stephney.Ferguson@uwimona.edu.jm
Lin Haoming, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. Library: hmlin@mail.lib.sjtu.edu.cn
Al Kagan, University of Ilinois: akagan@uiuc.edu
Mirja Iivonen, Tampere University Library, Finland: mirja.t.iivonen@uta.fi
Toomas Liivamagi, Tartu University Library, Estonia: toomas@utlib.ee
Christian Lupovici, Biblothèque Nationale de France: christian.lupovici@bnf.fr
Eva Hessellgren Mortensen, NORDINFO, Helsinki: eva.hesselgren@nordinfo.helsinki.fi
Jon Erik Nordstrand, Goteborg Univ. Library, Sweden: jon.erik.nordstrand@ub.gu.se
Anne Quast, Technische Universitat, Berlin: quast@ub.tu-berlin.de
John K. Tsebe, University of the North, South Africa: tsebej@unorth.ac.za
Els van Eijck van Heslinga, National Library of Netherlands: els.vaneijck@kb.nl

Regret:
James G. Neal, Columbia University, NewYork, USA:jneal@columbia.edu

The Chair, Cristobal Pasadas, convened the second meeting of the Standing Committee on University Libraries and Other Research Libraries.

The Chair thanked all outgoing committee members. A letter of recognition will be sent to outgoing colleagues. Neils Mark, a member who is leaving the Committee expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to have served on the Committee

1. Summary of Brainstorming Session - with Kay Raseroka

Barbara Ford reported on the session which was organized by Division I at the open forum during the Berlin program. The session was focused on an agenda for action for lifelong literacy.

• Program Planning - around three IFLA priorities
• Advocacy
• Partnerships and alliances
• Professional development
• Guidelines for the development of open access to collections were identified as an important action item.
• Partnerships between national and other research libraries to assure preservation and access.
• Oral literacy and indigenous materials must be considered as lifelong literacy.
• Partnerships with other agencies in IFLA.
• Partnerships with those in library education.

These themes did not immediately identify the quality assurance measurement in libraries and this lack will be addressed.

2. Strategic Plan of Section - Cristobal Pasadas
• The Standing Committee Executive will review the goals and objectives for the Strategic Plan.
• Cristobal Pasadas has prepared a membership survey to all members of the Standing Committee. It will be distributed after pre-testing by the Standing Committee.
• The Executive Committee will work with the recommendations of the Working groups to determine the program content. The Coordinating Board of Division I will review the programs and priorities.
• The Strategic Plan deadline will be late September.
3. Break at Session of Working Groups

Following the suggestions made during Standing Committee I, committee members broke out into workgroups according to members' interests, and reported back on action plans as follows.

I. Information Literacy Work Group:

• create an international information literacy working forum to develop a framework for information literacy on different levels;
• broaden the issue of information literacy to include NGOs and other libraries for collaborative endeavours.

II. Performance Evaluation and Quality Assessment Work Group

• work in partnership with the Statistics Committee;
• study the full costs of the open access publishing model, including political, social, and economic considerations;
• publish a new monograph - not a update of the 1999 book - on quality improvement;
• sponsor a pre-conference satellite meeting prior to the 2005 Oslo meeting.

III. Scholarly Communication Work Group

Activities are based on the concept of "information for all":

• draft a statement on the Standing Committee's response to the IFLA statement on open access for review by the executive and discussion in the Standing Committee;
• for Buenos Aires 2004, prepare a joint program with the Section on Information Technology (convenor: C. Lupovici) on "Libraries and Scholarly Communication." The program will include a contribution from South America as well as the Netherlands.

IV. Relations with FAIFE and Social Responsibilities Work Group

• Al Kagan from FAIFE attended this session representing the Social Responsibilities Discussion Group. He emphasized the importance of eliminating the gap between information rich and poor.
• The Danish Denida Project was proposed as a useful model for what the Section might accomplish.

Review of Section Events at the Berlin Meeting

Sunday, August 3, 2003, 8-30-10:30
Marketing Library Services to Academic Communities

Presentation by Tom Wilding, University of Texas at Arlington, "User Surveys and Focus Groups: Gathering and Using Data from Academic Communities"

60 people attended the session

70% rated the session as good, 25% as excellent, and 5% as fair.

The content met expectations except that one presentation was not presented since it was scheduled for another session. Strengths of the session were that it was practical and there was discussion and sharing of experience. Weaknesses were that there was only one presentation and one of the presentations listed in the program was actually presented at another session. Future topics suggested include: change management issues based on real cases, construction of survey questionnaires, practical conduct of surveys, virtual reference desk, cooperation between faculty and the library, library services to support best practices especially in library schools, more marketing of all services, relationships with the university community, quality measurement, image building, outcome assessment. Compilation of evaluation forms prepared by Barbara J. Ford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Those and other topics will be incorporated into the programs of other units.

Sunday, August 3, 2003, 13:45-15:45
Quality Issues in Libraries Discussion Group (Sue McKnight, Convenor)

Over 110 libraries attended this session with 26 completed evaluation forms. This discussion group is being formally recognized, and the link with the Marketing Library Services Discussion Group will be implemented

Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 13:45-15:45
University Libraries and Other General Research Libraries and Information Literacy (Cristobal Pasadas, Convenor)

Approximately 180 attendees participated. Two opposing views on the information literacy certificate were presented by speakers and contrasts between theoretical and practical approaches were made. Cristobal Pasadas commented that context dependent learning at a local and particular level will not provide a common framework for a coordinated approach to the development of information literacy on a worldwide basis.

Thursday, August 7, 2003, 8:30-12:30
University Libraries and Other General Research Libraries with Information Technology Workshop (Frances Groan, Convenor with Larry Woods from the Information Technology Section) - The Scholar's Portal: An International Perspective

92 attendees participated in this off-site workshop. Mary Jackson (Associate of Research Libraries) was most gracious in replacing a speaker who was unable to participate and presented an overview of developers various vendors - Endeavor and Ex Libris had the opportunity for discussion and open dialogue that was highly valued by participants. The Workshop could have lasted a full day and concerns were again expressed regarding the new format for meetings.

Several poster sessions were also presented during the meeting by members of the Section:

#20      "Building a Cooperative Academic Library Network in Serbia: progress on an EU Tempus Project"
Presenters: Stella Filipi-Matutinovic and Alan Hopkinson.

#29      "Building Partnership with the University at the University"
Presenters: Mirja Iiovonen and Maija Ikonen

#65     "Bibliothèques universitaires - les lieux de l'intégration et d'émanation de l'esprit"
Presenters: Marija Vranic-Ignjacevic and Dragna Besara.

The Information Coordinator reminded all members of the Standing Committee that nominations for papers to be published in the IFLA journal should be forwarded to her by the end of August.