Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania

Minutes of the Meetings Held in Boston, August 2001

Present on Meeting I: 19 August 2001

Observers :

Hasna Askhita (Syria) Dominique Bergourgnan (France) Chandra Prabha (US) Ms. Arlene Cohen (Guam) Dilgit Singh (Malaysia) Dinesh K. Gupta (India) Ms. Aida Farha (Lebanon) Martin Giles (US) Mohd. Sharif Mohd. Saad (Malaysia) Ms.Cheryl Morales (Samoa) Neela Jagannathan (India) Ms. Kay Raseroka (Botswana) Ms. Mynak R. Tulku (Bhutan) Uma Kanjilal (India) Ms. Miraneta Williams (Samoa) Wu Jianzhong (China) Zhou Xiaoyong (China)

Present on Meeting II: 24 August 2001

Observers :

Ms. Anjali Gulati (India) Ms. Grace Hiris Birney (Papua New Guinea) Ms. Margaret Bywater (Cambodia) Cao Xiping (China) Ms. Arlene Cohen (Guam) Ms. Thelma Diercks (Manoa) Ms. Aida Farha (Lebanon) Ms. Sharon E. Henry (Asian Development Bank) Ms. Imengel Mad (Palau) Ms. Jayshree Mamtora (Fiji) Ms. Patricia Oyler (US) Ms. Pradnya Yogesh (India) Michael Robinson (Australia) Robert Stueart (US)

Apologies :

Ravinder Kumar Chadha (Member) Ms. Olga P. Fetodova (Member) Ms. Khunying Maenmas Chavalit (Member) A.P. Gakhar (Member) Abbas Hori (Member) Ms. Thara Kanakamani (Member) Jayasiri Langkage (Member) P.E. Harrison, Perera (Member) Ms. Anna Shirinian (Member) Ms. Sun Beixun (Member) c.c.

D.E.K. Wijasuriya (Special Advisor) Ms. Mandana Sadigh-Behzadi (Corresponding Member) Ross Shimmon (Secretary General, IFLA) Sjoerd M.J. Koopman (Co-ordinator of Professional Activities, IFLA)

Welcoming Remarks

The Chair welcomed all participants and observors present and conveyed apologies from the Committee Members who were not able to attend.

The Chair on behalf of the Committee, recorded its thanks to A.P. Gakhar, Ms. Thara Kanakamani and Jayasiri Lankage who had completed their second consecutive term and to Russell Bowden, Ravinder Kumar Chadha, Ms. Khunying Maenmas Chavalit, Ms. Olga Fedotova, Ms. Sun Beixin and Ms. Anna Shirinian who had server their four-year term and did not renominate.

The Committee also welcomed three new members, Ms. Aree Cheunwattana from Srinakharinwirot University, Faculty of Humanities, Thailand, Ms, Kalpana Dasgupta from the Indian Library Association and R. Ramachandran from the National Library Board, Singapore.

Agenda

Confirmation of minutes of the Mid-Conference Meeting held in Penang, Malaysia, 7-9 March 2001

Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

Regional Office

• There are 948 names on the current monthly list of the Regional Office Newsletter. 1,500 copies of the Newsletter are printed for distribution to members and other relevant organisations.
• The Mobile Library project has been completed and the final activity was a workshop held from 18-24 February 2001 in Loas and Thailand. Expense for the IFLA's resource persons was provided through the RSCAO. It is recommended that a long-term plan for Mobile Library Services for Sustainable Development be prepared, a book entitled "Mobile Library Services in Indochina" be published and that a video tape training package for mobile libraries be developed.

As at 1 July the Section on Regional Activity: Asia and Oceania had the third largest membership (345) after the Section on University Libraries (510) and Information Technology (457).

Financial Reports

• The major expense from the Administrative Funds was for the priority of the Section's leaflet and bookmarks.
• The meeting budget was used to pay the local hospital expenses of 11 participants to the mid-conference meeting held in Penang.

Reports

Report from the Information Coordinator

Annual Report 2000/2001

67th Council and General Conference

1. Division of Regional activities Open Forum "Bridging the Digital Divide in Asia and Oceania".

   (Chair: Ms. Amelia McKenzie)

   Four papers were presented. About 35 participants attended the session.

2. Div. VIII Open Forum "Bridging the Digital Divide. Meeting the challenge of the knowledge age in developing countries". (Chair: Ms. Amelia McKenzie)

   Three papers were presented and attendance was about 140 persons.
3. RSCAO Workshop "Small is beautiful: creative strategies for library development". (Chair: Ms. Rashidah Begum)
   Presentations were made by Ms. Shukriyah Yon/Ong Chai Lin, Ms. Aree Cheunwattana, Ms. Pimol Meksawat, Elizabeth Reade Fong and Gary Gorman. As Sam Kiama was unable to attend his paper was presented by Ms. Grace Hiris Birney. The workshop attracted about 30 participants.

4. IFLA Booth Schedule

   Ms. Amelia and Ms. Rashidah were on duty on the IFLA booth on 21 August, 13.00-14.00 to answer questions about the Regional Division Activities.

5. Poster Session

   The Regional Office with the co-operation of ALP participated in this session. Photographs and reports of activities were display and various publicity materials were distributed.

6. Information Co-ordinators Meeting

   Ms. Hilda Nasser attend the meetings on Monday 20August. IFLANET policies and procedures were presented followed by an open discussion on IFLANET issues.

7. Ms. Rashidah and Gary attended the Officers Training Session

8. Co-ordinating Board (CB) Meeting

   Ms. Amelia and Ms. Rashidah attended the meeting on 17 August, 19 August and the next meeting was scheduled for 24 August. Matters discussed included the strategy for IFLA's professional activities. The four-year cycle of the medium term program is now replaced by a strategic plan based on a two year cycle. Each Section has been asked to prepare a strategic plan with a mission, priorities and an action plan for the period 2002-2003. The action plan will be reviewed every year.

   The theme for the Division open session would be Cultural divide: Impact on the Information Society.

   The Committee was also informed about the change in the states of Special Advisers under Rules of Procedures in the new statutes. They will now be termed corresponding members and the standing committee may appoint up to five (5) corresponding members to provide for experts from countries or geographical areas, which would not otherwise be represented, or to provide expertised in a specific subject area. The initial term will be for two years, renewable for one further term of two years.

   The Committee was informed that the new Chair of Division VIII is Ms. Rashidah Begum (Chair, Asia/Oceania) while the Secretary is Ms. Jacinta Were (Chair, Africa).

68th IFLA General Conference, Glasgow 2001

Open Session

The Committee agreed the on the theme Information Building Skills for Lifelong Learning.

The Committee agreed on a Workshop on Implementing the Dublin Core as a Metadata Standard.

Advancement of Librarianship Programme (ALP)

The Committee noted that the ALP priorities for 2002-2003 will be in the areas of library association development, human resource development, libraries and literacy, information technology in developing countries, and information to the community with special attention to the indigenious communities.

1. Goal 1: to support the development of library associations.
2. Goal 2: to assist in continuing education and training.
   The activities planned include attachments, workshop on the US curiculum in the Arab countries, and Mekong Regional Network for LIS training.
3. Goal 3: to promote libraries and literacy functional literacy reading and lifelong learning.
4. Goal 4: to promote new technology.
5. Goal 5: to support information services to the community with a special attention to indigenous communities.

Members were asked to think about other programmes, projects and workshops that the Section could carry out that would meet the abovementioned goals. Tribute to the late Birgitta Bergdahl, former Director of IFLA/ALP was made during the Council I.

The Committee notet that it was still looking into alternative sites for the IT training scheme under ALP.

Strategic Plan, RSCAO 2001-2003

IFLA Advisory Group on Division VIII Report

The Committee was informed that the Regional Division Coordinating Board (RCB) discussed the Division VIII organisational structure on October 12 2000 and again on October 13 2000 with Ross Shimmon during the ALP Advisory Committee Meeting in Uppsala. It was noted that the work of the sections in the three regions is important for the development of librarianship in these regions. IFLA, ALP, Division VIII, the sections, and the Regional Offices should work more actively together to strengthen library and information associations and to contribute to library development in the region.

Adolfo Rodriguez, Chair of the RCB presented the report on the work of the Advisory Group on the Division of Regional Activities during the Council I Sessions.

Election of Executive Committee and Information Coordinator, 2001-2003

IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellows, 2002

4th International Conference of Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2001)

World Library Summit (WLS) 2002: Global Knowledge Renaissance, 21-27 April 2002

Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL)

Rescheduling the First Meeting of the Regional Section

Social Activities

Representatives from the Standing Committee for the Other Section

Dates for next meeting

Closing remarks