Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania

1.

Welcoming remarks

The Committee also extended its thanks to the Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Research & Development), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Professor Md. Salleh for his welcoming remarks.

2.

Agenda

The Committee adopted the proposed Agenda.

3.

Confirmation of minutes of the Mid Conference Meeting, 29 February - 1 March 2000, in Beirut and the meetings held on 12 and 18 August 2001 in Jerusalem

4.

Matters arising

5.

Financial reports

(a)

The Professional Board has approved and transferred to the RSCAO account NLG3150 for administrative expenses.

(b)

The Secretary had received a budget of NLG10000 for the Mid-Conference Meeting in Penang.

6.

Report from the Information Coordinator

The Committee noted that the RSCAO Newsletter (beginning December 1999 issue) and the minutes of meetings had been put on IFLANET and congratulated Olga for all the efforts in expanding the information base of RSCAO on the web.

The National Library of Canada was withdrawing as host of IFLANET from the end of 2001 because of changing priorities resulting from government policy. The Committee also noted the table on IFLANET Statistics (See Appendix B).

7.

Regional Office

The Committee noted the report from the Regional Office and working time table (See Appendix C(i) and (ii)).

The Committee noted that Pensri, together with the Regional Managers for Latin America and Carribean and Africa visited IFLA Headquarters (HQ) in Hague from 19-20 October 2000 to discuss issues of concern to the regional offices and HQ. A report of the visit is attached as in Appendex (iii).

8.

ALP Advisory Committee Meeting, Uppsala, 12-17 October, 2000

Amelia, Rashidah and Pensri attended the meeting. The meeting was an opportunity to meet the funding agencies as well as to present to them reports on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with ALP funding.

The Division 8 Co-ordinating Board also met as a group to discuss the Division organisational structure. A summary of the discussion and recommendations (see Appendix D) was sent to the IFLA Executive Board (EB). EB discussed the report at length and cautioned against any expectations of significant extra resource allocations to fund some of the recommendations. EB has forwarded the report to Majorie Bloss for consideration by the Advisory Group which will present its final proposals in Boston.

The RSCAO Committee re-affirmed its stand that the regional sections play a pivotal role in library development in the regions and that the Chair of RSCAO would communicate with the Secretary-general of IFLA to keep open the discussion on the future of Division 8.

9.

RSCAO Annual Report

The Committee noted the report (Appendix E). The Section, in co-operation with other IFLA sections/core programs was able to organise several activities in line with its objectives throughout the year.

10.

Regional Section Projects

(i)

Current projects

Rashidah informed the Committee that she had completed the first draft of Baseline data for the development of libraries, librarianship and information series in the Asia/Oceania Region. The draft entries had been sent to the library association or National libraries for verification and she was now in the process of compiling the replies.

The Committee noted the report on the distribution of the video Librarianship in Asia and Oceania: On the move (see Appendix F). The Committee agreed to update the video in 2-3 years time.

The Committee noted that the Workshop Mobile Library services in Indochina was carried out successfully in February 2001.

(ii)

New projects

The Committee considered a proposal for a project to publish library innovations in Asia and Oceania. The project to be carried out in 2002 was submitted by Aree Cheunwattana and Nonguath Chairat. The Committee suggested it was necessary to define clearly what constituited innovations. The Committee agreed to consider a revised proposal.

11.

68^th IFLA Council and General Conferences, 18-24 August 2002, Glasgow, Scotland.

The theme of the Conference is ‘Libraries for life: Democracy, diversity, delivery’. Among the themes suggested for the RSCAO Open Session were ‘Appropriate technology for appropriate access’, "Role of the library in demystifying the Internet" and ‘Information literacy’. It was also suggested that a workshop on digitisation be held.

12.

Report on the 66^th General Conference, Jerusalem 2001

The Committee noted that there was lack of representation from the Asian region and that it was a good indication to IFLA to avoid holding its conference in areas of conflict.

The Committee was informed that the Arab League funded a library conference in Egypt during the same time and it was attended by about 450 librarians from the Arab-speaking countries.

13.

67^th IFLA General Conference, Boston 2001

(a)

Division Open Session

Ching-Chin Chen was selected to speak on the Chinese digital library project.

(b)

RSCAO Open Session

The Committee received 26 abstracts/papers. Eleven abstracts/papers were shortlisted and the following were selected:

(i)

Bridging the information gap between China and developed countries: a comparison of library services in China and Sweden (Chunhua Yang, China).

(ii)

Bridging the digital divide in Oceania (Jayshree Mamtora, Fiji).

(iii)

The double-edged sword: a brief comparison of IT and Internet development in Malaysia and a few countries in Asia (Ramli Abdul Samad, Malaysia).

(iv)

Addressing the digital divide (Rowena Cullen, New Zealand)

(c)

RSCAO Workshop: Small is beautiful: creative strategies for library development

The Workshop will focus on creative strategies to gain support from external sources for library services. This will include support form the community, the private sector, foundations, government and non-government agencies, and international organisations.

The objectives of the workshop are:

1.

To share experiences in gaining support from various sectors for library development.

2.

To identify successful strategies for gaining support for the development of library services or projects.

3.

To bring together librarians and representatives from funding agencies.

4.

To learn the skills and techniques of writing effective project proposals.

The Committee considered the 8 abstracts/papers received and selected the following:

(i)

The children’s library: a gift of love from the community (Shukriyah Yon, Ong Chai Lin, Penang Public Library)

(ii)

The Train Library for homeless children (Aree Cheunwattana and Pimol Meksawat, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok)

(iii)

Strategies for sponsorship (Harrison Perera, British Council, Sri Lanka)

(iv)

Creative strategies: USP region (Elizabeth Reade-Fong, University of South Pacific Library, Fiji)

(v)

Local needs, global help (Sam Kaima, University of New Papua Guinea).

(vi)

Logframe analysis for project applications (Gary Gorman, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

14.

Medium Term Plan

The Committee noted the following IFLA’s professional priorities which were formally adopted by the IFLA Executive Board in December 2000:

(a)

Supporting the role of libraries in society

(b)

Defending the principle of freedom of information

(c)

Promoting literacy, reading, and lifelong learning

(d)

Promoting unrestricted access to information

(e)

Safeguarding the intellectual property rights of libraries and authors

(f)

Promoting resource sharing

(g)

Preserving our intellectual heritage

(h)

Developing library professionals

(i)

Promoting standards, guidelines, and best practices

(j)

Supporting the infrastructure of library associations

(k)

Representing libraries in the technological marketplace

These priorities will form the basis and starting point of all the Section’s activities over the next few years. Details of the priorities are as in Appendix G(i). The Committee also noted ALP’s priorities (see Appendix G(ii)).

15.

Advancement of Librarianship Programme (ALP)

The Committee congratulated Ms. Birgitta Sandell on her appointment as Director of ALP effective October 2000 until 31 December 2003. The Committee recorded its thanks and appreciation to Ms. Birgitta Sandell the previous Director for her valuable contributions to the activities of RSCAO.

The Committee noted the following:

(a)

List of projects and planned activities in Asia and Oceania (See Appendix H(i)). The Committee decided not to proceed with Project 247 as the person responsible for the project cannot be contacted. Project 256 will now take place in 2002, while Project 250 will take place in Kuala Lumpur from 11-12 June 2001.

(b)

2000 annual report (see Appendix H(ii))

(c)

Scholarships in information technology

The Committee noted that 2 of the successful applicants for 2000, Ms. Zhang Jingbo (China) and Ms. Maliwan Noibuatip (Thailand) attended the 3 month course at the Asian Institute of Technology, while Ms. Lilia F. Echiveri (Philippines) withdrew from the program.

This year, ALP received 28 applications from Bangladesh (3), China (2), India (6), Iran (1), Myanmar (2), Korea (2), Nepal (3), Philippines (2), Sri Lanka (2), Thailand (4) and Vietnam (1). The following applicants were successful:

(i)

Ohn Mar Oo (Myanmar)

(ii)

Gadagin B. R. (India)

(iii)

Ms. Shivanthi Chandrika Weerasinghe (Sri Lanka)

The Committee agreed to look at alternative sites to send receipients of these scholarships. Gary agreed to head a group that would look at IT training needs and also possible training sites. Rashidah, Shawky, Hilda, Amelia and Sun agreed to be part of the group.

(d)

In service training/attachments

The Committee noted that the successful applicants in 2000, Md. Nasiruddin (Bangladesh) and Shivajogi S. Bhusaraddi (India) had completed their attachments in Thailand at the Department of Library Science, Sri Nakharinwirot University and the Thai Library Association and SPAFA Library respectively, from mid January – mid February 2001. Ms. Mary Warus (Papua New Guinea) is expected to be on attachment later in the year in Australia.

For the year 2001, ALP received 40 applications from Bangladesh (3), China (4), India (4), Myanmar (19), Nepal (2), Philippines (3), Sri Lanka (2), Thailand (2) and Vietnam (1).

The successful applicants were:

(i)

Ms. Swe Swe Myint (Myanmar)

(ii)

Ms. Mary Ann M. Ingua (Philippines)

(iii)

Md. Mozibur Rahman Sarkar (Bangladesh)

(iv)

Tong Qingsong (China)

(e)

DANIDA Travel Grant

ALP received 149 applications from Bangladesh (14), China (10), Fiji Islands (1), Federated States of Micronesia (1), India (37), Indonesia (4), Iran (4), Korea (1), Laos (1), Lebanon (2), Malaysia (6), Mongolia (3), Nepal (8), Paga Pago (1), Pakistan (5), Palau (2), Papua New Guinea (10), Philippines (12), Samoa (1), Saudi Arabia (2), Sri Lanka (5). China (3), Fiji (1), India (2), Malaysia (1), Micronesia (1), New Papua Guinea (1) and Samoa (1). It was expected that 15 candidate would be selected.

The Committee also noted the Danida Travel Grant Report 2000 (see Appendix H(iii)). Nine of the 27 candidates who received this grant were from Asia/Oceania.

(f)

Project Proposals

The Committee considered the following project proposals:

(i)

Submission no. 259: Workshop and training on the utilization of elementary school libraries to enhance basic education in rural areas in Indonesia (Indonesian Library Association).

(ii)

Submission no. 260: Janasetha Library Development Project (Janasetha Social Service Organisation, Sri Lanka).

(iii)

Submission no. 261: Workshop on LIS curriculum in the Arab Countries (Dr. Imad Bachir, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information and Documentation, The Lebanese University).

(iv)

Submission no. 262: Mekong regional network for LIS training (Dr. Sujin Butdisuwan, Director, Academic Resource Centre, Mahasarakham University, Thailand).

Submission no. 260 was rejected as it did not conform to the ALP guidelines. Submission no. 259 was accepted subject to minor revision.

16.

IFLA/RSCAO Seminar on the Digital Challenge in Libraries

Rashidah informed the Committee that this Seminar, jointly organised with the Library, Universiti Sains Malaysia with the co-operation of the Penang State Library and the Persatuan Pustakawan Malaysia (Librarians Association of Malaysia) will be held on 9 March and the following papers will be presented:

(i)

IFLA and the digital challenge (Russell Bowden)

(ii)

The impact of digital information on collection management (Gary E. Gorman)

(iii)

Consortium purchasing models for electronic services: the Australian experience (Amelia McKenzie)

(iv)

Overcoming the digital divide: a case study of Kotmalar Community library (Harrison Perera)

(v)

Advancement of Librarianship Programme (ALP) (Gunilla Natvig)

17.

Recommendation from the IFLA Social Responsibilities Discussion Group

The Committee discussed the Recommendations (see Appendix I) and agreed that these concerns will be addressed in related activities carried out in the region.

18.

MEDLIB

The Committee noted the report from the IFLA office for UAP and International Lending on the development of a virtual library for the Mediterranean region (see Appendix J).

19.

Venue for next Mid-Conference Meeting

It was agreed that the meeting be held 6-9 March 2002 in either Colombo, Sri Lanka or Beijing, China.

20.

Closing remarks

The Chair thanked Rashidah and all her staff Universiti Sains Malaysia Library for all the support they have provided in hosting the meeting and Seminar. She also thanked:

(i)

The Vice Chancellor, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Profesor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak for hosting a dinner at Hotel Vistana on 7^th March 2001.

(ii)

Mr. John Ben De Vette, Asia General Manager, Assistant Vice-President, EBSCO Information Services for hosting a Cultural Tour, Dinner and Show at the Pinang Cultural Centre on 8^th March 2001.

(iii)

Rashidah for hosting a home dinner on 9^th March 2001.

(iv)

The Penang State Library Corporation for hosting visits to the State library and the Teluk Kumbar Village Library.

(v)

Access Dunia for sponsoring the Seminar on the Digital Challenge in Libraries which was attended by 105 Librarians from throughout Malaysia.

(vi)

Persatuan Pustakawan Malaysia (Librarians Association of Malaysia) for presenting all participants with 1 set of the standards of private college and University libraries and a copy of Memorable Journey.

Finally Amelia thanked all the members present for their valuable contributions to the discussions.