Genealogy and Local History Section

Minutes of the Meetings held in Berlin, Germany

Standing Committee Meeting 1.
August 2, 2003

Participants:
Melvin Thatcher, Genealogical Society of Utah
Janice McFarlane, National Library of Scotland
Ruth Hedegaard, Vendsyssel historical Museum, Denmark
Harriet Kasow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Paul Smart, Family History Library
Colette O’Flaherty, National Library of Ireland
Elisabeth Melrose, North Yorkshire County Council Libraries
Ellen Ndeshi Namhila, Namibia Library and Information Service
Richard E. Huws, National Library of Wales
Joyce Jelks, retired public librarian
Miao Qihao, Shanghai Library

1. Presentation of Committee members and participants and comments on the work of the section

There are now 22 section members, and we do hope to get more. Ellen Ndeshi Namhila will apply for corresponding membership, and also try to get new members from Africa.

Melvin: In the future we should try to cooperate with local history and genealogical societies at conference venues. They could serve as corresponding members on the Standing Committee.

Ruth: The section is important and fills a gap in IFLA. It is a problem, that there has not been much response on the ideas and tasks that were debated last year in Glasgow, such as closer cooperation and joint projects with the geography and map section, and the Children’s libraries section.

Qihao: We should try to cooperate with private enterprises.
Harriet wants to make a questionnaire about genealogy and local history services to send to national libraries.

2. Election of officers:

Chair: Melvin Thatcher
Secretary: Ruth Hedegaard
Treasurer: Janice McFarlanae
Information coordinator: Colette O’Flaherty
Editor of newsletter: Harriet Kasow

3. IFLA HQ and Division business

IFLA HQ will be conducting a Section review in 2007, so we need to make sure that our plans are realistic and out goals are met. Mel and Ruth reported items from the division meetings.

4. Financial report

Janice reported that we will have to find some good projects. We decided to reimburse the National Library of Scotland for newsletter printing and mailing expenses if they become too burdensome.

5. Open Session status report.

Ruth reported that all four papers are submitted to IFLA-homepage. Elizabeth said she had problems getting access to the speakers’room to test here slides.

Janice reported that all preparations were done. She has been trying to get an article in IFLA Express about the study tour every day but has not been able to do so.

Mel reviewed the current status of action items. We must decide if we want to make a directory of organizations of vital interest to genealogy and local history librarians. There was a proposal to prepare guidelines on data private issues. We agreed that we need to do more to rejuvenae the GENLOC listserv. There was a proposal to seek cooperation with ICA International Council of Archives.

Ruth reported on her work in Denmark to recruite more members. She will send another invitation to join the Section members to IFLA members and explain that membership in two sections is free of charge.

9. Any other business

Nothing in particular to be reported.

Standing Committee Meeting 2.
August 8, 2003

Participants:
Melvin Thatcher, Genealogical Society of Utah
Janice McFarlane, National Library of Scotland
Ruth Hedegaard, Vendsyssel historical Museum, Denmark
Harriet Kasow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Paul Smart, Family History Library
Elisabeth Melrose, North Yorkshire County Council Libraries
Monica Cullinan, Main Library University College Dublin
Ray Madsen, Family History Library

1. Open Session Review

We were generally very satisfied with the Open Session with more than 100 participants and many interested questions and comments. Ruth will write a letter to the speakers thanking them for their task.

We were equally very satisfied with the study tour, where Peter Borchardt gave a very interesting tour of the Centre of Berlin Studies. Janice will write a letter to him, thanking him for all his efforts in planning the Study tour.

Many things were discussed and many proposals were made. Mel and Ruth told about the contact with the Rare Books section. Ruth told about her contact with the Children’s Libraries section

Mel referred to the Maps and Geography section; maybe we can do something in common at the Oslo conference in 2005. Mel referred to Joyce Jelks, who participated in our firs section meeting; she would like to learn more about colonial archives. He participated in the Latin American Region Standing Committee meeting and found strong interest in the the idea of an open session on immigration. Chile has a library for returnees.

It was decided that our theme for Buenos Aires will be: "Origins, lives and contributions of emigrant communities"with maybe a sub theme: Education. Mel and Ruth are responsible for the Open session and the study tour.

Colette will be Information Coordinator and manage GENLOC and GENLOC2 listervs.

Harriet will draft, and ciirculate for comment, a letter to IFLA headquarters about the need for multimedia support and internet connections for speakers at future conferences.

Leaflet:
Mel and Ruth will update Section’s leaflet. We want translations of the leaflet. Ruth is responsible for German and French, Mel is responsible for Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese, and Harriet is responsible for Arabic.

Action 1.2
Mel will send something to Genloc on data privacy. Colette will establish contact with FAIFE so that we can work with it on data privacy issues.

Action 2.4
Harriet will send out a questionnaire to national libraries about their genealogy and local history services. Janice will survey national library associations to determine the level of support for genealogy and local history librarianship.

Action ?.?
Colette will try to stimulate traffic on GENLOC by posting discussion topics.

Action 5.2
Mel will reformulate this goal. Elizabeth and Monica will collect genealogy and local history guidelines.

6. World Record Manager

Ray Madsen presented an update.

7. Any other business

Shanghai Library wants status as corresponding member. Monica Cullinan and Elisabeth Melrose want to participate in the work of the Standing Committee. We decided to add their names to the GENLOC2 listerv.

Reported by:
Ruth Hedegaard