Round Table on Newspapers Medium Term Programme 1998-2001 If you have any suggestions, comments or items that you would like to see added to this collection, please direct your messages to: IFLANET@ifla.org Last Update: June 4, 1998

Part 1. Scope

Part 2. Goals

1. Gather and disseminate information on international newspaper collections, procedures and practices, and develop mechanisms for communication and interchange of knowledge between the major newspaper collections of the world

2. Encourage the development and adoption of international standards in newspaper preservation, microfilming, and digitisation programmes

3. Monitor technological developments arising from and affecting newspaper production, distribution, archiving and access, and assess their implications for library practices

4. Explore opportunities for cooperative approaches to the provision of newspapers in libraries and archives

5. Evaluate existing guidelines for bibliographic control of newspapers and explore complementary and/or alternative means of intellectual access

6. Explore opportunities for communication and exchange of information with organisations engaged in the production and preservation of newspapers.

Goal 1.

Gather and disseminate information on international newspaper collections, procedures and practices, and develop mechanisms for communication and interchange of knowledge between major newspaper collections of the world

Action 1:

Carry out revised world-wide survey of national newspaper collections in preparation for production of a directory listing of such collections

Action 2:

Develop methodology for identification and listing of newspaper collections in individual countries

Action 3:

Hold Open Meeting at the 1998 IFLA Amsterdam Conference on newspapers in Central and Eastern Europe.

Goal 2.

Encourage the development and adoption of international standards in newspaper preservation, microfilming and digitisation programmes

Action 1:

prepare and arrange for publication of French and Spanish translation of the Round Table's "Guidelines for the preservation microfilming of newspapers" (published by IFLA in 1996)

Action 2:

Prepare a supplement to the above Guidelines on the best practice for microfilming of newspapers in preparation for possible future digitisation

Goal 3.

Monitor technological developments arising from and affecting newspaper production, distribution, archiving and access, and assess their implications for library practices

Action:

Hold workshop at the 1998 IFLA Amsterdam Conference on newspapers on the Internet and other developments in electronic access to newspapers

Goal 4.

Explore opportunities for cooperative approaches to the provision of newspapers in libraries and archives

Action:

Provide input to the U.S. Task Force on the cooperative acquisition of and access to global newspapers

Goal 5.

Evaluate the existing guidelines for bibliographic control of newspapers and explore complementary and/or alternative means of intellectual access

Action:

Plan revision of the IFLA Guidelines for Newspaper.

Goal 6.

Explore opportunities for communication and exchange of information with organisation engaged in the production and preservation of newspapers.

Action:

Arrange visits to and meeting with newspaper publishers and organisations in conjunction with the annual Business Meetings of the Round Table (visit to Springer Verlag in Berlin, 1998)