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IN THIS DOCUMENT:

Scope Statement

Membership

Meetings

Projects

Publications

Conference Programmes

Relationships with other Bodies

Other Events



Management of Library Associations Section

Annual Report
January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2003

Scope Statement

Within IFLA, the Management of Library Associations Section (MLAS) advocates for the interests, aspirations and concerns of the library associations that are represented among IFLA members. There is a continuum of resources available to library associations: some have paid staff and others are run by volunteers, both possessing a wide range of experience and expertise. The Section addresses the needs and promotes interests of all types and sizes of library associations and brings together staff and elected leaders and representatives of these associations to foster and improve leadership skills; share experiences; develop useful publications and to offer workshops, seminars and programmes that address their needs and interests, support IFLA's Core Programmes; and advocate within IFLA for the promotion and development of effective library and library association practices worldwide.

Library associations provide many valuable services to librarians. They work to develop effective library programmes and services that meet the needs of library users and advance societal objectives and interests, ensuring public access to information and preserving and protecting cultural resources.

In its Medium-Term Programme, the MLAS will promote the mission of library associations in setting and maintaining standards for the provision of library services in all types of libraries, encouraging the professional development of librarians through effective training and education programmes that promote lifelong learning.

Membership

The Management of Library Associations Section consists of all the international (17) and national (143) library associations that are members of IFLA. The MLAS Executive Committee has 21 elected members representing individual library associations. In the 2003 elections for Standing Committee members, there were 24 candidates running. In the count, there was a draw for the 20th place as both people had 24 votes, so Rule 12.16 was applied and the Professional Committee Chair allowed the increase of members to 21. The Rules of Procedure 12.16 states "The maximum number of Standing Committee members may be increased, notwithstanding Rule 12.4, during any given two-year interval by no more than 10%, at the discretion of the Chair of the Professional Committee, providing that the number of such additional members shall not exceed two."

Of the 21 members of the Standing Committee, there are people serving their first term, as well as those serving their second term and not eligible for reelection.

Members serving their first term from 2003-2007 and eligible for reelection for another four years are:

Members serving their second term 2003-2007 and not eligible for reelection are:

Officers

Chair: Christina Stenberg
Svensk Biblioteksforening/Swedish Library Association, Box 3127, 103 62 Stockholm, SWEDEN
Phone: 468-545-132-30, FAX: 468-545-132-31
E-mail chs@biblioteksforeningen.org
The Chair was re-elected at the 1st MLAS Standing Committee meeting on August 2, 2003.

Secretary: Arlene Cohen
Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives, University of Guam, RFK Library UOG Station, Mangilao, Guam 96923, USA
Phone: 1-671-735-2345, FAX: +1-671-734-6882
E-mail acohen@uog9.uog.edu
The Secretary was re-elected at the 1st MLAS Standing Committee meeting on August 2, 2003.

Treasurer: Carla Funk
Executive Director, Medical Library Association, Inc., 65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 1900, Chicago, Illinois 60601, USA
Phone: 1-312-419-9094, FAX: 1-312-419-8950
E-mail funk@mlahq.org
Carla Funk agreed to stay as Treasurer at the 1st MLAS Standing Committee meeting on August 2, 2003.

Information Coordinator: Jennefer Nicholson
Executive Director, Australian Library and Information Association, P.O. Box E441, Kingston 2604 AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61-2-6285-1877, FAX: 61-2-6282-2249
E-mail jennefer.nicholson@alia.org.au
The Information Coordinator was reappointed at the 1st MLAS Standing Committee meeting on August 2, 2003.

All officers in the Standing Committee are serving their second period as officers, which will end at the IFLA Conference in Oslo, 2005. (The term for officers is two years)

Meetings

The were two meetings held this year. One was the 44th RTMLA Executive Committee meeting held in Oslo, Norway, February 27 - March 1, 2003 with 11 Executive Committee members and 3 guests present. The 1st meeting of the MLAS Standing Committee was held August 2 and August 8, 2003 in Berlin, Germany during the IFLA Conference. There were 20 Executive Committee members and 31 observers present for the first session and the second session had 14 Executive Committee members and 11 observers.

Projects

In 1998, the Library Association Resource Kit project became an effort to publish brochures based on chapters of the 1989 UNESCO/RTMLA Guidelines for the Management of Professional Associations in the Fields of Archives, Library and Information. All brochures are now written and details of the status of translations can be found in the Publications section of this report.

Organizational Structure, the last and final brochure was completed during this past year by Carla Funk. Those responsible for the translations done this year were Daniel Pizarro for the Spanish, Sabine Stummeyer for the German, Katja Zaitseva for the Russian and Jiang Weiming for the Chinese. All references referring to RTMLA were changed to MLAS and all brochures were distributed at the IFLA 2003 Conference during the MLAS Open Session, both workshops and at the IFLA HQ Booth.

There are still several brochures needing translation and work will continue. Alicia Ocaso began working on Spanish translations for the IFLA 2004 Buenos Aires Conference.

The highly successful IFLA-MLAS listserv continues to be hosted by the Special Libraries Association in Washington, DC, USA and is constantly growing in members and postings. During this reporting year, the list grew from 216 to 271 subscribers representing library associations throughout the world.

Extensive updating of the IFLA MLAS WWW site was done this year including the posting many of the completed IFLA MLAS guidelines brochures.

Winnie Vitzansky and Jan-Ewout van der Putten worked on a proposal for funding members from developing countries to participate in MLAS activities and found that there are no easy solutions. There has been much discussion on this issue and many suggestions. One idea was that when funds for a speaker are needed, several members of the Standing Committee could pool their resources to fund individuals on a case by case basis. Funding for officers of the Standing Committee is a much bigger commitment. The model provided this past few years of the Swedish Library Association funding the travel and hotel costs of the Secretary is one that is hoped will be picked up by another association, if a future Standing Committee elected officer needs financial support to attend meetings of the Standing Committee.

Publications

Brochure on The Organizational Structure of Associations. Only in English.

Brochure on Association Programs and Services. In English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

Brochure on Developing Policies and Procedures for the Library Association. In English,

German, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and French.

Brochure on Guidelines for Financial Management of Library Associations. In English, German, Chinese and French.

Brochure on Guidelines for Governing and Leading Library Associations. In English, German, Chinese, Russian and French.

Brochure on Guidelines for Library Association Operations. In English, Russian and French.

Brochure on Expanding Advocacy in the Library Community - A Guide for Developing a Government Relations without Borders. In English, German, Russian, Spanish and French.

Most of these publications are on the IFLA MLAS WWW site

The IFLA-MLAS Newsletter, Vol 24, Fall 2003 and the 2003 MLAS Membership brochure were published this year and distributed at the IFLA 2003 Berlin Conference.

Papers presented at the 69th IFLA MLAS Open Session, Berlin, Germany, August 5, 2003:

  1. The salaries initiative: planning, implementation and action
    BOB McKEE (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals, London, UK)
  2. Strategies by LIASA to develop library services and the profession in South Africa
    ELLEN R. TISE (University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa)
  3. The professionalization of librarians in the Philippines: the role of library associations
    La professionnalisation des bibliothécaires aux Philippines : le rôle des association de professionnels de la bibliothèque
    ANTONIO M. SANTOS (University of the Philippines, Quezon, Philippines)

Papers presented at the 69th IFLA MLAS joint workshop with Library Theory and Research, Berlin, Germany, August 6, 2003:

  1. Politicians and librarians behind the same wheel
    CHRISTOF EICHERT (Deutschen Bibliotheksverbandes e.V., Ludwigsburg, Germany)
  2. Political perceptions - a view from Croatia
    ALEKSANDRA HORVAT (Dept. of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia)
  3. Public library politics: the Ugandan perspective
    ROBERT IKOJA ODONGO (East African School of Library and Information Science, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda)
  4. Politicians and librarians behind the same wheel
    Les bibliothécaires et les politiciens : en route vers un but commun
    FINN VESTER (Danish Library Association, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Conference Programmes

The MLAS sponsored an Open Session and two joint workshops at the 69th IFLA Conference in Berlin, Germany.

The Open Session, Strategic Planning: Developing Effective Strategies for Library Associations was held on Tuesday, August 4, 2003. Ellen Tise and Mitch Freedman planned this interesting program that drew 116 people. Papers were presented by Mitch Freedman (USA), Bob McKee (UK), Keith M. Fiels (USA), Ellen Tise (South Africa), and Ana Maria Peruchena Zimmermann (Argentina). Antonio M. Santos (Philippines) was unable to attend and due to limitations of time, his paper was not read, although it was published on the IFLA WWW site. Although all the papers were very well done, the session was too short for the many speakers and there was not enough time for any discussion.

A Joint Workshop with the Library Theory and Research Section, Libraries and Politics - How to Bring Libraries and National Associations into the Political Sphere? was held on Wednesday, August 16, 2003. This exceptional 4 hour workshop, planned by Tore Kr. Andersen and Marion Koren and attended by 103 people, began with introductions by Kerry Smith, Chair of the Library Theory and Research Section and our Chair, Christina Stenberg. Presentations were then given by Dr. Christof Eichert (Germany), Professor Bob Usherwood (UK) and Finn Vester (Denmark) and research reports were given by Premila Gamage (Sri Lanka) and Aleksandra Horvat (Croatia). The presentation by Robert Ikoja Odongo (Uganda) was given by Dick Kawooya. The session ended with a panel discussion moderated by Bob Usherwood.

Another Joint Workshop with the Management and Marketing Section Marketing our Library Associations was held on Thursday August 17, 2003. Àngels Massisimo of the Management and Marketing Section planned this workshop with the MLAS and 63 people attended. Presentations were given by John Berry, (USA); Madeline LeFebver (Canada); Aida Naaman (Lebanon); Gillian Hallam (Australia) and Adela d’Alos-Moner (Spain).

During all of the above sessions, the MLAS brochures were available for distribution.

Relationships with other Bodies

Chair Christina Stenberg was invited to the 2003 West African Library Association (WALA) Conference held in Accra, Ghana in November. The theme was Management of Library Associations and she spoke about advocacy and the World Summit for the Information Society.

Several MLAS Standing Committee members were active participants in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) representing both the MLAS, and their respective library associations and countries. Sinikka Sipila traveled to Geneva to attend the PrepCom3 (Preparatory Committee) in September; the PrepCom3A and IFLA’s pre-conference Libraries at the Heart of the Information Society in November. In December at the IFLA seminar held during the WSIS, she spoke about the Finnish Library Strategy 2010 as an example of a national library strategy, as suggested in the WSIS Plan of Action

Winnie Vitzansky was also active in preparing for the IFLA pre-conference in Geneva. Initially, the work of the WSIS was toward technology, with little interest in information content. To address this important issue, working within IFLA and the Danish Library Association, she took a leadership role in trying refocus the WSIS. During the WSIS in December, Winnie worked with Marian Koren of the Dutch Public Library Association to produce reports which were posted daily on IFLA-L. Alicia Ocaso also attended the IFLA pre-conference Libraries at the Heart of the Information Society in November in Geneva where she was a member of Uruguayan delegation. She played a role in advocating for libraries and the role of IFLA to the many Latin American delegates.

The efforts of our MLAS Standing Committee members, members of our MLAS section and many people representing national library associations throughout the world resulted in libraries being mentioned in the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Action Plan, providing a useful basis for follow-up actions for the second part of the World Summit planned to be held in Tunis in 2005.

The MLAS was invited to attend the 10th Crimea 2003 Conference in Sudak, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine on June 2003. On behalf of Christina Stenberg, Dr. Mats Lindquist, Board member of the Swedish Library Association attended representing the IFLA MLAS. He participated in a workshop with Boris Marshak (ELNIT Executive Director) and Kama Urmurzina (President, Information Consortium of Kazakkhstan Libraries). As part of the workshop, the MLAS guidelines brochures, translated into Russian, were distributed and discussed.

This was the third time the MLAS has attended the Crimea Conference as a way to reach out and be involved with other local and regional conferences. The MLAS is working on guidelines for participation in conferences and workshops other than at the IFLA annual conference.

We continue to work with Advancement of Librarianship Program (ALP) to develop joint programs and identify funding resources.

In addition, the MLAS has had other relationships described throughout this report.

Other Events

MLAS Chair Christina Stenberg was asked to be on the IFLA Governing Board for the term 2003-04. This year long limited appointment is an effort to strengthen the influence of library associations in the work of IFLA and will be evaluated at the end of the term. It provides the MLAS with an excellent opportunity to be more directly involved in the IFLA Governing Board’s work and strengthen the influence of library associations within IFLA.

For the past several years, a change in our status from Round Table to Section was discussed within the RTMLA. This change of status finally occurred at December 2001 meeting of the IFLA Professional Committee and the MLAS was founded at the end of the IFLA 2002 Glasgow Conference. At that time, the RTMLA Executive Board and officers became the MLAS Interim officers and Executive Board. Soon after the IFLA 2002 Conference, IFLA Headquarters decided there was enough time to hold elections for the MLA Section Standing Committee during the 2003 election year and elections were held with 24 candidates competing.

By a special decision taken by the Governing Board, all Association members of IFLA automatically became members of MLA Section.

During IFLA 2003 Berlin Conference, a special meeting was held to address IFLA membership fees with representatives from both the National Library Associations and IFLA headquarters in IFLA’s attempt to develop a fair and clear system for the calculation of fees for National Association members. At this meeting, it was decided that a working group from the MLAS be appointed to work on issues related to restructuring dues for National Association members and methodologies for restructuring, and then to make suggestions to the IFLA Governing Board and Council. The MLAS Executive Committee members appointed to this Working Group were Christina Stenberg, Duane Webster, Jan-Ewout van der Putten, Norma Amenu-Kpodo, Alicia Ocaso and Gwenda Thomas. The Working Group met on December 1-2, 2003 at IFLA Headquarters and working with Ross Shimmon, IFLA Secretary General; Ingrid Parent, IFLA Treasurer and Kelly Moore, IFLA Membership Manager, devised a methodology that will be tested to determine it’s impact on members.

The MLAS was asked to look at a proposal by Andrew Cranfield (Denmark) and Stuart Hamilton (Denmark) for the creation of a IFLA Young Librarian’s Forum with the possibility they could be established under our section. There was interest and the idea will be pursued.

During the IFLA Berlin 2003 Conference, almost 100 people from library associations all over the world gathered on the roof terrace of the International Congress Centre to celebrate the Birthday and Farewell of the RTMLA and birth of the MLAS. Thanks to Katalin Harasztiand and her Hungarian colleagues, a beautiful and delicious Birthday cake was enjoyed by all as the group bid farewell to the RTMLA!

Author:
Arlene Cohen
MLAS Secretary

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