Management of Library Associations

44th meeting of the Executive Committee

Minutes

1. Welcome

Interim Chair Christina Stenberg (Swedish Library Association) called the meeting to order and welcomed those present to the MLA Section Executive Committee meeting.

Executive Committee members present were:
Tore Kr. Andersen (Norwegian Library Association)
Norma Amenu Kpodo (Commonwealth Library Association)
Arlene Cohen (Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives, Guam), Interim Secretary
Keith Fiels (American Library Association)
Carla J. Funk (Medical Library Association, USA)
Douglas Newcomb (Special Libraries Association, USA)
Jan-Ewout van der Putten (Netherlands Public Library Association)
Sabine Stummeyer (Berufsverband Information Bibliothek e.V., Germany)
Winnie Vitzansky (The Danish Library Association)
Duane Webster (Association of Research Libraries, USA)
Vladimir Zaitsev (Russian Library Association)

The following guests attended:
Maya Shaparneva (Russian Library Association)
Natalia Verbina (Russian Library Association)
Dilshod Yusupov (Uzbekistan Library Association)

2. Approval of the Agenda

Christina Stenberg corrected Item 19 indicating it involved only one issue. Winnie Vitzansky added two items to the Agenda following Item 19. Item 20: National implementation of IFLA policies and the role of MLA Section and library associations; and Item 21: MLA Section reaction to the paper Creating a Green Light for IFLA. The Agenda was approved as amended.

3. Apologies for Absence

Boris Marshak (ELNIT Association)

Jennefer Nicholson (Australian Library and Information Association) Information Coordinator

4. Approval of 43rd RTMLA Executive Committee meeting Minutes, Glasgow, Scotland

The minutes were approved as presented.

5. Financial Report

Interim Treasurer Carla Funk distributed a Financial Report indicating a net balance of US $ 11,642.992. There was a US $ 600. disbursement to Daniel Pizarro for his work translating some of the Guidelines brochures into Spanish and a US $ 48.79 deposit of accrued interest.

Carla reported that IFLA disbursements to Sections will be in March. The issue was raised as to whether our existing funds will affect the amount of our IFLA disbursement. The Interim Chair will pursue this with IFLA HQ.

6. Status Change of RTMLA to an IFLA Section

A special acknowledgment was made by Duane Webster on behalf of the MLA Section Executive Committee for the distinctive contributions made by Christina Stenberg and the Swedish Library Association to the success of the transition of the RTMLA to the MLA Section. The committee was especially appreciative of the financial assistance provided to underwrite the travel costs for several essential members of the Executive Committee to the attend meetings.

Soon after the IFLA 2002 Conference in Glasgow, IFLA HQ decided there was enough time to hold elections for the MLA Section Standing Committee during this election year. This will allow for seating an elected Standing Committee at the MLA Section meeting held during the IFLA 2003 Conference in Berlin. To facilitate this process, late last year the Interim Chairman sent out a letter to all national and international library associations, as well as a posting on the MLAS Listserv, describing the new Section and urging nominations for the Standing Committee. As of the February 3, 2003 closing date, 24 nominations were received for the 20 seats, therefore MLA Section elections will be part of the IFLA election process. Postal ballots will be sent out in mid-March 2003.

The group then discussed terms of office of the future new Standing Committee members. To assure continuity within the MLA Section, of the 20 elected members, the term of office for 10 members should be 2 years and the other 10 members should serve for 4 years. According to the IFLA By-laws, Standing Committee members can be reelected once, meaning that 10 members would only be able to serve at a maximum for 6 years. The group decided that at the first MLA Section meeting in Berlin, the elected members should ask for people to volunteer to serve only 2 years. If there are not enough volunteers, than a lottery will be set up. Elections for the MLA Section Chairperson and Secretary will also occur at this first meeting, with their responsibilities to begin at the end of the first meeting.

The group then discussed who is eligible to represent a library association. It was decided that there will be a single representative from each association and the representative would be determined by the library association. The group supported the idea that people who are involved with the management of the library association would be the most appropriate to serve on the MLA Section Standing Committee.

7. MLAS Annual Report, January 1,2002 through December 31, 2002

8. RTMLA Strategic Plan 2002-2003 including including Mission and Goals of the new Section and the Scope statement

These documents were distributed and the group recognized that a new Strategic Plan needs to be developed at the MLA Section meeting in Berlin to cover 2003-2004.

9. Information Coordinator's report

The Interim Chair announced that Jennefer Nicholson, our Information Coordinator had unexpected manpower difficulties in her office this past several months, creating a hardship in carrying out the Information Coordinator’s role.

1. Special Libraries Association MLAS Listserv The Interim Secretary reported that the listserv is working very well. She thanked Brian Weisman and Stephanie Russell at SLA for their responsiveness in matters dealing with the listserv and for quickly adding new members to the list.
2. Linking WWW home pages of MLA Section members and other library associations from the IFLANET MLA Section home page to the American Library Association WWW site of library associations. The Interim Secretary reported that Michael Dowling at ALA added all the WWW sites of library associations from the MLA Section membership spreadsheet and there is now a link from the IFLANET MLA Section site to the ALA site. The Interim Secretary also suggested that there be link a from the UNESCO Libraries Portal http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_bib/Groups/Associations/ and will work with Michael Dowling to implement this. There was also concern about keeping the www site up to date and the Interim Secretary offered to work with Michael to this end.

10. Reports on RTMLA publications

a. MLA Section Membership brochure Duane Webster offered to update the brochure for the IFLA 2003 Conference in Berlin. He will add the new elected members of the Standing Committee and will use the existing Interim officers in the brochure.

b. MLA Section Newsletter Duane Webster offered to do an MLA Section Newsletter and asked everyone to give him articles by April 1, 2003. He plans to complete it by April 15 and send it to on the Interim Chair who will mail it out.

c. Brochures based on chapters of the UNESCO/RTMLA Guidelines for the Management of Professional Associations in the Fields of Archives, Library and Information Work Carla Funk is working on Organizational Structure, the only brochure left to be written and will provide it to the translators when completed.

So far, four brochures have been translated into Spanish by Daniel Pizarro and he is working on the remaining ones. The Interim Secretary will follow up.

There are four that are already translated into French and the Chair will contact Briand Gerard about translating the remaining ones.

Sabine Stummeyer will work on getting them all translated into German in time for the IFLA 2003 Conference in Berlin.

Katja Zaitseva is working on translating them into Russian and the Interim Chair will follow up.

Duane Webster will do the formatting and printing of all completed brochures for the IFLA 2003 Conference in Berlin. We will use MLA Section or the Management of Library Associations Section on all brochures or publications of the section.

11. Report on IFLA 2003 Berlin program planning

1. Open Session on Library associations strategic planning: Developing effective strategies for library associations. The Interim Chair reported that Ellen Tise and Mitch Freedman are working on this session. Papers will be presented by Ellen Tise (South Africa), Mitch Freedman (USA) and Jacinta Were (Kenya). The Interim Chair will follow up with Ellen Tise for details.
2. Joint Workshop with the Library Theory and Research Section on "Libraries and Politics" - How to bring libraries and the national library associations into the political sphere? Tore Andersen is working with Marian Koren from the Library Theory and Research Section to plan this 4 hour workshop to be held either August 6^th or 7^th. The workshop will begin with introductions by Kerry Smith, Chair of the Library Theory and Research Section and our Interim Chair, Christina Stenberg. Presentations will be given by Dr. Christof Eichert (Germany), Professor Bob Usherwood (UK) and Finn Vester (Denmark) and research reports will be given by Premila Gamage (Sri Lanka), Aleksandra Horvat (Croatia) and Robert Ukoja (Uganda). The session will end with a panel discussion moderated by Bob Underwood.

Tore reported that all speakers were confirmed except Robert Ukoja. Sabine Stummeyer offered to look for sources of possible funding for him.

3. Joint Workshop with the Management and Marketing Section on How to market our library associations especially among young professionals

Interim Chair Christina Stenberg is planning this workshop with Àngels Massisimo of the Management and Marketing Section. A Call for Papers was posted on the IFLA-L listserv in last month and two people responded, one from Africa and the other from Lebanon. Christina will look for additional speakers and will follow-up with Àngels Massisimo.

12. Report on IFLA 2004 Buenos Aires program planning

These ideas will be addressed further at the MLA Section meeting in Berlin with the new Standing Committee.

13. RTMLA 21st Anniversary Celebration at IFLA 2003 in Berlin

The celebration will be held on Tuesday, August 5, 2003 from 5-7 pm. Sabine Stummeyer offered to reserve a room at the conference site and will work with Carla Funk on making arrangements for food and souvenirs. The MLA Section will fund the event and announcements will be sent out in the MLA Section Newsletter, the MLA Section listserv and the IFLA Express.

14. IFLA Membership dues restructuring

Over the past year, IFLA HQ has been working on restructuring the dues of most categories. Kelly Moore sent questionnaires to some library associations and there have been some adjustments already made. In the dues restructuring, IFLA HQ is trying to get away from a structure related to country membership and more to associations. They are still gathering information from IFLA members.

15. Funding members from developing countries to participate in RTMLA activities

Winnie Vitzansky and Jan-Ewout van der Putten have been looking at this problem and feel there are no simple, easy solutions. The group discussed the issue and Duane Webster suggested that when funds for a speaker are needed, several members of the Standing Committee could pool their resources to fund, on an individual 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.

It was also suggested that we charge for IFLA Workshops and Open Sessions during the IFLA Conference, but the only events that can have fees associated with them are pre- and post- conference satellite programs.

16. MLA Section guidelines for participation in local and regional conferences

The discussion began with our previous participation in the CRIMEA conferences this past two years. All agreed that our participation was beneficial and this year, the Swedish Library Association will support a member of their Executive Board to attend. The group recognized the broader issue of responding to invitations and being represented at national and regional conferences. It was agreed that the MLA Section could not take on the financial burden of funding people to attend local or regional conferences. One suggestion is that MLA Section Standing Committee members or representatives attend regional conferences within their region representing the MLA Section and promoting advocacy, library association development and other important issues. One way to do this is working through the Regional Section Offices. All agreed this should be discussed further at the MLA Section meeting in Berlin.

17. Status report on letter to Organizing Committees of IFLA conferences suggesting uses for any surplus money

Carla Funk reported to the group that she had given this some thought and decided writing a letter at this time was not a good idea. Currently, IFLA HQ is working on changing the way of organizing IFLA conferences and we should wait to see what the changes are.

18. Soros Open Society Institute Network Library Program (NPL) 2000 Initiative

Winnie Vitzansky reported that Marianna Tax Choldin retired and her work is being taken over by Barbara Ford. The office is in Budapest and Winnie will follow up on this.

19. Twinning Project proposal from Interim Chair Christina Stenberg

Over a long period of time, the old RTMLA and the new MLA Section have discussed ways to encourage twinning between library associations. To address this, Interim Chair Christina Stenberg asked permission to write a project proposal together with the Swedish Library Association's Special Interest Group for Asia, Africa and Latin America and present it

for funding to the IFLA Coordinating Board at their meeting in Berlin.

The group gave their approval.

20. National implementation of IFLA policies and the role of the MLA Section and library associations

Winnie Vitzansky felt there needs to be more direct involvement in advocating and promoting IFLA policies and positions through library associations. She suggested that library associations belonging to IFLA identify someone from their association as the liaison between IFLA and their library associations. This same person could be the representative on the MLA Section and a member of the MLAS listsev. The Interim Chair will write a letter to all member library associations.

21. MLA Section reaction to the Creating a Green Light for IFLA paper by Marian Koren

The group discussed this paper, issued as a complementary document to the report on the Brainstorming session hosted by Kay Raseroka, IFLA President-elect held during the IFLA 2002 Conference in Glasgow. They supported many of the ideas put forth by Marian Koren. It was felt that IFLA needs to move in the direction of being more of an advocacy body with less emphasis on their professional development role. The group then discussed the advocacy role of library associations and the need to focus on specific issues. Duane Webster and Jan-Ewout van der Putten were tasked with creating a list of appropriate issues library associations could promote.

The Chair was also asked to write a letter on behalf of the group to the IFLA Governing Board with our comments. The comments will include our agreement that IFLA must pay more attention to strategic planning and advocating the importance of free access to information, freedom of expression and the role libraries play in society. The comments will also include agreement that library associations play a stronger role in IFLA, suggesting that the MLA Section be the instrument to cooperate with the Governing Board in fulfulling this expanded role.

22. MLA Section 2004 Mid-year meeting

The group decided to leave the decision of a venue to the new Standing Committee to make when they meet in Berlin in August 2003.

23. Adjournment

The Interim Chair expressed her appreciation to the Executive Committee for their hard work and dedication to the MLA Section.