IFLA Section on Science and Technology Libraries Standing Committee

Minutes of meetings held at the 65th IFLA Council and General Conference, Bangkok

Attendees

Observers

SC I Saturday, 21 August 1999, 12:00 - 14:50, First Floor Hallway, BITEC

1. Welcome and introductions

2. Approval of 1998 minutes

3. Approval of 1997-98 Annual Report

4. Approval of financial statements

The cost of the Newsletter was questioned. It could have been mailed more cheaply and should be in future. We should try for two issues per year.

5. Election of Officers for 1999-2001

6. Report from the Coordinating Board of Division II (Special Libraries) (P.Yocum, D.Price)

• Christine Deschamp's Presidential Address will be in French. The text is available in Booklet 0.
• Meetings with simultaneous interpretation should have questionnaires in all languages.
• Sections should plan strategies for stimulating discussion in open sessions.
• Delegates should be encouraged to complete the conference evaluation form.
• Transportation from BITEC - if a bus is missed, help should be sought from the Transportation Desk. When taking taxis, it is advisable to ensure that the meter is being used.
• An Internet Café will be available to delegates for email etc.
• Delegates must be seated 30 minutes prior to the start of the Opening Ceremony whose guest of honour will be H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Patron of the Thai Library Association.
• With respect to the controversy over next year's conference in Jerusalem, IFLA's position is that IFLA is a non-political, non-profit organization with no say in political matters. We should encourage participation by Palestinians.
• It had been recommended that the 2004 conference should be held in Buenos Aires or Seoul.
• The 1998 conference in Amsterdam had yielded 200,000 Guilders profit. 80% of revenue continues to be membership fees. New sources of revenue are being sought, e.g. "IFLA-ware" souvenirs such as T-shirts. The Committee warned of possible competition with national organization committees and this will be passed to the CB.
• Divisional membership figures were reported (see Appendix).
• The Professional Board is considering encouraging more inter-sectional and divisional projects by providing more funds for them.
• Reports on forthcoming activities were given by each of the six sections. This Committee received praise.
• Two possible themes for a divisional programme in Jerusalem were suggested: "Competitive Intelligence" and "Digital Authenticity of Special Collections".
• New standing committee members should be advised to attend the "Orientation for Newcomers" meetings.

7. Planning reports on Section Programs in Bangkok, "On the Threshold of a New Century: Libraries as Gateways to an Enlightened World"

1. Open Session, The Global Crisis in Science Literature: Developing Responses, Tuesday 24 August, 15:30-17:50 (P. Yocum for Donna McCool). Francine Masson had translated the papers into French, and Helga Schwarz, into German, and the translations are available on IFLANET. They were commended for their work, as was D. McCool for having organized the session. It was proposed that translators should have email addresses of authors when possible in order to facilitate the translation process. A. Zemskov offered to publish the papers if IFLA does not. Arrangements were made for distributing and collecting evaluation forms at the session. Speakers and their topics are as follows:
   • Robert Stueart (Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA), "Tigers in retreat: the economic crisis and other challenges in accessing scientific and technical information in Asia".
   • Duane Webster (Association of Research Libraries, Washington DC, USA), "Emerging responses to the science journal crisis".
   • Milton Wolf (Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, Illinois, USA), "Collecting science materials from developing regions; universal dilemma, collaborative solutions".
2. Study Tour, Joint with User Education Roundtable (H. Schwarz, M. Kesselman) Thursday 26 August, 9:00-17:00, King Mongkut University of Technology. Presentations and tours of the Library would take place in the morning. The Library was hosting lunch. A workshop would take place in a computer laboratory in the afternoon with sessions presented M. Kesselman, P. Yocum, S. Koskiala and H. Schwarz. With respect to the domestic arrangements, the bus would leave BITEC at 8:30, returning at 18:00. Sci-Tech will pay for water on the bus and the road toll. H. Schwarz was congratulated for arranging the Study Tour.

8. Planning report on Section programs in Jerusalem, 13-18 August 2000, "Information for Cooperation: Creating the Global Library of the Future.

1. Open Session (Julia Gelfand). D. Price asked to collaborate with J. Gelfand on the organization of the Open Session. After discussion, it was decided that the general subject would be the management of IT in academic libraries.
2. Workshop/Study Tour (Rivkah Frank) P. Yocum would assist R. Frank who had made a proposal for a Study Tour to the Technion at Haifa. This was discussed and there was general agreement that the tour should be a whole day. However, there was reservation over the feasibility of persuading vendors to make presentations so far from Jerusalem, so other ideas would be sought.

10. Projects

1. Needs Assessment of Sci-Tech Libraries in Less-Developed and Developing Countries (P.Yocum).
   A Focus Group was planned to help inform this topic. It would take place 11:00-11:45 Tuesday 24 August and Mette Stockmarr, Ingar Lomheim, Helga Schwarz, Patricia Yocum and David Price would attend. It would be advertised in IFLA Express.

16. Announcements

SC II Friday 27 August 1998, 8:30 - 10:20, Room 224, BITEC

13. Follow-up reports of Section programs in Bangkok

1. Open Session (P. Yocum). Circa 65 people attended. The evaluation forms had been designed by D. McCool and it was agreed to stay with this format. 17 had been submitted and these would be summarized on STL-SC. Overall, they were both favourable and interesting. Suggestions for future themes were Collection Development in Science and Technology and Digitization in Science and Technology. It was agreed that future speakers should be strongly encouraged to use visual aids, particularly in view of the international audience. We could also consider the length and format of open sessions, for example, possibly using a reactor.
2. Workshop/Study Tour (H. Schwarz, M. Kesselman) It was considered to be very successful. Our hosts at King Mongkut University of Technology were extremely hospitable. They were interested in furthering international relations so it was suggested we direct them to the Twinning Database on IFLANET and give them a contact sheet of Standing Committee members. We were their first official, international visitors. P. Yocum would write a formal letter of thanks and the Section would pay for memorial plaque to present to them.

   Out of 39 who registered, 12 failed to attend and 3 cancelled, i.e. fall-out rate was c. 40%, and this suggests we could afford to over-subscribe by 10% in future. We should also encourage those registered to cancel if they find they are unable to come.

   Overall it was felt that there had been insufficient time for the library tour and perhaps too much time in the workshop where poor network performance had hampered the sessions. In future it might be better to seek a format that would enable more involvement and discussion between hosts and participants.

9. Planning for Boston 16-25 August 2001, "Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age".

8. Planning report on Section programs in Jerusalem, 13-18 August 2000, "Information for Cooperation: Creating the Global Library of the Future (cont.)

10. Projects (cont.)

1. Needs Assessment of Sci-Tech Libraries in Less-Developed and Developing Countries (P.Yocum). Report on Open Discussion on Needs Assessment, 11:00-11:45 Tuesday 24 August. 11 people attended (6 SC members, 5 others). The discussion had been informative. Attention had been drawn to the issues of preservation and obsolete materials. A distinction can be drawn between urgent and non-urgent subjects (such as High Energy Physics). Medical libraries tend to be better funded than Sci-Tech. It is probably best to approach needs on a country by country basis. Commonly, universities form a network with some specialising in particular subjects, in which case an appropriate one can be approached with respect to particular needs. Many studies have been done by different agencies, so the advice is not to survey. It could be useful to maintain a list of Sci-Tech related associations to enable them to be easily located and contacted. As a pilot, one could focus on a region, e.g. S.E. Asia and mount it on a website. Both IFLA Division 8 and ALP Office could be sources of contacts and further information. P. Yocum will write a project proposal, possibly along the lines of communication between Sci-Tech libraries.
2. Proposal from Dennis Shaw to revise and publish the World Guide to Doctoral Dissertations in Science and Technology. The Committee felt a revision in method is advised. Specifically, they recommended that contact be made through national libraries, ministries of education, etc., rather than relying on individual librarians. Although the individual contact has a role to play, it should be a complementary one rather than the only or main one. With respect to scope, it should be worldwide and for all subjects rather than selective as IFLA is committed to being global. However, it is recognized that it may be necessary to proceed stage by stage. With respect to the budget, the estimated costs were deemed too high and a downward revision is earnestly encouraged. In response to the question, "Is a worldwide finding aid to doctoral dissertations still needed?" the answer was a resounding "yes". Before presenting Dr Shaw with formal feedback the committee should see a draft and be able to comment on it.

12. Nominations for Committee membership 2001-2005

Appendix

Download this document

Back to top