Dates: March 15-16, 2018

Location: Oslo/Tønsberg, Norway

These minutes cover both the first and second meeting of the Standing Committee.

1. Attendance

1.1 Attendees:

Misako Nomura: Chair
Christopher Corrigan: Secretary
Erlend Ra: Information Coordinator
Heidi Carlsson Asplund: Standing Committee Member
Nancy Bolt: Standing Committee Member
Ingrid Källström: Standing Committee Member
Dunja Marija Gabriel: Guest Participant
Knut M. Nygaard: Standing Committee Member
Gerhard Peschers: Corresponding Member
Anne Sieberns: Standing Committee Member
Maela Uvodic: Standing Committee Member

1.2 Participating remotely:

Marie-Noëlle Andissac: Standing Committee Member
Man Yi Helen Chan: Standing Committee Member
Marie Engberg Eiriksson: Standing Committee Member

1.3 Apologies:

Dolores Carungui: Standing Committee Member

2. Minutes from LSN’s Meetings During WLIC 2017 in Wrocław, Poland

Dunja mentioned that there was a discussion of a poster session she presented at Wrocław that wasn’t in the minutes.

Anne corrected a grammatical issue.

2.1 Action

Nancy moved that the minutes be approve as revised. Erlend seconded. The motion carried.

3. Chair’s Report

3.1 Financial report

LSN had 1,800 euro for the workshop in Washington, DC. The funds were used for the travel expenses of Marti Goddard and Sandy Cohen.

We had 500 euro for a consultant for the deaf guidelines last year, but its invoice has not been sent to IFLA. If Dunja sends it to Misako, she is going to negotiate with IFLA forthe reimbursement.

We expect an additional 500 euro for an editor since it was accepted last year.

3.1.2 Funding Request for Deaf Guidelines

Dunja said that they have a consultant who is drafting some chapters for the guidelines. The consultant is not an expert in the field of deaf-blindness and that specific chapter will need have knowledge of the subject matter. She said that they would like to have a person who will review the chapter on the deaf-blind. The individual they proposed is the chair of the European Deaf-Blind Union and President of Croatian Deaf-Blind society. She is also a professor of English Literature. They have not asked her because they want to know if they can split the money before they ask.

3.1.3 Action

Nancy moved that the funding for the editors of the guidelines for persons who are deaf and hard of hearing be divided between the two editors. Chris seconded. The motion unanimously.

3.2 LSN Administrative Funds

Misako stated that LSN has 100 euro for administrative funds. LSN will need to negotiate with IFLA if more funding is necessary.

If we need the money for the brochure we need to ask IFLA in advance. We have to revise the brochure and ask IFLA for the funding for reprinting.

3.3 Satellite Meeting

The Satellite Meeting in Singapore is on Thursday August 23, 2018.

There will be nine presentations, twenty minutes each. This will leave 50 minutes for discussion.

3.4 WLIC 2018

Our first Standing Committee meeting during the IFLA Congress will be Friday, August 24 from 13:30 to 15:30.

Our second Standing Committee is currently scheduled for Tuesday from 10:45 to 13:15. However, Marie stated that time conflicts with the Public Library of the Year Award where she has to be present. Misako will attempt to change the time of the meeting. Chris requested that it not conflict with LPD meeting.  

The LSN program is on Sunday from 9:30 to 11:30. The theme is on Universal Design for libraries. LSN is collaborating Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section and the Public Library Section to offer this program.

4. Ongoing projects

4.1 Basic Accessibility Guidelines for Libraries

Marie said that libraries need basic guidelines on accessibility. She wants there to be a checklist libraries would use to make their institutions more accessible to patrons with disabilities. The product would be short because people responded well to the short formats.

Anne mentioned that we have a checklist from 2005 translated in several languages. Nancy said that this is out of date, especially regarding technology and should be retired or updated. Nancy said that we should look at the resources from other countries and libraries, and include links for additional resources. Marie said that it could be a promotion tool for our other guidelines.

Knut said that we went through the guidelines two years ago and that most of it is still up to date except the information about technology. Heidi reiterated that if the guidelines are in the form of a checklist, they would be more usable.

Helen said that that new guidelines will be more attractive if it’s made into an info graphic like the dyslexia guidelines. Nancy agreed that it would be good for the guidelines to be attractive and easy for people to see and read.

Anne asked if this will be an update or new publication. Nancy said that we look at what we already have using that as a base. The group agreed to that course of action.

The working group working on the guidelines will be: Nancy, Misako, Knut, Maire, Chris, Heidi, Helen.

4.2 Accessibility at IFLA Conferences (Nancy)

(Note: the conversation of this topic occurred over the course of two days of the meeting. Both days of discussion were moved to one section of the meeting minutes for ease of reading).

There is a working paper on accessibility at IFLA conferences being shared with IFLA on behalf of LSN. Nancy has taken the lead in writing and updating the document for the past several years. She passed the latest draft of the document around for feedback from the group.

Nancy sent the draft to two members of the Library Services for Persons with Print Disabilities (LPD) Standing Committee: Mike Marlin, and Kirsi Ylänne. Both offered substantive questions and comments of the document.

IFLA has been really receptive to our efforts. Josche Ouwerkerk has been trying hard to get IFLA to meet our standards.  

Anne noted a small grammatical mistake and an update to the convention ratified by the UN.

Ingrid said that the photos from the rest area was confusing.

Erlend mentioned that the photos mostly come from ALA and the only problematic photo comes from IFLA.

He said that there should one good picture about how it should be.

Nancy said she will take out the picture of the ALA rest area.

She said thatshe will use the positive thing IFLA did with the chairs and something from ALA about what it should look like.

Chris said that he will add the alt text to the photos Nancy will include.

Heidi said that we should not single out people who are older.

Chris said that it is also important to mention older librarians because many in IFLA are.

We should put that some members have hearing difficulties.

Ingrid said that we should not make it librarian specific.

Heidi asked if we could recommend that the conference add audio information for the attendees.  She said that you can have a telephone with information.

We continued to go around the table offering input for Nancy’s paper including grammatical corrections.

4.3 Global Platform Initiative in the UN (Nancy)

A UN committee met in February to discuss how people with disabilities are included in the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Nancy wrote a document for the committee asserting the importance of libraries in the lives of people with disabilities. Stephen Wyber from IFLA edited the draft.  Nancy sent the final version to Maria Martinho at the UN in February, copying LSN Standing Committee members. We have not heard back from Maria.  The flagship report is due in September to the United Nations.

Nancy said they wanted example of successful projects for people with disabilities that can be successful enough to be re-implemented. A document simply focusing on statistics was not going to be suitable.

In order to obtain examples, they drafted and launched a survey. They received 470 responses representing 92 different countries.

The survey was translated into multiple languages. LSN members Marie-Noëlle, Helen Chan, and Isabel Gutiérrez Sánchez assisted by translating the survey into their respective languages.

The conclusion is that people with disabilities are using libraries. Therefore, libraries need to be promoted and librarians need to be trained in basic skills on working with this population.

The report has been submitted. Nancy will see if it can be revised.

The goal is that when the final report is written, libraries will be included as a viable option for people with disabilities.

4.4 Deaf guidelines

Marie-Noëlle Joined us by phone. She has collected contributions from members of the working group for the guidelines.

However, there has been a problem with chapters eight and nine. These were the chapters which Marti Goddard of the San Francisco Public Library was supposed to write and no one has heard from her. She is having medical issues and Chris tried emailing her to ask what the status was but received an automatic response saying that she would be away until May. Dunja will ask if Sandy Cohen will take up chapters eight and nine.

Marie-Noëlle will send the link to all of the chapters, Chris will review and edit them by April 30.

4.4.1 Survey

Dunja said that the survey will have twenty questions. There will be open questions. So far they have three answers. The current deadline is March 30, 2018.

Marie-Noëlle also asked that the people who gave the workshop in DC and the authors of the chapters. Chris will email the authors of the chapters to answer the survey.

They want to put the examples from the consultants in the chapters.

Nancy suggested incorporating the examples in the chapters as we did with the homeless guidelines.

4.6 Homeless Guidelines

Anne said that the homeless guidelines have 120 pages. This is a problem with the translations. People don’t want to translations of such a large document. IFLA has asked us to make it shorter.

Nancy spoke with Julie Ann Winkelstein who agreed to edit the check list. Sanja will serve with Nancy on a committee to work on this. Misako will ask for the 500 euro for the project.

De Gruyter (the official IFLA publisher) was interested in publishing a shorter version with more photos.

4.7 Brochure

(Note: the conversation of this topic occurred over the course of two days of the meeting. Both days of discussion were moved to one section of the meeting minutes for ease of reading).

There was considerable discussion of the format of the brochure, placement of the LSN logo, and language used. The goal is to have a finished product by WLIC 2018 in Kuala Lumpur. We discussed having the Section logo on the publication. However, IFLA rejected all of the suggested logos from the sections. Nancy suggested that we create a section for publications in development and move the guidelines for the deaf to that location.

There is a graphic featuring several squares with images depicting the populations we serve.

Gerhard suggested adding more squares that would include prisons and hospital libraries. We decided to add nine graphic squares to better represent all of our target audiences.

Nancy found an image for prison library from Iran and sent them an email asking for permission to use it.

We are going to replace the current image for people with mental disabilities with the image of a two-dimensional, transparent cranium, in a blue background with a brain in the center. This is used by a large number of organizations who serve people with mental disabilities. Therefore, the original creator of the image is impossible to determine and we are going to consider it an orphan work, forgoing the permission seeking process.

While there was disagreement keeping the image for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (an image of a pair of hands moving) we decided to keep it. The remainder of the images we will decide upon online. Heidi asked to have the images back in two weeks. Misako can make the changes we talked about while we are waiting for the three new images to arrive from the rest of the Standing Committee.

There was discussion about adding terminology to the list on the second page to reflect people first language (e.g. “people with disabilities,” “people who are deaf and hard of hearing”). Erlend said this will require us to change the language in the mission statement and we will need to inform IFLA.

When discussing our Midterm meetings on the brochure, the convention we will follow will be to call them “Midterm;” one word, capitalized.

Misako wants to ask IFLA for funding for printing. Misako said that we can’t use the administrative money for the brochure.

4.8 Mission statement

We edited the language used to describe LSN’s target audience. It now reads:

“These groups include, but are not limited to, people who are in hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities; people in prisons; people who are experiencing homelessness; people with physical disabilities; people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or deaf-blind; people with dyslexia; and people with cognitive disabilities.”

5. UNESCO Prison Document

(Note: the conversation of this topic occurred over the course of two days of the meeting. Both days of discussion were moved to one section of the meeting minutes for ease of reading).

During our visit to Bastøy Island, we heard from Lisa Krolak from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). She wants us to help her gather information for the best practices and to co-publish the book on library services to people in prison.

The booklet will be 32 pages consisting of:

Rules and regulations
Policies
Human rights
Examples from different continents.

This would be a joint publication with UNESCO and IFLA. UNESCO will publish the final product but will work with LSN on the content.

Erlend is not sure if it would be possible for us to have the IFLA logo on the booklet. If not, LSN will be credited for our assistance.

Misako said that this would be included in our action plan and annual report.

Nancy said that we need to look to see which of the guidelines need to be updated the most.

Erlend said that we may need to postpone for a few years before updating.

Gerhard said that we may want this to be our presentation in Athens.

Misako said that there needs to be commitment from people to work on this project.

5.1 Action

Nancy moved that we accept UNESCO offer to contribute to their publication on libraries services to people in prison. Erlend will be the point person with Gerhard helping and that we add this to our action plan.  The motion passed unanimously

6. Policy Statement on Accessibility for IFLA

Stephen Wyber sent Nancy models on what a policy statement would look like.

Misako, Marie, Knut and Chris will assist with drafting the policy statement.

7. Children’s Section

Ingrid made an announcement from the children’s section who were having their Midterm meeting in Florence. They were wondering if LSN had comments on the guidelines they are drafting. Ingrid is going to send their guidelines to the rest of the LSN Standing Committee for comment.

8. Annual Report/Action Plan

We sent the action plan to IFLA and to LSN by email. Misako asked if there were any suggestions or comments before it’s posted to the website.

We need to add an item in the action plan or the UNESO project on prison libraries.

There needs to be a change to number 5, change guidelines from “for” to “to.”

9. Conference planning

9.1 Program during WLIC 2018

IFLA accepted our program proposal.

The program will be on Sunday from 9:30 to 11:30 in Ballroom Two.

This is a joint program with the Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section and the Public Libraries Section. The title is What is universal design for libraries?

There are five speakers during the session. Misako has not gotten any responses from the Public Library Section on a speaker. They are going discuss this during their Midterm meeting which they are having at the same time as LSN’s. Misako asked one of the PLS members from Japan to relay that we have not heard from them and ask them at their meeting. Before we invite more people to present, we are going to wait to hear back from PLS.

Misako thinks we should have a speaker from LSN, such as Nancy to speak on accessibility at IFLA.

Hiroshi has a contract with Caption First to offer speech to text translation or the program for people with auditory disabilities. Misako said that we may be able to have them caption our program, but we will need to make sure that the ballroom has strong internet connection.

9.2 Satellite Meeting

Title: Inclusive Library Services for Children and Young Adults

We received nineteen proposals back from our call and we are in the proposals. The submissions we received were diverse. We will respond with our decisions by March 20.

Misako showed us the website for the meeting.　

https://sites.google.com/view/ifla2018lsn/

The hotel will be across from the National Library building.

Registration will open up on April 5th.

We expect there to be 100 people.

The satellite meeting will be free but all attendees are required to register for the satellite meeting. Nancy suggested there should be a fee so people don’t sign up and not come.

Knut said we should have a fee for people not from Singapore.

Nancy suggested July 15 as the deadline for registering.

Erlend asked if we have an app and or if we need one. Misako said that we have one but it is very simple.  Nancy said that we should include information on dietary requirements on the app.

Erlend mentioned the service Questback for the website. It’s a content management system.

Nancy had a concern about there being eight speakers in one day. The moderator should be strict in cutting off people who are over time. Knut agreed. Ingrid said that there should be six speakers. The rest of LSN agreed.

Nancy suggested that the conference papers will be delivered in English and asked for some text to use to promote in our networks.

10. Report from the Information Coordinator

Erlend reported that we have a lot of posts on the Facebook page which are becoming more relevant.

We have had an increase of 60 members of the Facebook group.

Heidi looks up all of the people who want to be a member. She does not approve all people. She has deleted posts that may not be relevant.

The webpage has had minor changes:

IFLA project page
Library services to People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Library Services to People Experiencing Homelessness.

Erlend thinks we should keep the project pages as information pages and that we don’t delete them when the projects are finished.

He askes that if there is information on the Standing Committee members page that is not correct please let him know so he can inform IFLA.

The mailing list we have is for the group and not a general mailing list for the public.

Misako asked that there should be a general mailing list. Erlend responded that general mailing lists are outdated. Ingrid agreed.

10.1 Translation Grids

There are no new translations.

The Croatian translation is still not up.

The translations are on the bottom of the pages for the documents.

11. Membership matters

We have two corresponding members. We are allowed to have five. Misako requested that we recruit three more corresponding members.

We have fifteen members; we are allowed twenty.

Nancy wants to know if they changed the rule so that people can be self-nominated.

Misako said that it is possible if your organization is a member.

Ingrid said that you can be nominated by another IFLA institution but not necessarily one that you belong to yourself.

Nancy discussed her recruiting techniques and said that LSN members can replicate them. 

Nancy identified the members of IFLA in the United States and asked organizations that might be interested-in library service to people with special needs if they would like to join LSN and nominate someone from the committee.  That resulted in three nominations.

12. Prison Library Visit

LSN members thanked Erlend for organizing the tour of the Bastøy Prison.

Erlend will write a thank you note Tina Hanson the librarian who hosted us.

13. Midterm

Nancy has contacts in Sofia, Bulgaria and offered that as the location for next year’s Midterm meeting. She will look into making arrangements there and will report back to the Standing Committee. Anne offered Berlin as a backup option. The meeting will be toward the end of March.

14. IFLA Global Vision

Immediately following the LSN Midterm meeting, Misako and Chris will attend the second IFLA Global Vision summit in Barcelona. This meeting will be to showcase the findings of a survey and report, highlighting the key interest of libraries and librarians.

Nancy is concerned that the large amount of responses will drown out the message we want to send as a group focusing on our target audience.

She wants to be ready if they are not going to focusing on people with special needs.

She suggested that we have an online meeting soon.