Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section
& Law Libraries Section joint with
& Africa Section

The IFLA Africa Section, Law Libraries Section and Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section invite proposals for papers to be presented at their joint session on Access to legal information and legislative data in Africa: the role of libraries and librarians during the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Cape Town, South Africa 15-21, August 2015. 

Session Theme

The Lyon Declaration calls for an international commitment to ensure access to information, with the belief that this will support development by empowering people to exercise their rights, help reduce inequality and marginalization.

Ensuring free, open and timely access to legal information and legislative data is a key aspect of this broad effort, and it is fundamental to the establishment of democratic and equitable societies, governed by transparent and accountable institutions and based on the rule of law.

Libraries and librarians at different levels can play a relevant role in facilitating this process. The Lyon Declaration reminds us that, as information intermediaries, they "have the skills and resources to help governments, institutions and individuals communicate, organize, structure and understand data that is critical to development" .

This session intends to take stock of access to law and legislative data in Africa, and to focus on the role that libraries and librarians are currently or potentially playing in this domain.

With this focus, to develop our discussion we are looking for papers that may:

• illustrate legislation in force, legislative developments or institutional regulations in place, and how they are implemented;
• present examples of adopted policies and practices, of case studies and innovative experiences on making legal and legislative data available and helping understand them;
• share experiences or ideas on the potential benefits of cooperation at the national, regional or international level;
• describe ICT developments focused on improving free and open access to legal and legislative information and data;
• analyze the development and progress in the adoption of electronic data open standards such as XML for legal and legislative information.

By reflecting the Congress theme, "Dynamic Libraries: Access, Development and Transformation", papers able to identify innovative and sustainable practices, opportunities for collaboration, and elements for valuable investigation would be appreciated.

The program will feature presentations of 15-20 minutes each with additional time for questions.

For information on IFLA’s general guidelines for papers see: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2013/general-guidelines-for-authors-of-papers.htm .

Language of the session:

Papers should be in one of the seven IFLA official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

However, abstracts should be in English or French or Spanish.

Important dates and submission details

• 15 February 2015:  Deadline to submit proposals/abstracts.
  Proposals should include:
  • Title of proposed presentation
  • Abstract of proposed paper (no more than 300 words)
  • Name(s) of presenter(s) plus position and/or title
  • Affiliated institution
  • Contact information including e-mail address, telephone number
  • Short biographical statement of presenter(s)
  • Language of final presentation

Send proposals by email to with a subject heading  "IFLAParl-Law-Africa"  followed by  your name, to:

Raissa Teodori
Email: raissa.teodori@senato.it
and
Margo Jeske
Email: Margo.Jeske@uottawa.ca
and
Rosemary Shafack
Email: roshafack@gmail.com

• 10 March 2015: Proposals will be reviewed and successful candidates will be notified.

• 30 May 2015:  Deadline for selected presenters to submit formal paper (for inclusion on the IFLA conference website and the Section’s website).  Details regarding the format and length of the final paper will be sent to candidates whose abstracts are accepted.

Please note

At least one of the paper's authors must be present to deliver a summary of the paper during the program in Cape Town. Abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.

All papers that are presented at the WLIC 2015 will be made available online via the IFLA Library under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Author Form.

All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation letter can be issued to authors.

Congress Participation Grants

List of opportunities for support is available on our Conference Participation Grants webpage.