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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Section of School Libraries


Annual Report 1994

Paulette Bernhard
EBSI/Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128 succ. A
Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7
Canada
Fax: (1-514) 3435753
e-mail: bernh@ere.umontreal.ca
is Chair of the Section of School Libraries.

Torny Kjekstad

Norwegian School of Management
School of Marketing
N-0506 Oslo
Norway
Fax: (47-22) 206385
e-mail: torny.kjekstad@bl.no
is Secretary.

Standing Committee and Section Membership

The Standing Committee has 13 members from 11 countries and four corresponding members. The Section has 74 registered members.

Projects

School Libraries in the World

This is a two-year project which began in the fall of 1993. The work is being coordinated by Alexandra Papazoglu (Greece), who will begin by identifying, collecting and describing the most recent sta ndards, guidelines and policies about school libraries. The SC members will then compare, synthesize and distribute the information. The work has been delayed because only five papers from the Barcel ona Pre-Session Seminar (which was considered the start of the project) had been received by July 1994. IASL (International Association of School Librarianship) has suggested including input from the project to a planned annotated bibliography (see below). The final report will be published by IFLA.

List of Periodicals in School Librarianship

A draft list of journals in the field of school librarianship was presented by Niels Jacobson (Denmark) to the SC. These include journals dealing with school libraries (kindergarten to secondary, not college level, and not children's libraries) and journals at an international or national level (no local newsletters). The list will be published as a tentative list, to attract revisions and new i nput.

Database on Research in School Librarianship

Because of the number of ongoing projects, the Section has temporarily suspended work on this project.

History of the Section

Anne Galler (Canada), who is holding the Section's archives, has proposed an article on the Section's history. This will be completed in 1995, following a visit to IFLA HQ to examine the archives hel d there.

Follow-up of the Pre-Seminar 1993

Mary Biblo (USA), Margaretha Dahlstrom (Sweden) and Niels Jacobsen are charged with the responsibility of follow-up (editing and distributing the resolutions).

Publications

Proceedings of the 1993 Pre-Session Seminar on School Libraries in Developing Countries

Lucille Thomas, former Chair of the Section, is editing the proceedings for publication by IFLA in 1995 in the series, IFLA Publications. The programme covered the following topics: management, stocking the school library, funding and training of staff, and issues in school librarianship in developing countries. By the end of June 1994 feedback had been received at IFLA HQ from 17 of the 22 participants from developing countries. A written analysis of that feedback was presented at the July 1994 I ASL Conference.

Guidelines on Education and Training for School Librarians

Sigrun Hannesdottir (Iceland) distributed a draft of the revised version of the Guidelines, prepared in cooperation with IASL. The final version will be published in 1995 by IFLA in the series, IFLA Professional Reports.

Guidelines for Conducting National Surveys on School Libraries

The project, under contract with UNESCO, was completed by Sigrun Klara Hannesdottir and will be published by UNESCO at the end of 1994. The aim of the project was to study present methods of conducti ng nationwide surveys of school libraries in various counties at various states of development.

Publication of Section's Papers

The papers compiled by Margaret Tye (UK) were evaluated by the Standing Committee, which envisaged a two-volume publication. Although interesting from an historical point a view, a commercial publica tion would not be feasible. The SC was therefore considering announcing their availability from IFLA HQ, possibly in the series, IFLA Professional Reports.

Newsletter

The No. 25 issue of the Newsletter was issued by Blanche Woolls (USA) in March 1994. During the report period the officers also sent two circular letters to members, the first in October 1993, which reported on the Barcelona Conference and included proposals for projects; and the second in January 1994 requesting themes for future meetings and calling for papers.

Brochure

Astrid Lauster (Germany), former Secretary of the Section updated and edited a new brochure. It will be sent to all members and corresponding members, and is being translated into French and Spanish.

Coordination with IASL

Coordination with IASL, founded in 1971 and a member of IFLA since 1973, was a matter of concern for the Section, to ensure that duplication and overlap of work was avoided. Since the IFLA Conference in Manila in 1980, an agreement was reached that "each of the school library groups would select a liaison person to represent them on the other's board or committee". The Section continues to work closely with IASL. For example, the Standing Committee will take a final decision on the endorsement of IASL's "Statement on School Libraries" (circulated to all members of the Section) during the Is tanbul Conference. The Section officers have been appointed to serve on IASL's advisory committee on the "Guidelines for Action Research". IASL has offered to include input from the Section's project on School Libraries in the World to the annotated bibliography that is scheduled for June 1995 in its new journal, School Libraries Worldwide. IFLA was represented by Paulette Bernhard at IAS L's Annual Conference, held in Pittsburgh, USA in July 1994.

Future Conferences

The Section has agreed on the themes for the two forthcoming conferences: Istanbul, 1995: "Planning for School Libraries of the Future" and in Beijing in 1996: "Cooperation/Planning with Teachers".

Havana Meetings

The Section co-sponsored with three other Sections (Public Libraries, Libraries Serving Multicultural Populations and Children's Libraries) on a workshop on the theme, "Library Services for Young Adu lts". It held an open meeting under the theme, "School Libraries in Cooperation with other Libraries".


La biblioteca escolar en Cuba: un recorso para la educación
by MERCEDES ALFONSO CHOMAT and IDELIO ROJAS CRESPO

Abstract
School libraries in Cuba are a resource for education, and under the central direction of the Ministry of Eduction since 1960. They are incorporated in the teaching/learning process at the local scho ol in which they are located. An outline of the official policies regarding school library material, training programmes and educational requirements that must be met by school librarians is given.

Other presentations were given by Felix Urquhart on the development of the school library system in Cuba; by Paulette Bernhard on cooperation between school libraries and public libraries, and by Tor ny Kjekstad on the Norwegian guidelines for school libraries. Papers are not available.