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IV. Division of Bibliographic Control

Division procedures for electing members to IFLA review groups

Review groups

The purpose of a review group is to carry out an ongoing task, typically maintain and develop an IFLA standard. The charge for a specific review group is agreed to by the section(s) involved and approved by the Coordinating Board(s).

General framework

  1. Nomination - the members of the section(s) concerned with the work of the review group nominate
  2. Nominees - shall be experts in the respective field(s) concerned and must be able to get funding on their own for travelling to IFLA meetings. They may be nominated for more than one review group.
  3. Voting - the members of the section(s) concerned vote, and voting is carried out by e-mail in closed ballot, or by secret ballot in the course of standing committee meetings during a conference.
  4. Terms of service - when a new Review Group is formed, the terms of service of the members will be decided to enable rotation of membership at intervals (half of the members will have a shorter term, say 2 years instead of 4). The terms of service for members of a standing committee generally will apply for members of a Review Group (4 years with one renewal allowed). In exceptional circumstances, a person may be asked to continue service beyond the 8 years (e.g., expertise required for specific task).
For existing review groups a staggered scheme is proposed to implement the rotation:
  1. one fourth of current members: half a term & no renewal
  2. one fourth of current members: half a term & renewal of full term
  3. one fourth of current members: full term & no renewal
  4. one fourth of current members: full term & renewal of full term
[The result after four years (one full term) will be that half will have served more than four years, one fourth will have served two years, and one fourth will be new. One fourth will be changed every second year.]
  1. Number of members in a review group - a maximum number of members is decided by the co-ordinating board of the division. If needed, additional member(s) with specific expertise may be co-opted by the review group.
  2. Administration of elections - is handled by an election committee (see below for a precise listing of their tasks)
  3. Appointment of the Review Group chair - is conducted by the chair(s) of the section(s) concerned with recommendations from members of the Review Group.
  4. The Election committee
    • should consist of two members as a minimum and one member from each section of a division as a maximum.
    • is appointed by the Coordinating board according to the requirements in each respective case (a certain review group may concern one or more sections within a division, and that should affect the composition of the election committee). The chair of the election committee, if one is needed, is appointed by the Election committee members.
    • Tasks:
      • Invite nominations from the section(s) concerned and explain the requirements for nominees
      • Make sure that nominees understand and meet the requirements (by e.g. sending them a form where they declare that they can fund their travels, and provide a CV)
      • Announce the list of nominees and propose terms of service for each nominee in order to guarantee both continuity and circulation
      • Administer the closed ballots
      • Announce the results to the sections concerned and to the coordinating board
      • Generally, monitor the process in order to meet dead lines