Newsletter of the Section of Public Libraries

Issue no.18
December 1997

Goals of IFLA’s Public Libraries Section

Short Notes from the Minutes of the Annual Section Meeting 1997

Project on the National Information Policies

Medium term programme 1992 -1997

Medium term programme 1998 -2001

1. Implementation of the Public Library Manifesto: A paper will be presented at the Amsterdam conference (August 1998).

2. National Information Policies. A report will be sent to the Professional board and a paper will be presented at the Amsterdam conference.

3. Revise IFLA Standard for Public Libraries: The Berlin Satellite meeting started the process again and The Standing Committee has set up a Working Group to revise the IFLA Standards for Public Libraries as the existing version is very out-dated. Members of the group are Philip Gill (UK), Chair, Barbara Clubb (Canada), Ilona Glashoff (Germany), Kerstin Hassner (Sweden), Nerses Hayrapetian (Armenia) and Robert Pestell (Australia). The group would like information on any existing guidelines or standards for public libraries or work in progress towards them. Send information to Philip Gill.

4. Comparative statistics: This project will be further discussed with David Fueji who is leading a European community project, Libecon, in which IFLA is engaged.

5. Section brochure. Revision of the section brochure will be discussed at the Spring meeting.

6. Effects on Public Libraries of Copyright Regulations. Frode Bakken, Barbara Clubb, Britt Marie Häggström and Marilyn Gell Mason will make up the working group.

Public Library Conferences and Meetings

IFLA Regional Conference on Public Libraries, KUALA LUMPUR
November 10-12, 1997.

Planning for Future Needs

The conference was opened by the Malaysian Minister of Education, Seri Najib Tun Razak. He spoke of the importance of making public libraries user-friendly and the need to attract children and young people. Sissel Nilsen spoke about the Unesco Public Library Manifesto, which has now been translated into Malay, and there were a number of excellent papers on governance and finance, cooperation and networking, libraries in a reading and creative society and the use of information technology. These were followed by lively discussions in which the issue of charging for services kept recurring. The conference also included workshop sessions to draft a Plan of Action. This was discussed at the final session and will be sent with the report of the conference to all countries in Asia. It is hoped this will be the springboard for further development in public libraries in the region.

Delegates were able to see the splendid facilities of the National Library and tours to libraries were arranged. The conference also enjoyed a social evening with great entertainment including a fashion show, perhaps the first at an IFLA sponsored conference. The organisers led by the National Librarian, Mariam Abdul Kadir are to be congratulated on organising such an interesting and stimulating conference in difficult circumstances. There are already many fine public libraries in Malaysia but this conference will provide the impetus for further development both in the host country and elsewhere in the region.

Plan of Action

1. Redefining The Objectives And Roles Of Public Libraries
   Each library to formulate or redefine its Vision, Mission and Objectives, enhance its role in relation to local community needs in urban and rural areas and set priorities with strategic plans for short-term and long-term action.

2. Setting Standards And Guidelines For Public Libraries
   Each country to formulate standards and guide-lines to monitor,assess and identify opportunities for improvement of collections and services provi-ded. The standards and guidelines formulated will need to emphasise both the qualitative performan-ce measurement and the physical aspect of the library.

3. Cooperation And Networking Amongst Public Libraries
   Each country to establish cooperation and net-working amongst public libraries at both national and regional levels. Each library therefore must take steps to:

   i. affiliate itself with existing public library groups at national, regional as well as international level. Where such groups do not exist at national level public libraries in the country will need to initiate their foundation.

   ii. work in partnership with relevant libraries and agencies, in particular national education authorities and school resource centres.

   iii. create bibliographic databases of each library's collection to facilitate sharing of resources within and outside the country.

   iv. collaborate and establish linkages with other libraries using the latest technologies.

   Submitted by Philip Gill

Brazil 24 - 27 March 1998

Philip Gill will represent the Section.

Africa 1999

IFLA Amsterdam August 1998

The Public Library as the Gateway to Information: the revision of IFLA’s Guidelines for Public Libraries. This preconference on standards for public libraries, will be held in Holland, August 12-14, 1998 before the 1998 General IFLA conference in Amsterdam August 16-21, 1998.

Open forum:
Report from the Section, including reports from the regional conferences and report on the national information policies project.

Open session:
The implementation of the Manifesto a paper by Kerstin Hassner.
Performance measurements, a paper by Beverly Lynch.
Report on revising the standards for public libraries including the pre-conference seminar.

Contributed papers
Peter Borchardt on a project in Berlin concerning three dimensional documents on the internet.
John Sumsion on ISO related to public libraries. Thierry Giappiconi will arrange the necessary contacts.

A workshop on changes in bibliography and cataloguing related to the Internet will be organized by Tuula Haavisto.

Spring Meeting

Some reports from the world of Public Libraries

Connecting @ the Library

LibraryNet does not yet provide direct financial assistance for connecting to the Information Highway. However, CALUPL, the Council of Administrators of Large Urban Public Libraries has submitted a proposal to the Minister of Industry Canada as part of the development of LibraryNet. It is called "Connecting Canadians: An Urban Libraries Strategy for a Networked Nation". It is a five-year, scaleable strategy with five primary areas for focussed development in the following areas: infrastructure, Canadian content development, training, coordination, research, evaluation and finally sustainability. The cost of the five-year program for the 41 major publci libraries in Canada serving populations of 100,000 or more is $115,000,000 (Cn). Announcements are anticipated in the Spring. The 41 major libraries collectively serve more than one third of the Canadian population or more than 11.5 million people.

Czech librarianship in year "zero" (here I have in mind the end of 1989 with fundamental political and economical changes in Czechoslovakia) was proud of a wide network of libraries, both public and special. This can be documented by statistical data. In 1990 there were 8,364 public libraries with branches in the Czech Republic, at that time part of common state Czechoslovakia. This means that a public library was practically in every village. There were 1,239 inhabitants for one library and 5.7 books per inhabitant. The total number of books in public libraries amounted to 60 million.

Since 1990, Czech librarianship has undergone a number of basic changes. Public libraries are no longer part of the State, they are now the responsibility of municipal and local authorities. Cooperative systems of libraries, through which libraries with professional librarians rendered assistance or services to small libraries headed by voluntary librarians, stopped their activities. The law on unified system of libraries of 1959 was not recalled but in fact ceased to be implemented. Since 1991 a new draft library law has been under discussion. The law would solve the discontinuity in the development of public libraries which led to the continuous decrease of the level of library services. The political climate has made impossible the passing of the law by Parliament.

After the parliamentary elections in 1996 a new atmosphere can be observed. Serious discussions are now under way in the newly established Central library council, which is the advisory body of the Minister of culture, and also within the professional organisation – Association of Library and Information Professionals (SKIP). The process of transformation of public libraries has, up to now, not yet been concluded. District offices that have the right to establish district libraries, are trying to get rid of them and prefer their existence within the jurisdiction of municipal offices. It is entirely up to the will of these offices, whether and to what extent the former district libraries will fulfil their regional and more than local tasks. Each year more and more district libraries are converted into municipal libraries. In 1990 there were 72 district libraries, by the end of 1996 only 36 and their number will further decrease. As part and parcel of this process the number of personnel and the amount of finances of such "transformed" libraries is going down.

An important obstacle of a sophisticated "systemic" solution is to be seen in the fact that the law on the so called "higher regional units" has not been passed by the Parliament. Such units are forseen by the Constitution of the Czech Republic. In 1991 the regional administration system was abolished, including regional libraries. Presently they exist as "state scientific libraries" directly financed by Ministry of culture. It is presumed that after the adoption of the law on regional units, these libraries will fall within their jurisdiction.

According to statistics, the number of public libraries and their branches in 1996 amounted to 7,626. The number of inhabitants per library was about 1,400. the number of books per inhabitant remained unchanged – 5.7 books. Nevertheless, there are no catastrophic changes in comparison with 1990. It is, however, necessary to add that the work of public libraries is under strain as a result of some negative factors. The prices of books, journals and other documents are constantly increasing which makes it impossible to offer new books to the public to the same extent as in previous years. The lack of financial resources is particularly visible in case of small libraries with non-professional (voluntary) librarians.

It is now 1997 and we can say "euphemistically" that Czech libraries finds themselves in the half-time of transformation. The situation of libraries is stabilising. We can grasp and explain the positive and the negative sides of the development, we can explain what we are short of, we can specify where to concentrate our efforts as well as the attention of libraries and their founders. The attitudes of librarians are changing to the better. They realised that, they have to fight for their "place on the sun", that the primary task of a library is to provide services and that they have to concentrate their efforts on satisfying the needs of readers and users. It has to be admitted that librarians were "forced" to recognise this situation mainly as a result of lack of finances. In this case, market conditions, in which we find ourselves, led to a positive response. An indirect result was the rebirth of the professional organization (SKIP) which was reborn in spring 1990. The direction towards a "citizens" society leads this way.

As in other parts of the world, we hear in our country comments about the low prestige of the librarian profession. We hope that in the second "half-time" we will succeed in transforming successfully our libraries and increase their prestige and position in the society.

At present there are 3 development projects for public libraries going on.

Creating Information System of Estonian Public libraries : County and City central Libraries are a part of the national project coordinated by ELNET consortium. The implementation of the project guarantees the improvement of library and information services according to the international standards,enables to share the cataloguing databases and modernize the interlibrary transactions.

Project Reconstruction and Building of Public Library Buildings was started in 1995. In 1995- 1998 12 county/city central libraries out of 20 and 150 county libraries will move to new convenient premises and more comfortable surroundings.

The Transition Project to The International Standards consists of several branch projects collecting data corresponding with the standard of international library statistics. Compiling the subject catalogue and correcting library terminology will be completed this year.

A reading campaign and Internet work in Finland

Finland has traditionally been a country of more than 95% literacy rate. The good education and public library systems and a strong tradition of reading have been the greatest reasons for this. Now teachers are beginning to be worried about reading among children and youth - librarians join them when they look at their statistics. A special campaign to encourage especially boys to read is under way, in co-operation with other book branch actors as well as with daily papers.

Internet is here to stay, although it is also accused of weakening literacy. Finnish librarians simply don’t think so. We want to help our patrons to find in Internet, too, what they need. The newest project is to establish a Link Library - a general virtual library to help in retrieving information on the Internet. It is made under a common programme and common rules by all the interested librarians in Finland.

For more information see the website: http://www.lib.hel.fi/syke/english/projects/pulseproj.htm

German public libraries are indeed concerned by one grave topic:the German Library Institute (DBI) is in danger of losing its funds. The DBI is the key institution for libraries all kinds in Germany,especially public libraries. In short it provides:

• Reference and services in many aspects of library work
  
• Assistance for innovative projects in public and scientific libraries
  
• Coordination of international contacts
  
• Computer-based information services for libraries
  
• Advanced training
  
• Many publications

Despite these invaluable efforts, the Wissen-schaftsrat (Scientific council), chief advisor to the federal govenment in scientific matters, is planning to stop the fundings which would almost certainly mean the DBI and its work. Since the DBI is the only central institution providing the services mentioned, the consequences for public libraries would be tremendous.

A theoretical structure for library classification has been developed with the scale A to F.

A = small libraries functioning on a basic level.
F = large libraries that offer services up to the level of advanced and higher education.

1. To see if a national model of classification would work in practical life.

2. To see if the product / market combinations that have been chosen by separate libraries can be linked to the classification system.

3. To see if cooperation can be reached between the libraries on the basis of the chosen product market combinations and to see if this has any implications for a national system of classification.

4. To make a detailed proposal for a nationwide workable system for classification.

Telematics, The National Library Association,has defined a policy for telematics and started up a number of projects.One of them is a digital reference library that uses current developments set up by other support organizations and local libraries.

1. Public Libraries Analysis Project 1997 Bertelsmann Foundation. 11 Public Libraries from Spain and 10 from the province of Barcelona, through Diputacio de Barcelona are involved in the project.

2. The school libraries meeting was held in March (1997) in Madrid /Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura, Direccion general del Librao y las Bibliotecas. The goal was to analyse the situation in Spain and propose new ways to improve school libraries in our country. One of the fields was the relation between school libraries and public libraries.

3. The Main Public Library in Barcelona is making progress. The Minister of Education and Culture approved it and they made an official agreement with the Town hall and the Catalan Government. The library is scheduled to start its services in the year 2001.

4. A conference about libraries in hospitals was held in Barcelona."Does reading cure?" was the theme of the conference. The conference was prepared from the Bellvitge Hospital close to Barcelona.

5. Public Library System in Badalona (a town with 210, 000 inhabitants close to Barcelona) took part in the "UNESCO model Libraries network" project. The leader of this project is the Public Library of Ljusdal, Sweden.

6. New impetus for library cooperation in Spain in a meeting in Valladolid. The Minister of Education and Culture held a meeting with library system managers in Spain. One of the fields was public library data and performance indicators. A working group analysed the situation in Spain and will propose basic and homogeneous data we need to know the situation of public library sector in Spain in a reliable way.

Smaller regions in Sweden are merging together into larger regions. The last time this kind of reorganisation of regions took place in Sweden was in the beginning of 1600. These changes will have a great impact on the county libraries. The county library will probably work under a unit called regional development. This will mean a completely new role for the county libraries.

Hospital libraries are very much in question. Due to the economic situation the welfare state is cutting down the cost for hospital and care and the politicians have difficulties in seeing the need for libraries in hospitals.

A campaign for the role of the school libraries has taken place in eight different communities in Sweden. This is a cooperation beetween the DIK Association, the unions for teachers and schoolleaders and the Swedish Associations of Local Authorities. The conferences have stressed the question of the need for school libraries to fulfill the aim of teaching.

SPECIAL NOTICE

Sissel Nielsen, former chair of the section, was elected chair of the IFLA Professional Board. The Section is proud to have had Sissel as chair.