IFLA Section for Public Libraries
Annual meeting in Boston 18. and 24. of August 2001

Second meeting: 24. Aug., 8.00AM to 10.00AM in Hynes Convention Center, room 303

1. Opening and announcements

The Chair Barbara Clubb expressed a warm welcome to outgoing, continuing and new members of the Committee. She also welcomed the many observers. Then she thanked Bernard Margolis for hosting the meeting in his library. Then followed a round of individual presentations. B.Margolis gave direction to the Committee’s dinner on the same evening in Legal Seafood Restaurant and asked how many members and accompanying persons planned to attend. B. Clubb mentioned that due to some misunderstanding, Robert Pestell, Australia, had resigned too late from the Committee to replace his seat. That is why, there are only 19 members of the Committee the next two years. She also mentioned, that the Committee had never been able to get in contact with the Romanian member, Georgeta Clinca, and that Ms Clinca had yet never attended any meetings. The Committee had therefore, still with no success though, tried to get IFLA HQ to expel her and replace with another member from the postal ballot in the Spring.

2. Welcome to new members of the Committee and Announcement of election of Officers

Welcome was dealt with under item 1. Chair asked Britt-Marie Häggström to announce the election. B-M. Häggström (as outgoing Secretary) advised the members, that this year was election year, and that the IFLA Officers post (2001-2003) as Chair and Secretary, together with the post as Information Co-ordinator, were up for election. B-M. Häggström announced that Barbara H. Clubb was willing to stand as Chair (second term) 2001-2003, and that Borge Sondergard had indicated, that he would be delighted to take over the job as Secretary after herself. Jan-Ewout van der Putten had indicated, that he would be willing to take on the job as Information Co-ordinator. B-M. Häggström urged members to consider carefully for the next hours if they would like to stand for the posts, as election would take place under item 13 at the end of first meeting.

3. Approval of the Agenda for the Annual Meeting

Approved

4. The Chairs Report

As there had only been a very brief meeting in Coordinating Board of Divison III, there was very little to report. B.H. Clubb went through the Sections Conference programme in Boston, and gave much attention to the launch of the new Guidelines on Wednesday morning. The will be a banner, flyers and flowers. There was a plea from John Dunne, Childrens Library Section for a Committee member to join the "Books for All" Session. Kerstin Hassner will attend.

5. Approval of the Minutes from the Prague meeting, February 22.-24.2001

Comments from I. Glasshof: The Guidelines will not be translated into German paid for by UNESCO, as German is not an official UNESCO-language.

Comments from F. Bakken: F. Bakken was not listed as participant in the Prague meeting. Here was very much so!

Comments from B. Sondergard: Paper on project on Computer Literacy is not planned at the African conference, but at the Glasgow Conference.

Otherwise the Minutes were approved.

6. Report from Coordinating Board and
7. Report from the Professional Board

These two items were dealt with together.

B. Häggstrôm reported that this year is election year, and that a new Professional Committee will be formed on Saturday 25. which will elect a new Chair of PC - after the elections of Chairs of Divisions on Friday 24.

PB has agreed to allow 6 satellite meetings to be held in conjunction with the Glasgow Conference. This is far less than this year in Boston (about 30 Satellite meetings). Agreed upon are:

Management and Marketing: "Marketing Library Associations and Marketing the Librarian’s Competence"

Library and Research Services for Parliaments: "Developments in Library and research Services for Parliaments, focussing on current developments in the Horuse of Commons Library and some other Parliamentary Libraries in the Region"

Art Libraries: "Theme will be decided upon in Boston"

Continuing Professional Education (RT): " 5^th World Conference on Continuing Professional Education for the Library and Information Profession"

Government Libraries: " Informing Government: Government Library and Information Services in the Information Age"

Statistics: "Theme to be decided in Boston"

It is known, that also Mobile Libraries and Libraries for the Blind would like to hold satellite meetings. Deadline for wishing satellite meetings in Glasgow was March 15^th this year, so it is far too late for us, had we wanted one. B. Margolis stated that too many pre-conferences generates problems, as it is hard and almost impossible for many IFLA Conference goers to attend both pre-conferences and the main IFLA Conference. He would strongly advice against too many pre-conferences. It is also known to be a fact, that IFLA Executive Committee would like to shorten the main IFLA Conference, but it may take years before this is accomplished.

New "Rules of Procedures" is on their way from IFLA HQ.

The application for project-money is soon. Division III has some unspent money for small projects. These will be decided upon Friday 24^th. The Section will go for some money for the dissemination of the Guidelines. On the PB Meeting there had been two inspiring papers, one on libraries and the blind and one on mobile library service conducted by camels and donkeys.

P. Gill wanted to remind the Section on the so called "Red Thread" in Glasgow next year, which is: "Building on the past, investing in the future". He very much urged us to bring this Red Thread into the Section’s programme.

New IFLA Structure: Round Tables are not to exist in the future. They can either be sections, discussion groups, join up with another section or be "free floating". In Division III there are 3 Round Tables: ROTNAC (library service centres), Mobile Libraries and INTAMEL (Metropolitan City Libraries). It is known, that Mobile Libraries will apply for becoming a Section (application must reach IFLA HQ before October 1^st). ROTNAC has great dispute with Ross Shimmon, they want to stay on in IFLA on the present conditions, which means as a RT. ROTNAC has to be "handled with care", as they represent some of IFLA’s bigger sponsors. RONAC is supposed to decide on the future during the week (latest: they did not, and the dispute goes on!). The Standing Committee strongly supports the keeping of ROTNAC within the Division and some obligingness towards ROTNAC must be shown. Maybe they can become "Official Affiliates". INTAMEL we never here anything from and they never attend the CB-meetings. Judging from their website, they are "alive and kicking".

Last important message from CB and PB: The four year Medium Term Programme is to be replaced by a two year Strategic Plan from the beginning of 2002.

8. Report on Membership and Information

B. Sondergard gave a report. Since the Jerusalem meeting two newsletters had been published, both in 2001. Still one newsletter is to be expected this year. The website had been kept up-to-date, but many problems had occurred the last two month, due to the transformation of IFLANET from the National Library of Canada to the Hague. Four new members have joined the section, which should mean, that we pass the magic number of 300, which will secure more funding from IFLA HQ. B. Sondergard had produced a new (temporary) membership-folder to be used in Boston in 1500 copies.

9. Financial Report

The latest report as of July 12^th 2001 was circulated. The Section is in good standing with an income of 29.299 NLG and expected expenditures of 27.661 NLG. The Section rejoiced the new money from IFLA PB for the UNET evaluation (9.000 NLG), the Pan African Library Conference (5.000 NLG) and the reprint of the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto (3.000 NLG). The Committee expressed gratitude to the Chair B. Clubb for undertaking the finance so well.

10. Review of the Midterm Programme and preparation for new programme

The Medium Term Programme 1998-2001 has come to an end, and a successful one. The Committee was pleased with the accomplices, noting especially that the last unfinished business – the African Conference – will take place in September 2001 in Rabat, Morocco. Medium Term Programme concluded!

New two year Strategic Plan 2002-2003 must be decided upon before October 1^st. For the discussion in the Committee there were two documents, one made by M. Sherman, A. Bailac and F. Poncé building on the IFLA Professional Priorities and the recommendations of the IFLA Social Responsibilities Discussion Group as goals for the Section. To each goal there were actions attached. The other document was made by B. Clubb – also based on the IFLA Professional Priorities, but also listing continuing priorities and new possibilities. The Committee had a lively discussion on various topics: marketing via websites, local community services, lifelong learning matching a lot of goals and actions, twinning libraries/sister libraries should they be matched according to size or should they come together as poor and rich?, developing countries preferring other conferences than IFLA’s and what to do about it?, the importance of networking (PULMAN-project), marketing UNET – it’s cheap and simple, focus on the need of the user, attend other conferences to promote new guidelines and many other topics. It was decided, that B. Clubb should try to combine the two documents and the many comments made during the meeting, and present a new draft on Friday 24^th. She did, and the Committee was pleased with the result, but had yet a lot of new suggestions. B. Sondergard warned that we only have two years to accomplish the actions in the plan and not four years as usual – our level of ambition should reflect that fact. But the Committee members were very eager to work and volunteered as project-leaders and –members for several projects. B. Clubb will rewrite the Strategic Plan 2002-2003 and will send it to the Committee members for feedback and volunteering on all projects. The time for decision is very short as we have to send in a final plan before Oct. 1^st.

11. Review of the projects

Guidelines project (Philip Gill): Concluded and the first print in English is now available (so is the English version on our website i pdf-format). The Guidelines will be officially launched at a press conference on Wednesday 22^nd. P. Gill encouraged the translation into as many languages as possible, but remember to get permission from Sjoerd Koopman from IFLA HQ. A. Bailac requested a timetable of the UNESCO-language translations, but no precise time could be given. The question was raised, whether there were any other money for translation than the UNESCO money - this was doubted very much. B. Clubb and B-M. Häggström expressed the Committee’s gratitude and deep appreciation to P. Gill and I. Glasshof for their devotion to the project and presented presents.

UNET (Kerstin Hassner): The Project is now engaged in a comparative review of the evaluation of the Public Library Manifesto in the municipalities/countries participating in UNET. An evaluationgroup around K. Hassner has been formed and a final report after eight years of work with UNET is due in September 2001. K. Hassner will give a report on the UNET project on the Section’s Open Forum on Tuesday 21^st.

Lifelong Learning (Britt-Marie Häggström): A major draft report of August 8^th 2001 has been published on the Section’s website and has been sent to the members of the Committee. The Project is continuing as planned and the IFLA money is secured. B-M. Häggström reported specially on the EU situation on lifelong learning and a report will be given on the Section’s Open Forum on Tuesday 21^st.

Computer Literacy (Florence Poncé and Borge Sondergard): A project report was handed to the members with a short description of the result of a questionnaire, which had been sent out as a pilot survey. The project-leaders asked for the Committee’s advice on how to proceed. There were no more IFLA money in the Project, and a world-wide questionnaire – and the handling of it – was a very big job. It was decided, that collecting best practises is far more important than statistics. The project is to work closely with the lifelong learning project, a pre-conference seminar arranged together with the Scottish L.A. in Glasgow to gather best practises and to produce a leaflet and articles in the Newsletter should be the main tasks. Lek Choh Ngian will join the project.

12. Programme for the Boston Meeting

The Programme was presented by B. Clubb, and she especially made recommendations of "Public Libraries for the Future" on Sunday, the "Libraries as the Conerstone for Democracy discussion group" on Monday, The Open Forum on Tuesday, The press conference for the Guidelines and "Public Libraries and Telecentres" on Wednesday.

13. Election of Officers for the Section for Public Libraries 2001-2003

The outgoing Secretary B-M. Häggström chaired the election. As Chair was nominated and seconded: Barbara H. Clubb, Canada for her second term. No other nominees. Barbara H. Clubb serves as Chair 2001-2003. As Secretary was nominated and seconded: Borge Sondergard, Denmark for his first term. No other nominees. Borge Sondergard serves as Secretary 2001-2003. For the job as Information Coordinator, Jan-Ewout van der Putten, Holland, was nominated and seconded. No other nominees. Jan-Ewout van der Putten serves as Information Coordinator 2001-2003.

14. Programme possibilities for the IFLA 2002 Glasgow meeting and the IFLA 2003 Berlin meeting.

Based on the Boston experiences the Committee agreed, that the programme this year was a good one to built on. The Open Forum should have fewer speakers and more time for discussion. Maybe next year invite Bertelsmann Foundation to lecture on the best practises in public libraries. The use of PowerPoint is crucial and further the understanding for non-English speaking people. The Richmond session on Library for the Future should be continued every year, in Glasgow with some Scandinavian libraries (G. Konradsson-Mortin and T. Martikainen will look into this). The Glasgow "Red Thread" should be taken into account – if possible. The developing countries issue should be forwarded, maybe in conjunction with Carnegie or Gates Foundation. Carol from Gates F. would like to make the contact. The Libraries as the Cornerstone of Democracy Discussion Group should be permanent on every IFLA Conference. A new topic on the Glasgow Conference could be public libraries and public/government/consumer information - service and contribution to the community (Horsens, Denmark could give a paper). There must be a pre-conference workshop on Computer Literacy (Poncé, Lek Choh Ngian and Sondergard). Finally B. Clubb had a long list of joint sessions with other sections and groups. B. Clubb will revise. Preliminary information describing the content of the Open Forum must be send to IFLA HQ before November 15^th.

Berlin 2003: Ilona Glasshof informed that a pre-conference on library buildings was an object. There seems to be a similar project in France at the same time. Could they work together (F. Poncé)? The Section would like to focus on "user needs" in Berlin, and also the multicultural issue and codes of ethics/democracy.

Ilona Glashoff said that she would be very pleased to welcome the SC in Hambourg

(no particular topic ).

Florence Poncé said that there is a project in the SC Building on a pre-seminar in France about Building public libraries, and suggested that we could do a joint pre-seminar with the SC Building.

Both Glasgow and Berlin will be on the Agenda for the Midyear meeting in the Committee.

15. Getting new sponsors

Nothing to report

16. Marketing the Section’s goals and means

Was heavily discussed under item 10

17. Report from Division III Extra Coordinating Board meeting

The new coordinating Board of Division III had an extra meeting on Sunday 19^th to elect new Chair and Secretary:

Chair 2001-2003: John Day, Section for the Disadvantaged

Secretary 2001-2003: Glenys Willars, Section for School Libraries

18. Other reports and items

B-M. Häggström reported from the FAIFE meetings and the Cuban issues. K. Hassner reported that the "Books for All"–project is finally concluded. Sarah Long (observer) reported from the discussion group on Sustainable Communities – it seems to be a problem of only USA concern (only Americans attended the discussion), the Europeans can’t relate to the issues. The committee promised to have a look at it at the Midyear meeting.

19. Midyear meeting locations and dates

Midyear meeting 2002 is to take place March 7^th-8^th in Singapore. There were some doubt about how many could afford to go to Singapore (please report back to B. Clubb, everyone). Bologna, Italy, will be the alternative meeting location.

Midyear meeting 2003: Barcelona, Spain

Midyear meeting 2004: Ljusdal/Malmö, Sweden

20. Closing

The Chair heartily thanked Britt-Marie Häggström, Frode Bakken and Tuula Harvisto, who are leaving the Standing Committee. Ilona Glasshoff gave a warm thank you to Bernie Margolis for his hospitality and presented him with a gift. Barbara Clubb thanked everybody for the active participation and wished everybody a safe trip home and hope to see you all in March 2003.