Section of Public Libraries

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IFLA section for Public Libraries Mid - Term Meeting - Thursday March 23 and Friday, March 24 2000 in Paris, France. Minutes Present: Barbara Clubb, Canada, Chair Britt Marie Haggstrom Sweden, Secretary Borge Sondergard, Denmark, Info.coord./Newsletter ed. Assumpta Bailac, Spain Frode Bakken, Norway Jarmila Burgetova, Czech Republic Nic Diament, France Philip Gill, UK Ilona Glashoff, Germany Tuula Haavisto, Finland Kerstin Hassner, Sweden Florence Poncé, France Mary Sherman, USA 1. Opening Ms Florence Poncé gave the section a warm welcome to Paris and CPI. Chair Barbara Clubb opened the meeting and urged all members to speak loudly and to respect the time given for each point of the agenda. Apologies for absents were given from : Clara Budnik, Chile Vladimir Firsov, Russia Nerses Hayrapetyan, Armenia Bernhard Margolis, USA Robert Pestell, Australia Reinhard Stridde, Germany. Budnik, Elections in Chile and a new professional position for Ms Budnik. Stridde, due to library conference in Leipzig Firsov, Hayrapetyan, Margolis and Pestell, due to economic reasons There was no comment from Georgeta Clinca Romania. 2. Approval of the agenda The agenda was approved with an additional point under "Other matters" Membership matters 2001. 3. Approval of the Minutes from the Bangkok meeting. The minutes from the Bangkok meeting was approved with a correction under $11 the name Borge should be Frode. 4. Matters arising from the Minutes. Barbara Clubb will write a letter to the Regional Section with a proposal to arrange a co-arrangement at the Harare Bookfair next year. 5. Review of the Mid-Term Programme The revised Mid-term program for the section was adopted. Appendix to the original minutes are to be found on the IFLA website. 6. Review of Public Library project A. Public library guidelines. Philip Gill General comments: There is no funding for translations. A new version of the draft will be sent out by the end of May. Last comments will be taken after the Jerusalem meeting. There is a need for more examples from other parts of the world. Apart form those in this draft. Publication plan: The IFLA web -site Translation into IFLA's five official languages. Further discussions concerning format, photos etc. Promotion plan: Reviewer for the library press. IFLA -journal Library associations and their magazines. UNESCO courier Regional and national library authorities National libraries More…. The section went through the draft of the guidelines and proposed some improvements. B Lifelong learning. Britt Marie Haggstrom, Assumpta Bailac The definition of lifelong learning must be more clearly expressed in the preamble of the project. The project will focus on the role of libraries as a part of the educational process rather than service support. The focus on the best practice examples will be on Eastern and Central Europe and Central and South America. A draft will be presented at the Jerusalem meeting. Assumpta Bailac presented a query to be sent out to countries in the above mentioned areas. The participation from Library and Information Education in Lund, Sweden failed. New attempt will be made. Funding: Apart from the money from IFLA there is no funding at present. Contact will be taken with UNESCO and the Soros Foundation. C Information technology and Public Libraries, Borge Sondergard and Florence Poncé The section discussed the project proposal and found that this project could either be a big project or a collection of guidelines and best practise examples taken from two countries in the developing world and two countries in the developed world. It was decided to focus on computer literacy (goal 2.2 in Mid-Term programme) and not on goal 3.1 (Information Technology). The focus shall be on collecting best practise examples, and deal with two matters: a) the progress in developing countries and b) staff handling the subject. UNET is an unfunded project funded by the Swedish government and UNESCO. The project is implementation of the public library manifesto. Seven countries are now involved and the project or the network and contacts will run by themselves. There is a need for evaluation of the already made evaluation. Presentation of the project can be found at the IFLA - Website. D. Section brochure. It was decided, that Britt Marie should check the remains of the brochure and report to Borge, who would look it over for revisions and contact IFLA HQ, in order to get them to bring the brochure to Jerusalem. 7. Financial matters Budget review. Appendix to the Minutes. Fund raising report There was nothing to report on the matter Sponsors. Mary Sherman Possible sponsors Bill and Linda gates Learning foundation Soros Foundation for Central and Eastern Europe, Micro Soft local offices. 8. Report from the PB meeting/ BMH The reports are appendices to the minutes 9. Report from the CB meeting in Stockholm March 2000/BMH Minutes from the meeting will be an appendix to this minutes. 10. FAIFE matters and CLM reports Frode Bakken and BMH on FAIFE, Frode Bakken and Tuula Haavisto on CLM Frode Bakken gave a report from a visit to Kosovo in February. The visit was a mission from the FAIFE. A full report is available on the IFLA/FAIFE website. CLM report. CLM will have an open session at the Jerusalem meeting on WTO matters. Frode and Tuula urged the members of the section to look at the WTO website and register your own country's acceptation on the different matters. 11. Sections Newsletter / Borge Sondergaard CB wants the Newsletter. If it can be transmitted electronically it is ok. If not the answer is no for economic reasons. There will still be a printed newsletter. Deadline for the next issue will be after the Jerusalem meeting. 12. Country reports. Written reports at the meeting were given from Canada, France, Spain and UK. Reports in the newsletter from March 2000 were given from Australia, Canada,Czech Republic, Finland, France, Norway and Sweden. 13. The Jerusalem meeting. The Jerusalem meeting was discussed. The proposed overview (appendix to the minutes) was adopted with some adjustments of time and the title of the session joint with the section for the blind. The title should be: Building smart communities. 14. Other business. A. Boston meeting 2001. A proposed theme for the sections program could be contracting out. Another "Why are rich and important people interested in public libraries ?" A joint program with the School section on the UNESCO manifestos on Public Libraries and School libraries. B. The Glasgow meeting 2002. Section member Philip Gill is a member of the organising committee. IFLA is celebrating its 75 birthday. Suggested themes for the section could be lifelong learning project, computer literacy, Librarians in the future ? C. Members for 2001 There should be 20 corresponding members of the Section. Chair want a list of those people in order to get in contact with them The meeting was closed by the chair with a heartily thank to our hosts and Chair's thanks to the section members for their lively and interested participation in the discussions. An e- mail will be sent to those members who could not attend the meeting.


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