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

Round Table on Mobile Libraries

Annual Report 1994

Robert Pestell
State Library of Queensland
24 Macquarie Street
Tenereffie, Queensland 4005
Australia
is Chair of the Round Table on Mobile Libraries.

Thelma H. Tate

Rutgers University
POB 270
Chapel Drive
New Brunswick
New Jersey 08903
USA
Fax: (1-908) 9326777
e-mail: tate@zodiac.rutgers.edu
is Secretary.

Round Table Membership

The Round Table has an Executive Committee of 17 persons from 15 countries.

Projects

Resource Kit

The Round Table plans to develop a mobile libraries international resource kit, which should be completed by 1995 or 1996. Each Committee member will provide a short description of mobile library ser vices in his/her country. These would form a series of country reports to be included in the kit. Other items would include publicity material, slides, significant journal article citations, and a li st of publications.

Database Directory of Mobile Libraries

A survey will be undertaken in the UK and the results of this would be evaluated for possible use by the Round Table.

Twinning Project

A mobile library twinning project will be undertaken between Corte in Corsica and Sassari in Sardinia, and the results of this trial would be considered by the Executive Committee during the Istanbul Conference.

Publications

Guidelines on Mobile Libraries

The Guidelines were translated into French by Mireille Fayret (France) and Remi Sagna (Senegal) and published in the series, IFLA Professional Reports. Russian, Spanish, German, Malay and Catalan ver sions are planned.

Brochure

The Round Table Issued a publicity brochure during the Havana Conference. In an effort to recruit new members, the Executive Committee is distributing copies worldwide to those who have taken part in Round Table meetings or who have otherwise expressed an interest in the work of the Round Table.

Future Conferences

Istanbul 1995

The Round Table's plans include speakers from Greece on the new high technology mobile library developed as a result of the European MOBILE project. Other speakers will be from Turkey, the USA and Ma laysia.

Havana Meetings

Satellite Meeting in Trinidad

The Round Table organized a meeting in Trinidad, Cuba held jointly with the Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations with the theme, "Mobile Libraries Serving Multicultural Population s". Local preparations were undertaken by Fadia Castellanos and the staff of the Trinidad Public Library, who had spared no effort to make the seminar a success, with everything having been carefully planned to the last detail. More than 60 people attended, with just more than one-half consisting of Cuban colleagues. Following an overview of mobile library services in the world by Robert Pestel l, America Guerra of the Trinidad Public Library described the mobile services that were offered in Cuba (petrol shortages have unfortunately led to the services being withdrawn). Gloria Salmon of th e Jamaican Library Service, provided an in-depth survey of services offered throughout the Caribbean islands, and this was followed by a video and presentation on the Bibliobongo of Venezuela by Mila gro Medina, National Library of Venezuela. The Bongo is a traditional canoe, constructed and modified especially to carry books to villages along the Orinoco river and its tributaries. Blanca Hodge, Netherlands Antilles Public Library System, read a paper illustrated by a superb video on the country and its mobile library system. Anne Mitchell-Gift provided an overview of mobile library service s in Trinidad and Tobago. Her presentation was followed by a paper on services to the indigenous peoples of Colombia and the difficulties of serving isolated communities, by Mary Ramos, specialist in school libraries in Bogota. Stan Skrzeszewski, Chair of the Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations, provided the final paper in which he detailed the establishment of a mobile libr ary service to the First Nations people of Saskatchewan, after first explaining the correct terminologies now used in Canada. The papers will be published by IFLA in 1995.

Paper presented at open session
Mobile Library Services: A Status Report on the Professional Literature and the Preparation of Personnel for Mobile Library Service
by THELMA H. TATE

Abstract
The literature review was conducted in three areas: the level and nature of published works on mobile libraries; identifiable areas of research needs; and proposed recommendations for future developm ents in this area of the profession.