CFP: Information for Development Action: Governments, Civil Society and Libraries

The Government Information and Official Publications Section and Government Libraries Section invite proposals for papers to be presented at a two-hour session in the next IFLA General Conference on August 2013 in Singapore.

This joint session will focus on trends and patterns of information creation and dissemination in the fields of international economic development and poverty.  Speakers are invited to explore types of poverty and development information being produced, the tools used for its access and discovery, the relationships between international organizations, national governments, and civil society in creating and sharing this information, and the role of libraries in building collections and providing access to this information in an increasingly digital environment.  The program will appeal to librarians interested in global economic development, poverty alleviation, development assistance, and trends in official government information and civil society (NGO) publishing.

Subjects of interest may include but are not limited to:

• Official government information and strategies for economic growth and poverty alleviation in the Asian region and beyond
• Information sources on development and poverty assistance, impact evaluation, and statistical data
• National government strategies and information sources for economic development
• Poverty alleviation and development information from regional and international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Bank and regional development banks
• Civil society (NGO) information sources on poverty relief, capacity building, and microfinance
• The role of libraries in collecting, preserving, and providing access to this information

Submission requirements

All proposals should include the following:

Title of presentation
Abstract of no more than 500 words
Name, E-mail address, position (title) of presenter(s), plus a brief presenter(s) biography
Presenter(s) employed or affiliated institution

Please send your proposal for papers no later than 15 February 2013 to:

Satendra Dhaka
E-mail: ssdhaka@gmail.com

and

Jim Church
E-mail: jchurch@library.berkeley.edu

Deadlines

15 February 2013	Deadline for submission of Abstract
15 March 2013	Notification of acceptance/rejection of paper
10 May 2013	Dearline for submission of full paper

The proposals will be evaluated by the refereeing team for the IFLA Government Information and Official Publications, and Government Libraries sections.  Papers for the conference should be written and presented in English.

Both abstracts and full papers should be submitted as a MS Word file by e-mail. Proposed papers must be original and not have been published elsewhere.

For additional questions or comments please write to:

Dr. S.S. Dhaka
Chair, IFLA Government Information and Official Publications Section
Director, Library & Information
Ministry of External Affairs
Patiala House, Annexe “B”
Tilak Marg, New Delhi-110001
Email: ssdhaka@gmail.com

and/or:

Jim Church
Secretary/Treasurer, IFLA Government Information and Official Publications Section
Librarian for Economics, Development Studies and International Government Information
438 Doe Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, 94720
United States
E-mail: jchurch@library.berkeley.edu

Submissions

All proposals must be in before 15 February 2013.

Please note

Pre-conference registration fees will be waived for the speakers. However, it is the speakers’ responsibility to find funding for travel, accommodation and associated costs, which IFLA and its Sections are not in a position to fund.

Weekly Links Roundup

• Apps disrupt sleepy science, medical, research and business-to-business publishing- The Globe and Mail

• Designing a balanced reading diet: Allocate time to read both for fun and for professional development – The Globe and Mail

• The Future of Big Data – Pew Internet

• IFLA Statement on Visually Impaired and Print Disabled Persons – IFLA

• Literary labours lent: The uncertain economics of lending virtual books – The Economist

• Magic Mike’s Guide to Seducing Your Audience (and Leave Them Panting for More) – Copyblogger

• OCUL joins Public Knowledge Project as Major Development Partner in Open Access Scholarly Publishing – OCUL

• Required Summer Reading – Incidental Comics

• Social Justice & Library Service in First Nation Communities [PDF] – SOLS

• A south-of-the-border view of Canadian copyright developments – Duke University

• Tiny library, big celebration: Ontario’s tiniest full-service library marks its 100th anniversary Saturday – London Free Press

• Trend Spotting or Why I Hired a Competitive Intelligence Librarian – Slaw.ca

• Why Wal-Marts become libraries (and courts and civic centres) – CBC

 

World Book and Copyright Day

Find the world’s wealth and wisdom through books

To promote books, reading, and the stimulation of creativity through copyright – this is why we celebrate World Book and Copyright Day today and every year on 23 April. In her video message, IFLA President Ingrid Parent addressed the importance of books as irreplaceable sources of knowledge, ideas and innovation. “In books we find the wealth and wisdom of the world”, Parent said. Parent also remembered all people who cannot read, “be it through illiteracy, through censorship or through language barriers. When people have no access to books and information, they are excluded from the world’s wealth and wisdom.”

Being the primary cultural and scientific institutions for providing information as a public good, libraries play a crucial role to build bridges to books and information by helping people to learn new skills, to discover history and culture or to access remote research findings.

IFLA and its members in more than 150 countries worldwide believe that people, communities and organisations need universal and equitable access to information, ideas and works of imagination for their social, educational, cultural, democratic and economic well-being.

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. Initiated in 1995 by UNESCO, this date pays a worldwide tribute to books and their authors, and encourages everyone to discover the pleasure of reading and to gain a renewed respect for the extraordinary contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

The year 2012 also marks the 80th anniversary of the Index Translationum. This international bibliography of translation provides a unique tool for the monitoring of translation flows in the world. Originally created in 1932, it is the oldest program of UNESCO.

Call for Papers: The Surprising World of Government Libraries

Government Libraries Section (GLS); Government Information and Official Publications Section (GIOPS); Law Libraries Section & Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section

Theme:

The Surprising World of Government Libraries: trends in survival and prospect of new services

The above IFLA Sections invite proposals for papers to be presented at a two-hour programme in the next IFLA General Conference to be held on August 2012 in Helsinki, Finland.

Government Libraries are facing a transition period. Between some states looking for slash budgets due to the crisis and the ongoing revision of library services because of information technology’s advances, the role of librarians in this scenario must be addressed. This is a Call for Papers to solicit people to share their experiences and case studies that demonstrate how librarians can make a difference and manage complex situations within government structures, including the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary branches.

Subjects of interest include:

• How government libraries are surviving
• How government libraries fare during and after disasters
• The impact of government library closures
• Government libraries transition to the digital world
• The present state of Government Libraries in each country and the future prospect of user services
• Government libraries surprising: still here
• Relationship between open access and the public interest dimension on intellectual property law and policy in the digital age

 Proposals should include:

• Title of the presentation
• Abstract of no more than 500 words
• Name, e-mail address, position (title) of presenter(s)
• Presenter(s) employed or affiliated institution
• A brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words

The selection of papers is based on the abstracts.

Important Dates and Timelines

Please email your proposals for papers before February 10, 2012 to Guillermo García-Capcha via ifla.governmentlibraries@gmail.com

The proposals will be evaluated and notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent by  March 15,  2012

The presenters selected for the program at the Helsinki conference will be asked to submit a formal paper (for inclusion on the IFLA conference website and the Sections’ websites) no later than May 30, 2012

The session will be conducted in English. All proposals and presentations will be required to be in English. Final papers can be submitted in one of the official IFLA working languages. If the paper is in any of other official IFLA languages than English, an accompanying translation in English must be attached. All selected papers will be uploaded on the IFLA website.

For more information, please contact us via ifla.governmentlibraries@gmail.com

 

Please note

All expenses, including registration for the conference, and travel, accommodation to Helsinki are the sole responsibility of authors/presenters. For collective papers, at least one of the authors must be present for the Conference. No financial support can be provided by IFLA.

CLA Announces Keynote Speakers for CLA 2011

Kicking off the conference on Thursday, May 26 is Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair of TD Bank Financial Group. Be sure to stay for the entire day on Saturday, May 28 for a full day of programming.

The closing session speaker is the first Canadian IFLA President, Ingrid Parent.

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Frank McKenna – Opening Keynote Speaker
Frank McKenna is the Deputy Chair of TD Bank Financial Group, and the former Canadian Ambassador to the United States. Prior to these positions, he served as Legal Counsel to McInnes Cooper in Moncton, and Consulting Legal Counsel to Osler Hoskin and Harcourt in Toronto. During this same time, he was a director with several provincial, national and international companies. He served as Premier of New Brunswick from 1987 to 1997. He and his wife, Julie, reside in both Toronto and Cap Pele, and have three children and seven grandchildren.

Ingrid Parent – Closing Keynote Speaker
Ingrid Parent is the University Librarian at the University of British Columbia, a post she took up July 1, 2009. From 1994 to 2004 she was Director General of Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services at the former National Library of Canada. With the formation of Library & Archives Canada in 2004, Parent became Assistant Deputy Minister for Documentary Heritage Collections, and was responsible for the development, description and preservation of Canada’s documentary heritage.

Parent has represented Canada with the International Federation of Library Associations for more than 10 years. In June 2009 IFLA announced that Ms Parent was elected as President-elect for the term 2009-2011 and President for the term 2011-2012.

Notice to all CLA members: IFLA Nominations

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is currently seeking nominations from individuals to serve in the following positions:

• President-elect (2011-2013, followed by Presidency 2013-2015),
• members of the Governing Board (2011-2013) and
• members of Section Standing Committees (2011-2015).

The Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques, as a National Association Member of IFLA, may submit the names of candidates for President-elect, the Governing Board, and for the Standing Committees of the Sections for which we are registered (see list below).

Descriptions of the positions, along with details as to who can be nominated, are available on the IFLA website.

• For President-Elect and Governing Board;
• For Standing Committees

 

Please note that neither IFLA nor CLA is able to provide any financial assistance to individuals who may be elected to these positions.  Nominees therefore must either have financial support from their employer or be self-funded.

CLA may only put forward one nomination for each position.  If more than one individual expresses an interest in a position, the CLA Executive Council will determine which candidate to nominate.

CLA is now accepting names for consideration as nominees to the various positions.  If you wish CLA to put your name forward, please contact:

Kelly Moore, CLA Executive Director
tel: 613-232-9625 x 306
email: kmoore@cla.ca

The deadline for submitting your name to CLA is Thursday 27 January 2011.

If you have any questions about the positions available or the nomination process, contact Kelly for further information.

IFLA Section Standing Committees

Sections are the units largely responsible for IFLA’s professional activities.  They are divided into 5 Divisions by type of library, type of service, or geographic regions served.  Each Section has an elected Standing Committee of up to 20 individuals who are responsible for the governance and work of the Section.

You can review the current activities of each of the IFLA Sections.  The complete list of Sections is available at:  http://www.ifla.org/en/activities-and-groups#list3

CLA is eligible to nominate individuals to the following Section Standing Committees:

• Academic and Research Libraries
• Government Libraries
• Public Libraries
• Preservation and Conservation
• Statistics and Evaluation
• Library Buildings & Equipment
• Classification and Indexing
• Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities
• Literacy and Reading
• Management and Marketing
• Management of Library Associations
• Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning
• Metropolitan Libraries

If CLA is not registered for a Section in which you are interested, please contact Kelly to discuss.

Kelly Moore
Executive Director
Canadian Library Association

1150 Morrison Drive, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario K2H 8S9
Canada
tel: +1 613 232 9625 x.306
fax: +1 613 563 9895
kmoore@cla.ca
www.cla.ca

Mission and Vision Statements of Government Libraries Worldwide

The Government Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations has published a collection of mission and/or vision statements from various government libraries around the world.

From the Introduction

Within recent years the Government Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) was contacted by two libraries for viable examples of mission and/or vision statements for a government library, we responded by researching various posted and publicly accessible examples from the websites of some government libraries worldwide. This online publication of existing mission and/or vision statements is an outgrowth of that effort. This is a collaborative effort by the members of the Government Libraries Section of IFLA and will be continuously updated as additional statements are identified.

Links:

• IFLA Government Libraries Section
• Mission and/or Vision Statements of Government Libraries Worldwide

CLA Conference Hot Topics Announced

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) 2010 National Conference and Trade Show is three weeks away.

The conference takes place in Edmonton from Wednesday, June 2 to Saturday, June 5 and we are excited about welcoming delegates to the festival city!

Everything you need to know is here: http://www.cla.ca/conference/2010/

Hot Topics

Thursday, June 3, 2010

2:30 pm to 3:30 pm

B8 – International Librarianship – CLA’s Role in IFLA
National associations have an obligation to participate in and support international activities relevant to their professional community. CLA has been a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) since 1946; Canadian librarians have always actively participated in the professional work of the Federation, and many have held key elected positions. In this session, CLA colleagues involved in IFLA’s activities will speak about the international initiatives in which they are engaged. This is your opportunity to meet with Canada’s first-ever President-elect of IFLA, Ingrid Parent, and help her shape her presidential theme.

Friday, June 4, 2010

8:30 am to 10:00 am

D 22 – The Library of the Future: Conversation with the Director
See if you can find the director of the “Library of the Future” on our panel in the format of the old TV program “What’s My Line”.  Asked many questions about their libraries, our panelists reveal what will be required for the successful library of the future.
Moderator: Jane Dysart, Dysart & Jones Associates; Panelists: Stephen Abram, VP, Strategic Partnerships & Markets, Gale Cengage Learning; Linda Cook, CEO, Edmonton Public Library; Michael Ridley, CIO & Chief Librarian, University of Guelph

Saturday, June 5, 2010

8:30 am to 9:30 am

H50 – Copyright
Libraries often contract with collectives to license reprographic uses of material under copyright. In Canada, Access Copyright is the collective that manages print reprography and it has recently filed for a tariff with the Copyright Board. This is new territory for Canadian post-secondary librarians, though school library staff have been dealing with a tariff since July 2009. Prof. Margaret Ann Wilkinson will lead us through the Copyright Board process and a discussion on the implications for libraries.
Speaker:  Margaret Ann Wilkinson, University of Western Ontario

IFLA Issues Position Statement on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

Source: http://www.ifla.org/en/news/ifla-issues-position-statement-on-the-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and its members are gravely concerned by the extreme secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and the complete lack of transparency related to ACTA’s procedures, provisions, and priorities, which is unprecedented for a global-norm setting activity among democratic nations. The issues involved have many facets and should be discussed in an open and fair manner at WIPO, the appropriate forum for such topics.

On behalf of IFLA, the Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM) Committee has issued a statement expressing its concern about the ongoing negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The statement points out IFLA’s specific concerns about the lack of transparency in the negotiations, and requests that ACTA’s provisions be disclosed and that its negotiation process be openly conducted within WIPO.

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IFLA Position on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the global voice of the international library community. Libraries play an essential role in fostering equitable access to information and cultural expression while ensuring compliance with copyright principles and regulations within their communities. IFLA is also committed to the principles of freedom of access to information and the belief that universal and equitable access to information is vital for the social, educational, cultural, democratic, and economic well-being of people, communities, and organizations.

In this context, IFLA understands and respects the role that copyright plays in information creation and dissemination around the world. IFLA recognizes that copyright grants creators and content providers certain rights to the commercial exploitation of information and cultural expression, but also believes that these exclusive economic rights must be balanced by fair limitations and exceptions as well as access to the public domain in order to allow for a vibrant civil society. Copyright must provide for a fair and profitable balance between the needs of information users and society at large and the commercial imperatives of creators and content providers. In this spirit, IFLA is concerned that the recent non-transparent negotiations regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) pose a threat to the balance of copyright. IFLA believes that the best forum for these discussions is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure the participation of a wide range of stakeholders in this important issue.

While IFLA and the international library community commend international efforts to combat commercial counterfeiting, especially in situations where such counterfeiting places the public’s health and safety at risk, IFLA is deeply troubled by reports emerging from the ongoing negotiations surrounding ACTA. These reports suggest that ACTA’s objectives and methods endanger the balance of copyright, and seriously conflict with the library community’s commitments to equitable access to information and cultural expression.

On 25 January 2010, delegates from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States met in Mexico City, Mexico for the seventh round of ACTA negotiations. Despite numerous requests from legislators, the press, and the public that ACTA’s delegates break with their past precedent and conduct the negotiations in public, the meeting nonetheless remained closed and the text of the Agreement remains secret.

IFLA and its members are gravely concerned by the extreme secrecy surrounding the ACTA negotiations and the complete lack of transparency related to ACTA’s procedures, provisions, and priorities, which is unprecedented for a global-norm setting activity among democratic nations. The issues involved have many facets and should be discussed in an open and fair manner at WIPO, the appropriate forum for such topics.

IFLA and the international library community urge a robust and open debate on ACTA. This requires that its provisions be disclosed and that its negotiation process be openly conducted within WIPO. We applaud those legislators around the world who have demanded the same, and we encourage legislators in every jurisdiction to insist that ACTA’s terms be revealed and that all future negotiations are conducted in public.

March 26th 2010