DRAFT - 11/3/97
Rev. 1/24/98
Division VII - Coordinating Board
Minutes of the Coordinating Board meetings during the IFLA Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday, August 29, 1997 and Friday, Sept. 5, 1997
| Section on Education and Training: | Evelyn Daniel, Steffan Rueckl |
| Section on Library Theory and Research: | Lis Byberg, Beverly Lynch |
| Round Table on Library History: | Pam Richards |
| Round Table on User Education: | Oili Kokkinen |
| 9/5/97 | |
| Section on Education and Training: | Evelyn Daniel, Judy Elkin (Chair), Aira Lepik (Secretary), Steffan Rueckl |
| Section on Library Theory and Research: | Lis Byberg (Chair), Beverly Lynch |
| Section on Reading: | John Cole (Chair), Adele Fasick (Secretary) |
| Continuing Professional Education Round Table: | Patricia Oyler(Chair) |
| Round Table of Editors of Library Journals: | Maurice Line (Chair) |
| Round Table on Library History: | Pam Richards (Chair) |
| Round Table on User Education: | Marty Kesselman (Chair), Jesus Lau (Secretary), Oili Kokkinen |
| Guests: | Russell Bowden, Ekbal Al-Othaimeen |
2. Minutes. The minutes from the August 1996 Beijing China Coordinating Board meetings were accepted with no changes.
3. Report from the Professional Board. Rueckl reported as follows on the December 1996, April 1997, and August 29 Professional Board meetings.
The PB proposes that after a few years the round tables will be phased out leaving only Sections and Discussion Groups (DG). The Discussion Groups will assume many of the functions of the round tables but have a limited time period for existence, after which they must become a section or cease to exist. Proposed guidelines for DGs were approved by the PB in July of this year. A DG will be established for a two-year renewable term but usually not renewed more than two times. The DG must be officially sponsored and affiliated with a Section. It will receive no support from IFLA and cannot plan programs, workshops, seminars but could generate ideas for its sponsoring section to adopt. Each DG will choose a convenor who may serve for a maximum of two years and, who, if not already a member of the sponsoring Section, will become an ex officio member and must attend meetings of its Standing Committee and submit written reports.
In response, arguments against this proposal were presented by Pam Richards, Chair of the Round Table on Library History, Oili Kokkonen from the Round Table on User Education, and Pat Oyler from the Continuing Professional Education Round Table. In their view, round tables should be continued because (1) they attract young people to IFLA who find it easy to affiliate with a RT and (2) they have demonstrated great creativity in programming, in part due to their informality. The problems of round tables have to do with the lack of turnover in officers and the lack of formal connections to IFLA activities. Beverly Lynch suggested that a reformed structure for the round tables might be preferable to doing away with them altogether and proposed that RT officers have limited terms, perhaps not more than four years, and that the Coordinating Boards monitor their activities more closely. Present members of the CB were unanimous in opposing the discussion to abolish round tables and agreed with the Lynch proposal for reform. Each member of the CB was enjoined to discuss the issue with his/her unit. If there is general agreement with the position of the CB, the Chair of the CB will prepare a letter to Winston Roberts, Coordinator of Professional Activities, expressing this sentiment.
In response, members expressed concern that the registration fee was too high and would result in lower participation at the conference and an inability by many members to attend.
4. Financial Report. Steffan Rueckl announced that because Division VII did not spend all its administrative funds last year, 309.60DM was rolled over and the Division received only the difference between the possible allocation and the current balance for an income of 520.17DM. A detailed report appears below with figures given in German marks.
| 569.60 | Balance per Aug. 23, 1996. |
| 200.00 | Expenses Aug.-Nov. 1996. |
| 309.60 | Balance per Nov. 1, 1996. |
| 520.17 | Income 1997. |
| 829.77 | Balance at beginning of fiscal year. |
| 100.00 | Expenses 1997 to date (for stamps) |
| 729.77 | Balance per Sept. 5, 1997. |
5. Medium Term Programmes. MTPs from all unit must be received by IFLA Headquarters by September 30. Drafts of the plans have been received from most of the units. Chairs were requested to send final copies of the plans to Steffen Rueckl by Sept. 15who has agreed to format them uniformly in both paper copy and diskette and send them to Headquarters by the required date.
6. Reports from Officers of Sections and Round Tables. Newly elected officers for the units in Division VII are as follows:
Section on Education and Training
Judith Elkin (UK), Chair
Aira Lepik (Estonia), SecretarySection on Library History
Pamela Richards (US), Chair
Paul Sturges (UK), SecretarySection on Library Theory and Research
Lis Byberg (Norwary), Chair
Mirja Iivonen (Finland), SecretarySection on Reading
John Cole (US), Chair
Adele Fasick (US), SecretaryRound Table on Continuing Professional Education (CPERT)
Patricia Oyler (US), Chair
Anne Guilders (UK), SecretaryRound Table of Editors of Library Journals
Maurice Line (UK), Chair
Ludmilla Kozlova (Russia), SecretaryRound Table on User Education
Martin Kesselman (US), Chair
Jesus Lau (Mexico), Secretary
Judy Elkins from Education and Training reported that the Section has many new members and will have new projects to report in Amsterdam. Long term projects include a project in statistics gathering and one on reciprocity of qualifications. The Section intends to work more collaboratively with other units in Division VII, especially Theory and Research.
Maurice Line from the Editors of Library Journals reported that the round table has dropped its earlier plan for revising their guidelines. Instead, they are exploring the possibility of assisting developing countries in printing and distributing dissertations. They plan a pilot program.
John Cole from Reading reported that the section is planning a one-day workshop in Amsterdam with the Children's Section and the Multicultural Section on reading services to cultural and linguistic minorities. The proceedings will be published. Reading also has some collaborative projects with Library History described below.
Pam Richards from Library History reported that the round table has two short projects for the coming year and one longer-term one. The Conference on Reading in the Cold War with the Section on Reading and with French library/information schools is planned and will be primarily funded by the French. The proceedings will be published. A second project is on Libraries and Reading in Times of Cultural Crisis. The papers will be translated to Russian and published in the Jan. 1998 issue of Libraries and Culture. There will be a web site as well which will be created in collaboration with Dutch library history colleagues. A longer three-year project is a proposal to produe a textbook, also in collaboration with Reading. The working title is Constructing the Heritage of Cultures: A World History of Librarianship. Negotiations are ongoing with Saur and the Publications Committee. There will be six sections, each with a regional editor.
Lis Byberg from Theory and Research reported the section's interest in coordinating with SET and the entire Coordinating Board on the preparation of new IFLA standards for education. A working group is being established and a charge has been written as follows:
Goal: To prepare new IFLA Standards for Education A working group will be established to review the old 1976 standards and then to advise the coordinating board at its first meeting in Amsterdam on
- what parts of the standards have to be revised,
- what action plan for the working process is recommended,
- whether the process should include an IFLA official preconference seminar,
- whether IFLA should consider cooperating with UNESCO on the standards,
- which other IFLA sections might be involved.
Martie Kesselman reported that the User Education round table has completed a conference on User Education in the Electronic Environment held in the Crimea. The project was co-sponsored by the University and Research Libraries section. The round table plans an analysis of web-based library instruction programs and will develop criteria and a method to evaluate them. The round table is considering plans to become a section.
Pat Oyler reported for CPERT that the 3rd international conference on CPE which took place as an IFLA pre-conference was highly successful with 92 registrants and 37 papers given. The proceedings of the conference will be published. She expressed appreciation from CPERT to the Royal School for its hospitality and assistance with arrangements for the conference. Diane Rusch-Feja from Germany was elected chair but IFLA rules prohibiting chairing more than one unit forced her to decline and Pat Oyler will continue one more year as chair. Anne Guilders from Loughborough, UK, was elected secretary, and Clare Walker of South Africa was elected Newsletter editor. CPERT is planning its 4th international preconference for either Boston (USA) in 2001 or Aberdeen (Scotland) in 2002. Proposals requesting joint sponsorship will be sent to schools at these sites. CPERT has a listserv and a web site.
7. Recommended Change in IFLA Bylaws. Members of the CB discussed the conflict described by CPERT and reported above in item 3.a. under Roundtables. The limitation on number and kind of positions any single member of IFLA may hold has prevented CPERT and other round tables from selecting their first choice candidate for chair. A statute change may be advisable to deal with this matter. After examining the ramifications of a proposed change, a report with recommended action (or no action) will be made at the next conference.
8. Allocation of Project Funds. A printout of project funds allocated to the various units of Division VII was distributed and reviewed. Currently two projects have funding from Professional Board funds for 1997 -- SET's Glossary Project, and CPERT's Database of Worldwide Continuing Education. Other 1997 funding include 2,000 Dutch guilders (about $1,000) for a Statistics-gathering project from SET, 1,000 for a survey of national trends from Theory and Research, and 840 for a Directory from User Education RT. The latter funds were used for a Seminar on User Education held in Crimea in 1997 instead of the proposed directory.
This year's allocation of project funds is 4200 for Division VII. The process of selecting the best projects to allocate new Division funds is difficult, given the short time available for the decision. At the Beijing meeting a recommendation was made that project information be presented at the first meeting of the CB, that proposals approved by the units be submitted in multiple copies on the proper form prior to voting on the proposals, that criteria relative to the common goals of the division be developed, and that a secret ballot be used. As the criteria has not as yet been developed, the procedure used this year followed that of previous years.
Project funds requested exceeded funds available, as is usually the case. The CB decided to allocate 1000 guilders to Library Theory and Research for its comparison of national LIS research trends, 1000 guilders to Reading for its Amsterdam workshop, 1200 guilders to Library History of its Cold War project, 1000 guilders to User Education for its analysis and evaluation of web-based library information instruction. In addition, the CB supported Library History's 3-year 10,000 guilders textbook project for a world history of librarianship
9. Library/Information Education Standards Project. This project, described above is to be a collaborative project of the Coordinating Board, and, as such, it was decided that unused administrative funds could be used to provide some support for it. A seven-member Working Group will be named with Evelyn Daniel as chair. Beverly Lynch and Susan Lazinger agreed to be members of the working group. The group is charged to accomplish the tasks listed above at the Amsterdam conference. Daniel noted that the 1976 Standards are available on the web at http://ils.unc.edu/daniel/IFLA/standards76.html. She invited people to examine them and submit comments to her or to other members of the Working Group. As the web site does not contain the valuable commentary included in the original article, Daniel provided a citation to it -- "Standards for Library Schools, 1976", IFLA Journal 2 - 1976 - 4.
10. Election of Division Officers. The officers of the Section on Library Theory and Research were elected as the new Coordinating Board officers: Lis Byberg as Chair and Mirja Iivonen as Secretary.
The previously proposed rotation of officers was discussed. Officers of the Coordinating Board may only come from sections. At Istanbul, the following rotation was suggested:
Due to changes in officers and expected changes in sections and round tables and to a general unwillingness to abide by decisions made by prior boards, it was agreed that the CB would no longer follow this rotation.Education and Training - 1995
Theory and Research - 1999
Reading - 2001
11. Adjournment and Thank You. Following a vote of thanks for the officers of the previous term -- Steffen Rueckl, Chair and Evelyn Daniel, Secretary -- the meeting adjourned.