Regional cooperation: challenge and opportunity

Cooperation is a keystone in libraries, so there’s many projects dedicated to this aspect of the library work.

The project “Regional cooperation: challenge and opportunity” is the result of an IFLA Management of Library Associations section workshop held in Split, Croatia in 2011 that showed the importance of regional cooperation in South East Europe.

The project also trained 12 trainers in leadership and advocacy, who will be able to operate as library advocates on both national and regional level.

The project utilised materials from IFLA’s Building Strong Library Associations programme (BSLA), demonstrating the flexibility of the programme in supporting a range of project sizes and needs. The project was supported by IFLA’s Action for Development through Libraries programme (IFLA ALP).

For further information, click here

IFLA and the Information Society

IFLA has launched a new set of resources “relating to the role libraries play in the information society and the way they can contribute to Internet governance”.

You can also find there the 2013 revised version of the IFLA Position on Internet Governance and information on how you can get involved with the issues at national and international levels.

Access the new resource through this link

Libraries’ role in development

IFLA has launched a web page focusing on the role libraries play in supporting development.
Libraries as information provider agents have a key position in society, so they must provide all the tools so they can take advantage of it. Their idea is adding new resources over time, so they’re asking for feedback: best practises, links to resources, etc.

Visit their web page and find out more about it.

E-Lending for Libraries

Ever since the launch of e-books IFLA has worked on the e-Lending. The e-Lending Working Group, was created and tasked by the IFLA Governing Board with “developing a set of principles that could guide library professionals as they grapple with the complicated process of negotiating eBook licenses with publishers and resellers”. In 2012 they publish the “Background Paper on e-Lending” and now they have just created a web page aimed to gather resources and expand the amount of information available.

You can visit the web at this link

79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly

IFLA is celebrating its World Library and Information Congress that will be held in Singapore from 17-23 August 2013.

Call for papers of every section are being published here, check it often as it is being constantly updated.

IFLA Singapore 2013 Call for Posters

The Call for Posters for the next IFLA Conference, to be held in Singapore next 17-23 August 2013 is already published.

All details can be found here, the deadline for submissions is set on 1 February 2013.

IFLA International Marketing Award for 2013

We publish the information received through the IFLA-L listserv:

The IFLA Section on Management and Marketing in collaboration with Emerald has the pleasure to announce the IFLA International Marketing Award for 2013.

The IFLA INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AWARD will honor organizations that have implemented creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns. Three finalists will be recognized for their outstanding achievements. From these three finalists, the winner will be chosen and receive airfare, lodging and registration for the World Library and Information Congress: 79th IFLA General Conference and Council in Singapore during 17-23 August 2013, as well as a cash award of USD 1,000 which must be used to further the marketing efforts of the recognized organization.

Three finalists will be announced in March 2013 and the top ten applicants will be mentioned. The first place winner will be chosen and two distinctions will be awarded. The winner will be announced officially during the Press Conference of the Congress in Singapore.

For detail, please visit: http://www.ifla.org/node/6922

Last date of submission of applications: 15 January 2013

The award has attracted 276 applications from 55 countries during last 10 years and has been covered in many publications….

Summary of news on the Sister Libraries Programme

NAPLE Sister Libraries will be present at the next IFLA Conference in Helsinki with a poster.

More information here.

Cooperation in the National Library of Poland: 2010 Overview

As in previous years, the National Library was an active member of many international organizations: IFLA, CENL, CDNL, CERL, ASLIB, IAML, IASA, LIBER, AIB, ISSN, ISBN, ISMN, the the Bibliographical Society and Bibliotheca Baltica. Since 2008 the National Library has been a member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium and Innovative User Group. In 2009 the Chief Executive of the National Library, Tomasz Makowski, was appointed for the term of three years to the management board of the European Library Management Committee.

In 2010 the National Library took part in the international projects Europeana Travel and REDISCOVER and was involved in numerous national projects such as: EAZPP – Electronic Archive of the Monuments of Polish Literature, the previously mentioned ACADEMICA and SYNAT – System of Science and Technique.  

An important issue remained the bilateral cooperation with national libraries of neighbouring countries and the exchange of publications with libraries and institutions worldwide.  In June of 2011, the National Library and the State Library in Berlin signed a cooperation agreement concerning digitisation of their collections as well as collaboration in the field of the common cultural heritage of Poland and Germany.

Tomasz Makowski

Director General of the National Library of Poland

IFLA Puerto Rico 2011

Once more, IFLA celebrated its annual conference last August, this time in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Librarians from all over the world gathered for a week for this unique oportunity to learn from other colleagues and know what the latest experiences are in other countries.

As always, public libraries played an important role, with a number of sessions in which they participated. You can read many of the presented papers in the conference website.

Here, you will also find a detailed account of every day of the congress, including videos, tweets, posts, pictures, etc.

Subdirectorate General for Libraries Coordination
Ministry of Culture
Spain