Category Archives: General

Libraries supporting social inclusion for refugees and immigrants

Our friends at the American Library Association are inviting proposals for presentations to be made at the next ALA Conference in New Orleans on the topic of Libraries supporting social inclusion for refugees and immigrants. Given all the great work that so many of our members are doing in this space you may be interested in reading the call:

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The American Library Association’s International Relations Roundtable Papers and Projects Committee invites proposals for presentations to be made at the next ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Presentations will be delivered at the International Papers Session scheduled in June 2018. The International Papers and Projects Program provides librarians with an opportunity to exchange information about library services, collections and projects throughout the world. The program also serves to stimulate the interest of U.S. librarians in international library matters. We invite presentation proposals based on the International Papers and Projects 2018 theme:

Libraries supporting social inclusion for refugees and immigrants

UNESCO emphasizes the importance of social inclusion for international migrants and encourages cities and local governments to “ensure social rights for migrants to adequate housing, education, health and social care, welfare and decent standard of living according to basic needs such as food, energy and water.” Libraries can play an important role in helping new arrivals acclimate and thrive in a new community.

Do you have a story to share about how your library, on its own or in collaboration with community organizations, is providing social services and support for refugees and immigrants? Do you have advice on creating successful programming to support refugees and immigrants?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Proposals, presentations, and papers must be written and delivered in English, which is the working language of the program.

Proposals should include:
1. Title of the presentation
2. Name, title, institutional affiliation, and full contact information (including a valid e-mail address) for each presenter
3. Abstract (300-500 words)
4. A short biographical profile of each presenter

Proposals should be submitted electronically (as a single Microsoft Word or PDF attachment) to the International Relations Office via email at [email protected] with a copy to [email protected] and [email protected].
Deadline for submitting proposals is December 31, 2017 .

SELECTION PROCESS
Four proposals will be selected to present at the ALA Annual Meeting in June 2018. Notification of acceptance will be emailed by February 15, 2018.

PRESENTATION FORMAT:
The International Papers and Projects Program is 1.5 hours total. Presentations should run about 20 minutes each, followed by a question-and-answer session. Presenters are encouraged to prepare a dynamic and interactive presentation, incorporating visual prompts, technologies, games, questions for the audience, etc. PowerPoints are common, but speakers who want to read a paper or refer to it are welcome to do so.

We would like to invite you to view previous presentation titles listed on IRRT’s International Papers and Projects Session Committee website,

 

 

New EIFL Public Library Innovation Award – Now Open for Applications

EIFL is delighted to announce that the new EIFL Public Library Innovation Award – for public library services that improve lives – is now open for applications. We would be grateful if you could please share this call through your networks – we want to reach as many libraries as possible.

For more about the award – http://bit.ly/2gfCyhx

The award is open to all public and community libraries in developing and transition countries that use digital technology (ICT) to improve lives in their communities by addressing any of the following issues, which are included in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Economic wellbeing and employment
Farming and sustainable agriculture
Health and hygiene
Digital inclusion
Gender equality and empowerment of women and girls
Education for all
Climate change and other issues affecting the environment
The prize includes US$1,500 and wide publicity through EIFL’s global communication channels and networks.

The deadline for submitting applications is 11 January 2018.

Applications will be accepted in English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Collaborative Projects among 6 Nordic and Baltic Countries

By Lo Claesson

My library, Vaggeryd Public Library is collaborating in a network project with some libraries from six Nordic and Baltic countries. We have got funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers to meet three times in different countries. This time we were in Denmark, in Herning. The purpose with the project is networking, getting to know librarians from our neighbor countries and doing mini-projects together, which we for example can use for exhibitions.

People from the network meeting in Herning, Denmark outside Herning Public Library.

We visited Herning and Ikast-Brande Public Libraries and Dokk1 in Aarhus. We were divided into four groups and our task were to interview visitors in the libraries about what they were doing there, their interests, what they liked about the library and what they possibly lacked in the library. Based on the interviews, we would find topics for small joint projects.

Then each library should host at least three other participants to the project and each library must participate in six projects. So we decided to participate in the following projects:

1. Know thy neighbor
Find 3 people in your community who, in some way, represent diversity. Take a photo and make a short interview.

2. Food stories
Choose fragment from fiction that present the food culture of your own country. Write down few thoughts that the text brings to mind. Choose a way to present the fiction fragment and your thoughts visually. Present the work via Skype.

3. Behind the book cover
As it often happens, books after being translated into other languages gain covers that diverge from the original. Why so? – is it really related to the specific perceptions of different nationalities? Choose a book of your choice and find two more covers of the same book, which has been translated into other languages.

4. Ordinary Houses
Take some photos of old and new houses in your locality. Compare different types of houses in your countries.

5. Green Library
Sharing photos and ideas concerning Green Library activities.

6. Nordic Literature –
The aim is to increase awareness of literature from participating countries by recommending a translated author/book in a filmed recommendation.

We share our photos and ideas in a Facebook group. Then we can make some digital or analogue exhibitions in our libraries if we want. Maybe our small projects can inspire other libraries in some way!
In February we will all meet in Finland and find out some other collaboration ideas.

China Continues their review of the Public Libraries Law

The draft was submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee for a second reading at the bi-monthly session, which runs from 30 Oct until 4 Nov 2017.

The draft states that modern technology should be integrated into public libraries, with more digital content and networks, to deliver better services to the public.   Some lawmakers have suggested that specific functions of the national library such as organizing the protection of ancient books, carrying out research and international exchanges on libraries, and providing guidance and technical support for libraries be included as functions of public libraries.

China has more than 3,100 government-run libraries and around 50 public libraries set up by citizens, enterprises and public institutions, social groups and other organizations, according to the Ministry of Culture.

 

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/31/c_136717591.htm

More to a library than ‘just books’ – Conference Report

PLS Member, Lo Claesson was one of the presenters at Check me out a one hour session at the WLIC 2017  developed by the Public Libraries Section together with Metropolitan Libraries and Acquisition and Collection Development. Here’s Lo’s report:

Lo and Anette talk about projects in Sweden

The session had four speakers from PLS : Jan Richards, incoming chair, who gave her top ten from a list of 113 things you could check art from the library, that wasn’t books.

Lo Claesson and Anette Mjöberg, new secretary, who presented some things you can  borrow at the library from a human right’s and environmental perspective.

Marian Morgan-Bindon, outgoing chair, showed different kinds of aids for children with special needs that parents could borrow from one library in Australia.

All presentations, not just ours from PLS, seemed to be appreciated as there were many questions. Especially about the electric bikes Hässleholm Public Library lent.

Conference Report: ‘Public Libraries as Place Makers in Today’s Cities’

PLS member Joe Siegrist  attended MetLib’s  ‘Public Libraries as Place Makers in Today’s Cities’. The session was one of the last on the WLIC 2017 program but as Joe wrote ‘leaving the best until last’.

Steve Dickson explained how he come to a building as a creator and how a library is become a place to meet – the third place.

 

Sujin Huggins than showed how the needs of persons with autism can be served by considering space, service, programs and advocacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saara Ihamäki from Helsinki concluded her experience to involve the people the beginning of building a library: “it is hard to hands over the power!”

 

Paulina Milewska learn more about what people really from libraries want because of the experience of mystery visitors in libraries.

 

In Philadelphia Joel Nichols and Christine Caputo designed an early Childhood library playspace and the climbing wall is now a real attraction.

 

In Copenhagen the library is everywhere – not only inside of the building.

 

All the examples showed libraries play an important part in the daily life and make live a little bit better!

 

Report from Wroclaw – Environmental Sustainability

Members of the Public Libraries Standing Committee are actively participating in the WLIC program in Wroclaw. Lo Claesson reports:

I was invited as a speaker at the session Libraries’ Commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Environmental Sustainability and Libraries SIG. It was an offsite meeting at the Center for Scientific and Technical Information in Wroclaw.

My  presentation was about The Green Corner at Vaggeryd Public Library. I gave a background to why we started it and also some examples of activities we do in connection to the information on sustainable development.

Our Green Corner is connected to the municipality’s environmental strategy and we partner with different actors in the municipality, for example schools, the environmental department and the recycling plant. We make exhibitions, have lectures and every year we take part in Earth Hour.We try to integrate the work with the Green Corner in most library work and I tried to show you can do this at a very low cost.

About 50 people attended and I got some interesting questions.