Category Archives: News

IFLA 2014 Congress School Libraries Section Activities

School Libraries Section minutes and updated Action Plans are available on the website.

The School Libraries Section had a very productive time at the Lyon World Library and Information Congress – having hosted 2 successful sessions.

Minutes from the Lyon WLIC and the section’s Standing Committee meetings held in Lyon are available on the website, plus an updated action plan, and they include details of the 2 successful sessions held during the WLIC. The first on “IFLA/UNESCO School Library Guidelines: Review and Recommendations.” had members of the School Libraries SC as faciltators for the session for a workshop on the draft international school library guidelines (a revision of the 2002 IFLA/UNESCO School Library Guidelines). An expected 35 participants for the guidelines workshop was in fact 185, including about 50 French-speakers. Organized into 15 groups by language and topic. each group worked on the documents and then the participants reported back, one from each French-speaking group, whose words were then translated into English, and one from each English-speaking groups, whose words were then translated into French, by one of the conference volunteers, Christele Mir. A fantastic amount of work was achieved – and huge thanks to Christele.

The second was entitled School Libraries on the Agenda: Advocacy Initiatives from Around the World.” Members of the School Libraries SC served as faciltators for the session which was a culmination and celebration of the completion of our joint advocacy materials project with 8 presentations followed by roundtable discussions. Again an expected 60 participants was in fact 90 delegates. 8 speakers each give a 5-10 minute overview of his/her paper, and then organized the participants into 8 roundtable groups for discussions with the presenters. Presenters came from France, Norway, USA, Sweden, Malaysia, and South Africa. Presenters from Nigeria and Argentina were unable to come to Lyon, unfortunately. However, all ten of the papers on school library advocacy are available on the IFLA conference website and in the IFLA Library.

The section is now continuing with this work and will report back regularly. Thank you to all participants.

http://www.ifla.org/node/9049

http://www.ifla.org/publications/school-libraries-section-action-plan

http://www.ifla.org/school-libraries/minutes

http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80

http://library.ifla.org/view/conferences/2014/2014-08-21/437.html

International Literacy Day September 8

The theme of International Literacy Day 2014 is “Literacy and Sustainable Development”.  Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is a basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial foundational role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies.

Literacy skills developed from a basic to advanced level throughout life are part of broader competencies required for critical thinking, the sense of responsibility, participatory governance, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, ecological behaviours, biodiversity protection, poverty reduction, and disaster risk reduction.

This year’s International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide. A main global celebration will take place in Dhaka, where the Government of Bangladesh in cooperation with UNESCO will organize the International Conference on “Girls’ and women’s literacy and education: Foundations for sustainable development and the awarding of UNESCO Literacy Prizes” in support for the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI).

– See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.Y5Y8jDTo.dpuf

UK report: Support school libraries

 
A multipartisan group of members of Parliament and peers has called for a good library in every school in the UK in a new report, The Beating Heart of the School, that says libraries make “a huge contribution to young people’s educational attainment.” The call follows a long-running campaign from authors, who believe primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a library and a trained librarian, and comes in the wake of new figures from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport showing a “significant decrease” in the number of adults using a library.

Early literacy tool in public libraries

Today, ABCMouse launched a nationwide initiative to connect early education technology to kids around the country who do not have access to a computer at home. ABCMouse.com officially launched their Free to Libraries initiative which will bring their award winning curriculum free to the 16,000 public libraries in the United States.

After beta testing in 140 libraries across the country, including Brooklyn and Los Angeles Public Libraries,  ABCMouse.com and libraries have developed a special version of the ABCMouse.com site that will allow parents and their children to get quality early education that also tracks their progress, all in the comfort of their local library.

International Copyright Negotiations

Copyright negotiations commence once more in Geneva, Switzerland next week at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), where a proposed international framework supporting copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives is likely to be the subject of intense discussion among Member States.

The 28th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR), from Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July, resumes discussions of copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, as well as education and other disabilities, and protections for broadcasters, following the collapse of the last round of negotiations in April 2014<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>. In the dying hours of the last meeting, the European Union attempted to block any further progress of discussions concerning libraries and archives at WIPO, much to the frustration and dismay of libraries and archives, as well as other Member States present<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>.

The EU’s attempts to undermine the SCCR’s mandate saw them isolated from other Member State positions, and ultimately resulted in a failure to reach any conclusions for the meeting. Since then, over 100 library and archive organisations from across the European Union and internationally have signed a letter asking the EU to engage constructively in discussions at WIPO<http://www.ifla.org/node/8621>.

The International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) will be joined at the 28th session of the SCCR by library and archive organisations from around the world, including Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), the Society of American Archivists (SAA), European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (AIB), Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários Cientistas da Informação e Instituições (FEBAB), Scottish Council on Archives (SCA), Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), International Council  on Archives (ICA), Karisma Foundation (Colombia) and the Canadian Libraries Association (CLA).

In addition to its interventions during plenary, IFLA will be hosting a lunch time side event on Monday 30 June at 1pm in Room B of the WIPO building, titled, “Keeping copyright relevant in the digital environment: libraries, archives and licences”. You can follow the discussions on twitter using the hashtag #sccr28, and tune in to the live stream at: http://www.wipo.int/webcasting/en/ .

To find out more about the history of SCCR negotiations and why IFLA is advocating for an international standard for copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, see: http://www.ifla.org/node/8229 .

Draft ACRL Information Literacy Framework

Members of ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force<http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/taskforces/acr-tfilcshe> have been working diligently to revise the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>. They’ve been reviewing all the community feedback to the February 20 and April 4 drafts and are working to improve and expand the revised draft, which will be released next week.

The full task force met in person in Chicago in late April for an energizing and productive meeting. Members engaged in very important discussions as they come into the home stretch of their work and reached conclusions that they shared with the ACRL Board on June 4 in their latest interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580>. Some important decisions are related to primary audience and stakeholder outreach, recasting the introduction, calling each threshold concept with its supporting elements (i.e., knowledge practices/abilities and dispositions) a “frame,” and moving assignments and scenarios to an ancillary document that will, later on, form the basis of an online “sandbox.”

In addition to sharing these decisions, the task force also shared their thinking about prospective recommendations to the Board. These would be recommendations they expect to make in August when they submit a final Framework to the ACRL Board for approval. They will be seeking community input on the recommendations along with the revised draft later this month. Read the full June 4 interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580> to understand their latest thinking.

Stay tuned for the revised, complete draft Framework next week with an in person hearing<http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/wp-admin/%28http:/ala14.ala.org/node/15025> on Saturday, June 28, 10:30 am – 11:30 am, at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Online hearings are scheduled for Monday, July 7, at 1pm Central and Friday, July 11, at 1pm Central. Sign up details will be included when the forthcoming draft is released next week.

Learn more about the revision process and listen to recordings from past online open forums on the task force website<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>.