IFLA has welcomed Europe Day 2019 as an opportunity to celebrate the importance of collaboration, and to look forward to the upcoming elections. Based on the Library Manifesto for Europe, a growing number of European and national parties are setting out how they plan to help libraries in the coming five years.

The European Union has set a global standard for cooperation between governments, in the interests of promoting prosperity and peace.

The values it promotes – of collaboration, sharing and discussion – are also those of libraries.

With responsibilities across a wide range of policy areas, it is also an increasingly key interlocutor for libraries.

Decisions about copyright, open access, research funding, heritage policies, education, skills and development are all have a direct impact on our work.

IFLA, alongside its partner organisations, has therefore engaged strongly in order to build up connections and promote our institutions and their values. We have seen important successes.

For the first time, we are also looking to shape the future of the European Union. Working with our partners, we have created a Library Manifesto for Europe, which highlights six areas in which decision-makers can help.

Today, we are publishing a first set of responses from European and national political parties, explaining what they plan to do for our institutions.

These set out actions in the fields of literacy, culture, heritage, open access, development and copyright. They are a promising sign that at both the national and European level, libraries will have many friends in the years to come.

IFLA Secretary General Gerald Leitner said:

The past five years have underlined how important the decisions taken by Members of the European Parliament are, and I am happy to see so many parties recognise the role of libraries now, as the elections approach. I look forward to working with them, throughout the next five years, to build stronger European libraries for a stronger Europe.

Read the first set of responses on our publications page. 

ეროვნულ ბიბლიოთეკაში ჯანრი კაშიას ბიბლიოთეკა გაიხსნება

9 მაისს 17:00 საათზე საქართველოს პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკის მეექვსე კორპუსში (ს. ცინცაძის 63) ჯანრი კაშიას ბიბლიოთეკა გაიხსნება.

სრული ტექსტი

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Last week IFLA attended the International Conference on the 20th anniversary of the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention hosted by UNESCO in Geneva, Switzerland. The Conference brought together States representatives, experts, academics and civil society representatives to share achievements and challenges facing the implementation of the Protocol and in protecting cultural heritage against the threats by conflict or disaster.

Before going in too deep about what we learned at the conference and what the outcomes means for IFLA and libraries worldwide, let’s first just summarise, what the 1954 Hague Convention is…

The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two (1954 and 1999 Protocols) was adopted in the wake of the large-scale destruction of cultural heritage carried out during the Second World War. The Hague Convention is the first multilateral treaty to focus exclusively on the protection of cultural heritage during conflicts.

Several conflicts that erupted in the 1990s, particularly those in former Yugoslavia, revealed gaps in the implementation of the Hague Convention. For this reason, Member States and the Secretariat of the Convention initiated a review of the agreement in 1991.

The result of this collaboration was the elaboration and subsequent adoption of the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention at the March 1999 Hague Diplomatic Conference. The Second Protocol advances a number of legal, military and technical aspects in the protection of cultural heritage, it is therefore also known as the enhanced protection protocol by defining a new category of protection by establishing sanctions in case of violations and crime’s against people’s cultural heritage.

What does this means for libraries?

Recent conflicts have shown that many countries are caught unprepared when either armed conflicts or environmental disasters occur. In the cultural heritage field, it is often seen that support, including funding, is easier reached after a conflict or disaster. All panellists throughout the conference expressed the need for pre-conflict support to safeguarding cultural heritage, as well as placing a strong emphasis on the work around rehabilitation.

On this matter, representatives from Member States expressed challenges in mobilising networks both before- and after a conflict, as well as finding proper training for library, archive and museum personnel as well as military groups.

Benjamin Charlier, Legal Advisor and Head of Advisory Service at the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed the need to be aware of the expertise of each actor and how we need to work together – Member States, experts and civil society. This was furthermore underlined by Ernesto Ottone Ramírez, Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO who stated:

“To have a real impact we need to mobilize all resources!”

The importance of cultural heritage to a community, and the significance of preservation of information and knowledge to expanding society’s knowledge base are embedded in IFLA's Strategic Plan.

IFLA provides a list of resources on risk mitigation and preparedness, including the IFLA Disaster Preparedness and Planning Manual. IFLA also assists governments, institutions and other stake holders with capacity building in form of fourteen Preservation & Conservation (PAC) Centres around the globe. The PAC Centres hold expertise knowledge on risk management and are local experts on ground.

IFLA also supports other initiatives on protecting cultural property and is one of the founding four of the Blue Shield International. One area of its engagement is its training work for members of the heritage sector and armed forces, ideally in combination. Blue Shield International offers courses that include approaches to cultural property, cultural property law and risk management techniques.

If you want to know more about the work of Blue Shield and how to get involved, click here.

What do we do now?

Although the primary responsibility of the implementation of the Hague Convention and the 1999 Protocol lies with States that are a party to it, the role of non-governmental actors in supporting those States is vital!

There is no need to discuss the importance of protecting our cultural heritage, but merely how do we do it?

Actors across the sector agreed that there needs to be a focus on both pre- and post-conflict work. Training of institutional personnel as well as military forces is in demand and NGOs have a strong capacity to plan, propose and implement concrete action programmes, including advocacy and awareness-raising, capacity building or legal expertise, based on a high level of expertise that represents a valuable asset for States.

As expressed by Karl von Habsburg-Lotheringen, President of Blue Shield International:

“The work [on protecting cultural property] is not possible if we don’t collaborate with all actors. Collaboration is the key!”

Welcome to IFLA Division V satellite meeting

"Leadership roles in international librarianship: how can information professionals from Africa, Asia & Oceania, Latin America & Caribe be part of it?"

The IFLA Division V. (Regions) which includes regional sections of Africa – Asia & Oceania – Latin America & Caribbean jointly organizing this satellite meeting as a pre-conference of 85th World Library and Information Congress, in the beautiful and historical Bibliotheca Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt on August 20-21, 2019.   IFLA Division V satellite meeting Homepage: https://www.bibalex.org/ifla-division-v/en/home/home.aspx   Registration Open Now: https://www.bibalex.org/ifla-division-v/en/registration/reglogin.aspx  

The 2019 DSpace North American Users Group planning committee invites proposals for the upcoming meeting which will be held September 23 & 24, 2019 at the Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

This meeting will provide opportunities to discuss ideas, strategies, best practices, use cases, and the future development of DSpace 7 with members of the DSpace community including repository developers, technology directors, and institutional repository managers.

We are looking for proposals to cover a variety of topics including, but not limited to:

• DSpace 7 development and integration
• Upgrading or migrating to DSpace
• Accessibility
• DSpace for research data
• DSpace for cultural heritage
• Analytics and assessment
• Institutional repositories / scholarly communication issues
• “Show and Tell” – share your success and challenges
• Anything else you would like to share with the community!

We are seeking proposals in the following formats:

• Lightning Talk (5-10 min) – a brief, freestanding presentation, with or without slides, including Q&A
• Presentation (20 min) – a more comprehensive, freestanding presentation, including Q&A
• Discussion Panel (45 min) – a collection of brief presentations on a topic or area, including a moderated Q&A or open discussion
• Workshop – an instructor-led workshop on a topic or tool
• Birds-of-a-feather – breakout sessions for attendees to engage in a particular topic

Submit a proposal by June 21, 2019.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by July 15, 2019.

Need some ideas? Check out past North American user group meeting programs on the conference wiki!

Questions? Contact us at dspace-user-group-meeting@umn.edu.

The 2019 DSpace North American User Group Meeting is jointly sponsored by the University of Minnesota Libraries and the Texas Digital Library.

We encourage members of the wider open repository community and those interested in learning more about the open source DSpace repository platform to participate. More information about accommodations, registration, and schedule will be made available on the conference website.

The post 2019 DSpace North American Users Group Call for Proposals appeared first on Duraspace.org.

DEADLINE: 7 June 2019

In 2018, the Professional Committee established the IFLA Dynamic Unit and Impact Award to recognise the Professional Units who excel at putting the expectations of a Dynamic Unit into practice. A Dynamic Unit has the greatest impact on IFLA’s global work – engaging members, developing strong leadership and identity, delivering high-quality services with a measurable impact, and communicating activities within IFLA and beyond. This is not a personal award, but rather an opportunity to recogise exceptional teamwork.

The 2019 IFLA Dynamic Unit and Impact Award winner will be announced during the Closing Session at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in August. 

The Award intends to stimulate outstanding work by Professional Units by:

• Recognising and promoting excellent examples of Professional Unit work;
• Highlighting the impact of the work of IFLA's professional groups.

Who Can Enter?

The Award may be presented to one or more IFLA Professional Units:

1. Divisions
2. Sections
3. Special Interest Groups
4. Strategic Programmes
5. Core Activities

NOTE: The winning Unit(s) is not eligible to be nominated again in the year immediately following their win. Instead, a representative from that unit will be invited to join the jury that year. They can once again be nominated in subsequent years.

How to apply

Describe how the Professional Unit is fulfilling the criteria of a Dynamic Unit listed below in 300 words or less. Highlight creative approaches and clearly state what the outcomes and impact has been. You may include photos, video (see instructions on the submission form).

Submit your application

Criteria for evaluation

In the previous two years, the winning Unit(s) should have demonstrated the following expectations of a Dynamic Unit at a superior level. The winning Unit(s) must also have shared their Action Plan for 2019 or a summary of the year’s planned objectives and activities on their IFLA webpage in order to be considered.

Criteria 1: Quality and impact of the work, for example:

• Effectively networking with its community in order to define and develop the Unit’s role in line with IFLA strategy and the general expectations of an IFLA Unit;
• Synthesizing ideas and suggestions into clearly expressed and communicated objectives for the Unit that reflect IFLA’s strategy and unique position as a global library organisation;
• Identifying and carrying out a variety of activities that contribute to achieving the objectives of the Unit and are communicated through a well-formulated Action Plan;
• Thinking about how the results of its work are communicated for maximum impact;
• Regularly reviewing and updating its activities to ensure they meet the changing demands and changing environment.

Criteria 2: Communications and impact, for example:

• Implementing a written communication plan
• Having frequent and regular communication within its own committee, with at least one (possibly online) meeting between Congresses;
• Frequently and regularly communicating with its Members:
• Proactively communicating its activities widely and reach out to other IFLA Units or other stakeholders in order to identify synergies;
• Facilitating ongoing discussion with its community of interest, especially in order to identify ‘hot topics’ and where IFLA might have a role to play; Communicating and discussing progress and challenges with its Division Chair.
• Increase publication output via IFLA’s publication channels (IFLA Journal, Professional Report series (online, Open Access publications), IFLA Publications series).

Criteria 3: Membership and leadership engagement and development, for example:

• Attracting new members at each election;
• Having an inclusive process that involves all members in both planning and execution;
• Achieving diversity in its membership, and if this is not possible, actively seeking diverse views and input to its work, for example, in relation to geographical representation, gender and age;
• Having capable leaders that: ensure the Unit has a clear goal and sense of direction and produces quality work; identify roles and responsibilities for others; ensure all members have a voice; communicate progress and problems to the Division Chair.
• Having succession planning and mentoring in place for both the Officer roles and the member roles;
• Ensuring there is continuity of activities when membership or responsibilities change, and that the transition to the new Committee in an election year is smooth;
• Articulating what value a member gains from involvement;
• Functioning effectively using volunteers, encouraging remote participation either of members who cannot attend physical meetings or people beyond the committee where relevant and appropriate;
• Having involvement, partnerships and communication with relevant non-IFLA partners;
• Having an international community that identifies itself as an active supporter of the Unit’s objectives or an active contributor to the Unit’s work and includes individuals who regularly and actively engage with the Unit.

Timeline

• 7 June: deadline for nominations
• Mid-July: shortlist announced
• 29 August: presentation of award at WLIC Closing Ceremony

Questions? Contact us at professionalsupport@ifla.org

IFLA Headquarters
The Hague, 7 June 2019

To join to the live stream of the 29th PUC Meeting in Maribor, Slovenia on 9–10 May 2019, please let us know via the online form until the 8 May 2019.

Powerpoint presentations form NILP's open session at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, 84th IFLA General Conference and Assembly on 29 August 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are now available.

The session's theme was Lessons learned from new developments in information and library policy at national level. 

The VIVO Calendar  The VIVO Calendar is a simple Google Calendar, available on the home page of the VIVO wiki.  You can add this calendar to your collection so that are up to date on all VIVO meetings and events.  Have an update of question about the calendar?  Post to one of the VIVO email lists.  Thanks!

Conference call for proposals closed May 15  The VIVO Conference call for proposals has been extended to May 15.  We look forward to your proposal for a workshop, poster, panel, or presentation.  Topics at the VIVO conference include everything having to do with representing and using data about scholarship, including, but not limited to software development, implementation, change management, ontology development, persistent identifiers, national adoption, analytics, data wrangling, and anything else you might think of related to the open world of metadata regarding scholarship and research.  The conference will be held September 4-6, 2019 in Podgorica, Montenegro.  We hope to see you there!

An ontology project  For sometime, the VIVO ontology has needed to improve – VIVO needs to cover more of the world of scholarship, and represent new expectations in scholarship.  VIVO needs to take advantage of advances in ontological design and practice that have emerged since the ontology was first created in 2007 and last revised in 2013.  Revising the ontology will be a significant effort – a new ontology which builds on all that has been learned needs to be developed; 2) testing, tools, and training will be needed to help the community adopt the new ontology; and 3) the VIVO software, and existing software using the current ontology will need to be upgraded using the tools and training.  The effort is expected to take several years, and involve the entire VIVO community.  The current VIVO ontology is expected to be supported indefinitely.

A one page summary of the effort, the approach to the work and some consequences can be found here:  VIVO Ontology Version 2 in one page

A short white paper is available here: VIVO Ontology Version 2

Multiple presentations at the conference will present concepts regarding the effort and how all can participate.

The Ontology Interest Group meets every other Thursday to discuss the effort, solicit, input, review early thoughts, and determine direction.  All are welcome!

We look forward to the participation of the VIVO community in this effort.  Over the coming months, we will have a series of short surveys regarding needs in the community for representation.  We hope you can take a few minutes to review these surveys with your VIVO group and answer as a group to provide let us know how to make the VIVO ontology more relevant, more consistent, and more open.

ROR  Looking for data regarding research organizations?  You might want to take a look at the Research Organization Registry (http://ror.org)  Following on the work of Digital Science and GRID (http://grid.ac) and a collaboration between 17 organizations including ORCiD, THOR, and CrossRef, ROR is an independent, non-profit effort to curate an open registry of the world’s research organizations.

Go VIVO!

Mike

Mike Conlon
VIVO Project Director

The post VIVO Updates May 5, 2019 — Calendar, CFP, Ontology, ROR appeared first on Duraspace.org.

Package: VuFindRelease Date: Monday, May 6, 2019

Last updated May 3, 2019. Created by Demian Katz on May 3, 2019.
Log in to edit this page.

Bug fix release.

The papers for the IFLA WLIC 2019 open session, Moving Beyond Traditional Collections and Services: Supporting Science in Innovative Ways, co-sponsored by the IFLA Science & Technology Section, Audio Visual & Multimedia Section and the Reference & Information Services Section have been selected and can be found below.

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted paper proposals and for those speakers coming to share their research, knowledge, and experiences at the congress!

 

The date and time for this session will be 08:30-10:30 on the morning of August 29. We look forward to seeing everyone in Athens August 24-30 at the 2019 IFLA World Library and Information Congress! (The early bird registration goes until May 15 – Register Here!)

 

​Now or never: Innovative tools and services for scientists @ TIB
Margret Plank, Bastian Drees, Christian Hauschke, Angelina Kraft, Katrin Leinweber: German National Library of Science & Technology
Hanover, Germany
 

Integrating Access to Canadian Science Data: Building Data Reference Services, by Sharing Data Expertise Nationwide
Peter Webster: Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
 

Complementing Bibliometrics with Network Visualization to Support Scientific Spheres
Nirmal Singh: Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University
Ludhiana, Punjab, India 

 

Conservation science, local community and a library in the Galapagos
Edgardo Civallero: Charles Darwin Foundation Library
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador 
 

Researching Information in Engineering: Making and Reading as Two Sides of the Same Coin
Venetia Kogkou: Technical Chamber of Greece
Costas Bissas: University of the Aegean 
Greece

 

Building Scienctific Thinking through Inquiry-Designed Research and Practice in School Libraries
Jen Spisak and Karla Collins: Longwood University
Farmville, Virginia, USA
 

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2018 Annual Report, celebrating achievements of our programmes and projects during the year.

Thank-you to everyone who worked with us in 2018.

READ NOW

Read the online version of the Annual Report here.

Download the low resolution PDF version of the Annual Report here.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2018 Annual Report, celebrating achievements of our programmes and projects during the year.

Thank-you to everyone who worked with us in 2018.

READ NOW

Read the online version of the Annual Report here.

Download the low resolution PDF version of the Annual Report here.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2018 Annual Report, celebrating achievements of our programmes and projects during the year.

Thank-you to everyone who worked with us in 2018.

READ NOW

Read the online version of the Annual Report here.

Download the low resolution PDF version of the Annual Report here.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2018 Annual Report, celebrating achievements of our programmes and projects during the year.

Thank-you to everyone who worked with us in 2018.

READ NOW

Read the online version of the Annual Report here.

Download the low resolution PDF version of the Annual Report here.

Access to information is an accelerator of development, and libraries make this a reality for all. The 2019 Development and Access to Information Report, to be presented on 23 May 2019 in Buenos Aires, will offer new data, examples and arguments for placing libraries at the heart of national development strategies.

The DA2I Report 2019 will be available for download on 23 May

In twenty targets under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is recognition of the importance of access to information, and the skills and attitudes to make use of it.

The Development and Access to Information (DA2I) Report, produced by IFLA in partnership with the Technology and Social Change Group at the University of Washington, brings together data and perspectives from across the range of policy areas that fall under the SDGs.

In doing this, the report provides an overview of global trends in the key pillars of meaningful access – physical connectivity to the internet, skills, social and cultural factors, and legal barriers. It also offers views from external experts on the role of access in development in different areas, and of course evidence about the contribution of libraries. 

Two years after the launch of the first report, the second DA2I report will be formally launched on 22 May at the Forum of Ministers and Secretaries of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean and presented at the IFLA President’s Meeting 2019 on May 23.

Today we are happy to launch the new DA2I Report website, and are looking forward to sharing updated data, showing the progress the world is making towards access, and the work of libraries to deliver this. We will also be sharing insights into the contribution of access in achieving SDG 4 (education), SDG 8 (employment and growth), SDG 10 (reducing inequalities), SDG 13 (climate action), and SDG 16 (good governance).  

For full details, visit the updated DA2I website

Dear colleagues,

The IFLA Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Section has a pleasure to announce the 16th IFLA ILDS Conference (October 9-11, 2019, Prague, Czech Republic) Participation Grant for the librarians who normally cannot attend IFLA events due to financial or other reasons. The grants will include the cost of travel to and from Prague, the registration fee, and hotel accommodation.

Interested applicants are welcome to submit:

• A CV
• An application letter in which the applicant’s professional focus and the benefit of the ILDS Conference for his/her job are clearly stated
• Estimation of travel costs to Prague from the applicant’s country

All the application materials need to be in English which is the main language of the Conference. There are a limited number of grants thus the priority will be given to those who apply from the countries in which few librarians have participated in any IFLA event in the past. In addition, those who are currently working on resource sharing activities in their home institutions or organizations will be given preference.

The grant recipients are required to submit a written report from the conference, which will be published in the Section’s web site and if possible, in local library journals.

The applications should be sent by email to scholarships@ilds2019.org by 30 June 2019. Successful applicants will be notified by 22 July 2019.

Please see the conference website for full details on the 2019 IFLA Interlending and Document Supply Conference. If you have any additional questions about scholarships, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to seeing you in Prague.

IFLA DDRS Standing Committee

SOURCE: 16th IFLA ILDS Conference

We invite you to join the most international conference in library field!  With more than 250 sessions featuring hundreds of speakers covering all aspects of the field, the IFLA WLIC 2019 promises to be not-to-be-missed event. 

The full IFLA WLIC 2019 Congress Programme is now available and we encourage all to register for the Congress by 15 May in order to secure your place and take advantage of the early bird rate.

At this year's event we’ll be taking a closer look at the diverse, innovative and thought-provoking themes from presenters all over the world, such as #marketinggenius – Beg, Borrow or Steal Great Ideas from around the world, Let’s talk about Change: How Libraries and LGBTIQ Communities are Challenging Stereotypes, The Data Dialogue: Metadata collaboration in a changing world, The Uniqueness of Dialogue in Silence: Library Service to the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf Blind Community, Library Love Stories and many, many more!

Explore the Congress Programme and choose from a variety of sessions to start setting up your plans.

Looking forward to welcoming you all to Athens!

IFLA Journal is an international journal, publishing peer reviewed articles on library and information services and the social, political and economic issues that impact access to information through libraries. The Journal publishes research, case studies and essays that reflect the broad spectrum of the profession internationally. The IFLA Journal is published four times per year by SAGE.

The Journal is seeking expressions of interest for the position of Editor.

The Editor will:

• Act as the main editorial contact to the Publisher for the IFLA Journal;
• Commission and receive articles, and edit issues of the IFLA Journal in collaboration with article authors and IFLA;
• Submit articles and issues to the Publisher using SAGE Track. Editor will receive training on SAGE Track;
• Coordinate the peer review process and briefing of reviewers on their responsibilities;
• Contribute an editorial for each issue;
• Coordinate translation of abstracts into the official IFLA languages;
• Provide leadership on the Journal’s purpose and standing, along with the Chair of the Editorial Committee of the Journal;
• Liaise with the IFLA Journal Editorial Committee and serve as an ex-officio member of this Committee; the IFLA Professional Committee; and the IFLA Governing Board representative; on the content of issues to ensure these are in line with IFLA’s strategic direction for publishing.

The Editor will be appointed on a five-year contract basis, for approximately 40 hours per month. The Editor may be required to participate in the IFLA Annual Congress and other events where necessary to commission content. Participation will be agreed on a case by case basis.

Selection criteria

Candidates for the position of Editor should meet the following selection criteria:

1. Excellent understanding of the major issues influencing library services and practice in the global environment;
2. High standing in the Library and Information Science field as a practitioner or researcher;
3. Vision for the future of the Journal that will serve to increase its standing in the field;
4. Excellent research and professional writing skills and expertise, and the ability to critique research writing;
5. Strong understanding of scholarly publishing, including metrics and initiatives such as Open Access;
6. Possess excellent interpersonal and responsive, accurate written communication skills. As the Journal is published in English, a high standard of written English is required.

To submit an expression of interest, please submit a statement addressing the selection criteria and a full CV including previous editorial positions, research, and publications.

Expressions of interest should be submitted by email to professionalsupport@ifla.org. The deadline for applications is 30 May 2019.

If you have questions about this call for expressions of interest, please contact professionalsupport@ifla.org.

The first of three WIPO regional workshops focusing on the copyright needs of libraries, as well as archives, museums, education and research, took place in Singapore on 29-30 April. The meeting saw broad consensus that business-as-usual was not an option, and international action was necessary.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has a unique role in guiding governments towards optimal copyright laws.

In too many countries today, laws have not taken account of the needs of libraries and other cultural heritage, education and research institutions. This is often not deliberate, but rather due to the complexity of the issues, and the intense lobbying that can accompany reform processes.

Debates over the past thirteen years at WIPO have served to underline the valuable work that libraries perform. With a series of three workshops – the first of which was held in Singapore on 29-30 April for countries from the Asia-Pacific region, the focus moved to challenges and solutions.

A New Perspective

The opportunity to hold discussions outside of Geneva, where WIPO meetings usually take place, was a welcome one. A greater number of countries could be represented (33 in total), bringing a greater variety and depth of experience.

IFLA played an active role, with Farli Elnumeri (Indonesian Library Association), Ratna Mohamed Amin (Malaysian Library Association) and Jessica Coates (Australian Libraries Copyright Committee) ensuring that regional voices were heard.

Alongside representatives from the International Council on Archives, the International Council on Museums, Education International, Communia and others, they underlined the fact that too often, copyright laws simply do not reflect the practice of libraries today.

Inadequate laws not only fail to give librarians legal certainty when carrying out their missions, but can stand in the way of collaboration in support of better service to users.

Member states were receptive, recognising a real need for an update to copyright laws. WIPO itself could provide valuable support in this respect.

The International Dimension

Theoretically, it may be enough to leave decisions on domestic law up to decision-makers in national capitals. However, the only way to find a solution for international cooperation – document supply, preservation networks, or making works available on the internet – is international action.

Moreover, with many governments facing multiple challenges and limited capacity, international action also promises to offer key guidance and impetus for national reforms.

Member states broadly agreed with this perspective, with three of the four groups recommending that an international legal instrument should be part of the package of work to be undertaken by WIPO. The fourth, while not mentioning international work, nonetheless welcomed greater support to national policy making.

Experts invited along by WIPO welcomed the perspectives offered. While their own recommendations differed, they were also clear about the need for change, and to find ways to enable international cooperation.

The results of the discussions will be included into a report which, alongside the results of seminars to be held in Nairobi, Kenya (12-13 June) and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (4-5 July) will feed into a global conference in October in Geneva. This will advise WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights on potential next steps.

IFLA will be attending all of the planned meetings, making the case for action that does the best for libraries.

Read more about IFLA's work on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries. Listen again to our webinar recorded in advance of the Singapore workshop. See our infographic about copyright laws in the Asia-Pacific region produced for the workshop.