En su segundo evento en el Foro Político de Alto Nivel, la IFLA, con la amable colaboración de la Misión Argentina ante las Naciones Unidas, celebró un encuentro sobre cómo extender el éxito de la Declaración de Buenos Aires a más países y a todo el mundo: Información para el desarrollo: La implementación de la Declaración de Buenos Aires.

El 22 de mayo de 2019, en Buenos Aires, los ministros y sus representantes de trece países presentes en el Foro de Ministros y Secretarios de Cultura de América Latina y el Caribe firmaron la Declaración de Buenos Aires.

Esto subrayó su compromiso tanto con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible como con el acceso a la información como medio para lograrlo. También enfatizaron la importancia de las bibliotecas como socias para el desarrollo, y prometieron ayudarlas a realizar su potencial en este sentido.

Por último, subrayaron disposición a llevar el mensaje de la Declaración de Buenos Aires al mundo, a través del Foro Político de Alto Nivel de las Naciones Unidas, en el que ministros y altos funcionarios de todo el mundo están debatiendo la mejor manera de garantizar un crecimiento más fuerte, más justo y más sostenible.

Gracias a la Misión Permanente de la Argentina ante las Naciones Unidas, la IFLA se enorgullece de haber podido celebrar un debate sobre los siguientes pasos.

Creando Entendimiento, Creando Impacto

El Embajador argentino, Su Excelencia Martín García Moritán, inauguró la reunión dando la bienvenida a la IFLA y subrayando su propio compromiso con el acceso a la información a través de las fronteras. Expresó su deseo de que se hicieran esfuerzos para que las personas valoraran y utilizaran mejor la información y la cultura, y destacó su apoyo a las bibliotecas como asociadas clave para ello.

La Presidenta de la IFLA, Glòria Pérez-Salmerón, expuso a continuación la conexión entre información y desarrollo, basándose en su propia experiencia tanto local como internacional a lo largo de su mandato como Presidenta. Las bibliotecas tienen un papel único, argumentó, en asegurar que no terminemos en una sociedad de 'personas que saben' (knows) y 'personas que no saben' (know-nots).

La Secretaria Ejecutiva del Consejo Nacional de Políticas Sociales de Argentina, Gabriela Agosto, recordó que las bibliotecas contribuyen de manera muy distintas. Las bibliotecas especializadas son esenciales para apoyar la toma de decisiones, mientras que las bibliotecas públicas son fundamentales para la dimensión cultural de la Agenda 2030.

El Director Coordinador de la Biblioteca del Congreso de la Nación Argentina destacó la labor de su propia biblioteca para abordar la exclusión y la pobreza informacional. Acogió con entusiasmo la labor de la IFLA para apoyar a sus miembros en la región y darles la confianza y la voz necesarias para promover y defender con mayor eficacia.

Por último, el Secretario General de la IFLA, Gerald Leitner, reiteró el éxito de la Declaración e instó a los presentes a llevar sus mensajes a los colegas de las Naciones Unidas.

La Declaración, subrayó, debería ser un punto de partida, tanto para la adopción de nuevas medidas en la región como para la realización de esfuerzos similares en otras partes del mundo.

  Inclusión, empoderamiento, democracia

En el debate a continuación, el consenso fue claro en torno al papel de las bibliotecas como pilares de la vida democrática. Con un fuerte enfoque en incluir y ofrecer oportunidades a todos, sus misiones están en línea con el motivación de la Agenda 2030 de no dejar a nadie atrás..

El hecho de que los países de América Latina y el Caribe se estén involucrando es particularmente importante. Las buenas prácticas ya expuestas en las bibliotecas argentinas constituyen un valioso ejemplo para otros de cómo las bibliotecas pueden contribuir a la creación de sociedades más justas. La Revisión Nacional Voluntaria de Argentina en 2020 ofreció una oportunidad particularmente fuerte para destacar este trabajo.

La IFLA da las gracias a la Misión Permanente de Argentina por su apoyo y espera con interés trabajar con todos los Estados Miembros para garantizar que el papel de las bibliotecas en el desarrollo sea debidamente reconocido y apoyado en todo el mundo..

Vea más fotos de este evento en nuestro canal de Flickr.

Our exciting Open Session at WLIC 2019 Keeping it Real while Augmenting Reality: the Impact of Technology and Equipment on Library Design takes place at 8.30am on Wednesday 28th August, Session 205 in Lambrakis. Libraries use technology and equipment in creative ways to enhance the user experience, foster experimentation and innovation, create operational efficiencies, provide inclusive services and spaces, bridge any gap between the physical and digital, support effective service delivery, and more. This programme examines current and future roles of technology and equipment in positioning libraries to offer enhanced services, promoting change within their communities, the profession and society at large, and how these roles impact the built environment. Our programme seeks to stimulate ideas about new uses of older technologies and to examine methods and opportunities for using low and high-tech equipment to meet all budgets. The programme includes an exciting range of speakers from around the world . Join us at 8.30am on Wednesday 28th August for Session 205 in Lambrakis.

Title:  Academic Libraries Engaging in Publishing: A Burgeoning Service Model in the Open Access Sphere

Presenters:  Presenters: Jody Bailey, Head of Scholarly Communications Office, Emory University Libraries, and Ted Polley, Social Sciences & Digital Publishing, IUPUI University Library

Bios: Jody Bailey is the Head of the Scholarly Communications Office at Emory University Libraries, where she leads a team of librarians and library specialists who are responsible for services surrounding copyright, open access and publishing, research data management, and open educational resources. The team also manages two scholarly repositories that publish works by Emory faculty and students. Jody is a member of the Board of Directors for the Library Publishing Coalition, and her scholarly interests include open-access publishing, open educational resources, user-centered library services, and outreach activities. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented at numerous conferences.

Ted Polley is the Social Sciences & Digital Publishing Librarian at IUPUI University Library, where he manages the Library’s digital publishing service. Currently, the Library hosts and provides support to 21 scholarly peer-reviewed journals, with plans to expand into open monograph publishing soon. Ted’s research interests include open access, library publishing, open data, and data visualization. He is active in the library publishing community and currently sits on the Board of the Library Publishing Coalition.

Date & Time: August 1, 2019 9:00 AM Eastern US time

Register in advance for this meeting

This webinar is free and open to the public. Please share this invitation openly.

Please register for the webinar here.

Series Organiser: Dr Reggie Raju 

Chair of ARL: Ms Mimi Calter 

This session is the third in a series of presentations on topics relevant to Academic & Research Libraries. 

 

​In its second event of the High Level Political Forum, IFLA, with the kind support of the Argentine Mission to the United Nations, held a discussion about how to extend the success of the Buenos Aires Declaration to more countries, and around the world: Information for Development: Delivering on the Buenos Aires Declaration.

On 22 May 2019, in Buenos Aires, ministers and their representatives from thirteen countries at the Forum of Ministers of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean signed the Buenos Aires Declaration.

This underlined their commitment both to the Sustainable Development Goals, and to access to information as a means of achieving this. They also stressed the importance of libraries as partners for development, and promised to help them realise their potential in this this regards.

Thanks to the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations, IFLA was proud to be able to hold a discussion on next steps.

Building Understanding, Building Impact

The Argentinian Ambassador, His Excellency Martin Garcia Moritán, opened by welcoming IFLA, and underlining his own commitment to access to information across borders. He looked forward to efforts to ensure people better valued and made use of information and culture, and stressed his support for libraries as key partners for doing this.

IFLA President Glòria Pérez-Salmerón then set out the connection between information and development, drawing on her own experience both from home, and internationally throughout her time as President. Libraries had a unique role, she argued, in ensuring that we didn’t end up in a society of ‘knows’ and ‘know-nots’.

Executive Secretary of the Argentine National Council for Social Policies Gabriela Agosto reminded participants that libraries contributed in difference ways. Specialised libraries were essential for supporting decision making, while public libraries were key to the cultural dimension of the 2030 Agenda.

Coordinating Director of the Library of Congress of the Argentine Nation underlined his own library’s work to tackle exclusion and information poverty. He welcomed IFLA’s work in supporting its members in the region, and giving them the confidence and voice to advocate more effectively.

Finally, IFLA Secretary General Gerald Leitner reiterated the success if the Declaration, and urged those present to bring its messages to colleagues at the United Nations.

The Declaration, he stressed, should be a starting point, both for further action within the region, and for similar efforts elsewhere in the world.  

  Inclusion, Empowerment, Democracy

In the following debate, the consensus was clear around the role of libraries as pillars of democratic life. With a strong focus on including and enabling everyone, their missions were well in line with the goal of the 2030 Agenda to leave no-one behind.

There fact that Latin American and Caribbean countries were getting involved was particularly important. The good practice already on show in Argentina’s libraries offered a valuable example to others of how libraries could contribute to creating fairer societies. Argentina’s Voluntary National Review in 2020 offered a particularly strong opportunity to highlight this work.

​IFLA offers its thanks to the Permanent Mission of Argentina for its support, and looks forward to working with all member states to ensure the role of libraries in development is properly recognised and supported worldwide.

See more pictures of the event in our Flickr channel.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals place a strong emphasis on partnerships, within and across countries. These, the UN argues, are essential for spreading ideas, reducing inequalities within and across countries and improving the effectiveness of development policies.

Libraries are well suited to participate in and support these partnerships, as was made clear in an event held at the UN Library on 16 July during the High Level Political Forum 2019, Partnering for development - From global to local: the role of knowledge and libraries.

Global Information Partnerships

The entire 2030 Agenda, as agreed in 2015, is based on a growing understanding that the challenges the world faces are interlinked. Success in one area – such as education – tends to have positive impacts on another, while a failure to act – for example on climate change – puts everything else at risk.

This growing understanding is based on information, and the work of researchers and other experts around the world.

The need to continue and strengthen access to information across borders came out strongly as a theme in the first session of the event. Following an introduction by UN Library Chief Thanos Giannakopoulos, IFLA President Glòria Pérez-Salmerón reminded the audience of the importance of knowledge for development.

Citing all of the examples of positive contributions she had seen during her presidency, she underlined: ‘Libraries are already doing so much. But there are so many more lives we can improve, so much innovation to support, so much understanding to create. Work with us to make this a reality!'

In addition to the IFLA President, the audience heard a presentation of the Global Sustainable Development Report from Mr Shantanu Mukherjee in the United Nations Secretariat. The Report, the result of a collaboration between fifteen academics, underlines both what is possible when knowledge is shared, but also some of the challenges in doing so.

UN Library Chief Thanos Giannakopoulos also presented on the New York pledge, signed by libraries across different UN offices and agencies, and which looks to improve their ability to cooperate in support of efforts to deliver development.

From the Global to the Local

IFLA Secretary General Gerald Leitner opened the second part of the session, highlighting the specific role of libraries as partners for development.

Stressing IFLA’s own commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, he set out the process that IFLA has followed to connect and engage libraries worldwide, and set out an invitation to all participants to work with libraries in order to go further in making progress.

As he underlined, 'Information is key for delivering the SDGs, and libraries provide the infrastructure to make it happen. This is our invitation: work with libraries, from the local to the global levels, to build partnerships for success'.

Finally, Zoubeida Bouallagui, an active participant in IFLA’s International Advocacy Programme (IAP), spoke, sharing examples from Tunisia. Having been energised and motivated by the SDGs, libraries in the country were combining their strengths with those of other organisations to provide better services to users.

She set out efforts both to build awareness of the SDGs, and to take practical steps, for example through developing coding skills, or enabling women in rural areas to sell their handicrafts online.

Going Forwards

With a strong understanding among participants of the potential of information to drive development, and the potential of libraries to form the basis of partnerships, the main question was what we can do next.

In response, and in closing, IFLA Secretary General Leitner echoed his call on everyone involved in the SDGs to reach out to libraries, and see how we can worth together to go further.

See a photo album with highlights of the event in our Flickr channel.

The digital age is changing the way libraries work – transforming their collections, facilitating sharing of works, allowing them to offer completely new types of services, and more. That is why the way the internet and digital technology are governed concerns libraries – the current and emerging rules and practices will affect their everyday work.

In 2018, the UN Secretary-General launched a High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation – the first UN digital governance initiative of this scale. Following extensive multistakeholder consultations, the Panel issued a report in June 2019 outlining key issues and setting out recommendations on how to leverage global cooperation towards a more inclusive digital future.

Several messages and recommendations the report puts forward are directly relevant for libraries:

• Meaningful access to digital infrastructure for marginalized populations is paramount. Many libraries offer internet access services to their users, often in areas with low internet penetration or high costs of connectivity. This function is especially important in light of the report’s recommendation. Each library can reflect on whether there are any further initiatives it could take to help marginalised communities in its area get online.
• An idea of pooling together digital public goods – digital technologies and content freely available for people to use or adapt – is proposed. In the multistakeholder discussions that will follow, libraries can lend their expertise in information organisation and access, in order to ensure that tools are usable.
• Education systems will need to adapt to prepare people for living and working in the digital age. These changes include teaching information literacy and soft skills, wider use of informal instruction and enabling lifelong learning. Libraries can take a proactive role and expand their educational initiatives to include these recommendations. This would help them position themselves as major partners in the changing education systems.
• All participants of multistakeholder consultations on internet governance are invited to define their guiding values to develop a shared vision. This offers libraries an opportunity to get involved and promote the values they stand for – public access, intellectual freedom, equality and lifelong learning.

 

See the full summary of the report and its recommendations, highlighting points of particular interest for libraries:

[English – PDF]

You can read the IFLA contribution to the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. You can also view the submission made by the Partnership for Public Access, to which IFLA contributed.

 

From the LYRASIS Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives Team

LYRASIS announces the release of a new study, Understanding the Landscape of Library Accessibility for Online Materials. The study was undertaken in an effort to map the landscape of accessibility policies and practices for online resources as managed by libraries and archives across the United States. The study can be accessed on the LYRASIS website at https://www.lyrasis.org/technology/Pages/Accessibility-Survey-Report.aspx.

Authored by Hannah Rosen, LYRASIS Scholarly Communication Specialist and Digitization Program Coordinator, and Jill Grogg, Strategist for the Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives team, the study is based on a survey conducted in early 2019 as a mechanism to better understand how (primarily academic) libraries within the United States are handling accessibility for their online content, and more specifically, where they stand in terms of policy and implementation.

Key findings of the study include:

• Libraries are the most progressive in terms of accessibility when they maintain the most control over their content.
• National policies and community technical guidelines on accessibility hold more prominence than local or institutional mandates.
• Most accessibility training is self-initiated; more infrastructure is needed to train librarians in accessibility mandates and tools.

Celeste Feather, Senior Director of Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives at LYRASIS says of the report, “This study is an important piece of the work LYRASIS is doing to understand the needs of collections holding institutions across the country, and helps unite libraries in their efforts to make materials more accessible to their users and communities. Our goal is to leverage the reach we have at LYRASIS, with more than 1000 members, to help build conversations around these vital topics and use our research abilities to inform the wider community about these important trends and best practices.

The report and all survey materials, including original survey questions and anonymized responses are accessible on the LYRASIS webpage. Visithttps://www.lyrasis.org/technology/Pages/Accessibility-Survey-Report.aspxx for more information.

The post LYRASIS 2019 Accessibility Report Now Available appeared first on Duraspace.org.

After the successful presentation of the survey results, the Digital Humanities and Digital Cultural Heritage Working Group is already making plans for the coming year. In our new work plan we shift our attention to new topics emerging from the survey. To support our upcoming activities, we are looking for new people to join the…

The post Wanted: New Members for the Digital Humanities & Digital Cultural Heritage Working Group appeared first on LIBER.

Alongside growing concern in the United States and Canada about the conditions imposed on libraries looking to lend eBooks, there are also efforts to reduce dependency on third party distributors by building 'library-controlled' platforms.

One such effort is Library Simplified, a collaboration between New York Public Library, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), and Lyrasis.

This, the hope is, will offer a better service both for readers and libraries. We interviewed Jessica Want, Director, Digital Products at New York Public Library, to find out more:

 

1. How significant is demand for eBooks in libraries in the US?

From a cross-reference of Nielsen, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly PubTrack Digital, the ebook market in the US was over 250 million units per year as of the beginning of 2018.

There is, however, a lack of clarity on the precise number for two reasons. Firstly, statistics on independent publishers, aggregators, and self-publishing authors aren't gathered with specificity by any tracking service, and the major retailers do not provide public data on their ebook sales.

Secondly, while there are a lot of data indicating "ebook numbers are down,” the "downloaded audio" segment is rising dramatically (35% by one measure), indicating that these two metrics are gauged separately by a number of metrics providers. This shift from visual to audio would also explain why other market analysis models report a decline in the sale of dedicated eReaders - they're not great for audiobook use.

 

2. What’s wrong with the status quo?

Public libraries are constrained by limited options for licensing.  US libraries’ eBook services are often provided by 3rd party, commercial vendors who negotiate with publishers on the libraries' behalf.  The business models of these commercial vendors are often not aligned with, and sometimes even in opposition to, the needs of the library.  These vendors have also developed proprietary products that reside in our patrons pockets, through their individual apps, where they are capturing the patron’s attention, owning the relationship with the patron (rather than allowing the library to), and collecting the patrons' reading history and other personal data.  

The multitude of vendors has also created a very fractured user experience.  For each vendor there is a separate app for patrons to use - in the case of NYPL there are more than six.  This brings our patrons too close to the messiness of multiple-vendor eBook distribution that we've worked so hard for decades to eliminate. For example, we don't display the print books by publisher or distributor. The proliferation of commercial eReading apps imposes a confusing user experience, where they must learn multiple interfaces, remember multiple logins, agree to the different terms of the services and occasionally switch between specific hardware or additional technology. 

Distributors have also restricted libraries’ ability to work together as a unified profession. Libraries are obliged to negotiate separately with each of the vendors and publishers as disjointed individual institutions, rather than collaboratively as a sector. 

Commercial vendors and distributors are also primarily concerned with the sales of books, not with the actual reading of them.  We have come to discover that, on occasion, our vendors will push books to a patron's device without notifying them - or us - that they’ve received the book.  This checks-out the book for the patron, pushes it into their book queue without their notice, and charges the library for another read — all the while without confirmation that the patron; i) still wants the book; ii) will be aware that it has been sent to them; and most importantly, iii) has the opportunity to read it.

Similarly, the current experiences are designed to super-serve our highest-frequency readers.  The apps and distribution of eBooks do not allow for the flexibility to shift service options or to develop tactics to engage with lower-frequency readers. All in all, eReading experiences (or any other services provided by purely commercially-motivated 3rd parties, for that matter), that are not designed to fulfill the mission of the library, or that undermine the principles and values of the library, are never going to be optimized to support those patrons who are in greatest need of library services.

 

3. What will the nationwide platform do?

In short, as a shared nationwide platform, Library Simplified, will unify libraries as a sector to be able to: i) negotiate with vendors and, hopefully, publishers, ii) operate within a simpler, unified eBooks system; iii) re-establish a personal relationship with our own patrons; iv) reclaim ownership of the collections that they have paid for but are very much 'controlled' by the vendors; v) pay attention to those patrons with high or special needs, especially those with reading disabilities; and iv) develop a library-centric ‘eReading Room’, where our patrons can discover the pleasure of reading without constant distractions and 'upselling' or other promotions.

 

4. What does ‘library controlled’ mean in practice?

Libraries  - and, of course, librarians - live and work by a core set of values. In the US, public libraries are institutions that ensure free speech, protect patron privacy, remove barriers to, and promote, equality, ensure universal access to information, work to narrow the digital divide, avoid censorship, and ensure that a broad and diverse range of voices are represented.  We may not always appreciate quite how unique these freedoms are to the citizens of the United States of America and might sometimes take them for granted but very few nations today have such safeguards to democracy as are enshrined through these enduring institutions. A library-controlled experience ensures that those values are always the basis of the patron’s experience.  Libraries do not see patrons as a commodity but rather actively work against the commercially-motivated values of vendors and other organizations. Patrons of the Library are not ‘customers’.

The library-patron relationship is the underlying goal of the Library Simplified platform. By sharing this platform with other libraries across the whole of the US, this precious relationship will be placed back into the hands of their libraries, allowing them to make programmatic and engagement decisions to best serve all patrons - no longer just those who are of the most interest to 3rd parties.

 

5. What does each partner bring to the project?

Library Simplified is made up of three components, and thus, three opportunities for partnership.

Firstly, the reading experience: The New York Public Library has created an eReading app, SimplyE, that aggregates eBooks form the various vendors into one interface for patrons to access both eBooks and audiobooks.  It has a librarian administration component that puts libraries and librarians in control of which materials are promoted to their patrons.

Secondly, the eBooks: The DPLA Exchange is continuing to develop a ‘public library’ option for purchasing e-materials that is built in consultation, 'With Libraries For Libraries', and is working directly with publishers to develop new sources for diverse and inclusive reading materials. They will work collaboratively with publishers to explore new licensing models, as well as develop a completely free collection, which includes educational, contemporary, and historical books, available to all libraries who adopt SimplyE to integrate into, or augment, their own collections. The collection is also completely free and fully accessible to readers anywhere in the US who install the SimplyE app, even without a Library Card.

Finally, the Systems Integration and Support: For those libraries that cannot implement and maintain the technologies for themselves, there are a small number of not-for-profit specialists (including LYRASIS, AMIGOS and CALIFA), who are there to help onboard and set-up those who are interested in using Library Simplified and SimplyE.  These Service Providers also offer very low-cost front-line service support for libraries. They all offer Software License Agreements (SLAs) and contracts that offer technical support for the duration of that contract so that the library has software experts to call, at any time of day, should their patrons experience any issues. In this way the entire platform is not just comprehensive in its program offerings, but in its support of all public libraries as well. 

 

6. What changes do you expect to see in the availability of (non-openly licensed) books?

Libraries are at risk of not having access to front-list or popular titles immediately, or being subjected to prohibitively expensive licenses that will limit the availability of titles (particularly popular titles) to patrons. The opportunity to negotiate as a sector, rather than as individual libraries, and by being able to promote a library-centric perspective, will allow public libraries to speak collectively in order to redefine licensing terms, and be recognized for the way we add, rather than reduce, long-term value to the publishing industries.

 

7. What difference will readers see?

Patrons will have access to a greater number, and greater range, of books, both those offered for free through the DPLA Exchange, as well as those licensed through commercial vendors.  Libraries will be able to negotiate for better terms with publishers so that the cost of each license can be optimized, in particular for front-list books.

Atlanta, GA – July 11, 2019  To help guide and steward the recent merger of LYRASIS and DuraSpace – four new Board of Trustees Members were elected by the combined memberships, and four new Board of Trustees were appointed. This brings LYRASIS’ FY 2020 Board to 13 members, seven elected and six appointed.

DuraSpace brings 175 members and 3 Community Supported Programs to LYRASIS’ 1,000 members and 7 Community Supported Programs. As of July 1st, 2019, the Board will work with the operations team on strategies to increase the value for these 10 programs along with accelerating the impact of the $1.2 million investment the Board approved for new product development and innovation.

Joe Lucia, the current LYRASIS Chair, says, “This powerful Board brings the right vision and experience to LYRASIS at a time of great opportunity. It will be an exciting year!”

Robert Miller, CEO of LYRASIS, says, “Working together with the LYRASIS and DuraSpace Board members throughout the merger discussions clearly showed the potential that this new organization can deliver to the combined memberships. We are thrilled with what FY 2020 will bring for our members.”

The newly elected Board of Trustees Members are:

Member State Library Agencies or Group Agents:

• Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer – Deputy State Librarian for Library Support Services at the New Jersey State Library
• Wolfram Horstmann – Director of the Göttingen State and University Library and University Librarian of the University of Göttingen (Germany)

Member Academic Library:

• Alexia Hudson-Ward – Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries for Oberlin College and Conservatory

Member Special Library:

• Lee Ceperich – Director of the Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Additionally, the following are the newly Appointed Board of Trustees Members:

• Heather Joseph – SPARC, Executive Director
• Kaitlin Thaney – Endowment Director for Wikimedia Foundation
• Tyler Walters – Dean of University Libraries, Virginia Tech
• Evviva Weinraub – Vice Provost for University Libraries, University at Buffalo

Current Board of Trustees Members:

• Joe Lucia – Board Chair, Dean of Libraries, Temple University – Paley Library
• Gina Millsap – Vice-Chair; Chief Executive Officer, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
• Derick Dreher, Ph.D. – Treasurer; The John C. Haas Director, Rosenbach Museum and Library; VP of Special Collections, The Free Library of Philadelphia
• Kate Pugh – Faculty, Columbia University
• Kevin Guthrie – President, ITHAKA

Board of Trustees Members who have served and completed their terms are:

LYRASIS

• Elizabeth Gail McClenney – Immediate Past Chair; Director, Roanoke College – Fintel Library
• Rob Spindler – former Secretary; Head of Archives & Special Collections, Arizona State University Libraries
• Tom Rosko – Institute Archivist, Head Institute Archives and Special Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
• Gregor Trinkaus-Randall – Preservation Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
• Cory Nimer – University Archivist, Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library
• Julie Walker – State Librarian of Georgia, Georgia Public Library Services
• Eric Miller – CFO, Atlanta University Center – Robert Woodruff Library

DuraSpace 

• Tom Cramer – former Vice President; Chief Technology Strategist and Associate Director of Digital Library Systems & Services at Stanford University
• Rob Cartolano – former Treasurer; Vice President for Technology and Preservation for Columbia University Libraries
• Dan Cohen – Vice Provost for Information Collaboration; Dean of the Libraries; and Professor of History at Northeastern University
• Mike Conlon – Emeritus Faculty member of the University of Florida\

• Laura Wood – Associate University Librarian for Research and Education at Harvard Library

The post LYRASIS Announces New Board of Trustees Members appeared first on Duraspace.org.

Last updated July 15, 2019. Created by Demian Katz on July 15, 2019.
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​The third and final WIPO regional seminar on exceptions and limitations took place in Santo Domingo on 4-5 July. It looked into the copyright rules that define whether libraries, archives, museums, and education and research institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean can do their jobs. IFLA was there to promote the need for international action.

Over the past ten years, IFLA has engaged closely at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in order to make the case for action on copyright rules for libraries. We have underlined the unique potential of WIPO not only in setting an example for governments worldwide, but also in making it possible for libraries to work across borders.

As part of this process, WIPO’s Member States agreed to hold three regional seminars in order to hear about the situation on the ground, in order to inform its discussions.

The third of these seminars took place on 4-5 July in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Just like those previously in Singapore and Nairobi, it had the mission to analyse the challenges facing libraries and other institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to explore possible areas for action. It will feed into an international conference on exceptions and limitations in October in Geneva.

The seminar brought together representatives from 17 countries, as well as WIPO officials, and representatives of libraries, archives, museums, education and research institutions, collective management organisations and publishers – you can download the provisional list of participants.

 

Underlining What Libraries Need

The event started with a set of expert presentations, followed an afternoon and a morning of workshop discussions and concluded with a report back to the group as a whole.

The four experts chosen by WIPO summarised the conclusions of studies carries out for WIPO, and underlined some of the challenges faced by libraries, archives, museums, education and research institutions.

Professor Kenneth Crews in particular presented his typology study (see the infographic summarising it in English and in Spanish), which makes the clear the failings in current legislation. Six countries out of the 33 in the region have no exceptions at all for libraries, and even when exceptions exist, they are often not adapted to the digital world.

In subsequent discussions with Member States on three different tables, government representatives explored these issues. Observers, including IFLA, were given the opportunity to make short points, and thanks to excellent participation from local representatives, could highlight many examples of where neither licensing nor current laws cold offer a solution to their needs. For example, in the Dominican Republic, academic libraries cannot make preservation copies under an exception.

Nonetheless, it is clear that there is a strong lobby claiming that further development of collecting societies would resolve all situations. This is a misleading argument. It confuses the legitimate role of representative and well-governed collecting societies in ensuring that authors are paid for significant uses of their works, with the harm that comes from making minor and public interest uses of books and other materials subject to payment. 

 

Support for Action

We are happy to say that in two of the three tables, the importance of international action on exceptions and limitations to copyright at WIPO was highlighted, with Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Cuba speaking up. Others were clear in recognising the need for action to support libraries and other institutions.

Our focus now turns to the global conference due to take place in October. It is clear that more work will be necessary in order to ensure that governments understand the necessity of progress at the international level. This is indispensable if librarians are to be able to do their jobs without fear or uncertainty. Business as usual is not enough.

We hope that the October conference will offer a meaningful platform to set out the needs of libraries, and to build momentum for action.

With all three regional seminars making it clear that something needs to happen, it is time for WIPO to step up and do the right thing for the users of libraries, archives and museums, as well as learners and researchers globally.

IFLA would like to thank Alicia Ocaso, Micdonia Quirós, Eloísa Marrero, Amarilís Beltré, Lucero Arboleda, Giovanna Riggio, Dulce María Núñez, Izaskun Herrojo, Sharon Alexander-Gooding, Luisa de Peña, Laura Pérez and Marisol Floren for their support and the great work done before and throughout the regional seminar.

Congratulations to the new Leadership Group  The VIVO Leadership has been formed for the coming year.

The Leadership Group (LG) is the “board” of VIVO – the LG sets strategic direction, appoints the LG chair and the Steering Group, and develops and approves the MOU with LYRASIS and the project budget. After member and community elections, the project has a new Leadership group.  See  VIVO Leadership Group

Continuing members include: Julia Trimmer, Duke University, Ann Beynon, Clarivate, Mike Conlon, University of Florida, Federico Ferrario, Cineca, Robert Cartolano, Columbia University, Tom Cramer, Stanford University, Hannah Sommers, George Washington University, Anna Guillaumet, Sigma, Doug Hahn, Texas A&M University, Ginny Pannabecker, Virginia Tech University, Alex Viggio, University of Colorado, Violeta Ilik, Columbia University, Christian Hauschke, TIB Hannover, and Terrie Wheeler of Weill Cornell Medicine.

The new LG member is Steven McCauley, Brown University.  Welcome Steven!

And a special thanks to LG/SG members whose terms are ending this year: Paul Albert, Weill Cornell Medicine, Mark Newton, Columbia University, Joe Zucca of the University of Pennsylvania, and Jean Rainwater of Brown University.

Thank you all for your service to a truly open and innovative open project in support of scholarship around the world!  We are looking forward to another outstanding year!

Early bird registration available for VIVO19  It’s not too late to be an early bird and save some money on registration for VIVO 19 in Podgorica Montenegro, September 4-6.

Second Early Bird Registration ends on July 29, 2019. Register at these rates by the deadline and save $50.  Register here: http://bit.ly/2FWcRRt

Second Early Bird Academic / Non-Profit / Govt – $250

Second Early Bird Industry / For-Profit – $300

Students – $99

Local Attendees – $50

Follow conference news on Twitter at @vivocollab hashtag #vivo19

Technical initiatives  VIVO currently has three technical initiatives in progress:

1. The Development Interest Group is working toward a release of VIVO 1.11.  The new release continues the separation of components, improves deployment options, and fixes bugs.
2. The VIVO Scholar Task Force is developing a new front end for VIVO based on Elasticsearch, React JavaScript library, and GraphQL.
3. The Ontology Interest Group is developing new ontology for VIVO, based on Basic Formal Ontology, expanding VIVO’s ability to represent scholarship and improving alignment with ontological best practices.

All initiatives are open for all to participate.  We look forward to seeing you involved in one or more of these efforts to improve VIVO.

Go VIVO!

Mike

Mike Conlon
VIVO Project Director

The post VIVO Updates July 14, 2019 — New leadership group, early bird conference rates, technical initiatives appeared first on Duraspace.org.

Open science skills for research librarians and researchers are at the heart of the evolution towards openness. LIBER’s Digital Skills for Library Staff & Researchers Working Group is supporting this transition in two ways: by building a digital skills list with a specific focus on Open Science and by highlighting Open Science training programmes relying…

The post Open Science Essentials: Towards a Skill Set and Showcases at LIBER 2019 appeared first on LIBER.

At LIBER’s 2019 Annual Conference, several new Executive Board members and Working Group chairs were appointed. We are pleased to introduce you to this year’s additions, and appreciate very much the dedication and expertise they are sharing with LIBER. New Executive Board Members The four new members of the Executive Board are: Dr Andreas Brandtner…

The post Meet LIBER’s New Executive Board Members & Working Group Chairs appeared first on LIBER.

EIFL’s work with over 40 universities and research institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda over the past three years has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of research published in open access (OA) in the three east African countries. 

EIFL’s work with over 40 universities and research institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda over the past three years has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of research published in open access (OA) in the three east African countries. 

EIFL’s work with over 40 universities and research institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda over the past three years has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of research published in open access (OA) in the three east African countries. 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) provide a global roadmap towards lasting and equitable growth. The annual High-Level Political Forum is the opportunity to measure progress, and share ideas for achieving them. IFLA is there, underlining what libraries can do.

On 9-18 July 2019, ministers, officials, experts, civil society and private sector representatives are meeting in New York at the High-Level Political Forum to discuss progress towards achieving the SDGs.

The SDGs themselves offer a comprehensive view of what it will take to create fairer, richer societies, now and into the future. They underline both that success requires progress on all fronts, and that governments need to pay attention to cross-cutting drivers of development.

Information is one such driver, and access to it, including the skills to use it, is included twenty times across the SDG framework, more or less explicitly.

Libraries, of course, are essential partners for governments in delivering this. This is the message that IFLA’s representatives will be bringing to those present. 

Where We’ll be Active

IFLA will be using all opportunities to highlight the work of libraries, and to establish contacts to help our members. Official sessions and side events with a wide variety of high-profile speakers offer a good opportunity to do this.

In addition, two specific events about libraries will highlight the particular role of our institutions.

A first, co-hosted with the UN Dag Hammarskjold Library, focuses on partnerships, the subject of SDG17.

Libraries are key nodes in knowledge partnerships, facilitating cooperation and sharing across borders. But they are also practical partners on the ground, working with government and others to deliver progress. Find out more on our event page.

A second, co-hosted with the Permanent Mission of Argentina, follows up from the successful agreement of the Buenos Aires Declaration on 22 May in the context of the Forum of Ministers of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Declaration underlines the commitment of governments in the region to libraries and information, and the event will look at how to realise its impact. Find out more on our event page. 

Interested in following the HLPF? Watch the livestreaming through the UN Web TV, and use the hashtags: #HLPF and #HLPF2019 in social media.

Read our blog to learn more about libraries at the High Level Political Forum. Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter @IFLA, @IFLA_Lib4Dev, and stay tuned by using the #Lib4Dev and #DA2I hashtags.

CONTACT Meg McCroskey Blum, Director of Marketing & Communications, meg.blum@lyrasis.org, 800.999.8558 x2951, Skype: meg.lyrasis

LYRASIS and DuraSpace are pleased to announce the merger of their two leading 501 C3 not-for-profits was completed on July 1, 2019, Members will participate in developing new scalable technologies, shared innovation opportunities, and high value – fairly priced services across the global landscape of academic and public libraries, scholarly research, archives, museums, and galleries. 

LYRASIS will remain the parent organization and legal entity. It’s governance model will continue to be a Board that is 50% member elected 50% appointed. The merger will accelerate collaboration, development and implementation of platforms that will benefit our 1,700+ members.

Robert Miller, CEO of LYRASIS, says of the merger, “Our Boards, our memberships, and our teams are thrilled with this merger. In addition to the existing programs and services LYRASIS has for its members, this merger brings 3 respected community supported projects to the 7 programs that LYRASIS is organizationally invested in. We firmly believe that by having 10 such programs under one roof, the combined 1,700+ members and 5,000+ institutional users will see the benefits of scale, experience lower risk, see higher returns on innovation, and see an acceleration of implemented ideas. As part of this, LYRASIS is putting $1.2M of development monies into 5 key areas to support related to the merger.”

Joe Lucia, LYRASIS Board Chair says, “LYRASIS and DuraSpace are enterprises that each embody a rare combination of idealism and pragmatism for the ways they engage their professional communities in collaboration to support the scientific and cultural memory commitments of archives, libraries, and museums. This merger will establish LYRASIS as a clear leader in convening those communities around shared open source solutions to address their common challenges.” 

The DuraSpace brand, staff of DSpace, Fedora, and VIVO have transitioned to the new DuraSpace Community Supported Programs (DCSP) Division of LYRASIS. DuraSpace hosted services (DuraCloud, DSpaceDirect, and ArchivesDirect) will now be part of the LYRASIS Digital Technologies Division.

About LYRASIS

LYRASIS (www.lyrasis.org), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. LYRASIS organizational and staff values are: communication, respect, collaboration, impact, and service. 

The post LYRASIS and DuraSpace Complete Merger–Members and Community Benefit appeared first on Duraspace.org.