Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section

Minutes
Midwinter Meeting
Paris, 3-4 March 2003

Time:
9.00 – 17.00 Monday
9.30 – 16.00 Tuesday

Place:
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Chair:
Jane Dreisig (Denmark)

Attendees:
Jane Dreisig (Denmark), Lourina K. de Voogd (Netherlands), Souad Hubert (France), Carmen Madrid (Spain), Christine McDonald (USA), Kirsten Leth Nielsen (Norway), Ana Asensio Rodriquez (Spain), Maria Tapaninen (Sweden), Susy Tastesen (Denmark), Barbara von Wahlde (USA)

Apologies:
Clara Chu (USA), Barbro Ejendal (Sweden), Benedikte Kragh-Schwarz (Denmark), Asbjørn Langeland (Norway), Ekaterina Nikonorova (Russian Federation), Jane Pyper (Canada)

No response: Robert Pestell (Australia), Ryoko Takashima (Japan), Kristina Virtanen (Finland)

Reporter: Kirsten Leth Nielsen (Norway)

Date: 24 March 2003

Welcome and Apologies

Jane Dreisig opened the meeting by thanking Souad Hubert for hosting us in Paris. She appreciated that so many members had been able to attend the midwinter meeting. She also asked for responses from members not able to attend in the future. Please send apologies to the Chair or Secretary if you are unable to attend future meetings.

Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved with one addition to item 9, namely, Argentina: Whole day workshop in cooperation with Division VIII.

Minutes of the Standing Committee meetings I and II in Glasgow

The minutes were approved earlier this year via the listserv and were posted on IFLANET. Barbara von Wahlde will investigate what has happened to the Chair’s report from Glasgow since it has not yet been published on IFLANET. Lourina K. de Voogd will remind Clara Chu about the publication «Guidelines for Collection Development» that she is supposed to publish on the listserv.

Reports

A. Chair’s report:

Jane Dreisig announced that there will be no joint workshop in Berlin with IFLA’s Section for Children and Young Adults. Clara Chu did not follow up on the matter as agreed in Glasgow, and the Children´s Section has arranged the workshop with FAIFE. At the upcoming Coordinating Board meeting in The Hague, Jane Dreisig and Kirsten Leth Nielson will address the issue about procedures to follow when establishing contact with other sections about possible collaborations.

Jane stressed that it is urgent that we all keep the time limit of IFLA´s schedule. Barbara will ask Donna to publish the important deadlines on the listserv. Jane told us that IFLA had announced in Glasgow that our newsletter was among the five best in 2002. Jane also informed the members about the announcement from IFLA Headquarters that the new name of the annual IFLA conference is now: «World Library and Information Congress». The new name is more specific and was adopted to ensure that the event have a greater impact outside the profession.

Other issues reported included: The Open Forum will be limited to two hours. Our committee does not agree to that and will bring up the issue at the Coordinating Board meeting in The Hague.

Our Section has been granted 150 euros from Division III to cover the cost of publishing the document «How to Arrange a Satellite Meeting» written by Barbara von Wahlde. The publication will be published electronically and in print. She will take care of this matter together with Donna Serafin. Barbara will bring the publication to the Berlin conference.

Kirsten Leth Nielsen asked for responses about the work schedule. Since the reaction from members was positive, Kirsten will continue this practice in the future.

As for the economic status, Jane Dreisig had previously requested and been granted about 227 euros from IFLA Headquarters for publishing the pamphlet «Celebrating 20 Years». Jane and Kirsten will investigate what has happened with the funding while attending their meeting at IFLA Headquarters in The Hague

Strategic plan

Deadline for an updated version of the Strategic Plan for 2003-2005 is October/November 2003. At the meeting, the accomplishments of 2002 were summarized and the goals for 2003 were reviewed. Kirsten will send a draft of the corrections before May 1, 2003 A draft of the action plan for 2003-2005 will be formulated by a working group consisting of Lourina K. de Voogd, Barbara von Wahlde and Kirsten Leth Nielsen. Lourina will head the group. Deadline for a draft of the Strategic Plan is June 1, 2003

Guidelines:

The need to revise the publication, Multicultural Communities: Guidelines for Library Services, was discussed and it was decided to establish a working group on this matter when meeting again in Berlin. The matter will be on the agenda at our first meeting. Kirsten Leth Nielsen and Lourina K. de Voogd volunteered to be members of the group. We will need two more members. Christine McDonald will ask Adriana Tandler (USA) about the guidelines that Queens Borough Public Library has developed targeting their multicultural population. The Queens guidelines will be useful when revising the Section’s publication..

Post conference

Public Libraries and Multilingual Collections.
Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Lourina de Voogd gave a summary of the status of the planning and marketing of the post-conference. We discussed and agreed upon some marketing strategies for the conference. Lourina has distributed a flyer about the conference to the surroundings of Utrecht and will send copies to the Standing Committee members for distribution in various countries. The conference will be promoted in the spring issue of the Newsletter. Lourina will ask Clara Chu to chair the conference. Lourina urged all of us to bring pamphlets of interest to the exhibition of the Conference. We will arrange a workshop as a part of the program in Utrecht, but we need interesting topics for the discussion. Lourina will send proposals of subjects for distribution on the listserv. We are all urged to comment on the proposals.

IFLA Conference 2003 in Berlin

Plans are underway for the annual workshop and Susy Tastesen will try to finalize arrangements for the programme as quickly as possible upon her return to Denmark. The theme for the Section’s workshop will be "Multicultural Libraries in German Speaking Countries: Status and Prospects." Translations from German might be necessary, since some of the potential lecturers cannot speak English. IFLA states that there is a limit of six pages for the lecture and papers must be submitted to the translators by June 1, 2003. The workshop committee consists of Susy Tastesen, Program chairperson, Christine McDonald and Lourina de Voogd . Susy will also ask Benedickte Kragh-Schwarz (Denmark) to chair the workshop. Jane and Kirsten will investigate whether it is possible to have simultaneous interpretations at the workshops during their meeting with the Coordinating Board in The Hague. [We asked - it is not possible.] The Standing Committee agreed to establishi a working group for «practical arrangements» at our first meeting in Berlin

We will be short of time and probably will have to establish one or two working groups for working between the two meetings. Arrangements for dinner for the Section’s members will be made for Tuesday, August 5, 2003. Jane volunteered to find a good restaurant and to send an invitation to all members before the Berlin meeting.

Barbara von Wahlde, Maria Tapaninen and Asbjørn Langeland will be completing their second terms in August 2003 and will be leaving the committee after Berlin.. Jane will ask for a list of candidates nominated this spring. The committee will ask for corresponding membership for Barbara von Wahlde and Maria Tapaninen. We will also ask IFLA Headquarters to remove Inese A. Smith from the list of corresponding members. Susy Tastesen brought a draft of the election papers which will be distributed on the listserv. After some minor corrections, the committee approved the paper. Susy Tastesen will publish the paper on the listserv before April 1. Jane and Kirsten are willing to run for a second term if this is required by the committee. Jane will ask Jane Pyper if she will run for the office as Information Coordinator and Editor. Barbara von Wahlde and Donna Serafin are willing to provide support as long as she needs.. It was agreed that we should have the topic of «Elections and nominations for next term» on the agenda on our annual meetings. We also have to discuss whether or not working group for recruitment to the committee is needed.

John Day, Chair of the Coordinating Board for Division III, asked for a brief summary of the Section´s work related to the theme « Guaranteeing Human Culture and Values». John Day will make a brief presentation summarizing the work of all the sections in Division III. Kirsten will coordinate this and ask Benedikte for support. Deadline for the Section's report to John is April 15, 2003.

IFLA 2004 in Argentina

We discussed this item before item 8 since Carmen Madrid and Ana Asensio Rodriquez left early on Thursday.

Buenos Aires 2004: int workshop with Division VIII

We are planning a whole day workshop in cooperation with Division VIII entitled <From the Global Village to the Indigenous Village: the Role of the Library in Preserving the Cultural Identity of the Indigenous People». Christine McDonald is in charge of this workshop. She will distribute information on the workshop and the title on the listserv. She will also make an appointment with Division VIII, so we can meet in Berlin for further discussion and planning.

Joint workshop with FAIFE and Children’s section

Theme: «Cultural diversity and the legal frame work of freedom of access to information in Latin America» Christine McDonald will fax the programme to Clara Chu and ask her if she has contacts in Argentina and if she will contribute as a speaker. Deadline: April 1.

IFLA 2005 in Norway

Satellite meeting in Stockholm

The draft title of the meeting will be: «Serving Multicultural Populations: Staff Competence for Success». The themes will be a) Staff training on multicultural library service and b) Multicultural cataloguing - problems and solutions.

IFLA in Oslo

We decided to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Section by presenting «A model Library: the Multicultural Library» in the exhibition area in Oslo. We will have to establish a working group on this in Berlin. We also will have to discuss whether to have a workshop in Oslo or not.

Information and communication matters

There will be two issues of the Newsletter before Berlin: A spring issue with a deadline March 20 and a summer issue with deadline June 15.

Barbara von Wahlde distributed a draft of the leaflet to all participants. Deadline for comments from the committee isMay 1, 2003 Leaflet on listserv: May 15.

Jane Dreisig and Kirsten Leth Nielsen will ask IFLA Headquarters if they will store the Section´s archives and also pay the transportation costs for us. [The answer from Headquarters is that they will store archives of a small extend - not more information that can be stored in 1 or 2 covers of A4!]

Suzy Tastesen will ask if the papers of the conference in Århus can be scanned to be published on our website. We also discussed a draft of a new frontpage for leaflets, guidelines etc. done by Donna.

AOB

The address list was revised and Barbara von Wahlde will send the revised edition on the listserv as soon as possible when back in the USA.

A discussion on the need of applying for project money should be on the agenda on every SC meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Kirsten Leth Nielsen, Norway