   
Annual Report 1999-2000
Scope Statement
The Section is aimed at the community of libraries which are part of and
work for a body with a governing task and which have, in any way, a
political responsibility or connection. The Section encourages the growth
and development of government libraries and assists in their cooperation.
Membership
Membership reached 91 members (December 31, 2000) from 40 countries.
Meetings
65th IFLA Council and Conference, Bangkok (Thailand)
The Standing Committee of the Section of Government Libraries met twice during the 65th IFLA Council and General Conference, August 20 - 28, 1999, Bangkok, Thailand. Both on Saturday 21 August and on Friday, 27 August eight people attended. During the first meeting elections were held for new officers of the section. Lena Olsson was elected Chair. Robert Klaverstijn was elected Secretary/Treasurer/Information Coordinator. New Standing Committee members elected in 1999 were welcomed: Anne-Lise Haugeto, Nancy Bolt and Christine Wellems. During the second meeting it was agreed that during the next IFLA Conference in Jerusalem, the section would have an open session on "Government Services to Special Populations" with an emphasis on refugees. Programme plans for the next two conferences were discussed.
Later that year, during a "mini summit" at the Online Information '99 (London, UK) Chair and Secretary suggested to change the theme of the open session in Jerusalem into: "Delivering information services via Internet: a way of reshaping the governmental libraries". This suggestion was met with great approval of the section board and set in action.
66th IFLA General Conference, Jerusalem (Israel)
The Standing Committee met twice during the 66th IFLA General Conference. On Saturday 12 August 5 people attended the meeting. On Friday 18 August Debora Leuchter (Ministry of Justice, Israel) attended as an observer.
Open Session
The Open Session was held on Wednesday 16 August on the theme Delivering information services via the Internet: a way of reshaping the government libraries. Over 50 people attended this session, although no simultaneous translation was available.
Intranets: a UK government libraries perspective
Stephen Latham, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, UK
ABSTRACT: There are 3 main strands of Intranet development of relevance to UK government Library and Information Services: Intranets in individual government departments and agencies; the Librarians' Community of Interest on the Government Secure Intranet (GSI); and the proposed development of the GSI virtual library. These Intranet related developments provide an opportunity to build on existing arrangements for co-operation, sharing of best practice and the development of more efficient and effective library and information services across UK government. The government Library and Information community is playing an important role in exploiting Intranet technology to support a programme of modernisation and joined-up government.
Intranets and extranets at State Libraries in the United States
Nancy M. Bolt, Colorado Department of Education, Denver, Colorado, USA
ABSTRACT: This paper is an analysis of Intranets and Extranets at selected State Libraries in the United States. Each of the 50 states of the United States has a State Library. Most State Libraries have public Web sites about their services. The paper focuses on Web sites designed and delivered by the State Library to a targeted audience, typically state government employees, State Library employees, or the library community. The examples and analysis are useful for librarians designing Web sites.
Monologue or Dialogue in the Web Environment? The Role of the Networked Library and Information Services in the Future
Kimmo Tuominen, CSC - Scientific Computing Ltd., Espoo, Finland
ABSTRACT: A shift from monologic to a more dialogic Web environment is taking place. Thus, the Web is becoming an arena of ideas, a place where people solve problems and create knowledge together. Library and information professionals should be involved in developing dialogic Web applications. The ideal digital library must be something more than just a collection of resources organised to a classification scheme. In the future, libraries should implement and maintain Web services and applications that support collective creation of ideas, collaboration, debate and dialogue across distances. The author points out that digital information systems can be organised in various ways and an almost unlimited number of different views can be provided to one and the same metadata collection. Nowadays, it is more possible than ever before to build digital libraries that reflect the dimensions by which the information world of users is organised. Therefore, librarians should position themselves in profound and continuous dialogue with the users of the services they are providing.
All three papers are electronically available at the IFLA Net
Projects
Brochure
The new brochure for the Government Libraries was completed in 1999. The German translation will be published in 2001. We are planning to translate it into the other official languages of IFLA.
Online Directory of Government Libraries
For the purpose of this Directory, Government libraries would include national, state and provincial governments and would not include school or public libraries that may be funded by governments. The format for the proposed Directory may be following the Parliamentary Librarians online format.
Standing Committee
Chair
Ms Lena Olsson
Secretary/treasurer
Robert Klaverstijn
Standing Committee 1997 - 2001
Serge Bouffange, France
Sarah Kagoda - Batuwa, Tanzania (2nd term)
Lena Olsson, Sweden
Standing Committee 1999 - 2003
Nancy Bolt, USA
Suzanne Burge, UK (2nd term)
Anne-Lise Haugeto, Norway
Robert Klaverstijn, Netherlands
Irja Peltonen, Finland (2nd term)
Christine Wellems, Germany
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