IFLA, alongside other members of the Culture 2030 Goal Coalition, has strongly welcomed the endorsement offered by the President of the 74th United Nations General Assembly for the statement on culture and COVID-19. 

Alongside IFLA, over 200 other organisations have signed the statement, including, from the Culture 2030 Goal Coalition, United Cities and Local Governments Committee on Culture (UCLG-Culture), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Arterial Network, Culture Action Europe, the International Federation for Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD), the International Music Council (IMC), and the Latin American Network of Arts for Social Transformation.

On behalf of IFLA, Secretary-General Gerald Leitner said:

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen so many people turn to books and reading for comfort, hope and inspiration, and libraries have worked hard to make this a possibility for all. It is therefore great news for libraries everywhere that his Excellency Mr Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th UN General Assembly, has endorsed the statement, recognising this contribution and underlining the need to make culture central to policy making into the future.

The full text of the press release is available below:

[PRESS RELEASE BEGINS]

Culture2030Goal Coalition Members Welcome UN General Assembly President’s Endorsement of Statement on Culture and COVID-19

#CultureCOVID19

1 July 2020

Culture has a vital role both in the immediate response to COVID-19, and in planning for long-term sustainable development. This fact is at the heart of the statement by members of the #Culture2030Goal Coalition on Culture and COVID-19 launched on 21 May. 

With the endorsement of this statement by His Excellency Mr Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th UN General Assembly, there is a clear recognition at the highest levels of the need to give culture a more central role in decision-making, now and into the Decade of Action.

The #Culture2030Goal statement, originally signed by eight members of the coalition, and now with well over 200 supporters, makes the connection between culture, the COVID-19 pandemic, and long-term development planning. 

Drawing on the experience of global networks representing cultural practitioners and institutions and local and regional governments, it notes the proven potential of culture as a source of inspiration, comfort and hope at the individual and community level. It also underlines how culture can serve to support inclusion and positive relations, within and across borders. 

With the statement coming in the context of the ongoing work of the United Nations to promote sustainable development globally, the endorsement by His Excellency Mr Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the UN General Assembly, is therefore particularly welcome. 

As members of the #Culture2030Goal coalition, we are grateful to the President, and hope that others in the UN System, as well as Member States, legislators and other decision-makers, and civil society, business, local governments academia and other stakeholders  will offer their endorsement for the statement’s messages.

Read the statement on the #Culture2030Goal website: http://culture2030goal.net/.

[PRESS RELEASE ENDS]

The letter of endorsement can be downloaded from the President of the General Assembly's website.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) COVID-19 Working Group has released the final version of its guidelines and recommendations on how data from multiple disciplines inform responses to a pandemic and can be shared under the present COVID-19 circumstances.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) COVID-19 Working Group has released the final version of its guidelines and recommendations on how data from multiple disciplines inform responses to a pandemic and can be shared under the present COVID-19 circumstances.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) COVID-19 Working Group has released the final version of its guidelines and recommendations on how data from multiple disciplines inform responses to a pandemic and can be shared under the present COVID-19 circumstances.

With work underway in the European to develop new rules for internet platforms which will likely have a global impact, it is important to ensure that the values and interests of libraries are heard. IFLA has therefore submitted comments on two initial roadmaps, and will continue to monitor the dossier and keep members informed.

Following extensive discussions about the role of internet platforms during debates on the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, ahead of its adoption last year, the European Union is now looking to update the wider framework of rules that determine what responsibilities they should have by creating a Digital Services Act.

As a first step, the European Commission has therefore issued two draft roadmaps, whose objective is to identify the different areas to be covered by the Digital Service Act reform.

In looking to regulate major digital players, the reforms could bring significant changes in the digital sector, in particular the legal rules around safe harbours provisions for internet intermediaries, questions around how to respond to 'fake news' , the power companies can gain through gathering data, and  consumer rights and protection when working with digital services in general. 

As a result, there are potential implications for libraries when promoting free expression and access to information, media literacy, encouraging users to share creativity online, access to eBooks, and potentially the growing importance of data in scholarly communications. 

IFLA has therefore submitted responses to the two below draft roadmaps launched by the European Commission on 2 June 2020, highlighting the need to ensure that any steps taken support rather than harm the ability of libraries to do their jobs.  

• Deepening the Internal Market and clarifying responsibilities for digital services.
• Ex ante regulatory instrument for large online platforms with significant network effects acting as gate-keepers in the European Union’s internal market.

You can read IFLA's responses as pdfs: Deepening the Internal Market; Ex Ante Regulatory Instrument. 

Following years of advocacy in favour of long-overdue copyright reforms, libraries in South Africa will need to wait a while longer for change. Following pressure from foreign governments, the Parliament will now have to reconsider the Copyright Amendment Bill.  

For almost ten years, libraries in South Africa have been calling for changes to the country’s copyright laws in order to bring these up to date with the digital age.

With the last reform dating back forty years, libraries are still obliged to work with laws which do not take into account the possibilities that digital technologies have brought, or the expectations of users.

This has weakened the ability of libraries to carry out their missions to support research and education, and so help the country progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Instead, there is continued reliance on imported materials, rather than investment in developing generations of local researchers, innovators and writers.

Last year, the South African Parliament therefore agreed on legislation which would have gone a long way to resolving these concerns, as well as introducing new protections for creators and regulation of collecting societies.

Despite the clear signal from the Parliament, the President of South Africa delayed signing the law, and ultimately has returned it to Parliament for further views, on the grounds of arguments that had already been subject to discussion.

This follows just weeks after a letter from the European Union’s Ambassador to South Africa, as well as ongoing discussions in the United States, warning of potential consequences for trade if the reform passes.

In both cases, interventions appear to have been triggered by lobbying from major entertainment industry organisations. While in the United States, an open hearing allowed for interventions from organisations representing users and the institutions that support them, such as libraries, it is unclear that the European Union ever actively sought other views in determining its position.

It is now to be hoped that the Parliament will be able to resolve the questions raised, and rapidly prepare a new version of the Bill with minimal revisions for approval. In coordination with our South African members, IFLA will work in South Africa and elsewhere to counter efforts by foreign governments to intervene in this process.

IFLA Secretary General Gerald Leitner said:

It is disappointing to see that learners, researchers and creators in South Africa will need to wait even longer for an already long-overdue reform, and particularly so given that the issues raised in the President’s statement have already been extensively discussed.

I hope that the South African Parliament will now stay true to its desire to support education, innovation, creation and development, and move rapidly to pass a law that will provide a model for the continent and the world.  

Read IFLA’s previous news stories on South Africa’s copyright reforms from November 2018, December 2018, and January 2019, as well as our submission to the US Trade Representative hearing.

In Part I of this two-part blog, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager Teresa Hackett looks at the immediate challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the copyright and licensing framework as education moves online. In Part II, to be published in July, we will examine the implications of the pandemic on the right to research, the right of preservation by cultural heritage institutions, and how the global copyright community should best respond.

In Part I of this two-part blog, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager Teresa Hackett looks at the immediate challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the copyright and licensing framework as education moves online. In Part II, to be published in July, we will examine the implications of the pandemic on the right to research, the right of preservation by cultural heritage institutions, and how the global copyright community should best respond.

In Part I of this two-part blog, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager Teresa Hackett looks at the immediate challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the copyright and licensing framework as education moves online. In Part II, to be published in July, we will examine the implications of the pandemic on the right to research, the right of preservation by cultural heritage institutions, and how the global copyright community should best respond.

The National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty, Kazakhstan) and the M.I. Rudomino All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature (Moscow, Russia) are both hosts of IFLA Strategic Program for Conservation and Conservation (PAC) Centres.

These libraries have had long-standing fruitful relationships. In 2019, they entered into a cooperation agreement in order to expand and develop professional ties and promote cultural exchange between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Promoting the exchange of experience in the field of preservation and conservation of documents is one of the most important goals of cooperation between these libraries.

Despite restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on June 25, 2020, the two PAC Centres were able to host a virtual meeting. During the meeting, representatives demonstrated the activities of each of their PAC Centres, presented short-term and long-term plans, and shared proposals for future cooperation.

​

This meeting was the first one held in an online format. When possible, the future meetings will consist of face-to-face opportunities to meet. Either way, it is planned for these knowledge exchanges to be regularly held in the future, and the cooperation between the libraries will continued be strengthened.

Interested in more information on the expertise and activities of these PAC Centres? Find out more here: PAC Russia & PAC Kazakhastan

EIFL and our partner, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), are co-hosting a webinar on how to identify credible open access journals and avoid predatory ones that charge authors publishing fees but do not provide peer review or editing services.

Librarians, researchers and faculty, university administrators, journal editors and all others interested in scholarly publishing are welcome to attend. 

EIFL and our partner, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), are co-hosting a webinar on how to identify credible open access journals and avoid predatory ones that charge authors publishing fees but do not provide peer review or editing services.

Librarians, researchers and faculty, university administrators, journal editors and all others interested in scholarly publishing are welcome to attend. 

EIFL and our partner, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), are co-hosting a webinar on how to identify credible open access journals and avoid predatory ones that charge authors publishing fees but do not provide peer review or editing services.

Librarians, researchers and faculty, university administrators, journal editors and all others interested in scholarly publishing are welcome to attend. 

Join this virtual meeting and discuss how to pitch ideas, recruit a team and brainstorm topics for the OR2020 (Open Repositories 2020) Ideas Challenge 2020-21. 

Date and time:  30 June, 2pm UTC.

To join the meeting, using ZOOM: 

Join this virtual meeting and discuss how to pitch ideas, recruit a team and brainstorm topics for the OR2020 (Open Repositories 2020) Ideas Challenge 2020-21. 

Date and time:  30 June, 2pm UTC.

To join the meeting, using ZOOM: 

Join this virtual meeting and discuss how to pitch ideas, recruit a team and brainstorm topics for the OR2020 (Open Repositories 2020) Ideas Challenge 2020-21. 

Date and time:  30 June, 2pm UTC.

To join the meeting, using ZOOM: 

This week, as part of the ongoing EU Media Literacy project in which IFLA is a partner, several European libraries followed an online course on hosting dedicated events that can help their communities become savvier digital citizens.

The training was organised and delivered by the senior project partner Tactical Tech. IFLA has led on engagement with libraries, bringing together several libraries from around Europe who joined the webinars as they prepared to host their own pop-up exhibitions on media literacy and misinformation.

The training covered both the practicalities of organising such an event (how to arrange a series of posters to maximise social distancing? What are some of the patron data considerations to keep in mind when organising a webinar? and more), and the subject matter at hand – online misinformation and how to best address it.

The materials prepared by Tactical Tech, together with inputs from European information professionals during the webinars, made for engaging discussion on how to deliver media literacy learning opportunities for the broader public.

Below are some insights and tips the training covered, which could be useful for any library that wants to offer media literacy awareness or skills training.

There are many forms of misinformation. The misinformation landscape is diverse – and recognising this diversity is important to properly address the challenges this poses. As a recent study on the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ has illustrated, misinformation examples - even within a single topic - can range widely. This includes, for example, different sources (e.g. top-down or bottom-up), different motivations behind content creation (Profit? Political motivations? Satire? Other?), as well as the different types of misinformation content itself.

That’s why it can be helpful for users to understand the different types of misinformation, disinformation and other potentially misleading content they can encounter. This can include genuine content presented within a false context, impersonation of credible sources, content that includes (some) true information yet is presented in a misleading way – as well as blatantly fabricated or altered content, and more. For more information on the types of misinformation, you can take a look at sources prepared by UNESCO and First Draft.

Tailor your training to specific audience groups. From high school students to older users, different demographics and user groups may be more vulnerable or encounter particular issues with misinformation online. Knowing the challenges that different user groups in your community face can help tailor your media literacy initiatives and interventions – and adjust or pick suitable instruction methods and materials.

Tactical Tech’s Detox Kit, for example, includes a dedicated Youth edition that focuses on tips, challenges and digital skills which are relevant for children between the ages of 11 and 16.

Contextualising your examples can help. To help anchor and effectively illustrate the relevance of your media literacy initiatives, it can be helpful to show local examples of misinformation! Factcheck.eu, for example, analyses news and claims from around the European Union.

Misinformation is linked to emotions. The training highlighted that the issue of misinformation is fundamentally linked to human emotions.  The way people process information is impacted by emotions, pre-existing beliefs, attitudes and feelings – for example, our inclination to pay attention to, believe of disbelieve a piece of news we come across.

This can serve as a clue when assessing the information one comes across – does it elicit an unexpectedly strong reaction? Is it designed to?  So, for any user, addressing online misinformation can in part mean recognising and questioning the emotional responses they experience.

Tools and resources for a savvy user. Naturally, a key step of media literacy awareness and training is equipping members of your communities with practical tools and skills to detect and address misinformation. There are many investigation tips and techniques one could make use of – Tactical Tech’s own Exposing the Invisible Kit is one example.

Librarians as informational professionals have a wealth of experience assessing and checking the quality of information., and to have much to bring in building the media literacy of everyday users.

We are looking forward to seeing the skills of librarians, combined with the exhibition materials created by Tactical Tech, at work in the coming months.

The latest IFLA Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section's newsletter has been published. Download the newsletter (PDF) here.

This issue focuses on stories of how libraries have continued to work with multicultural communities through the current COVID-19 pandemic. It also takes a look at the recipient of the inaugural winner of the Multiculturalism in Libraries Now award - ECHO Mobile Library. 

As always, the Section thanks Pam Ryan and her team at Toronto Public Library for preparing this issue of the newsletter, and all of our contributors.

Postpone by Marco Verch under Creative Commons 2.0

Because of COVID-19 pandemy and resulting health and economic situation, IFLA and Irish organization committee had to postpone WLIC 2020. Dublin Conference will happen in 2022.

Information Technology organized sessions, meetings, or participated to the organization of several events. Here is what impact this change had.

• WLIC2020 Open Session "Better Together: Collaborative Solutions to the Challenges of Data and Libraries" by Big Data SIG is postponed

• WLIC2020 Joint Open Session with Knowledge Management Section "The future of the library and library systems: outsourcing, cloud, and new tech impact of user communities" is postponed

• WLIC2020 Joint Satellite with Reference & Information Services Section "Artificial Intelligence in Discovery and User Experience" is postponed

• WLIC2020 Joint Open Session with Health and Biosciences Libraries Section "Enabling open science, open access, and artificial intelligence to advance and support healthcare practice and scientific discovery" is postponed

• WLIC2020 Joint Open Session with Preservation and Conservation Section "Preserving complex digital objects in libraries" will be organized online with some of accepted presentations

Stay tuned for next news about IT section events !

During LIBER’s 2020 Meeting of Participants, held as part of our LIBER 2020 Online Annual Conference, two Executive Board members were appointed. In this blog post you can read about our new Board members and other changes to LIBER’s leadership. New Executive Board Members The two people appointed by a vote of LIBER Participants to…

The post Congratulations to Cécile Swiatek and Dr Adam Sofronijevic: New LIBER Executive Board Members appeared first on LIBER.