Monthly Archives: June 2014

UK children’s literature awards

Grim, honest stories prevailed to win the 2014 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals on June 23. Caldecott-winning Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2013; Walker Books in the UK) and Kevin Brooks’s The Bunker Diary (Puffin UK, 2013) took top honors in the UK’s longest running and most prestigious awards for children’s literature. Both creators are first-time winners, having been shortlisted previously, and beat out illustrious past recipients.

Read more at http://www.slj.com/2014/06/awards/klassen-and-brooks-take-uks-greenaway-and-carnegie-medals/

International Copyright Negotiations

Copyright negotiations commence once more in Geneva, Switzerland next week at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), where a proposed international framework supporting copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives is likely to be the subject of intense discussion among Member States.

The 28th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR), from Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July, resumes discussions of copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, as well as education and other disabilities, and protections for broadcasters, following the collapse of the last round of negotiations in April 2014<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>. In the dying hours of the last meeting, the European Union attempted to block any further progress of discussions concerning libraries and archives at WIPO, much to the frustration and dismay of libraries and archives, as well as other Member States present<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>.

The EU’s attempts to undermine the SCCR’s mandate saw them isolated from other Member State positions, and ultimately resulted in a failure to reach any conclusions for the meeting. Since then, over 100 library and archive organisations from across the European Union and internationally have signed a letter asking the EU to engage constructively in discussions at WIPO<http://www.ifla.org/node/8621>.

The International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) will be joined at the 28th session of the SCCR by library and archive organisations from around the world, including Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), the Society of American Archivists (SAA), European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (AIB), Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários Cientistas da Informação e Instituições (FEBAB), Scottish Council on Archives (SCA), Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), International Council  on Archives (ICA), Karisma Foundation (Colombia) and the Canadian Libraries Association (CLA).

In addition to its interventions during plenary, IFLA will be hosting a lunch time side event on Monday 30 June at 1pm in Room B of the WIPO building, titled, “Keeping copyright relevant in the digital environment: libraries, archives and licences”. You can follow the discussions on twitter using the hashtag #sccr28, and tune in to the live stream at: http://www.wipo.int/webcasting/en/ .

To find out more about the history of SCCR negotiations and why IFLA is advocating for an international standard for copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, see: http://www.ifla.org/node/8229 .

 

 

Draft ACRL Information Literacy Framework

Members of ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force<http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/taskforces/acr-tfilcshe> have been working diligently to revise the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>. They’ve been reviewing all the community feedback to the February 20 and April 4 drafts and are working to improve and expand the revised draft, which will be released next week.

The full task force met in person in Chicago in late April for an energizing and productive meeting. Members engaged in very important discussions as they come into the home stretch of their work and reached conclusions that they shared with the ACRL Board on June 4 in their latest interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580>. Some important decisions are related to primary audience and stakeholder outreach, recasting the introduction, calling each threshold concept with its supporting elements (i.e., knowledge practices/abilities and dispositions) a “frame,” and moving assignments and scenarios to an ancillary document that will, later on, form the basis of an online “sandbox.”

In addition to sharing these decisions, the task force also shared their thinking about prospective recommendations to the Board. These would be recommendations they expect to make in August when they submit a final Framework to the ACRL Board for approval. They will be seeking community input on the recommendations along with the revised draft later this month. Read the full June 4 interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580> to understand their latest thinking.

Stay tuned for the revised, complete draft Framework next week with an in person hearing<http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/wp-admin/%28http:/ala14.ala.org/node/15025> on Saturday, June 28, 10:30 am – 11:30 am, at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Online hearings are scheduled for Monday, July 7, at 1pm Central and Friday, July 11, at 1pm Central. Sign up details will be included when the forthcoming draft is released next week.

Learn more about the revision process and listen to recordings from past online open forums on the task force website<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>.

Lindgren Award Celebration

Author Barbro Lindgren accepted the 2014 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award on Monday evening before a crowded audience in the Stockholm Concert Hall. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria presented the award, and Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth hailed Lindgren for her literary achievements:

– Barbro Lindgren is a brave and innovative author. She gives her readers courage and is not afraid to describe the world as it really is. Loneliness, setbacks, and even death are all part of life. Lindgren does not try to protect children; instead, her honesty, humor and openness strengthen children to think and talk about difficult things for themselves.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest prize for children’s and young adult literature. The award, which amounts to SEK 5 million (approx. 521 000 EUR), is awarded annually to a single recipient or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and those active in reading promotion may be rewarded.

– I am very happy to have heard from so many people saying that they are happy for me, because it must be fairly common for people to get cross and feel it’s unfair when someone else gets an award, Barbro Lindgren said in her acceptance speech.

She also spoke of Astrid Lindgren’s importance for her career. Astrid Lindgren had headed the children’s books division at Rabén & Sjögren, where Barbro Lindgren sent her early manuscripts:

– Astrid wrote back to me with a long reply, in which she went into great detail about how you actually write a book. One thing she said was that I shouldn’t have so many main characters. Two or three was plenty.

Barbro Lindgren’s sons, Mathias and Andreas, together the award-winning songwriting duo Bröderna Lindgren, took the stage to perform Superhjälten (The Superhero) with Amanda Bergman and En flugas väg (The fly’s progress) with Ebbot Lundberg. Edda Magnason and band performed material from Magnason’s upcoming album and a song from the film Monica Z. Actor Lamine Dieng was master of ceremonies.

Video content in broadcast quality with highlights, soundbites and B-rolls from the ceremony will be available at www.thenewsmarket.com/alma during the evening.

 

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The award, which amounts to SEK 5 million, is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible. The award is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature. The UN convention of rights of the child is the foundation of our work. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations all over the world. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.