UN Concludes Post-2015 Negotiations in New York

 On Sunday 2nd August, after more than three years of negotiations and intense involvement from many stakeholders, including IFLA, the Member States of the United Nations agreed the final version of the post-2015 Development Agenda – now known as 2030 Agenda.  The new 2030 Agenda is a framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a total of 179 Targets spanning economic, environmental and social development. They lay out a plan for all countries to actively engage in making our world better for its people and the planet. The official version of the post-2015 Development Agenda will be adopted by Heads of State upon during the United Nations Summit in New York, September 25-27 2015. IFLA will continue to raise awareness during the Summit for access to information and the essential role libraries play in fulfilling this.

IFLA welcomes the 2030 Agenda and is pleased to see access to information, universal literacy, safeguarding of cultural and natural heritage, as well as access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) strongly represented across it. We are particularly pleased to the see the strong mention of access to information in Target 16.10: “Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements”

 The new vision

The 2030 Agenda will help all UN Member States focus their attention on poverty eradication, climate change, and the development of people. Libraries can support many aspects of its vision and the supporting SDGs. Libraries are key public institutions which have a vital role to play in furthering development on every level of society. The Agenda also creates a UN Interagency Task Force on Science Technology and Innovation. The Task Force will look at information and technology transfer mechanisms world-wide and collect these in one place to ensure access to information, knowledge, best practises and lessons learned are available to all. IFLA welcomes the creation of this task force, and will continue our advocacy to ensure our views and the expertise of the information community are taken to account in its creation.

Outstanding concerns

All Member States have agreed to the new Agenda, however follow-up is voluntary and the Agenda represents political rather than legal commitments. Furthermore, IFLA would like to stress the importance of integrating the results and ongoing achievements of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) within the Means of Implementation of the new Agenda.

 What is next?

Leading up to the UN Summit to launch the new development 2030 Agenda in September 2015, IFLA will work on a detailed analysis of the SDGs and provide information on how libraries can contribute to reaching them.

IFLA will also actively participate in monitoring the progress made on the access to information target (Target16.10), other relevant targets, and ensure appropriate data regarding libraries as access points will be included. We will publish a Development and Access to Information (DA2I) report which furthermore will strengthen the monitoring of the impact of access to information on the SDGs.  The 2030 Agenda will be implemented at national levels. IFLA would like to encourage librarians to continue your active work in engaging with your governments and their National Development Plans and ensure libraries, as information, skills and ICT providers as well as agents to safeguard cultural heritage, are represented in these.

Thanks to you

IFLA together with you, our network, and the signatories of the Lyon Declaration we advocated and promoted access to information as an essential aspect to ensure the success of the post-2015 Development Agenda. The hard work done by all of us means that the new framework offers libraries a great opportunity to help fulfil their country’s National Development Plans by showing how their activities and skills can support the newly established SDGs – now we must rise to the challenge and prove that libraries are crucial partners for sustainable development.  Please also see the webversion.

Julia Brungs, Policy and Projects Officer

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

The approved final version of the IFLA School Library Guidelines is available at: http://www.ifla.org/publications/node/9512?og=52

Please share the link with your colleagues and beyond. Our 2 years of hard work, numerous workshops, various meetings and international feedback has culminated in this final document. Please note that the title is IFLA School Library Guidelines. It will be a longer process to receive UNESCO endorsement so it is only the first edition that holds the IFLA/UNESCO distinction.

The Lyon Declaration in 2015

IFLA is very happy to announce that with the start of 2015, the Lyon Declaration has received support from over 500 library, ICT and development, institutions and organisations. This worldwide and cross-sector uptake underlines the importance of the Lyon Declaration and furthermore the importance of access to information for future development.

Please see the full Declaration and the signatories for more information. You can also find 19 translations of the Declaration online.

What’s next?

During the next nine months leading up to the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2015, IFLA will concentrate its efforts to ensure that access to information remains within the new development framework. We will also work on indicators with our coalition partners. These indicators will enable UN Member States and the UN to measure the impact of access to information on development over the next 15 years. The IFLA Statistics and Evaluation Section is closely working with IFLA and its partners on formulating the indicators.

In order to achieve this, IFLA will participate in a range of high level meetings leading up to the Special Summit on Sustainable Development (September 2015) and will work closely with other stakeholders, national ministries and UN Member States.

Furthermore, several IFLA Sections have prepared briefs on how the Lyon Declaration is relevant to their professional environment. These will be available shortly.

Get involved

·         Sign and add your voice to the call at the United Nations;

·         Organise meetings with policy makers in your country and use theToolkit created by IFLA in order to make the voice of the library community heard on a national level;

·         Translate the Lyon Declaration into your language and share it with colleagues in your own country;

·         Encourage others in the library and development sectors to sign the Lyon Declaration;

·         Promote the principles of the Lyon Declaration throughout your network and ensure that the message gets spread as widely as possible.

Background

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development calls upon United Nations Member States to make an international commitment through the post-2015 UN development agenda. The Declaration proposes to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies. It was prepared by IFLA and a number of strategic partners in the library and development communities.

LA has been working with the international library community—as well as civil society and member states—to develop its position on the creation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help ensure that crucial elements such as access to information are included in the UN post-2015 Development Agenda. Throughout this process, it is important that libraries are seen as being part of the conversation.

Last week, an advance “Synthesis Report of the UN Secretary-General On the Post-2015 Agenda” was released. The Report outlines the priorities and main goals of the post-2015 UN Development Agenda and has a serious goal: to transform our economies, our environment, and our societies. IFLA welcomes the Report and the inclusion of access to information, and encourages the United Nations to recognise the role of access and skills as an essential pillar in the transformational agenda for sustainable development. Unfortunately, we are disappointed that the report lacks substance on the potential of ICTs for development.

We encourage the UN and its Member States to use the Lyon Declaration during the next stage of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda to inform the inclusion of access to information, and the skills to use it effectively by:

·         Acknowledging the public’s right to access information and data, while respecting the right to individual privacy;

·         Recognising the important role of local authorities, information intermediaries and infrastructure such as ICTs and an open Internet as a means of implementation;

·         Adopting policy, standards and legislation to ensure the continued funding, integrity, preservation and provision of information by governments, and access by people;

·         Developing targets and indicators that enable measurement of the impact of access to information and data.

IFLA has already released a Toolkit to support library institutions and associations and other civil society organisations to advocate for access to information in the context of post-2015 UN Development Agenda—thereby empowering signatories of the Lyon Declaration to make the voice of the library community heard on a national level.

What next?

Following the publication of the final synthesis report at the end of December 2014, IFLA will produce a revised version of the Toolkit with specific talking points and examples to support meetings with member state representatives that library associations and institutions will organise in early 2015.

The final synthesis report will become the baseline for the negations and meetings that will take place throughout 2015, in the lead up to the Special Summit on Sustainable Development. IFLA will be participating in some of the meetings, including:

·         High-level thematic debate on the means of implementation for the post-2015 development agenda (February 2015)

·         Millennium Development Goals Report 2015 (July 2015)

·         Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force Report (September 2015)

·         Special Summit on Sustainable Development (September 2015)

Read the full response online.

III International Seminar on LIS Education and Research (LIS-ER)

http://bd.ub.edu/liser/    Barcelona, 4-5 June 2015

 The Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona celebrates its centenary (1915-2015) with a seminar on the future of Library and Information Science Education and Research

Introduction

The School of Library and Information Science in Barcelona was founded in 1915 and is the second oldest LIS School in Europe and currently the oldest integrated into a University. The aim of the School, initially only for women, was to educate the librarians responsible for the public library network planned by the Catalan government and built from 1918 onwards, inspired by the British and North American library systems.

 Since its foundation, the School has uninterruptedly provided professional education for Catalan information professionals. All through its history the School has maintained an active international presence, being strongly involved in associations such as IFLA and EUCLID.

Next year we will celebrate our 100th anniversary. We feel that it provides a wonderful opportunity to look back over the achievements and failings of the European LIS curriculum project developed in 2005 and to discuss the future of LIS education and research. We have organised a seminar that aims to bring together representatives from leading European LIS schools to discuss together the challenges faced by our field and to take a major step forward in our shared analysis and in our strategic planning.

Programme

The topics/themes of the seminar include: 1) current European undergraduate and graduate LIS education; 2) new career opportunities and their impact on degrees; 3) translation of LIS research outcomes into practice; 4) maximising the scientific, societal and economic impact of LIS research; 5) opportunities for international cooperation in LIS education and research.

Contributions

The seminar will include panels of leaders in LIS education and research who will be asked to address key issues related to the future of our field. Participation by attendees for commenting on the issues raised by keynote speakers/contributors will be highly encouraged. A call for poster presentations will be announced at a later date.

Organization

Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Barcelona

http://www.ub.edu/biblio

For more information regarding the conference, please visit the Seminar website (http://bd.ub.edu/liser/) or contact  Ernest Abadal, Dean, Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació (abadal@ub.edu).

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 .