Monthly Archives: June 2021

The 10-Minute Digital Librarian #7: Help users protect themselves online

This is the second post in a sub-series of our 10-Minute Digital Librarian series focusing on online safety. With the first looking at how to protect yourself, today’s challenge is to think about how you can help users protect themselves.

Arguably, the ability to manage risks when using the internet is a key component of digital literacy. To be a skilled and savvy internet user doesn’t just mean being able to find information or apply tools effectively. It also involves being able to spot risks and avoid falling victim to a loss of privacy or cybercrime.

As such, promoting digital hygiene among users is arguably a core part of libraries’ work to build digital skills among all members of the community.

What to do about it?

A first step of course is to ensure that you understand what is needed to protect yourself, as set out in the previous 10-Minute Digital Librarian exercise.

In doing this, you may well find tools that you think you can share with users, for example the Data Detox Kit, or materials prepared by the Library Freedom Project.

Looking beyond, however, there are growing numbers of resources out there, increasing the chances that you will find the one that is best suited to your own situation. There may be tools produced by actors in the digital space, including governments and civil society organisations.

For inspiration, you could look at the sort of activities organised as part of Safer Internet Day, held in February each year, in different parts of the world. Check out in particular the stories IFLA published on how libraries in Latvia and Lithuania.

We are also looking forward to the results of survey work carried out by IFLA’s Children and Young Adults Section into relevant work, with over 400 responses received.

Of course, in promoting internet safety, make sure not to scare users, but rather to empower them, giving them the confidence to go online.

Share the materials or methods you have found most effective in promoting internet safety in the box below.

Good luck!

 

If you are interested in issues around digital safety and privacy more broadly, you should take a look at the work of IFLA’s Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section, as well as our Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression.

Discover our series of 10-Minute Digital Librarian posts as it grows.

Hammer Time (or not): Breaking Free from the Law of the Instrument at WIPO

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

This – the law of the instrument, or Maslov’s hammer – refers to a situation where someone’s actions are more determined by the tool that they have at hand than by consideration of what the best response might be.

The consequence is likely to be ill-suited solutions to problems faced, or even leaving things more broken than when they started. This can be the case at any level, from the individual to the governmental.

The response, of course, is to take the time, when facing an apparent challenge, to reflect first on which tool from a selection may be most effective.

How is this relevant to the work of the World Intellectual Property Organization?

Many of those engaged in discussions at WIPO, and in particular in its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) spend their time focusing on creating, managing, or enforcing intellectual property rights.

When this is what you are used to, it is perhaps normal that, when you are faced with a new situation, the automatic response is to think about how you can create a new right.

Currently on the agenda of SCCR are new rights for broadcasters, theatre directors, authors (for public lending), and potentially though work on copyright in the digital environment, streaming.

This of course will make sense for anyone involved in managing rights. But are these all situations where more rights really represent the most effective way of achieving stated goals? What risk is there that they, in fact, end up doing more harm than good?

 

Maslov’s hammer at work: the proposed study on Public Lending Right

A first example of a drive to push new rights as a response to a challenge is the proposed study on public lending rights (PLR). This document, in summary, calls for an investigation of the benefits of PLR (disregarding potential costs), and effectively mandates work to set up a road map for rolling this out in developing countries.

IFLA of course has a strong position on PLR in developing countries, where libraries are often poorly funded, if at all, and the need to build literacy and reading culture is high. Yet at the same time, it is undeniable that many authors incomes that are barely, if at all, sufficient to support them in their work.

Therefore, before (uncritically) doing work in support of PLR, there is a case for avoiding the law of instruments, and thinking first about what tools are available, before then exploring which ones might work best.

For example, the European Union, in the Digital Single Market Directive, introduced both new provisions on fair remuneration, transparency around revenues, and the potential for rights to revert to authors after a period of time.

In Australia, The Author’s Interest has also underlined the potential of rights reversion as a way of empowering authors.

Meanwhile, the Racine Report in France set out 23 recommendations, highlighting the importance of direct and indirect support for authors, as well as social security. Importantly, it highlights imbalances in the relationship between authors on the one hand, and intermediaries and collecting societies on the other. Indeed, the report does not mention exceptions to copyright at all.

In short, this suggests that any sincere effort to address the incomes of authors – in particular in the case of developing countries where public resources are scarce – can draw on a wide variety of experiences. Simply looking at just one solution – without considering its merits in relation to others – offers a poor service to governments. And for authors themselves, the uncertain promise of PLR money may offer less of a support than more meaningful solutions to support incomes.

An open question: understanding the impact of COVID on the copyright sector

As hinted on the first day of SCCR, there is the possibility that WIPO will launch discussions on the topic of the impact of the pandemic on the copyright sector.

The question is a fair one, given the intensification of the shift to digital tools for sharing and accessing culture. There has, undoubtedly, been a huge impact on performing artists, hit by the closing of venues, as well as for bookshops.

In the meanwhile, those able to operate online have done a lot better. This includes not just streaming platforms, but also those able to sell physical goods such as books over the internet. Clearly, of course, platforms have benefitted in particular from higher numbers of users and so of data gathered.

This situation has accentuated questions about the division of revenues from such services, not least as concerns whether compensation from streaming and other uses on digital platforms is fair – the ‘value gap’. This is the same concern that underpinned the drive for Article 17 of the EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

How to address the challenges faced is a great example of an opportunity to think hard about the different tools available, rather than immediately reaching for new rights.

For example, the traditional means of addressing situations where one player is in a much stronger position in a negotiation than another is through competition law. It may also be possible to use contract law, especially in the case of individuals, which of course may also help ensure that authors receive a higher share of any revenues earned.

Fully considering these alternative options would make it easier to assess whether rights – which are likely to be best used by those with the resources to make the most of them – are the best response.

 

A clear case for action: cross-border exceptions

There is one situation at WIPO, however, where there is more clarity – the need for an international instrument to allow for cross-border cooperation for preservation, education and research.

Meetings held throughout 2019 explored various options for supporting these activities (see the report), but no credible alternatives to action emerged.

For example, while cross-border licensing is possible, there is no justification for obliging a user (or an institution supporting users like a library) to pay to do something across borders which they can do without compensation or permission at home.

Preservation is a perfect instance of this – a clear public interest activity for which few would argue for compensation domestically. Yet without an international instrument making clear the possibility to share works and copies – for example through preservation networks, or to allow for cloud storage of copies, there is no other solution giving legal clarity.

The same goes for core forms of access – for example to supply documents on an ad hoc basis, for text and data mining, or to support basic teaching activities. While more extensive uses may of course justify licensing solutions, minimal (or purely technical) ones do not.

Without a clear possibility to work across borders, learners, educators and researchers face uncertainty and frustration. This is an area where the other available tools have been reviewed, and the value of an international instrument is clear.

 

As argued in this blog, the law of the instrument provides a good analogy for an approach that sees new rights as a response to emerging challenges. While in some cases, they may be appropriate, in many cases they are not.

Indeed, the accumulation of new rights (i.e. offering someone a share of potential success, rather than simply offering those involved in the creation of a work a decent contract) causes significant challenges to those who need to clear them. While the work of collective management organisations does allow a simplification of the process, simpler still would be to seek alternatives which avoid this complexity in the first place.

In their work this week, we hope that delegates will break free of the law of the instrument, and be ready to consider the whole toolbox.

Digital Isn’t Different: Learning the Lessons of the Pandemic at SCCR

This week’s 41st meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related rights (SCCR) will take place in hybrid form.

With all but a few delegates attending online rather than in person, we are likely to see little in the way of concrete decision-making.

However, as the only meeting of the Committee this year, there is nonetheless the opportunity to deepen understanding of the situation that copyright law-makers – and those affected by their decision – face today. Through this, they can help lay the foundations for more normative work in future.

Crucially, as this blog suggests, the experience of the pandemic suggests that, more than ever, digital isn’t different, or at least shouldn’t be.

Analogue, but only by omission

Unfortunately, copyright laws have traditionally been designed in ways that do not take account of how digital technologies work. For example, when reading a physical book, copyright does not come into play. However, when you read it on your computer, a local copy is being made, and so copyright.

The same can go when delivering a copy of a book to someone, for example to support research or the right to participate in cultural life. Digital delivery raises many more questions under copyright than physical.

Storytimes too have raised the same concern. Reading to children aloud in a library is, in most countries, uncontroversial, accepted as a key part of promoting reading and intellectual development. However, filming a storytime for remote access implies rights of performance, and communication to the public or making available if put online. Technological measures exist to prevent the widespread sharing of works, allowing

It is by no means clear that the additional complexity associated with digital uses – especially by public interest institutions such as libraries – was intended. Rather, simply, the way in which digital technologies function was not imagined when laws were created.

And given that it can take time and effort to change these laws (and that copyright rarely wins or loses elections), they have all too often stayed the same.

The costs of inadaptation

For as long as physical access to library collection and services was possible, the costs of not adapting laws to allow for digital uses fell mainly on only the share of the population who would struggle to travel.

This of course already had a strongly discriminatory effect against people living far from major institutions, or persons with disabilities.

With the pandemic, and the obligation on libraries to shut-down physical services, whole populations have found themselves in this situation. Access to research, to storytimes, to educational materials needed to take place digitally, or not at all.

Yet copyright laws have not always permitted this, for the reasons set out above. As such, libraries have been prevented from letting their communities use works in the ways they are used to, for example to help students prepare for examples, researchers review existing knowledge, or others seek wellbeing in books.

The brightest spots have been in those countries with more flexible copyright laws, such as in the United States. Elsewhere, there has been some welcome flexibility from rightholders, but this is often uneven, and arguably the ability of libraries to carry out core functions should not depend on goodwill alone.

A bad good idea

Increasingly intensive use of digital technologies has, by bringing about situations of a lack of clarity, opened the door to new efforts to offer licences which ‘give’ the right to make uses of works, such as those set out above.

Licences of course do arguably have a place in giving original access to many digital works, as long as this is not under unduly restrictive terms. For example, a licence that imposes high costs, limited possibilities to grant access, or prevents preservation should be questioned.

However, elsewhere, just because it is possible to offer a licence, it doesn’t mean that this is necessarily the right thing to do from the perspective of maximising public benefit. In other words, in the case of many library activities, these are rights that should – arguably – be given by law, not by whoever manages licences.

For example, licensing storytimes, text and data mining, or ad hoc resource sharing can end up excluding many, leading to a much higher cost to the public interest than gain to whoever is managing the rights.

 

What does this mean for SCCR? Already, work in 2019 (pre-COVID), summarised in a report published last year, underlined the challenge that an inadaptation to digital technologies posed to the ability of copyright laws to achieve their goals.

COVID has only underlined the need to move towards action here, offering libraries and their users a situation that is not only clear, but also fair. An obvious solution is to promote technological neutrality in laws, ensuring that regardless of whether a use is analogue or digital, as long as it takes place under the same terms, it should be treated in the same way.

We hope that, in the case of core library functions, from preservation to the provision of access for education and research purposes, the committee will accelerate its work to provide the legal frameworks and guidance governments need to be able to bring laws into the digital age.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #57: Celebrate a failure

It’s great when things work out.

But that’s not always the case – inevitably, some of the things we try will fail.

Yet this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

When things don’t work, we have an opportunity to reflect on why this is the case – what could the causes be? Can we do anything about it? What could be done better next time?

Indeed, there can be more to learn from failures than from successes.

So for our 57th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, celebrate a failure.

Take it as an opportunity to think about your own practices and the circumstances, and how these could have influenced thing.

Even if there is an element of unluckiness, could you mitigate the risk in future?

And be ready to share your lessons with others, including through the comments box below!

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 3.4: Provide targeted learning and professional development.

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below.

Learning, Making, Doing: Libraries as Incubators of Creativity and the Creative Economy

A vital component in realizing cultural rights, including freedom of expression and participation in cultural life, is supporting cultural actors. This includes those working in the creation, production, and distribution of, as well as access to, expressions of culture.

So, with 2021 being the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, IFLA has explored how libraries open the door to cultural participation and make space for cultural diversity.

This includes work to do so by providing access to lifelong learning opportunities and addressing gaps in the ability to participate in culture on digital platforms, as well as fostering environments where diverse cultural expressions are encouraged, valued, shared, and protected.

To prepare this overview, IFLA engaged with several of our Professional Units and carried out desktop research to find concrete examples of how libraries put these values into action. We have found examples ranging from libraries participating in national cultural strategies to carrying out community-level programmes. Some examples help elevate established creators, while others create spaces where new creators can explore and grow.

Let’s take a deeper look at how libraries can act as incubators of creativity and the creative economy in their national contexts.

Libraries as Partners: Contributing to Government Initiatives

Brazil: National Reading and Writing Policy

In 2018, the Brazilian Special Secretariat for Culture established, within the National Reading and Writing Policy, a permanent strategy to promote books, reading, writing, literature, and publicly accessible libraries (Law No. 13,696/2018) [source].  The Brazilian National Library Foundation is engaged as a partner in this strategy.

The Policy’s objectives include promoting access to books and reading, disseminating Brazilian literature, and valuing and encouraging national authors with an emphasis on bibliodiversity.

Initiatives carried out within this framework have helped stimulate the creative economy by supporting national authors through funding and participation in international literacy fairs.

For example, in 2018, a public call for original works in Portuguese on select themes regarding the history of Brazil was circulated. Fifty works were selected for funding, which contributed to promotion and dissemination efforts.

Colombia: Reading Colombia

The National Library of Colombia partnered with the Ministry of Culture, Vice-ministry of Creativity and Orange Economy and the Colombian Book Chamber on the “Reading Colombia” strategy [source].

A key focus of this strategy was to support the distribution of works by national authors in the international market in order to help increase visibility of contemporary Colombian writers.

In 2018, the scheme awarded 12 scholarships to support translation of the work of Colombian authors into six languages​. In 2019, this increased to 50 works of Colombian literature.

Ireland: Decade of Centenaries Programme

The Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 has been an ongoing programme administered by the Irish Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the most difficult and transformative period of Irish history, 1912-1923.

The National Library of Ireland is partnering with Department and the Decade of Centenaries Programme to appoint a poet in residence to engage with this theme and create original works [source].

This year-long post is supported by a stipend. During this time, the poet will not only create original literary works, but contribute to masterclasses for practitioner-led, experimental or interdisciplinary programmes, participate in workshops to help engage new audiences with the Library’s collections, and work to develop good practice outreach models to connect their creative works with a public audience.

United States of America: Library of Congress National Book Festival

The National Book Festival is hosted annually by the Library of Congress, the national library of the USA. Over past years, more than 100 authors, poets, and illustrators had the opportunity to connect with over 200,000 attendees for book talks, discussions, book signings and other engaging activities.

This has historically been the largest annual literary gathering held in the nation’s capital but in 2021 will reach a much wider audience through a hybrid in-person / online programme.

Content will be available through videos on-demand, author conversations in real time and live question-and-answer sessions, as well as a podcast series, a national television special, and in-person events at the Library.

This Festival will also engage authors from across the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, who are each invited to choose a book to represent their state or territory’s literary heritage. The Library of Congress will amplify these authors by holding conversations to discuss their books and what they mean for each State or Territory.

 

Libraries as Hosts: Artists in Residence

Jamaica: National Library of Jamaica Poet Laureate Programme

The Poet Laureate selected by the National Library of Jamaica carries out a three-year term, during which time he or she is tasked with stimulating a wider appreciation for Jamaican poetry. During this time, the Poet Laureate also helps encourage public involvement in poetry and spoken word arts, including by involving young people in appreciating and writing poetry. The scheme supports the poet during their term through a grant [source].

Within this programme, the Poet Laureate presents their own creations both locally and abroad, is involved in national events, and carries out participatory programmes to encourage developing poets, such as poetry competitions and school poetry reading tours [source].

 

United States of America: University of California San Francisco Library Artist in Residence program

This programme, carried out by the University Library, invites artists to promote health humanities through creative use of the historical materials preserved in the Library’s Archives and Special Collections [source].

The current Artist in Residence, Farah Hamaden, is a biomedical illustrator and animator, whose interactive storytelling project, “The City is a Body”, seeks to collect and bring to life San Franciscans’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find out more about her project here.

 

Singapore – The National Library Board Creative Residency

This programme invites creatives from all different artistic disciplines to use the National Library Board’s collections to inspire their own works, and to reimagine them in ways that help engage a wider community with the collection [source].

Creative work produced in this role can take the form of videos, publications, literary works, artworks, musical compositions, or more. The 6-month post is supported by a stipend, and is open to all Singapore-based creative practitioners (individuals or collectives) working in any discipline or form of expression to apply.

Libraries as Enablers: Supporting New Creators

Trinidad and Tobago – NALIS First Time Authors Programme

National Library and Information Systems Authority (NALIS) highlights first-time authors of Trinidad and Tobago nationality or descent through their First Time Authors Programme [source].

Held on World Book and Copyright Day, this programme celebrates the accomplishment of first time authors, encourages new national writers, and raises public awareness of issues relating to intellectual property and copyright.

During the annual ceremony, national first-time authors of all genres are presented with appreciation tokens and their work is promoted online. See a recent example here.

Australia: Yarra Plenty Regional Library Maker Spaces and Maker Month

Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL), a public library service located in Melbourne, Australia, has established Maker Spaces in 6 of their 9 branches. These spaces allow users to create, connect, collaborate, and learn in a fun and supported environment, and specialise in areas of textile and craft, mental health, gardening, writing and publishing, science and technology, and design

In 2020, the library launched a month-long, region-wide Maker Month programme. This went beyond the Maker Spaces, with a focus on entrepreneurs and events to support and empower those starting out in business or making the leap from hobby to “side hustle”.

This addressed an identified gap for support systems aimed at such microbusinesses, with many not knowing where to start in launching their own creative small business. Built on community feedback, the programme offered local makers opportunities to connect and network, get creative, and upskill. It provided tools to learn about business needs – from developing their idea to running and marketing their business.

Although hampered by the outbreak of the pandemic, many programmes were held online. These included topics such as: Using WordPress to make your own webpage, How and why to create digital content for your business, and How to plan for small businesses.

A number of sessions, including Turning Your Passion into Profit and How to Market Your Business Using Social Media continue to run in an online format.

The library is planning a smaller-scale Maker Month for July 2021, with a mix of online and in-person events including 90-day Business Planning and is launching a co-working space which will have an ongoing focus on business support.

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This is just a look at different ways libraries can make a difference for creative actors, connecting them with opportunities to create, elevating and promoting their work, and encouraging learning and exploration.

Through their position in the social fabric and their role as champions of access to information and freedom of expression, it is clear that libraries are an essential piece in a thriving creative economy.

Through examples such as these, libraries contribute to the fulfillment of cultural rights and link them to economic opportunity for creative actors – both of which are needed to enable sustainable development.

This list is by no means exhaustive – we welcome additional cases from all types of libraries around the world! Send your stories to: claire.mcguire@ifla.org

COVID has forced us to think again about service provision: can it offer longer term lessons for how we serve persons with disabilities?

Tomorrow, the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities starts, in New York and online.

It will have, as an overarching theme, ‘building back better: COVID-19 response and recovery; meeting the needs, realizing the rights, and addressing the socio-economic impacts on persons with disabilities’.

There’s clearly a lot in there, but there is already more than enough space to see how access to information – as a need, as a right, and as a driver of development – fits in.

At least two of the sub-themes offer an even clearer connection. ‘Living independently, being involved in the community’ ties strongly to the possibility for all to find and use information to take decisions for themselves, as well as to engage in community life, in all of its dimensions.

Similarly, ‘right to education; challenges with inclusive education and accessibility during COVID-19’ is again, to a large extent, about ensuring that everyone has the possibility to access knowledge and skills.

With a mission to serve everyone, there is already a strong community of practice in the library field focused on services to persons with disabilities. Within IFLA, sections on libraries serving persons with print disabilities, and serving persons with special needs, bring this expertise and enthusiasm together.

A key impact of the crisis, however, has been that many more library and information workers have found themselves needing to think about how to reach out to community members who are unable to come to the library in person or for whom ‘traditional’ service offers do not necessarily work.

This is because, thanks to the restrictions and precautions taken to counter the pandemic, almost all library services have had to be offered differently. Every library now, arguably, has to take into account principles of design thinking in order to meet needs.

In response, we have seen an explosion in digital offers, both collections and services. Libraries have shifted budgets towards buying eBook licences, sometimes benefitting from additional government support.

Activities such as storytimes or learning have gone online. New works, games and tools have been devised, websites have been updated, and there are new and easier-to-use consultation services, deliveries to users at home, and proactive contacts from librarians to community members.

There are many examples on our COVID-19 and libraries page, which details experiences from the first months of the pandemic.

This has allowed libraries, at least to some extent, to maintain services to communities, and indeed to reach new users. As the story of the pandemic is told in future, we will of course, hopefully, also see persons with disabilities having benefitted from better access to information.

Of course, this is not to forget the costs of decisions – however necessary – to curtail services which benefit people with disabilities and others, or the additional challenges that they have faced, over and above those facing the wider population.

 

Clearly, the transition to a new way of doing things has not been without challenges – such services often require additional resources and training to work effectively. In providing them, reducing health risks for staff and users is vital. Similarly, acquiring and giving access to digital works – often providing greater possibilities for access for persons with disabilities – often runs up against issues of cost and restrictive terms and conditions.

Yet with sustained support, and a focus on improved regulations (not least the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty and its extension to cover people with other disabilities), we can hope that there will be the possibility to sustain elements of pandemic-time services which will benefit persons with disabilities into the future.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #56: Think how you foster community

Meaningful access to information is not necessarily a solo activity.

While the stereotype of libraries may be of users consulting collections on their own, it is clearer and clearer that the possibilities libraries offer for people to access information together represent a unique strength.

Through opportunities for learning, creativity, exchange and debate, libraries can provide a space and a platform to build stronger links between people.

In turn, this can help strengthen trust and a sense of belonging to the same community.

Indeed, there is a correlation, between numbers of public and community libraries and library workers and levels of social trust.

With social trust and a sense of community linked to resilience in the face of difficulties such as the pandemic, it is timely to be able to talk about how libraries contribute.

So for our 56th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think how you foster community.

Describe a programme or a service which helps bring people together, or at least connect with information or resources which help them strengthen their sense of belonging.

It could be a space, a course, an event, an exhibition or something else.

How does it work, and can you provide evidence or arguments around its impact?

Write down your ideas – they can be helpful both in advocacy and planning.

And if you want, share them in the comments below!

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 2.3: Develop standards, guidelines, and other materials that foster best
professional practice.

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below.