Category Archives: News

Room to Read Impact

The International Association of School Librarianship congratulates Room to Read on its milestone in improving the education of 10 million children through the provision of school libraries, children’s publishing in their own languages and through girls’ education scholarships.

Room to Read shares many of IASL’s goals. Room to Read works in Asia and Africa to achieve these. The co-founder Erin Ganju points to 17,500 transformed government schools, 10,000 teachers trained every year in reading and writing instruction and library management, and more than 30,000 girls who have been able to pursue an education with the aid of Room to Read.

Room to Read continually evaluates data on how they are achieving their goals. As part of its milestone, Room to Read has released a document based on their data which may be of interest to IFLA members and friends, What we’ve learned works in global education after educating 10 million children. The main points are:

1.     Children’s speed of reading and comprehension is raised through systematic reading instruction focusing on phonics

2.     Children’s likelihood of learning to read is much greater when their teachers have been trained in how to conduct reading activities, such as reading aloud and shared reading

3.     Children have a preference for illustrated fiction books, e.g. folklore and fantasy

4.     The operation of school libraries is more effective when they are consistently evaluated and monitored

5.     Students’ interest in reading both at school and at home is affected by access to a school library

6.     Transparency is important and results in greater community participation

7.     Working in partnership with local governments is crucial for advocacy and improving instruction and professional development for teachers

More findings related to girls’ education and an excellent infographic showing these findings are available at http://ow.ly/UKQGz

UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030

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.

 

Julia Brungs, Policy and Projects Officer, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Based in Cape Town, PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa) is an organisation that has worked to promote reading and literature for children and young people in South Africa since 1992.

The Jury’s Citation reads:

With the joy of reading as its compass point, PRAESA opens new routes into the world of books and literature for young readers in South Africa. Through innovative reading and storytelling projects, PRAESA brings people together and brings literature in multiple languages alive. PRAESA’s outstanding work shows the world the crucial role of books and stories in creating rich, full lives for our children and young people.

For more than twenty years, PRAESA has made powerful, innovative moves to highlight literature as a key component of both personal and societal development, always grounded in the specific conditions of South African society and culture. Its work focuses on encouraging children to read for enjoyment, building their self-esteem, and helping them connect to their native language through reading and story.

PRAESA has three core goals: to provide children with high-quality literature in the various South African languages; to collaborate with and foster new networks among publishers and organisations that promote reading; and to initiate and carry out activities that can help sustain a living culture of reading and storytelling in socially vulnerable communities. PRAESA works in constant dialogue with the latest research and in collaboration with volunteers at the grass roots level.

To encourage children to read in their native languages, PRAESA produced the Little Hands books, a series of short books in different African languages. Another project, the Vulindlela Reading Club, combined oral storytelling with reading, singing games, and dramatizations, and led to the formation of many more reading clubs in Cape Town and other provinces. The national reading promotion initiative Nal’ibali is a network of reading clubs that uses media campaigns to encourage children to read and inspire parents, grandparents, and teachers to read with them.

In 2014, PRAESA received the Asahi Reading Promotion Award, a prize instituted by the International Board on Books for Young People, IBBY.

PRAESA will accept the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award at the Stockholm Concert Hall on June 1, 2015.

More information: Helene Andersson, Communications Officer    helene.andersson@alma.se

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.

USA National School Library Month in April

2015 is  the 30th annual celebration of USA’s School Library Month, honoring school librarians for the amazing job that they do everyday.    Julianne Moore, the Academy Award winning actress and children’s  author, is the  Spokesperson and will be promoting the theme, Your School Library: Where Learning Never Ends, throughout April.

To celebrate this 30th anniversary, AASL has planned the following activities:
*The Student Digital Storytelling Festival – see Website for details. The deadline for submissions has been extended to Midnight on March 20th.
The School Library Ambassador Initiative – look for this on social media throughout April and later on Pinterest.
The Author Gallery and Tip of the Day Calendar –look for this on social media throughout April and later on Pinterest.
Send us your Best Shot – this will be a Twitter and Instagram activity announced at the end of March.
Professional Development Sessions – see Website for details.
This  is the link to the 2015 AASL School Library Month Website:  http://www.ala.org/aasl/slm/

Lyon Declaration update

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.