Monthly Archives: April 2021

Guest Article: Connectivity and Cooperation: How RENs, Libraries and Universities Are Combining to Accelerate Open Science

We are happy to publish a guest blog, by Omo Oaiya, Chief Strategy Officer, WACREN and Pamela Abbott, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems, Head of the Information Systems Research Group, Global Challenges Research Fund Lead, Deputy Programme Coordinator at the Information School | The University of Sheffield.

This shares experience about an exciting collaboration which has brought together three key elements of meaningful internet access – connectivity, content and skills – demonstrating the potential of libraries in achieving the goal of giving everyone the opportunity to get the best out of the internet.

 The emergence of open access in the early 2000s was arguably made possible by the spread of the internet, removing the need for an extensive infrastructure for printing and distributing journals.

 Today, open access is well-established, and the talk is increasingly of open science – a broader term covering openness throughout the scientific process.

 But for all the progress made, we cannot and should not forget that students and researchers using libraries in many parts of the world continue to face a combined challenge. Not only is connectivity too often poor, but even when it works, it can be hard to access relevant content. 

 Resolving these issues – and so realising the potential of open science approaches to accelerate research in all parts of the world – was the challenge taken on by the LIBSENSE initiative in West and Central Africa.

 

Core Team and Core Beliefs

 The West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) serves to bring connectivity to educational institutions across large parts of Africa.

 Like other Research and Education Networks (RENs), WACREN aims to use a combination of economies of scale, expertise, and understanding of user needs to provide better access to the internet for universities, schools, and of course, their libraries. 

 Yet experience has demonstrated that connectivity alone was not enough to drive use. People needed a good reason to get online, and in the case of students and researchers, this meant relevant content.

 This is what lay behind the LIBSENSE project, born out of tightening relations between WACREN and with partners who could help – COAR and its experience of developing open access repositories, EIFL and its work to train librarians and form consortia, and The University of Sheffield (TUoS) information school, and its research expertise in open access and information management.

 The four organisations shared a commitment to promoting open science as the future of research in general, and in particular, as offering possibilities to allow researchers everywhere to contribute fully to scientific progress.

 They also saw the value of collaboration, with specialists in infrastructure, repository design, and of course, content providers – students and researchers themselves – working together.

 And they understood that to achieve this, it was vital to take the time to understand the attitudes, skills and priorities that different players had in order to bring them together.

 While the core team of WACREN, COAR, EIFL and TUoS led this work, they made sure to keep things open, drawing on the strengths of a wider community and allowing greater reach than would otherwise be the case.

 

In Practice: Action for Progress

 The combination of the strengths of the different parties involved in the LIBSENSE project has allowed for achievements that would have been impossible, or far slower, on their own.

 A first key area of action has been around infrastructure support, with libraries supported to develop open access repositories. Drawing heavily on articles produced by staff and students within institutions, these repositories represent a key resource for learning and research, as well as a platform for researchers themselves. Thanks to REN infrastructures, these repositories can be connected, allowing for the development of thematic hubs, facilitating collaboration and accelerating discovery in areas most relevant for Africa. 

 A second area has been around capacity building. This proved crucial both as a means of ensuring that library staff are well placed to make best use of new digital infrastructures, but also to be able to engage in global initiatives around open access and open science. 

 Finally, work on policy development has focused on ensuring that rules and practices keep up with the opportunities created by the tools the LIBSENSE initiative has provided. The focus here has been not just on Institutional policies around publication, but also the development of national open science roadmaps.

 

Where Next?

 In addition to successes of the growing community in creating and filling open access repositories, a key achievement of the LIBSENSE project has been to establish an incubator for further projects and collaborations. Through this, new tools and services have emerged to support the drive towards open science. 

 These collaborations do not only need to involve higher education libraries however! Public libraries are potentially key collaborators in efforts to democratise knowledge production.

 Adopting the same model of collaboration between RENs and libraries, using the pillars of infrastructure support, capacity building, and policy development backed up by research, it could be possible to develop library hubs, support community learning, or better collect and draw on traditional knowledge, in addition to the wider advantages that working with RENs can bring.

The work of LIBSENSE, we hope, will not only endure in Africa but also provide a model and inspiration for collaborations elsewhere.

You can access the full article about the LIBSENSE project by Pamela Abbott on the IFLA website.

Partners in Building a Healthier, Fairer World: Recognition of Libraries in the World of Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has further underlined an issue that was already painfully clear around the world – that health is too often an equalities issue.

Yet it has also made clear that without action to improve the health and wellbeing of all, we cannot overcome challenges. This is the case both in the shorter term in the form of the pandemic, and longer term in the shape of non-communicable diseases and other causes of suffering.

To respond, and so build a healthier, fairer world – the theme of World Health Day 2021 – action is needed to ensure that everyone can live healthier lives, reducing the risk of falling ill – public health.

Libraries themselves are aware, through their own experience, of how much they are used to access health information. As noted, for example, in a survey of Philadelphia librarians, each member of staff was receiving on average ten health-related queries a week, underlining that regardless of whether they are formally involved in planning, libraries are part of the health infrastructure. There are plenty of articles and presentations from the field, setting out ideas and experiences – see our own article from 2019.

This blog, however, looks at what public health professionals themselves are saying about libraries. This matters, because for our institutions to be part of plans to promote better health and wellbeing, libraries need to be recognised by the people preparing them. Therefore, all the links in this piece point to research or actions taken by actors outside of the library field.

We hope that they can help you in your advocacy.

 

Priorities for Public Health

In working to understand health inequalities, a key area of focus are the social determinants of health. A piece in the Journal of Community Health in 2019 set out ten of these, based on a previous study – transport, addiction, stress, food, early life, the social gradient (education), social exclusion, work, unemployment and social support.

Each of these has an impact on the likelihood of people getting ill, and then of getting treated (including preventative measures). Action can rely on efforts outside of traditional health policy – almost all of the issues  set out above are not usually immediately associated with health – but their impact is significant.

A second concern is around how to reach out into communities, the focus of a whole book. Many people will go out of their way to avoid formal health institutions such as hospitals, but even health professional themselves may struggle to reach people.

As we have seen in the pandemic, a particular tragedy has been where people with COVID have not wanted to admit that they are ill or seek medical attention for fear of losing their jobs. In other situations, cultural factors may play a role, there may be distrust of officials, or simply language barriers.

Finally, there is the importance of health literacy – the ability to understand and use information concerning health (for example, from the Urban and Community Studies Institute at the University of New Brunswick). As opposed to the other two issues, which are more about the context determining health, this focuses more on the skills of individuals and communities. It represents a key goal of course, with a health literate population more able to look after themselves and cope with new threats.

 

Where do Libraries Fit In?

Even from a relatively superficial look at the literature, the potential of libraries is recognised through experience.

Concerning the social determinants of health, as a University of Pennsylvania study underlined, libraries’ work to build basic literacy and support lifelong learning is already a key contribution to supporting better health outcomes. Beyond this, wider programming to support employability and inclusion should also make a positive difference. There is also of course the role of libraries, alongside other institutions, in using their hiring and purchasing power to support local economies and create jobs, where this is possible.

There are also more specific interventions, such as those promoted in libraries in Norfolk, in the UK, in partnership with local public health authorities in order to encourage health eating and promoting wellbeing. Indeed, such initiatives showed the power of libraries to mobilise other local stakeholders, such as supermarkets to get involved. Similarly in Redbridge, London, UK, collaboration with sports and physical activities teams led to efforts to promote healthy cooking and eating, especially in school holidays.

 

Libraries also have reach into communities, often disproportionately serving more vulnerable populations. From simply being an effective place to display relevant information to the wider community (as noted by Public Heath England), they can also actively contribute insights about what people in situations of marginalisation may need, based on their experience and the questions they receive.

For example, people in rural areas or the unconnected may have few ways other than libraries of gaining access to key health information. For others, they will feel far more comfortable coming to the library than going to the doctors or a formal health centre. The nature of libraries as a public space, open to all, can be powerful. Libraries can also train (or host training for) people who can then take key information out into the community, or be a base for health professionals to work with people in a more comfortable environment.

The unique role of libraries around literacies can also make them useful partners in building health literacy. At a fundamental level, there is provision of relevant information and collections, potentially in collaboration with national public health authorities (for example in the United States or United Kingdom).

Combined with their ability to reach out to vulnerable groups, it is recognised that libraries can help overcome stigma, and even build comfort around more difficult questions such as clinical trials and preventative interventions.

Through this work, libraries can play a key role in delivering on the promise of eHealth in general, as illustrated by the Australian Digital Health Agency’s partnership with the Australian Library and Information Association.

 

In short, as noted in a Journal of Community Health article, libraries can be a key ‘meso’ level actor in promoting population health, working between national or regional health agencies and individuals.

 

What More is Needed?

As set out in the previous section, libraries are well placed to support action in key areas of focus for public health professionals – the social determinants of health, meaningful outreach, and building health literacy. As highlighted at the beginning – and indeed recognised by the Robert Wood Johnston Foundation – they are already part of the ‘community’s health enhancing environment’.

Nonetheless, more can be done. While the links in this article do lead to evidence of public health professionals and other non-LIS experts recognising the value of working with libraries, it is clear that more can be done to convince public health planners.

To a large extent, this will be down to libraries themselves being able to show how their unique characteristics can help them contribute meaningfully. This work can be helped, however, through more systematic evaluation of interventions, as well as bringing public health researchers into libraries in order to see for themselves the work that libraries do, as well as to plan activities collaboratively.

A further area of focus could be on building knowledge and skills among library professionals (also underlined in CDC work on preventing chronic disease), in order to help them better to fulfil the role that they often already have in providing advice and information to users. Clearly, access to resources also matters here.

 

As we look beyond the pandemic, and make plans for the healthier, fairer world highlighted for World Health Day, the potential of libraries to contribute is clear.

With wider recognition of this role in the health field, building on existing evidence, and work to improve libraries’ own ability to provide information and services, there is scope for libraries to play a much more central role in public health policy planning and delivery around the world.

Libraries for Climate Empowerment: inspiring action through education, training, and public awareness

Libraries are enablers and drivers of sustainable development. They are essential contributors to an informed, participatory society, and vectors of positive change within their communities.

This is important for climate action, as the relevant international legal frameworks emphasise education, training, awareness, and public participation.  This is climate empowerment, and we will not be able to achieve our climate action goals without it.

The UNFCCC has adopted the term Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) to describe all the work being done to implement Article 6 of the Convention and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement (discussed below, and with further resources on ACE online).

As public spaces, as well as champions for access to information and lifelong learning, libraries are well placed within their communities to be hubs for climate empowerment. This blog both explores examples of what libraries are already doing, and opportunities for future engagement.

Climate Empowerment in International Legal Frameworks

The key legal instrument addressing climate change is the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and within it, the Paris Agreement. Both see climate empowerment as vital to implementation.

Since entering into force in 1994, the UNFCCC is a commitment of governments (known as States Parties) to prevent dangerous levels of human interference with the climate system.

The Paris Agreement is an international, legally binding treaty on climate change that seeks to enhance implementation of the UNFCCC. Entering into force in 2016, this is an agreement of 196 governments (State Parties) to work together to limit global warming to preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

Established in the UNFCCC and carried over into the Paris Agreement is the concept of climate empowerment.

UNFCCC Article 6

Article 6 of the UNFCCC, “Education, Training, and Public Awareness”, compels State Parties to support efforts that:

  • Develop and implement educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects
  • Promote public access to information on climate change and its effects
  • Enable public participation in addressing climate change and its effects and developing adequate responses
  • Facilitate training of scientific, technical and managerial personnel

To do this, State Parties are urged to act to develop educational and public awareness material and strengthen support to national institutions that do this work [source].

Paris Agreement Article 12

These obligations are renewed in the Paris Agreement. Signatories are committed to taking appropriate measures to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation, and public access to information.

These are recognised as important steps to enhancing all other actions of the Paris Agreement.

Library advocacy

Libraries are natural institutions in which to turn this commitment into action. As places for storytelling and discussion, facilitators of scientific research, providers of digital access and information literacy, platforms for participatory decision-making, and providers of lifelong learning – all types of libraries can find a role in climate empowerment.

If your country has signed the Paris Agreement, this commitment alone is a powerful lever for obtaining support for libraries.

Libraries can use national commitments to international climate change agreements to inform strategic programmes and services which position them as agents for successful implementation.

Examples of Libraries in Climate Empowerment

Below are just a few examples of how different types of libraries and library associations have supported climate empowerment through their activities. Think about how your library’s services and activities may also target these areas.

1: Public awareness and access to information

Social Responsibility Programme, Costa Rican Association of Librarians, Costa Rica

The first Report on the State of the Environment of Costa Rica was presented by the Minister of the Environment and Energy and National Environmental Council in 2018. In response to the recommendations made in this report, the Costa Rican Association of Librarians (COPROBI – Colegio de Profesionales en Bibliotecología de Costa Rica) approved its first social responsibility programme. This programme features activities and events dedicated to raising public awareness and inspiring action. For example, through beach clean-up events that focus on disseminating information on sorting and recycling to the local community. Read more in our story on the IFLA Library Map of the World.

2: Education

Environmental Literacy, Bilbao district public school library, Bogota, Colombia

Librarians and the school’s science teachers developed an environmental education programme targeted at children. The library’s age-appropriate workshops are tailored to increase the students’ environmental and recycling awareness. They started by transforming the library’s space into a greener and more accessible place for children and encourage students to participate in activities which grow knowledge of social responsibility. Read more in our story on the IFLA Library Map of the World.

3: Public participation

“Harvest Your City” Programme, Bad Oldesloe City Library, Germany

This programme informed participants of the role of community gardening as something everyone can do to contribute to socially and environmentally sustainable urban spaces. In addition to providing books and other library media on the subject, community gardeners were invited to share information on gardening and exchange heirloom seeds. This inspired further programmes in the community between the library and other institutions focussing on food production and natural urban spaces. Read more on the German Biblio2030 site.

4: Scientific training

Pre-academic work with students in the C3 library, Vienna, Austria

The C3 Library offers tailored support to secondary school students completing their pre-scientific work (VWAs) in areas relating to sustainable development. This support includes providing access to materials and collaborative working space, as well as workshops on research techniques with information specialists. In addition to supporting students’ development as future researchers, this programme inspires discussion on young people’s place in building a more sustainable future read more on the German Biblio2030 site.

Action for Climate Empowerment: Next Steps

Following the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, the UNFCCC will present a new work plan to provide State Parties with a framework for implementing their commitment on climate empowerment. IFLA will keep our members informed on how libraries can impact on this work plan – stay tuned!

In the meantime, it is good to know that State Parties to the UNFCCC have designated focal points for climate empowerment. Find your National Focal Point for ACE here.

This is a useful contact person to keep in mind for future advocacy efforts regarding your library’s role in action for climate empowerment.

Suggested Actions:

  1. Note activities, resources, and programmes that your library has carried out in the past, is currently offering, or is planning that will impact on climate empowerment (education, training, awareness raising, access to information, public participation)
  2. Identify your National Focal Point for ACE.
  3. Check if his or her office or ministerial department has any consultations, events, or calls for participation in which you can take part in order to share information on your library’s climate empowerment efforts.
  4. If your association is developing its own work on climate change, why not engage with the Focal Point to see if they can provide support in any way.

Implementation of the Paris Agreement requires not only economic transformation, but social and behavioural transformation. As climate change is a human-caused problem, human-centred solutions will be key to its successful mitigation. Empowering our communities to develop, participate in, learn about, and embrace these solutions is a powerful way for libraries to enable and drive change.

 

April Fool’s! Five things which aren’t true, but should they be?

In many parts of the world, 1 April is a day for playing pranks on others – April Fool’s Day. In some countries, there’s a tradition even of newspapers or other media publishing hoax stories as jokes – to take two examples from the BBC, the story of the spaghetti harvest in 1957, or of flying penguins in 2008.

Of course, with much concern at the moment about the impact of fake news, published with more sinister motivations than just to amuse people, it’s clear that it’s not only on 1 April that it’s necessary to apply critical thinking to what we read, hear or watch.

To mark the day, we’ve gathered a collection of five imaginary headlines which are definitely not true, together with short discussions about why (or why not!) we might wish they were.

 

World Heritage Convention extended to documentary heritage!

The 1972 World Heritage Convention is a crucial agreement in the history of international cooperation and norm setting around culture and heritage. As well as recognising the importance of heritage itself, it underlined the key connection between human and natural heritage.

On the basis of the Convention, there is an ongoing process of work bringing together governments and civil society, and of course the well known World Heritage Programme and its designated World Heritage Sites.

However, the definition of heritage in the Convention does not cover the sort of documentary heritage held by libraries. Indeed, while there are Conventions for underwater heritage, intangible heritage, and cultural diversity, there is nothing at Convention-level specifically concerning the sorts of works in library collections.

Ensuring that the importance of library collections is properly recognised – and so also of the work that libraries do – is a key area of work for IFLA in its advocacy, as well as in its support of the teams at UNESCO working with documentary heritage.

We cannot realise the full potential of culture and cultural heritage to support wider societal goals if we do not consider all elements of culture properly.

 

Debates about the role of major digital platforms extend to scholarly communications!

Discussions are intensifying in different parts of the world about whether and what action should be taken in response to concerns about the size and power of major digital platforms.

A key issue has been not just their dominance in particular markets, such as search, but rather what happens when they are active in different markets, and their power in one gives them an unfair advantage in others. For example, Google has faced challenges linked to whether Google Shopping results are prioritised in web search results.

However, it is not only at the level of the traditional internet platforms that there are concerns. Within the scholarly communication field, in addition the dominance of journal publishing by a small number of large companies, there have also been worries about what happens when other research services or infrastructure are bought up by the same companies.

Initiatives such as SCOSS are working to keep them independent, and so resist situations where researchers find themselves locked-in to specific companies’ services.

For the time being, the energy spent on chasing (admittedly much larger, but sometimes less profitable) American internet companies has not yet extended to the scholarly communications field, but a deeper look would certainly be helpful in order to understand the situation – and the risks – better.

 

New Sustainable Development Goal to be Added for Culture!

IFLA has placed the SDGs at the heart of our advocacy work, not just because they represent a core area of work of the United Nations, but also because they provide so much scope for talking about all the ways in which libraries contribute to progress.

Of course, one of the risks with being important across different policy areas is that no single ministry, agency or team can fully take account of the value libraries bring.

The same goes with culture, including cultural institutions like libraries. As the Culture2030Goal campaign review of culture in SDG implementation underlined, there are plenty of agreements about the cross-cutting importance of culture, but relatively little practical action to realise this in national development plans and reports.

A key reason for this is likely to be the fact that culture was not recognised as a standalone goal (as well as a cross-cutting factor of development). The chances, of course, of amending the 2030 Agenda are very low, and so efforts for now need to focus on ensuring that governments do more to integrate culture into planning.

But looking ahead to what comes after the 2030 Agenda, maybe this headline could be true one day?

 

Right to a Library Declared by Human Rights Council!

The freedom to seek, impart and receive information – Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – is at the heart of IFLA’s values, and of the work of libraries globally.

Indeed, libraries have a role in delivering on many of the rights set out not just in the Universal Declaration, but also in other Conventions, such as that on the Rights of People with Disabilities or on the Rights of the Child.

In parallel, in countries where there is library legislation, this is often based on an obligation on actors (often at the local or regional level) to provide library services, with these described to a greater or lesser level of detail, in effect setting out that people should have a right to a library (see the EBLIDA study for more).

What chance is there of such a provision making it to the international level? This is unclear, both because the right to a variety of library services is already covered by the texts mentioned above, and because trying to set out any specific level of library service to be provided could end up risk becoming a ceiling rather than a floor.

At the same time, stronger recognition of the role of libraries as part of the infrastructure for delivering on human rights for all is always welcome, and IFLA’s Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression is active in underlining this role in submissions to the Human Rights Council, building up the bank of examples that can be used in advocacy.

 

Amazon to Open a Physical Library!

A lot has been made of Amazon beginning to open physical bookshops, alongside supermarkets and other services, given that of course the company has traditionally been seen as harmful to retail. There are 24 dedicated bookstores, and 34 shops selling books and other products across the US already.

The venture into physical stores may likely be down to a recognition that for many things, the physical experience is important, both in terms of making choices, and simply for wellbeing.

Of course, Amazon also has its Prime service, offering subscribers wide access to eBooks for a monthly fee. Could a next logical step be to develop, effectively, a physical subscription library?

There could be arguments in favour, at least for the company. Greater proximity to, and interaction with, readers is valuable, as of course is information about what and how they read. Operating a library could also open up segments of the population which cannot, or can only sometimes, afford to buy books.

Of course the downside, from a library point of view, would be that any such initiative would clearly have a commercial focus, and so lose the emphasis on meeting the needs of readers (rather than maximising profits). There would be little incentive to provide the wide range of other services that libraries offer, and of course there could concerns about how reader data would or could be used.

For all these reasons, libraries should be in a position to hold their ground if they can clearly articulate their value, although as will be underlined in an upcoming interview, concern about the role of Amazon is a reality in other areas.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #46: Nominate someone for a position in IFLA

Last week’s post focused on how everyone has the potential to be a leader, in whatever position.

Doing so can be great not only for individuals, who gain new skills and confidence, but also for the library field as a whole.

Now is of course a great time to be thinking about who could benefit from this opportunity, with IFLA’s nominations process still open for another week.

IFLA’s Members, Affiliates and volunteers all have possibilities to put forwards candidates for the over 800 posts available.

These include IFLA’s Governing Board, new regional committees, and the Professional Sections, Advisory Committees and Review Groups that explore in detail key issues, standards and practices.

They can often also nominate more than one candidate, giving a more diverse range of people the chance to build their experience and networks.

So for our 46th 10-Minute International Librarian  exercise, nominate someone for a position in IFLA.

There’s lots of information available on the IFLA website, including descriptions of the positions available, the rules, and the forms that nominees themselves will need to fill in.

All of our Members, Affiliates and volunteers will have received messages from IFLA Headquarters with links to forms to make nominations.

Get in touch with us at elections@ifla.org if you have any questions.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! 4.2 Effectively mobilise our human resources and networks.

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.