Tag Archives: UNESCO

By All, For All: A World Book Day for the World

Books by all, for all: Libraries celebrate World Book Day 2019

Books have long played – and continue to play – a key role in recording the past, sharing knowledge, and creating inspiration. World Book Day offers an opportunity to celebrate this contribution to knowledge and culture.

In 2019, there is a particular focus on indigenous languages, given the International Year. This is a reminder of the importance of thinking about how books as a means of preserving and sharing all cultures.

For libraries, this diversity of production is key. As institutions with a mission to meet the needs of all members of their communities, there is a strong interest in supporting and promoting local production, in all languages spoken by users.

To celebrate World Book Day 2019, therefore, this blog explores the reasons why it is so important to make this a day for all readers and writers in all cultures.

 

Books By All

Traditionally, the cost of printing presses and the need to run distribution networks have meant that publishing has been an expensive business. Publishers have given different voices access to these opportunities, bringing their voices to the world.

However, for those who do not manage to find the support of a publisher, the opportunities have been much narrower. Writers who are only likely to reach a small audience – because of the subject, or the language – of their works have had fewer possibilities.

This is of course changing, with technology offering new possibilities to self-publish, or to set up smaller independent operations which help new and diverse voices reach public attention.

These new options complement the existing landscape, allowing for a more diverse range of books to reach the market.

Clearly new writers need support, especially when they don’t benefit from the sort of support that a publisher will often offer.

While libraries clearly can’t provide an advance, they do offer a number of other key services – classes in creative writing, free research possibilities, and in some cases a showcase for local talent.

We will be exploring some of these means of supporting new authors in a session at WLIC this year.

 

Books For All

It does not make sense to talk about World Book Day without a focus on access. Indeed, to look only at the production of books would run counter to the universal mission of UNESCO, the organisation that set it up in 1995.

Copyright has made it possible for the (intangible) content of books to be treated in much the same way as a physical (tangible) object, and allowed for the creation of the type of market for books that we see today.

However, there is the risk of failure. Traditionally, market failures happen when the full benefits (or costs) of an action are not taken into account by the actor.

This can be the case with books, for example where someone may not have the money to buy a book, but there are clear benefits to society as a whole from them having access (to learn, to research, to discover new opportunities).

Libraries already have a key role in overcoming such failures by providing access to knowledge and culture.

Complementing markets – which continue to sell copies of books to those who can afford them, and want to enjoy them forever – they ensure that everyone has the chance to gain from what books have to offer.

This is as important in cities in major developed countries as in rural communities speaking indigenous languages.

 

With World Book Day 2019 focusing on the importance of indigenous languages, and 2019 being the year that SDG 10 (Reducing Inequalities) is in focus at the United Nations, it is a great opportunity to remember that this can only be a truly global event if it looks at books by all, for all.

Libraries are key to making this a reality.

6 Days to Human Rights Day: The Right to Education is The Right to a Library

The second in our series of daily blogs leading up to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights focuses on education. This is also the subject of a major global conference – the Global Education Meeting – taking place in Brussels on 3-5 December.

It underlines the vital and complementary role that libraries play to schools and other formal education institutions in ensuring that everyone has the possibility to learn and improve their life.

 

The right to education features in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a key enabling right, one that should give everyone the possibility to play a full part in society in the future. This is borne out by the evidence – some of the most spectacular stories of successful development in the last century have been based on investment in teaching and learning.

Yet when we discuss education, it is easy to focus on schools and universities – ‘formal education’. Indeed, many people associate learning with sitting in a classroom or lecture hall, and absorbing knowledge.

Of course, many libraries are based within schools and universities, providing students and teachers with materials and skilled support. They can even be the heart of their institutions, as is the case for some school libraries.

However, learning is much broader than this. And it needs to be. The world we live in, and the jobs we do, are evolve and become very different from those for which schools prepared us. Formal education can offer a valuable starting point, but it cannot be enough.

This is where the world’s 350 000 public libraries can come in. As was recognised in the original UNESCO Public Library Manifesto in 1949, libraries are ‘a living force for popular education’.

Many of the countries which do best in terms of formal education also invest heavily in their libraries, such as Finland and South Korea, in order to promote the right to education throughout life.

This is just as true today as almost 70 years ago. This blog looks at two ways in which libraries complement formal education.

 

Helping Young Learners in the Community

In many countries, libraries have a strong focus on supporting young learners. They are part of the ecosystem that ensures that children have access to books from a young age, especially when parents are not able to buy books themselves.

There are many examples, for example those run through Boekstart in the Netherlands, which provides valuable support to parents – and a complement to schools – in developing early years literacy.

As children grow, they offer a different environment – quieter often than school or home – which for some at least can make a real difference to their chances of success.

Libraries can also fill in gaps where schools are not able to offer the resources – or spaces – for young learners. Many of the projects run by EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme focus on giving young people access to tools, materials, and support they may not get elsewhere.

Libraries can also provide skills, for example media literacy or coding clubs, which help children grow, develop, and seize opportunities.

As set out in an IFLA article for World Teachers Day, librarians and teachers are natural partners.

 

Education Throughout Life

Of course education does not stop at any particular age. As highlighted in the introduction, changing technologies and changing jobs mean that people need to continue to learn.

Libraries can provide a vital gateway in this respect. Many offer basic education about how to make best use of the internet, for example to access eGovernment services or look for a job.

Some provide more advanced course in coding for example, or programmes aimed at personal fulfilment, such as creative writing or local history.

They can be attractive – and effective – as venues for learning precisely because they are public buildings, but are not as intimidating as formal education institutions.

They are particularly important for refugees, the focus of this year’s Global Education Meeting. For people arriving in a new country, at whatever age, there is always a need to learn, be it language, skills, or simply how the system works.

Libraries across host countries have looked to reach out, providing specific resources and support, especially around languages. And in refugee camps, actors such as Libraries Without Border are bringing these benefits to people who might otherwise struggle to carry on learning.

 

If the right to education is to be a reality throughout life, the need for libraries is clear. Libraries need to be a core part of education, training and lifelong learning strategies, engaged in conversations, and supported accordingly.

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – Your Story is Moving

Audiovisual documents contain many of the most powerful records of the 20th and 21st centuries. Work with sound, films, and multimedia therefore represents an important and growing part of libraries’ efforts to preserve and provide access to cultural heritage. The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage takes place on 27 October, and libraries around the world will be celebrating and promoting this heritage as well as the work they are doing to save it for the future.

Audiovisual media has transformed society, creating new possibilities to create, innovate and document the world. It has become a permanent complement to the traditional written record and today many libraries hold not only great collections of books but also audiovisual heritage.

Libraries around the globe are working with non-traditional materials and learning environments such as streaming media, digital creation labs, virtual reality etc. and are taking an active role in both the safeguarding and promotion of these materials.

Before It’s Too Late: Recognising the Need to Preserve Audiovisual Heritage

But even though this material is relatively new, it has already become endangered, as sound recordings and moving images can be deliberately destroyed or irretrievably lost as a result of neglect, decay and technological obsolescence.

In 1980 The General Conference of the UNESCO met in Belgrade to discuss the issue of preservation and conservation of audiovisual documents. It approved the Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images. This had the aim to raise awareness of moving images as an expression of the cultural identity of peoples, of their educational, cultural, artistic, scientific and historical value, and of their place as an integral part of a nation’s cultural heritage.

In 2005 the General Assembly of UNESCO offered a reminder that audiovisual cultural heritage continued to be lost – international action had be taken.

This resulted in the commemoration of a World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, to raise awareness of the need to preserve and safeguard important audiovisual, and for urgent measures to be taken to conserve this heritage and ensure it remains accessible to the public now, and to future generations.

Other UNESCO initiatives such as the Memory of the World Programme (MoW) also promote preservation of documentary cultural heritage (including audiovisual).

Not Just Books! Libraries Preserving Audiovisual Heritage

 Libraries are already active in safeguarding audiovisual heritage for the future. IFLA’s Audiovisual and Multimedia Section (AVMS) provides an international forum for people working with these materials in every kind of library and information service. The Section focuses its work on creating, collecting, describing, providing access, storing and preserving audiovisual and multimedia works.

AVMS holds open sessions, satellite meetings, and workshops in conjunction with IFLA’s World Library and Information Congress (WLIC). They provide guidelines for handling audiovisual and multimedia collections, and share information and resources from non-library organizations such as archives working with these collections.

IFLA also takes an active role in the MoW programme by both contributing to delivering the UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage in Digital Form and being represented in the National MoW committees, including by the directors of several IFLA Preservation and Conservation Centres.

To celebrate the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, the PAC Centre at the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile specialised in the preservation of audiovisual heritage, will be launching three short films based on its domestic film collection, other events and activities will as well take place at the library. It’s a great example of the work that the IFLA community are doing to promote and safeguard audiovisual heritage.

Please join the celebration and help us acknowledge the work libraries do every day to preserve our stories so that they will endure for future generations.

Culture on the Agenda: Heritage in the Sustainable Development Goals

One of the key reasons why Sustainable Development Goal 11 is so important for libraries is its recognition of the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage.

Its inclusion alongside questions such as mobility, waste and housing may seem strange at first glance. However, it is a recognition that culture is vital to the sustainability and ‘livability’ of the cities, towns and villages where people live.

Given the range of issues covered by this goal, it was perhaps unsurprising that the thematic session on SDG11 at the 2018 High Level Political Forum “Review of SDGs implementation: SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” was very broad-reaching. Fortunately, Jyoti Hosagrahar, Director of the Division for Creativity at UNESCO, was there to make a strong case for placing culture and heritage at the start of the SDGs.

Jyoti Hosagrahar, Director UNESCO Division of Creativity

Jyoti Hosagrahar, Director UNESCO Division of Creativity

She underlined not only the direct impacts of heritage in terms of identity and wellbeing, but also its impact on other indicators, such as sustainable urban development, education, and diversity.

Crucially, UNESCO is undertaking work to ensure that there is evidence for this impact. Given both the focus in the SDGs on measurement as a means of ensuring accountability, and the fact that governments themselves need such figures in order to decide how best to spend public money, this work has strong potential. The resulting Culture for Development Indicators therefore represent a rich resource.

At a side-event “Implementing SDG 11.4: Local voices and Global Agendas for Cultural and Natural Heritage” organised by the International Council on Monuments and Sites the same day, speakers had the opportunity to look further at how the heritage sector is making a difference. The impacts of heritage on the environment, on urban planning, on gender, on cohesion and tolerance were clear.

While the focus was, inevitably, on buildings and monuments, the parallels with the work of libraries were clear. In the UN context, there is a shared interest in ensuring that culture is not only part of the SDGs, but also of the measurement framework.

But more broadly, with digital technologies breaking down barriers between different types of heritage work, there is strong potential for collaboration more broadly. Further, welcome, proof of the value of the SDGs as a framework for rethinking how, and with whom, we work!

7th Session of the General Assembly of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

On 4 June 2018, IFLA attended the opening sessions of the General Assembly to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the UNESCO HQ in Paris, France along with decision makers, NGOs and other stakeholders from the cultural heritage field.

When explaining IFLA’s work on cultural heritage issues and libraries, the most common thing that people seem to think of is ancient manuscripts and old books. Manuscripts and books are easy to relate to, and most people understand the need to preserve them in order to preserve our history.

It is harder though when explaining the need for safeguarding and preservation of intangible cultural heritage, because what is it really, why protect living heritage and what can libraries do?

Before going to Paris, it felt necessary to do some homework, to get to grips with intangible cultural heritage and the role of libraries, to be able to answer those questions, as well as convince others.

What exactly is Intangible Cultural Heritage?

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) can be defined as the practices, expressions, knowledge and skills that communities or groups recognizes as part of their cultural heritage. This could be knowledge about the environment, a dance, music or even cooking.

As the name suggests, it can’t be touched, so it’s not books, records, sculptures or paintings. But this doesn’t make it any less important to people in their daily lives. Unlike more ‘formal’ culture, it is not necessarily so easy to collect and preserve for the future. Too often, it is not even regarded as culture, meaning that it risks being neglected.

In 2003 UNESCO therefore adopted a new international convention: the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The aim of this Convention is to secure a sustainable future for practices, traditions, skills and rituals passed down over generations. The Convention has been recognised around the world and 177 countries have ratified it in just 15 years!

Why protect living heritage?

UNESCO has noted that ICH is extremely vulnerable, and there are unfortunately many examples of intangible cultural heritage at risk, or even already lost. ICH has been threatened by globalisation, commercialisation and individualisation, and UNESCO as well as many NGOs and other organisations are eager to ensure that ICH and cultural diversity are safeguarded around the globe.

What can libraries do?

Generally, initiatives for safeguarding ICH include identification and documentation. Indeed, this may often be the first step in the process – the development of records, or an inventory. This is a natural strength of libraries.

So one of the best ways of understanding the role of libraries is by showcasing some of the great examples of collections from around the world. Libraries can make people and their heritage visible and help them pass it on to future generations.

Like the National Library of Sri Lanka whose ICH collection includes Sinhalese folklore, tales, legends, customs and ceremonies and other parts of the culture that can be recorded, but not touched.

Or the National Library of Australia which has pledged to enrich the cultural life of Australia by collecting, preserving and protecting records of the oral history with interviews, records of music and environmental sounds.

Or CERDOTOLA in Cameroun which has programmes focusing on preserving African languages, arts and food.

The list is long, these libraries are just a few of many who contributes to the safeguarding and preservation of ICH. All are also members of IFLA’s network of Preservation and Conservation Centres.

Governments should be supporting libraries in this work!

The Convention itself requires Member States to establish documentation institutions for ICH and facilitating access to them (Article 13). This is an important point for the library community, which can draw on government commitments in advocacy work.

In the General Assembly, several Member States highlighted the importance of capacity building and getting experts and NGOs involved. The Secretariat of the Convention in turn stated that good safeguarding practices needs to be highlighted, and a working group under the Secretariat is creating a survey to be send to thousands of organisations to help them understand how intangible cultural heritage can best be safeguarded and preserved.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for this survey, as it is clear that libraries can take an active role in this, contributing to safeguarding and preserving the world’s intangible cultural heritage and fostering cultural and creative diversity and social cohesion.