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Minutes Executive Committee MeetingHelsinki, Finland, 12 March 2005 |
(Approved by Council)
These Minutes have been approved by the EBLIDA
President.
Participants: Berndt Fredriksson, Tommaso Giordano, María Pía González Pereira, Britt–Marie Häggström, Pedro Hípola, Marian Koren, Helena Patricio (on behalf of Antonio José da Pina Falcâo), Disa Svenskberg, Jan Ewout van der Putten, Finn Vester.
Invited Observers: Sue Brown, Sinikka Sipila, Saara Ihamaki.
1. Opening and announcements
Jan Ewout van der Putten opened the meeting and thanked the Finnish colleagues for their support and cooperation.
Sinikka Sipila (Finish Library Association) welcomed the EBLIDA Executive Committee to Helsinki and wished its members a pleasant meeting and productive discussions.
Disa Svenskberg thanked Sinikka Sipila, Saara Ihamaki and Tuula Ruhanen for their support and cooperation in the organisation of the EBLIDA meetings.
Frode Bakken, Antonio José da Pina Falcâo and Winnie Vitzansky notified the Secretariat of their impossibility to attend the meeting. Antonio José da Pina Falcâo (BAD) was represented at the meeting by Helena Patricio.
The Agenda was approved.
The Minutes were approved with the following amendments:
Berndt Fredriksson requested to add the following to Item 11. Cooperation with other organisations:
ICA covers a broad spectrum of issues essential for the development of the profession of Archivists. Cooperation with EBLIDA is positive since the tasks of the two organisations don’t overlap and complement each other.
The Executive Committee agreed that the List of Actions included as an Appendix to the Minutes was an excellent means of keeping track of actions to be taken.
María Pía González Pereira suggested updating the Draft Work Programme 2004 – 2005 with recent developments regarding the EBLIDA Workshop on Open Access planned for the autumn 2005. LIBER is organising a similar event on 20 – 22 October in Geneva.
María Pía González Pereira has contacted LIBER in order to seek cooperation between both organisations. The organisers of the LIBER event have welcomed the proposal of EBLIDA to cooperate with them and perhaps to sponsor some sessions at the October event.
The Executive approved the inclusion of this issue in the Draft EBLIDA Work programme 2004 – 2005.
6. EBLIDA Finances: Draft Budget 2005 & Financial Statement 2004
Financial Statement 2004
Klaus Peter Böttger thanked María Pía González Pereira for the financial results of 2004. The estimations made for the Draft Budget 2004 were very accurate and in spite of a few drawbacks the final result of 5.494 Euros is very positive.
Jan Ewout van der Putten also congratulated María Pía González Pereira for the result of 2004. The net result abovementioned will be added to the EBLIDA capital.
Draft Budget 2005
María Pía González Pereira explained the different issues which need updating, especially since the recent changes in staff at the Secretariat because of the resignation of the Administrative Assistant at the end of February 2005.
The Executive approved Sue Brown’s recommendation to reflect in the Draft Budget the actual costs for the position of the Administrative Assistant and in Temporary Employees the costs for hiring a new person through an employment agency (‘Uitzendbureau’).
The estimations for 2005 reflect a potential deficit result by the end of the year, partly due to the static membership basis, partly because of the non-involvement of EBLIDA in further EC funded projects.
After detailed discussion of the data and figures, the Executive Committee approved the current Draft Budget 2005, although María Pía González Pereira will produce an updated version including the amendments abovementioned.
7. EBLIDA Membership Working Group
Pedro Hípola summarised the group’s meeting in The Hague on 14 December 2004. As a result of that meeting it was decided to organise a working meeting in Krakow on 31 March – 1 April 2005 with the new EU countries’ representatives of national Library and Archive Associations and Institutions. Due to the short time between the Executive Committee meeting in Helsinki and the proximity of the next annual Council meeting and elections, the Executive decided to recommend to the new Executive Committee to hold the meeting in Krakow in the autumn.
Discussion aroused about the need to debate the possibility to change the EBLIDA membership conditions.
Britt-Marie Häggström said that times change and EBLIDA could consider the possibility of opening up the Full membership to the Institutions too.
Klaus-Peter Böttger agreed on the need to assess if the EBLIDA membership structure is still valid after 12 years of existence and the recent Enlargement of the EU.
Jan Ewout van der Putten said that the new Executive Committee will have to review the EBLIDA Strategy after the Council 2005 and this might be an issue for them to take into account on that process.
The Executive decided to discuss this matter during the next Council meeting in Cork and more in-depth within the EBLIDA Working Group on Membership issues.
The membership Working Group suggested that the Finnish Library Association could organise a major library event during the Finnish presidency of the EU with the support of EBLIDA. Sinikka Sipila agreed with this suggestion and will look into this possibility.
After discussion the Executive Committee agreed that there is a need to renew the sense of need of EBLIDA, especially in the new EU countries. The EBLIDA membership Working Group will work more in-depth on these matters, which will also be discussed at the next Council meeting in Cork.
9. Cooperation with other organisations
ICA (International Council on Archives)
Berndt Fredriksson commented on the next meeting of the Steering Committee Section for Professional Associations of ICA and briefly described the matters that will be discussed in Gerona (Spain) in April. He announced a next ICA meeting to be held in Dubai during summer 2005 (See also Draft Agenda for the Steering Committee meeting enclosed).
Sue Brown reported to the Executive Committee on the presentation by Prof. Ragnar Andreas Audunson (President EUCLID) during the EBLIDA PEG (Professional Education working group) meeting held the previous day in Helsinki. EUCLID have resolved their administration operations and it was agreed that cooperation between EUCLID and EBLIDA should have a purpose and not be limited to mere updates. Prof. Audunson invited EBLIDA representatives to participate in the Workshop in August in Copenhagen about LIS curricula. Members of the PEG will probably be able to attend.
eIFL
María Pía González Pereira reported to the Executive Committee on her recent meeting with the eIFL representatives Monika Segbert (member of management Board) and Rima Kupryte (Director) and transmitted their proposal to cooperate with EBLIDA on European lobbying issues, e. g. copyright and related rights, Open Access, etc. Monika Segbert will send a written proposal to María Pía González Pereira.
Tommaso Giordano said that before eIFL work has been focusing on developing countries in Africa and East Europe helping libraries in their negotiations with publishers on electronic resources. Although it seems they are expanding their activities since the creation of their office in Rome.
After discussion the Executive Committee decided to wait until the Director receives the eIFL proposal in written, while monitoring their activities. Cooperation would be welcome given that their mission does not overlap the EBLIDA established role at European level (See eIFL Summary paper enclosed).
10. EBLIDA Annual Council 2005 and Elections
Based on the proposed Draft Agenda for the Council meeting in Cork, the Executive Committee members discussed about the best timing to hold the Discussion groups’ meetings and the Elections for the term 2005 – 2007.
After discussion the Executive decided to hold the discussion groups’ meetings on Friday afternoon in order to allow enough time for all the participants to debate relevant policy matters and formulate recommendations to the Council. The Discussion groups’ topics shall be connected with the current EBLIDA Working Groups.
There will be 5 Discussion Groups on different topics: WTO matters; Copyright & related rights; Professional Education; Membership & Institutional matters; Culture. Each group will count on a Spokesperson belonging to an EBLIDA Working Group or to the Executive Committee, who will present a preliminary paper in order to focus the discussion and report back to the Council in plenary meeting.
It was also agreed by the Executive members to ask María Pía González Pereira to keep the formalities (e. g. Annual Report, Financial Statement & Draft Budget, Annual Work Programme, etc.) as short as possible and to present the reports on lobbying issues only in written, instead of presenting them during the Council as has been done in the past.
EBLIDA annual Council meeting in autumn
Concerning this Danish proposal, after discussion the Executive Committee decided to keep the yearly Council meeting in May, and to present a draft budget for the coming fiscal year for approval by the Council.
11. EBLIDA Working Groups
EBLIDA Copyright Expert Group (CEG)
María Pía González Pereira commented the most recent actions taken by EBLIDA on copyright & related rights’ issues. She also reported on the summary of the last CEG meeting in Cambridge (3 – 4 March 2005) provided by Toby Bainton. The Executive Committee approved that Toby Bainton (SCONUL, UK) is appointed the new Chair of the CEG. He will be in charge of reporting on the CEG meetings to the Director and the Executive Committee.
PEG
Sue Brown reported on the meeting held in Helsinki on 11 March 2005.
World Trade Organisation (WTO) Working Group: the GATS Seminar in Cambridge
After discussion the Executive Committee agreed that further to the GATS Workshop held in Cambridge on 2 – 3 March 2005, the WTO Working Group members are requested to produce written results in order to disseminate information and raise awareness among the EBLIDA members on the implications of this matter to libraries, educational and cultural institutions.
The Executive also agreed that the Director should be closely involved in the organisation of this kind of events and, although the Workshop meant an important expenditure for EBLIDA and no income was generated, workshops are important means for the dissemination of knowledge on relevant policy matters among the members so they can also act at national level when required.
12. Information on lobbying and monitoring issues
Open Access
María Pía González Pereira said that it would be convenient to write an EBLIDA Position on the Open Access matter, especially in response to the study being prepared by the EC on scientific publications. The Executive Committee supported the recommendation.
Sinikka Sipila commented on the PrepCom meeting she attended in Geneva in preparation for the WSIS meeting in Tunisia in November 2005. One of the main issues discussed in Geneva was the one about Internet governance. There will be another meeting in Geneva in September in order to continue discussion about this. Proposals coming from NGOs are not directly accepted so the way to lobby is via national Governments. For more information see: http://www.itu.int/wsis.
Sinikka Sipila also announced the next IFLA Conference at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, to be held on 10 – 11 November, previous to the WSIS summit.
WIPO Treaty on Access to Knowledge (A2K)
María Pía González Pereira attended a meeting in Geneva convened by several NGOs in order to discuss the possible content of a new WIPO Treaty on Access to Knowledge. At the WIPO General Assembly held from 27th September to 5th October 2004 the governments of Argentina and Brazil submitted a proposal for the establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO. The two day meeting in Geneva reviewed the status of the WIPO Development Agenda and proposals for a possible treaty on Access to Knowledge. Issues discussed were: the Development Agenda proposal for an instrument on sharing access to government funded research; proposals for minimum global limitations and exceptions in the area of copyright; emerging issues for access to knowledge including the control of anti-competitive practices, the open access publishing movement, promotion of open source/free software, and proposals to address problems of patents on (Internet and other) standards, and on public goods like the Hap Map or Human Genome databases. The meeting also allowed time for discussion on strategy and the appropriate forum for the promotion of an Access to Knowledge (a2k) campaign.
IFLA submitted a Paper on Library-related Principles prepared to be taken into account concerning the International Development Agenda of the WIPO. EBLIDA has been asked to subscribe it. The Executive Committee will asses this possibility and if EBLIDA should continue involvement on this matter.
CALIMERA
It was decided that if a new proposal for EBLIDA to become involved in a new EC funded project comes along, the Executive will asses then this possibility.
13. EBLIDA Website
Mika Book (KAAPELI) was requested to provide more detailed statistics of the EBLIDA website. Apparently there is a need for EBLIDA to buy specific software in order to do this. María Pía González Pereira explained that while improving the EBLIDA website design and services is a priority for EBLIDA, buying new software at this moment is not. The Executive Committee agreed that this could be done later if needed.
14. Any other business
Finnish request for EBLIDA action: UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity
Sinikka Sipila (Finnish Library Association) notified the EBLIDA Secretariat about the UNESCO resolution to draft an International Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions (Resolution 32C/34), and requested EBLIDA to react in line with the EBLIDA Strategy 2004 – 2007.
Sinikka Sipila submitted a document on the UNESCO Draft Convention on Cultural Diversity.
After discussion the Executive decided that María Pía González Pereira analyses the UNESCO document and comment back to the Executive members on recommended actions. When EBLIDA decides on any action on this regards, IFLA will be notified.
15. Next meeting
The Executive Committee will hold its next meeting in Cork on Thursday 12 May 2005, previous to the annual Council meeting.
16. Closure
Jan Ewout van der Putten thanked the Finnish Library Association and the Executive Committee members for their work and cooperation.
The meeting was closed.
Created:
3 May 2005Last updated: 22 July 2005