Minutes Executive Committee Meeting, 8 May 2003, Uppsala, Sweden

After discussion, the Executive Committee agreed that EBLIDA savings policy is that of keeping our money in our bank accounts as a reserve.
 

Lobby activities  

11.    European developments on Culture Policy

María Pía González Pereira explained the new issues coming up from the European Union in the field of Culture: review and two-year extension of the programme Culture 2000 and public consultation launched by the European Commission; Cultural Heritage projects; Cultural Industries.

The Director also proposed to create a new EBLIDA Working Group on Culture in order to better tackle these broad subjects in the future.

Mogens Damm and Britt-Marie Häggström agreed that the Working Groups qualify and spread the work of EBLIDA and therefore supported the creation of a Culture Working Group.

Jan-Ewout van der Putten and Klaus-Peter Böttger enquired about the focus for a Working Group on cultural issues.

María Pía González Pereira supported the proposal by stressing the importance to act at an early stage on all the new culture-related issues launched from the EU Institutions and the new transnational projects that will be funded by the European Commission, dealing with cultural heritage and involving as well the new accession countries.
She also commented the possibility that the European Convention and a future review of the Treaty could go further in the cultural policy scope.

After discussion, the Executive Committee asked the Director to present a position paper on this issue at the Executive Committee in the autumn.
 

Item 12.    Lifelong Learning: Progress report

Britt-Marie Häggström explained that, after six years of persistent work, the CONFINTEA meeting, that will take place in September in Thailand, will have a special place in the Agenda for a Workshop on the role of Libraries and Archives in Lifelong Learning. The President of EBLIDA is invited to speak at this event.

13.    GATS and Libraries

Mogens Damm said that this issue is a priority for EBLIDA to follow.

Britt-Marie Häggström explained briefly the current situation of this issue in Sweden and suggested that country reports on this subject could be sent to the EBLIDA Secretariat as background information to be put on the website.

Winnie Vitzansky suggested creating awareness in the public and lobbying the national negotiators.

It was agreed by the Executive to listen to Frode Bakken and Kjell Nilsson presentation on GATS at the EBLIDA Council and take this into account for a future decision on action.
 

14.    DRMS, EBLIDA Policy statement and progress report

María Pía González Pereira explained the current status of the issue and the outcome of the workshop on DRMS held by the European Commission in March 2003.

The Executive Committee agreed that the Director monitors the developments of this issue and that EBLIDA participate in the discussions from an early stage.
 

15.    PULMAN & PULMAN XT: progress report and follow-on proposals

The Director commented the latest facts concerning the PULMAN project. The third cost claim (November 2002), rejected at a first stage, is expected to be approved shortly by the European Commission. The fourth cost claim is under preparation.

PULMAN XT is still running until 15 August 2003. The main role of EBLIDA within this project is to lead the twinning process between Library Associations throughout Europe and to maintain this information on the EBLIDA website.

María Pía González Pereira introduced to the Executive Committee a new proposal to participate in a European Project (CALIMERA), which central focus will be cultural heritage in local institutions (libraries, archives and museums).

After discussion, the Executive Committee agreed to assess this matter in-depth at the Executive Committee meeting in autumn.
 

16.    Country Reports: recent developments

Denmark

Winnie Vitzansky introduced the Danish report. The new Library Act is undergoing a review, which is expected to be finished in autumn.

The Copyright Directive was implemented in Denmark with the condition of having a review soon to assess the effectiveness between the stakeholders. The Danish Library Association has made an important preparatory work to participate on this debate. They are also planning to participate in the World Summit on the Information Society to get the library views through.

Germany

Klaus-Peter Böttger explained the success achieved by Barbara Lison through the PULMAN Workshop at the end of February.

The implementation of the Copyright Directive has affected the fluent relationships between publishers and libraries in Germany.

He also commented on the next IFLA Conference taking place in Berlin in August. The organisation work done by Barbara Schleihagen is being extraordinary and the number of participants registered so far is higher that last year.

Portugal

Antonio José da Pina Falcâo explained that the National Library signed an agreement with the collecting societies in Portugal to seek dialogue and consensus.

Spain

Pedro Hípola commented the strange situation about the implementation of the Copyright Directive in Spain. Apparently there is a temporary stop in the conversations probably also due to the local elections that will take place in May. More than 80 organisations have been discussing the issue with the Government and none of the parties seem to be happy with the results.
FESABID have contacted every Spanish representative of the University libraries and are preparing a document on the second draft of the implementation text. They have also addressed the Federation of Local Governments and they seem to agree with FESABID’s proposals to amend the second draft.

Marco Marandola has been hired by FESABID to deal with the Copyright implementation in Spain and has prepared some documents in order to address the Ministry. Some of the amendments proposed were clearly approved by the Government; for instance, they have agreed to review the definition of “private copy”.

The tourist sector seems to be stopping the process as well (right holders of audiovisual materials for hotels).

There seems to be a crisis in the Spanish associations’ system, at regional and national level. An example of this is the dissolution of ABADMEX, the Extremadura region Library Association. One factor contributing to this situation may be the increasing improvement of the library sector in the last 20 years. In view of this improvement, some professionals have felt less need for representation within an association and associations seem to be losing number of members.

Sweden

Berndt Fredriksson said that recently a debate has emerged on the drawbacks of transparency. Critics state that the consequences of transparency have created a fear to document the formation of decisions. New methods of communicating e.g. email have as an effect that official documents are not taken care of by archives to the same extent as it used to be. Considerations on the integrity of citizens also lead to the effect that sensitive but vital information is disposed of and not kept for research. These statements reflect assumptions and a fear. Still there is a need for research to find out whether they are true or not.


Britt-Marie Häggström commented the moving of Thomas Lidman from the libraries to the archives’ field. They are awaiting a replacement. She also explained that there are some changes expected in the Library Law, but it is uncertain when they will take place.

The Netherlands

Jan-Ewout van der Putten commented the worries of the local libraries because of the national problems to form a Government. Local libraries are depending on local money, which is at the same time depending on national funds.

At the moment, Information Society and Education are major themes in The Netherlands, so there could be more funds devoted to these issues; but this is as well uncertain due to the national situation mentioned before.