The organization of the library profession: A symposium based on contributions to the 37th session of the IFLA General Council, Liverpool, 1971 [Reprint 2017 ed.] 9783111645582, 9783794043095

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I FLA F I AB

FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE BIBLIOTHÉCAIRES INTERNATIONALER VERBAND DER BIBLIOTHEKAR-VEREINE FEDERAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE DELLE ASSOCIAZIONI DI BIBLIOTECARI FEDERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE ASOCIACIONES DE BIBLIOTECARIOS M E J K f l y H A P O Ä H A f l 4>EflEPAlI¿ÍH E M E J H Ï O T E H H H X

ACCOXÍMAIfltít

International Federation of Library Associations

The Organization of the Library Profession A Symposium based on contributions to the 37th Session of the IFLA General Council, Liverpool, 1971 Edited by A. H.Chaplin

Verlag Dokumentation, Pullach/München 1973

I F L A Publications Committee P. Harvard-Williams W.R.H. K o o p s

Publisher: Verlag Dokumentation Saur KG, Pullach bei München D - 8 0 2 3 Pullach, POB 148, West Germany

© 1973 by International Federation of Library Associations, The Hague Printed and bound by Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg Printed in West Germany ISBN 3-7940-4309-X

CONTENTS Preface I.

A.H. Chaplin, Introduction: general survey

II.

National and regional organizations: papers illustrating development in four continents

9 11

EUROPE

1. Czechoslovakia Jozef BoldiS, Librarians' organizations and authorities in the Slovak Socialist Republic and the development of the library profession

2.

France Jacques Leth&ve, The organization of the library profession in France and the role of the Association of French Librarians

3.

34

38

U.S.S.R. V.V. Serov, The role of the library profession and forms of its organization in Soviet society ..

6.

30

Great Britain B.I. Palmer, The development of education for librarianship in Great Britain

5.

. .

Germany (Federal Republic) F.A. Schmidt-Kiinsemiiller, The library associations of the Federal Republic of Germany

4.

23

43

Regional J.-P. Clavel, LIBER: its origins, aim, and prospects

50

ASIA

7.

Malaysia and S.E.Asia J.S. Soosai, The organization of the library profession in Malaysia

55

5

AFRICA 8.

9.

East Africa Rita Pankhurst, National and regional library organizations in Eastern Africa

61

West Africa A.G.T. Ofori, The organization of the library profession in West Africa

77

AMERICA 10.

11. 12.

U.S.A. Keith Doms, The American Library Association: current concerns and directions

85

Carroll F. Reynolds, Elizabeth A. Petgen, Bernice M. Hetzner, International activities of the Medical Library Association

91

Latin America Ana Maria Paz de Erickson, The role of professional associations in the development of agricultural librarianship and documentation in Latin America

94

III.

Organization in libraries of different types

13.

Academic Libraries Kenneth Garside, The professional organization of academic librarians

105

Public Libraries P.J. van Swigchem, The organization of our profession: public libraries

Ill

14.

IV.

International organizations

15.

A.J. Evans, Co-operation between FID and IFLA

115

16.

W. van der Brugghen, Points from the address of the FID representative

119

K.H. Roberts, The role of Unesco

120

17. 6

18.

Johanna Eggert, Activities of ISO/TC 46 - Documentation

19.

J.H. Davies, The International Association of Music Libraries

20.

J. Leymarie, The activities of the Association of International Libraries

127

A.H. Chaplin, Conclusions

128

V.

124 ....

126

7

PREFACE It has been IFLA's custom over a number of years to choose for each annual meeting of its General Council a 'general theme', to be presented in a small group of papers at one, or sometimes two, of the plenary sessions of the Council. The theme chosen for the 1971 meeting at Liverpool was 'the organization of the library profession', and an attempt was made to give the general theme more weight in the meeting as a whole. An editor was appointed to collect a number of papers, to prepare two plenary sessions and to edit, after the meeting, a publication based on the contributions received. Sections and Committees were invited to include papers relevant to the theme in their own programmes. The preparatory and editorial work was supported by a contract with Unesco, which provided also for the production of an introductory working paper and the submission of a report on the results of the sessions devoted to the theme. The papers collected were not designed to form an exhaustive or systematic survey of the theme, but rather to illustrate the stages of development reached and the variety of problems encountered by professional organizations of librarians in a number of countries and regions and in the field of international co-operation. All the papers written at the editor's request for presentation at the two plenary sessions are included in this publication. Most of these deal with national or regional aspects of the theme — it was found more difficult to obtain papers on its international aspects. Two papers, on organization in libraries of particular types, were presented to meetings of sections - those of Public Libraries and of National and University Libraries. A group of papers presented to the Sub-section on Library Work with Children is being published in International Library Review, vol. 4, no. 3. One paper, on developments in library education in Great Britain, had been written originally for publication elsewhere but was included as illustrating the educational activity of an association which had been a pioneer in this field. One contribution, on co-operation between IFLA and FID, is a summary of the current position prepared after the Liverpool meeting. The general introduction and the final section summarizing conclusions to be drawn from the papers are abridgments of the preparatory working paper and the final report to Unesco respectively. The editor is grateful to all the authors of the papers for agreeing to their publication in a somewhat abridged form, in order to bring this volume within the compass of IFLA's publishing programme; also for permission to print in English those papers which were originally submitted in other languages. Sets of all the General Council 1971 papers in their full original form are held by the American Library Association (Chicago), the Library Association (London), the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague), the National Szechenyi Library (Budapest), the Unesco Library (Paris) and the Zentralinstitut fur Bibliothekswesen (Berlin, DDR). London, May 1972.

A. H. Chaplin 9

I INTRODUCTION - GENERAL SURVEY A. H. Chaplin Scope of the theme In order to devise a programme appropriate to an IFLA meeting and limited to what could be discussed in the time available, it seemed desirable to give the theme a somewhat restricted definition. Attention is therefore directed in the papers which follow not to the internal organization of libraries or to the organizations which provide and administer them, but to the organizations created by librarians among themselves for mutual support and for improving their services to the community. It is organizations of this kind that constitute the membership of IFLA, and it is largely through them that, over an internationally ever widening field, the profession of librarianship has achieved unity and a sense of its identity. These organizations are very numerous and their character is as varied as are the types of libraries that exist and the differing traditions of librarianship that have brought them into existence. IFLA is primarily concerned with three types of organization: a) national organizations, general in scope or embracing a wide sector of the library profession; b) international organizations of librarians in special types of libraries; c) the comprehensive international federation - IFLA itself. The purpose of this study by IFLA of the organization of the library profession is to examine the role, development and prospects of library organizations, and to consider ways in which they, and particularly IFLA itself, can strengthen the profession and contribute to the growth and efficiency of libraries throughout the world. Survey of organizations As a background to the study, information on library organizations has been collected from Member-Associations of IFLA, present and past, and from other organizations to which attention was drawn in the course of the Liverpool meeting. A.

National organizations

The great majority of the national organizations included in this survey are general in scope, with membership open to all librarians in all types of libraries. The majority are non-governmental voluntary associations, but in some countries — particu11

larly where the provision of libraries is primarily a concern of the state — organizations with similar functions have been initiated by the state and have the character of official institutions. Associations of general scope and membership The majority of the associations of general scope are open to both personal and institutional membership. Indeed, library associations constituted in this way may be regarded as typical of the organization of the profession on a world-wide scale. In almost all cases, the number of personal members is larger than that of institutional members, the average proportion being about five to one. There is a tendency for institutional members to be excluded from voting on policy matters or in elections for office — a tendency which has been reinforced in recent years by changes in the rules of the two oldest associations now members of IFLA, the American Library Association and the Library Association of the United Kingdom. A comparatively small number have personal members only ; only one among the general national associations surveyed — that of the DDR - has only institutional membership. Thus, as a general rule, it is the individual members who control the associations. This structure enables the associations to represent effectively the interests of librarians as members of a profession while the admission of institutions to membership brings greater financial strength, assists in the provision of educational and research facilities, increases the probability that personal members will have opportunities to take part in the association's activities, and enables various forms of inter-library cooperation to be organized by the association. The national associations show varying degrees of complexity in their internal structure, reflecting variations in the numbers and types of libraries in different parts of the world, but following a fairly consistent pattern. In this pattern of organization special units within an association are created to meet the need for communication and mutual support among different groupings of members, e.g.: a) the membership as a whole; b) members working in a particular geographical area; c) members working in a particualr type of library; d) members concerned with a particular type of professional activity. These units may be committees appointed by the controlling council of the association or may be divisions or sections of the membership of the association. The usual way of organizing activities which are the concern of the membership as a whole is by centrally appointed committees, dealing with such matters as professional qualifications and status; professional education; legislation and relations with government; international relations. Geographical divisions are variously known as 'Chapters' (in the USA), 'Branches' (in the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.), 'regional groups' (in France), etc. The Chapters of the American Library Association, most of which are organizations of librarians and libraries in particular states, are themselves associations — 12

the Alabama Library Association, the Californian Library Association, etc. — and their membership is not limited to members of the ALA. A special type of relationship between territorial units and the national association exists in Yugoslavia, where the national body — Savez druStava bibliotekara Jugoslavije - is a federation of the library associations of the six constituent republics. The most usual divisions by type of library are for Public Libraries and for Research Libraries (often divided into 'University and College Libraries' and 'Special Libraries'). Divisions for Children's Libraries and for School Libraries are also not uncommon. Special Libraries are sometimes subdivided into subsections according to subject interests: and in some countries particular types of special libraries have their own separate divisions, e.g. Medical Libraries (USA, Great Britain), Libraries of the Theatre Arts (France), Hospital Libraries (USA, Great Britain). In the American Library Association, divisions by type of library are, like the geographical 'Chapters', known as 'Associations': the American Association of School Librarians, the Public Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, etc. In the British Library Association organization by type of library has some special features: three committees of the Council deal with matters affecting the professional interests of members in Public Libraries, in National, University, College and Medical Libraries, and in Special Libraries; within the Association there are also voluntary Groups (still sometimes known by the older title of 'Sections') which include a University, College and Research Section, a Medical Section, a County Libraries Group, etc. There is no separate Public Libraries Section, but an annual Public Libraries Conference is held. Except in a few of the larger associations, work in relation to particular types of library activity is more usually carried out through committees than in divisions or sections. The American Libraiy Association provides the clearest example of organization by division: it has eight 'type of activity divisions'. One of them, the Resources and Technical Services Division, has four 'Sections', dealing with such important subjects as Cataloguing and Classification, and the Reproduction of Library Materials. The Council of the Association delegates to the divisions the power to act for the Association in matters falling within their scope. There is also another set of voluntary groups of members, known als 'Round Tables', which organize discussions and exchange of ideas on subjects not assigned to any of the divisions, but have no power to take action in the name of the Association. Examples of these are the Round Tables for American Library History, for International Relations and for Library Research. The British Library Association provides examples of an intermediate position between organization by committees and by divisions. Thus, members may, subject to the approval of the Council, take the initiative in forming a wide variety of groups, whose status is in principle similar to that of the ALA's 'Round Tables', authority in matters of policy being retained by a committee of the Council. 13

But the Council has shown itself willing to delegate to an active group a responsibility previously exercised by a committee: an example is the recent transfer to the Cataloguing and Indexing Group of responsibility for the revision of cataloguing rules, formerly exercised by a sub-committee of the Research Committee. Another large and highly organized association — the Japan Library Association — has one functional section defined by type of activity, the Educational Section, but has twelve committees for other special activities, including cataloguing, classification, book-selection, and documentation. The position is similar in the South African Library Association, which has (together with sections for types of libraries) a Library Training Section, but has an Education Committee and a Bibliographical Committee. The one important national association of general scope that has corporate members only — the Deutscher Bibliotheksverband in the DDR — has four sections for different types of libraries, but organizes particular types of activity through committees (Fachkommissionen), of which in 1968 there were eleven. Associations of limited scope and membership In many countries library associations of limited scope and membership exist side by side with a national library association of general scope. Such associations may be limited to a) libraries of a particular type; b) librarians with a particular kind of training and qualification; c) libraries and librarians belonging to a particular national, linguistic or ethnic group. They may be linked in various ways with the general national association, through an advisory co-ordinating body, by joint conferences, by affiliation, or by integration in the national association as divisions or sections. Associations limited to a particular type of library form the largest category. The most usual groupings of libraries are: Public Libraries, Research Libraries, Special Libraries. These are the same categories that most often constitute divisions or sections within the national associations. In the USA, where a number of associations of special types of library (mentioned above in paragraph 12) are at the same time Divisions of the ALA, there are also important special associations which are independent, e.g. the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Libraries Association, and the Special Libraries Association (these three are all member associations of IFLA, the first two are also linked with the ALA by affiliation). Examples of other forms of relationship are found in the Netherlands, where librarians who are members of the Public Libraries Association (Centrale Vereniging voor Openbare Bibliotheken) now enjoy full rights of membership in the general association (Nederlandse Vereniging van Bibliothecarissen); and in Denmark, where the Association of Research Libraries (Danmarks Videnskabelige og 14

Faglige Bibliotekers Sammenslutning), which is a Member-Association of IFLA, operates as a Group within the Danish Library Association. On the other hand, it was reported in 1969 that the Danish Association of Librarians in Public Libraries, previously also a Group, had decided to withdraw from the general association. Organizations with institutional members only are found more frequently in this category than in those of general scope. Examples are the Association of Research Libraries (USA), the Deutscher Büchereiverband, Danmarks Videnskabelige og Faglige Bibliotekers Sammenslutning, the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) in Great Britain, and the Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres (IASLIC). In the Federal Republic of Germany, where there is no comprehensive national association, there are associations of librarians with different training and qualifications — the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare, whose members have a combined academic and professional training and usually work in academic and research libraries, and the Verein der Diplom-Bibliothekare an Wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken, who have a less advanced academic training. These associations meet together annually in a joint conference, the 'Deutscher Bibliothekartag'. There is also an association of public libraries (the Deutscher Büchereiverband) with corporate members only (the authorities providing public libraries), and an association of librarians working in public libraries (Verein der Bibliothekare an Öffentlichen Büchereien) with personal members only, as well as an organization for special libraries (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Spezialbibliotheken). All five organizations are linked in the 'Deutsche Bibliothekskonferenz'. In several countries there are associations representing linguistic, national or ethnic groups. In Belgium there is a Flemish Association (Vlaamse Vereniging van Bibliotheek- en Archiefpersoneel) and an Association of French-speaking librarians (Association Nationale des Bibliothécaires d'Expression Française); and in Canada, a French language association (Association Canadienne des Bibliothécaires de Langue Française). It has already been mentioned (paragraph 10) that in Yugoslavia there are separate associations in the six Republics, federated in a national organization. In Czechoslovakia there are two national organizations, the Association of Czech Librarians and Information Officers and the Federation of Slovak Librarians, Bibliographers and Documentalists. In the Republic of South Africa, there are associations for ethnic groups: the Bantu Library Association of South Africa, the Cape Library Association and the South African Indian Library Association. Reports on their activities are included in the Annual Report of the South African Library Association. Objects and activities The activities of the national organizations of librarians have two main purposes:

15

1)

The development and improvement of libraries and their services:

2)

The protection of the interests of librarians and the advancement of the status and influence of the library profession.

The first is appropriate to all kinds of organizations, whether their membership is personal or institutional, whether they are general or special in scope and whether they are entirely unofficial or sponsored by governments. The second is appropriate to associations which consist wholly or mainly of personal members. The chief forms of activity are: 1) The continued education of members by the exchange of knowledge and experience at meetings, conferences and seminars. 2 ) Research on questions of library policy and techniques. 3)

Publications: periodicals, handbooks, directories, news-letters, studies embodying the results of research.

4)

Creation of standards for library services, book-stocks, buildings and equipment. Promoting co-operation and co-ordination among libraries. Representations and advice to governments on legislation and other government action for the promotion of library services.

5) 6) 7)

Training of new entrants to the profession by organizing courses and promoting the creation of library schools.

8)

Maintenance o f standards of professional qualification, either by conducting examinations and awarding diplomas, or by accreditation or approval of degrees and diplomas awarded by universities and schools.

9)

Defence and advancement of the professional status and of the pay and conditions of work of librarians.

Some o f these activities serve simultaneously both the purposes mentioned above. Educational activity and the maintenance of professional standards improve the quality of librarians and hence of the services which libraries can give. Improvement in the status and pay of librarians attracts suitable entrants to the profession in larger numbers. The professional associations thus make a positive contribution to the supply of qualified man-power for library work and development. While most of the national associations are concerned with professional education, only a minority participate directly in the award of professional qualifications. These are controlled in three different ways: 1)

2)

16

award of qualifications by the state, preparation for the examinations being undertaken by universities or by special library schools. Examples: France, Germany, USSR. award of degrees and diplomas by universities and library schools; the national association controls the standard by recognition o f the qualifications. Example: USA.

3)

the national library association conducts its own examinations and awards diplomas. Examples: Great Britain, Australia, Israel, New Zealand.

The system in Great Britain is at present in a transitional stage, with qualifications awarded by other institutions playing an increasing part (see paper 4 by B. Palmer,

The development of education for librarianship in Great Britain). B. International organizations A number of international organizations have been formed to provide a means of communication and co-operation among librarians with a common special interest. Six of these are Member-Associations of IFLA, and one is a Sub-Section.

Organizations concerned with a particular type of library (a) World-wide IATUL (International Association of Technological University Libraries) Founded in 1955 and, from its foundation a Member-Association of IFLA. INTAMEL (International Association of Metropolitan Librarians) This is an association of the public libraries of large cities. It was formed within IFLA in 1967, as a Sub-Section of the Section of Public Libraries. (b) Regional LIBER (Ligue Internationale des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche) Founded in 1971. The initiative for the creation of this association came from within IFLA: it also has a close link with the Council of Europe, from which it receives financial support. Its purpose is to provide a medium for close cooperation between the major European research libraries, similar to that provided for such libraries in America by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The future relation of LIBER to IFLA is not yet clear.

Organizations concerned with a special subject field (a) World-wide IAALD (International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists) Founded in 1955. A Member-Association of IFLA. It has both personal and institutional members. IALL (International Association of Law Libraries) Founded in 1959: joined IFLA in 1960. It has both personal and institutional members. IAML (International Association of Music Libraries) Not a Member-Association of IFLA. It has 1,200 members, in three categories: personal, institutional and associate (the last consisting of non-library members, e.g. music publishers). It holds a congress every three years and has a number of committee which meet annually. 17

AIL (Association of International Libraries) This is an association of the libraries of international organizations and is a Member-Association of IFLA. (b) Regional Association of Libraries of Judaica and Hebraica in Europe. A Member-Association of IFLA since its foundation in 1955. AIBDA (Asociación Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas) Founded at the third world congress of IAALD in 1965, this association is independent of IAALD, but maintains contact through its secretary, who is a member of IAALD's Executive Committee. Another important group of libraries — the medical libraries — have so far no international association, but maintain contact through a series of international conferences. C. The international federation Membership IFLA is a comprehensive federation of library organizations. It admits to membership library associations of all types, and also national library councils co-ordinating the work of different kinds of libraries and, where there is no national association, national libraries or governmental departments or directorates of libraries. Membership is not restricted to one organization in each country: in 1970—71 there were 82 national members in 52 countries, the largest number in one country being six (in Canada). IFLA's international members are mentioned individually in the preceding section. Associate

members

In 1964 a new category of 'Associate Members' was created. They are not associations, but individual institutions. The majority are libraries, but they include also other organizations possessing libraries or interested in libraries, and some which would almost certainly be admitted as Member-Associations if they applied for this status, e.g., in Great Britain, Aslib and the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL). These Associate Members have a status similar to that of institutional members in some national library associations: they can take part in the activities of the Federation and they contribute to it financially, but their representatives have no vote in the General Council or in elections for office. Organization and structure The General Council is the supreme controlling body of the Federation. At its meetings each full Member-Association has one vote, exercised through an offi18

rial voting delegate. The meetings are, however, attended also by additional representatives of the Member-Associations, by representatives of Associate Members and by observers. The Executive Board consists of the President, the immediate past President for two years after his retirement from office, and six Vice-Presidents, with Treasurer and Secretary ex officio and several honorary members. The President and VicePresidents are elected by the General Council, but need not themselves be voting delegates of Member-Associations. The Consultative Committee consists of the Chairmen and Secretaries of Sections and Committees, sitting with the Executive Board. With the help of a sub-committee, the Programme Development Group, it advises the Executive Board on the Federation's programme of activities. The Sections and Committees are units of the Federation similar in character to the Divisions and Sections of national associations. Sections are concerned with particular types of libraries, Committees with particular types of activities. They differ, however, in that they are not groups of members of the Federation: in origin they are sectional meetings of participants in sessions of the General Council. The continuity of their work depends on activity organized between sessions by their Chairmen and Secretaries and on the possibility — which cannot be guaranteed - that some of the librarians who are actively interested will attend General Council meetings regularly as representatives of Member-Associations or of Associate Members, or as observers. In spite of these organizational weaknesses, however, much constructive work has been and is being done by the sections and committees. Sections of IFLA and international associations There is a close parallel between the activities of Sections of IFLA and those of the international associations. Both types of organization, in addition to arranging meetings at which papers on matters of common interest are read and discussed, are active in compiling directories and guides, union catalogues and handbooks of practice, and in arranging courses. One international association (AIL) normally arranges its own annual meeting in conjunction with the General Council of IFLA; another — IATUL — holds joint meetings with the University Libraries Sub-Section. The differences between the two types of organization are that associations have a definite enrolled membership, an independent financial basis through membership subscriptions, and the possibility of independent action, while Sections do not have a definite membership and are dependent on IFLA for their financial support, but can benefit from close co-operation with other Sections and Committees of IFLA. The number of international associations is small. Two which have recently been formed, INTAMEL and LIBER, originated from initiatives within IFLA: and several of the Sections and Sub-sections of IFLA may be regarded as performing 19

the functions of specialized international associations which might otherwise have been created - e.g. the Sub-sections of Libraries in Hospitals, of Observatory Libraries, of Geography and Map Libraries, and of Libraries and Museums of the Theatre Arts. The unity of the library profession and the effectiveness of its international work might well be increased by merging the two types of organization, i.e. by inviting each existing international association (whether now a member of IFLA or not) to become a Section or Sub-Section of IFLA, and by making each Section or Sub-Section an Association. Relations of IFLA with other organizations (1)

FID

The interests of members of IFLA extend into fields where they merge with the interests of other professions. Most important among these is the field of documentation, where separate national organizations exist in almost every country, united internationally in FID. The constitution of FID is similar to that of IFLA. It has two kinds of full members: (a) National members Unlike IFLA, FID admits only one national member — an organization 'representative of documentation activities' — for each country. One of the national members (IBBD, Brazil) is also a Member-Association of IFLA. (b) Specialist members These represent 'groups of documentation specialists in particular disciplines' and must contain representatives of at least five countries. Thus they are similar to IFLA's International Members. FID also, like IFLA, has Associate Members, but unlike IFLA admits persons as well as organization to this category. Several of IFLA's Member-Associations are Associate Members of FID (e.g. Library Association of Australia, Associai^ao Paulista de Bibliotecarios, American Library Association). One national member of FID is an Associate Member of IFLA (Israel Institute of Technology); and several institutions are Associate Members of both Federations (e.g. University Library, Oslo; National Diet Library, Tokyo). Because of the similarity of their interests, IFLA and FID have long maintained relations and have been reciprocally represented at each other's conferences. Closer co-operation is being urgently considered, and progress is reported in the paper by Dr. A. J. Evans. (2)

UNESCO

For IFLA, FID and other international organizations in the cultural field, perhaps the most important relationship is that with Unesco. Unesco gives aid to IFLA's activities in two ways — by a general subvention to IFLA's finances, and by con20

tracts for particular projects — research projects, courses, seminars, etc. — carried out by Sections or Committees, or by individuals, on the recommendation of IFLA's Executive Board. (3)

ISO

Much of IFLA's work concerns the establishment of international uniformity of practice in library techniques, and is thus closely related to that of the International Standards Organization, particularly of its technical committee ISO/TC 46, which deals with documentation. Direct contact with ISO has been established through IFLA's Committee on Statistics and Standardization.

21

II

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN FOUR CONTINENTS EUROPE

1.

Librarians' organizations and authorities in the Slovak Socialist Republic and the development of the library profession Jozef BoldiS Director, Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava In every country the development of the librarian's profession falls into several stages. In the first stage leading workers in culture, science and education are mentioned in connection with library work. With the modern development of libraries the profession of librarian begins to take shape and librarians become conscious of a special professional status. The next stage is that of the gradual professionalization of librarianship ; librarians attempt to organize themselves in professional organizations of their own. In culturally and economically advanced countries this stage could be witnessed chiefly in the course of the nineteenth century. In Czechoslovakia, whose nationals achieved freedom only after the First World War in 1918, this process took place somewhat later: beginning at the end of the nineteenth century it developed fully only after the national liberation. As early as 1919 the first law relating to libraries was enacted and in the twenties and thirties a network of public libraries was gradually established: these were intended — apart from their cultural role — to help the development of librarianship and of professional librarians. In the period of socialist construction in Czechoslovakia there was a tremendous economic and cultural development in Slovakia also. As a result librarianship also developed, and a broad network of both popular and specialized libraries was created. While in 1937 there were some 2,976 libraries in Slovakia, in 1969 there were 9,121 libraries with almost 3,000 librarians. Three librarians' organizations have been formed in the Slovak Socialist Republic: 1. The Association of Slovak Librarians, now called the Association of Slovak Librarians, Bibliographers and Documentalists. It is a voluntary association. 23

2. The Slovak Library Council, an advisory body of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic. Its members are officially nominated. 3. The Section of library workers of the Slovak Trade Union of workers in art and culture: This is the trade union organization for librarians. We shall analyse the tasks and activities of these organizations. A study of the development of the librarian's profession shows that professional organizations of librarians and special authorities concerned with libraries are the main factors in the development of libraries and the library profession. The first library associations arose in Czechoslovakia in the twenties and thirties of this century. These were the Czechoslovak Library Association and the Union of Czechoslovak Librarians and Book Lovers. These had little support in Slovakia, because there were very few professional librarians in Slovakia and also because these organizations failed to realise the significance of the national principle in the organization of librarians. The first national professional organization of librarians in Slovakia was formed after the Second World War, after the liberation of Czechoslovakia from fascist occupation in 1946: it was given the name of Association of Slovak Librarians and its seat was in Bratislava. The aim of this organization was to aid in the establishment of libraries, to protect the interests of librarians and to represent the interests of Slovak librarianship in international organizations. The Association of Slovak Librarians co-operated closely with the Union of Czech librarians; in 1947 a co-ordinating committee was established to deal with questions of common interests, with library questions on a national scale, and with international contacts of librarians. Among other things this co-ordinating committee brought about the establishment of a uniform system of graduate education of librarians as well as the settlement of the question of the Slovak National Library and of the Czech National Library. The Slovak Association analysed the problems of library development, made proposals to the managing authorities, organized lectures and training courses, excursions and exhibitions, participated in library events abroad, co-operated in the establishment of libraries, published specialized literature, represented the interests of its members before official bodies, etc. Members were recruited mainly from scientific, specialized and public libraries. Gradually librarians from enterprises, schools and trade unions joined the Association. Starting from something over a hundred, membership has now grown to about 750. Rapid economic and cultural development laid ever increasing demands on libraries in Czechoslovakia. In connection with the industrialization of Slovakia and the formation of scientific and research institutions the number of libraries and documentation centres was ever on the increase. Many problems were caused by the acute shortage of qualified librarians. For this reason the Association in the first phase of its activity devoted its attention principally to the training of librarians. There was no training centre for librarians in Slovakia and the courses

24

organized by the Association were the first of their kind. Specialized courses lasted usually a month; the lectures were given by senior experienced librarians. Later, specialized courses leading to a state examination were organized at the Comenius University. The need to train librarians was so acute, however, that the Association started organizing elementary courses for unqualified people in the various regions of Slovakia. The first course of this type, for library employees from Bratislava and its vicinity, was held in March 1949 and was attended by 178 participants. It consisted of: 1. Lectures for librarians of all types of libraries on fundamental library work, general librarianship and questions of culture in general (development of writing, books and printing, cultural policy, etc.). 2. Lectures for librarians of mass libraries — popular and trade union — on the psychology of readers, on co-operation with them and on ways of acquainting them with contemporary literature. 3. Lectures for librarians of scientific libraries, on specialized library work. This was the first time in the history of Slovak libraries that so many people had gathered to study both theoretical and practical aspects of library work. The merit of this course was not only that it educated the first large group of Slovak librarians but also that it helped in the training of the first teachers in librarianship; it introduced them to the methodology of preparing and delivering lectures as well as of practical exercises. Courses of this type became the basis of a training centre for both librarians and teachers. In 1946 the Association started a campaign for the establishment of a library school in Slovakia, but the opening of the school was postponed on account of more urgent problems. It was then thought that the new Library Law would deal with the question of professional education. The efforts of the Association were ultimately crowned with success in 1950 when schools for librarians were established in Slovakia. Moreover in 1951 a subdepartment for library science was opened at the Philosophical Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava. The Association, therefore, must be given much of the credit for the creation of professional schools for librarians in Slovakia. Another task for the Association was to ensure the participation of Slovak librarians in the preparation of the Library Law which was to deal with many questions concerning libraries and librarianship. A general evaluation of the activity of the Association shows that it was responsible for the first basic steps leading to the recognition of librarians in the cultural and scientific life of the country. A progressive role was played by the Association in bringing about a rapprochement between the various types of libraries — scientific, technical and popular — for this was the condition for the creation of a uniform system of libraries in Slovakia.

25

It fell to the Association to undertake tasks for which no specialized institution was responsible: for instance, the compilation of a catalogue of Slovak book production. The following three tasks undertaken by the Association in the year 1949 are further examples: a) to complete the organizational structure of the Association and to increase its membership with the help of special officers in the individual cities and regions; b) to promote the training of librarians by organizing specialized courses and calling members' meetings in cities and regions. This programme also included standardization in library work; c) to promote co-operation with librarians in the Czech lands and in other socialist countries; d) to direct the activity of Slovak librarians towards effective aid to socialist construction and the education of the working people. Another way in which the Association of Slovak Librarians contributed to the formation of the library profession was the organization of national meetings and conferences of librarians, bibliographers and documentalists. These national congresses dealing with particular theoretical and practical questions, helped to raise the social status of librarians, and made them conscious of being members of a special profession. In the case of every specialization, every profession, it is important to have in mind its connection with world development as a whole. That is why one of the foremost tasks of the Association was to connect Slovak librarians with international life, and with library work on an international scale. At a very early stage it took steps to make international contacts, and in 1947 it was invited to the session of the IFLA General Council. Seventeen countries participated in this session and Czechoslovakia was represented by a delegate from the Slovak Association and one from the Czech Union. It may be considered a mark of confidence in Czechoslovak librarians that their delegates were elected to six IFLA subcommittees, the Czech delegate to four and the Slovak delegate to two - the committee for exchange of librarians and the subcommittee on statistics of book production. By establishing a connection between Slovak librarians and international librarians' organization, by bringing trends and experience of world librarianship into the country, by joining in the work on specialized problems of librarianship on an international scale, the Association significantly contributed to the development of librarianship and of the library profession in its own country. The traditions of the first Association are carried on by the renewed organization of the Association of Slovak Librarians, Bibliographers and Documentalists, the title of which clearly reflects the higher degree of development in librarianship. The new Association began its activities after a fairly long interruption of the activity of the original organization due to an official ruling on the question of professional associations. Besides professional librarians, bibliographers and documentalists, membership of the Association is open also to institutions. It may have, 26

besides, honorary members - distinguished personalities from home and abroad who have contributed to the development of librarianship, bibliography and information science. Voluntary librarians and auxiliary library personnel may participate in the activities of the Association through the membership of the institution in which they work. The main task of the Association is to unite its members in promoting libraries, bibliographical work and information services so that these may contribute as much as possible to the development of the economy and of culture and science. Groups are formed to serve the special interests of members. The Association co-operates with the pertinent authorities in the preparation of laws etc., protects the professional interests of its members in so far as these are assured by the laws in force and co-operates with libraries, information centres and other institutions dealing with library problems. It advises on the curricula for professional schools and courses, it organizes conferences, seminars, exhibitions, cultural and propaganda events, excursions, study trips abroad, competitions, etc. It represents its members before the public and in official circles, and is associated with foreign organizations. It has also the necessary authority for editing and publishing activity. These tasks can be fulfilled by no other body. The Association is organized in three sections: (a) the library section; (b) the bibliographic section; (c) the documentation section. The Association can also found regional organizations, district and territorial, which co-operate with the pertinent institutions and act as intermediaries between the central organs and the rank and file of the Association. In libraries and information centres where there are at least ten members local groups may be formed to be managed by the committee of the respective district organization. So far the Association has not seen fit to appoint regional authorities. It is of the opinion that organizational division according to specialization enables it to know and deal with all the specific problems of each discipline in the scope of the Association. From the beginning the Association has endeavoured to keep contact with its members through its own journal. Such ajournai was, at the beginning, the Slovak National Library, re-named The Library (Kniinka). This periodical was to devote at least half of its space to popular libraries, to which the Association, until then, had not given sufficient attention. The new Association, began, in 1969, to publish its Association Bulletin. It also publishes news and reports in the specialized review entitled The Reader (Citatel'j, and in Libraries and scientific information (Kniinice a vedeckë informácie). In the present high degree of development and differentiation of librarianship and related disciplines all the questions in this field cannot be coped with by a single organization. Central managing authorities create special institutions which fulfil an advisory role in dealing with organizational and special questions connected with libraries and information systems. One such authority is the Slovak Library Council established by the Ministry of Culture in 1953. It should be noted that in the Slovak Socialist Republic the Ministry of Culture, in terms of the Library 27

Law 53/1959, manages the entire system of libraries. In the case of specialized information a similar function is performed by the Slovak Commission for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information within the Ministry of Construction and Technology. The Slovak Library Council is an advisory organ of the Ministry of Culture in matters concerning the uniform library system in Slovakia. The Council has ten to fifteen members nominated and recalled by the Minister of Culture, on the recommendation of the pertinent organs, from among qualified librarians. The Council co-operates with government bodies in the elaboration of long-term plans for libraries. It evaluates the activity of the uniform library system and its influence in the fields of economics, culture, education and learning. The Slovak Library Council is active also in the co-ordination of individual library networks in co-operation with their governing authorities. In the fulfilment of these tasks it co-operates with the Association of Slovak Librarians, Bibliographers and Documentalists. In co-operation with the Association it also participates in the activities of IFLA and keeps in touch with library associations abroad. Another organization that contributes to library development and the promotion of the library profession has been formed within the scope of the Trade Unions. This is the library staffs section of the Union of Workers in Art and Culture. It aims at better social, material and cultural conditions in librariens. It also leads its members to participate in the management of libraries, and in decision making relating to working conditions and the social status of librarians. The library section of the Trade Union organization co-operates with government bodies in the preparation of various laws concerning libraries and documentation, and measures aimed at a higher effectiveness of library and information activity. Care is devoted to the staffing of libraries, especially in providing qualified librarians to village libraries, which in many cases are manned by voluntary workers. Rationalization of work, working standards, and the implementation of new technology are also among the aims pursued by the section. Attempts are being made to have an organized Trade Union group in each library to co-operate responsibly in the management of the library. The section deals also with salaries of librarians and the material conditions of their work — suitable accommodation, hygiene, and the like — and considers such questions as two-shift working, the provision of library facilities on Saturdays and Sundays, due regard for working mothers and expectant mothers, etc. It also makes proposals for special rewards to library workers. In the period of socialist construction suitable organizations have been created to deal with the complex problems of development of librarianship in Slovakia. We have described the tasks and activities of professional and specialized organizations not pertaining to any ministry or industry in particular. We have not mentioned ministerial organs which deal with the development of libraries. Experience has shown that only through a division of responsibilities among the higher authorities is it possible to ensure that the development of libraries is in agreement with the requirements of society. These authorities attend to the development of 28

librarianship and of related disciplines through pertinent laws, forecasts, development plans and co-ordination of activity within the library system as a whole, while authorities on a ministerial level attend to problems in the particular libraries within their network (activity plans, building of libraries, work co-ordination within the network, centralization and decentralization of library work, etc.). Perfecting the organization of libraries and of the library profession, improving the work of library organizations and authorities requires an intense exchange of experience and knowledge with similar institutions abroad. In developed countries library organizations have acquired experience over many years and this experience can be very useful to nations that began building their library network after the Second World War or only recently. It is, therefore, desirable that IFLA should recognize the duty of librarians' organizations and library authorities to exchange their knowledge and experience and should establish a centre to which these organizations can regularly send reports on the forms of organization and methods of work that they use in the fulfilment of their tasks. Such reports would be edited by IFLA and sent to all its member associations.

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2.

The organization of the library profession in France and the role of the Association of French Librarians Jacques Lethève Conservateur en Chef, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Vice-Président, Association des Bibliothécaires Français The complexity of the administrative situation with regard to libraries and librarians in France sometimes surprises our foreign colleagues. But this complexity is due at one and the same time both to the historical absence of any links between the different libraries and to the centralization which took place in 1945 but which has remained incomplete. The creation in 1945 of a Directorate of Libraries, attached to the Ministry of National Education, represents an important date. Following French administrative custom, it was to bring about the centralization of the administration of the large libraries and it gave to the library profession a unity which it had lacked. The creation of such a Directorate was moreover in accordance with views expressed on several occasions by the Association of French Librarians, even as far back as 1906 at the founding of the Association. The founders of the Association had wished to group together all those working in libraries of all types and at all levels, and in this way to give them an awareness of the unity of their aims and of the special characteristics of their profession. The Association set itself the task of making these characteristics known to the public as well as to the official authorities. It demanded both the introduction of diplomas guaranteeing professional competence and the creation of central committees for co-ordination and consultation. Above all, it wished to defend the social and material interests of all librarians. The Association has remained faithful to this mission. It cannot be denied, however, that the creation of certain official bodies which it had hoped for, in particular the Directorate of Libraries, has transformed and diminished the role which it had so long been alone in sustaining. But the fact that many libraries in France — private libraries and even some official ones — do not come under the protection of the Directorate allows the Association to retain its character as the body concerned with maintaining the integrity of the profession. The care of the material interests which it had looked after in difficult conditions before the Second World War was to a very large extent taken from it when, at the same time as the Directorate of Libraries came into being, the existence of professional trade unions was recognized and their role defined by law. According to the Statut Général de la Fonction Publique, drawn up at this same time, the trade unions are the only bodies competent to send representatives to committees on salary scales, which are made up of an equal number of representatives of the administration and of 30

the employees. One of these committees (commission technique paritaire) is concerned with the administrative structure of libraries and with staff conditions. Another committee (commission administrative paritaire) looks after the interests of staff in matters of promotion and transfer. A modus vivendi has been established between the Association and the professional trade unions which, with different political affiliations and often attached to Centrales de Fonctionnaires, are at present seven in number. The Association, free from all political or religious affiliations, is therefore more able to intervene in negotiations of a purely statutory nature or when the interests of individuals are involved. But it supports the claims of the trade unions when these are concerned with the general interests of the profession. Thus recently it has had a representative on the group set up to investigate what reforms are needed in professional training. It also endeavours to support librarians in the private sector who, because of their administrative situation, are often left outside the scope of official arrangements. In order to understand better the nature and limits of the role that the Association can play with regard to the profession, it is useful to outline the present organization of libraries in France. One can say that these belong to three sectors: 1) libraries attached to the Directorate of Libraries (the exact title of which is: Direction des Bibliothèques et de la Lecture Publique)', 2) libraries in the public sector not attached to the Directorate; 3) private libraries. The Directorate constitutes one of the Directorates of the Ministry of National Education, alongside, for example, Direction des Enseignements Supérieurs, Direction de l'Equipement scolaire. It has at its head the Directeur des Bibliothèques de France, who is at the same time — that is, since the creation of the Directorate in 1945 - the Administrateur général de la Bibliothèque nationale, at the moment, M. Etienne Dennery. He is assisted by three General Inspectors of Libraries. The Directorate includes purely administrative and financial services and also a service technique whose role is to co-ordinate the work of the libraries dependent on it. These libraries belong to several categories: a) Bibliothèque nationale; b) the libraries of certain large scientific establishments (for example, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, the Ecole Polytechnique, the Observatoire de Paris; c) university libraries; d) certain municipal libraries; e) central lending libraries which exist in a certain number of departments. It must be emphasized, and this is very important in order to understand the situation of librarians in France, that since the creation of the Directorate, all 31

librarians make up one body of workers (as do all library assistants and all nonprofessional workers in libraries). In other words, whatever the category of library, it is administered by a staff having the same qualifications, with the same career prospects, able equally according to circumstances to pursue their profession in a large public library, in a university library, or in the Bibliothèque nationale. The unity of the professional body, regulated by a law of 1951, most recently revised in 1967, suppresses all differences — differences which exist in many countries — between librarians working in a library at the scientific level and those in a public library. They are all involved in a career of the same sort. Though all designated "conservateur", they can climb the ladder of the second and then the first class, and eventually reach the higher positions of 'conservateur en chef,'. The standard of recruitment is high, since they must graduate from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Bibliothécaires, entry to which is completed for by graduates. A certain number of 'conservateurs', on the other hand, are trained at the Ecole Nationale des Chartes, from which come also archivists and museum personnel. In fact, many libraries in the public sector do not come under the Directorate of Libraries, and because of this, are regulated differently. Only the municipal libraries designated classées (generally speaking those of large towns like Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Mulhouse, etc.) have staff who are civil servants. In the others the staff are local government employees, not only in the less important towns, but also, paradoxically, in Paris. The City of Paris, has its own library service including not only the district libraries, which are developing rapidly, but also several establishments of a more scholarly type, such as the Bibliothèque Forney or the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris. School libraries as well are completely independent of the Directorate of Libraries. They are, however,like the Directorate, controlled by the Ministry of National Education, but are attached to the Direction des Enseignements Scolaires. Finally, some other librarians, while being civil servants, are not within the control of the Directorate of Libraries: these are the librarians in ministries or in organizations like the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, the Assemblée Nationale, and many others. The qualifications these librarians need are very varied. There remains also the private sector, rather difficult to demarcate, in which librarians have often uncertain professional qualifications and sometimes no qualifications at all: libraries of businesses having the character of centres of documentation or designed for staff recreation, hospital libraries, libraries of cultural centres, popular libraries associated with religious denominations. For librarians in this third sector, the Association, which promoted the creation of an official Certificate of Aptitude for Library Work, continues to provide a minimum training leading to a diploma which is recognized by the small establishments.

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The Association thus plays a complementary role in the areas outside the scope of the official bodies. Its independence allows it to pose problems and as far as possible to study them and in spite of insufficient resources to arrive at solutions. But in the international field IFLA finds itself in a sense in the same position with regard to government authorities. It can only propose lines of advance, without constraining any countries to follow them. In a country like France, with its reputation for strict centralization, the existence of a number of sectors side by side with those of the state no doubt represents a weakness where efficiency is concerned. At least it has the merit of preserving certain experiences, and perhaps needs, which have hitherto preferred to find independent expression.

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3.

The library associations of the Federal Republic of Germany F. A. Schmidt-Kiinsemiiller Librarian, University of Kiel, President, Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare The variety and multiplicity of library associations in the Federal Republic of Germany has often been criticized, and has been seen as mirroring an unnecessary German tendency to separatism. There is surely much truth in this criticism and we are at pains, as I shall show, to counteract this fragmentation. One must not, however, ignore the historical causes which have led to this development. Germany is one of the oldest countries with forms of library organization. Librarians came together here along time ago. New associations have been formed in the course of time, and this process continues today. There are two main reasons for this variety of library organizations. One is the rather marked separation, unknown in other countries, between learned and public libraries. This has historical causes. Since the learned libraries, including especially the state and Land libraries, the university and certain town libraries, are older and more bound by tradition than the public libraries, librarians were trained in them much earlier. The difference in age of the types of library has led to separate training of the librarians. The state-run training for academic librarians began in 1893, after numerous earlier stages going back to the early nineteenth century. For librarians of public libraries, who first called themselves 'people's librarians', it was introduced only in 1909, along with the training of 'diploma librarians' in academic libraries. Yet even this common element was abolished between the world wars, and only very recently has the attempt been made to co-ordinate again the training for the two categories in some degree. There is further the differentiation in the field of academic librarianship between several categories of staff, with separate types of training. There is the so-called 'higher' service (hdherer Dienstj, the librarians with academic training and two years'qualifying practice. Then there is the so-called 'elevated' service (gehobener Dienst); these are the diploma librarians who have passed grammar school with the Abitur and subsequently had two to three years' library training. Nowadays there is also the 'middle' service, library assistants with primary and secondary school and two years' appropriate library training. In the public libraries there are only two categories of librarians, diploma librarians and library assistants. Finally one must distinguish between the purely professional organizations which represent their members' interests regarding training, salary classification and remuneration, and the bodies which concern themselves with the tasks and problems of librarianship. It may be mentioned here that there are mixed types as well.

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All these distinctions must be borne in mind, if one is to understand the multiplicity of library associations in our country, whether one is in favour of it or not. The oldest association in our country is the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare (VDB). It was founded in 1900 and unites the librarians of the 'higher' service, the academically trained librarians. Today it numbers almost 900 members. It was and is primarily a professional organization. It has recently opened the way to the formation of regional divisions. Regional associations of academic librarians existed hitherto only in a few federal Länder (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saarland), pursuing aims of salary policy. Since our country by reason of its federal structure lacks a central body for library problems, the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare has for long concerned itself with subject problems in librarianship and has been operating, in conjunction with the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft¿something like a federal German library policy. The association has today fourteen committees for special fields such as cataloguing rules, library architecture, library law, inter-library loan and union catalogues, problems in incunabula and manuscripts, official publications, newspapers, library binding techniques and book restoration. The maintenance of all these committees, however, exceeds the financial capacity of an association of personal members, and hence it is planned to found soon a society for German academic librarianship which will take over these committees and devote itself in general to the pursuit of subject problems in librarianship. This is already being done for the concerns of some types of library through the Working Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft) of University Libraries, the Working Association of Regional Libraries (state, land and academic libraries) and the Working Association of Government and Parliamentary Libraries, which are attached to the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare. To this category belongs also the Working Association of Special Libraries, which is, however, an independent body, uniting in particular the libraries of research institutes and industrial and trade enterprises. This working association was founded in 1946 and is closely connected with the parliamentary and governmental libraries as well as with the German documentation centres. Linked by subject, but without closer connexion with the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare, are the Working Associations of pedagogical libraries, of Catholictheological libraries, of the archives and libraries of the Evangelical Church, of music libraries, of medical libraries, and finally the Working Association for law librarianship. These are not true associations, but loose groupings of libraries in particular fields or of specialist librarians of similar outlook for the discussion of questions of common interest. Closely linked with the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare is the Verein der Diplombibliothekare an wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken (VdDB), founded in 1948. It is purely a professional association for the representation of the interests of the diploma librarians in academic libraries. Questions of training and remuneration are in the foreground; at the same time the association is concerned with the 35

professional further education of its members (more than 1500). It is divided into Land groups. The two associations of librarians in academic libraries (VDB and VdDB) jointly organize the Conference of German Librarians (Deutscher Bibliothekartag). In the realm of public librarianship there are also two big associations; in this case, however, a single staff association and an institutional association. The librarians belong to the Verein der Bibliothekare an öffentlichen Büchereien (Association of Librarians in Public Libraries) (3200 members). The association pursues only aims of professional policy, i.e., appropriate training of recruits, good professional further training and remuneration of members consonant with training and performance. The association has regional Land groups to represent its aims in the federal Länder. The public libraries (predominantly communal institutions), on the other hand, are members of the Deutscher Büchereiverband (Association of German Public Libraries). It was founded in 1949 at the instance of the Deutsche Städtetag (Conference of German Towns). Its task is the promotion of public libraries in the Federal Republic. For this purpose its instrument is the Arbeitsstelle für Büchereiwesen (Centre for Library Matters) in Berlin, which is attached to it and which maintains a number of working groups for the various branches of public librarianship and committees for the study of library problems. The Arbeitsstelle is also the centre for various publications in the field of public librarianship. The Deutscher Büchereiverband and the Verein der Bibliothekare öffentlicher Bibliotheken founded in 1968 a Working Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft) of Public Libraries, which co-ordinates the activities of the two bodies and runs joint annual conferences. There is moreover a whole series of regional library associations, on the level of the Länder, which serve the promotion of public library work in their areas. Of special significance among these is the Association of the Libraries of the Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, to which belong both the academic and the public libraries of this Land and which is noted for particularly lively activity. Special organizations exist for works libraries, that is the libraries maintained by industrial and economic enterprises for the education and entertainment of their employees, and for church libraries of both confessions, which again are joined in working associations and devote themselves to the cultivation of church librarianship. A first step on the road to a unified organization in the field of federal German librarianship is the Deutsche Bibliothekskonferenz (German Library Conference) which has grown naturally out of joint discussions among representatives of the major library associations. The Library Conference is still a loosely linked assembly without a legal personality, but might in future develop into an umbrella or apex association of all library organizations. To this conference belong at the moment the 36

Working Association of Special Libraries, the Association of German Public Libraries, the Association of Libraries of Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Association of Librarians in Public Libraries, the Association of Diploma Librarians in academic libraries and the Association of German Librarians. The German Library Conference co-ordinates on a voluntary basis the collaboration of these associations and has already undertaken in several committees to deal with certain questions concerning the entire German library world (general provision of literature, unified cataloguing system, library statistics). It is today the authoritative organ representing librarianship in our country. It is also responsible for the foreign relations centre for libraries (Bibliothekarische Auslandsstelle) in Munich, which arranges study visits of foreign librarians in the Federal Republic and of German librarians abroad. All member associations of the German Library Conference, with the exception of the Library Association of Nordrhein-Westfalen, are also members of IFLA. Moreover, quite a number of individual libraries are associate members. Numerous German colleagues take an active part in the sections and commissions of IFLA. Many German academic libraries have already joined the newly founded Ligue des bibliothèques européennes de recherche (LIBER). Particularly close, of course, are the ties of the German library associations with those of neighbouring countries, and here again of the German-speaking countries. Swiss and Austrians are regular guests at the German conferences and congresses, just as German colleagues regularly participate in their meetings. Lectures and talks by guests of the other countries are not rare. There are also frequent individual visits of German-speaking librarians to the neighbouring countries, for the discussion of matters of common interest, or to study newly built libraries and their organizations, and thus gain experience to be used for their own plans. There is, however, only one standing body which comprises members from all German-speaking countries, including the DDR. This is the joint Committee for alphabetic cataloguing which has worked out the new code of name-cataloguing in numerous sessions, adapting it to the international standards. The whole German library world will enjoy the fruits of this important joint task. I have drawn here a very variegated, perhaps even bewildering picture of the life and activity of library organizations in the German Federal Republic. In spite of the drawbacks entailed by such variety there are also positive factors, in that each of these associations can give clear expression to its ideas, wishes and aims. Profit and success depend in the end on the good and willing co-operation of all.

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4.

The development of education for librarianship in Great Britain Extracts from an article B. I. Palmer Education Officer, Library Association,

London

The British system of qualifying workers in the professions has grown out of part-time, often private study. Sometimes tuition has been available in the form of evening classes, or day-release classes: sometimes in the form of correspondence courses, sometimes in both forms. Under such a system the teachers are normally also part-timers doing their teaching after normal working hours in their ordinary profession. The professional association concerned with a particular group of professional workers undertakes to test the suitability of candidates for admission to the ranks of the qualified members, and does so by holding written examinations based upon a published syllabus. This is the system upon which the British method of qualification for librarianship was largely based until the last few years. A profession which is evolving is usually self-confident and its members pursue their tasks with missionary zeal. The more able and perceptive among them know instinctively what is wanted from a good professional, and are prepared to write it down upon request. The others equally instinctively recognise these men as their leaders, and are prepared to accept their views of what are and what are not appropriate things for a professional person to know. A syllabus having been produced by such people, what more natural than to ask them to set the examinations and mark the resultant scripts? So in the earlier stages of the Library Association's work as an examining body, the more able and perceptive librarians became the examiners, and the profession tended to accept their findings, provided the results accorded reasonable with their own observation of the young assistant librarians caught up in the examinations. The Principal of a College which offered part-time courses in librarianship was responding to the published Syllabus of the Library Association and the requests of would-be librarians, and the pressure of this created a demand for part-time teachers. They were not creative thinkers about library education looking for opportunities to pass on their ideas: they were evoked as teachers by a situation created by the Library Association when it published a Syllabus and appointed examiners. The creative thought and the initiative was with the Library Association and the examiners, not with the teachers. Passing the examinations was, therefore, to the Chief Librarian the main thing to be asked of a candidate, and little heed was paid to the kind of course undergone by the student. Text books for the examinations were few and poor, what there were tended to be descriptions of processes known to the writer, with occasionally some observations on what he thought should be done in a given situation. Much of the study undertaken was of periodical articles in the various journals of librarianship. 38

The correspondence courses provided by the Association of Assistant Librarians brought some good sense into what could have been a silly situation, in the days when there was a published examination Syllabus but no provision for classes. For a long time these correspondence courses were conducted by senior librarians, some of whom were themselves examiners at one time or another, although never both teacher and examiner in the same subject at the same time. The correspondence courses continued to the end of 1963, when they gave way gracefully to the now highly successful full-time Schools of Librarianship. Indeed, their very disappearance made the success of the Schools even more assured, for the student librarians scattered all over the kingdom (indeed, all over the world) were now forced to take the plunge and attend full-time courses. In 1960/61, the mixture of part-time and full-time education for librarianship had reached its peak in numbers. The total number of full-time students at all the Schools of Librarianship in Britain was 300: that was about one tenth of all those currently engaged in qualifying themselves. This meant that there was an average of 30 students per School of Librarianship. The number of full-time teachers was about 25. A new Syllabus was introduced in 1964. This required from candidates the same minimum education as for admission to a university, and it required attendance at a full-time two-year course instead of six to eight year's part-time study. The courses were recognised for Local Education Authority Awards, so that students could count upon financial support to attend the longer courses. The effect of all this on education for librarianship in Britain has been phenomenal. In 1971 there are approximately 2,500 full-time students attending fifteen Schools of Librarianship: an average of 166 per School, and their studies are guided by nearly 300 teachers of librarianship. Whereas the number of part-time students in 1960/61 was in the neighbourhood of 2,000, today they probably number about 200. The output of successful students in 1960 was less than 350: in 1970 it was 1441. So much for quantity. Now as to quality. The Library Association Council did its part by producing a new Syllabus for a new situation. Recognizing the changing nature of society, and that the library students of today would be the senior librarians of the 1980's, they sought to free the Syllabus from the trammels of today's practice. For this purpose they invoked the aid and advice of the full-time teachers at the Schools of Librarianship, drawing heavily upon their combined experience. The new Syllabus was drawn in broader terms, in which (it was hoped) the fundamental ideas in librarianship were stated. Teachers now find that they can devote time to the true theory of their subjects, without a continual apprehension that they are ignoring the daily practice in library A or B or C. In classification or cataloguing the pros and cons can be explored, and promising systems which are as yet little used, or even un-used, can be examined. The student can be educated to deal not only with the traditional inherited situation, but with the emergent situation. 39

In terms of assistance to readers, the removal of emphasis on memorized descriptions of works which was once a feature of Library Association examinations has been an enlightening experience for students. This is not to say that they do not need to know the names of any books; but that these are not learned by rote. They are learned by using the books themselves. The students learn how to evaluate the various tools of bibliographical research, and how together these combine to form an apparatus of information retrieval. They also investigate the bibliographical apparatus of certain chosen fields of knowledge, and prepare their own guides to literature in a small way. For over forty years there was only one post-graduate School of Librarianship in the United Kingdom, the well known School of Librarianship and Archives at University College, London. When the new Schools started up in the 1940's, they made no special provision for graduates, but accepted any who came along for the same course as their non-graduate students. The numbers seeking places grew year by year, and the existence of a considerable body of graduate students in the local authority schools began to present a challenge to the universities. The expansion of the universities which was initiated in the fifties brought with it plans for the expansion of the university libraries. From consideration of the likely demands for more staff for these growing libraries, it was a small step to the consideration of the future needs for graduate librarians. The Library Association sought to canalize this interest by setting up a special Sub-Committee under their President Mr. Page, University Librarian of Leeds, and as a result of this, representations were made to certain universities about the need for post-graduate Schools of Librarianship. These bore fruit when, in 1964, Sheffield University took its first post-graduate librarianship students. Within a year, two more post-graduate courses were opened: one in the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow) and one in the Queen's University of Belfast. The University of Strathclyde was formed by the coalition of a group of colleges of higher education one of which contained a School of Librarianship. The School in Belfast arose out of the special needs of Northern Ireland, where library services were generally poor, and where the profession attracted few people. Each of these library schools has its own special relationship with the Library Association, and all regard themselves as part of the profession of librarianship. Because of their independence from the examining machinery of the Library Association they have been free to experiment with ideas for courses and developments in professional potentialities. The appearance of a completely new College of Librarianship in Wales was a new departure. Here is an institution whose only function is to teach librarianship, and whose whole energies are bent towards the development of library education, with none of the internal struggle for resources which must necessarily go on inside multi-disciplinary colleges. This College was set up because of the special requirements of Wales, but its development has transcended the immediate causes which brought about its birth. 40

The sudden growth in the size of the Schools, and the addition of new ones, brought formidable problems of recruitment and training of teachers. The introduction of the new Syllabus (itself the main cause of this growth) brought equally grave problems of communication between teachers and examiners. The earlier 'moderating committees' in which teacher and examiner could meet under formal conditions to exchange views paved the way to a better understanding between the teaching and examining sides, and the Council of the Library Association felt sufficiently satisfied with their utility to move further along the path of consultation. With the announcement of the New Syllabus they immediately set up 'Study Groups' for the consideration of problems of examining and teaching likely to arise when the first examinations were held. These Study Groups offered interpretations and annotations of the Syllabuses, and circulated draft examination papers, some of which were subsequently published. The experience was sufficiently rewarding to encourage the Board of Assessors to proliferate Study Groups to cope with every subject. These Groups have done an enormous amount of work to improve examining and teaching. They have also provided a common meeting ground for teachers from different Schools. In effect, the establishment first of Moderating Committees and then of the Study Groups was a tacit acknowledgement by the Council of the Association of the growing importance of the Schools of Librarianship in the scheme of things. An expressed acknowledgement was made a dozen years ago with the incorporation in an official memorandum of the statement that 'the course was at least as important as the examination'. This somewhat grudging recognition is now completely superseded by the full recognition that the course is the more important. The Chief Librarian of today asks a candidate, 'Have you been to-library school? ', whereas the old librarian would have said, 'Have you passed your examinations? '. The last quarter of a century in Britain has seen a gradual growth in confidence in the Schools of Librarianship, and a confidence which the working profession has long felt in the standards of the Library Association's examination is now extended to the Schools as well. Ten years ago there was some strong opposition to Schools sharing in the examination process: but 1966/67 saw the first internal examinations being held by Schools on behalf of the Library Association. The experiments with School assessments, the marked success of the two-year fulltime course (as shown by examination results of the School candidates) and the realization that the success rate among pre-selected candidates is unlikely to be affected whether they are examined internally or externally: these things have persuaded the profession that a step which all educationalists regard as desirable could be taken. Wisely the Council of the Library Association published the conditions under which they would receive applications from Schools, and these have proved the means of raising standards within the Schools. In 1964 as a further step towards opening up higher education to more students, the Government of Britain set up a Council for National Academic Awards (C.N. A. A.) which would be prepared to endorse the degrees awarded to successful candidates by various types of further education colleges. The development of these colleges as 41

a consequence led to many of them being grouped together to form a number o f Polytechnics, which at present function as a kind of Municipal University. All except two o f the non-university Colleges which contain a Department o f Librarianship have been designated Polytechnics. The C.N.A.A. was prepared to be nontraditional in the subjects it would accept as the basis of degree level studies and the Departments o f Librarianship were among the first in the municipal colleges to try to develop degree courses. They have been successful in doing so to the satisfaction o f the C.N.A.A., and seven courses have been approved in five Schools. The absorption of the Scottish School of Librarianship in the new Strathclyde University enabled it to experiment with the degree course earlier than the appearance o f the first C.N.A.A. course, and its first students with librarianship as first principal study graduated in 1969. A year later than this, the Loughborough Technical College School o f Librarianship found means o f co-operating with the new Loughborough University of Technology to offer a B.A. in library studies, whilst the College of Librarianship Wales was also able to announce a degree in library studies offered in collaboration with the University of Wales Aberystwyth. As each degree course was announced, whether in University or Polytechnic, the School o f Librarianship concerned immediately sought its recognition by the Library Association for exemption from the examination part of the requirements for registration as a Chartered Librarian. This was granted in each case after a visitation on behalf o f the Library Association had taken place, and agreement had been reached as to the controls (by way of representation on Advisory Committees and appointment o f external examiners) which the Library Association could continue to exercise over the standard and content of the courses. It is clearly recognized that education in librarianship is not sufficient to make a professional librarian. A period o f two years supervised practical work is needed in addition, and when this and membership requirements have been met, a graduate from one o f these Schools may apply in the same way as those who have taken the examinations o f the Library Association itself to be registered as a Chartered Librarian by the Library Association. Finally, higher degrees in librarianship have at last been promulgated, and there is a small but growing stream of Masters of Arts emerging from the Universities o f London, Sheffield, Strathclyde, Queen's University Belfast, and the University o f Wales Aberystwyth; and there is the possibility o f doctorates too.

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5.

The role of the library profession and forms of its organization in Soviet society V. V. Serov Head of Chief Library Inspectorate of the Ministry of Culture of the U.S.S.R. 1. Recognition of the importance of the library profession in the U.S.S.R. After the October Revolution of 1917 the Soviet Socialist State and Communist Party were faced with the need to introduce gigantic revolutionary changes in the policy, economics and culture of an enormous multinational country and in the achievement of these goals important tasks were set before libraries. The Soviet State always considered the book and the library to be powerful forces in the advancement of the national economy, in the communist training of the working people, and in the progress of science. Lenin emphasized the fact that socialism could not be built without universal literacy and without training the population to use libraries. He said:.'Without books, without libraries, without an efficient use of books by readers there can be no cultural revolution'. This high appraisal of the role of libraries has led to a continuous concern of the State for library development. The tempo of the development of library services is constantly increasing. During the past five years over 18,000 new public libraries have been opened and the number of library users has increased by more than twenty million people. The directives of the 24th Congress of The Communist Party of the Soviet Union on the Five-year Plan for 1971-1975 provide for the inauguration of a great number of new libraries, improvement of the technical equipment of libraries, and the enhancement of professional training. Already in the first years of Soviet power the library profession was recognized to be a specific and highly necessary educational profession. In 1918—1920 in the complicated conditions of devastation and civil war, a number of universities began training librarians on the basis of special programmes. In 1930 on the initiative of N. K. Krupskaya the first independent high school of librarianship — the Moscow Library Institute — was organized. In the U.S.S.R. the library profession is highly esteemed; the librarian is recognized as an educator of the vast masses of the population, an advocate of the most important cultural achievements and a competent assistant of scientists and specialists. In socialist conditions the library profession becomes a real social necessity and acquires the same social significance as the profession of a teacher. The rural librarian like the rural teacher is provided with free living quarters and enjoys other privileges.

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The State shows great concern for the training of librarians and for the" constant improvement of their professional skill. They receive training in 24 institutes and 127 library schools. During the past five years 21,000 librarians have graduated from higher schools and 47,000 from special secondary schools. A system of special institutions intended for the improvement of professional skill has been created. Ail-Union and republic institutes have been organized, and regional courses for the improvement of professional skill are attended every four or five years for one or two months by almost all categories of library personnel. The government's recognition of the library profession finds manifestation in the decoration of the best representatives of our profession with orders and medals. For instance, by the decree of July 3, 1971, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. awarded orders to 249 librarians and medals to 204. A number received the highest government award — the Order of Lenin. Numerous librarians have received the title of 'Honoured Librarian' or 'Honoured Worker of Culture' and many are elected as deputies in government bodies. These awards express the feelings of millions of readers and display the gratitude of those who seek knowledge and acquire it to those who generously disseminate it. Soviet librarians are highly inspired by the recognition of the importance of their work and are aware that this recognition calls for yet more efficient activities and greater endeavour in their task of utilizing the country's vast treasure-house of books to contribute to the progress of science and technology and the moral and intellectual quality of society. 2. Professional organization and co-operation of Soviet librarians While the development of librarianship in the U.S.S.R. is primarily the result of the great care of the State, it also owes much to the enthusiasm of librarians and their joint efforts to discover and implement the most effective methods of organizing libraries and encouiaging the use of books. Professional organizations of librarians do a great deal to promote this activity. The first attempts to organize librarians and bibliographers go back to pre-revolutionary days. As early as in 1889 the Moscow bibliographical circle was established; in 1900 it was reorganized into the 'Russian Bibliographical Society', and in 1908 the 'Society of Library Science', which published a journal under the title Librarian (Bibliotekar'j, appeared on the scene. In 1911 an All-Russian congress of librarians took place. Both the Bibliographical Society and the Society of Library Science brought together a very limited circle of specialists, mostly from the metropolitan area, and did not play an important part in the development of library and bibliographical activity. Nevertheless their work contributed to the elucidation of certain theoretical and methodological problems.

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After the October revolution the professional co-operation of librarians became more active. The need for closer ties and joint decisions was determined by the new problem of providing library service not only to a limited circle of the elect, as in the past, but to the whole population. Numerous conferences and congresses were organized at which librarians worked out the principles of organization, the aims and content of library activities in conditions of a socialist society. In fulfilment of Lenin's decree 'On centralization of librarianship in the RSFSR' (1920), a Central Library Committee was founded with the aim of working out principles for a centralized network of libraries in the country. The committee organized meetings of experts on different library problems and established groups of specialists to work out drafts and recommendations. In 1924 the first All-Union congress of librarians took place. The questions which were on its agenda were discussed beforehand at regional conferences. The main problem was the implementation of Lenin's legacy of making books available to the broad working masses and the co-ordination of library activities with the political, economical and cultural aims of building a new society. The first congress of Soviet librarians had a great impact on future library activities. Similar congresses were held in 1936 and 1948. During the twenties and thirties various library associations for different types of libraries, and also associations in the republics, regions and cities, were established. The most active of these was the Association of Research Libraries, which organized a number of scientific conferences on the problems of developing research libraries and on defining their place in the overall system of libraries in the country. In the last ten to fifteen years Ail-Union, republic, regional and city congresses and conferences of librarians have become a traditional form of professional cooperation. In all regions of the Soviet Union annual conferences of librarians are now organized to review the results of the previous year and determine the tasks for the next year. Annually or once in two or three years congresses of workers in the whole field of culture are organized in each Union Republic, and library sections participate in these discussions. Furthermore conferences of librarians of specific types of libraries are called — academic, technical, agricultural, medical, etc. At these large meetings serious discussions on the state of the art and the future development of librarianship take place. These conferences are mainly organized by central libraries — republican, regional, central — and by academic, research and other libraries, jointly with the administrative library bodies. A permanent way of improving professional skill and enhancing the co-operation of librarians in rural districts and cities takes the form of monthly seminars of public, children's and school libraries. An important contribution to the collaboration of Soviet librarians is made at present by interdepartmental councils on library problems, which have been set up in all the republics, regions and large cities.

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Attached to the Ministry of Culture of the U.S.S.R. is the Central Library Council, which consists of representatives of ministries and departments with library networks of their own, senior staff of the largest libraries of all types, experts in library science and bibliography and representatives of publishing houses. In May of this year the 500 participants in the Council's plenary session gave their opinion on the results of the work of all the libraries of the country during 1966— 1970 and on prospects for the development of libraries in the next five years. The plenary session adopted a document, 'Main trends in librarianship in 1971-1975', which will serve as a basis for the activities of librarians during the period indicated. The decisions of the Council's plenary sessions are sanctionated by the Ministry of Culture of the U.S.S.R. and their implementation becomes obligatory for the ministries of the Union republics and libraries dependent on them. The Council has set up a number of sections and committees, consisting of the most prominent librarians: on bibliography, interlibrary loans, library building and equipment, management, library service to teenagers, international relations. These committees have been active for many years and make substantial contributions to the theoretical and practical aspects of the profession. Interdepartmental councils on library problems in republics and regions work along the same lines. Organizations of librarians are also set up within extensive library networks. A case in point is the Library Council, which includes not only librarians, but prominent scientists as well, that has been attached to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. This Council discusses the main problems of library and information services to science and of the development of the network of academic libraries. The Ministry of Higher and Special Education has a Central Scientific o-methodological Committee, the aims of which are to work out standards for university and high school libraries, and organize courses for their staffs. The State Committee for science and technology of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. has set up an Interdepartmental Library Committee for the co-ordination of activities of research and technical libraries of different ministries and departments. Fruitful work is accomplished by the interdepartmental committee of the State Lenin Library, the committee for the co-ordination of methodological work of central libraries, the committee on research and certain other library bodies. The agricultural and medical libraries are professionally united by standing conferences of library directors. As a result of all these activities it can be said that a permanent system of professional co-operation exists in the U.S.S.R. not only within the framework of individual networks of libraries, but on a geographical basis too in cities, regions, republics and the entire country.

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A prominent role in the improvement of professional skills, exchange of experience, development of library science and bibliographical theory is played by the library press. The journal Librarian (Bibliotekar'j issued monthly in 159,000 copies is practically available to all librarians. Besides this journal other journals — Soviet bibliography, Scientific and technical libraries of the U.S.S.R., Libraries of the U.S.S.R. and other professional periodicals — are published. We are far from the idea that we have achieved perfection. In spite of extensive mutual information and collaboration, there are still examples of purely departmental approaches to problems of common interest, and it is not always easy to arrive at the necessary understanding or take joint action. There is still much to be done in organizing comprehensive professional information, in the general implementation of the achievements of the best libraries, and in improving the professional qualifications of thousands of librarians. 3. Organization in other socialist countries In other socialist countries there are different forms of organization of the library profession. Thus in the German Democratic Republic there is the German Library Association (Deutscher Bibliotheksverband), which embraces libraries of all types, and aims at developing and strengthening interlibrary co-operation in the Republic and promoting the establishment of a unified library system. This society assists librarians in improving their professional knowledge, promotes library activities and ties with cultural and educational institutions both within the country and on the international level, and represents libraries in international library organizations. The Association works out proposals and recommendations fbr governmental agencies and public organizations, holds meetings and conferences, establishes working groups, sections and committees for solving specific problems, and publishes theoretical studies and practical guides on problems of library science and bibliography. A general meeting of representatives of all libraries which are members of the society is held each year. Similar in character are the library organizations, in other socialist countries — the Society of Polish Librarians, the Association of Librarians of Hungary, the Association of Librarians of Rumania, the Union of Library Societies in Yugoslavia and others. 4. International co-operation of Soviet librarians Soviet librarians attach great importance to establishing relations with their colleagues in foreign countries. We aim at using any opportunity to exchange professional opinion, to study the latest developments in other countries. We publish two periodicals which are devoted exclusively to foreign experience. These are: Librarianship and bibliography in foreign countries and Information on foreign librarianship and bibliography. 47

We attach great significance to our participation in the work of IFLA. We aim at contributing to IFLA activities, for example by our efforts to familiarize our colleagues with developments and trends in Soviet librarianship. Co-operation of librarians within IFLA makes it possible to elaborate methods by which the libraries of the world may contribute to the strengthening of friendly relations between nations, to the development of advanced and humane principles in culture, and to the struggle against the menace of war, against social and national oppression. Through IFLA Soviet librarians receive much useful information on library experience on a world-wide basis, and establish contacts which lead to permanent co-operation. Soviet librarians aim at active co-operation with the Unesco Department of Documentation, Libraries and Archives, and though this co-operation has up till now been insufficient, there exists in our country a committee on librarianship and bibliography, sponsored by the Unesco Commission for the U.S.S.R., which organizes conferences on the most important events in the library world and on the role of Unesco in the development of libraries and bibliography. We are members of a number of international organizations: ISO/TC 46; agricultural, theatrical and musical libraries; the International Committee on Social Science Documentation. During the past ten to fifteen years Soviet representatives have participated in many international conferences and meetings of librarians held in different countries, and especially close contacts have been established between Soviet librarians and their colleagues from other socialist countries. One form of contact is the organization of bilateral seminars of librarians. Such seminars have been conducted with librarians of Czechoslovakia (1965), Poland (1966-67), the German Democratic Republic (1966-1967), Bulgaria (1969) and Hungary (1971). Each seminar is conducted in two stages: first the delegation of librarians from one country visits the other and delivers reports on the urgent problems of book propaganda in their country, and the large audience specially assembled discusses these reports. This is followed by a return visit of the former hosts to the country of their guests. Another form of co-operation is the convening — since 1967 — of annual meetings of directors of national libraries of socialist countries and — since 1962 — of conferences of representatives of methodological centres of these countries. It is also important to mention the growing number of personal contacts of Soviet librarians with their colleagues from foreign countries. By 1969, according to incomplete data, 118 librarians from 35 countries visited the Soviet Union; in 1970 there were 266 librarians from 42 countries (besides the 556 participants of the 36th IFLA Session). During the first half of 1971 our country was visited by 209 librarians from 39 countries. 48

We also aim at organizing special tourist groups, consisting exclusively of librarians. In 1969 we sent seven such groups totally numbering 168 people to seven countries. In 1970, 297 librarians visited 10 countries, and on their return acquainted thousands of librarians with their impressions. In relation to international co-operation, we have some suggestions to put forward. We believe that IFLA could do still more for the development and regulation of relations between librarians and for improving their effectiveness. Specifically, IFLA jointly with Unesco could take measures to reorganize the now practically independent international organizations of musical, theatrical, agricultural and other libraries into sections and committees of IFLA. It is hardly necessary to argue that if they became IFLA bodies the importance of these organizations would be greatly heightened, the international repercussions to their activities would be greater, and contacts and interrelations between libraries on the international level would become more effective and uniform. In view of this it is doubtful whether the creation of international regional associations would serve a good purpose. We suggest that this would not increase the authority of IFLA. The strenghtening of the ties between IFLA and the libraries of different countries with librarians of Asia, Africa and Latin America is of the utmost importance. Occasional activities of Unesco and IFLA are important, but they do not solve the problem. In this connection the Soviet librarians again put forward the proposal to establish within IFLA a special committee on libraries of developing countries. It is also necessary to stimulate the activity of international documentation centres dealing with vital problems of librarianship. National associations should be informed more extensively about materials of general interest. It appears to us that the time is ripe for IFLA to begin the publication of thematic collections of works on the more important und urgent problems of librarianship.

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6. LIBER: its origins, aim, and prospects J.-P. Clavel Directeur, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Lausanne, Président, Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche. During the last six or seven years the leading figures of IFLA have been becoming aware of the faults inherent in a large federation: too many participants at the Conferences and too infrequent contacts. It was in order to overcome these two difficulties, as well as that which arises from the multiplicity of languages and of varying situations in the world, that the Association of Swiss Librarians proposed in 1968 that IFLA should create a European group. The proposal was presented at the Frankfurt Conference and the IFLA Executive Council decided to entrust four librarians from Europe with the task of finding a solution. Thus came into being the provisional committee of LIBER, which comprised our colleagues Kenneth Humphreys (Great Britain), Herman Liebaers (Belgium), Friedrich-A. Schmidt-Kiinsemiiller (Germany), and the present writer in the capacity of president. When he became president of IFLA, Herman Liebaers asked that our colleague Cornelis Reedijk (Netherlands) be admitted to replace him on the provisional committee. In fact, Herman Liebaers was able to give us his assistance up to the autumn of 1970, i.e., up to the beginning of the inaugural Conference. LIBER has further benefited from the most useful advice of our colleague Marc-Auguste Borgeaud, director of the Public and University Library of Geneva, who has not ceased to take a close interest in the preparatory work of the provisional committee and has been particularly active in sustaining the initial impetus from the Association of Swiss Librarians to bring this movement to the attention of international circles. The provisional committee came together for the first time at Brussels in February, 1969, during the opening ceremonies at the Royal Library, then in May of the same year during the meeting of German librarians at Kiel. At these meetings it was decided to adopt the name, LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche), and — to make an exploratory inquiry among 300 large libraries in Western Europe; to make contact with the Council of Europe at Strasbourg in order to ascertain the possibilities of collaboration; to define a programme of action as well as methods of work; to establish a financial plan and a timetable. At the Copenhagen Conference in September, 1969, the interim report which was presented mentioned that discussions seemed to be leading to a solution similar to that which was the basis of the American Association of Research Libraries, that 50

is to say, a grouping of libraries and not of associations of librarians. But the report did not conceal the difficulties which had been met with both in defining the project and in establishing international contacts. The winter of 1969/70 marked the decisive turning point. First of all the inquiry carried out among the three hundred libraries produced, within the time allowed, a 45% response almost unanimously positive. The creation of LIBER was awaited with impatience. The results of the consultation proved that the committee's solution was the right one; a very large majority of the replies favoured the creation of an association of libraries and asked for some regular link with the Council of Europe. To establish the link, the committee first approached the Directorate of Education and Cultural and Scientific Affairs, then, as this proved not to be the right channel, the Division of Higher Education and Research, under the direction at that time of M. G. Neumann and later of M. Victor de Pange. Here the approach was warmly welcomed, and one can say that the possibility of collaboration at once became a reality as LIBER was able to receive already in 1970 an initial financial contribution for the organization of its work. In 1970 the provisional committee came together twice. In the spring it was the guest at Lausanne of the Canton of Vaud while in the autumn it was the guest of the Council of Europe at Strasbourg. In the course of these four working days the committee was able to settle exactly the shape of LIBER, and to establish both a short and a long term programme of action. An information sheet distributed in May 1971 to all the libraries outlined the programme and announced the idea of the inaugural Conference at Strasbourg as well as details of the statutes. The nature of the relationship between the Council of Europe and LIBER was also clarified during these meetings in full agreement with the European authorities. The solution which was adopted guarantees at the same time both freedom and effectiveness: LIBER is an independent association; the Council of Europe holds a seat on the committee to ensure close co-operation. The negotiations were not far enough advanced to enable a final report to be presented to the Conference at Moscow. The reason for this was that the decisive step was not taken until the autumn of 1970 during the last meeting of the provisional committee. Indeed, it was then that the committee agreed the statutes in draft form, that it fixed the programme for the inaugural conference and established a budget within the framework of the Council of Cultural Co-operation for the year 1971. Having concluded its preparatory work, the provisional committee distributed a final communique to European libraries in January 1971, giving the details which were awaited about the Conference at Strasbourg, the list of delegates invited and the draft statutes. In this way the director of each of the three hundred European research libraries had in his hands the essential documents, and was able, if he wished, to brief the delegate from his country with his comments on the statutes and the programme of LIBER. 51

The inaugural conference which took place at Strasbourg at the seat of the Council of Europe on 17 and 18 March, 1971, brought together a representative from each of the member countries of the Council of Cultural Co-operation: Austria: Rudolf Fiedler Belgium: Frans de Vrieze Denmark: Palle Birkelund Federal Republic of Germany: F.-A. Schmidt-Kunsemuller Finland: J. Vallinkoski France: Marie-Louise Bossuat Iceland: Finnbogi Gudmundsson Ireland: Peter Brown Italy: Mario Carrara Luxemburg: Carlo Hury Netherlands: J.R. de Groot Norway: H.L. Tveter&s Spain: Manuel Carrion Gutiez Switzerland: Jean-Pierre Clavel United Kingdom: Kenneth Humphreys Absent: Sweden: Gosta Ottervik After the opening addresses given by M. Victor de Pange, Head of the Division of Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe, and by the president of the provisional committee of LIBER, the Conference considered four proposals on study projects, two of which might be the subject of a meeting of experts supported by a grant from the Council of Europe. These are the subjects: 1. An inventory of European documentation services and mechanized libraries; 2. The behaviour of the researcher in the library, a sociological study; 3. The exchange of theses and records of theses following the German plan; 4. Co-operative cataloguing and its implications. Of these four themes, the Conference decided to pursue the following two: co-operative cataloguing will be the subject of a meeting of experts in April, 1972, at Strasbourg with Dr. Kenneth Humphreys as president. A grant of 22,000 French francs was allocated in the budget of the Council of Europe for its organization. The behaviour of the researcher in the library will be the theme of a symposium to be held in the autumn of 1972 with M. Robert Escarpit as president and under the auspices of the Institute of Sociology of the Book at Bordeaux. A guarantee of 10,000 French francs has been put at LIBER's disposal for this meeting by the Council of Europe. LIBER will itself find funds to ensure the success of the symposium. At its session of 18 March, the Conference approved with some modifications the draft statutes of LIBER. Based on the provisions of the Swiss Civil Code, the statutes lay down that LIBER is an association of libraries situated in the 52

following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the Vatican. By the decision of the Executive Council membership is conferred on those libraries which subscribe annually to the publications of LIBER (90 DMs). Its organs are: the General Assembly, which in principle will meet once a year, and once in every three years at Strasbourg in order to maintain its close connection with the Council of Europe; the Executive Council, which comprises a president elected for three years by the General Assembly and six members also elected for three years by the General Assembly; the Council will include a vice president, a treasurer and a secretary. Elected at Strasbourg were: Jean-Pierre Clavel, President, Lausanne, Switzerland Palle Birkelund, Copenhagen, Denmark Mile. Marie-Louise Bossuat, Paris, France Mario Carrara, Verona, Italy J.R. de Groot, Vice-President, Leiden, Netherlands Kenneth Humphreys, Secretary, Birmingham, United Kingdom Friedrich Schmidt-Kunsemiiller, Treasurer, Kiel, Germany The Head of the Division of Higher Education and Research will attend the sessions of the Executive Council in order to ensure liaison with the Council of Europe; this was, up to this summer, Victor de Pange. In June the proceedings of the inaugural Conference, drawn up by the secretariat of the Council of Europe, were sent to 341 European libraries, with a copy of the statutes and an invitation to join LIBER. From the autumn of 1971 an information bulletin will appear which will report the results of the work undertaken by LIBER. Dr. Humphreys will be responsible for this publication. At the Frankfurt Conference of IFLA, in 1968 there was a demand for the creation of working groups to bring together libraries according to their affinities and their common problems. These groups could be freely organized and would receive the support of IFLA in order to bring into being a series of studies on essential problems; these studies should be completed within a reasonable time. (IFLA Proceedings, Frankfurt 1968, p. 60, Resolution 4) LIBER wishes to be the catalyst for these working groups within Europe. LIBER will provide a service to academic libraries only to the extent that it is able to promote these studies and to stimulate vigorously the exchange of experience among libraries of the same type. LIBER is not an end in itself and must not be satisfied with holding annual meetings or editing an information bulletin. LIBER must give a stimulus to library studies in Europe, a field in which we have lagged behind the USA. We have sufficient resources in our libraries and enough trained librarians to make up for this delay, to introduce uniformity where it is practi53

cable and desirable in the library field, to establish permanent contacts, to find solutions in common, to circulate freely and rapidly the new ideas of our profession. We hope that LIBER will be the instrument of this dynamic rebirth and that all large libraries will contribute to it in a broad spirit of co-operation and efficiency.

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ASIA

7.

The organization of the library profession in Malaysia J. S. Soosai Librarian, Rubber Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur, President, Library Association of Malaysia. The 1950s witnessed the formation of professional library associations in no less than three countries, besides Malaysia and Singapore, in the South-East Asian region. In 1954, the Thai Library Association was formed under a Royal Charter, and in the same year the Indonesian Library Association — Associasi Perpustakaan Arsip dan DokumentasiIndonesia - was also established. In 1959, the Vietnamese Library Association came into existence. This trend symbolized the awakening of the library profession in the region. In the Federation of Malaya and Singapore, librarianship was still in its infancy: in 1955 only six qualified librarians could be counted in the two countries, and of these only one was a local person. Nevertheless, a commendable effort was manifested in the formation on 25 March 1953 of the Malayan Library Group, later to develop into the Library Association of Malaysia and the Library Association of Singapore. The Malayan Library Group had an initial enrolment of fifty-four members, forty from Singapore and fourteen from the Federation. Its foundation was undoubtedly a momentous occasion in the history of librarianship in Malaya, aptly described as follows in the first editorial of the Group's Newsletter: It assembles for the first time all those in this country who are engaged or interested in library work. This is of great significance in a country where no professional body exists, where in fact there is no form of organization whatsoever to unite librarians and to serve as a meeting ground for the exchange of ideas. The existence of the Group also testifies to the fact that there has arisen in this country a new and growing class of professional people, namely, those engaged in library work of one kind or another, who are conscious of the library services to the community, and who are banding together for the purpose of seeking ways and means to enlarge and improve these services. This is important in a country when the organization of libraries has hitherto been, on the whole, haphazard and where it was not until after the war that the need for qualified librarians began to be felt.

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The objectives of the Malayan Library Group as laid down in its constitution where: a) to unite all persons engaged in library work or interested in libraries. b) to promote the better administration of libraries. c) to encourage the establishment and development of libraries in Malaya. d) to encourage professional education and training for librarianship. e) to undertake such activities, including the holding of meetings and conferences, as are appropriate to the attainment of the above objects. It is significant that these admirable objectives have remained unaltered and have been incorporated into the existing constitutions of the Library Associations of Malaysia and Singapore. In its pioneering years the Malayan Library Group owed much of its success to the dedication and hard work of the few librarians serving in the country. Regular meetings were held to discuss problems in librarianship. In-service training courses were initiated for teacher librarians as well as tutorials for those wanting to do professional studies. The Malayan Library Group Newsletter was published as a channel of communication with the membership. The group spared no efforts to win public support for legislation to provide a free public library service. In 1956, at the request of the Adult Education Association of Malaya, the Group undertook the preparation of an important document, entitled 'Memorandum of Public Library Service in the Federation of Malaya', for submission to the Ministry of Education. The memorandum surveyed the existing library facilities in urban and rural areas and in schools and found that no library in Malaya was meeting the needs of the population it served, owing to lack of funds and of trained librarians. One of its most important recommendations was that a nationwide system of free public libraries must be established. Unfortunately, the memorandum did not receive the attention it deserved since the government was then preoccupied with the country's independence. The first two years were a period of consolidation and expansion. With the advent of independence in 1957 the Malayan Library Group was sufficiently well established to make worthy contributions to the new nation. Within one year the Malayan Library Group had attained sufficient strength and maturity to change its name to the Library Association of Malaya and Singapore. However difficulties in registering a Pan-Malayan Association, which was to include Singapore, led to the split of the organization into two separate Associations. The Persatuan Perpustakaan Tanah Melayu (Library Association of the Federation of Malaya) was inaugurated on 16 January 1960, and was followed soon by the formation of the Library Association of Singapore with an almost identical constitution. This parting of the ways was, however, rather short lived. On 16 September 1963, Malaysia was formed as a Federation of Malaya (West Malaysia), the colony of Singapore and the former British Territories of Sarawak and Sabah (British North Borneo). This major political change was reflected in a change in the status of the respective library associations. The Library Association of Malaysia came into being with the Singapore Association reconstituted as a branch of this Association. 56

But in 1965 Singapore seceded from the Federation to become a sovereign republic. The Library Association of Singapore was re-established, and the Library Association of Malaysia has since continued as a separate organisation. The intermingling of the library profession in the two countries in the many years of their co-existence has contributed to the close co-operation between the two associations that is prevalent today. The associations have grown increasingly conscious of the benefit to be obtained by pooling their limited resources, and they have established excellent symbiotic relationships. Close contacts are maintained through formal and informal meetings. The councils of the two associations meet twice a year at the joint liaison council, and until the end of 1970 a joint journal — Perpustakaan — was published. The achievements of the joint standing committees of the two associations are a testimony to their professional zeal. The Joint Standing Committee on Library Co-operation and Bibliographical Services, for example, has made valuable contributions in the areas of bibliographical control, co-operative microfilming undertakings, standardization of interlibrary loan requests, and the cataloguing of local names. Even more significant are the publishing of an index to Malaysian, Singapore and Brunei serials and the establishment of a Union catalogue of serials maintained at the National Library, Singapore. It has become a tradition for the two associations to organize a joint conference approximately every two years. Since 1965 four such conferences have been held, the last being the Conference of South East Asian Librarians (CONSAL) in August 1970. More than 150 delegates representing seven South-East Asian countries attended the conference which had as its theme 'regional co-operation'. The success of this conference has paved the way for holding such conferences every two or three years in different countries, and also provided the framework within which a regional library association for South-East Asia could develop. The next CONSAL is expected to be held in Manila late in 1972. On 24 September 1971 another joint conference of the Library Associations of Malaysia and Singapore is to be held in Kuala Lumpur. Its theme will be 'Scientific and Technical Information Needs in Malaysia and Singapore'. The achievements of the two associations through productive co-operation are unique in international library co-operation. Equally important has been the role the two associations have played in library development and in the progress of the profession in their respective countries. In Malaysia, where a nation-wide free public library service is still lacking and the library profession is striving for recognition, the projection of the image of the profession and the promotion of library development are major responsibilities of the Library Association. As a voluntary organization dependent on its members for support, the progress of the Association was at first restricted by its limited financial and manpower resources. Its admirable objectives did not find much support from the official or the private sector, to whom the role of libraries in the economic and educational

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progress of the country appeared of secondary significance in relation to other national efforts. It is not uncommon in newly developing countries for library development to get a low priority. The education of public opinion to appreciate the value of a public library service was a pre-requisite for progress and was accepted by the Association as its major task. The Association explored all possible media of communication to emphasize the importance of library development as an essential part of national development. Numerous articles were written in the official organ of the Association and in the press, and seminars and conferences were organized to draw attention to the role of libraries in developing countries, and in particular in independent Malaysia. In its search for support the Association was indeed fortunate in obtaining the assistance of a few private foundations. Special mention must be made of the Asia Foundation, which has over the years proved to be a stalwart supporter of the Association's major programmes. Many of the achievements of the Association would not have been possible without this help. The Association's efforts to project a more purposeful image of libraries and librarianship gradually produced results. By 1965 the membership of the Association had increased to about 350. More Malaysians, including many graduates, were attracted to the library profession and went overseas for their professional training. The British schools of librarianship were the most popular, with Australia and New Zealand providing training for a smaller number. There were now some twenty qualified Malaysian librarians, most of them in the University of Malaya Library, which is the largest library in the country. The achievements of the Association were spread over many areas of professional endeavour. At first emphasis was on improving school libraries so that they could make more effective contributions to the educational curriculum. Short in-service training courses for teacher librarians were held in various parts of the country. Minimum standards for school libraries were prescribed by the Association and adopted by the Ministry of Education. Short term training programmes were also provided for the many untrained library workers entrusted with the responsibility of managing libraries. Library co-operation was encouraged and every effort was made to assist libraries in providing free professional consultation services. Meetings and conferences provided an excellent forum for exchange of ideas between the professional librarians and the many others interested in the profession. The terms and conditions of employment of librarians in the country were another immediate and inescapable responsibility of the Association. In order to remedy disparities, the Association made representations to salaries commissions appointed by the Government and secured improved salary structures which compare more favourably with those of other professions. Any overall appraisal of the major achievements of the Library Association of Malaysia brings to focus two areas in which significant contributions have been made. 58

The lack of direction and co-ordination in public library development in the country and the importance of integrating library development into the National Development Plan were emphasized at a conference on 'Public Libraries in National Development' organized jointly by the Library Associations of Malaysia and Singapre in 1967. One of the major resolutions adopted by this conference was to draw up a 'Blueprint for Public Library development in Malaysia'. The 'Blueprint Project' was perhaps the most ambitious undertaking of the Association. With financial assistance from the Asia Foundation, Mrs. Hedwig Anuar, Director of the National Library, Singapore, was invited to prepare the Blueprint on behalf of the Association. Its publication in 1968 was an important milestone towards library development in Malaysia. The Blueprint has laid down the guide lines for a phased library development programme as part of the country's development plans for the next twenty years, and legislation has been recommended to make funds available at Federal and state levels to support the programme. The details of the Blueprint were disseminated to all concerned in its implementation at the Federal, State and local government levels through a follow-up seminar in 1969. The recommendations of the Blueprint have been accepted by the Government, and public library development supported by funds made available in the second Five-Year Development plan, 1971—75, appears imminent. Equally significant has been the contribution made by the Association to the training of library workers, both professional and non-professional. In-service training courses in various parts of the country have become a regular feature of the activities of the Association and have gone a long way to meet the training needs of teacher-librarians and other non-professionals. However, opportunities to pursue professional library studies have been very limited. While it is estimated that fifty qualified librarians are presently serving in the country (an increase of about fifteen in the last three years), the Blueprint envisaged that, at a minimum of one qualified librarian to every 50,000 population, about 200 librarians will be required to staff the projected public library service. The Library Association of Malaysia has responded to the need by conducting part-time courses preparing students for part I of the A.L.A. examinations of the British Library Association. These courses, which have been held every year since 1966 with financial assistance from the Asia Foundation, cover a total of about 120 hours of evening lectures by professional librarians over a period of about 30 weeks. The response has been very encouraging, with an increasing number of graduates attending every year. These courses have been organized, however, only as an interim measure, until a permanent library school is established. A detailed memorandum has been drawn up by the Library Association, strongly advocating the establishment of a postgraduate School of Librarianship in Malaysia with provision for inclusion of Archival Sciences. The prospect of its becoming a reality has been brightened by recent developments: the 'Higher Education Planning Committee' appointed by the Government in 1967 endorsed the Associations's recommendation and supported the establishment of a school. 59

The Library Association of Malaysia has earned the reputation of being one of the more active and progressive associations in the country. With its present membership of almost 400, including about fifty qualified librarians, the Association is today acknowledged as the only body in the country that represents the views of the library profession and has attained a level of recognition that compares fabourably with any other profession. Representatives of the Association have been invited to serve on various technical committee appointed by Government agencies on matters pertaining to library development. The successes already achieved by the Association and its sustained efforts to promote library development give an assurance of the future progress of the profession in Malaysia.

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AFRICA

8. National and regional library organizations in Eastern Africa, with special reference to Ethiopia and SCAULEA Rita Pankhurst University Librarian, Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa

The area spanned by this survey includes Mauritius and Madagascar; Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland; Malawi and Zambia; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; Ethiopia, Somalia and the Sudan. Five of these thirteen countries do not have a library association. It is proposed to offer a brief country-by-country review and then to deal more thoroughly with one national and one regional association — the Ethiopian Library Association and the Standing Conference of African University Librarians - Eastern Area (SCAULEA). Mauritius In Mauritius there is no National Library Service. The municipal libraries are wholly autonomous and are financed by the municipalities. The beginnings of a Municipal Librarians' Association are evidenced by the publication, in March 1969, of No. 1 of the Bulletin des bibliothèques municipales de l'Ile Maurice, the first and last of the series. Madagascar In Madagascar an association was established by statute in October, 1960 and named Association pour le Développement des Bibliothèques de Madagascar (ADBM). Its aims are to encourage all institutions working for the development of the reading habit and to pursue a book policy on a national level. Its activities are: a. b. c. d.

Promotion of library skills and training librarians; Centralization and apportionment of acquisitions, gifts and grants; Organization of exhibitions; Publication and distribution of works in the Malagasy language.

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The Association is open to librarians (active members) and others interested in books (friends of the ADBM). It publishes a periodical in Malagasy and French, Ny boky no loharanom-pandroscana: le livre source du progrès which treats such subjects as: reading and reading habits; suggested titles on Madagascar; information about local periodicals; exhibitions and cultural events. Since 1966, the Association, in collaboration with the National Library, organized annually short courses for school teachers and school, public and special librarians. The University Library has established a non-professional association of friends of the library to encourage external readers and to promote cultural activities. There is no parallel in Madagascar to the professional associations of Anglophone Eastern Africa; library development is along the lines of Fancophone West Africa where the Association Internationale pour le Développement des Bibliothèques d'Afrique was founded in 1957. Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland In Botswana and Swaziland there are national library systems. In Lesotho the only library of any size is that of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. There is informal co-operation between the three countries, as well as participation in inter-library loan and the exchange of duplicates with the Republic of South Africa but as yet there are no library associations. Malawi Inside Malawi there is close informal co-operation between the University Library and the Malawi National Library Service, established in 1967. There is no professional library association. Zambia Librarians in Zambia have reached a high degree of organization in the few years since independence. The Zambia Library Association was established in 1967 having broken away from the Library Association of Central Africa. Its objects are: a. To unite all persons engaged in library work or interested in libraries in Zambia; b. To encourage the establishment and development of libraries and library cooperation in Zambia; c. To improve the standards in all aspects of librarianship, bibliography and documentation in Zambia; d. To act as an advisory body in all matters pertaining to libraries, bibliography and documentaion in Zambia; e. To stimulate an awareness among central and local government bodies and other institutions of their responsibilities in providing adequate library services and facilities; 62

f. To promote whatever may tend to the improvement of the position and the qualifications of librarians; g. To undertake all such activities (e.g., meetings, conferences, publications, etc.) which will further the above objects. It has held regular meetings and has communicated with professional bodies outside Zambia its concern over aspects of cataloguing and classification. It has met government representatives urging them to develop a proper civil service cadre of librarians. It has also taken up with government agencies such matters as pricecontrol on books and internal bookpost costs. Since 1969 it has published the Zambia Library Association Journal. The Association was represented on the Professional Board on Library Studies set up in 1967 to organize and administer courses of training, under the Ministry of Education. In 1971 this Board became absorbed in the University of Zambia's Professional Board on Library Studies which is also fully representative of the various types of library institutions and bodies. In 1966 the Lusaka Libraries Liaison Committee was formed to develop co-operation between libraries in the capital. It has developed inter-library loan procedures, co-operation in acquisitions, co-ordinated plans for exhibitions and formed a subcommittee to develop standardization in cataloguing and classification procedures, with particular reference to a future national union catalogue. It has prepared recommendations on the revision of the Dewey Decimal Classification to eliminate inadequacies in relation to Zambia and neighbouring parts of Africa. In March 1971 a new grouping was inaugurated — the Standing Conference of Head Librarians, with terms of reference similar to those of the Lusaka Libraries Liaison Committee but at a national level. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda The East African Library Association was formed in 1956 by a group of librarians working in Nairobi. At their first conference the initiation of national library services in East Africa was proposed and discussed. Despite its name, the Association's membership was drawn largely from Nairobi and the surrounding district. From the beginning a large body of unqualified persons joined the Association. A majority of professional staff welcomed this, believing that, in developing countries, library associations had a role to perform in creating a favourable climate of opinion about the importance of libraries and librarianship, and in helping to educate local personnel. Between October 1962 and April 1964 Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya became independent. The constitution of the Association reflected this by an amendment to allow for the formation of branches in all three countries, and such branches were duly formed. The Tanzania branch was registered by 1965 as the 'Tanzania Library Association'. However, at the second EALA Conference held December 63

1956 a resolution 'that the East African Library Association be dissolved in favour of the formation of strong, independent national Associations' was defeated by thirty-seven to four with twelve abstentions. The East African Library Association still exists, and held its third Conference in Dar es Salaam in September 1968, with its fourth conference in Kampala in September 1970. The Bulletin of the East African Library Association was first published in 1962. Ten numbers have appeared, each containing at least two full length articles, a news column and a few book reviews. Papers from EALA conferences have also appeared in the Bulletin. The news has tended to be about librarianship in Kenya as the editors appear to have had difficulty keeping in touch with developments in Uganda and Tanzania. In the latter country a Tanzania Library Association Journal appeared in 1968 with a special supplement devoted to 'Libraries in the Revolution'. The Kenya branch has been planning its first Newsletter as a supplement to the Bulletin. In Nairobi EALA has a large and active membership. Visiting librarians are invited; there are talks, discussions, and visits to libraries and other places of interest. The Association has been pressing for representation on the Council for Library Training at Makerere, which governs the East African School of Librarianship. This was granted in December 1965. The Association is also pressing for representation on the National Library Board of the three countries and, in Kenya, on the Adult Education Board. It has been lobbying for recognition as a consultative body on all matters related to libraries and librarianship. Whilst the Uganda branch has been somewhat less active, the Tanzania Library Association is closely supporting the dynamic development of public library services in the country. EALA may follow the example of the West African Library Association which split into national associations soon after Ghana and Nigeria became independent, with the intention of re-joining along federative lines. A wider federation of Eastern African library associations may ensue. Somalia Library development is in its early stages. The newly established Università di Somalia was unable to send a representative to the inaugural meeting of the Standing Conference of African University Librarians held in Addis Ababa in February 1971. There is as yet no formal association. Sudan Attempts to form a library association began in the nineteen-fifties with committees to draft a constitution, but there were no other activities. It was the opinion of leading professional librarians that the time was not yet ripe, as responsibility would have had to be shouldered by a few already over-burdened librarians. It was also felt that, with clerical staff so largely outnumbering professionals, any association would have run the risk of becoming no more than a trade union. 64

In the next decade opinion among librarians swung in favour of an organization and in October 1970 the Sudan Library Association was established. Of the eighty or so members a few are professionals; the majority have attended either the elementary or the certificate courses in librarianship conducted by the School of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Khartoum. The formalities of registration not having been completed (May 1971), the Association cannot begin issuing its Journal or any other publications. The Association is seeking membership of IFLA and FID. Ethiopia In Ethiopia librarians and library assistants first began to gather at informal monthly meetings in 1961. The main libraries in Addis Ababa acted in turn as host so that members might become acquainted with libraries other than their own. At this time, the two largest libraries in Ethiopia - the National Library and the University Library — had less than seventy thousand books each. The first meeting was held at the National Library. Other members came from the University College Library, the Economic Commission for Africa Library, the libraries of foreign cultural missions and the larger schools. As at that time the number of professional librarians in Ethiopia could be counted on the fingers of one hand, the Club was supported mainly by junior assistants and semi-professionals, some twenty to thirty in number, who were active and enthusiastic. In 1959 the National Library had initiated summer courses in elementary librarianship which were continued by the Extension Department of the Haile Selassie I University 1962—64. In the same period a few Ethiopians were sent abroad on short courses of library studies. As a result, clearer notions of librarianship took root among workers in Ethiopian libraries. The Club adopted a constitution, and began issuing a mimeographed Library News Bulletin on 1 February, 1965. Apart from describing existing and new libraries the Bulletin focused attention on library education for Ethiopians, chronicling new developments and calling for more educational facilities. Three articles were devoted to library planning: one outlined a public library system for Ethiopia, another proposed a bookmobile system; and a third concerned itself with libraries for developing countries. One editorial made a strong plea for more and better local book publishing. The three editors, all of whom were Ethiopians, clearly realised that the Bulletin, besides its informational role, had the sacred mission of educating librarians and the public at large. On 22 April 1967 at a special meeting of the Club, the Ethiopian Library Association was founded. Its aim was 'to promote the interest of libraries and librarians in Ethiopia'. As before, membership was to be open to any person interested in librarianship but, in addition, institutional membership was introduced. The Association achieved official status as a registered society on 13 February 1969. 65

The first president was Mr Mikael Gebre-Egziabier and the first printed publication a Directory of Ethiopian Libraries, giving information about ninety-four libraries. After the formation of the Association the Library News Bulletin was rechristened E.L.A. Bulletin. The four numbers which have so far appeared have carried more substantial and better documented articles by graduate trainees working in the University Library and holders of the Library Science Diploma (a one year postsecondary programme offered by the University's Faculty of Education since February 1966). At the same time the aims of the Association became more dynamic and ambitious. 'At present', wrote Mr Kassa Tsegaye, the President in 1970, in a message published in Volume I no. 2—3, 'the Association plans to demonstrate its activities to prospective members, ministries and other organizations. This attempt is made to focus on the role of librarianship in our developing society'. The Minister in charge of the Ethiopian Antiquities Administration and the National Library accepted the Honorary Presidency of the Association in April 1970. The years 1970—71 have seen important developments. A School Libraries Committee has been set up to co-operate with the Ministry of Education in developing a school library system. A second committee on Special and Government Libraries has prepared a seminar for officials in charge of such libraries, few of whom have had any library training. The Association has brought its activities to the attention of the public through the local press; its co-operation is being sought by the Ministry of Education and by the UNESCO National Commission, in connection with Ethiopia's response to UNESCO's International Book Year Programme for 1972. In the decade since librarians first began to meet regularly in Addis Ababa educational developments and the growth in numbers and professionalism of librarians were coincidental with, rather than influenced by, the Association. Recently, however, there have been signs that this picture is changing. The University Library system employs in ten libraries over a hundred persons of whom fourteen are professionals. By the end of the academic year 1971/2 there will be seven professional Ethiopian librarians in Ethiopia, one as a university teacher of library science. There are some seventy Ethiopians possessing post-secondary diplomas and more than fifty graduate teachers who minored in library science. Against this background the Association's members have been bestirring themselves. As in West Africa they see themselves as cultural leaders. The editorial of volume VI no. 4 1971 of thQ Bulletin, states: 'In a society that struggles to undo the fetters of ignorance the role of the librarians can by no means be under-estimated. The librarian must participate fully in the intellectual and social life of the community'. The idea of leadership not only within the profession but in the society as a whole is thus emerging as a dominant one. Next to this the strongest interest of the Association has been in library education. The Association may well in future remind the national planners that more libraries will surely emerge in the institutions they are projecting and that these libraries will require more professional attention. Armed with manpower projec66

tions and, perhaps, after organizing a survey of their own, members can help persuade a reluctant University faculty to increase rather than decrease its programmes in Library Science. They can also aim at consultative status vis-a-vis the Ethiopian Government. The Ethiopian Library Association is high-minded. There has been little talk of status, perhaps because members believe that a high status is something earned by gaining the respect of the community. There has been no airing of grievances about salaries no doubt in part because the Association is largely made up of University staff whose salaries compare favourably with those in other national institutions, though less favourably with those of international agencies, some of which have libraries in Ethiopia. All but one of the Ethiopian graduate librarians are employees of the University, where professional librarians' salaries are equivalent to those of academic staff. The preponderance of University library staff in the Association reflects the predominance of University librarianship in the library world of Ethiopia. This is largely because there is no public library system in the country though there are a few public libraries, several under the aegis of the National Library. School libraries are only recently beginning to be manned by trained librarians and there are few special and government libraries in the charge of trained library staff. Ethiopia conforms in this respect to the pattern discernible in many developing countries: the University is an area of high priority in the allocation of national funds. In addition it attracts foreign assistance. University libraries tend therefore to forge ahead and, with better funds, acquire more and better qualified staff thus setting higher national standards. Though creating an imbalance, leadership from University librarians is not to be deplored. On the contrary, if it is not too inward-looking, it may be of great benefit. The University looks keenly at sister institutions in Africa. Its library is formally associated with counterparts in ten Eastern African universities. Many librarians at the University participated in the organization of the inaugural meeting of SCAULEA. They can help the Association to overcome its parochialism in favour of an international outlook and to develop contacts with national library associations in other parts of Africa and the world. They also have experience in conference organization and could help the Association organize the first of a series of conferences, as is usual in other countries. Despite the dearth of qualified Ethiopian librarians, leadership in the Association was, from the beginning, in Ethiopian hands. The coming years will no doubt see the continuation of the present trend towards higher professional standards manifested in a better organized Association with a larger membership, regular as well as monographic professional publications, and activities in the direction of closer co-operation and co-ordination in the Ethiopian, African and international library world.

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Standing Conference of African University Librarians (SCAUL) Leverhulme Conference, 1969. The idea of regular contact between heads of African university libraries was first mooted during the Leverhulme Conference on University Libraries in Tropical Africa held in Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1 4 - 2 3 September, 1964, which brought together library representatives from twenty-one universities and colleges south of the Sahara. Many aspects of university librarianship were considered: the types of statistical information needed; library building desiderata; legislation; the place of the university library and librarian in the university structure; library training; inter-library co-operation. Among the resolutions passed was the following: That in view of the stimulus to professional thinking that has resulted from the personal contacts made possible by the Leverhulme Library Conference, it is recommended that further conferences be held at two-year intervals, and that ways and means be sought from African universities and from foundations and other bodies to make this financially possible; and that as a first step, a Standing Continuation Committee be appointed, with the following terms of reference: (i) to publish a Newsletter for information of chief librarians of African University libraries; (ii) to meet at regular intervals to consider matters relating to university library development in Africa, and ways in which the librarians may be kept in touch with one another and supplied with professional information, and that the Heads of university libraries in Africa be approached for financial and moral support to make this possible. A Standing Committee was appointed, which held its first and only meeting on the same day as the Conference resolution, and resolved to act for two years or until the next Conference of African University Libraries, whichever period was the shorter, and to prepare a more formal constitution. Lack of funds prevented the Conference from materializing within two years, nor was it possible to hold regional meetings as had been hoped. Nevertheless SCAUL continued its existence through the Newsletter which Mr Plumbe of Ahmadu Bello University had been asked to edit. Five numbers appeared between 1965 and 1968 and proved a valuable source of information on developments in African university libraries. The list of recipients reached 250 by 1968. Among subjects covered were: news from individual university libraries; library education and training; library legislation; library budgets; salaries and status of librarians; cataloguing and classification; resources on African studies; library binderies; printing and photographic units; and personali'a. Number five was published and distributed by Harold Holdsworth from University College, Dar es Salaam. 68

Nairobi Conference, 1967 The first opportunity for a meeting of SCAUL members was during the International Conference on African Bibliography held in Nairobi 4 - 8 December 1967. On the last day of the Conference, Mr. Harold Holdsworth, acting convenor, called an extraordinary meeting of representatives of African universities to discuss the future role of SCAUL. Only two members of the original Standing Committee were present. Mr. Holdsworth asked that a new Committee be elected by ballot and agreed to publish in the Newsletter a questionnaire to members to obtain their view on the membership, role and finance of SCAUL. The ballot results, announced in Octobe 1968, gave the names of a Committee consisting of eight members including the editor of the Newsletter (Mr. John Ndegwa) and the Convenor/ Secretary (the present writer). The questionnaire was circulated and by August i969 twenty three of the twenty-eight members of SCAUL had replied. A large majority wanted SCAUL to continue to be a consultative body of chief librarians but wished them to represent all African university libraries. SCAUL was to be financed by membership fees, with the cost of meetings borne by member institutions. There were a variety of responses to the question whether, and if so, how, African as distinct from expatriate representation could be increased; the largest number (7) voted that at conferences, if the librarian was non-African, there should be at least one African representative, whilst six respondents expressed no views on this subject. Members also agreed that SCAUL should sponsor a questionnaire on university libraries in developing countries of tropical Africa which was being conducted by Mr John Dean, then Director of the Institute of Librarianship, University of Ibadan, with a view to analysing data and attempting to design a rudimentary code of standards for university libraries in tropical Africa. Lusaka Conference, 1969 The newly elected committee held its first meetings — formal and informal — during the Commonwealth Foundation Conference of Commonwealth African University Librarians which took place at the University of Zambia, Lusaka, 25-29 August 1969. The two non-Commonwealth Committee members were kindly invited as observers by the Commonwealth Foundation and the University of Zambia. The Committee made the following practical recommendations: a. Structure SCAUL would become the Standing Conference of African University Librarians, membership being open to heads of university libraries eligible for membership of the Association of African Universities. SCAUL activities would be centred mainly in Area Organizations of members of SCAUL, each Area electing one representative, to a SCAUL Central Committee. On this Committee there would sit, in addition to area representatives, the Convenor/Secretary and 69

the Editor of the Newsletter. It was decided that the Central Committee would not need to meet regularly, but could transact business by correspondence and at conferences, whenever the opportunity arose. Areas envisaged were: Eastern Africa; North Africa; West Africa (probably two areas); Central Africa. Such areas would be entitled SCAUL Eastern Area, SCAUL Northern Area, etc. Members of SCAUL would be free to select the Area they wished to join and would be allowed to attend as observers in areas to which they did not belong. Activities of SCAUL Areas would be organised by the Head Librarians but would not be confined to them. It was envisaged that conferences of specialists in university librarianship, e.g. bibliographers, subject specialists, reprographers etc., would be initiated by SCAUL. b. Aims i. To support and develop academic library services in the areas covered by SCAUL ii. To promote interchange, contact and co-operation among academic libraries in Africa iii. To collect, co-ordinate and disseminate information on academic library activities," particularly in Africa iv. To encourage increased contact between SCAUL members and the international academic library world v. To organize and encourage conference and seminars concerning academic librarianship. c. Finance Each area would determine its own membership subscription, out of which £ 1 per member would be paid to the Editor of the SCAUL Newsletter as a subscription. Members would receive the Newsletter by air mail. d. Newsletter The Newsletter would be the organ of SCAUL and would normally be issued once a year. It would be sold to non-members. With regard to Africanization it was noted that, if the new proposals proved acceptable, this question would not arise since members of the Central Committee would be elected and only head librarians could be members of the area organizations. The proposals formulated by the SCAUL Committee were submitted to the Commonwealth Conference and were discussed by the ten university librarians of Commonwealth Africa and the two observers who were present in Lusaka. They were subsequently approved unanimously by all eighteen respondents to a second questionnaire sent to SCAUL members. The Conference also made the following recommendations to SCAUL in the area of cataloguing and classification: 70

1. SCAUL should be asked to confer with schools of librarianship, centres of African studies and specialists in classification and cataloguing and subsequently make itself responsible for: a. compilation of definitive schedules for the classification of African history, languages and ethnology; b. compilation of an authoritative list of entry headings for African authors and public figures; c. compilation of a list of recommended names of African tribes and languages which should then be sent to all libraries which are members of SCAUL. This work should be completed, if possible, within one year from the present time. 2. Librarians in each African country should include in their accessions bulletins, from time to time, a list of the correct names for cataloguing purposes (including official titles conferred upon them) of African writers and public figures in the country concerned; and that such lists should be sent to all members of SCAUL. Standing Conference of African University Libraries — Eastern Area Seven representation of University libraries of Eastern Africa who were present at Lusaka took the opportunity of convening a preliminary meeting of what was later to become SCAUL-Eastern Area. It was decided to invite University librarians from the following countries to join: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The inaugural conference took place in Addis Ababa at the Haile Selassie I University 1 0 - 1 3 February 1971. The Conference adopted a constitution with more specific aims than those of SCAUL. They are: a. To support and further the aims of SCAUL in the area, and specifically: b. To further and co-ordinate development of the University Libraries in the area; c. To develop and co-ordinate such matters as regional acquisition, cataloguing, bibliographical programmes, and library education; d. To organize and encourage the exchange of information, and the conduct of conferences and seminars concerning academic librarianship. The name adopted — pending approval by the parent body — was Standing Conference of African University Libraries — Eastern Area. It was unanimously agreed that membership of SCAULEA should be open to institutions (i.e. university libraries) rather than to individuals (i.e. the head librarians) but that attendance at SCAULEA meetings should be open only to heads of member 71

university libraries, observers from associate member institutions (other university librarians) and other organizations and individuals by invitation. Meetings were to be held every two years on rotation basis. An elected Chairman/Secretary was to hold office for five years and be the SCAULEA representative to SCAUL; the head librarian of the next host institution was to be appointed Convenor for the period from the termination of one meeting until the termination of the next. Each member was to pay an annual membership subscription of £10 to the Convenor of the next meeting whilst dues to the SCAUL Newsletter were to be paid directly to the editor. The Conference adopted the following resolutions and recommendations: I. National bibliographies a. This Conference resolves that in those countries in which no formal current national bibliographies exist, the University Library shall undertake to issue at regular intervals a list of materials published in that country. Where this has, in the past, been incorporated as part of the library's accessions list, it shall in future be issued as a separate list. These lists shall be distributed to all SCAUL members, the ECA and OAU libraries and other interested institutions; b. The attention of SCAUL is drawn to the above resolution la so that other areas may consider following the same practice. II. Regional bibliography This Conference, having noted the resolutions on African bibliography adopted at the Conference of Commonwealth African University Librarians, held in Lusaka in August 1969, and realizing that it could not possibly cope with such a task, agreed that the compilation of a Regional Bibliography should be undertaken by an international body such as the Organization of African Unity, or the Economic Commission for Africa, and that these two bodies should be asked to consider this as a matter of urgency. III. Cataloguing and classification of Africana The Conference noted the resolution of the Conference of Commonwealth African University Librarians held at Lusaka in August 1969 and urged all University Libraries to compile as soon as possible an authoritative list of entry headings for African authors and public figures in their respective countries. IV. University publications This Conference reaffirms the resolution of the Conference of Libraries from Commonwealth Universities in Africa held in Lusaka in August, 1969, that University Libraries should produce and distribute lists of their own University publications, indicating those available for exchange and the source. 72

V. Eastern Area exchanges of publications a. In each country of the Eastern Area, at least one University Library should be established as the international exchange centre. b. Exchange arrangements between member Universities should include, at least the following categories of materials: i. University publications ii. National newspapers iii. Official publications, notably: 1) Gazettes; 2) Economic and statistical reports; 3) Development plans; 4) Educational reports; 5) Law reports and documents; 6) Constitutional documents; 7) Parliamentary papers. c. In the exchange of government publications, the principle of reciprocity should be observed. VI. National newspapers In order to preserve national newspapers and to facilitate their exchange, University Libraries in the area should initiate the microfilming of existing collections and ensure that the programme is continued on a regular basis. VII. Government publications The Conference resolves: a. that in order to facilitate the acquisition of African government publications, University Libraries should press for the establishment in their countries of bookshops dealing mainly in national official documents. b. That in order to preserve official documents and facilitate their exchange, University Libraries in the Area should initiate microfilming of existing collections and ensure that the programme is continued on a regular basis. VIII. Publications of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) This Conference has noted with concern the difficulties encountered in acquiring unrestricted publications of the Organization of African Unity and its agencies, and recommends: a. that at least one University Library in each member state be designated a depository library for all unrestricted OAU publications, and that at least one copy of all such publications should be sent to the depository libraries. b. that reviewing machinery should be established within the OAU secretariat for de-restricting existing restricted OAU publications. c. that the reviewing machinery mentioned in b) above should be established on a permanent basis to consider from time to time the de-restriction in the future of classified publications.

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IX. Education for librarianship SCAULEA recommends that: a. the heads of the three existing programmes of library studies (i.e. those of: Makerere University, University of Zambia and Haile Selassie I University) should, in the near future, form a permanent committee in consultation with SCAULEA and the Association of African Universities, especially: i. to look into co-ordination of existing training programmes, curricula and standards; ii. the implementation of c) below; b. Programmes of library studies should include training in archival administration and information science. c. SCAULEA recommends the establishment of graduate studies programmes in librarianship at a University in the area to serve the area's needs with due regard to long and short term manpower requirements. d. The possibilities for higher degree studies in librarianship abroad for Eastern Africans should be expanded to provide teaching staff for this programme. Other business included a discussion of future activities and relationships with international library organizations. A preliminary report on the Conference was published in April and the full report of the proceedings is in the press. The Ford Foundation generously contributed towards conference expenses including the publication of the proceedings. As a result of the Conference Eastern African university librarians are in personal contact with one another. A start has been made on surveying areas of common concern, hammering out common policies and plans for action. SCAULEA intends to be in touch with the Association of African Universities, associations of university librarians in other parts of the world and other bodies interested in librarianship in Africa. Solutions to problems facing university libraries in Eastern Africa aie being worked out within the region taking into account the wide differences in age, size and budgets, as well as in cultures and language orientation of the universities in the area. The shortage of fully qualified and experienced librarians is reflected in the composition of SCAULEA in which today the majority of librarians are still expatriates. Efforts will be intensified to produce more swiftly a permanent African leadership for university libraries. SCAULEA is the first regional association of librarians of independent East African countries. In West Africa plans are well under way for an inaugural meeting of SCAUL-Western Area, to be held at Lagos, probably in 1972. It is hoped that the University Librarian in Sudan can act as a link between SCAULEA and an eventual regional association of university librarians in Northern Africa.

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The first common denominator of national and regional library organizations in East Africa, as we have seen, is youth. It was not until the sixties that associations began to develop, under the stimulus of such factors as independence, advances in education, the growth of libraries and the emergence on the scene of African professional librarians. So far the national associations have been defining their aims, encouraging open rather than exclusively professional membership and achieving recognition in the eyes of governments and the public. By and large foreign standards have been accepted as goals; SCAUL's support for the project to develop standards specifically for university libraries in tropical Africa is a move away from this acceptance and points towards the need for work on regional and national standards for other types of libraries. No doubt East African library associations will focus their attention on the professional aspects of national and regional problems. It is expected that they will intensify regional, national and local co-operation and co-ordination. This will affect all aspects of librarianship including library studies; acquisitions, cataloguing and classification; reprography, printing and binding; inter-library loan; biliography and documentation; exhibitions; foreign assistance and longterm planning. In addition library organizations could support national efforts to educate the newly literate and work on better library facilities for them. Associations, led as they are by professionals strongly oriented towards internationally spoken foreign languages, could also show more interest in, and respect for, the national languages by encouraging local publishing, developing local collections and stimulationg interest in local literature. As a beginning, librarians' organizations could work on the production of a vocabulary of librarianship in the national language. Specific problems face librarians in individual Eastern African countries. Solutions must be worked out in collaboration with other national associations and institutions. To take a few examples: in Ethiopia librarians could develop, and obtain adoption of, a single transliteration system which should prevail over systems devised elsewhere. In Somalia future librarians could use their ingenuity to overcome the deadlook over the adoption of the Arabic or Latin alphabet for writing the Somali language. In Sudan librarians could lead a campaign for standardizing Arabic names. These and many other challenges face library organizations in Eastern Africa. Their success will depend on the degree of professionalism, discipline and dedication of their members.

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List of published sources Bulletin des bibliothèques municipales de l'Ile Maurice. Port-Louis. No. 1, 1969. Conference of Librarians from Commonwealth Universities in Africa, Lusaka, 1969. Report of proceedings. London, 1970 (Commonwealth Foundation occasional paper No. VIII). East African Library Association. Bulletin. Nairobi, 1962— Ethiopian Library Association. Bulletin. Addis Ababa. 1965- (Library Club of Addis Ababa: Library news bulletin, 1965. Library Club of Ethiopia: Library news bulletin, 1965-66; Library bulletin, 1967. Library Association of Ethiopia: Library bulletin, 1968. Ethiopian Library Association: ELA bulletin, 1969-) Ny boky no loharahom-panorosoana. Le livre, source du progrès. Tananarive. No. 1 4 , 1 9 7 0 Standing Conference of African University Librarians. SCAUL Newsletter. Zaria, etc. Nos. 1 - 5 , 1965-68. Standing Conference of African University Librarians. Eastern Area Conference. Preliminary report. Addis Ababa, 1971. (Final report in preparation) Varley, D. H. 'Conference of University Libraries in Tropical Africa'. In UNESCO bulletin for libraries, Vol. XIX, No. 2, March-April 1965. Zambia Library Association. Journal. Lusaka. 1969—

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9.

The organization of the library profession in West Africa A. G. T. Ofori, F.L.A. Director of Library Services, Ghana Library Board 1. The beginning of the profession Prior to the 1930's, libraries were unknown in West Africa. The question of public library provision for the Gold Coast (now Ghana) was raised at an Executive Council meeting in 1933, but the real move was made in 1938 when the Governor appointed a committee to confer with the Bishop of Accra regarding the management, general organization and equipment of such a library. The Bishop had earlier donated £1,000 for a public library for Accra. The committee's recommendation contained a suggestion that the Carnegie Corporation should be approached for a grant for the provision of books. The approach was made but the Corporation decided on an examination of the whole question of libraries in British West Africa as a basis of its assistance, and in 1942 appointed Miss Ethel Fegan, F.L.A., to carry out the survey. Miss Fegan's report 'Library Needs of West Africa' stressed the need for training a corps of personnel to man a suggested programme of library development. She envisaged a three year in-service training programme based on the then comparatively well developed Achimota School library in the Gold Coast. The first year was to be divided into three terms of about eight weeks; during the vacations, the expatriate tutor would tour Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia, leaving the students to run the Gold Coast (Achimota) Library. In the second year the Gold Coast students would take up their duties under another expatriate librarian, while the training officer toured the other colonies taking their students with him to establish them at their posts. The third year would be one of a supervisory nature, seeing that everything was in good order. The Carnegie Corporation found itself unable to authorize a grant for the implementation of these suggestions. The period however coincided with the opening of British Council Offices in the West African Colonies, and in 1943 the Council offered to implement the training proposals. Miss Fegan was appointed to run the school, based at Achimota, with twelve students, six from the Gold Coast, five from Nigeria and one from Sierra Leone. The School ran for a year and closed down. It is interesting to note that some of the first trainees are still in active library practice. The arrival of the British Council certainly gave impetus to the development of librarianship as a career in West Africa. Within ten years Public Library Services were developed in Nigeria and Ghana. In 1950, the Gold Coast Library Board Ordinance was passed. The establishment of Universities on the West Coast has also been an important factor in the growth of the profession. In 1948 the Uni77

versity of Ghana, Legon, and the University of Nigeria, Ibadan, were founded. In 1951 the University College of Science and Technology was founded in Kumasi, Ghana. Between 1960 and 1962, five other universities were established, four in Nigeria and one in Ghana. The Elliot Commission, which foresaw the need for a University in West Africa, laid emphasis on the establishment of good university libraries and the appointment of librarians of high calibre. 2. The West African Library Association By 1953 the profession was well established among the English speaking West African countries. The organization of the profession was to be left to the initiative of Unesco, who organized a Seminar on Public Library Development for Africa at Ibadan in the same year. The specific recommendation from this seminar which is relevant to the theme of this paper reads: Librarians working in various regions of Africa should take practical steps to form dynamic professional associations as rapidly as possible. When formed, such associations should draw up carefully planned programmes of action aimed at stimulating library development in Africa and achieving adequate recognition for the library profession. The seminar was still in session when representatives of various English speaking territories of West Africa decided to take up this specific recommendation immediately, and after a series of exploratory meetings formed the West African Library Association. Membership was open to all individuals and institutions, but was necessarily restricted to a group of countries which were united by a common language (English) and a similar tradition of librarianship. It was declared that not only librarians but 'all who are interested in books, whether for their own sake or as tools in the struggle for education and better life', could become members, and indeed one of the foundation members was the Oxford University Press representative for West Africa. The immediate task of the Association was to organize the profession effectively. It set out in its objectives to achieve three things: a) to work for the establishment of professional training courses (not schools) in order to ensure an adequate supply of trained staff for the libraries; b) to encourage interest in literature relating to the region (African); c) to discuss bibliography. A provisional executive was formed and was given three immediate tasks, namely, to recruit members, to start an official journal and to organize a conference for the following year. It was to do all this without any finance beyond the subscriptions it was to collect from its recruited members. Its main resource was its 'optimistic faith that library development was a necessary and inevitable corollary of the West African social and political expansion'. This mission was successfully fulfilled within the year. The journal was started under the title WALA Bulletin; 126 members (102 personal and 24 institutions) were recruited and a conference with 78

the theme 'The place of libraries and librarianship in fast developing countries with special reference to libraries and education' was organized in Lagos. These achievements were considered a good beginning. The main problem was how to achieve the stimulation of professional contact in a continent where membership was thinly spread, how to evolve unity and direction from a scattered membership. From this beginning until mid-1962, WALA was the only body catering for the profession. But right from the start it became evident that the Association could not be in control for long. The question of a unified Association for countries widely separated with no geographical or political unity creates problems. Originally, the WALA secretariat was located in Nigeria. The Accra council members could not afford to attend meetings at Lagos without a subsidy, and council meetings became less representative of member territories. The obvious solution was a decentralisation of activities and the creation of divisional or territorial associations. Although this solution was an aid to the problem of distance, it introduced divisional loyalty, which ran through the affairs of the Association until it was replaced by separate national associations. Optimism, however, prevailed, that a federation of librarians in West Africa was possible and so it was resolved that WALA should be reconstituted as a federation with the following objectives: 1) to further the interest of West African Librarianship at the international level; 2) to serve as a link between libraries in West African territories by a) maintaining a Central Secretariat. b) continuing publication of WALA News perhaps under a new name: WAFLA News c) holding conferences. d) establishing methods of international bibliographical research and cooperation. To this day this federation has never been formed. The national associations were established with enthusiasm, and adopted similar constitutions and objectives. The Ghana Association met six times within its first year for talks, films and visits to libraries and a branch was opened in Ashanti. In Nigeria, too, several branches were opened in the North, the East and at Lagos, and in both countries school groups were formed. Each national association set up its own journal for the publication of informed articles and conference proceedings. It was evident from reports published in the two journals, the Ghana Library Journal and Nigerian Libraries, that the Associations were active, organizing conferences and passing resolutions on a wider variety of matters. Annual conferences seemed to be the main media of contact and exchange. Seminars and lectures, which were actively organized during the early years, seemed to have died down. Both associations applied for and were admitted into membership of IFLA. Even though the associations still exist today they seem to be rather weakly organised. The Nigerian Association suffered a serious setback during the civil war, but current indications show that it is being revived. 79

3. Professional training Reference has already been made to the initial training effort aimed at recruiting trained personnel to be in charge of libraries in West Africa. The future of the school was reviewed during the second year of operation and even though the courses had run successfully, it was decided that the prospect of employment of librarians at that time (1945) was remote and that the school be discontinued after the first batch had passed out. An attempt to re-open it in 1947 failed and so the Gold Coast Government put forward a further request to the Carnegie Corporation. An amount of £5,760 was approved and was used solely for training prospective librarians at library schools in the United Kingdom. In both Lagos and Accra, the British Council Librarians organized in-service training schemes to enable local staff to take external entry examinations for the British Library Association Examinations. Those who were successful were granted bursaries for training in British library schools. The major move in the field of library training was made in 1953, during the Unesco Seminar in Ibadan at which WALA was born. The need for training was stressed as a pre-requisite to the development of librarianship. WALA took this challenge seriously and listed training as one of its major priorities. In 1955 it submitted a request to the Carnegie Corporation to estabish four scholarships a year in each of the territories of the Gold Coast and Nigeria for training at a library school in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although this request was originally turned down, the Corporation did foresee the need for a further survey of library needs in West Africa and so sommissioned Dr. Harold Lancour, Dean of the Library School of Illinois, to undertake the assignment. His study went beyond the narrow request for scholarships and surveyed the whole field of library education. He noted the inadequacies of the existing training schemes and suggested the establishment of a library school located at one of the universities. He noted that the key factor in West African library development was its librarians, and in particular those at the leadership level, and suggested a school which would be adapted to the needs of West Africa, preferably at the graduate level. He stressed that WALA should set up its own system of certification and qualification based on a Diploma from the West African Institute of Librarianship calling for a university degree plus one year's post-graduate study. This paper cannot deal with the politics surrounding the establishment of the school at Ibadan, for which the Carnegie Corporation provided a grant of S 88,000. It will be sufficient to mention that the Lancour report was not entirely acceptable to librarians in Ghana, because of the insistence on training at the University level, and because the suggestion was made that the school should be located in Ibadan instead of Accra, which has superior public and special library services and a University library in no way inferior to that in Ibadan. Ghana eventually established its own school: initially a department of the Ghana Library Board for the Registration examination (ALA) of the British

80

Library Association, it has now become the Department of Library Studies of the University of Ghana, awarding its own post-graduate diploma. 4. The profession in Gambia, Sierra Leone and the French African countries Gambia and Sierra Leone were members of the West African Library Association until its dissolution. The dissolution has been more harmful to these two relatively smaller countries which, for reasons of size and population, could not maintain sizeable library services to encourage the growth of strong national professions. Library staff consequently have had to become corresponding members of the British Library Association. Library development in the French speaking countries has been very slow. Even though the International Association for the Development of Documentation Libraries and Archives in Africa, founded in Dakar in 1957, has been in existence for over ten years, the development of the profession does not seem to advance as rapidly as would have been expected. At present it is not known whether any national association of documentalists, librarians or archivists exist in any of these territories. Certainly there is no international association of librarians. 5. Hie achievements of the Association I have already noted that the idea of WALA was taken up enthusiastically when it was formed in 1953. Its sucess has been equally considerable. It suceeded in its primary objectives, which were to unite all persons in West Africa interested in librarianship and to provide the medium for discussion and exchange of ideas. At the time of the break-up in 1962, membership was as follows: — Personal. Nigeria Ghana Sierra Leone Gambia Overseas Honorary

Institutional.

145 74 4 1 1 1

52 44 2 1 5

226

104

—

Total. 197 118 6 2 6 1 330

It succeeded in publishing WALA News as the main organ of the profession. This was supplemented by a newsletter. It concerned itself with general problems affecting the profession and problems of librarianship as a whole. It discussed library provision in various countries and urged government by resolution to pass legislation which would make possible the establishment of regional schemes for 81

library development. It discussed library services to schools and passed resolutions on training, qualifications and service conditions, including emoluments of library assistants. At its 1956/57 conference it set up a committee on training of personnel and library resources in West Africa, and commissioned a report on book preservation. The national associations carried on where WALA left off. By and large the profession in Nigeria seems to flourish better mainly because it is larger in number, but perhaps also because there is greater enthusiam and dedication than is the case in Ghana. There were two significant achievements in Nigeria. The Association got the Regional Governments to accept responsibility for library service in the public field, and secondly it urged the Federal Government to establish the 'Federal Library Committee', on which the Association is represented. 6. Problems of the profession Some of the difficulties and failings of the profession as a whole have already been mentioned. One of the main waknesses is finance — WALA as the main body for organizing the profession had no resources, financial or otherwise, to do anything significant. It could not estabish an office or pay a secretary. Neither WALA nor any of its successor national associations had any educational responsibility. They could neither influence nor participate in the exercise of awarding professional qualifications or credentials. In order to maintain international recognition, to be able to take the qualifying examinations of the British Library Association and to continue to receive the monthly journal, most librarians have tended to maintain their overseas connections to the detriment of the national associations. There is therefore a lack of professional solidarity, as some members do not feel obliged to support their national association. 7. Recognition and status Professional recognition is achieved in two ways, recognition by one's colleagues in other professions and recognition by the state. The first presupposes that other professional bodies accept the profession in question, and the second bestows on the professional body the power to regulate the practice of the profession within the state. A very important corollary to this is that when the question of remuneration arises, mainly during salary negotiations and award of gradings, there will be little doubt about parity of treatment. It should be evident from the list of problems already enumerated that the associations had not consolidated themselve sufficiently to win recognition either by their own sister professions or by the state. WALA as an interterritorial association could not be given statutory powers of a national nature, and it was no wonder that the government of Ghana did not accord recognition to the profession until after the national association was born. The path to professional recognition is a very difficult one. In Nigeria the Randall Report of 1956 graded 82

librarians as sub-professional and recommended a salary grade far lower than those recommended for other professions. Though the Nigerian Association fought and got the government to rectify the situation, the position was reversed again by another salary commission, the 'Elwood Grading Team', which again graded librarians far lower than the general professional gradings of the earlier report. A salary commission in Ghana in 1968 did not discuss the profession at all, with the result that there is much confusion as to what the remuneration for all grades of librarians should be. The root cause stems from the basic educational requirements for admission to the profession. The Governments of West Africa seem to pay much attention t o this. For instance, two manpower surveys of Ghana and Nigeria in the 1950's graded librarians as 'technical and sub-professional'. E. B. Bankole described the problem as follows: We should not expect a high status for our profession if the basic education requirements are lower than those of other professions. If we give the world the erroneous impression that a librarian can be made out of every Tom, Dick and Harry who can pass the G. C. E., take ajob in the library and pass a few examinations to obtain a j o b certificate, then we are reducing the status of our profession to one which does not need the higher development of the mind which a good basic education gives. (Nigerian Libraries, vol. 2 no. 1) Generally, librarians working for university libraries are accorded academic status, and, although the A.L.A. and the F.L.A. are recognised as professional qualifications for administrative purposes, the University in Ghana would recognise only the F.L.A. as equivalent to a degree. 8. Conclusion Generally, therefore, in seeking to unite and protect the interest of librarians and in assisting in the promotion and development of libraries, the two associations are playing their part. They fall short of their aims in not participating in the examination and certification of prospective members, in not organizing a strong body capable of maintaining the position of the profession as a respectable body in society. They are weakened by inadequacy of finance and small membership. A move in the right direction is now being made in Ghana, by the recent effort of the Association to get itself recognised by a constitutional instrument. This would vest control of professional affairs in the Association, thus giving it power to conduct or participate in conducting qualifying examinations, to maintain a proper register of members, to ensure the maintenance of professional standards and generally to speak with authority for librarians as a whole.

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References 1. WALA News, Vols. 1 - 4 2. Ghana Library Journal 3. Nigerian Libraries 4. Evan, Miss E.J.A. 5. Oderinde, No. 6. Oderinde, No.

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(Journal of the defunct West African Library Association) (Journal of the Ghana Libraiy Association) (Journal of the Nigerian Library Association) 'A tropical library service, the story of Ghana's Libraries'. 1964. Twenty years of librarianship in Nigeria. 1970. Path to professional recognition. 1969.

AMERICA

10.

The American Library Association: current concerns and directions Keith Doms

Director, Free Library of Philadelphia, President, A.L.A Since 1876, the American Library Association has shaped its structure and activities toward attainment of its basic objective: 'to extend and improve library service and librarianship in the United States and throughout the world'. Incidentally, while the founders of the American Library Association seem to have been extremely farsighted in most ways, they underestimated the future growth of the profession and the human desire and need for gatherings of this sort. It has been reported that upon the occasion of the first ALA conference in 1876, the opinion was freely expressed 'that while librarians might usefully come together once in a while for a conference, and print a periodical of occasional character, there could scarcely be enough to talk about to justify frequency or regularity in either meetings or publication.' The formal structure of the ALA includes a president, first and second vicepresidents and a treasurer, all elected by the voting members of the Association. The membership also elects the ALA Council, which is the policymaking body of the Association and its highest authority. There are also chapters, these being the state and regional library associations. The management arm of the Association is the Executive Board which includes all the elected officials and eight members elected by and from the Council. The members have organized themselves into units of membership called divisions, of which there are fourteen, which represent type-of-library and type-ofactivity. For example, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Children's Services Division are type-of-library and type-of-activity divisions respectively. The concerns of the specific libraries and librarians are handled through these divisions. There are various committees within the current organizational structure which concern themselves with substantive matters. The Intellectual Freedom Committee, the Audiovisual Committee, and the Legislation Committee are examples. Through such Committees the subjects covered are dealt with for the Association as a whole and cut across all divisional lines. 85

Most organizations have priorities which they evaluate and re-order in keeping with professional goals and social change. The ALA is no exception. The Association's highest current priorities are Social Responsibility; Manpower; Intellectual Freedom; Legislation; Planning, Research and Development; Democratization; and Reorganization. I will discuss several of these briefly and then identify some of the factors that brought these priorities into focus. The priority of intellectual freedom is managed through three different organizational components: the Intellectual Freedom Committee, the Office for Intellectual Freedom, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. The Committee, the oldest of the three, was established in 1940 'to recommend such steps as may be necessary to safeguard the rights of library users, libraries and librarians, in accordance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Library Bild of Rights'. The Office for Intellectual Freedom, established in 1967, operates within the goal of educating librarians to the importance of the concept of intellectual freedom. Toward this end, the Office serves as the administrative arm of the Committee and bears the responsibility for implementing ALA policies on intellectual freedom as approved by Council. The Freedom to Read Foundation was incorporated in November 1969 as ALA's response to the increased interest of the members in having machinery to support and defend librarians whose jobs are jeopardized because they challenge violation of intellectual freedom. Another primary objective is to set legal precedents for the freedom to read. The Foundation was established outside the structure of the ALA but is closely affiliated through its board of trustees and executive director, who also serves as the director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Through the combined efforts of the Intellectual Freedom Committee, the Office for Intellectual Freedom, and the Freedom to Read Foundation, the American Library Association carries on a total program to promote and defend intellectual freedom. Within the area of social responsibility the membership of the ALA had expressed deep concern for the inadequacy of library service to the disadvantaged and unserved of the country. The Social Responsibilities of Libraries Round Table of the ALA has been a prime mover in pressing for response to the needs of the disadvantaged and unserved. At this point in U.S. history, a principal concern of all is the necessity for relieving the poverty of a large number of our citizens, upgrading the education and employment possibilities of those who have been discriminated against because of their race, colour, or religious beliefs. Development of library service to the disadvantaged has been accepted by the ALA as a major goal for as long as it shall be nevessary. The ALA Coordinating Committee on Library Service to the Disadvantaged is working with divisions and committees to bring their activities in this field into a unified program of significant impact. Further, in the development of such a unified program, it was recommended by the Activities Committee on New Directions that an ALA Office for Library Service to the Disadvantaged and Unserved be established. The Establishment of such an office has been approved by the Council and plans are being made for its implementation.

86

Another major priority of the ALA is manpower. This is defined not just in terms of numbers of personnel, but with regard to manpower activities generally. On the basis of recommendations made by the membership, plans are being formulated to estabish an Office of Library Manpower, which would be responsible for programs relating to all aspects of library manpower including, but not limited to, recruitment, education and training, salaries, status, welfare, employment practices, tenure, ethics, and other personnel concerns. The Office would also be involved in the establishment of standards and the development of sanctions for enforcement of policies and standards. In the meantime, a committee known as the Staff Committee on Mediation, Arbitrations, and Inquiry was appointed in December 1970 to handle complaints and conduct inquiries relating to tenure, ethics, fair employment practices and due process, ethical practices, and the principles of intellectual freedom as set forth in policies adopted by the Council of the American Library Association. This committee, which meets almost weekly, was established in response to the longstanding and intense concern of the membership regarding such matters. The priorities discussed here grew largely from membership action taken at the 1969 annual conference of the Association. As a result of a membership resolution, the Activities Committee on New Directions for ALA was established. The Committee, which came to be called ACONDA, was directed to recognize changes in the interests of the ALA membership, to reinterpret and restate the philosophy of the ALA, to determine priorities for such action which would reflect the desires of the ALA members, and to re-examine the organizational structure of the ALA. I will not attempt to review the work of ACONDA: full reports have appeared in several U.S. library journals. However, I do wish to note that Council created a special ad hoc committee to make recommendations to it on matters in the ACONDA report not considered or discussed by membership and/or Council at the annual conference in Detroit in 1970. This second Committee, which came to be called ANACONDA, neither coiled itself around nor did it crush ACONDA. In fact the two Committees got along rather well! Historically, this process of restructuring and reordering of priorities has been a continuous process of the Association. Throughout its existence it has been rather constantly engaged in self-examination of its purpose and structure. These examination have been conducted in several ways, usually by 'activities' committees from the membership. There has been one comprehensive study by a management firm and separate studies of different units by members and by outside firms. It could be said, then, that the American Library Association has rigorously examined itself on an average of about once every fifteen years. The present Association has evolved from this continued study by members and by persons and agencies from outside the organization.

87

In the process of establishing its highest current priorities, the American Library Association reaffirmed in 1 9 7 0 that it would continue to be an organization for both librarians and libraries, with the overarching objective of promoting and improving library service and librarianship. This was a most important decision since it represented rejection of the concept o f reorganizing as an exclusively professional organization as compared with maintaining ALA's traditional role of an educational association with membership open t o institutions, trustees, and interested persons, as well as to librarians. Further, this decision established the base line for ALA's current selfanalysis which is focused mainly on reorganization and further democratization of the organization. In my view, the criteria that have been suggested in connection with further study of the organizational structure reveal rather sharply the current developments and the direction o f development in the objectives, structure, and functions of ALA. These criteria emphasize that the structure of ALA should be oriented to programme and to the implementation of priorities acknowledged by the membership, and that any acceptable plan of reorganization should encourage and facilitate meaningful and productive membership participation. Further, there must be sufficient flexibility to provide a mechanism for early budgetary response and for on-going evaluation o f policy, program, and structure. Finally, any acceptable plan of organization must enable the staff of A L A to work toward organization objectives, effectively and efficiently, using the highest level of their abilities. In addition to the American Library Association, the United States has thirteen library associations, ten of which are affiliated with ALA. For the most part, these other organizations reflect the interests o f specialized types of libraries. As I noted earlier, I would like to comment briefly on the two U.S. organizations that are largest in membership after the American Library Association. One is the Special Libraries Association ( S L A ) and the other is the Catholic Library Association (CLA). The Special Libraries Association was formed thirty-three years after the ALA in 1909 'to provide an association of individuals and organizations having a professional, scientific, or technical interest in library and information science, especially as these are applied in the recording, retrieval and dissemination o f knowledge and information in areas such as the physical, biological, technical, and social sciences'. Although devoted to highly specialized libraries, this is an organization working with a broad subject coverage and a diversified membership. The subject areas are rapidly changing ones, especially the pure and technical sciences. Therefore it must continually review and revise its programs. This is currently taking place in the form of a proposed merger between the SLA and the American Society for Information Science. Again, this proposed action reflects a response to membership interests in a rapidly changing society. Other groups have discussed mergers and it is clear that patterns of library organization in the United States are not firm. There ist also evidence of individuals switching from one organization to another.

88

Social change has also affected the Catholic Library Association, which is committed to the promotion and encouragement of 'Catholic literature and librarianship through cooperation, publications, education and information'. There has been a strong emphasis on ecumenism since Vatican II that has resulted in an upsurge of religious literature not solely identified as Catholic. This literature has found acceptance among all religious faiths and has served to de-emphasize denominational divisions. As the Catholic Library Association celebrated its fiftieth year in 1971, it engaged in self-study in an attempt to revitalize its operations. As with the American Library Association and the Special Libraries Association, the Catholic Library Association was striving for change to make itself a more vital and relevant organization within the Catholic Church and the United States. Before closing, I wish to mention the Council on National Library Associations. The Council was organized in 1942 'to promote a closer relationship among national library associations of the United States and Canada'. Its members include most of the national associations. However, to date, the impact of this Council has been limited and its future seems uncertain. In my discussion of the current status and direction of development of the American Library Association, I have attempted to reflect the membership's concerns for the people they serve and wish to reach with relevant library services. And I have attempted to fit the American Librarian — both as a librarian and as a citizen — into the perspective of his national organization. Nearly all of his concerns are reflected with remarkable clarity in the current priorities of the American Library Association. Recent and current self-examinations of ALA by its members and government suggest strongly that without the benefit of continuous réévaluation of purpose, goals, and mechanisms for achieving them, any professional organization can fall only too readily into a quagmire compounded of self-satisfaction and smugness. I agree with Mr. Liebaers, President of the International Federation of Library Associations, that the 'transfer of an experience from one country to another, from the library in one country to the library in another country, is the normal way to international progress'. We are pleased to have this oppotunity to share some of the experiences and concerns of our organization with others represented at this 37th session of IFLA.

References 1. American Library Association. ACONDA - ANACONDA Report. 2. ACONDA Revised Recommendations on Democratization and Reorganization. A report presented for consideration of Council and Membership. Midwinter Meeting, January 1971. 89

3. Recommendations from ANACONDA; A report by the ALA Ad Hoc Committee on ACONDA for consideration at Council. Midwinter Meeting, January, 1971. 4. ACONDA, Revised Recommendations to ALA Council. January 22, 1971. 5. Organizational Information, 1970-71. ALA, 1971. 6. Clift, David H.: 'The Organizational Environment of Library Associations.' Speech delivered at Graduate School of Librarianship, University of Denver, April 8, 1971.

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11.

International activities of the Medical Library Association Carroll F. Reynolds, Ph.D.*, Elizabeth A. Petgen, M.A.**, and Bernice M. Hetzner, M.A.*** The Medical Library Association was organized in 1898 by United States and Canadian librarians to foster medical libraries and to maintain a duplicate materials exchange. The Association has grown from 65 charter members to over 2,500 personal and institutional members including 248 members in 47 foreign countries. The Association still conducts an exchange for duplicate periodicals and books. It also has been instrumental in initiating standards for the education of medical librarians. It operates a placement service. The Central Office of the Association receives and answers numerous requests for information concerning medical library procedures and problems. It publishes the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, a scholarly journal dealing with medical librarianship and medical bibliography ; and it sponsors in whole or in part other scholarly and bibliographic projects. It is the Library Library interest Library

purpose of this paper to report the international activities of the Medical Association. The Association joined the International Federation of Associations in 1934. Since then the Association has taken an active in the affairs of IFLA, contributing substantially to the Third International Congress sponsored by IFLA in 1951.

International influences began to appear in 1930. Some distinguished historians from Europe were nominated to honorary membership, and gradually new institutional memberships from overseas were added. American medical librarians joined forces with the Japanese Medical Library Association and officials of British educational institutions, libraries and governmental agencies, in an effort to force a reduction in the price of certain periodicals. This campaign continued for many years and occupied the attention of a special committee of the Association. World War II caused the Medical Library Association to become further involved in international activities. United States librarians were concerned about the great destruction of library resources and the world-wide interruption in dustribution of medical books and journals, and in 1945 the United States Department of State's Office of Information on Cultural Affairs established the American Book

*

Chairman, MLA Committee on International Cooperation. Director, Falk Library of the Health Professions, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. ** Associate Director, Midcontinental Regional Medical Library, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. *** President, MLA. Director, University of Nebraska Medical Center Library, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. 91

Center for War Devastated Areas. The Medical Library Association extended the services of its exchange plan, its Bulletin, and its Handbook of Medical Library Practice to support this effort. Between 1948 and 1957 more than 898,700 items were distributed to overseas medical libraries. The United States Book Exchange became the successor to the American Book Center for War Devastated Libraries. Today 382 medical libraries in 52 countries use the U.S. Book Exchange. The Medical Library Association established a Committee on International and National Cooperation in 1948. Its purpose is to study ways in which the Association might be useful to the medical professions of other countries in (a) building collections and developing libraries, (b) bringing librarians to the United States for study and travel, and (c) offering advisors and consultants for technical assistance in underdeveloped countries. Over a fifteert-year period the Rockefeller Foundation gave the Medical Library Association S 94,000 to sponsor a program of fellowships and scholarships for foreign medical librarians. By 1960 the MLA Committee on International Cooperation was yearly receiving twenty-five inquiries regarding medical library educational opportunities in the United States from fourteen or fifteen countries. Fifty-one medical libraries in the United States accept interns. In 1967 the Medical Library Association received a bequest which is being used as a nucleus of reserve funds to provide fellowships for the training of medical librarians from other countries. The Medical Library Association also assists the United States Public Health Service and the United States Department of State in planning a program for medical trainees and has a representative on the Council of National Library Associations Joint Committee for visiting foreign librarians. Since 1967 the Committee on International Cooperation has endeavored to set up a system of direct exchange between an American library and one in a foreign country. Many United States medical libraries have been sending their duplicate materials to libraries in developing countries and it is hoped that this type of program can be expanded and systematized. Through financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the China Medical Board, the Kellogg Foundation, the Eli Lily Foundation and several American universities as well as the United States International Cooperation Administration, Medical Library Association members have gone abroad as consultants. Since 1957 fourteen American medical librarians have visited a total of twenty-five different countries where they conducted training programs, lectured in library schools, and advised on medical library problems. In 1953 the Medical Library Association brought out 'Vital Notes on Medical Periodicals'. This report on serials announces birth, marriage, death and hibernation of medical periodicals. Its origin began as the result of a conversation between an American medical librarian and a Japanese medical librarian. Librarians outside the 92

United States and Canada have contributed usefully to its contents and medical bibliographers have come to rely upon it as an authority. The Association has been active in international congresses on medical librarianship. The First International Congress was held in London in 1953 and received the support of the Association, the Second was held in Washington in 1963 and was sponsored by the Association, the Third was held in Amsterdam in 1969 and was sponsored by Excerpta Medica Foundation with the Association participating in the planning. At the present time, the Medical Library Association has a representative on the Bridging Committee which is planning the Fourth Congress. The Placement Service of the Medical Library Association is available to all health science library institutions and librarians whether members of the Association or not. Numerous librarians from outside the United States and Canada have been placed in positions around the world and library staff vacancies at home and abroad have been filled through this service at the Central Office of the Association. The Association has resolved to try to provide members from countries other than North America with more services and more opportunities for involvement. Therefore, the 'Notes from London' in the Bulletin have been replaced by 'International Notes' so that the section now has broader scope. Another idea was to sponsor regional international meetings. The first such meeting is planned in connection with the annual Medical Library Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in 1974 and will be called the Inter-American Conference of Health Sciences Libraries. Thus, after seventy years of activity, the Medical Library Association seeks to become a truly international organization. Through its cooperation and affiliation with international professional societies, its International Section in the Bulletin, a program on international scholarships and fellowships, the exchange of library materials, the sponsorship of regional international conference, the provision of materials for continuing education, and the solicitation of more articles for the Bulletin from outside the United States, the Association can become a forum for medical librarians from all over the world.

(Informational material in this paper is based in part on international Notes',Bull Med. Libr. Ass. 59 (3) July 1971.)

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12.

The role of professional associations in the development of agricultural librarianship and documentation in Latin America Ana Mana Paz de Erickson Executive Secretary, Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists (AIBDA) 1. Library and documentation associations in Latin America The last 'Provisional List of Library and Documentation Associations', published by Unesco in 1969, lists fifty-three library Associations (14). This number does not include two Inter-American Library Associations of recent creation or four national organizations affiliated to AIBDA. Of fifty-nine library organizations, three are Inter-American: 1 .Asociación Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas - AIBDA (Turrialba, Costa Rica), 2. Asociación Internacional de Bibliotecarios (Bogotá, Colombia); 3. Asociación Latinoamericana de Escuelas de Biblioteconomíay Ciencias de la Información - ALEBCI (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). There are five library organizations working in the agricultural field: the InterAmerican Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists — AIBDA, and four affiliated groups: 1. The Brazilian Commission of Agricultural Librarians - CBBA — affiliated also to the Brazilian Federation of Library Associations; 2. The Peruvian Agricultural Librarians) 3. The Uruguayan Division of AIBDA; 4. The Venezuelan Division of AIBDA. There is also in Latin America an hemispheric organization which has made a great contribution through its Library Development Programme: the InterAmerican Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS (IICA). A full account of its work in the development of agricultural librarianship in Latin America is given in a recent paper by Maria Dolores Malugani (5), which will be published by AIBDA. II. Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists — AIBDA AIBDA was born at the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS in Turrialba, Costa Rica, in 1953, during the First Technical Meeting of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists (7, 12). The Association was housed at the Library of IICA, but after a shott time its activities were left in suspense because of lack of funds for the functioning of the Secretariat.

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AIBDA was revived in October 1965 when, prompted by IICA, the Latin American librarians and documentalists who attended the 3rd World Congress of IAALD took advantage of the occasion to discuss the activities of the Association. IICA opened its doors again to the reborn AIBDA, which has been active and growing ever since. A. Objectives 1) To serve as liaison among the agricultural librarians and documentalists of the Americas and other parts of the world. 2) To present educational programs to improve the status of its members and others engaged in the profession. 3) To promote the improvement of library services in the field of agriculture and related sciences. 4) To disseminate knowledge about the literature published in Latin America in the field of agriculture and related sciences. B. Organization and membership The Association is Inter-American in character, but it welcomes members from other parts of the world. Membership is composed of individual and corporate members. The present total is 633 members; 446 are individual and 187 corporate. The individual members include not only librarians and documentalists, but also specialists in various fields of the agricultural sciences. Thirty-three countries in the Americas, Europe and Australia are represented in the membership. C. Executive Committee AIBDA is managed by an Executive Committee elected by the General Assembly. To assist in national activities there is a National Representative of AIBDA in each country of Latin America and in the United States. D. Program of activities 1. Publications 1.1 Latin-American Bibliography of Agriculture (Bibliografía Agrícola Latinoamericana) Publication (quarterly) began in 1966. A current index of agricultural literature, published in or relating to Latin America. 1.2 Information Bulletin (Boletín Informativo) Publication (bi-monthly) began in 1966. Reports the activities of AIBDA and its members, and new developments in agricultural librarianship and documentation, with annotated references to new publications. 1.3 Technical Bulletin (Boletín Técnico) Of irregular publication. Publishes papers on library science and documentation. 95

1.4 Special Bulletin (Boletín Especial) Of irregular publication. Includes recommendations of library meetings and conferences, directory of members, reports of surveys and studies. 2. Inter-American co-operation To promote improvement of agricultural library services and to encourage projects of national interest, AIBDA has given financial assistance to national groups in the Latin American countries. It has contributed to the following projects:— 2.1 Bibliografía Agrícola Peruana, compiled by the National Agricultural Library of Perú, under the co-ordination of Amalia Cavero de Cornejo. 2.2 Obras de Consulta Agrícolas en Español, a bibliography compiled by Pablo Velásquez and Ramón Nadurille at the National Agricultural Library of Mexico. 2.3 Agrícolas, information bulletin of the Brazilian Commission of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists. 2.4 Catálogo Colectivo de Publications Periódicas en Bibliotecas Agrícolas des Uruguay. A joint effort of the members of the Uruguay Division of AIBDA. 2.5 Catálogo Colectivo de Publicaciones Periódicas en Bibliotecas Agrícolas de Venezuela. Compiled by the Venezuelan Division of AIBDA. 2.6 Guia Básica para Bibliotecas Agrícolas, by Dorothy Parker, et al. Portuguese translation, prepared in 1969 by the Library and Documentation Center of the IICA, of the 'Primer for Agricultural Librarians' published by IAALD in 1967. 2.7 Indice In teramericano de Tesis en Ciencias Agrícolas y A fines. This index of theses of the agricultural universities and colleges of Latin America is being co-ordinated by the Inter-American Center for Agricultural Documentation and Information, IICA-CIDIA, in Turrialba, Costa Rica. 2.8 Tesis de Grado de Ingenieros Agrónomos Colombianos, 1917—1968, compiled at the Library of the Institute Tecnológico Agrícola, Pasto, Colombia. 2.9 Tesis de Ingeniería Agronómica 1968 — Resúmenes Analíticos. Abstracts of theses presented at the School of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences of the Universidad Central of Ecuador. 2.10 Publication of 1000 Books in Agriculture in Portuguese. This compilation is being prepared at the Library of the Universidad Federal of Minas Gerais, in Vicosa. 3. Professional education One of the main concerns of AIBDA is to give its members educational opportunities which will raise their professional status and improve their performance in the profession. 96

AIBDA has conducted two surveys, on status and on human resources in agricultural librarianship. The first is concerned with the status of the agricultural librarian in Latin America in regard to level of employment, status within academic institutions, salaries, and other economic and social factors. The second inquiry, conducted in co-operation with the Inter-American Program for the Development of Agricultural Libraries (IICA/PIDBA) aims at an 'inventory of human resources for teaching library science in Latin America'. The results were presented to the Third Round Table of the IICA/PIDBA in Rio de Janeiro, 1969. In 1970 the Association established an 'AIBDA Scholarship'. In the first year, the scholarship was awarded to a Paraguayan librarian to attend the International Training Course in Agricultural Libraries, given by the InterAmerican Center for Agricultural Documentation and Information (IICACIDIA), at Turrialba. In 1971, the scholarship was assigned to short refresher courses for three Latin-American agricultural librarians, of whom two, a Venezuelan and a Haitian, took courses at IICA-CIDIA in Turrialba, while the third, a Brazilian, will attend a short intensive course in documentation in Lima, Perú, prior to the Third Regional Congress on Documentation organized by FID/CLA in September 1971. 4. Meetings AIBDA organized the second Inter-American Meeting of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists, held in Bogotá in December, 1968, and attended by around 140 delegates. (10) The Association is now engaged in organizing the Third Inter-American Meeting of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists, to take place in Buenos Aires in April, 1972. Its central theme is 'Scientific and technical information for the development of nations', with emphasis on agricultural documentation. E. Committees AIBDA has formed the following Committees: 1. Bibliography and Documentation Committee, 2. Acquisitions and Selection Committee, 3. Professional Education Committee, 4. Classification and Cataloguing Committee, 5. Exchange and Inter-Library Loan Committee, 6. Publications Committee III.

Inter-American Center for Agricultural Documentation and Information - IICA-CIDIA

With the creation of the Inter-American Center for Agricultural Documentation and Information, IICA-CIDIA, in 1971, the IICA has reached a high point in its support for agricultural information and documentation. It aims at strengthening 97

national institutions in charge of the storage, processing and distribution of agricultural information and co-ordinating their activity through IICA-CIDIA (4). The Center will also be the regional co-ordinator in the world system of agricultural information (AGRIS) now under study by a Panel of Experts sponsored by FAO. The role of IIC A in the development of libraries and documentation centers goes back to 1946, when the Institute was created and the Orton Memorial Library was established. IICA's Scientific Exchange Service, established in 1949, gave the first systematic documentation and communication services, which included the publication of a technical journal, the compilation of short bibliographies and micro-film and photocopy services (8). In 1962, the services of the Orton Memorial Library and the Scientific Exchange Services were merged to form the Library and Documentation Services of the Teaching and Research Center of the Institute in Turrialba. In 1964, the programs of the Library and Documentation Services were extended to extramural activities in the training of agricultural librarians and documentalists, and the creation of new series of publications, such as Bibliotecología y Documentación and the Boletín para Bibliotecas Agrícolas; support for the production of reference and library materials; and surveys of agricultural libraries in Latin America. 1967 marked the initiation of the Inter-American Program for the Development of Agricultural Libraries, IICA-PIDBA, which was to co-ordinate all the programs for the development of libraries and documentation services carried out by the units of IICA in different countries of Latin America (6). The new Program was to operate in six main fields: 1. Documentation activities: bibliography, standardization, reprography and communications. 2. Training courses. 3. Technical assistance to member countries of the OAS in the field of library and documentation services. 4. Publications. 5. Promotion of international co-operation and of technical meetings at InterAmerican level. 6. Promotion of the creation of national agricultural libraries and library networks. A regional centre for agricultural documentation was established in Argentina for the Southern Zone; a program for agricultural libraries was established in Brazil; similar projects are under study for at least two countries in the Andean Zone. In 1971, the newly created IICA-CIDIA merged all the activities of the Library and Documentation Services of the Turrialba Center, and of other units of the IlCa. The Center will be the co-ordinator for the planning and establishment of

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an Inter-American network of libraries and documentation centers and will also be the link with existing world-wide information systems in agriculture, such as AGRIS. IICA-CIDIA will assist national efforts to develop specialized training and will promote meetings and congresses, and aid the consolidation of national and international associations of librarians and documentalists, including AIBDA. IV.

Library groups at national level

The two Inter-American organizations working in agricultural librarianship and documentation in Latin America, AIBDA and IICA-CIDIA, have encouraged group work at national level. Four groups are considered national chapters of AIBDA. 1. Argentina By a co-operative agreement between the IICA and the Facultad de Agronomia y Veterinaria of the University of Buenos Aires, the Documentation Center for Research and Higher Agricultural Education for the Southern Zone was created in September 1969. The Center is housed at the Central Library of the Facultad, and its objectives are 'to collect, process, and diesseminate information relevant to agricultural teaching and research, and to promote the training of librarians and documentalists' (15). Two short courses of three months each have already been offered for agricultural librarians and documentalists of the Southern Zone: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Publication of an inventory of institutions of higher education in agriculture and related sciences in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, is in progress (3). The Center will gather information about the research and programs of each institution; about meetings, conferences, etc. in the field of higher agricultural education and research and about the organization and administration of agricultural research and teaching. 2. Brazil A. Program for Agricultural Libraries of Brazil One of the first efforts of the Inter-American Program for the Development of Agricultural Libraries (IICA-PIDBA), was the establishment of a working unit in Brazil, in 1967(13). The Program for Agricultural Libraries in Brazil was established to give technical assistance in the planning and organization of libraries; to give basic training; to contribute to the development of research; to aid the libraries in establishing techniques for exchange of publications, inter-library loan; etc. 99

Some of its outstanding achievements are: 1. Seven short courses for librarians, documentalists and research workers. 2. Two meetings of agricultural librarians and documentalists and directors of institutions where these librarians work. 3. Study of the situation of agricultural libraries in Brazil through visits and consultations. 4. Sponsorship of the attendance of Brazilian agricultural librarians at training courses and at congresses and meetings. During its first three years, the Program was housed at the Official Representation of IICA in Rio de Janeiro. A new agreement has been signed with the Universidade Federal de Vigosa, in Minas Gerais, to establish there the General Secretariat of the Program. The first results of the new agreement have been five scholarships to agricultural librarians to attend a special course on 'Automation in documentation' given at IBBD in Rio de Janeiro, and a formal training course for agricultural librarians, at Vinosa, starting in September, 1971. B. Brazilian Commission of Agricultural Librarians - CBBA As a result of one of the meetings sponsored by the Program for Agricultural Libraries in Brazil, the Brazilian Commission of Agricultural Librarians - CBBA was created. It is affiliated to the Brazilian Federation of Library Associations and to AIBDA, and has its own information bulletin, Agrícolas (1). The first effort of the Commission was the compilation of a 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural Libraries in Brazil', which was passed to the Brazilian Institute of Bibliography and Documentation, IBBD, as a contribution towards the National Union Catalogue that is being compiled there. Because of the extent of the territory of Brazil, the agricultural librarians have formed regional sub-groupings. Another result of this co-operative work is the publication of a union list of reference works in the libraries of the Escritorio de Pesquisas e Experimentado (E.P.E.) of Brazil (2). Other compilations are under way. 3. Colombia The Colombian Association of Agricultural Librarians (B.A.C.) was created as a result of the first meeting of agricultural librarians of Colombia, sponsored by the Escuela Interamericana de Bibliotecologfa, in Medellih, in 1962. The B.A.C. itself sponsored the Second Meeting of Colombian Agricultural Librarians, at the Instituto Tecnológico Agrícola of Pasto, in December, 1966 (9). One of the important recommendations of this meeting was for the establishment of the National Agricultural Library of Colombia.

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Another project of the Association was the compilation of the 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural Libraries of Colombia', which has not been completed. The B.A.C. was active up to 1968, when it was merged into the National Association of Librarians. 4. Chile The Chilean Committee of Agricultural Librarians was formed in 1966. In its programme it included seminars and short courses on special subjects; the compilation of a 'Union list of books in agricultural libraries in Chile'; a 'List of Theses in Agricultural Sciences'; and a 'Subject heading list for agricultural libraries'. The Committee has not been active in the last few years. 5. Ecuador The First Meeting of Agricultural Librarians of Ecuador will take place in September 1971, under the auspices of the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Andean Zone, Office for Ecuador. As a result of this meeting the creation of an Ecuadorian Chapter of AIBDA is expected. The first projects for the Ecuadorian group of agricultural librarians are the compilation of the 'National Bibliography of Agriculture' and a 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural libraries of Ecuador'. 6. Peru The Association 'Agricultural Librarians of Peru', was created in November, 1966, as a Peruvian Chapter of AIBDA. It has been working on the compilation of a 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural Libraries in Peru', and in bringing up-to-date the 'National Bibliography of Agriculture of Peru', first published in 1969. The first meeting of the Agricultural Librarians of Peru, in February 1971, was a Round Table on problems of agricultural libraries, sponsored by the Universidad Agraria of Peru. The Association has in preparation the publication of its own Information Bulletin. 7. Uruguay The Uruguayan Chapter of AIBDA was founded in September, 1966. It has already compiled and published the 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural Libraries of Uruguay', of which a second edition is in preparation, and is working on a 'Union List of Reference Works in Agricultural Libraries of Uruguay'. In December, 1968, the Uruguayan Chapter of AIBDA organized the Second International Meeting of Scientific Information and" Documentation, which took 101

place in Montevideo and was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture of Uruguay and the Southern Zone of the IICA (11). 8. Venezuela In January 1971 the Venezuelan Chapter of AIBDA was created as a result of a meeting called by the National Representative of AIBDA and sponsored by the Office of Information, Libraries and Documentation of the Research Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture in Maracay. The agricultural librarians of Venezuela had already started a co-operative project, the 'Union List of Periodicals in Agricultural Libraries of Venezuela'. Planning is under way to hold a technical meeting of agricultural librarians and documentalists of Venezuela later in 1971. V.

Summary

Agricultural librarianship and documentation have had a noteworthy development in Latin America, based mainly on the co-operative spirit encouraged by two regional organizations: the Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists, AIBDA, and the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the OAS, IICA. Activity has been concentrated on training librarians and documentalists, publishing reference tools and other works, holding technical meetings and round tables for the exchange of experience, and establishing close ties for the purpose of co-operative work. It is expected that the near future will see the formation of national working groups of agricultural librarians in all the countries of the Latin-American continent. VI.

References

1. Agrícolas. OrgSo informativo da Commissáo Brasileña de Bibliotecarios Agrícolas - CBBA. Rio de Janeiro, Vol, 1, No. I, 1970. 2. Brasil. Ministerio da Agricultura. Escritorio de pesquisas e experimentado. Coleq&o de referéncia das bibliotecas do Escritorio de Pesquisas e Expeñmentaqao. Cruz das Almas, Brasil, Instituto de Pesquisas e Experimentado Agropecuarias do Leste, 1970. 159 p. 3. Centro de Documentación sobre investigación y enseñanza superior Agropecuaria de la Zona Sur. Directorio de instituciones de enseñanza superior de la Zona Sur. Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Central de la Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, 1970. 38 p. (CEDIE. Informaciones no. 1.) 4. Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agrícolas de la OEA. 'Proposed ProgramBudget 1971-1972'. San José, IICA. Dirección General, 1971. pp. 2 6 - 2 9 . 102

5. Malugani, María Dolores. El IICA - un instrumento para el desarrollo de la información agricola en América Latina. Presentado a: IV Congreso Mundial de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas. Paris, Francia, Abril 2 0 - 2 5 , 1970. 38 p. 6. 'Programa Interamericano de Desarrollo de Bibliotecas Agrícolas en América Latina'. In Mesa Redonda del Programa Interamericano de Desarrollo de Bibliotecas Agrícolas, la. Lima, 1967. Documentos y Recomendaciones. Turrialba, IICA, 1968. pp. 11-39. 7. Paz de Erickson, Ana María. 'La Asociación Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas - AIBDA'. Boletín Bibliogràfico Agrícola (Costa Rica) 2(4): 1 9 - 3 0 . 1965. 8. 'Labor bibliográfica del Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agrícolas, Turrialba, Costa Rica'. Boletín de la Unesco para las Bibliotecas 1(91): 5 - 8 . 1956. 9. Reunión de Bibliotecarios Agrícolas Colombianos. Pasto, Nariño, Colombia, Diciembre, 1966. Recomendaciones y Selección de Trabajos Presentados. Turrialba, Costa Rica, AIBDA, 1967. 32 p. (AIBDA. Boletín Técnico No. 4.) 10. Reunión Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas, 2a., Bogotá, Diciembre, \968. Actas y Trabajos Presentados. Turrialba, Costa Rica, Asociación Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas, 1968. 11. Reunión Internacional sobre Comunicación y Documentación Agrícola, 2a.\ Montevideo, Diciembre, 1969. Informe Final. Montevideo, IICA, Zona Sur, 1970. 12. Reunión Técnica de Bibliotecarios Agrícolas de América Latina, la. Turrialba, Costa Rica, Agosto-Septiembre, 1953. Informe Final. Turrialba, Costa Rica, IICA, 1953. 2 voi. 13. Rodríguez, Julia Inés. 'Origen y desarrollo del Programa de Bibliotecas Agrícolas en Brasil'. In Mesa Redonda del Programa Interamericano de Desarrollo de Bibliotecas Agrícolas, 2a., Bogotá, Noviembre, 1968. Documentos y Recomendaciones. Bogotá, Centro Interamericano de Desarrollo y Reforma Agraria, 1968. (IICA. Bibliotecología y Documentación, No. 15.) pp. 34—61. 14. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 'Provisional List of Library and Documentation Associations'. Paris, 1969. 20 p. (Unesco Com/ MD/12.) 15. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria e Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agrícolas de la O.E.A. 'Convenio de creación de Centro de Documentación sobre Investigación y Enseñanza Superior Agropecuaria de la Zona Sur'. Buenos Aires, 1969. 8 p.

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III

ORGANIZATION IN LIBRARIES OF DIFFERENT TYPES

13.

The professional organization of academic librarians Kenneth Garside Librarian of King's College, London Introduction This survey of the professional organization of academic librarians, which term is intended to include those in all libraries, including state or national libraries, which serve scholarly research, is based on a questionnaire sent to individual librarians working in this field in a large number of countries. Replies were received from twenty-nine countries with such different degrees of cultural development, different political systems and different geographical conditions that a reasonably balanced library overall associations picture emerges. National In twenty-one of the twenty-nine countries from which replies were received academic librarians are embraced in a national library association covering librarians in all types of library, though South Africa finds it necessary to have four such associations, one for each racial group in the country. In Belgium we find the curious situation where, in the French-speaking area, there are separate associations for academic librarians and for public librarians, whereas in the Flemishspeaking area there is a single association covering all librarians (and archivists), though with a section devoted to the interests of academic libraries. The existence of national library associations is reported from three socialist countries of eastern Europe — Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia — and there was an abortive attempt to found such an association in Czechoslovakia in 1968—69. Of the countries which replied only Portugal reported that it had no library association of any kind. Fourteen of the twenty-two countries (including the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium) with national library associations embracing all kinds of librarian have formed special sections or groups devoted to the interests of academic libraries.

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Since these are mainly countries in which public library systems have been most fully developed — particularly the Anglo-Saxon countries — it seems realistic to suppose that the formation of the special sections has been due, in some measure at least, to a need for a degree of self-defence in the face of a preponderence of public librarians. This was certainly the case in Great Britain, where twenty years ago the dominance of the numerically stronger public librarians almost led to the secession of the academic librarians from the Library Association and did in fact lead to the formation of the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) of which mention will be made later; this was an ironic situation since academic librarians had played a leading part in the formation of the Library Association and its first president was the then Librarian of the British Museum. In recent years the position has improved following the reorganization of the association in three divisions, one for public librarians, one for academic librarians and one for special librarians, each with its own coordinating committee. In the United States, too, there has been tension between the Association of College and Research Libraries and its parent body, the American Library Association, though the view is held in responsible academic library circles that the great strength of the library movement in America has stemmed from a long tradition of a common training programme and a common national association for all librarians, and that this has had the effect of preventing academic librarians from becoming elitist and isolated. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Finland and the French-speaking area of Belgium there are special library associations concerned only with academic libraries. In Germany and Austria, at least, this situation seems to have resulted from the historical domination of research libraries. In Germany there are indead two associations concerned with this field which function independently but which join together to hold an annual conference: the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare for academically qualified librarians, and the Verein der Diplombibliothekare an wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken for non-academic but professionally qualified staff in academic libraries; there are parallel associations for public librarians in the Federal Republic of Germany, while in Austria a public library association is being formed to partner the Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekare. The Finnish Research Library Association is one of a number of societies which have joint standing committees and organise a joint national conference every second year. The continued existence of separate associations for academic and public librarians in the Federal Republic of Germany is due to the belief that this arrangement ensures a better representation of the needs of academic libraries than would be possible in a single all-embracing association. In some countries, as will be shown below, this same need has found expression in the creation of standing conferences of chief librarians. It is, however, significant that dissatisfaction with the provision made to foster the interests of academic libraries is most widespread in those coun106

tries which have a single all-embracing national library association without separate sections to cater for the interests of academic libraries and which have not adopted the alternative solution of forming standing conferences representative of such libraries. In some fifty-five per cent of the countries covered by this survey the national library association, whether all-embracing or confined to academic libraries, is concerned with the professional training of librarians, and in forty per cent of countries it is concerned, at least in a policy-forming capacity, with professional examinations and qualifications. In a similar percentage of countries, too, the association is concerned with salaries and conditions of employment of librarians, though often only in an advisory capacity, the association in such cases having no trade union role. In a number of European countries national and university librarians are civil servants whose terms of employment are equated with those of other comparable grades of state employees, and their professional qualifications are often gained by the passing of state examinations. In Great Britain the salary scales of university librarians, who are not civil servants, are negotiated, along with those of university teachers, by the Association of University Teachers in collaboration with the Library Association. In the socialist countries of eastern Europe professional training and conditions of service are the concern of the state, though elected library councils may participate in working out salary norms. In Bulgaria there is a librarians' section of the trade union for the employees of administrative and cultural institutions which advises on matters of professional training; in Czechoslovakia library staff are catered for by the trade union for employees in art, culture and social organizations, which has a librarianship committee; and in Hungary state librarians are members of the trade union for civil servants, which again has a committee of librarians, while university librarians are members of the teachers' trade union. Standing conferences of academic libraries The concept of standing conferences of the chief librarians of academic libraries originated in the United States of America with the Association of Research Libraries, membership of which is by invitation; this body has been concerned with the development of national programmes for the enhancement and rationalization of research library collections and services, its most notable achievement being the introduction of the Farmington plan for the acquisition of specialist works. It was on this model that SCONUL was founded in Great Britain in 1950 at the time when the Library Association was felt to be doing far too little to foster the interests of academic libraries; SCONUL had as its avowed object the promotion of the work of the national and university libraries, and its founders believed that such a body would provide opportunities for the discussion of matters of particular concern to those libraries in the form of frank exchanges of views by those responsible for their administration, as well as to present their 107

corporate opinion to outside bodies more accurately and with greater weight than could the existing organization. The same object led to the establishment of the Committee of Australian University Librarians. In continental Europe there is in the Federal Republic of Germany a working group of academic librarians (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hochschulbibliotheken) which owes its origin to the need for cooperation at a national level between the libraries of the different Länder, each of which retains full sovereignty in matters of cultural affairs; while the formation of the Conférence des Directeurs des Bibliothèques Universitaires in Switzerland similarly reflects the need to overcome the limitations imposed by the cantonal political structure of that country. In Denmark the national library association embraces two groups devoted to academic library affairs, one being a normal section open to personal membership by librarians working in such libraries, while the other takes the form of a conference of the chief librarians of the research libraries. Mention must be made of three regional conferences of chief librarians of academic libraries. The oldest was the Scandinavian Bibliotekschefsmde which was devoted to cooperation between the research libraries of the various Scandinavian countries and was responsible for the development of the Scandia plan for the acquisition of foreign books; this body appears now to have lapsed as a formal entity, but it is worth noting that the British SCONUL still holds biennial joint meetings with the Scandinavian academic librarians to the mutual benefit of both sides. In Africa the Standing Conference of African University Libraries has been formed to assist in the organization of university library provision in the developing countries of that continent, and a further step has recently been taken in the formation of a regional group of this conference for east Africa; it is expected that similar groups will in due course be formed for north and central Africa. Most recently, of course, a standing conference of the research libraries of western Europe has been inaugurated under the name of Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche. These standing conferences of chief librarians concern themselves primarily with matters of policy and practical cooperation between the constituent libraries, and are not generally concerned, except perhaps in a purely advisory capacity, with questions of the conditions of service of personnel, which are considered to be best dealt with by the national associations of librarians. Governmental and quasi-governmental bodies Although perhaps not falling strictly within the scope of this survey, reference must be made to the intervention of governmental and quasi-governmental bodies in the field of academic library organization since these bodies often perform functions which in other countries are performed either by national library associations or by standing conferences of librarians, while in some cases they actually cover the same ground as these voluntary bodies. Moreover, they often rely heavily 108

upon the collaboration of individual librarians who thus play an important, if not indeed a dominant, role in their work. In the Netherlands the membership of the State Advisory Committee on Library Affairs (Rijkscommissie van Advies inzake het Bibliotheekwezen) includes the chief librarians of all universities and works under the chairmanship of the Royal Librarian. In Denmark library provision is under the direction of the Advisory Council for Research Libraries (Forskningsbibliotekernes Faellesrad) which started as an informal body but has now been recognised by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as the official organ fox cooperation between Danish research libraries; while in Norway a special office (Riksbibliotektjenesten) has been set up in the National Office for Research and Special Libraries (Riksbibliotekradet) to ensure cooperation between academic libraries in that country. In France there is centralised control of library activities by the Directorate of Libraries in the Ministry of National Education. In Australia matters of inter-library cooperation are mostly initiated and organized by the Australian Advisory Council of Bibliographical Services, of which the Library Association of Australia is a constituent member. In the Federal Republic of Germany, because of the absence of a national ministry of culture, similar functions have been carried out by the libraries committee of the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), while the Council on Arts and Sciences (Wissenschaftsrat) has taken upon itself the task of examining and reporting on the needs of academic libraries throughout the country. Special relationships have developed in some countries between the universities and university libraries. In Great Britain the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals has set up a standing committee on university libraries to which four university librarians have been appointed and to which SCONUL has been invited to nominate a fifth; this committee advises the university vice-chancellors on library policy. In New Zealand there is a Standing Committee on Library Resources, with similar functions, as a sub-committee of the Vice-Chancellors' Committee; this sub-committee comprises the librarian and one teacher from each university, together with the National Librarian and a representative of the national library association. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada has achieved the same result by delegating its concern for libraries to the executive committee of the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries, a section of the Canadian Library Association, which it has made into one of its own committees. In the Soviet Union there is an inter-departmental library council under the Ministry of Culture of the USSR which is representative of all types of library throughout the Union, and because of the vastness of the Soviet Union this organization is repeated in subordinate councils in each constituent republic as well as in eight zones of Russia itself; although, as has been said, these councils cover all kinds of library, there is a parallel national organization based on particular types of library. In Bulgaria, too, there is a national Committee for Culture and Art with local 109

committees, each with library sections, while in Czechoslovakia there is a Central Librarianship Council to advise the Ministry of Culture and in Poland a Commission of Libraries and Scientific Information of the Higher Learning General Council. Hungary has a separate Council of University Librarians. Yugoslavia, with its federal structure, has established a Conference of National Libraries as well as library associations in each constituent republic, some with academic library sections, and a coordinating Association of Library Societies of Yugoslavia. Conclusions It seems clear from the evidence received that in countries with well-developed library systems academic librarians are unlikely to find a satisfactory forum for the discussion of their problems within an all-embracing national library association unless this association furnishes a separate section devoted to the interests of academic libraries. In such countries there is also a need for a body responsible for determining policy for, and developing cooperation between, academic libraries. This can be undertaken most satisfactorily by a conference of those actually responsible for the administration of these libraries and therefore in a position to implement the agreed policies and programmes. The conference may be either a voluntarily established body of chief librarians, as is the case in the United States and Great Britain, or by a government-sponsored body of which the chief librarians are members, as in Denmark and Norway; it is likely that the latter type of organization will achieve its aims more rapidly because it can be expected to have the necessary funds at its disposal to do so. Standing conferences of chief librarians of academic libraries in developing regions such as Africa can be expected to bring considerable benefits to the individual libraries through cooperative projects and exchanges of experience.

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14. The organization of our profession: public libraries Dr. P. J. van Swigchem Director, Public Library, the Hague, Chairman, Dutch Association of Librarians When I had to prepare this paper, I was aware of some difficulties. First, the organization of the profession was, as I understood, a general theme of this Conference, and I should have been glad if I had known what was in the papers of my fellow speakers on this subject. I would have preferred to give my remarks against this background, but it has not been possible. Secondly, how can I speak about the organization of our profession without knowing the facts about our professional organizations all over the world? I can try to make some points from my experience of the Dutch situation, but can I expect that such a demonstration of provincialism will find any response in your international minds? Thirdly, it seems to me, that one of the determining factors in the way of organizing things is the philosophy behind it. Can I hope to fullfil my task without a display of the different underlying library philosophies of east and west, of north and south, and can I expect that such a display will leave any time for my real subject: our professional organizations? It will be in vain to look in this paper for such deep foundations. Nevertheless I will make some remarks about two principles of our professional organization which are, in my opinion, particularly important. The first question is this: should we public librarians have our separate associations or should we join our colleagues of research and special libraries in one professional organization? There are strong arguments for the latter. First of all: librarianship is an entity; there is a common base of techniques, methods, disciplines. In trying to find the best answer to the challenges we meet in our profession, in trying to develop methods and techniques that can cope with the demand we meet and the torrents of books, periodicals and non-book-materials, we have much to gain from good, effective communication with our colleagues in research and special libraries, and we can find the channels for this communication in an all-embracing library association. But librarianship is an entity also in this respect, that in practice no type of library can play solo: only as a full orchestra can we succeed in providing the community with everything that is asked for. We are accustomed to the term 'general reader', the unclassified browser who has to be served by the public library. Do not believe that such a general reader exists. In a sense he has never existed. But nowadays the word has lost even the limited applicability it had in former days. No reader is 'general' without being 'specific' in one way or another at the same time, or at other moments, and vice versa, and this means a lot for librarianship. Just remind

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yourselves what has to be done in the field of information for all kinds of people on all levels and on all subjects. Just imagine what tools are needed for people's continuing education and study and what crossroads in library provision we have to build to ensure a free flow of knowledge. All this means interrelationship and interdependence of all library and documentation work. I suppose we are all great believers in this inter-relationship. But at the same time this interrelationship may be underdeveloped in practice. Library history may have put public and other librarians too much into different social categories. Just remember from the old days that scholarly custodian of books, perhaps more proessor-like than professional as a librarian, and on the other hand that social worker with books, convincing by his missionary zeal more than by his professionalism. Certainly this is a picture from our old family album, not one of today. But do you think that in all our professional organizations all remnants of this situation have disappeared? I may add that today it is all the more important that we clear away old or new fences because it is on common ground that we have to solve the questions of library development. It is precisely the relation and cooperation between public and other libraries that is in question when we are planning the future. So whatever may be the situation in your country, I suppose your choice will be a professional organization, where we public librarians can be in touch with our colleagues in the broadest sense, and where we can search together for the best way to fulfil the task that none of us can hope to fulfil by himself. But does this mean that we can just mix like sugar in the porridge ( — or salt, if you prefer)? Do we not need something of our own, something that gives body to our own responsibility in library policy, an image and a voice that are recognizable for all those who are particularly connected with us, authorities as well as patrons? Why do public libraries have their own section in IFLA? If there is a good reason for this, should not they have the same within their national library organizations — a platform where they can discuss not only public library problems, but also general library problems from their specific angle? I think they should, and that is my second point. It is essential for a public library to exist for the whole community, to have its roots in the community, to be tuned to it. In my opinion this means that we need an organization that can do more than feed us with professional knowledge and serve us as a platform for professional discussion. We need an organization that can translate our professional views into terms and figures that can be understood by local and state authorities, that can penetrate the brains of political bosses — that can give a clearer picture of our work in so many minds where too often only vague or false notions can be found. Is it black pessimism, if I suggest that there is still a lack of understanding of the public library? You may think so. At least in the developed countries the 'chance to read' is impressive. But it is still possible, even in a highly developed country, to have a partly underdeveloped public library service, because of a lack of under112

standing and public support. And even in those countries where the public library seems to be seated on a velvet seat with golden elbow-rests, there is a need for permanent renovation, remodelling to the needs of a changing community. This idea must be sold again and again: and that demands combined effort. Of course, much of this can and must be done on a local level, by publicityminded and policy-making librarians and library boards; and on the national level, public library promotion is impossible without an active state government and state inspection. But I am convinced that the best results cannot be gained without an active library association, where we join together not for the cultivation of a splendid library technocracy, but to strengthen the position,of our libraries in the competition with all other kinds of social, economic and cultural institutions — for example, to fight for good library legislation, for freedom to read and a full chance to disseminate information of every kind, and for all the practical measures connected with these objectives. If it is true that we need a national organization not only to find out how things should be done technically, but also to convince all kinds of authorities that things can be done and should be done, the question arises how convincing professional librarians are in a surrounding non-professional society. Are we the best advocates of our interests? Or would it be wise in our organizations to introduce some non-professional supporters into our professional ranks? You may know that in my country there is a national association of professional librarians (all types together), and also a Central Association for Public Libraries, in which, besides professional librarians, the public libraries are represented by their nonprofessional board-members. Public librarians are members of both associations, by combined membership. I believe that this structure cannot be found in any other country, and there is certainly a reason for this. In general, public libraries in Holland have been founded and are run by private institutions, not by the municipalities. Not the municipal government, but the library board, consisting of private citizens, has been and still is the library authority in these cases. Therefore in Holland non-professional board members may have more voice in library policy, juridically and in practice, than is the case elsewhere. You may note this as a system that cannot or should not be copied in your country, and you may be right. But may I ask then: how in your country is the world of the library profession connected with its non-professional surroundings, with the community and its social and political exponents? Let us not forget that our professional rules and problems of book-selection, cataloguing, documentation and so on cannot be of any importance unless they are emanations of the problem of the library user and the library using community: how to get the information and recreation that are indispensable for the well-being of society. No national public library organization should ignore this fact, confining itself to library technology and management, and leaving national library policy to governmental authorities or politicians. It is precisely here that librarians should have a finger in the pie. It is true that not every librarian is born to be fond of this pie of policy and politics.

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Some prefer to use their fingers for card filing and turning the pages of books, and I certainly do not condemn these colleagues. But let us all combine in a sentisive and active library association which will compensate for our individual one-sidedness. Speaking of the organization of our profession, I have given my views on a few principles that in my opinion are basic and essential. I have not given a blueprint of the perfect library association. I don't believe in such a blueprint appropriate for all of us. The situation today is marked by much diversity in library history, library philosophy, cultural and educational politics, and practical possibilities, and there is not much chance for an international federation to impose a uniform structure. But it would be important if we could agree with these premises for the organization of our profession: a strong partnership with all kinds of colleagues within one library association, and at the same time, within this interdependence, a reasonable independence in making public policy and in speaking a public library language that can be understood where it has to be understood: in the community.

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IV INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

15. Co-operation between FID and IFLA A. J. Evans Librarian, Loughborough University of Technology The first major step towards closer co-operation between FID and IFLA was made in February 1971 when a meeting was held in the Royal Library, Brussels. This meeting was sponsored by UNESCO and attended by members of the Executive of both FID and IFLA together with representatives from the respective committees in the fields of training, research, automation, standardization and developing countries. Group discussions in each of these areas were held and in all cases proposals for joint activity over the next few years were agreed. Full details of these proposals are given in IFLA News no. 37, July 1971, pp. 13—14. Two of the principal topics discussed were Universal Bibliographic Control and the forthcoming UNESCO report on UNISIST. It was agreed that representatives from FID and IFLA should prepare and submit a joint evaluative statement to UNESCO on the UNISIST report prior to the major intergovernmental conference to be held in Paris in October. A meeting was held in May 1971 to prepare this joint statement and a very high measure of agreement was reached very rapidly. The draft version of this together with the specific IFLA statement is reproduced in IFLA News no. 37, July 1971, pp. 10-12. They were subsequently sent to UNESCO and also to all IFLA's national members with a request that they should make their own government representatives to the UNESCO conference aware of the joint statements. This co-operative effort continued very successfully at the UNISIST meeting in Paris and a joint verbal presentation was made to the Conference on behalf of both organizations. It was also as a result of efforts before and during the meeting by both organizations that the resultant comprehensive resolution from the Conference included the following: The Intergovernmental Conference for the Establishment of a World Science Information System (UNISIST)... Requests the Director-General of UNESCO, in consultation with ICSU and other organizations active in appropriate fields to establish an Advisory Committee of scientists, engineers and information 115

specialists reflecting the interests of both producers and users and those responsible for information transfer to assess periodically the ability of the UNISIST programme to meet the needs of, and provide services to, the world's communities of scientists, engineers and technologists, and to report its findings to the Director-General and to give advice to the Steering Committee as deemed necessary. It is to be hoped that both FID and IFLA will be represented on this Advisory Committee. Since the preliminary meeting mentioned above various committees passed resolutions at the IFLA General Council Meeting in Liverpool in September 1971 which confirmed the interest and willingness to co-operate at a more practical level. These resolutions were as follows: a) IFLA Committee on Statistics and Standards The General Council recommends to the Executive Board to draw the attention of all sections and committees to the tasks of the Committee of Statistics and Standards in its new conception. The General Secretariat and the sections and committees are requested to inform the Committee on Statistics and Standards about all efforts and projects of unification and standardization so that the Statistics and Standards Committee may establish a joint advisory body with F.I.D., and, in turn, with ISO/TC 46, to strengthen standardization work in the field of libraries and documentation. b) IFLA Committee on Theory and Research 1. On international co-operation in regulating library terminology The Committee points out the importance of developing to the utmost international co-operation in the field of research into the problems of regulating library terminology and considers this to be one of the conditions for the broad exchange of experience in the field of library science and practice. The Committee holds in high esteem the fruitful initiative of UNESCO, FID and ISO in compiling multilingual dictionaries of terms used in information work and considers this to be very useful. Similar research into library terminology carried out by IFLA will contribute towards the overcoming of language communication barriers between specialists in the field of librarianship. The Committee is of the opinion that in the next 2—3 years it is necessary to organize work on the compilation of a comparative dictionary of the most important basic library terms ( 2 5 - 3 0 ) with short explanations and the equivalent expressions in the largest number of languages possible on the basis of international co-operation and with the help of UNESCO, FID and ISO. The first stage of work alone will be a substantial contribution to comparative library science. 116

The Committee delegates to the Chairman to form, after agreement with the Executive Committee of IFLA, a special library terminology working group and to organize the work of this group so that the first version of the comparative dictionary of basic library terms could be presented for discussion at the plenary session of the Commission at the 39th session of IFLA in 1973. 2. On the co-operation of the Committee on Theory and Research with FID in the field of information theory The Committee on Theory and Research of IFLA stresses the importance of strengthening working contacts with the Committee for the Theory of Information of FID. With a view to establishing these contacts in practice the Committee on Library Theory and Research considers the following steps to be expedient: 1) to work out a long term programme of co-operation between the two committees for two or three years in advance; 2) to prepare and to organize a joint session of the two committees at the beginning of 1973 to discus the research problems in question and also the ways and means of delimiting and integrating library and information science. c) IFLA Working Group on UNISIST The ad-hoc working group on UNISIST recommends that it should now be officially recognized, but that its name should be changed to the Working Group on Research and Development in Documentation and Librarianship. Its terms of reference will continue to include a direct interest in all UNISIST activities, but will also be specifically concerned with the work already being carried out by FID in conjunction with UNESCO on the collection of information on Research and Development activités in Documentation and Librarianship. It is not intended to overlap in any way with the work of the Committee on Theory and Research in Librarianship. d) IFLA Committee on Library Education The Committee on Library Education recommends that the IFLA Executive Board accept in principle the idea of an international library school, and that the Board, if possible in conjunction with FID, seek from UNESCO a subvention to carry out a thorough feasibility study. If the subvention is secured the IFLA Committee on Library Education should be consulted regarding possible persons to conduct the study, and its nature. In addition, a new Working Group on Developing Countries was formed to coordinate the relevant activities of the sections and committees of IFLA and to provide a forum for discussion of library problems of common interest to developing countries. This group will undoubtedly be in direct contact with FID/DC to ensure that overlap of effort is avoided as far as possible. 117

In general, the Programme Development Group of IFLA has asked that all presidents and secretaries of IFLA sections, committees and working groups should receive an FID yearbook. This yearbook has been sent with an urgent request by the IFLA secretariat to establish direct contact with the relevant members of FID. The proposal to form a joint steering committee of FID/IFLA has the full support of all concerned and it has been urged to start its activities as soon as possible.

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16.

Points from the address of the FID Representative at the IF LA General Council, Liverpool W. van der Brugghen

Deputy Secretary General, FID The following is a summary of current FID activities in areas where co-operation between FID and IFLA is desirable: 1. In the field of training FID has sponsored since 1965 a course in Tunisia for documentalists from French-speaking African countries. A world-wide directory of training courses prepared by the FID Training Committee has been published: the scope of this Committee has been enlarged to include training of users, and programmes for courses are being developed. 2. The FID Committee for Developing Countries, under a contract with Unesco, has undertaken a study of the situation in developing countries. 3. Mechanization aspects, in particular concerning automation in small documentation services, are being studied by the Committee on Operational Machine Techniques and Systems. Close relations have been established with the International Federation for Information Processing. 4. FID has begun publication of a monthly service 'Research and development projects in documentation and librarianship'. 5. In order to promote compatibility and co-operation among the larger information systems and networks, FID will undertake — within the context of the UNISIST project - the development of a synoptic Standard Reference Code derived from the UDC, to serve as a central unifying and switching device. In International Book Year, direct co-operation between FID and IFLA is possible, in studies of unsers' needs, standardization, and the needs of developing countries. On the occasion of the FID Congress in Budapest in September 1972 FID will organize, jointly with IFLA a seminar on 'Organization of information services in less industrialized countries'. In May 1971, FID organized a round-table meeting attended by delegates from FID, IFLA and nine other organizations. Areas of common interest were identified, such as training/education, terminology, and systems development. Particular attention was given to the needs of developing countries.

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17. The role of Unesco: extracts from an address K. H. Roberts Unesco A brief survey of Unesco projects completed or in process during 1970 will indicate the scope of activities of the Department of Documentation, Libraries and Archives in the recent past. Activities in the area of promotion of research and international co-operation in documentation included those which follow. A consultation group was held at Headquarters on the Promotion of Research in Documentation and Librarianship. Among studies completed were those on the application of mechanized methods for the dissemination of Unesco reports and documents; handbook on library statistics; public library legislation: role of libraries and documentation services in economic and social development. As far as the development of documentation, library and archives services is concerned, operation of a number of pilot projects continued. These included one emphasizing public and school library development in Ceylon and one in school library service and training for Central America with headquarters in Honduras. A regional meeting on the National Planning of Documentation and Library Services in relation to educational, social and economic development in Africa was convened in Kampala, Uganda. The meeting evolved principles for the national planning of documentation and library services in African countries and considered a model plan for implementation in Uganda. With the co-operation and financial contribution of Member States and interand non-governmental organizations, training facilities were offered as follows: in Argentina, a course in scientific and technical documentation for Latin American participants; in the Federal Republic of Germany, an international seminar on automation in documentation and libraries; in Japan, a training course in documentation techniques for Asian countries; in Spain, a symposium in scientific documentation for specialists from Latin America and Spain; in the USSR, an inter-regional course for industrial information and documentation officers was organized by UNIDO in collaboration with Unesco and the authorities of the USSR. A four-month training course for teachers of librarianship from developing countries was held in Copenhagen. A number of expert missions financed under the Participation programme and concerned with the national planning of documentation and library services, the development of school and public library services, the mechanization of library services, the training of documentalists and librarians, the development of archives services and the planning of library buildings were completed. Several regional and national meetings on such topics as tropical archivology, availability of books for adult education, and development of school library services were assisted under

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the same programme. Unesco's microfilm unit completed its work in the Sudan, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Nepal. Expert missions under the Technical Assistance Country Programme took place in the development of national, public and school libraries, the training of librarians and in the development of scientific and technical documentation. The following activities in the area of IFLA's interest have been foreseen for the 1971 - 1972 biennium. The Education Sector provides educational information and documentation services through the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva (forming part of Unesco). In the Library of the International Bureau of Education particular attention will be given to acquiring reference works, national reports on education and comparative studies. Abstracts on education policy documents will be obtained from a large number of Member States and consultants will be invited to advise on the development of the service. The Science Sector, in co-operation with ICSU, has recently completed the feasibility study on a World System of Information for Science and Technology, called UNISIST. IFLA, FID and ISO were represented at the meetings of the ICSU/Unesco Central Committee for UNISIST. The establishment of UNISIST is intended to ensure easy access by the world community to the collective store of scientific and technical information through integration and cooperation at all stages of information transfer. II will also reduce unnecessary and costly duplication in information processing. The system will be multinational, multidisciplinary and multifunctional. It will be conceived as a flexible international network which will integrate, on a voluntary basis, the existing separate and loosely connected scientific and technical information services with a view to achieving, through international co-operation a more efficient and widely utilized system, on a world-wide basis. As an organization, UNISIST will require some kind of intergovernmental machinery which will co-ordinate and catalyse the efforts made towards the harmonization of information transfer methods. Particular attention will be paid to the participation of developing countries in the system and their access to it, as well as to the training of information specialists. As a first step towards establishment of the system an intergovernmental conference will be convened in October 1971 in close co-operation with ICSU. It is expected that the conference will make recommendations concerning the basic principle of the system and the corresponding mechanism and procedure for its implementation. The Sector of Social Science, Human Sciences and Culture will contribute to the development of social science information systems based on modern data collection, storage and retrieval techniques. Efforts will be made to link these activities with UNISIST. The Communication Sector is responsible for the programme for the free flow of books, one of the main feature of which will be the celebration of International Book Year in 1972. IFLA as well as FID is closely associated with this programme and both organizations were active in preparing suggestions for its observance. 121

Both organizations participated in the preparatory meetings and in the Planning Committee for International Book Year which began its work from 1 3 - 1 6 April 1971 under the Chairmanship of the President of IFLA. As is known IFLA's General Council meeting to be held in Budapest in 1972 will be devoted to International Book Year. The activities of the Department of Documentation, Libraries and Archives (which forms part of Unesco's Communication Sector) are of direct concern to IFLA, FID, ICA and a number of other non-governmental organizations. Most of the studies foreseen in the Department's programme are to be executed by these three organizations. I should particularly like to mention the revision of the Unesco Public Library Manifesto which is being prepared by IFLA for publication during International Book Year, the study on interlibrary loan and the international exchange of publications to be prepared for the meeting on this subject which is to be held in Vienna in 1972 and the preparation of an audiovisual training course in French for library assistants in developing countries. Other studies are also being carried out on a contract basis. Consultations with IFLA have already been started on defining the framework of surveys of computer-based European information services, documentation services available on magnetic tapes and, probably most important of all, a study on the international bibliographic control of publications. The basic idea is to develop national bibliographic control system by means of computer-processed national bibliographies, the products of which should be interchangeable internationally. IFLA, FID and the ICA have regularly been invited to consultations at Unesco on such topics as the promotion of research in documentation and library work, guidelines for Unesco's policy on archives, etc. As for the promotion of research, DBA, with the assistance of FID and IFLA, is establishing an international information system on research projects and research reports concerning documentation and library work. The Department is co-operating with IFLA, FID and ICA concerning the training of documentalists, librarians and archivists. These three NGO's, with financial assistance from Unesco, will organize seminars at the time of General Council or General Assembly meetings in order to provide an opportunity for conference delegates from developing countries to become acquainted with recent developments in their professional fields. The first example of such co-operation is the seminar organized by IFLA in Liverpool on the occasion of the General Council meeting. The Computerized Documentation Service of Unesco (CDS) might be of great interest to IFLA and other NGO's. The Service which is being established in 1971 will make use of the computer configuration available in the Secretariat and apply procedures and methods compatible with those of the computer-based documentation services of other United Nations organizations. It is expected that in 1971 — 1972 it will process some 30,000 documents and publications, properly indexed, 122

converting them into a machine-readable format and storing the information contained therein on magnetic tapes and discs for future retrieval. A master negative microfiche will be created for all documents thus processed, making possible the distribution of the documents, on demand either in positive microfiche form or enlargement. The service will also function as a demonstration and training centre for documentalists and information specialists from Member States, particularly those from developing countries, on the application of systems development and modern technology to information control. The service will be extended at a later stage of its development to the processing of external documents and publications. The service will be available to Member States, international organizations, national institutions, ect. Work in the area of planning and development of documentation, library and archives services is continuing. Three meetings of experts convened by Unesco, at Quito (Ecuador) in 1966, Colombo (Ceylon) in 1967, and Kampala (Uganda) in 1970 made recommendations on the national planning of documentation and library services in Latin America, Asia and Africa. To complete the cycle a further meeting of experts on the national planning of documentation and library services will be held in Cairo in 1972 to evolve a framework of principles for the planning of documentation and library services on a national scale for Arab States. If in the past the Organization's programme in the field of documentation, libraries and archives was primarily concerned with helping countries set up certain institutions of their own of which they were in particular need, in the future greater emphasis will be placed on establishing global infrastructures t o support Member States programmes for development in this sphere. It is obvious that the efficiency of such infrastructures would be greatly increased by the introduction of systems based on overall planning, increased co-ordination at national and regional levels, and the use of latest technological methods. The programme will stress the desirability of exchanging information concerning research and encourage the establishment of national and networks of documentation centres and libraries specially planned to the exchange of information which could be of help in implementing ment programmes.

and data regional promote develop-

Importance will be given to planning and setting up national, public and school library systems which should be integrated into the national plans for the extension and renewal of education. The establishment in rural areas of multi-purpose centres which would be used for the dissemination of cultural programmes, in particular by audiovisual methods, will be encouraged. IFLA has been invited to submit suggestions for the Organization's medium-term outline plan for 1973-1978 and for the draft programme and budget for 1973 — 1974. Unesco hopes that IFLA and the other non-governmental organizations invited to do so will make use of this opportunity to contribute to the formulation of Unesco's medium-term and current programmes for documentation, libraries and archives. 123

18.

Activities of ISO/TC 46 - Documentation: summary of address Johanna Eggert ISO/TC 46 Secretariat, Deutscher Normenausschuß,

Berlin

In the course of the last General Assembly of IFLA in Moscow Dr. Lingenberg, German expert for national and international standardization of data processing in the field of librarianship and documentation, introduced the participants to the tasks of ISO/TC 46 (Documentation), which is principally concerned with the same problems as IFLA. The purpose of his report was to give a short survey of the interests of this Technical Committee of ISO and to demonstrate the need for standardization of rules for libraries and documentation centres. It does not seem advisable for single organizations involved in the same problems to set out to establish rules for the daily work of librarians or documentalists. Rather, specialists from several, if possible all groups interested or concerned in the work should be delegated to meetings to solve special questions. IFLA should be prepared to refer such questions to experts chosen by its committee on Statistics and Standardization. This was already practised in 1964 when a joint committee of IFLA and ISO/TC 46 on 'Library Statistics' was constituted. An even better procedure would be for delegates to be appointed by IFLA to participate in the work of ISO, so that ISO could publish recommendations — soon to become international standards — jointly elaborated. Since TC 46 was re-activated in 1966 the following principal problems have become evident: international standard book and serial numbering, country codes, automation in documentation and library work, and guidelines for thesauri. In addition to these tasks the committee deals with the revision of already existing recommendations in order to align them with the requirements of libraries and documentation centres especially in view of the planned world-wide information system. This last project has resulted in a broadening of the scope of ISO/TC 46. ISO/TC 46 has resolved that the revised scope of the committee be: 'Standardization in the field of documentation, libraries and related information handling, including information systems and interchange net-works as applied to documentation. Liaison shall be maintained with ISO/TC 37, TC 42, TC 95, TC 97 and TC 130 and with relevant documentation sections or committees of international organizations and professional groups.' The following is a brief list of other questions under consideration by TC 46: 1. Alphabetical arrangement 2. Abstracts and synopses (revision of ISO/R 214) 3. Patent and similar documents — bibliographic references, essential and complementary elements 124

4. Contents pages in periodicals 5. Documentation cards 6. International standardization of library statistics. With regard to no. 6, it has been resolved to submit to the vote of the members of ISO as an ISO Draft Recommendation the unchanged text of the UNESCO Recommendation which will be published with the following note: There has been excellent co-operation between ISO and IFLA in the efforts to produce an international standard for the Presentation of Library Statistics. A joint Working Group held conferences in The Hague 1966 and Paris 1967, financed by the Council on Library Resources and supported by UNESCO. A progress report on the international standardization of library statistics was published in 1968. In May 1970 UNESCO convened a conference of governmental experts to develop a draft recommendation concerning the international standardization of library statistics. This draft, finalized within the IFLA-ISO Working Group, was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1970 as a Recommendation to all member states. New items are as follows: 1. Abbreviations of generic names in titles of periodicals (revision of ISO/R 833). The UNISIST document prepared by the Working Group on bibliographic descriptions will be circulated as a Draft ISO Recommendation. 2. Layout of periodicals (revision of ISO/R 8).

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The two statements which follow illustrate the activities of specialized international organizations of librarians. Statements on several others were made at the meeting, but were not recorded. 19.

The International Association of Music Libraries. A message to the IFLA General Council J. H. Davies President, I.A.M.L.,Librarian, BBC Music Library, London In Donizetti's opera Emilia di Liverpool this famous city is described as 'an alpine village not many miles from London'. I mention this because, only a few days ago, I listened to the greetings brought by Dr. Liebaers on behalf of IFLA to our Congress in St. Gallen. Thus 'echo answers echo', when I reciprocate your message on behalf of our Association over one thousand strong. IAML is little more than half the age of IFLA (we began in 1951), and I am aware that in the past twenty years the only formal contact between us has been the message delivered by Vladimir Fedorov, now our President Emeritus, at Brussels in 1955.1 am therefore here to bring things up to date. Your own activities are here writ large for all to see. Ours are summarised in a leaflet which is on display in your exhibition. We move in parallel it seems, in covering the whole spectrum of activity through specialist sections: in our case standing or ad hoc commissions (for broadcasting, academic libraries, for sound archives and music information centres, etc.), some of these in collaboration with other bodies such as the International Musicological Society and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. We are engaged in a published inventory of the world's pre-1800 holdings of printed and manuscript music (no less — a stupendous task) and already a preliminary world directory of participating libraries is twothirds published. We have our international journal, Fontes Artis Musicae, and Brio bi-annually for the U.K. We have an impressive list of other publications too (cataloguing codes, facsimile reprints, etc.). What now remains is to establish how far we may be of use to each other. However much the other arts (as is alleged) may aspire to the condition of music, music librarianship (any more than music itself) dare not exist in a vacuum — the more thorough the research the more need to raid all sorts of other library. Moreover, music collections, whether national or local, are firmly embedded in general libraries. Music is supposed to abolish barriers rather than erect them, and musical notation is probably no more arcane than the grammars of modern pure and applied sciences. IAML itself and individual music librarians alike will therefore scrutinise your published activities and follow up personal contacts whenever any pollination between our various disciplines seems likely to be practical and useful. 126

20.

The activities of the Association of International Libraries J. Leymarie President of A.I. L., Chef du Bureau de Documentation Analytique, Paris Created at Sofia in 1963, the A.I.L. aims at promoting co-operation between international libraries and to represent them in IFLA. This inter-library co-operation has developed in several directions as a result of symposia which took place in Geneva, New York, Paris and Vienna. The A.I.L. has been particularly active in the field of bibliography. Under the chairmanship of M. Th. Dimitrov, Chief of the Cataloguing Department of the United Nations Library in Geneva, the Committee for Bibliography collects in Geneva bibliographies prepared by international libraries, and in some cases, publishes them in the A.I.L. Newsletter, acting as a clearing house of international bibliography. An extensive report on the Vienna symposium of August 1970 on 'Bibliographical systems employed in the libraries of international organizations with a view to further mutual assistance and co-operation between libraries and documentation centres of international agencies' was published in the A.I.L. Newsletter no. 29. Within the framework of the International Book Year proclaimed by Unesco for 1972, the A.I.L. plans to organize an international seminar on 'Documentation of the United Nations and other international organizations; how to find it and use it'. This Seminar is to take place at Geneva, August 24-26, 1972. The provisional programme includes the sources of international documents, their acquisition and organization, and their utilization (bibliographical control, reference, and special subjects).

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V

CONCLUSIONS A. H. Chaplin Achievements of the associations (a)

Promoting library development

All the papers printed in this symposium give support to the claim made by J. BoldiS (paper no 1) that professional organizations of librarians have been a major force in promoting the development of libraries and the improvement of library services. These appear as primary objectives in the constitution of the majority of Associations, not only where these have been long established but, perhaps more significantly at the present day, in countries where the development of libraries is still at an early stage. Thus the objectives of the Malayan Library Group, formulated in 1955, included 'to promote the better administration of libraries and to encourage the establishment and development of libraries'. The production in 1968, of the 'Blueprint for Public Library Development in Malaysia' (Soosai, paper no. 7) is an example of work inspired by these objectives. Persuasion by the Nigerian Library Association leading to acceptance of responsibility for a public library service by regional government is another example, and many more could be quoted. In countries where libraries are numerous and well developed, professional associations, besides promoting discussion and study of theoretical and practical problems, have been active in improving the efficiency of libraries by organizing various forms of co-operation between them. This form of activity has been particularly characteristic of organizations with corporate membership or consisting of chief librarians — e.g., the Association of Research Libraries in the USA, the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries in the United Kingdom, or the Standing Committee of National and University Libraries in Israel (Garside, paper no. 13). Similar forms of co-operation (exchanges of material, union catalogues etc.) have also been undertaken by specialized international organizations (the Association of International Libraries, the International Association of Music Libraries, and others). In every country the growth of libraries and the improvement of standards of library service undoubtedly owes much to the initiative of professional associations. (b)

Professional education and training

An important part of the contribution of the Associations to the improvement of library standards has been their efforts to promote the education and training of librarians. In some countries — e.g. the United Kingdom (Palmer, paper no. 4) —

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professional training has been developed first by the Library Association and has at a later stage become part of the national system of higher education; in the USA and a number of other countries (including the U.K.) the professional association is responsible for approval and recognition of the standards of qualifications awarded by colleges and schools. A number of papers draw attention to the activity of associations in promoting professional training: e.g. in Slovakia (Boldiii, paper no. 1); in West Africa (Ofori, paper no. 9); in several countries of Eastern Africa (Pankhurst, paper no. 8); in Malaya (Soosai, paper no. 7). These examples are typical of the attitude of the professional organizations on a world-wide scale. (c)

Contribution to manpower

supply

Efforts by the Associations to improve professional training and raise the standard of qualifications have a double purpose: improvement of library service to the community and advancement of the professional status of librarians. In both ways they make a contribution to meeting the acute need which exists in developing countries for a supply of trained manpower. In this they are reinforced by activity directly aimed at improving the social status and economic position of librarians, to which attention is drawn by Oferi (paper no. 9) and Soosai (paper no. 7). To the extent that these efforts are successful, larger numbers of the more intelligent members of the community are drawn into library work, and those already engaged in it are impelled to improve their own qualifications. The contribution made here by the professional associations is an important one. Problems requiring attention (a)

Type of organization

The contributions of the Liverpool sessions raised in many forms the question of the best form of professional organization for librarians. The main problem is that of combining the advantages of a general association, emphasising the unity of the profession, with adequate representation of the interests of specialized groups. The papers on academic libraries (Garside, no. 13) and on public libraries (van Swigchem, no. 14) make specific reference to this point. They make it clear that librarians in special types of libraries, or concerned with special types of activity, do not feel that their interests are adequately represented by a general association of librarians as such, if they constitute a minority group in the association. In a number of countries, particularly in those where library development is more advanced, this situation has led at various times to the formation of quite separate specialized associations. As a parallel development - and sometimes as a reaction to the formation of specialist associations — the larger general associations have tended to organize special sections within their own membership. In some countries, as a result, special sections of the general association exist side by side with independent, specialized associations, often with closely similar or overlapping interests. A conspicuous example of separation into a number of separate organizations is provided by the Federal Republic of Germany (Schmidt-Kunsemuller, paper no. 3). 129

This situation does not however prevent fairly close co-operation and consultation — between the different grades in academic libraries in the Deutscher Bibliothekartag, and between all the associations in the Deutsche Bibliothekskonferenz. Indeed, the present tendency seems to be towards a stronger sense of the unity of the library profession and thus to closer links between the different special groups within it. Where there are separate associations, many individual librarians find it useful to be members of more than one. The position of librarians in public libraries in the Netherlands is a special case: here members of the public libraries organization have been given membership at the same time of the general association (van Swigchem, paper no. 14). Sometimes an independent association becomes a special section of the general association. In Denmark, this has occurred in the case of BOFA, the association of Danish children's librarians. In the USA a number of independent associations are linked with the A.L.A. by affiliation, and almost all the associations co-operate in the Council on National Library Associations (Doms, paper no. 10). In these and other ways separate organizations are establishing links and working more closely together. The right pattern for future development of the newer national organizations seems clearly to be that of a general national association with special groups or sections within its membership. There is, however, also another problem. What should be the relation, in a library association, between individual membership and corporate membership? Should both kinds of members be included? Should dominance in matters of policy be given to one type of member? Of the two major objectives common to most librarians' organizations, improvement of library services and improvement of the position and status of librarians, the former is more effectively pursued by an organization in which libraries, as institutions, play a part as well as individual librarians; the latter is appropriate to a professional association of individuals. While a few associations have personal membership only and perform functions of a trade-union type, and a few — usually those operating in a restricted field of interest — have corporate membership only, the more general pattern is a combination of the two. The breadth of interests of the professional librarian would seem to make this last the most suitable type of organization. Where it is considered desirable to reserve certain matters of professional interest to the control of personal members, the solution of special voting rights for these members may be adopted, as in the British and American Library Associations. (b)

Organization on the international plane

Questions of organization on the international plane reflect the situation on the national plane. There exist, side by side, the International Federation of Library Associations, other international bodies with wide interests in the library field, such as FID, and a number of international associations of librarians and libraries operating in special fields.

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The Liverpool sessions showed that there is a growing desire for close collaboration between IFLA and FID. Discussions are in progress between the Executive Committees of the two bodies, and practical co-operation is already a reality in some of their specialized committees. This trend should certainly be encouraged, but progress may not be rapid while the organizational separation between librarians and documentalists, or between general and special librarians, persists at the national level, where it is still widespread. Among the specialized international organizations, it became clear at Liverpool that some are at present unable to see any significant advantage in membership of the general Federation, while others are already member-associations of IFLA and regard this link as important. There is little doubt that the Federation would be stronger, and able to speak more effectively for the library profession, if it included all the specialist associations. These associations and their members would also gain something from opportunities to participate, with colleagues working in other disciplines, in the study of general library questions, and from having a share in the close and direct relations between IFLA and such organizations as Unesco, ISO and FID. It is noticeable that the Sections and Sub-sections of IFLA perform a very similar role to that of the independent specialist associations, in organizing co-operative projects, producing publications, and holding meetings and seminars. The best approach to the problem might be for the Sections and perhaps some Sub-sections, to be given the name and status of Associations, which would be members of IFLA, and for IFLA to invite those associations which are at present outside the Federation to become Sections while retaining their separate identity. The difficulties likely to arise mainly concern financial arrangements: these should be the subject of negotiation. (c)

Special problems of Developing Countries

In many cases the task of promoting a library service and building up a library profession where these hardly existed has fallen to the professional organizations. Soosai (paper no. 7) points out that, in relation to other urgent problems, 'it is not an uncommon phenomenon in newly developing countries for library development to get a low priority'. In Malaya and elsewhere, therefore, the education of public opinion and pressure to influence government have been the first tasks of new associations. Next in importance has been the need for better training of librarians. A dilemma has presented itself, between sending librarians abroad for training and building up training programmes at home. While the former is necessary in the initial stages, healthy development depends on its being used as a means of creating local library schools and local qualifications which will be fully relevant to the needs of the country. Ofori (paper no. 9) points out that dependence on other countries for qualifications can be an obstacle to the growth of a strong national association. Many associations have achieved striking increases in the number of trained librarians and advances in the influence of the profession in national affairs. But often progress is held back by financial difficulties. Resources have been insufficient to maintain an adequate secretariat, and the cost of travel — often over large dis131

tances — has made the holding of meetings and conferences difficult. Soosai (paper no. 7) mentions the valuable help received by the Malaysian Association from the Asia Foundation: help of this kind from Foundations may well make a great contribution in other countries also. But the long-term solution lies in persuading governments of the importance of the work that the associations can do in promoting professional education and raising the quality of library services. Co-peration by the Associations of neighbouring countries in regional arrangements can be of great value, but is particularly subject to financial difficulties. The West African Library Association, a regional organization formed in a group of British dependencies in 1953, was replaced after independence in the two largest territories — Ghana and Nigeria — by national associations, and became quite inoperative in the smaller territories. The re-establishment of a regional organization was recognized as desirable, but has not been achieved, partly because of political separation but also partly because of the lack of resources for travel to regional meetings (Ofori, paper no. 9). The Liverpool conference heard with great pleasure that, in 1970, a conference of South East Asian Librarians (CONSAL) had been held, with representatives from seven countries, and that a similar conference was to be held in 1972 (Soosai, paper no. 7). Past efforts to form wider regional organizations in Asia and in Latin America had failed, but one paper submitted to the Liverpool meeting described successful regional activity in Latin America in a specialized field — agricultural librarianship and documentation — where support and encouragement had been given by the Organization of American States (Paz de Erickson, paper no. 12). The meeting also heard about another important recent development — the formation of the Standing Conference of African University Librarians (SCAUL) and its area organization in Eastern Africa (SCAULEA) (Pankhurst, paper no. 8). This is interesting because, like the specialized international organizations inside and outside IFLA referred to above, it is a spontaneous association of librarians in a particular type of library, independent of the general national associations, and like some national organizations of academic libraries (ARL, SCONUL), it is a grouping of responsible heads of libraries. It is a further example of the complexity of the organization of the library profession. The future relationship of such bodies as SCAUL to IFLA is not clear, but is a question deserving careful consideration. The promotion of regional federations linked with IFLA would provide a means of overcoming the difficulty now experienced in bringing representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America into active association with IFLA's work. IFLA might profitably seek the help both of Unesco and of private foundations in organizing regional conferences at which representatives of the central organs of the Federation would be present. The Liverpool meeting was marked by a definite move forward in the formation of a Working Group on Developing Countries, in which representatives from developing countries, forming a majority of the Group, are associated with representatives of the IFLA Executive Board. It is expected that the work of the Group will result in constructive suggestions for action by IFLA and by its Sections and Committees. 132