Archive for August, 2012

1st #IFLAdial tweetchat: instructions

Date and time of the tweetchat: Saturday 1st September, 9 am – 10 am UTC (GMT) – see corresponding times zones below

Hello everyone,

the IFLA Dialogue Twitter Chat session will start with a general introduction of the chat participants. Then, we will move on to the discussion topics:

Q1. What do you think about the way that IFLA communicates with its activists? #IFLAdial
Q2. What do you think about the way that IFLA communicates with its members? #IFLAdial
Q3. What do you think about the way that IFLA communicates with the general public? #IFLAdial
Q4. What do you think about the way that IFLA uses social media? (blogs, twitter, etc) #IFLAdial
Q5. What suggestions do you have to improve communications within IFLA? #IFLAdial

The chat is hosted by @daceudre. You are free to join and leave the chat at any point. Any contribution is welcome.

Please remember to use the hashtag #IFLAdial so people can read your replies, and to include the question number. For example, Q1, Q2, Q3, and so on.

See you tomorrow!

The IFLADIAL Working Group

overview time zones:

Vancouver (Canada – British Columbia) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 02:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
Chicago (U.S.A. – Illinois) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 04:00:00 CDT UTC-5 hours
New York (U.S.A. – New York) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 05:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Buenos Aires (Argentina) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 06:00:00 ART UTC-3 hours
London (United Kingdom – England) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 10:00:00 BST UTC+1 hour
Berlin (Germany – Berlin) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 11:00:00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Cape Town (South Africa) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 11:00:00 SAST UTC+2 hours
Moscow (Russia) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 13:00:00 MSK UTC+4 hours
Bangkok (Thailand) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 16:00:00 ICT UTC+7 hours
Singapore (Singapore) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 17:00:00 SGT UTC+8 hours
Tokyo (Japan) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 18:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
Sydney (Australia – New South Wales) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 19:00:00 EST UTC+10 hours
Corresponding UTC (GMT) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 09:00:00

IFLA Dialogue: Opening statement from the IFLADIAL working group

On Saturday, August 11, at the very start of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2012 in Helsinki, all Section officers – including Special Interest Groups’ Convenors – were invited to the Leadership Brief arranged by the Professional Committee (PC). There was great interest in this meeting – the room was full at 8AM.

The formal agenda had four information items; the final point was devoted to “questions and discussion”. Many of the participants clearly wanted a more participatory meeting, and said so during the debate. Debates and decisions ought to be more transparent to newcomers and the library world outside IFLA. People want much more dialogue and mutual learning, rather than a steady stream of guidelines, deadlines and reports. Ann Okerson, who heads the PC, was later interviewed by IFLA Express and expressed her strong interest in innovation.

At the Division IV Leadership Brief on Sunday, August 12, we had a lively discussion about communication within IFLA, ably led by Division Chair Anna Maria Tammaro. As a result, Division IV decided to set up a small Working Group, coordinated by NPSIG Convenor Sebastian Wilke, to address the communication issue and to develop proposals for the PC. The Working Group had its first meeting on Tuesday, August 14.

IFLA as an organisation is definitely moving towards greater openness, participation and web awareness. We recognise and appreciate this development. At the same time we – like many others – feel that IFLA needs to speed up the process.

IFLA is changing, but the world is changing faster. As an institution IFLA is still five to ten years behind the “best cases” of open, participatory, web oriented organisations.

The IFLA language is forward looking. It stresses inspiration, participation, empowerment and the need for change. But much of the organisational practice is rather bureaucratic. The real decision processes are not transparent, and there is very little open debate about contested issues.

We want IFLA to “walk the talk”. The best way to change this situation is to combine initiatives from the top – Governing Board, Professional Committee, IFLA HQ – with initiatives from below. This means:

  • more dialogue, speaking together on a basis of equality;
  • more transparency, so that we can understand and participate in IFLA decision making processes on an informal basis;
  • personal visibility on the web, so that we can get to know people, their positions and their interests without going to lots of meetings.

In order to help us drafting a paper on communications, we would like to start a conversation on these issues on the open web, which we invite all friends of IFLA to join. Please let us have your suggestions and ideas on how to improve the current situation regarding communications within IFLA by Saturday September 15.

As members of the Working Group, we will be active in presenting our own views in open fora. We will also do our best to follow and collect contributions from you that we will incorporate to the paper on communications to be presented by Anna Maria Tammaro for discussion at the PC meeting in December 2012.

To make this process easier, we will use existing blogs, the IFLA mailing list and other online platforms; please use #ifladial for any posts, tweets and other contributions.

We have also created a short online survey which we would be grateful if you could complete to give us your views. The survey, available in English at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M8W7FZR will close at the end of Saturday September 15.

Additionally, we will have two #ifladial chats on Twitter on Saturday September 1 and Saturday September 8 to give you further possibilities to join the discussion. The twitter chats will last for one hour and the starting times are as follows:

1st of September:

Vancouver (Canada – British Columbia) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 02:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
Chicago (U.S.A. – Illinois) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 04:00:00 CDT UTC-5 hours
New York (U.S.A. – New York) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 05:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Buenos Aires (Argentina) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 06:00:00 ART UTC-3 hours
London (United Kingdom – England) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 10:00:00 BST UTC+1 hour
Berlin (Germany – Berlin) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 11:00:00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Cape Town (South Africa) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 11:00:00 SAST UTC+2 hours
Moscow (Russia) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 13:00:00 MSK UTC+4 hours
Bangkok (Thailand) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 16:00:00 ICT UTC+7 hours
Singapore (Singapore) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 17:00:00 SGT UTC+8 hours
Tokyo (Japan) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 18:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
Sydney (Australia – New South Wales) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 19:00:00 EST UTC+10 hours
Corresponding UTC (GMT) Saturday, 1 September 2012, 09:00:00

8th of September:

Vancouver (Canada – British Columbia) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 10:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
Chicago (U.S.A. – Illinois) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 12:00:00 CDT UTC-5 hours
New York (U.S.A. – New York) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 13:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Buenos Aires (Argentina) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 14:00:00 ART UTC-3 hours
London (United Kingdom – England) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 18:00:00 BST UTC+1 hour
Berlin (Germany – Berlin) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 19:00:00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Cape Town (South Africa) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 19:00:00 SAST UTC+2 hours
Moscow (Russia) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 21:00:00 MSK UTC+4 hours
Bangkok (Thailand) Sunday, 9 September 2012, 00:00:00 ICT UTC+7 hours
Singapore (Singapore) Sunday, 9 September 2012, 01:00:00 SGT UTC+8 hours
Tokyo (Japan) Sunday, 9 September 2012, 02:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
Sydney (Australia – New South Wales) Sunday, 9 September 2012, 03:00:00 EST UTC+10 hours
Corresponding UTC (GMT) Saturday, 8 September 2012, 17:00:00

In October we will make the draft paper available for comments and suggestions.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks in advance for your contributions,

Sebastian Wilke, Convenor of the New Professionals Special Interest Group (NPSIG)
Maria Cotera, Convenor of the Women, Information and Libraries Special Interest Group (WILSIG)
Tord Høivik, Secretary of Statistics and Evaluation Section
Ulrike Lang, Co-Chair of the Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section (CPDWL)
Dace Udre, NPSIG activist
Sanita Maleja, NPSIG activist
Dierk Eichel, Information Coordinator of NPSIG
Catharina Isberg, Information Coordinator of the CPDWL Section
Silvia Cecilia Anselmi, Web Editor of the Latin America and the Caribbean Section (LAC)

(the announcement was also posted on the GLOSSA blog, the CPDWL blog, the NPSIG blog, and the IFLA website; a Spanish version was posted on the LAC blog)

26 Aug: NewFeds Virtual Conference Redux – with NPSIG!

NPSIG is happy to contribute to the 2nd Virtual Conference Redux of the NewFeds this Sunday (see announcement below). I will be giving a report on IFLAcamp and the IFLA Congress in Helsinki and share my fresh impressions on both events. You are all invited to join this free webinar!

Times:

10:00 a.m. CST
11:00 a.m. EST
5:00 p.m. CET  (17:00 Central European Time)
3:00 a.m. EDT (next day)

NewFeds

We hope you can join us for the 2nd Annual NewFeds Virtual Conference Redux!

Who: The NewFeds Professional Development Sub-Committee is coordinating the Redux with participation from several NewFeds and Special Guest, Mr. Sebastian Wilke from IFLA’s New Professionals Special Interest Group (NPSIG).

When: Sunday, August 26 at 11:00AM (Eastern)

Where: Online via AdobeConnect: https://collaboration.fda.gov/r54772385/ AND with conference call dial in: 1-626-677-3000, participant code: 8124885
NOTE: We intend to record the Redux, so if you are not able to join us “live” you will be able to listen to the recording at your leisure.

Why: Learn from your peers about key takeaways and highlights from the conferences they have attended this summer. Join the discussion and Q&A after the presentations to share your own experiences. Alternately, we invite you to write a conference-related guest post on our site (http://newfedsinfo.wordpress.com/). It would be a great way to “re-purpose” a trip report you wrote for work.

Please contact Caralyn Champa if you have questions about the Redux.

Strategies for library associations: include new professionals now! – details on the MLAS / NPSIG joint WLIC 2012 session

The World Library and Information Congress in Helsinki is approaching with big steps. High times to give you more details on conference session 95 in the morning of 13 Aug, entitled “Strategies for library associations: include new professionals now!” and jointly organized by NPSIG and the Management of Library Associations Section. First, here is some background on the intention of the session from the Call for Papers:

In these days library associations are under pressure. Faced with multiple challenges, tight budgets and a lack of new members represent, above all, the most urgent warning signs that call for transformation. It seems vital to revisit the associations’ message to their (non)members and to think about their roles and responsibilities within an ever-changing LIS profession and the larger society. But are library associations sufficiently equipped to respond to these challenges?

One thing is for sure: In the strategy of strengthening library associations more attention must be paid to attract and facilitate New Professionals. They are a true force for change. Can you imagine your library association as inspiring, surprising, empowering? Not yet? Then it is high time to include New Professionals! How else will you know what your changing field of professionals demands?

We are very excited about a good number of speakers from all around the world who are going to talk about experiences in their own countries, present models to support new librarians, and provide insights into the identity of new professionals and the library profession at large. You can be looking forward to new as well as established professionals approaching the topic from different angles.

Moreover, the session will allow for the audience to get actively involved. Between the presentations, all participants are invited to take part in table discussions built around the four areas of interest from the Call for Papers (more details will be provided during the session):

  • Outreach to members and non-members
  • Professional communication inside and outside of library associations
  • Leadership as a New Professionals issue
  • The flow of professions

At each table, one new and one established professional are supposed to supervise the discussion and report back to the audience afterwards. In the end of the session, a panel formed out of some of the speakers and table supervisors will provide further feedback and lead to a plenary discussion.

The input of both new and established professionals is most welcome and very important to make this session a success. All participants will be able to learn from the best practices presented, reflect the status quo in their own countries, and get in touch with many other colleagues. Take this chance and join us on Monday morning! Please let us know in advance (via comments or email), if you are up for supervising one of the table discussions. This will be an even better opportunity for you to get actively involved with the topic and the participants. For all of you who are planning to attend: We have created a Facebook event for the session.

See you soon in Helsinki!

WLIC 2012

Update: printable program (pdf)

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