Minutes of the 33rd Meeting of CDNL, held on Wednesday 23rd August 2006, at the National Library of Korea
The Acting Chair, Erland Kolding Nielsen, Director, National Library of Denmark, welcomed members to the thirty-third meeting of CDNL. He especially welcomed Mr Yang Woo Park, Vice-Minister of Culture and Tourism, and the host, Dr Kyungsang Kwon, Chief Executive, National Library of Korea.
Referring to Celia Zaher’s letter of resignation Erland Kolding Nielsen explained that Celia Zaher had asked him to chair the meeting. He introduced the Second Vice-Chair, Penny Carnaby, Director, National Library of New Zealand and Gerard van Trier, Executive Secretary, National Library of the Netherlands, who was acting as Rapporteur. The Chair thanked the national libraries of France and Canada for providing English-French and French-English interpretation at the meeting, and the National Library of Korea for providing English-Korean and Korean-English interpretation.
The issue of Celia Zaher’s succession as chair of CDNL would be discussed under item 9.
Mr Yang Woo Park, Vice-Minister of Culture and Tourism, welcomed the members of CDNL to the National Library.
The Chair asked all members to sign the attendance register. Apologies had been received from the national libraries in Angola, Lebanon, Sweden and Uganda. Some national libraries were represented by the deputy director or another staff member.
At the invitation of the Chair, all those present introduced themselves.
The Chair proposed a few changes in the agenda in order to be able to have a discussion on the future of CDNL. He said that Deanne Marcum and Lynne Brindley were willing to shorten their presentation. Fullerton had refrained from giving her presentation on developments in digital archiving and preservation. The Chair praised the elaborate report of the National Library of Australia, which was in the papers for this meeting. Because less time would be needed for the presentations, a discussion could be started on the direction and focus of CDNL (additional item 8a). The Chair said that he also would like to speak on collaboration in web archiving.
Erland Kolding Nielsen announced the election of new officers after lunch. For the post of Chair Penny Carnaby had been nominated. If she would be elected, then the post of Second Vice-Chair would become vacant. For this post John Tsebe, National Library of South-Africa, had been nominated. Other nominations could be proposed before the afternoon session.
The minutes of the 32 rd CDNL meeting held on Wednesday 17 August 2005 at the National Library of Oslo, were approved without amendment. There was no business arising from the minutes.
The following topics were presented to the meeting:
Preserving the Audio-Visual record; the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center
Deanne Marcum explained that the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) will be the first centralized facility in the US especially planned and designed for the acquisition, cataloging, storage and preservation of the nation’s heritage collections of moving images and recorded sounds. It is expected to be the largest facility of its kind. The new Center will enable the Library for the first time to consolidate its existing moving image and recorded sound collections in a single, centralized facility that also provides space sufficient to house projected collections growth for 25 years after move-in.
Redefining the library for the 21st century
Lynne Brindley presented The British Library's strategy 2005 – 2008, and specifically four main challenges that the BL is facing: knowing its users (market research) and keeping close to them (one size doesn’t fit all); rethinking the physical space to create a desirable ‘draw’; embracing the new technologies and invest in digital technologies; speaking out on a wider stage.
European digital library: where do we stand?
Jean-Noël Jeanenney reported on the progress in building a European Digital Library. The project has broad interest and support from national governments, the European Commission and UNESCO. Jean-Noël Jeanenney said the project should contribute to strengthening cultural diversity and he stressed the importance of language pluralism. The EDL will not rely on advertisements or commerce that would influence search results. A test has been carried out with three commercial firms, comparing formatting, digitisation type, security and validation. The EDL will build on the assets of the existing collaboration within CENL. The costs of digitisation are high. Private companies will sponsor the project, but the public fund will be larger. Jean-Noël Jeanenney said that the publishers, after initial protests, now seem to have a more positive attitude towards digitisation. Libraries and publishers should work together on the basis of a good business model. Newcomers to the project are welcome.
What is past is prologue: Library and Archives services in the 21st century
Ian Wilson reported on the merger and full integration of the National Library and the National Archives Canada into a single knowledge institution (National Library and Archives Canada). The holdings of the two institutions were complementary and converging. The National Archives were the older institution, which had actively acquired a diverse collection (not only government records but also personal files, maps, films, manuscripts and photos). The National Library, established in 1953, had collected documents related to Canada. They already shared the same building. The integration was not a means in itself: a single institution could provide a better service.
Lise Bissonnette, National Library and Archives Quebec, reported on a similar merger in Quebec, which came to a conclusion in January 2006. The new institution, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, is devoted to the acquisition, preservation and dissemination of Québec’s published, archival and film heritage. On April 30th, 2005, the building of the Grande Bibliothèque was opened, in which several functions have been integrated.
Developments in digital archiving and preservation
The Chair thanked Jan Fullerton for the excellent report, which is available at the CDNL website. (See Powerpoint and RTF)
Survey on web archiving in an international context
The Chair announced a survey on web archiving in an international context, to be conducted by the National Library of Denmark. He said that the National Library had tried to archive websites abroad in order to preserve international news about national issues. It had turned out to be difficult to archive and give access to these websites. The survey should give insight into the scope of this problem and the opportunities for dealing with it. A questionnaire will be distributed among the CDNL members and a report of the results will be presented at the next CDNL meeting in Durban.
The Chair announced the start of a discussion on the organisational structure and strategy of CDNL. He sketched the outline of an alternative structure, in which the main regions of the world would be represented in the Board. For the new structure to be implemented it would be necessary to amend the CDNL Statutes.
Penny Carnaby called upon all members to express their views on shaping CDNL in the future. In the discussion several issues were put forward: the need for performance indicators for national libraries, reviewing the relation between CDNL and IFLA, sharing experience, best practice and knowledge. It was noticed that many collaborative projects were carried out, especially in the field of digitisation. Personal, professional contacts were considered to be important in order to be able to prioritise and avoid duplication of efforts. In addition, a need was expressed for a clearing house function that should facilitate co-operation across national borders. From a practical point of view it was suggested that papers be distributed well before the meeting, so as to benefit most from the meeting itself. For questions about preservation issues Jan Fullerton referred to the PADI website (http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/). She invited members to add any missing information. The Chair mentioned also the International Internet Preservation Consortium, a collaborative project of eleven national libraries and the Internet Archive.
The Chair thanked the audience for the suggestions. A proposal will be presented at the next meeting in Durban.
The Chair reminded the members of article 4.9 of the CDNL Statutes and Rules of Procedure (revised August 1999):
“In the event that any one of the offices is vacated prior to the end of term, an election shall be held to fill the vacancy as soon as is feasible. The term of office for the newly elected officer shall extend only to the end of the term established prior to the vacating of that office. A Chairperson so elected shall be eligible for re-election to the next consecutive term of office.”
Penny Carnaby had been nominated for the office of Chair, which was vacant after the resignation of Celia Zaher. As no other nominations were received Penny Carnaby was elected Chair (2006 – 2008) by acclamation.
John Tsebe had been nominated for the office of (second) Vice-Chair. As no other nominations were received John Tsebe was elected Vice-Chair (2006 – 2010) by acclamation.
The Chair welcomed the delegation from IFLA: Alex Byrne (President), Claudia Lux (President-Elect) and Peter Lor (Secretary General).
Alex Byrne congratulated Penny Carnaby and John Tsebe with their election. He then introduced Claudia Lux, who underlined the importance of the alliance between IFLA and CDNL. She said that national libraries were important players in the information field and could effectively contribute to the implementation of the presidential theme 2007 – 2009 ‘Libraries on the Agenda!’, because they have close connections with government institutions. Libraries should be more involved in the beginning of policy processes, not only in the field of culture and education, but also in solving problems related to health, minorities, immigration, youth etc.
In his presentation Peter Lor called for attention to the information needs of developing countries. He argued that IFLA and CDNL were important because they could offer networks of expertise. Forty-two member countries of the UN are not represented in IFLA. In order to promote IFLA membership among these countries a programme has been set up, Global Library Association Development (GLAD). The aim is to develop current and potential leaders of library associations, as well as to provide IFLA with a pool of qualified members to carry out its mission at all levels. Peter Lor made an appeal to support the programme, and also to make analogue twinning arrangements for national libraries (‘Adopt a national library!’).
Alex Byrne referred to the communiqué ‘Maintaining our digital memory’, a declaration of support, that CDNL had prepared last year for the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. At the summit IFLA was given the opportunity for a plenary address. Its message was well heard. A WSIS Contact group has been established that should advise on the implementation of action lines and work with CDNL to that end. Alex Byrne argued for a broad approach to the concept of a world digital library, that would encompass the services of libraries, as well as archives and museums. He concluded by saying that IFLA and CDNL should discuss key issues in the information field more intensively and he proposed to explore the possibilities for closer interaction.
The Chair remarked that Alex Byrne’s view had already been reflected in the agenda for this meeting. He asked for reactions from the floor.
A practical suggestion was that IFLA should distribute a list of countries or national libraries which are not represented in IFLA. The GLAD programme could serve as a mechanism to approach these countries and libraries. Help could be offered in the form of travel grants and capacity development. Claudia Lux added that these countries could also be approached via their representatives in UNESCO. She said that more languages would be used in IFLA, and more regional offices established, especially in Arabic countries.
Alex Byrne explained that the slogan ‘Libraries at the heart of the Information Society’ had been changed into ‘Libraries: the Information Society in Action’ in order to stress the role of libraries in the implementation of the WSIS action lines. Alex Byrne recognised that in building a world digital library closer relationships between libraries, archives and museums were needed. Libraries should engage in a multi-tiered debate on description and digitisation standards, transfer of digital records and protocols for knowledge handling. He referred to ‘Picture Australia’, hosted by the National Library of Australia, as a good example.
Attention was called for access to technology and scientific knowledge in developing countries. Alex Byrne pointed out that this was the reason for IFLA to participate in the discussions on intellectual property regimes, especially copyright, to fight for equitable access to scientific information and to defend the public domain.
The Chair thanked the members of the IFLA delegation for their presentations and contribution to the discussion.
Ingrid Parent, Chair, IFLA Section of National Libraries, reported on the activities of the Section. The Section has a healthy number of members, around 170, and the Standing Committee has its full complement of 20 members with many observers. Ingrid Parent reported on the accomplishments of the Standing Committee in the past year (two-year strategic plan, two issues of the electronic newsletter) and the National Libraries Section programme session with presenters from the national libraries of Korea, Scotland, Japan and from the Russian State Library. For the IFLA conferences in Durban and Quebec City a programme is considered on new competencies that are required of information professionals in the digital age. There is also the theme of change that is taking place in national libraries (merging, converging and de-merging).
Ingrid Parent then focused on two priorities for the next two years. The first one is to work towards the establishment of performance indicators for national libraries. National libraries carry out some unique activities. The ISO standard 11620 concerns performance indicators for all types of libraries and does not meet the specific need of national libraries. An ISO working group will be created to develop and test new indicators that reflect the unique activities of national libraries. The Section will become an official liaison representative to this working group, providing input to the discussions but having no voting rights. The second priority is to build a better working relationship with CDNL. The Section has produced a discussion paper on the similarities and difference between the two groups with recommendations for future joint action. The idea of closer ties with CDNL was strongly supported by the Standing Committee members in their last meeting.
In the discussion Ingrid Parent explained that the ISO working group works through the national standardisation associations. She confirmed that national libraries will be involved. She also clarified the difference between CDNL and the Section. In CDNL the national libraries are represented by the chief executives, whereas the Section is also open to other management levels and other staff with a special interest in national libraries. The aims of the two groups are therefore different. For practical questions the CDNL mailing list has proved to be useful (cdnl-l@infoserv.inist.fr)
Ingeborg Verheul, national library of the Netherlands, reported on the activities of the IFLA-CDNL Alliance on Bibliographic Standards. In ICABS six libraries are involved, apart from IFLA and CDNL: the British Library, The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Library of Congress, the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal and the National Library of Australia. In the past year the focus of ICABS has been on web archiving, digital preservation, technical standards for the digital infrastructure, descriptive data models (primarily the Functional Requirements models) and descriptive data cataloguing guidelines (primarily the ISBD).
The ICABS survey on digital preservation in 15 national libraries has been published by KG Saur Verlag in Munich. It is available as IFLA Publication 119, under the title Networking for digital preservation. Current practice in 15 national libraries. An international two-day conference on UNIMARC took place in March in the National Library of Portugal. A self-evaluation is being carried out. The results are to be expected by the end of 2006 and will set out the path for continuation of ICABS.
An overview of all activities can be found on the ICABS website in the half year report February – July 2006 (http://www.ifla.org/VI/7/icabs.htm).
In the discussion two issues were raised. The first issue was the collaboration with archives and museums in the field of standards, especially for describing digital material. Jan Fullerton said that the national library of Australia had been working with archives and museums without following the same standards. Clever search techniques had been applied instead, which was considered to be successful pragmatic approach. The second issue was the use of authority files, especially in Arabic. Work on name authority files in Arabic has been done in Pakistan. In Germany a study on combining different authority files has been planned. Abdelaziz Abid underlined the importance of the issue. Standardisation could make online searches more effective and less time consuming. He said that directors of national libraries could play a key role.
ABINIA
Alfonso Quintero, secretary general of ABINIA, reported on the activities and accomplishments of ABINIA. An automated system for processing library collections has been acquired and implemented in the national libraries of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic. Other important issues were preservation and conservation, training in metadata processing and information searches, improvement of the website (www.abinia.org), attracting new ABINIA member states, updating the database of Latin American professionals and specialists in information, who can be consulted through ABINIA’s web site. ABINIA provides technical assistance upon request to regional national libraries and manages several projects. The full report is available at the CDNL website.
CDNLAO
Prudenciana C. Cruz, National Library of the Philippines, reported on the activities and accomplishments of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries of Asia and Oceania. The 14th CDNLAO meeting was held in Manila, Philippines, on March 26, 2006. A total of 14 national libraries were represented. Several countries reported on the developments, on-line services, while others highlighted on-going developments including digitization, preservation and conservation. In addition to the country reports, the meeting also discussed on the assistance to the Indian Ocean tsunami affected libraries. The participants were also able to witness presentations about the state-of-the-art building of the National Library Board of Singapore, Tunis 2005 WSIS Summit, WLIC 2006 Korea and the Philippine eLibrary (www.elib.gov.ph).
The members approved the 2007 meeting of CDNLAO with Indonesia willing to host the event. The National Diet Library of Japan is willing to host the 2008 meeting in consonance with its 60th Anniversary.Vietnam will host the CDNLAO meeting in 2009.
SCANUL-ECS
John Tsebe reported on the meeting of SCANUL-ECS, the organization of national and university libraries in the Eastern, Central, and Southern African region. The meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and was chaired by professor Elisabeth Kiondo, Director, Dar es Salaam University Library. The main issue of the meeting was the use of information and communication technology in providing library and information services in Africa. Linus Ikpaahindi, National Library of Nigeria, proposed that also Western African countries would be involved in SCANUL-ESC activities.
CENL
Elisabeth Niggemann reported on the activities and accomplishments of CENL. In 2005, the 19th annual meeting was held in Luxembourg. The annual topic of the meeting was digital archiving. Azerbaijan and Moldova were formally accepted as new members of CENL. New officers for the Executive Committee have been elected: Elisabeth Niggemann (Germany, Chair), Vigdis Moe Skarstein (Norway, Vice-Chair), Andris Vilks (Latvia, Treasurer), and István Monok (Hungary). The CENL Secretariat has been transferred to the seat of the Chair, the national library of Germany.
The European Library (TEL) gained nine new full members. By the end of 2006, 22 of the 45 CENL member libraries will be full partners. In November 2005 CENL submitted a proposal to the European Commission for the European Digital Library (EDL) project. The technical infrastructure, which would include also archives and museum, would be based on TEL.
CENL has been added to the list of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGO) enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe. CENL is now recognised as an official body to be consulted in the case of topics of interest to national libraries.
Abdelaziz Abid reported on the UNESCO Open Forum session, which was held on 20 August. Major digital library initiatives of an international or regional scope had been reviewed. Key issues were collections and selection criteria, services and architecture (including multilingualism), human resources, capacity building and financing. A panel of speakers had expressed their views on the World Digital Library initiative. UNESCO will help through advocacy among its worldwide network of partners, capacity building and promoting national and regional digital libraries and institutional repositories, an international clearinghouse to disseminate experience and knowledge and providing guidelines and a manifesto on digital libraries.
Hartmut Walravens, Director, International ISBN Agency, gave an update on ISBN developments. The International Standard Book Number has successfully gone through the revision of the ISO Standard (ISO 2108), which turns the identifier into a 13-digit number, and the structural reorganization which turned the International ISBN Agency into a membership organization in the form of a company under limited guarantee, registered in London. A full report is available at the CDNL website. See also www.isbn-international.org and www.ismn-international.org.
Françoise Pellé, Director, ISSN International Centre, reported on ISSN. The ISSN standard (ISO 3297) is under revision. The revised standard is at the DIS stage: the vote on the draft is under way; results should be known by the end of October 2006. The main change is the definition of a new and additional function for the ISSN system, enabling to group (or “collocate”) the various media versions of a publication through a mechanism called the linking ISSN or ISSN-L. See http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/iso/tc46sc9/wg5.htm.
Following the implementation of the ISSN Portal (a completely new computer system) at the ISSN International Centre, UNIMARC and MARC21 are now processed by the system, and can be provided to the users of the ISSN Register. XML formats are now also implemented.
The ISSN Portal is accessible on the Web and through the Z 39.50 protocol; it implements OpenURL (source and target).
Some countries still do not have a National ISSN Centre. The national libraries of these countries are strongly encouraged to host the ISSN National Centre. If a national library would like to join the ISSN as an international organisation, the country involved should accede to the statutes of the International Centre. A full report is available at the CDNL website. See also www.issn.org
In line with IFLA’s policy for papers in electronic format, country reports are only available at the CDNL site and are not distributed on paper. The Chair recommended reading the reports and thanked the CDNL Secretariat for mounting the reports on the website.
The chair invited the members to send suggestions for future issues to the Executive Committee.
John Tsebe cordially invited all members to attend the IFLA conference and CDNL meeting in South Africa in 2007. The national library has two sites: Pretoria and Cape Town. The conference and CDNL meeting will be held in Durban. The 2008 meeting will be held in Quebec, Canada.
All CDNL members joined John Tsebe in thanking Celia Zaher for her work as CDNL chair and especially, for preparing the meeting.
Ms Wee Sook Yeo gave a presentation on the building of the Korean National Digital Library (DNL). The project, which started in December 2005, has two objectives. The first is to construct a separate building for collecting, cataloguing and preserving digital resources. The second is to conduct research and develop new services on the basis of a new digital library model. The DNL will be the largest digital archive in Korea, improving access to information by integrated management of the old analogue collections and the new digital resources.
The Chair thanked the host, Kyungsang Kwon, and the colleagues of the National Library of Korea for their assistance in organising the meeting. The meeting closed at 5.00 pm