Presentations

EBLIDA celebrated its fourteenth annual Council meeting on 5 and 6 May 2006 at the National Széchényi Library (Friday) and the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library (Saturday). See the presentations below.

Knowledge economy and knowledge society

Keynote by Dr Norbert Kroó, Vice President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Member of the High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries

Dr. Kroó pointed to the growing significance of knowledge which makes human capital increasingly important. In his speech he outlined that free access to both infrastructures for knowledge and to knowledge itself is essential for developing the knowledge economy. To this effect the institutional system in Europe should be harmonised, according to Dr. Kroó. In closing Dr. Kroó gave Council insight in the European performance in global competition and more specifically in the performance of smaller countries such as Hungary in the European knowledge economy.

Being a member of the European Union,

Views and experiences on the occasion of Hungary’s second anniversary

Keynote by Dr Katalin Lévai, Member of the European Parliament, Socialist Group, and Vice-Chairwoman of the Committee on Legal Affairs

The President, Jan Ewout van der Putten, announced that unfortunately Dr. Lévai was unable to attend the Council meeting due to other obligations.

The President then proceeded in asking the permission of the Council to change the intended programme so that the workshop speakers would give their presentation in the plenary session. Council agreed to hold the workshop in plenary.

SPARC Europe and eIFL

David Prosser, Director SPARC Europe (See eIFL.net and SPARC presentations)

At the special request of eIFL, David Prosser first introduced eIFL, an independent foundation that helps libraries in developing countries and countries in transition. For further information he referred the delegates to the eIFL website. He then proceeded to introduce the SPARC Europe initiative to the Council.  Prosser gave the Council insight in the current situation regarding access to research, the problems that scientists encounter and the solutions that SPARC Europe advocates.  He placed special emphasis on the win-win situation that can be created by open access to and for scholarly research. In closing Prosser invited EBLIDA to find ways of cooperation with SPARC.

Professional Education

Mr Ragnar Audunson, President EUCLID

Mr. Audunson said that cooperation between EBLIDA and EUCLID is vital for promoting libraries. In his presentation he took the delegates through the recently published report on professional education for librarians (see www.db.dk/lis-eu). In closing Mr. Audunson invited the delegates to:

1. broaden the discussion on professional education
2. keep up and broaden the virtual workgroups that had been of vital importance to the report;
3. rewrite the report where necessary.

At the invitation of the President, Andrew Cranfield commented on the presentation of Mr. Audunson. On the basis of this, a lively discussion took place in which the central themes were the need for different levels of education in the library and the career perspective that libraries offer.

How EBLIDA lobbies for Libraries

Mr. Toby Bainton, Secretary of SCONUL

Mr. Bainton presented his experiences in lobbying for libraries with EBLIDA. He took his experiences with lobbying for the library law as case study. He called on  Council to hold realistic expectations of what EBLIDA can do for libraries and he recalled the successes that EBLIDA celebrated over the years, notably with regard to the Info Soc directive. In closing Mr. Bainton named five secrets to success for any lobby process, namely:

1. know what you want;
2. know the time table;
3. keep your allies informed;
4. keep your targets involved;
5. Meet the key people.

He expressed hope that in the future the EBLIDA members would sustain, and if necessary strengthen, their joint lobby efforts.

Created: 22 June 2006