Social Responsibilities Discussion Group
 

Recommendations, August 2000

The IFLA Social Responsibilities Discussion Group first met at the 1997 Copenhagen meeting under the auspices of the Section on Education and Training. The first priority has been to address the growing gap between the information rich and the information poor both between countries and within countries. All countries have information gap problems to a greater or lesser degree. Several discussion papers were developed on various subthemes, and they were presented and discussed at the 1998 Amsterdam meeting. A composite discussion paper with recommendations was presented and further discussed at the 1999 Bangkok meeting (Paper #126-72-E). The recommendations were further refined at the open session at the 2000 Jerusalem meeting. All of the discussion papers are available on the IFLANET (http://www.ifla.org/VII/dg/srdg/pubs.htm). The recommendations below are arranged in the order of the discussion papers, except Recommendations 12 and 13 which were advanced at the 1999 open forum.

Rural Library Development

1. IFLA should develop a research program on rural library development in coordination with national library agencies. The focus should be on empowerment of local authorities to process information required by the community in comprehensible formats for diverse rural populations.

2. IFLA should urge library and information schools to promote adult basic education skills as a component of their curriculums.
3. IFLA should promote literacy training as a basic library service as advocated in the Unesco Public Library Manifesto.

4. IFLA should take a strong position against fees for basic services broadly construed as advocated in the Unesco Public Library Manifesto.
5. IFLA should work with commercial information providers to establish a standard price structure for public libraries based on ability to pay.

6. IFLA should encourage library and information science schools to adopt a socially responsible orientation, including the promotion of a strong service ethic towards all population groups.

7. IFLA should promote the development of and assist in formatting local content for electronic resources.
8. IFLA should work with appropriate national and international bodies to promote policies and develop programs that equalize access to the Internet.

9. IFLA should promote greater resource sharing between the North and South, including Southern links to the information superhighway for equitable, adequate and reliable communications for all.
10. IFLA should research the education and training needs of Southern countries in conjunction with relevant agencies in order to facilitate the development of appropriate information infrastructures.
11. IFLA should urge appropriate government agencies to develop policies conducive to the development of information infrastructures for equitable, adequate and reliable communications for all.

12. IFLA should monitor and report on how various library associations are addressing information gap issues.
13. IFLA should put the concerns of Third World librarianship at the center of its program and activities.

Working Groups, August 2000

Recommendation 2
Barbara Ford, bford@chipublib.org
Marta Terry, Women's Issues Round Table, marta@fcom.uh.cu

Recommendation 3
Dr. K.C. Gorngnly, tel. 479-1381 (India)
Britt Marie Haggstrom, FAIFE, Public Libraries Section, bmha.dik@akademikerhuset.se

Recommendation 4
Kristine Abelsnes, , Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, kab@statoil.no
Alfred Kagan, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, akagan@uiuc.edu

Recommendation 5
Kristine Abelsnes, , Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, kab@statoil.no
Dennis Ocholla, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, docholla@pan.uzulu.ac.za

Recommendation 6
Dennis Ocholla, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, docholla@pan.uzulu.ac.za
Tamer Stern-Ferber, tamarst@hotmail.com
Marta Terry, Women's Issues Round Table, marta@fcom.uh.cu

Recommendation 7
Alfred Kagan, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, akagan@uiuc.edu
Elizabeth Robertson, elizabethr@mail.saimr.wits.ac.za
Marta Terry, Women's Issues Round Table, marta@fcom.uh.cu
Nel Bretney, nbretney@uwichill.edu.bb

Recommendation 8
Alfred Kagan, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, akagan@uiuc.edu
Mary Nassimbeni, mcn@education.uct.ac.za
Leena Siitonen, Women's Issues Round Table, lsiitonen@hotmail.com

Recommendation 9
Ismail Abdullahi, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, , abdull@cau.edu
Leena Siitonen, Women's Issues Round Table, lsiitonen@hotmail.com

Recommendation 10
Ismail Abdullahi, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, abdull@cau.edu
Tamer Stern-Ferber, tamarst@hotmail.com
Gary Gorman, Regional Commission for Asia and Oceania, Round Table of Library and Information
Science Journals, gary.gorman@vuw.ac.nz

Recommendation 11
Ismail Abdullahi, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, abdull@cau.edu
Bailang Comma Serema, seremabc@hotmail.com Recommendation 12
Harriet Kasow, Audio-Visual RT, mskasow@mscc.huji.ac.il
Marta Terry, Women's Issues Round Table, marta@fcom.uh.cu
Ayub Khan, ayub.khan@birmingham.gov.uk
John Harvey, Educationa nd Training Section, john.f.harvey@usa.net

Recommendation 13
Alfred Kagan, Social Responsibilites Discussion Group, akagan@uiuc.edu
Dr. Snunith Shoham, Public Libraries Section, shohas@mail.biu.ac.il
Daniel Ruiteni, University Libraries Section (Kenya)
Marta Terry, Women's Issues Round Table, marta@fcom.uh.cu
John Harvey, Educationa nd Training Section, john.f.harvey@usa.net 

Discussion Papers

• The Growing Gap between the Information Rich and the Information Poor, Both Within Countries and Between Countries - A Composite Policy Paper

Alfred Kagan, Editor
• North-South Library Cooperation: Some Consideration

Ismail Abdullah
• Fees for Library Services

Kristine Abelsnes
• Literacy in Libraries

Josephine Andersen
• The Electronic Information Gap

Alfred Kagan
• Human Resource Development and Training: A Social Responsibility Against Information Poverty by Information Schools

Dennis Ocholla
• Rural Libraries in the Changing Environment in India: Important Factors for Discussion

[PDF version 314K]
Kalpana Dasgupta
 

Goals

Action Plan

1. Develop a concept paper on addressing the growing gap between the library rich and poor.
2. Establish liaison with other IFLA bodies working on similar themes.
3. Support other issues and initiatives that may arise.

Affiliation

Endorsements of the Formation of SRDG

Association Members

• American Library Association
• Commonwealth Library Association
• Kenya Library Association
• Library and Information Association of South Africa
• Nigerian Library Association
• Norwegian Library Association
• Special Libraries Association, USA

Institutional Members

• Central Secretariat Library, Dept. of Culture, Government of India
• The College of Wooster Library, USA
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, India
• Kenya National Library Service
• Macquerie University Library, Australia
• National Institute of Research, Sri Lanka
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy Library Foundation, Dept. of Culture, Government of India
• South African Library, Cape Town
• State Library, South Africa
• University of Alabama School of Library and Information Science, USA
• University of Loughborough Information and Library Studies, UK
• University of Pittsburg School of Information Sciences, USA
• University of Texas at Austin Graduate Library and Information Science, USA
• University of the West Indies, Dept. of Library and Information Studies, Jamaica
• University of Zululand Library, South Africa

Scope

• equality of access to library collections and facilities,
• the growing gap between library rich and poor between and within countries,
• and the "right to know."

Minutes of Meetings

• Meeting Summary and Follow-Up

August, 13, 2000, 10:30 a.m - 12:20 p.m., Jerusalem
• First Meeting Summary

Published in IFLA Express, 18 August 1998, Amsterdam
• First Meeting Comments

16 August 1998, Amsterdam