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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 44 | April 2000


IFLA RSCAO meeting in Beirut

Balamand Monastery

Balaman Monastery, northern Lebanon

The IFLA Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania (RSCAO) held its mid-year meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, from 29 February to 1 March. The meeting, chaired by Amelia McKenzie of the National Library, was followed by an RSCAO-organised seminar on the topic of ‘Networking for Library Development in the Arab States’ from 2 to 4 March.

This was the first time the RSCAO had met in West Asia, and the first time any IFLA activity had been held in Lebanon. Librarians from many Muslim and Arab countries will not be attending the IFLA conference in Israel in August, so the RSCAO’s programme was seen as an important signal to those communities of IFLA’s continuing support.

The first day of the RSCAO meeting was held in the Saab Medical Library of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon’s largest university, and the second day was held in the library of the University of Balamand, 80 kilometres north of Beirut near Tripoli.

Eight RSCAO members travelled to Beirut for the meeting and seminar, with attendance from representatives of IFLA HQ and the IFLA Advancement of Librarianship Program. Observers from Thailand and Lebanon were also present for parts of the meeting. The routine business of the RSCAO meeting normally comprises items such as consideration of conference papers, current and future projects and approval of applications for RSCAO’s scholarship and attachment schemes. These were dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Members and observers at the IFLA RSCAO meeting

Members and observers at the IFLA RSCAO meeting (left to right): Sameera Bashir (Lebanon); Pensri Guaysuwan (Thailand); Sjoerd Koopman (Netherlands); Amelia McKenzie (NLA); Elizabeth Fong (Fiji); Rashidah Begum (Malaysia); Russell Bowden (Sri Lanka); Gary Gorman (New Zealand); Maria Lao Sunthara (Thailand); Birgitta Sandell (Sweden); Hilda Nassar (Lebanon); Malinee Laosunthara (Thailand); Aree Cheunwattana (Thailand)

The Committee has had an active and successful year, with several projects completed: a workshop on the management of library associations, held in Bangkok in August 1999; and a five-day seminar on effective networking for libraries in South Asia, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in November 1999. Besides these activities Committee members wrote and produced a 20-minute video entitled ‘Librarianship in Asia and Oceania: On the Move’ concerning IFLA’s activities in the region. This audiovisual format has proved to be a very successful, with many requests received for screenings and copies.

Future projects, besides the Beirut networking seminar held that week, include an international conference on library education to be held in Kuala Lumpur in November 2000 and an IT training workshop for South Pacific librarians to be held in Fiji in 2001.

The Committee spent some time discussing a response to the current proposal before the IFLA membership to review IFLA’s Regional Division. Members were in agreement that greater integration into IFLA's mainstream work of both developing country membership and issues was highly desirable. None of the members present were opposed to the notion of seeing the regional sections disbanded one day, but all agreed that there needed to be convincing evidence that developing country concerns were being adequately dealt with in IFLA’s other seven divisions before any move was made to discontinue the Regional Division.

The Committee ended the second day of its meeting with a tour around Balamand University library, a visit to the nearby twelfth-century Balamand Monastery, and a walk around the ancient and busy centre of the city of Tripoli.

The RSCAO-organised seminar ‘Networking for Library Development in the Arab States’ followed from 2 to 4 March. The program for this seminar was developed in consultation with RSCAO’s Lebanese member, Hilda Nassar of the Saab Medical Library, American University of Beirut. Over 100 participants from Lebanon and the Middle East region attended, and the seminar was opened by Dr Mohammed Madi, Director-General of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture. Dr Madi spoke warmly of the role of libraries in a society’s culture, and described the work being done to re-establish the National Library of Lebanon.

The seminar program included papers from all parts of the Asia–Oceania region. A wide range of topics was covered by speakers, including shared databases in the Southwest Pacific region, the WHO health information network in the Eastern Mediterranean, interlending practices in the Middle East, the Malaysian national network infrastructure and use of the Internet in Syria. Several papers dealt with the possibilities and prospects for cooperation between libraries in the region. With time left for discussion between the papers, question sessions during the seminar were particularly lively, with debate on topics such as censorship of the Internet in some Arab countries, the role of the private sector in developing networks and the need to attain regional self-sufficiency in document supply.

The seminar was held with the assistance of the IFLA Advancement of Librarianship Program. The seminar organizers, Amelia McKenzie and Hilda Nassar, were successful in attracting sponsorship from several of the major international library and database vendors, including

Silver Platter, Elias, Swets and the Swedish library furniture company BTJ. A short vendor session during the seminar program attracted a great deal of interest.

RSCAO members were warmly welcomed in Lebanon, with our Lebanese library colleagues eager to show their visitors as much of their beautiful country as possible. In addition to a packed social program, visits were arranged to sites of interest in Beirut and areas to the north. Sadly, Israeli bombardment of Tyre and Sidon in the south and Baalbek in the north prevented trips further afield. A highlight of the time in Beirut was a guided tour around the reconstruction sites of central Beirut, a hugely ambitious project to restore and reconstruct the central district after the loss and damage suffered during the Lebanese civil war of 1975–92. Beirut itself is still a busy and thriving city, with a cosmopolitan balance of East and West. We were privileged to be able to visit several outstanding historical sites in the northern part of Lebanon, including Byblos, the ancient city of Phoenicia. Byblos was known for its production of papyruses, and was the source for the Greek word for ‘book’—an appropriate place for a librarian to visit.

RSCAO meeting in session

RSCAO meeting in session
(left to right): Sjoerd Koopman (Netherlands); Birgitta Sandell (Sweden); Gary Gorman (New Zealand); Pensri Guyasuwan (Thailand); Rashidah Begum (Malaysia); Amelia McKenzie (NLA)

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