Peter Johan Lor

The latest instalment in my Library ABC has been posted here. It covers the letters V, W, and X. I had no photos for the letter X, but a colleague in Germany kindly pointed me to a city named Xanten. That brought back memories. While I was working at IFLA in The Hague I’m sure I must have passed through or close to Xanten on the Intercity train from the Netherlands to Frankfurt am Main, where I went several times for the Frankfurt Book Fair. The Librarian of the Stadbücherei Xanten kindly provided me with a set of lovely images, presenting me with an embarras du choix —they were so good that I could not simply choose one only. Therefore I put together a set of additional images for all three of the selected libraries. Enjoy!

Digitization and digital resources have featured in many articles, books and meetings, but mainly the emphasis has been on technology (how to digitize and collect born-digital media), management (how to run an efficient digital programme) and, more recently, curation (managing preservation and access to collections). Not as much attention has been paid to the political issues. To remedy this the IFLA Section of Library Theory and Research has arranged a pre-congress satellite conference in Cape Town on 12 and 13 August 2015 on “Digital preservation as a site of contestation: national heritage, memory, politics and power – beyond technology and management”.  It will address interesting issues of ownership and control of a country’s heritage, memory and traditional/ indigenous knowledge in a digital environment. Related to these are questions about what we mean, for example, by the metaphors of “national memory” and “nation building” in postcolonial situations, and what the roles of libraries and archives can be in such a context.

The conference will be held in three venues. On the first day we will meet on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC). A day of presentations will be followed by a visit to the Mayibuye Archive, which is part of the Robben Island Museum. On the second day (weather permitting) we will take the ferry from Cape Town to Robben Island itself for a guided tour and lecture. We will return to Cape Town for the afternoon session at the District Six Museum.

Registration will cost R300,. This is slightly up from the originally advertised price of R270, due to additional costs. For foreign participants this does not  affect the originally quoted price of EUR 25. But note that this excludes the visit to Robben Island, which currently costs around R280 (around EUR 21). For more information and the pre-registration form, visit the Satellite Conference website, at: http://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/ART/Centre-for-Humanities-Research/IFLA/Pages/default.aspx. Here you will find the preliminary programme and the registration form.

The deadline for pre-registration was 30 June but will be extended for a week or so as we still have some places available.  Inquiries may be addressed to ifla@uwc.ac.za.

This Fall (2015) I’m planning to present my International and Comparative Librarianship course, now numbered INFOST 891, again. It’s a three-credit graduate level course in the School of Information Studies (SOIS), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). For general information, here is the Course schedule & readings Fall 2015 provisional and list of required and recommended readings. There may be a few minor changes closer to the beginning of the semester, when the syllabus is issued.

Hot off the press: the seventh instalment of my Library ABC covers the letters S, T and U.

I’ve been reminded that I haven’t yet posted here the sixth instalment of my Library ABC. Every year, around Christmas/New year, I send out a newsletter to friends and colleagues. It has some professional and personal news, and I add to it a page on which I put pictures of three libraries,with brief information or comments about them. The names of the libraries, or the names of the cities in which they are located, start with three consecutive letters of the alphabet. I started at ABC at Christmas 2008, did DEF in the following year, and so forth. You can find more info and the first five instalments here. Last Christmas (2013) I sent out the sixth instalment, covering the letters P, Q and R. I’ve now posted this as well, here.

I recently learned that IFLA’s Professional Committee has approved a proposal from the Section of Library Theory and Research to hold a pre-congress satellite meeting in Cape Town in August 2015.

The theme of the meeting is “Digital preservation as a site of contestation: national heritage, memory, politics and power – beyond technology and management”.  It will address interesting issues of ownership and control of a country’s heritage, memory and traditional/ indigenous knowledge in a digital environment. Related to these are questions about what we mean, for example, by the metaphors of “national memory” and “nation building” in postcolonial situations, and what the roles of libraries and archives can be in such a context.

The Satellite meeting is planned for 12 and 13 August 2015. It will be held in two venues. On the first day we will meet on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC), in the outskirts of Cape Town. This is an appropriate venue as UWC hosts the Mayibuye Archive, which is part of the Robben Island Museum. On the second day we will take the ferry from Cape Town to Robben Island itself, where the rest of the programme will take place, along with a guided tour of the prison compound where liberation struggle leader and South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was incarcerated.

This should be a memorable event, which will be of interest to IFLA members and other interested persons concerned with digital preservation of documentary heritage, including librarians responsible for digitization and digital collections management, archivists, museum curators; also historians and other academics. Members of First Nations communities concerned with the preservation of their traditional/indigenous knowledge and ethical management thereof are also among the potential audience.

Watch out for the Satellite Meeting announcement in the run-up to the 2015 IFLA World Library and Information Congress!