EBLIDA Newsletter November 2015

The EBLIDA Newsletter is published monthly on European library & information society issues, programmes, news and events of interest to the library, archive and cultural heritage community.

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Issue No. 11. November 2015.

Forward

The President’s Editorial

Welcome to the November edition of the EBLIDA newsletter. As the holiday season lurks in the distance, the busiest time of year approaches and this is no different for us at EBLIDA, with many meetings planned for the President and Director over the coming weeks.

There have been heated discussions between libraries and publishers, regarding e-lending in particular over the last years (see also article on the Europe of Books and Creation further down).
The more moderate contradiction between these parties is between the publishers' licensing model on e-lending vs. libraries' claim to ownership of the digital material, the same way the rest of the material is owned.

Discussions of this nature are not easy, but still, I am convinced, we need to have them, to understand one another's point of view. And there are other topics to chat about.

If we can't have a fruitful conversation on e-lending, we can always talk about things which unite us. And there are several: literacy, reading habits, well-being of the book in general, to mention but a few.

That is why the EBLIDA, publishers, authors and bookseller organisations got together in Brussels for a round-table meeting in early November. The get-together was between Presidents and the Directors of the respective organisations.

All of us are very fond of books, and most of us are fond of libraries, too!
In that context, we agreed to start a series of round tables, to see what we can do together, and at EBLIDA, we will make sure to keep the process transparent for all, and useful to our members.

It is a well-known fact that libraries educate readers, and those who borrow books are most likely buying them as well. I am hopeful that the same could apply in the online environment. This is one of the ideas EBLIDA has to promote. There is no doubt that by contributing to reading development, libraries also support the market development.

There is of course plenty of other information you will find in this November issue, and I hope you enjoy reading our newsletter.

Yours Sincerely,

Jukka Relander
EBLIDA President

Inside Brussels

Opening speech of Comissioner Oettinger at the Frankfurt Bookfair 16 October 2015

During his opening speech at the Frankfurt bookfair, Commissioner Oettinger stressed among other things that
“[…] we need however also to make sure that copyright functions within the Digital Single Market.

Our copyright has been only partially harmonised. For the rest, national laws of 28 Member States apply. In the end, this results into legal uncertainty.

Therefore, we have to make sure that there is more legal clarity for example for a researcher under which conditions he can do text and data mining.

A teacher needs to have more legal clarity to be sure that he will not be made liable if he uses certain parts of text books also for online teaching courses.

An archive should be in the position to clearly decide whether it may or may not digitise a book and make it available for a researcher or student by remote consultation.

Our copyright rules have been drafted at a time where many of today's possibilities to discover, disseminate and share ideas and knowledge did not exist.

In addition, both education and research are increasingly cross border activities and therefore highly relevant in the Digital Single Market. […]

The European Commission is planning a targeted copyright modernisation.

We do not want to overhaul the complete system. We want clear, fair and reliable conditions for right owners and for users.”

This seems fairly reasonable. Commissioner Oettinger also mentioned that he wants “[…] to contribute to make sure that we have the best regulatory conditions so that the book business can flourish, that authors get a fair remuneration for their creativity and that all those who use copyright protected content can access it on a fair basis”.

That is also what the library and information sector is looking for: best regulatory solutions that also ensure fair access conditions to copyright protected content.

EBLIDA representatives will meet with Commissioner Oettinger in the next weeks.

EU’s Communication on the modernisation of EU Copyright rules

European Commission (DG CNECT) recently published its Roadmap on the ‘Communication on the modernisation of the EU copyright rules’.

The discussion within the College of Commissioners (item Modernisation of the EU Copyright rules) is scheduled for 9 December for further adoption.

The Communication will announce a two-step approach by the Commission, namely:

a first set of legislative measures to be adopted in the short term (December 2015/early 2016):
- a proposal for a Regulation on cross border portability; and,
- a proposal for a legislative instrument on the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty.
a second set of measures (legislative and non-legislative) in spring 2016, around the:
- territoriality of copyright: aspects of cross-border access to copyright protected services, including those which may follow from the review of the Cable and Satellite Directive (see separate Roadmap)
- definition of rights and exceptions: further harmonisation of exceptions to copyright which are key for the functioning of the digital single market (“for example, those exceptions relevant for access to knowledge, education and research, as these are activities increasingly take place across borders”);
- functioning of the copyright marketplace: clarification on the role of Internet intermediaries when they distribute copyright protected content (Note: this could be the hook for the EC to introduce ‘ancillary copyright’); and,
- enforcement of IPR.

Non-legislative actions could range from support at EU level for business driven measures to industry dialogues where required to address specific issues.

The Commission indicates that the evidence gathered during the review of the EU copyright rules and more recently in the review of the Satellite and Cable directive, will be used to inform the required evaluation and impact assessment in view of the legislative proposals to be tabled in spring 2016. Impact assessments will be carried out for each individual follow-up initiative.

The Roadmap indicates that the Inter-Service Steering Group (ISSG) has already been working on the impact assessment for the adoption of the Regulation on Portability and will be further involved in the preparation of this Communication. The ISSG is chaired by the Secretariat-General and includes the following Commission services: DG COMP, EAC, ECFIN, EMPL, ENV, ESTAT, GROW, JRC, JUST, RTD, SANTE,TRADE, the EPSC (EC in-house think thank) and SJ (Legal Services).

Information provided by C4C.

Meeting of the Presidents of EBLIDA, FEP, EWC and EIBF

Jukka Relander, President, EBLIDA EEBLIDA President reported in the above editorial about this meeting that took place in Brussels on November 4.

It was the first time that the four Presidents of the associations - EBLIDA, the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), The European Writers Council (EWC) and the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) - gather and start discussing on common issues.

EBLIDA to speak at the VOB Breakfast debate in Brussels on 18 November 2015

The Dutch Public Library Association is organising a special breakfast session in Brussels to inform members of the European Parliament about the needs of public libraries in terms of copyright reform.

EBLIDA will be speaking to give a broader European scope to the issue. More information will follow in our next issue.

The meeting will be held in the Stanhope Hotel, Rue du Commerce 9, B-1000 Brussels, on November 18 from 7:30 – 9:00.

Inside EBLIDA

Europe of Books and Creation, SGDL Forum, Paris, 22^nd October 2015

The Socitété des Gens de Lettres (SGDL, a French Authors’ Society) organised its 11th Forum on the topic of the Europe of Books and Creation, a timely topic in light of the current discussions related to the EU Copyright reform.

The event gathered academics (André Lucas, Professor of Information Law at Nantes University, Séverine Dussolier, Sciences-Po Paris), a representative of the EU Commission DG CNECT Copyright Unit (Maria Martin-Prat), a MEP (Virginie Rozière), representatives of stakeholder organisations (Anne Bergrman – FEP, Olav Stokkmo – IFRRO), and a lot of other stakeholders.

Vincent Bonnet, EBLIDA and Séverine Dussolier, Sciences-Po Paris

EBLIDA Director participated in the round table: E-lending for libraries: what are the European solutions?.

The presentation on exiting solutions by Anne Bergman (FEP Director), was followed by comments from participants. The round table gave the opportunity for a lively discussion from all participants. EBLIDA Director contested the current existing licence model as the only right one and mentioned the need to avoid existing exceptions and limitations being overridden by contracts. He pointed out the fact that the current e-book offer for libraries is very low. He also commented that e-lending is not legally defined and leads to legal uncertainty.

It is the belief of the library community, that greater legal certainty would be given by a clear set of rights defined in the law rather than by contractual agreements with private parties.

The dialogue was public and among the audience were authors, translators and collecting society representatives, some of which fear that any copyright reform would undermine their rights. EBLIDA Director reiterated that a balanced copyright reform necessary considering the changes brought about by technology development and that there is a need to also recognise users’ rights.

As a follow-up, EBLIDA Director has been invited to take part in a debate organised by the Centre National du Livre (CNL, French National Centre for the book) in Paris on 27 November.

The debate is expected to be with Richard Malka, lawyer at Charlie-Hebdo and author of the book 2015: the end of Copyright. Taking for free is stealing, ironically freely available in bookshops in France and also for free download on the Internet. More information in the next issue.

Joint Press Conference EBLIDA/ALBAD, Luxembourg, 5 November 2015

During the Luxembourg EU-Presidency in the second half of 2015 the EBLIDA-EC met in the birthplace of European founder father Robert Schuman (1886-1963), in Luxembourg-City.

EBLIDA premiered with a joint press conference together with a national association, ALBAD, the Luxembourgish librarians', archivists' and documentalists' association, on Thursday 5 November, to support their national lobbying activities and present EBLIDA's efforts at European level.

ALBAD-President and EBLIDA-EC-Member, Jean-Marie Reding, presented the new libraries' guide and analysed national policy of the last five years.

EBLIDA-President Jukka Relander thanked the ALBAD for the invitation to the Press Conference and presented first the role of EBLIDA at the European level and its core missions. He then contemplated ALBAD’s statement on Luxembourgish library legislation evolution in a broader European context before switching to issues currently under discussion at European level. Jukka Relander talked about copyright, digitisation, commercialisation of knowledge, TTIP, cooperation with booksellers and editors, e-lending and well-being of the book.

Journalists were especially interested to hear about the fact that almost one fifth of the European population isn’t able to read, in terms of understanding text. In the area of reading promotion libraries represent the best network. Childrens books will become more important in the future than before. As foresight the EBLIDA President predicted that the ecosystem of the e-book would change in the next 10 years. Different e-books will exist in the future. Finally he indicated the distinction of the economic impact between print and electronic books: people who borrow a lot of printed books, buy a lot of printed books. It isn't the same for e-books.

EBLIDA Director, Vincent Bonnet, took the opportunity of the Press Conference to raise awareness about literacy and the existing European Project, European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET). He first reminded the audience about the 3 year old study by the EU High Level Group on Literacy, which called on all organisations and citizens to take action to tackle the literacy issue.

One of the outcomes of this was the launch of a 2 year European funded project (01.02.2014 - 31.01.2016) entitled the European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET) in which EBLIDA plays an important role as representative of European libraries.

A lot of information is available on the ELINET website and is also disseminated through the EBLIDA website and network that continues to provide information to its members and the library community as a whole about this issue.

ALBAD President concluded the Press Conference in thanking EBLIDA President for his participation.

Executive Committee Meeting, Luxembourg 05-06 November
2015

All Executive Committee members participated in a busy EC meeting in Luxembourg on 5 and 6 November.

Altogether, EC members are looking at ways to improve the case for libraries at European level through several topics, the copyright reform and literacy of course, and also through the issue of e-books and e-lending.

EC members are deeply committed to engaging in passionate discussions and have started to draft the next EBLIDA Strategy 2016-2019, and are actively considering alternative options to strengthen EBLIDA as the voice of libraries in Europe.

The next EC meeting will be held in Valencia on 22^nd and 23^rd February 2016.

EBLIDA Council and Conference, The Hague, 9-10 May, 2016

As we announced in our previous issue, the next EBLIDA Council and Conference will be held in The Hague on Monday 9 & Tuesday, 10 May, 2016.

We have been busy behind the scenes together with our hosts, FOBID Netherlands Library Forum and the Steering Committee.

The Conference, entitled Empowering Europe! Libraries opening up new perspectives, will address the key issues of civic participation in public libraries, the question of advocacy for libraries (including the copyright issue), and all issues related to the visibility of libraries, as well as the question of open data and open government.

A full programme starting with a keynote speech will most probably be followed by an active round-table with participation from the audience. After a lunch break, we will organise the afternoon into 3 workshops leading to a final wrap up and concluding session.

The details are being worked out and you will be informed in further detail in due course.

ELINET NEWS

We are delighted to inform you that ELINET has announced their final conference dates and venue.

It will be held in Amsterdam from Wednesday to Friday 20-22 January 2016. This Conference will be very attractive to those in ELINET Partner organisations and/or those working in or who have an affiliation with the field of literacy.

During the conference we will take stock of the results of two years of hard work together. We will also discuss how we can make sure ELINET members and external partners alike can make use of the available knowledge and tools once the work of ELINET is complete.

EBLIDA has participated in the latest ELINET Team Skype Meeting and next steps have been set out. We hope to organise a workshop during the Conference on literacy in libraries. More information to follow in the next newsletter, watch this space.

Welcoming our new member

We are delighted to welcome another new member to EBLIDA, the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL).

EAHIL is an active professional association uniting and motivating librarians and information officers working in medical and health science libraries in Europe.

EAHIL, Edinburgh Workshop, 2015

EAHIL encourages professional development, improves cooperation and enables exchanges of experience amongst its members. The Association counts over 1400 members from about 30 European countries.

An EAHIL conference is organised every even year and an EAHIL workshop every uneven year by a local organising committee and an international programme committee. Continuing education courses usually precede a conference.
Journal of EAHILis published four times a year and is the official journal of the Association. It publishes original articles, reviews, theme issues and brief communications in the field of health information and libraries, as well as news from EAHIL and from other medical library associations, meeting reports, product reviews, opinion and discussion papers and news items.

EAHIL's Aims and Objectives:

To improve cooperation amongst health care libraries throughout Europe
To strengthen links with medical and health libraries in Eastern and Central Europe
To raise standards of provision and practice in health care and medical research libraries
To keep health librarians and information officers professionally informed
To encourage mobility and continuing education, especially in regard to new technologies
To represent health librarians at European level, in particular at European institutions and at WHO

The Executive Board of EAHIL

The Executive Board of EAHIL meets twice a year. Board members are elected for four years, the President is elected for two years.

Marshall Dozier, President and Karen Buset, Secreatry of EAHIL

The Council is an advisory group for the Board and acts as a link between the members in their country and the Association. It usually meets once a year, during EAHIL annual event, as does the General Assembly and the Editorial Board of EAHIL.

Events and Dates

November

November 11 – 12, 26th IBIMA Conference: "Innovation Management and Sustainable Economic Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to Global Growth"
Place: Madrid, Spain
Sponsor/Organizer: International Business Information Management Association (IBIMA)
URL: http://www.ibima.org/

November 12, ALPSP Training Course: Understanding eJournal Technology
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
URL: http://www.alpsp.org/Ebusiness/Meetings/Meeting.aspx?ID=426

November 12 – 14, 7th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing (KMIS 2015)
Place: Lisbon, Portugal
Sponsor/Organizer: Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC)
URL: http://www.kmis.ic3k.org/Home.aspx

November 12 – 14, 7th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering, and Knowledge Management (IC3K)
Place: Lisbon, Portugal
Sponsor/Organizer: Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC)
URL: http://www.ic3k.org/Home.aspx

November 12 – 14, 7th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development (KEOD 2015)
Place: Lisbon, Portugal
Sponsor/Organizer: Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC)
URL: http://www.keod.ic3k.org/Home.aspx

November 12 – 14, 7th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval (KDIR 2015)
Place: Lisbon, Portugal
Sponsor/Organizer: Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC)
URL: http://www.kdir.ic3k.org/Home.aspx

November 12 – 15, Buch Wien - International Book Fair
Place: Vienna, Austria
Sponsor/Organizer: Nail Consulting
URL: http://www.buchwien.at/

November 14 – 16, OpenCon 2015: 2nd Conference for Students & Early Career Academic Professionals on Open Access, Open Education and Open Data
Place: Brussels, Belgium
Sponsor/Organizer: Right to Research Coalition and SPARC
URL: http://opencon2015.org/

November 16, E-books in Libraries: An Update
Place: Online only
Sponsor/Organizer: Amigos Library Services
URL: http://www.amigos.org/ebooks_in_libraries

November 18 – 22, GAUDEAMUS International Book and Education Fair, 22nd edition
Place: Bucharest, Romania
Sponsor/Organizer: Radio Romania
URL: http://www.gaudeamus.ro/en/

November 19, Publication Ethics and Research Integrity
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM)
URL: http://www.stm-assoc.org/events/publishing-impact/

November 19 – 20, XII Conference of the ISKO Spanish Chapter and II ISKO Spain-Portugal Conference
Place: Murcia, Spain
Sponsor/Organizer: International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO)
URL: http://www.iskoiberico.org/

November 23 – 25, Semantic Web in Libraries Conference (SWIB15)
Place: Hamburg, Germany
Sponsor/Organizer: ZBW - German National Library of Economics / Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Centre (hbz)
URL: http://swib.org/swib15/

November 24, ALPSP Training Course: Project Management for Publishing
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
URL: http://www.alpsp.org/Ebusiness/Meetings/Meeting.aspx?ID=431

November 26, Media for the Millennials: youth audience insights, content innovation and strategic priorities
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: Westminster Media Forum
URL: http://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/forums/event.php?eid=1051

November 26, Search Solutions 2015: "Innovations in Search & Information Retrieval"
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: ISKO UK (International Society for Knowledge Organization) and BCS IRSG (Information Retrieval Specialist Group)
URL: http://www.bcs.org/content/conEvent/9824

November 27, Keeping Connected, How Social Media Works for Libraries
Place: London, UK
Sponsor/Organizer: EUROLIS, the consortium of librarians of European Cultural Institutes in London and the International Group of CILIP
URL: http://tinyurl.com/q4sg6tc

November 27-28, From books to new media - A conference focusing on the diversity of learning methods
Place: Berlin, Germany
Sponsor/Organizer: ELINET, DGLS
URL: http://www.eli-net.eu/fileadmin/ELINET/Redaktion/user_upload/Programm_Tagung_11.15_erweitert.pdf

November 30 – December 1, 10th Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing
Place: Tromsø, Norway
Sponsor/Organizer: Organizing Committee
URL: http://site.uit.no/muninconf/

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