EBLIDA Strategic Plan 2019-2022: between tradition and innovation

Look back to 1992. While all libraries were coping with, and sometimes getting lost in the incoming web technologies, EBLIDA was the only library organisation dealing with copyright and doing library advocacy with European institutions – a concept well developed in North America, much less known in Europe. The 2016-2019 EBLIDA strategy echoed a corporate identity which was encapsulated in a few goals where advocacy, copyright and European institutions were seen as EBLIDA’s core business.
And now look at 2019. All library organisations deal, or try to deal, with European institutions. EBLIDA cannot claim to be “the” voice, the only voice of library organisations since all of them advocate for libraries and for library projects. And finally, copyright is a central issue, transversal to many library operations.

The second decade of the second Millennium needs a fresh, 360 degree observation of the milieu in which EBLIDA operates. It has to provide a realistic assessment of the strengths and the weaknesses of the organisation in the face of a political and social environment which has been impoverished, in many senses, by the 2008 global crisis. A strategy for EBLIDA needs to reflect the transition towards a concept of libraries that is no longer restricted to the provision of collections. EBLIDA also must look deeper, and critically, inside and outside itself.

The new 2019-2022 Strategic Plan has been prepared by a team including the Members of the Executive Committee and the EBLIDA Director. They started to peruse the Vision and the Missions of the 2016-2019 Strategy. An accurate scrutiny showed that both could still be considered valid. The Europe that is likely to emerge after the European elections may require, however, a closer link between freedom of expression and access to information. Libraries should also engage more in promoting citizens’ active participation in a democratic and plural society.

The Strategic Team considered EBLIDA’s Vision and Missions adequate to the new library and societal environment. The strategic goals envisaged in the 2016-2019 Strategy came under radar, since copyright and e-lending can no longer be activities of exclusive relevance of EBLIDA. LIBER, IFLA, SPARC, CENL, to mention a few, are important actors with whom EBLIDA has to cooperate. Objectives have to be better focused.
Four Strands were therefore identified by the Strategic Team:
  1) The Political Level, 2) The Legislative Framework, 3) Policy-making for Libraries, and 4) The Socio-Educational impact of Libraries.
  Strand number 1 the Political Level, highly relies on the Library Manifesto for Europe. Initiated by PL 2030 with a fully-fledged strategy implying a “Before” and “After” European Elections, the Manifesto is the result of a joint effort undertaken by PL 2030, IFLA, LIBER, SPARC Europe and, of course, EBLIDA. EBLIDA wrote the document comparing national voting systems and structures of library associations. In its meeting in Naples, the EBLIDA Executive Committee approved the Manifesto with minor amendments.
Strand number 2 The Legislative Framework  concerns activities on copyright for which EBLIDA may benefit from a brilliant group of experts also enlarged to other organisations (IFLA, LIBER, CENL). Beyond copyright, legislation includes many other acts or bills having relevance for libraries. EBLIDA has substantial experience in the field and will work on these issues in collaboration with its Members.
  Strand number 3 Policy-making is a field where library facts and situations do not seem to be reflected adequately in national evaluation systems. Traditional indicators are by far collection-related and quantitative, whereas the library vision and its contribution to national and international growth is de facto linked with other criteria. The library real life has to be grasped by new indicators which should take into account, for instance, social inclusion, informal learning and literacy.
  Strand number 4 of the Strategic Plan includes a reflection and policy towards open access for public libraries. Open access falls under the exclusive realm of academic libraries – it is about Impact Factor, academic journals and platform for open science. No, or very few platforms aggregate instead educational materials - freely accessible MOOCs, Tutorials, etc. present on the Web. The “market” for educational material in open access is still in a pre-competitive stage and, therefore, there may be a role to be played by public libraries as distributors of educational material in open access and, on the other hand, as collectors of open access materials produced by communities.

In a nutshell, the plan that is submitted to the EBLIDA Council may seem ambitious but it is a framework that can be easily filled by activities performed by our Members. At the end of the day, the substantial lesson the team has learned from the strategic exercise was that the EBLIDA Secretariat should work more and provide better services for EBLIDA Members. 

via https://mailchi.mp/68e3198ad19e/eblida-newsletter-march-2019