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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Round Table of National Centres for Library Services - ROTNAC


Annual Report 1994

Rudi van der Velde
Netherlands Bibliotheek en Lektuur Centrum (NBLC)
POB 43300
2504 AH The Hague
Netherlands
Fax: (31-70) 3090200
is Chair of ROTNAC.

Eduard S. Duyker, also from NBLC is Secretary.

Structure

ROTNAC (Round Table of National Centres for Library Services) is a forum of national centres which exist in many countries to provide, on an international basis, acquisition and documentation of libr ary activities. The organization of centres varies from country to country, but there is, nevertheless, much common ground on the method and form of their operation. ROTNAC's significance is found no t only in regular meetings of the directors of such centres, but particularly in the establishing of Working Groups with the aim of exchanging information and to investigate in which areas bilateral and multilateral cooperation is possible. There are two kinds of Working Groups: permanent Working Groups consisting of experts of the centres and established for five years; and ad hoc Working Group s consisting of experts of the centres and dealing with a special short-term assignment. Every member supports a contact person in his own centre who collects information on the work of the centre tr anslates documents into English, and reports regularly to ROTNAC's Chair and Secretary. Most members of ROTNAC are members of the European Union, and news from the European Union (legislation, projec ts, programmes) is a regular feature of the ROTNAC Newsletter.

Membership

ROTNAC now has 21 members from 15 countries, and aims at reaching its goal particularly by the establishment of Working Groups. During the report period the Working Groups on AV/New Media; Automation and Information Technology and Publishing held meetings.

Publications

Two issues of the ROTNAC Newsletter were published during the report period; more than 80 national IFLA members were also sent the newsletter with the request to forward the information to the national central services organization, with the intention of enlisting more members for the Round Table.

Mid-Conference Meetings

The Round Table held a mid-conference meeting in Lund, Sweden on 25 March 1994, hosted by Bibliotekstjanst. One topic discussed was development on library bindings. A. Blom (Netherlands) is a member of the ISO working group on library bindings, which is preparing two documents: standards for durable books for university libraries; and requirements for books for libraries and archives. Another to pic receiving wide interest was European legislation on lending rights

Havana Meetings

The Round Table co-sponsored the session held under the auspices of the Round Table on the Management of Library Associations.