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2001/2002
(June 10, 2002)
Prepared
by International Relations Committee Chair,
Wil
Roestenburg
W.Roestenburg@pcmuitgevers.nl
About a year ago Jody Habayeb asked me to set up an International Relations
Committee for News Division and to choose one or two projects to focus on for
the near future. I had real doubts about this job, but felt very honored too, so
in August I decided to accept this challenge, knowing that a year seems really
long when you look forward, a lot can be done in just one year, but, time flies,
looking back there's also often the feeling that nothing really changed or
happened, could we have done much more?
Well, not for this year, international relations changed dramatically and our
daily work was highly affected by Sept.11, mostly by the uncertainty it came
upon us all.
I was glad Barbara Semonche, Laura Soto-Barra, John Cronin and Izak Minnaar
agreed to be members of this team. Later, Dalia Salazar requested to be a member
too and of course, we welcome her.
During the past 10 months we had irregular contacts by e-mail, exchanging
thoughts and ideas about how to continue and where to focus on. The most
important issues we discussed were:
- Barbara
Semonche made a list available of all international subscribers on NewsLib
(Feb. 2003)
- Laura
Soto-Barra went to South-America on behalf of Freedom Forum and did
training, courses and presentations on internet, intranet, news research
etc. to journalism students, professors, reporters in Bolivia. That had a
big impact for those involved and gave her a real good insight in what's
needed in the region.
- I
was glad to attend the summit on News Libraries in Crisis in Minneapolis
(Nov. 2001). For me, this summit made clear that in Europe and the USA and
Latin America, we all are dealing with the same kind of issues and problems,
newspapers and media all over the world are dealing with the same kind of
developments in society and the same kind of repercussions. Our job has a
very international profile in itself. In fact, borders aren't relevant
anymore. http://www.inms.umn.edu/convenings/newslibraryincrisis/reports.htm
- The
short thread on NewsLib on (international) travel by newslibrarians made one
thing clear: knowing more about each other and being able to plug into
someone with a special background or knowledge is a most remarkable, simple,
straightforward and effective tool. Just being able to identify specialists
and know-how in our own circuit and being able to contact a colleague that
knows more/all about a certain subject.
- The
discussion about setting up and cooperate in special fact-files like
"Political murders", started by Guus Bosch (Volkskrant, May 6, the
night a Dutch politician was killed) was warmly received by many colleagues,
proving that there is a gap to be breached.
In preparing for the Annual Meeting on June 10, we discussed about which
projects and actions to develop for the forthcoming period. Our advice is to
continue this Committee with focus on:
- NewsLib
is the most prominent place to establish international relations among news
librarians. Barbara will do some effort to find out if it can be tuned for
more specific areas, e.g. with sub-lists for South America, Europe etc. This
could make NewsLib more useful for colleagues from outside USA and/or solve
language-problems.
- Is
it possible to set up an "International Who's Who in News Libraries",
thus being able to contact special know-how in our own professional network?
- How
to realize the creation of international reference files like on
"Political murders", is it possible to set up international
cooperation on this and how and where to host these files?
- The
issue of sponsorships and grants for attendees from poor countries is partly
covered by SLA and DNWS already participates in this. Having our own grant
would be great, but it could be too much effort and will benefit just a few,
while financial limitations will be a yearly issue. The IRC welcomes each
idea of creating future sponsorships, because participation can be a great
advantage for those involved.
- Dalia
Salazar (Freedom Forum/Miami) and Laura are going to do an online course in
Spanish through IAPA on "Information in the Newsroom and its role in
Reporting" for Latin American journalists. Results can be reported in
the next conference. Dalia is also preparing a follow-up on the article in Hora
de Cierre [Note: the citation is Marzo 2002, pp-22-24: "Librerias en
lam Redaccion" - Libraries under deadline
by Dalia Salazaron] news libraries and research (in Spanish and in English).
- NewsLibraryNews
will be a good medium for constant attention. We're glad Leigh Poitinger
enthusiastically welcomes the idea of having a column devoted to
international affairs on each issue, starting in October 2002. I hope she'll
be a most helpful editor, because it will be a tough job to edit my
contributions into readable English.
- Last
but not least we think it would be wise to get more in touch with other SLA
activities on international relations.
So far, this couldn't get enough attention. It's our intention to set up
some real projects in the near future and I hope the division supports that
ambition. I hope chair Michael Jesse and chair-elect Linda Henderson want to
continue on this road. For now, I want to thank all members (Barbara Semonche,
Dalia Salazar, Laura Soto-Barra, John Cronin and Izak Minnaar) for being good
companions on this track during the past 10 months and I hope they will be
fellows in the next step too.
Submitted
by:
Wil
Roestenburg
W.Roestenburg@pcmuitgevers.nl
Chair IRC DNWS
30 June 2002
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