IFLA/FAIFE
The World Report Series
The
IFLA/FAIFE World Report Series comprises
of two publications, the
IFLA/FAIFE World
Report - published bi-annually - and the
IFLA/FAIFE Theme Report- published in
alternate years
. Each year's publication is launched at the
annual
IFLA World Library and Information
Congress.
Goal
To offer timely and detailed summaries of the state of intellectual
freedom and libraries worldwide, the IFLA/FAIFE Committee has developed
the
IFLA/FAIFE World Report Series. Our ambition is high. We
would like the series to become the authoritative source on libraries
and information services with regards to intellectual freedom in a
global perspective. However, our success in achieving this ambition
depends on the availability of the necessary funding for the editorial
work and for building a strong research and monitoring unit within
FAIFE.
Data collection for
the
World Report 2009
The IFLA/FAIFE World Report is a series of reports on freedom of access
to information and freedom of expression that IFLA has been publishing
since 2001.
This year IFLA again intends to publish a report, Volume VIII, updating
the information of the previous reports and expanding on a number of
issues that were not covered in the previous reports.
The Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria in
South Africa was contracted to compile the 2007 World Report and they
have again been contracted to compile the 2009 World Report.
The questionnaire will this year again be available in English, French
and Spanish.
The data collection for the World Report will be done electronically
via a secure site on the Web, and a respondent has to register on this
website to be validated as a respondent for a specific country.
This production version of the World Report will run on a secure server
and allow access based on login names and passwords. The SSL certificate
is provided by Thawte (http://www.thawte.com/)
and provides 256-bit SSL encryption, the current industry standard.
Only the respondent for a specific country will be able to access
his/her specific country report (obviously in addition to the research
team) and nobody else will have access to these primary data.
We can therefore guarantee that the data the respondent provides are
safe, cannot be accessed by any outside parties and cannot be tampered
with.
E-mails inviting possible respondents will be sent out in the near
future and respondents will be requested to indicate their willingness
to participate.
These possible respondents have been identified because they are members
of the FAIFE Committee, or have been previous respondents for specific
countries, or are senior members of the country's library association or
national library.
If you feel that you can make a contribution to the project and have
not been contacted by the Research Team by the end of March 2009, please
send an e-mail to the:
Research Team
E-mail: ifla-wr@up.ac.za.
We look forward to the support and cooperation of many librarians and
information professionals across the world to make the World Report 2009
a comprehensive and detailed report!
Prof. Theo Bothma
(On behalf of the Research Team)
The World Report 2007
Volume 7 of the IFLA/FAIFE World Report Series –
Access to libraries and information: Towards a fairer
world – provides a world perspective on several issues
regarding freedom of expression and freedom of access to
information.
The 2007 World Report shows that the digital divide is still a
serious reality that needs to be tackled by library communities
worldwide in the years to come. Significant inequalities in Internet
access exist across the international library community which are often
exacerbated by the increasing use of filtering software to protect
children and safeguard public morality and religious values. The 2007
World Report shows that in many of IFLA’s member countries,
intellectual freedom is still very much under pressure, leaving library
users unable to fully express their rights to freedom of access to
information.
The Theme Report 2006
The IFLA/FAIFE Theme Report 2006 tries to answer the question of why
libraries and information services should place stronger emphasis on
issues concerning the condition and constraint of the environment in
which they are operating, and by doing so recognize their social
responsibilities and their role as advocates of intellectual freedom
and equal participation in an inclusive information and knowledge
society. The report takes up some of the big issues and major
challenges facing the world today: the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty and
corruption. Authors from Africa, Asia, Central America and the
Caribbean, and Eastern Europe explore the role and responsibilities of
libraries and information services, and how they can contribute to this
fight.
The World Report 2005
The IFLA/FAIFE World Report 2005 is an extensive 406-page document
that updates and expands upon previous World Reports in 2001 and 2005.
The 2005 report focuses on National Security, Freedom of Information
Laws and Social Responsibilities, and is based on completed
questionnaires from 84 countries representing all regions of the world.
The main findings of the 2005 World Report are that the state of
intellectual freedom in many parts of the world remains fragile, and
that libraries are striving to do their best to provide access to
information to their users, even if this is extremely problematic in
some countries.
The Theme Report 2004
The IFLA/FAIFE Theme Report 2004 presents visions of how libraries
can promote literacy and lifelong learning. The literacy process has to
be recognised as inclusive of all ranges of communication, and it
occurs at all levels and ages of societies, whether they are
predominantly oral societies or have a culture of reading as a basis
for accessing information. What is seen in the Report is that libraries
in developing countries have to come up with novel ways to deal with
problems that bigger, richer countries are able to tackle differently.
The contributions to this report show how different processes - funding
partnerships, community involvement, staff and user training - can be
implemented to enable libraries to make a greater contribution to the
lifelong learning process. The situations and solutions outlined here
may inspire librarians in other countries in their quest to empower
their users.
The World Report 2003
The Report focuses on libraries and the Internet based on completed
questionnaires from 88 countries representing all regions of the world.
It discusses the digital divide, filtering and blocking of information,
user privacy, financial barriers, intellectual freedom, and codes of
ethics. The analysis and conclusions of the report address differences
region by region and discuss the challenge of the information society
with regards to the information haves and the information have nots.
Finally, this year's report addresses any reported incidents/violations
of freedom of access to information in the individual countries.
The Summary Report 2002
The second volume in the series, The IFLA/FAIFE Summary Report was
launched in Glasgow 2002. The main topics of debate were an overview of
global Internet access barriers; the Internet as the information tool
of the 21st century; libraries and conflicts; 'Beacon for
Freedom of Expression' - the Alexandria database; and finally a
discussion on how to respond when intellectual freedoms are at
stake.
The World Report 2001
The IFLA/FAIFE World Report on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom,
published in 2001, was the first attempt to systematically collect
information on freedom of access to information related to libraries
and information services and their customers and provided a picture on
the status of intellectual freedom with regards to libraries and
information services and librarianship in a global perspective.
Reflecting the achievements of the first four years of IFLA/FAIFE
activities, the report concludes on the state of intellectual freedom
relating to libraries in 42 of the world's nations.
Country reports 1996-2000:
Order information
The IFLA/FAIFE World Report Series is available from IFLA
Headquarters.
IFLA Headquarters contact information:
Email: IFLA@ifla.org
Tel: +31 70 3140884
Fax: +31 70 3834827
Price *:
Price per volume: € 27, incl. handling and postage
Local price in the Netherlands: € 20
(* Not including World Report
2007)
