Yours sincerely,

Announcement 27th EBLIDA Council and EBLIDA-NAPLE Conference Dublin, Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th June, 2019

• Dun’s Library
• Corrigan Hall
• Graves Hall
• Stearne Room
• Winter Hall
• Cheyne Room

Incidentally, LIBER, with whom we have much in common,  will also hold their annual Conference in Dublin just after ours, from Wednesday 26^th to Friday 28^th of June, see here for more details: https://liberconference.eu/dublin2019/.

You could visit both Conferences in one week in the same City!

NEXT Library 2019, 2- 4 June, Aarhus

• Libraries in Times of Social Crisis
• Civic Media and Data Democracy
• Temporary Spaces
• Game Changing Tech & Emerging Trends

From our friends at the Bulgarian Library and Information Association

Understand politics - a short introduction in public policy analysis

by Jean-Marie Reding, EBLIDA correspondent, not so far from Brussels

We heard rumours from Brussels, spread through the Ardennes to some country, which inspired the famous US-American film-comedy "The mouse that roared" (1959), that Public Libraries 2020 (PL2020) was to be transformed into … Shhhh! We don't want to reveal too much and we will let the new independent organisation present itself in a next EBLIDA newsletter. We can confirm: there is a future for PL2020!


If political science had a scheme to understand political processes in an easy way and if we could assign PL2020 to a certain stage of a policy making model, wouldn't this be of interest for librarians? The author of this article, who's mission as EBLIDA's volunteer interim secretary for four months (Sept.-Dec. 2018) is to be part of the newsletter content providers, thinks: Yes, why not!?

Is there a framework for a serious policy analysis?

Yes, there is, especially for public policy. What is "public policy"? Definition: "Anything a government chooses to do or not to." (Dye, Thomas R.: Understanding public policy, 1972). What is the name of the framework for the "public policy analysis" (German: Politikfeldanalyse / French: Analyse séquentielle)? It's simply called the "policy cycle" or "stages model". First developed by Harold Lasswell/Daniel Lerner in the USA in 1951, it got several developments, but especially slight variations, until today.

Hoping to make it appear less confusing and more comprehensible, we present this illustration:

Let us try to understand this cycle, thinking about an international organisation, dealing with an international example:

Stage 1: Problem definition and agenda setting = problem recognition & definition; Selection and definition of those social phenomena that are considered by the political system as "problems" to be dealt with.

Example: Books have to be "good" for every citizen, wherever he accesses them from. Citizens have to be protected against "bad" books by their government for moral and public order reasons. Especially pornography is against morality. Do not forget to protect children and young people against it (until they are eighteen years old)!

1960s bookshop in the Museum “Den Gamle By”, Open Air Town Museum in Aarhus
(photo by Jean-Marie Reding , 05.05.2017)

Stage 2: Policy formulation = proposal and choice of solution. A process in which political goals are formulated, alternative options for action are developed and chosen as a binding commitment.

Example: How to fight against pornography? Forbid all production and distribution of obscene publications. However, books and serials can easily cross any border. There is a need for a prohibition of obscene publications on an international level.

Stage 3: Policy implementation = putting solution into effect. It's the implementation of a policy, generally with the help of the political-administrative apparatus; application of laws, etc.

Example: implement multilateral treaties, like the Agreement for the Repression of Obscene Publications Paris, 4 May 1910, and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of and Traffic in Obscene Publications Geneva, 12 September 1923.

Stage 4: Policy evaluation = monitoring results. Review of the direct effects (impact) and indirect effects (outcome) of public activities.

Until now two protocols for amendments were needed: the Protocol to amend the Convention for the suppression of the circulation of, and trafficking of, obscene publications, concluded at Geneva on 12 September 1923, Lake Success, New York, 12 November 1947, and the Protocol amending the Agreement for the Suppression of the Circulation of Obscene Publications, signed at Paris, on 4 May 1910, Lake Success, New York, 4 May 1949.

Stage 5: Policy termination or Problem re-definition
For print media the international prohibition never really succeeded. The development of the Internet made it even more complicated to protect citizens against the danger of pornography. It seems that there can be no policy termination. A problem re-definition could point in the direction of even more repression and penalties.

N.B. Public libraries, of course, are safe places, where all collections and services – even for adults - are politically correct and filtered by specialised people, called librarians, aren’t they?

Conclusion
Inside this stages model what is the role of an organisation like Public Libraries 2020? The focus of PL2020 especially lies on putting public libraries on an international (here: European Union) agenda, which corresponds to stage 1, Agenda setting. At stage 2, a proposal can be made by PL2020, but the choice of a solution is belongs to the European Parliament.

Talking about agenda setting: Some librarians perhaps remember IFLA President Claudia Lux's (2007-2009) motto: Libraries on the agenda! Well, it's the same approach and spirit.

It's possible that librarians, with the help of PL2020 and EBLIDA, are invited to contribute to stage 2 (policy formulation). Unfortunately, they often do not surpass the counsellor status; even as experts they are not actively involved in the legislation process.

After stage 2, librarians can only watch and evaluate. Librarians rarely consider the evaluation as perfect. Therefore, instead of being entirely satisfied, they try to get their requests into stage 1 (problem re-definition) again. On the European level, this will require the help of organisations like PL2020 – and EBLIDA of course – to get it on the agenda again and again and again ... You need a lot of patience in politics.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trailer of the film "The Mouse that roared" (with Peter Sellers & Jean Seberg).

"The Mouse that roared", a satire of 1950s geopolitics, was written by Leonard [Patrick O'Connor] Wibberley (1915-1983), an Irish-American journalist and writer, in 1955. The book was "dedicated to all the little nations who over the centuries have done what they could to attain and preserve their freedom. It is from one of them that I am sprung."

Wibberley was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 09.04.1915, which should remind you: SAVE THE DATES! EBLIDA Council, June 24^th, and Conference, June 25^th, 2019, in Dublin!

Season’s Greetings and EBLIDA office closure during Christmas and New Year