Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This quarter’s column offers a report from the 2018 annual meeting of the Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA), as well as coverage of sessions from the annual meeting of the Northern Ohio Technical Services Librarians (NOTSL). A handful of reports were also collected from courses offered at the FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Institute. Topics covered include features within ExLibris’s Alma library that support print serials operations, current and future developments in serials librarianship, and critiques about open peer review.     

Refugee Women in Europe: Some Aspects of the Legal and Policy Dimensions

This article presents an overview of the legal and policy issues affecting refugee and asylum-seeking women in European host societies. First, it explores the unique types of persecution experienced by women and shows that the asylum determination process, along with the status of women relative to men, mitigates against the effective protection of women. The legal basis for asylum, the evidential requirements and the procedural norms all reduce the protection which is likely to be conferred upon asylum-seeking women. Second, the article provides an overview of responses to female refugees and asylum-seekers in European countries of asylum. Although there are differences between countries, there is also a large degree of uniformity. For example, there is a lack of recognition and understanding of the diversity and the range of experiences which refugees bring with them, including different social and cultural norms. Moreover, European policies do not provide special provisions to facilitate the settlement of refugee women and instead place barriers to their social and economic participation. Third, the article examines policies for family reunion in different countries and shows that such unfavourable and unsympathetic policies mitigate against the settlement of refugee women. Finally, the article argues that if refugee and asylum-seeking women are to have their cases recognized and to be successfully settled, then there needs to be a complete rethink of legislation and policy in Europe.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This column includes reports on sessions from the Electronic Resources Minnesota Conference 2019 and Charleston Library Conference 2019. The reports cover a user experience analysis of a discovery system, managing change due to an organizational restructure, improving communication between subject specialists and technical services, and key findings of the LYRASIS 2019 Accessibility Survey Report.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This column covers sessions from the 2018 Charleston Library Conference, an informal annual gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials in Charleston, South Carolina, in November. Topics include the impact of open access and open research, assisting faculty with locating and integrating these resources into their courses through partnerships and open applications, and managing gifts and donations with restricted resources.     

Serials Spoken Here - Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Abstract

This column includes reports on sessions from the American Library Association Midwinter Conference 2019, with a report on how libraries can be part of a shared community with developers and users through the use of future of libraries, is open (FOLIO) library services platform and a report reflecting on future technological developments. Additionally, conference reports from the 14th Annual Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference, which includes reports on implementing troubleshooting training programs for public services staff and using budget cuts as an opportunity to generate goodwill. The remaining reports are from American Library Association Annual Conference 2019, which includes a report about the parallels between managing campaigns and managing an integrated library system (ILS) migration, how to improve a collection development plan with resources about Cheyenne and Arapaho people, and an exploration of the challenges of hosting student and faculty journals.     

Conceptualizing the Third Sector in Ireland,North and South

While there is a long established and deeply embedded tradition of voluntary action and nonprofit organizing in Ireland, there has been very limited debate on a philosophy of voluntary action or on the place of the third sector in a modern democratic state. It is against this background that practitioners and academics are beginning to articulate their individual understandings of the role of the third sector in Irish society. This paper presents a framework developed from three questions to consider the place of the third sector in a modern democratic state. The questions are: What are the roles of the third sector in a society? What relationships exist between the third and other sectors? How are third sector organizations resourced within that societal context? Answering these questions contributes to a conceptualization of the third sector in Ireland, North and South.