Special issue, January 1999
This newsletter is a product of the IIAV, Obiplein 4, 1094 RD Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
What is the Know How Conference?
The Know How Conference on the World of Women's Information is a process of sharing knowledge and expertise between women's information specialists throughout the globe. The IIAV hosted, as part of this process, the Know How Conference in August 1998.
The Know How Conference mission is to improve the accessibility and availability of women's information services throughout the world, at the local and at the global level. Hundreds of women's information centres, our activities as diverse as our geographies, work to strengthen the position of women. Our accessibility, and the availability of our information, is essential to our work and a prerequisite to proper policy making at international. National and local government levels.
The Know How Conference, which was attended by 300 women and men representing 83 countries and seven continents, drew up a statement: the Declaration of the Know How Conference. This is a statement of how the global development of women's information services shall continue to develop in the future. The conference asked the IIAV to continue facilitating this process.
News from the network
Plans are afloat for a Know How regional conference for the Asia and Pacific Region in the year 2001 in Korea. The proposal was floated at the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting on Communication Technology for Women's Information at the Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul on 25th November 1998.
The conference will be a follow-up to the Know How conference and the next step in preparing for the future International Conference on Women's Information.
Initators are Concepcion Ramilo (Resource Centre and Information Program, ISIS International-Manila, Philippines), Yukika Matsumoto (JA-NET, Japan), Young-joo Baik (Korean Women's Development Institute), Yong-ik Yoon (Computer Science Department, Sookmyung Women's University), Dr. Kio Chung Kim, Director, APWINC, Won-sun Shin (Asia Pacific Women's Information Network Centre), and Anju Vyas (Centre for Women's Development Studies, India).
Contact: Anju Vyas cwdslib@sansad.nic.in (address in address list).
A message from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
All women's information centres can apply directly to the Dutch Embassy in their region for funding of activities.
From Anna Sastre
Nos dirigimos a vosotras para comunicaros que ya estamos en la Red.
Somos una asociacion de mujeres de Barcelona, España.
Si nos haceis una visita a nuestra web-http://www.adesco.es,
observareisque hemos puesto vuestro link en la misma..
Tambien hemos creado un directorio de recursos paramujeres-
http://www.mujerweb.com
Con la finalidad de que sea un punto de encuentro y debate entre nosotras.
Nos gustaria que fuera el principio de una buena comunicación.
Esperamos vuestra participacion, comentarios, noticias y sugerenciasque
nos sirvan para ir mejorando nuestra relación.
(Adesco is an organisation in Barcelona, Spain. Through their
web site they have created a link to the IIAV site.
Mujerweb is a directory for women, with space for discussions,
comments, news and communication. Please feel welcome to participate.)
Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region
"The Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region sends best wishes for
the success of the conference on the World of Women's Information and we congratulate
you on taking measures to increase women's access to information and possibilities of
working more closely together to end violence and oppression. We believe very strongly
that unless women have a voice and women's concerns are given priority the world will
not be a better place. On behalf of our members in Albania, Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt,
France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Tunesia, Turkey
and the countries of former Yugoslavia, we ask your support in our work for justice,
equality and peace in the Mediterranean Region."
Our next conference will be held in Greece on May 27-30, 1999 and the theme will be
"The Environment and the Mediterranean Economy".
Our growing regional organization works for justice, equality and peace and we
welcome new members and collaborations.
Yana Mintoff Bland, President, Box 615, Kyle, Texas, 78640, USA
Tel 1-512-268 2220, Fax 1-512-268-1557
MONA, the Foundation for the Women of Hungary, is establishing an information
centre for women and women's organizations in the region.
The Centre will operate as a clearing house institution, collecting and disseminating information on women-oriented issues, projects and networks. It will serve as an open market place for exchanging experiences and the knowhow of each other's projects. The activities will be sponsored by UNESCO, the Open Society Institute and several other grant-giving organizations. Suggestions on how to build the Centre are welcome. Zsuzsa Lestal is Project Manager.
Mona@mail.c3.hu. Office address: 1136 Hungary, Budapest, Tatra u. 46. III/3.
Tel/Fax: (36-1) 329 87 55, Tel: (36-1) 350 13 11
Postal address: 1537-H Budapest, P.O. Box 453/277.
KILDEN - Norwegian Information and Documentation Centre for Women's and Gender
Research, was established by the Research Council of Norway on
September 1st, 1998. KILDEN will be a net-based service in Norwegian
women's and gender research. The target group is researchers, but they
will also service political departments and journalists. Visit their
web site at
http://www.forskningsradet.no/kilden.
Put KILDEN on your mailing list: see address in our address list.
All the Minutes of the Conference are on the Know How Conference English-language web site.
A number of keynote speeches including that of Anne Walker and Rosi Braidotti are now available on the net. If you are willing to translate any of these speeches, please contact Lin Pugh. Would you like a speech sent by e-mail, please contact knowhow@iiav.nl.
We will continue to add information to the web site. The web site will play a role in the communications plan developed for the follow-up activities.
This newsletter will be placed on the web site in the very near future.
We are hoping soon to have the Spanish Know How Conference web site updated. Nidia Bustillos is working on the translation of the Minutes of the Conference into Spanish.A Spanish translation of the Mapping the World web site is under preparation. This is not a translation of the database. It is more a dictionary of terms used in the database. With this dictionary of terms Spanish-speakers will be better equipped to search the database.
Mapping the World of Women's Information Services news
Women's Information Centers and Networks;
a global sourcebook
is the book version of the Mapping the World database. It is your guide to women's information services and networks and what they do.
Contents:
Preface by Federico Mayor, Director General,UNESCO
Introductory chapter on women's information services and networks, including the role of electronic networking
Three regional chapters on Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR Directory of women's information centres and networks and the services they provide
Annotated bibliography and Web resources
Buy the book (and more information):
http://www.kit.nl/ibd/html/gender_society_and_development.htm
Evaluation of Mapping the World
On presenting 'Mapping the World' the conference feedback was that the product was very useful. We would like to know, now that you can use it in practice, how effective it is. Does it give answers to the questions you want to ask? Are there enough keywords? Funding permitting, we will carry out a professional evaluation of 'Mapping the World' so that it can continue as an excellent source of information on women's information services throughout the world.
Photo's of the conference
The IIAV has black and white and colour photo's of the conference, as well as slides. If you require photos, please let us know subject, form (BW, slide), electronic or per mail. If you want us to send the photo through e-mail, let us know the DPI, resolution and so forth. We will charge for this service.
Do you have photo's you think others would like to have? Let us know about them.
European Women's Thesaurus
The pilot European Women's Thesaurus was presented at the Know How Conference. More copies are being printed. This thesaurus is the beginning of a standardized European indexing system which can by used as an indexing system for European databases for women's information and become the basis for national women's thesauri.
With the EWT it will be possible to make a European virtual library with women's information and to do integrated searches in the connected catalogues. At the moment EWT project group is developing plans to translate the EWT in Spanish and Italian and to organise pilot projects for dubble indexing.
The European Women's Thesaurus has a Maintenance and Development Group, which will guide the process of instituting pilot projects in respective organizations.
If you would like information on the project or a copy of the EWT, please contact mensink@iiav.nl.
Who's who in the IIAV Know How office?
There are fewer IIAV staff working on the follow-up to the conference than the full team we had working on developing the conference. While the plans are being developed and funders are considering their participation, the following are contact people:
Marije Wilmink (Knowhow@iiav.nl) collects all incoming queries and information for Mapping the World. Lin Pugh (l.Pugh@iiav.nl) continues to be project manager and can be approached on all topics. Marlise Mensink (Mensink@iiav.nl) is primarily working on the European projects and is responsible for correspondence. Nidia Bustillos (Knowhow@iiav.nl) does all Spanish-language correspondence.
Please direct all general correspondence to knowhow@iiav.nl unless you specifically require Lin or Marlise to reply.
For questions or more information please contact: knowhow@iiav.nl
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