Zélia Parreira
Chair EBLIDA LIBLEG-Expert Group on Library Legislation and Policy in Europe
European Policy for Public Libraries in Europe: the new Council of Europe/Eblida Guidelines
In 2000, EBLIDA and the Council of Europe adopted the Guidelines on Library Legislation and Policy in Europe. This instrument supported and, in some ways, helped to shape the formulation of the legislation enacted since then in the library sector.
During these twenty years, society has undergone changes that were unimaginable at the turn of the century and, as a result, the needs of users and the service provided by libraries has also changed. Although the relevance of the issues addressed in the 2000 guidelines remains, EBLIDA found necessary to update them, as a guiding instrument, allowing new issues such as sustainability or the role of libraries in situations of local, regional, or global crisis, to be added to the traditional concerns: the functioning of libraries, the availability of resources or the regulation on access and use of information.
Therefore, in 2022, EBLIDA formulated a proposal for new guidelines, whose approval and adoption by the Council of Europe is now being made official. The topics covered reflect current concerns and seek to meet the needs expressed by European librarians in the frequent consultations that EBLIDA has undertaken.
In this context, the communication now presented aims to make known:
(a) the process of reflection and work that led to the formulation of the new Council of Europe/EBLIDA Recommendations on library policy and legislation in Europe
b) The content of the Recommendations
c) Prospects for the applicability of the Recommendations
PhD in Information and Documentation Sciences (2018): "The legal regulation of Public Libraries in Portugal". Post-graduation in Library and Information Science (1996). Degree in History (1994)
Director of the Public Library of Évora (2014- ).
Member of the Executive Committee of EBLIDA (2021-2024). Chair of EBLIDA's Library Legislation EG (2022).
Researcher at CIDEHUS-University of Evora.
Trainer in Libraries' sector since 2001. Visiting assistant professor at University of Évora (2014-2016).
Member of Portuguese Association of Librarians, Archivists, Information and Documentation Professionals (BAD).
Frequently invited to conferences, colloquia, and professional meetings, to report her professional experience in creating strategies for affirming the public library in the community, or to disseminate the results of research in policy/strategy for development of a national public libraries service and legal regulations.
Jury of the Portuguese Public Libraries Best Practices Award.