The first annual general meeting of the Association for 2013 was held last night at the National Library (Art Gallery space). The meeting was attended by 37 people, members and non-members included.

The main purpose of the meeting included:

1. Sharing of the MLA annual report of 2012
2. Drawing up of event calendar for 2013
3. Election of a member for the vacated post of Assistant Secretary
4. Approval of MLA Flag and colour
5. Open up the process of re-branding the Association’s name, mandate, and logo to match the modern day information sector.

The meeting was introduced by Vice President, Ms. Fathimath Nashath, followed by the presentation of the annual report 2012 by General Secretary, Ms. Aminath Shazina.

The activities/highlights of 2012 are:

• Computerization of 10 libraries under the MLA Koha Project (these includes 5 libraries from the Atolls and 5 from Male’/Vilimale’). These were added to the existing Union Catalog bringing the total to 21 libraries. (April to July).
• Creation of local digital collections (Faithoora Collection as a trial, Thesis collection, Local Book Collection, Jamaa’athuge Khabaru)
• MLA General Assembly (election of Council members for new 2 year term) – May
• Establishment of the Digital Library Portal. The MLA played a key role in the development of the website. (June-July)
• 3-5 June Koha ILS Training
• 6-7 June GSDL software training
• Workshop on Collection evaluation and Networking
• Information Session on Publication Guidelines (20 Oct)
• Publication to commemorate MLA’s 25 year history (11 Mar)
• Library Day Celebrations (12 July) – Launching of Maldives Digital Library (http://library.egov.mv), Launching of MLA 25 year publication, book donation to Fuahmulak Public Library).
• Initiation of work on revising Librarian Job Structure (Oct)
• Lecture on Cataloging and the use of MARC (29 August)
• Lecture on Encouraging reading and managing Book Clubs (23 October).
• Participation in the National Copyright Awareness Seminar (5-6 Nov)
• Participation at the National Conference on Strengthening the role of Clubs & Associations in strengthening local communities – held in R. Meedhoo (25-29 November).
• Visit to L. Gan Ihadhoo School Library and Hamadh Bin Khaleefa Al Thaanee School Library to collect information on issues faced by the libraries.
• Strengthening the library personal development sector – Sponsorship (60%) of the Library Tour to Colombo by the Diploma in Library & Information Services Students.
• Consultancy Services to Billabong International High School Library (18 Sept to 6 Oct)
• Book Donations to B. Atoll School Library, K. Huraa School Library, Fuvahmulak Public Library, and Maarandhoo Council
• Conducted a session for the NLM for the In-service training program held during November.
• UNESCO Information Literacy survey – country coordination (Dec)
• Publication of MLA Newsletter Issue 01/02 August

Prior to the approval of the event calendar for the current year, a brainstorming session was conducted in groups. The purpose was to identify the challenges currently faced by library staff as well as management with the interest of developing libraries in their institutions.

The brainstorming session further looked at the MLA’s role in addressing these challenges and issues, followed by the identification of the individual’s role in playing their part. These discussions lead to broad areas MLA should try and tackle ASAP

The following activities and events were unanimously approved by the attendees

MLA Council Meetings to be held monthly on the following Saturdays:

• 21 January (held)
• 09 February (held)
• 09 March
• 06 April
• 04 May
• 08 June
• 06 July
• 17 August
• 07 September
• 05 October
• 02 November
• 07 December

Special events / activities (generally on a monthly basis)

• 02 February     “ACT now” participation (completed)
• 16 February      Annual General Meeting 2013 (this current meeting)
• 21 February      Call for interest for Koha Project
• 16 March          Workshop on Collection Development & Evaluation (for library managers)
• 01 April            Initiation of Koha Project 2013
• 11 April            MLA Newsletter 2013 Issue 01
• 27-28 April       Seminar on Development of Maldives Library Sector
• 11 May            Workshop on Classification
• 9-11 June         Koha Training (probable move to April)
• 12-13 June       GSDL Workshop (might have to move to April)
• 6 July              “Bring a friend event” Social Event for MLA member
• 11 July             Special supplement on library activities (reading campaign)
• 16 August        MLA Newsletter 2013 Issue 02
• 28-29 August    Library Workshop in the Atolls (Target K. Dhiffushi)
• 28-30 Sept       Workshop on Computerized Library cataloging
• 9 November      Information Session Library & Information Services Education
• 5 December     Publication of Library Training Manual
• 12 December   MLA Newsletter 2013 Issue 03
• 11 January       MLA General Meeting 2014

Election for the vacant post of Assistant Secretary

The former Assistant Secretary, Ms. Fathimath Visala, resigned from the post in February 2013 as she is now posted in the South Most Atoll of the Maldives, thereby having restrictions on attending the monthly Council meetings. It is noted with gratitude the pleasant contribution she made to the Association during her terms of Office.

Two MLA members stood for election and Ms. Sajidha was elected with majority votes.

Approval of MLA Flag & Color

In MLA’s 25 years of existence, according to the available records, MLA has never used a flag. Some records show a color for the Association was approved. Nonetheless, nobody appears to know what that was. In the past, the color blue had been associated informally (presumably, this was adopted because it is the color used by the National Library of Maldives.)

At the current meeting, the members were presented with the temporary MLA flag (with white background and turquoise logo) made at short notice to join the “ACT NOW” event held on 2nd February 2013. This flag and the color turquoise was approved by the attendees of this meeting, on understanding that the logo, the flag and the Association will undergo a re branding process within the current year.

Process of re-branding the Association

It is widely agreed that the Association needs to undergo a change of it’s mandate to encompass the information sector without limiting it just to “libraries”. It was also agreed that this process should include re-branding of the logo, flag, as well as the name for the Association. This process was advertised at the meeting and opened for comments and feedback from interested parties. Some ideas for a logo was shared at the meeting so as to initiate discussion and thought.

The following are among the proposed logos.

Interested people can submit your ideas by commenting on this blog post, or by sending an e-mail to the Association at info.malias@gmail.com

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The meeting overall, was very successful and brought together Library Students at the University, Library Staff from the University, MAPS College, Villa College, the National Library and other institutions. It is also noteworthy that members of the senior management of Villa College and MBC joined the meeting.

We would have loved to see more experienced library staff, in addition to the new people. The current MLA Council looks forward to the contribution of the senior and experienced “librarians” working at various libraries throughout the country. The more heads that join, the more ideas we can generate and the more work we can put into strengthen the library and information sector of the Maldives.

Other special events at the meeting was distribution of books (on general reading) to all the attendees, an 8GB pen drive for a lucky draw winner, a 16GB pen drive for the person who encouraged the most people to attend this meeting. The MLA 25 year special publication was also sold at a discount price of MVR 100.00 (The standard price is MVR 150.00 for MLA members and MVR 200.00 for others).