BIS in English - collected documents
The Platform of BiS
Program of BiS
BiS presentation
Early history of BiS

You are welcome to enter
the lib-plic list - a network of progressive librarians
The South African - Swedish LPYL site

Home

Program of BiS

PROGRAM OF BIBLIOTEK I SAMHÄLLE

What follows is the platform of the Swedish association called BIS
(Bibliotek i Samhälle) which means "Libraries in Society." It was
originally adopted at a general BIS meeting in 1989. This is the latest
version, revised in March 2000

BIS is a politically independent organisation working on a socialist basis
to promote progressive librarianship. For BIS socialism represents the idea
of human liberation and development based on true satisfaction of needs,
and the fair distribution of material and socia1 resources. Its citizens
should govern a society striving to realise these objectives, as directly
as possible.

LIBRARIES IN SOCIETY
The access of electronic media has made information more available.
Internet is to be found in a growing number of homes in Sweden. This should
be a chance for democracy to develop, but the accelerating complexity and
rapid growth of information in our economic and political system is also
leading to widening gaps of information and knowledge. Elites are taking
over and it is becoming harder for the ordinary person to have real
influence on the essential issues of the day.

Cultural life is becoming increasingly commercialized. Our search
for enjoyment, experience and knowledge is, to a growing extent,
manufactured and commodified by a market where capitalistic forces dominate.

National minorities, refugees, immigrants, and other international contacts
have made Sweden a multicultural country, which enriches and develops the
culture of the whole. A multicultural society requires increased knowledge
and understanding. It also must give all groups the opportunity to maintain
a cultural identity within the framework of a democratic society.

POPULAR EDUCATION
BIS asserts it is the task of libraries to defend and develop a democratic
society. BIS accordingly recognises that it is necessary to obtain
substantial additional resources in order for libraries to offer quality
culture and popular education. The library must be a true alternative to
the commercial sector, not merely a compliment.

BIS wants to promote libraries that will function as centres for the
exchange of differing viewpoints and customs. These libraries should
provide people with the resources necessary to develop social, ecological,
and technical understanding and to realize democratic
liberties creatively and in solidarity with others.

BIS supports the lines of action established by the Swedish Public Library
Investigation of 1984:
1. To Fight for the Book and Reading.
2. To Give Everybody Free and Equal Access to Information.
3. To Put a Special Emphasis on Children's' Need of Books and Reading

MEDIA SELECTION
The public library services and resources are made available to everyone
through public funding. The act of selecting materials, therefore, is
crucial to how the public library fulfils its mission. Library selection
policy can, in effect, legitimize a view of progress, problems, ideas and
the general state of society, nature and science .

Materials that promote violence or propagandizes values of oppression,
persecution and discrimination, or in other ways deny basic human rights
should, in principle, not be part of a public library's collection.

Despite the growing dependency on the electronic media, linguistic
understanding is the basis of knowledge and culture. For the foreseeable
future we will depend upon the written word. The ability to read and to
express oneself in speech and writing is vital to the participation of
these individuals and groups in the life of society.

Library collection building should support lifelong learning. The role of
the public library is to bridge the gaps in information and knowledge due
to social, cultural, economic, educational, and class differences and
provide a quality selection of books, magazines and other media such as
CD-ROM's, videos, CDs, cassettes and what is available on line.

Every public library needs to select quality literature for both children
and adults in order to enrich their lives and stimulate the joy of reading
and learning. Selection must be done consciously to counter other media
that seek to control and stifle human creativity and
imagination.

Library service has been expanded through access to electronically
transmitted and stored information. BIS considers it vital that libraries
use these technologies in a way that provides information to all citizens,
not merely to already information-rich groups and individuals. Additional
funding must be found to support this extension of library activity.

AN EQUAL LIBRARY STANDARD FOR ALL
BIS considers public libraries an essential source of culture, knowledge
and information. BIS demands legislation mandating equal library
standards throughout the country. Groups that currently do not use
libraries should be involved in policy-making and planning. Libraries
should be established in workplaces, schools, sparsely populated areas and
suburbs, as well as be the recipients of outreach services. The growing
emphasis on adult education demands increased resources for libraries.

A well-functioning library is not limited by narrow thinking along guild or
departmental lines, either within or outside the library. Bureaucratic
growth must be guarded against also.

SOLIDARITY AND COOPERATION
BIS asserts a policy of wages that enhances solidarity, cooperation and the
missions of the library. BIS considers it the task of trade unions not
only to diminish wage differentials, but also to negotiate higher salaries
within libraries as well as in other cultural and educational institutions.

INCREASED CULTURAL PLURALITY!
We have become more and more influenced by Anglo/American language and
thinking. BIS thinks that this needs to be balanced through increased
exchange activities with other cultures and languages.

BIS supports developing libraries in progressive countries lacking the
needed resources.
BIS opposes any official contacts with libraries used in the service of
oppression.

BIS thinks that UNESCO's manifesto on public libraries should be the
accepted standard for the public libraries of the world.

BIS-THE ASSOCIATION
The association BIS shall through its journal bis and in other connections
participate in the cultural and social debate. The association BIS shall
through meetings constantly develop and deepen intellectual and ideological
work on library issues.

Thanks to Elaine Harger, Progressive Librarians Guild, for examining the
translation into English

(2000)