Manifesto of the Slovenian Library Association
Librarians in Slovenia, being part of the Slovenian and global society, are fulfilling our mission for the present and the future. We are following the road towards a humane society, paved for us by our predecessors, with acute awareness of the present and future significance of our work for a sustainable development of Slovenia and the world as such.
MISSION
With the mission to advance the knowledge and the abilities of the Slovene people as the most important national asset, libraries will ensure equal possibilities for accessing materials and information presented by all formats and media and satisfy the people's cultural, informational, educational, research, communication, and social needs, enabling personal growth irrespectively of individual financial, intellectual or other abilities or needs.
As cultural centres, libraries will continuously promote reading culture and lifelong literacy. As specialised information centres, libraries will develop their own information services and products. As social centres, libraries will enable their users to cultivate social contacts and exchange opinions and experiences.
In accordance with principles of professional ethics, libraries will strive for a humane development of global society.
ORIENTATIONS AND ASPIRATIONS FOR PROGRESS
Quality of life
The increasing lag of humane progress behind state-of-the-art technology can imperil the quality of life. Libraries, being traditionally neutral collectors, preservers and mediators of knowledge, can promote the humane progress of society by user-friendly utilisation of state-of-the-art technology.
With this aim in mind, based on the aspiration for a fair balance between the humane development of society and its technological progress, libraries must become much more recognisable in their communities.
Information society
The evolutional process of information society is connected with the occurring changes in the system of values and, consequently in the way we relate to knowledge. Libraries will preserve their existing key role, however, in fulfilling their mission, they will have to compete with commercial knowledge providers. Libraries will still retain their traditional work, but will also introduce new activities.
National identity and cultural diversity
Libraries creatively contribute to the establishment, preservation and promotion of the Slovene national identity and its cultural diversity. Consequently, they will take great care to collect, preserve and promote library materials, which are the cultural heritage and monument of the country.
Through the acquisition policy, which meets the needs of local users and their environment, through the organisation of cultural events for all ethnic communities, and through the popularisation of multicultural creativity, libraries will promote intercultural co-operation and tolerance.
Professional co-operation
The national professional association connects librarians, libraries and professional societies. It will strive for public recognition of declarations, manifestos and other documents of the library profession. Consequently, it must assume an active role in public decision-making processes and participate on equal terms in making decisions in society. Therefore it will strive for:
Education, continuing professional education and research
The rapid development of the profession, of the information and communication technology, of information carriers as well as the changing needs of library users, demand constant and continuing professional education of library staff.
Formal and informal education and continuing professional education of librarians will be organised in such a manner as to: stimulate scientific-research work, follow new scientific and professional findings and the library's changing role in society as well as the needs for new knowledge. Consequently, the library profession will strive for:
The libraries' recognition in their environments is a precondition for the achievement of their missions. All libraries' activities must constantly be focused on their users, at the same time using their own resources economically and providing access to them at present and in the future. Therefore libraries will:
Administrative political environment
Libraries must act as equal co-designers of social changes and participants in the development of their environment. They must design appropriate forms and methods of influence over the decision-making bodies of the administrative and political structures. Therefore libraries will strive for:
To put the Manifesto into effect, librarians, libraries and library associations will join forces with all organisations, societies and associations, especially from the fields of culture, education and science, which are striving for similar goals.
Manifesto was adopted at the Slovenian Library Association Conference
on September 17, 2004