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About Balkan Libraries Union > Statute

Chapter 1

GENERAL

Name of the Union and Establishment

Article 1:

The Union called the "Balkan Countries Libraries Union" (hereinafter referred to as BLU) will be established with the acceptation of the Foundation Status by libraries from minimum five Balkan Countries which they will be called as Founder Member of the Union. Union’s Centre is hosted by Trakya University Library and Documentation Head Office, BALKAN CAMPUS 22030 EDIRNE-TURKEY and the official language of the union is English.

Chapter 2

Aim and Mission of the Union

Aims

Article 2

2.1. The general aim of BLU is to assist any type of libraries in Balkan to become a functional network across national boundaries in order to ensure the preservation of the Balkan cultural heritage, to improve access to collections in Balkan libraries and to provide more efficient library information services in Balkan.

2.2. To achieve this aim, among other activities, BLU:

(i) Works to identify any kind of shared request, aims and issues within the Balkan Libraries;

(ii) Seeks to identify and define the needs for common effort and initiates activities in these areas, either alone or in co-operation with other organisations, governmental or non-governmental, national or international;

(iii) Supports the improvement of professional skills and promotes standardization in and between Balkan Libraries through meetings, seminars, working groups, publications. It supports special projects and development schemes and seeks to achieve close contact between libraries and individual professionals in Balkan;

(iv) Works to develop cooperation among the libraries within the Balkan countries and also, between other European Countries.

(v) Plays an active role in shaping long-term visions for the development of the Balkan library network while representing the collective expertise of its member libraries.

(vi) Plays a leader role on co-operation works for knowledge workers in the Balkan Countries to make their experience shared by each other.

Chapter 3

Membership

Categories of Membership

Article 3

3.1. Only Institutional Membership shall be granted in the Union by the decision of the Board.

3.2. BLU has the following categories of member:

(i) National libraries,

(ii) University libraries,

(iii) Libraries of institutions conducting teaching or research at a post-graduate level,

(iv) Public libraries,

(v) National archives,

(vi) Information and Documentation Department/archives of a University

(vii) Associate companies or consortia supplying services libraries, and library organisations.

Rights of Membership

Article 4

4.1. Members have a right to be represented in the General Assembly by two delegates and any number of observers. Only every each delegate has one vote right. However, only the General Assembly member representatives can stay when the election article started to be discussed.

4.2. Members have a right to vote for the elections to the Board, and to be candidate for Execute Board election.

4.3. Members can be a nominee to host General Assembly.

4.4. Members are entitled to receive BLU publications and BLU training free of charge. In case of some special project or BLU training, members can only receive fund by the approval of the Board.

Termination of Membership

Article 7:

Membership shall be terminated:

5.1. On resignation which shall be tendered for the end of a year subject to six months' notice and fulfilling any kind of responsibilities to the Union;

5.2. On cancellation of membership by the Board in the case, inter alia, of a member which, in spite of formal notice, has not fulfilled its obligation for over a year, appeal against the decision may be made to the General Assembly provided due notice is lodged with the Executive Board’s proposal.

Chapter 4

Administration and Operation

Administration Structure

Article 6:

BLU shall organise its work through the

(i) General Assembly,

(ii) Executive Board and

(iii) Auditor Board.

The General Assembly

Article 7

7.1. The General Assembly shall be composed of all members of BLU. The General Assembly shall be held in every three years at the place and date proposed by the Executive Board. A single membership entitles the institution to be represented in the General Assembly by not more than two named delegate who shall carry the voting rights for that member. This right of voting shall be used by member’s representative.

7.2. A delegate of a member, not able to be present at the General Assembly may delegate its right to vote to another member acting as proxy. It shall notify the General Secretary not less than 24 hours before the General Assembly of its intention to delegate its vote and shall name the proxy in writing or e-mailed to the General Secretary.

Responsibilities of the General Assembly

Article 8:

8.1. The General Assembly shall be the governing body of the Union.

8.2. It shall be the appeal authority in any dispute between members and members or members and the Board

8.3. It shall receive and approve the Annual Report of the Board

8.4. It shall receive and approve the Annual Report of the Auditors.

8.5. It shall elect the Members of the Board and Auditor Board.

8.6. It shall receive reports from the Divisions, their Committees of Experts and from the Standing Committees of the Board.

8.7. It shall have the power to amend the Constitution and to dissolve the Union.

Meetings of the General Assembly

Article 9:

9.1. The Assembly shall meet once in each three years and at the request of the Executive Board when one fifth of the sum of the members applied officially in a place and time determined by the Board.

9.2. The nominees for hosting the next General Assembly shall remark their name at requests session, at the beginning of the General Assembly. The Host Member for the next Assembly Meeting shall be elected by open vote and open counting and is to be announced at the end of the General Assembly.

9.3. If there is no nominee to host to next General Assembly, the Host shall be named by alphabetic order while giving the priority to the Founder Members.

The Executive Board

Article 10:

10.1. BLU shall be administered by an Executive Board which shall consist of the following 7 members, and seven (7) co-members; total fourteen members, all drawn from members of BLU. Members are to be elected by secret vote and open counting during the General Assembly.

10.2. Executive Board is to be form as below;

(i) A President,

(ii) Vice-President,

(iii) General Secretary,

(iv) Accountant,

(v) Two members.

10.3. Every each member of the Executive Board elected by the General Assembly to serve for a period of THREE YEARS, after which the Executive Board members may be re-elected for one further term of THREE YEARS,

10.4. As BLU consists an institutional identity, any vacancies in the Executive Board due to the member institution or any other reason should be fulfilled by the member institution by electing the new representatives and informing the Executive board. The new representative informed by the member institution continues its position in BLU.

10.5. The Executive Board may fill provisionally any institutional vacancies which may occur between elections by co-option, considering the vote rate of the elected institutional co-members until the next election.

10.6. The Board shall, within the limitations imposed by these Statutes, establish its own procedures for meetings, and shall have the power to delegate particular responsibilities to the officers of BLU and to elected members of the Board.

Responsibilities of the Executive Board

Article 11:

11.1. The Board shall be entrusted with the direction of all activities within the sphere of work of the Union.

11.2. It shall decide and supervise the publication policy of BLU.

11.3. Minutes shall be kept of all of its meetings.

11.4. The President of the Board shall provide an annual report of the Board's activities to the General Assembly.

11.5. Executive Board shall distribute the Announcements of the Annual General Assembly and the Agenda for the Assembly to members

(i) at least one month before the date of the meeting of the Assembly;

(ii) Announce the nominee members for hosting the next General Assembly at the beginning of General Assembly.

11.6 Executive Board shall establish research and training commissions/working group. These commissions/working groups may consist of the members of the General Assembly members or the experts appointed from outside if its necessary. Commissions/working groups nominate these experts to the initiative of Executive Board as specialists of the library and information sciences to play a leader or coordinator role in professional training workshops. For these experts taking part in commissions/working groups by the approval of the Executive board;

(i) the quality is temporary,

(ii) the participation is voluntary,

(iii)vote right will not be given.

11.7. Executive Board deliver financial records of the term to successor Executive Board.

Meetings of the Executive Board

Article 12:

12.1. The Executive Board shall meet whenever it is convened by the President, or at the request of two-third of its members.

12.2. At least four members of the Board, one of whom must be the President or the Vice-President, shall constitute a quorum.

The Auditor Board

Article 13:

Operations of the BLU shall be inspected by an Auditor Board which shall consist of the members of the General Assembly among whom do not participate in the Executive Board.

Responsibilities of the Auditor Board

Article 14:

14. 1The Auditor Board shall observe if the paper works of the Union are conducted regularly.

14. 2 The Auditor Board shall control if the activities of The BLU work in accordance to the Union’s Status.

14.3 The Auditor Board shall prepare an observation report in order to submit to the General Assembly.

Chapter 5

Finance

Financial Sources

Article 15:

15.1. The Finances of BLU shall consist of:

(i) Gifts, sponsorship and, ad hoc grants,

(ii) Other sources of income, as determined from time to time by the Board.

15.2. The accounts of BLU shall be drawn in EURO.

15.3. The Member, which Hosts the General Assembly is responsible from all financial spending of the publications of BLU for a period of its hosting term.

Chapter 6

Revision of the Constitution

Revision and Dissolve

Article 16:

16.1. Revision of the Statutes and the dissolution of BLU may be decided by two-thirds of the voting members present or represented at the General Assembly or by two-thirds of the votes cast by all members of BLU in a postal ballot.

16.2 The Notice of intention to revise the Statutes or dissolve BLU shall be sent to members before four months from the General Assembly meeting.

16.3. In the event of dissolution, the General Assembly shall decide how the assets are to be used, in the light of the aims of BLU.

Chapter 7

Other Status

Article 17:

All matters not covered by these Statutes shall be governed by custom, under the General Assembly's guarantee and with the consideration of the International Laws and professional ethnic assets.

Validity

Article18

This Founder Version of the BLU Status is to force by Founder Members signs.

Chapter 8

Temporary Status

Article 19:

The Union, BLU, will be established with the acceptation of the Foundation Status by libraries from -not limited but- minimum five Balkan Countries which they will be called as Founder Member of the Union. After the acceptation of the Foundation Status, the first President and Executive and Supervisory Board members are to be elected. Right after the acceptation of the BLU Foundations Status, the Temporary Statuses are to be terminated.

FOUNDER MEMBERS

The Founder members of the BLU are listed below;

(I) TRAKYA UNIVERSITY, LIBRARY AND DOCUMANTATION OFFICE, EDIRNE/TURKEY

RECEP ZOGO

http://kutuphane.trakya.edu.tr/

(II) UNIVERSITY LIBRARY “SVETOZAR MARKOVIC”, BELGRADE- SERBIA

VERA PETROVİÇ

(III) THE NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, PRISHTINE-KOSOVA

DR. SALİ BASHOTA

(IV) LİBRARY OF " ION IONESCU DE LA BRAD" UNİVERSİTY OF AGRİCULTURAL

SCİENCES AND VETERİNARY MEDİCİNE, ROMANIA

PROF. DR. GİLDA ELEONORA DRAGANESCU