Archive for the ‘IFLA Conference 2011’ Category

IFLA 2011 Conference Grantees

IFLA regularly awards travel grants for attendance at its annual conference.  For the 2011 conference in San Juan, PR, 40 grants were awarded to attendees from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania, Africa, and developing countries.  Recipients were required to be a member of their national library association and write a report on their experiences at the conference.  Several of the reports are now available here; they give an interesting perspective on the conference from a first-time attendee’s point of view.  More reports will be added as they become available.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

IFLA 2011 in San Juan, PR has passed into history.  Photos and reports from the final sessions are on the IFLA Express website.  Final attendance was 2,593, making San Juan a successful event.

Next year, the 78th IFLA World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) will be in Helsinki, Finland, on August 11-17.  Singapore has been selected as the venue for the 79th WLIC; dates will be announced later.  Sponsors will be the  National Library Board of Singapore and the Library Association of Singapore.

At the closing session in San Juan, Ingrid Parent, University Librarian at the University of British Columbia, Canada, became President of IFLA, succeeding Ellen Tise, Senior Director, Library and Information Services, J.S. Gericke Library, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Look for a report on the San Juan congress in an upcoming issue of Information Today.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Outside the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Photo courtesy of Dina Youssef

I was interested in the report of a presentation by author Dina Youssef on the IFLA Express site, describing the effects of the recent uprisings in Egypt on libraries, and particularly the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  A security guard was quoted: “This is our library.  It belongs to our children”.  Youssef’s report showed some of the remarkable efforts of citizens in protecting the library and how it was preserved from violence and damage, including these inspiring concluding thoughts:

“Because this valuable resource was spared a violent end, it can now be a cornerstone for rebuilding the new Egypt.  The library will lead the movement to collect, organize, and make public the artifacts and evidences of this revolution.  Those standing arm in arm around this building have come to represent the new Egypt, where the diverse population appreciates that libraries are not just buildings with books.  Libraries are the gateways to knowledge and knowledge is the foundation of empowerment.”

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

A new Semantic Web Special Interest Group (SWSIG) will meet for the first time at the IFLA 2011 Congress on Wednesday August 17 at 9:30 AM.  According to an e-mail that I received, “the SWSIG intends to be the platform where interested professionals could gather, and undertake whatever tasks are needed to develop, enhance and facilitate the adoption of semantic Web technologies in the library community.”

Interest in semantic technologies continues to grow as data mining, taxonomies, and similar techniques become important in the development of large information data sets, digital libraries, etc.  If you are attending the IFLA Congress, this is a good opportunity to learn more about them.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

IFLA’s 2011  Conference opened yesterday in San Juan, PR.  I’m not attending the conference (physically, at least), but I got a good sense of the events of opening day by looking at IFLA Express, the dedicated website for daily news and updates.  The opening session was well represented with a large collection of photos, including crowd shots.  Take a look–you might see someone you know.  I spotted Jane Dysart and Frank Cervone, long-time attendees at ITI’s Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian conferences.  (Jane is Program Chair of these two events, and Frank has made many presentations at them.)

IFLA Express also features a daily video with an interview with a selected guest.  Today’s video was on the subject of “Policy, Strategy, and Advocacy, and the guest was Helena Asamoah-Hassan, University Librarian at KNUST Library in Kumasi, Ghana.  And the sidebar provides links to posts by bloggers at the conference.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor