As of 22 April 2009 IFLA has a totally redesigned new website
This old website and all of its content will stay on as archive – http://archive.ifla.org
As of 22 April 2009 IFLA has a totally redesigned new website
This old website and all of its content will stay on as archive – http://archive.ifla.org
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Presidential Newsletter
No. 1 January 2008Dear IFLA Members,
Let me start with some business news, on December 3 – 7, 2007, the IFLA Governing Board and committees met in The Hague. All members of the Governing Board were present. It was a very busy and fruitful work together with the new board. I took part in the search committee to interview the invited candidates for the Secretary General and we presented the result to the Governing Board for decision. Jennefer Nicholson will become IFLA Secretary General from September 2008, when Peter Lor will end his extended term and leave IFLA HQ. She will support his work from June 2008 onwards. She told me she has received hundreds of congratulation messages already, since the announcement was published on IFLANET. Thank you all for your active acknowledgement. Again during the first days of 2008, I went back to The Hague for the search committee on the long wanted Advocacy Position. As you all have read on our IFLANET we filled the position with Stuart Hamilton, who is now very busy to keep up with all the tasks, writing reports and proposals and preparing activities and meeting partners. At the Governing Board meeting we discussed thoroughly the first draft of the new Statutes by Alex Byrne and Peter Lor on the basis of discussions from the former GB and Durban Council decisions and taking into account the relevant laws of the Netherlands. In a long discussion the new GB gave excellent input and set up a working group to finish the draft of the Statutes. This group, with Nancy Gwinn, Bob McKee, Barbara Schleihagen and Claudia Lux met on February 6 in Berlin and finished the draft with assistance from Kelly Moore. As IFLA has changed a lot during the last years, the changes are quite substantial; the draft text will be discussed with our lawyers before we send it out to the members in March. I have also been travelling quite a lot! On December 10 I went to Antwerp in Belgium to give a keynote speech at the GL9, the Grey Literature conference. Grey Literature was my topic 12 Years ago, when I was director of the Berlin Senate Library. This was my 3rd GL conference. There is a very active Grey literature community and we had good talks with some high administrative people of Antwerp. December 13: I followed a discussion in the German Bundestag, initiated by an Enquête-Commission on Culture. This was the result of a lot of work that a group of us from the German Library Association has put into lobbying for libraries during the last 3 years. Some good proposals and steps towards 'Libraries on the Agenda' are the results. (www.bibliotheksverband.de) January 23: I gave a talk on an international meeting on libraries services for integration and cultural diversity in Copenhagen. January 26 – 28: I went to Croatia to participate in BOBCATSSS, a conference organised by the students of library and information science in Europe. This time students from the Humboldt University in Berlin, and Students from Potsdam, Olegsch and Zadar took part in the Organising Committee. About 200 delegates followed a very lively and interesting program. I visited the Public Library of Zadar and the director Ivan Pehar introduced to me all the activities of the library, which is very active and well connected to the people of Zadar. It gets a lot of support. I also visited the new Public Library of Sibenik, an architectural icon integrated in the old town wall with a beautiful new shape. This library employs an artist, who leads workshops for children and young adults. I had good talks with the representatives of the local library association and with Zdenka Sviben, the president of the Croatian Library Association. With best wishes to all of you Claudia Lux January 2008 The Letter of the President "LOP" is distributed at least once a month providing an overview of some of the current activities of the IFLA President, President Elect, the Governing Board and the Headquarters. It contains LINKS for further consultation and will be sent to IFLA-L and all other mailing lists organised by IFLA. Concise (one page), with no illustrations or special layout, it should cause no reception problems. |
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I hope you all have had
a good start into 2008. I want to thank all colleagues who sent New
Year Greetings to me via Email or letter; the most recent arrived right
after the Chinese New Year last week and I appreciate them all. It was
wonderful to receive your greetings from all over the world. It is such
a good feeling to share our greetings among the members of our great
IFLA community. And I must apologies that I am not able to answer
personally to each of you, as two responsibilities are ruling my life:
the IFLA Presidency and Director General of ZLB. Nevertheless I enjoyed
a short holiday with my family in rainy Northern Germany in January.