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
    |
||||
Presidential Newsletter
No. 4 December 2007Dear IFLA Members,
I met Rashida Begum, our former IFLA-GB member and former Chair of Division VIII, who is still very active in Malaysian library matters. At the conference I talked about the future of our profession and about ‘Libraries on the Agenda’. During my visits I saw how Malaysian librarians have made great progress in advocacy and have got a lot of support from the government. I experienced the joy of a village committee in Penang Region for their new library, which is the only place to provide them with telecommunication by phone and Internet for a village of 1000 inhabitants. The community supplied the land, on which the building stands, and a young woman as a regular staff member. The regional library in Georgetown, supported by state money, built the library, installed the satellite connectivity and the computers and provides catalogued books, CDs and DVDs on a regular basis. Regional staff train the librarian to use the OPAC, the other equipment and to teach the villagers in media and information literacy. This is an excellent example of the role which libraries can play in the information society. A week later I attended the Board meeting of the Council of Library and Information Research (CLIR) in Washington. I want to draw your attention to their current very useful research on cyber infrastructure, especially the project to assess the utility to scholars of several large-scale digitization projects. http://www.clir.org/activitites/details/scholeval.html We are making progress towards the development of the long-awaited advocacy unit at IFLA Headquarters. In response to an ad, applications have been received and are being evaluated for the position of Senior Policy Adviser. In the meantime, Dr. Stuart Hamilton, formerly of the FAIFE Office in Copenhagen and now back from his walk across the United States, has joined Headquarters for a six-month’s stint to assist with FAIFE-related projects and general advocacy support. On 21st of November I gave a lecture during the anniversary activities, celebrating 10 years of the Goethe Reading Room in Brjansk, Russia. This service stands as an example of more than 57 Goethe reading rooms in libraries and is an expression of international co-operation among libraries in all parts of the world. http://www.scilib.debryansk.ru/. I was impressed, that Brjansk Regional (Oblast) Library director organized a meeting for me with the Governor of the Oblast Brjansk Denin Nikolai Wasiljevic and the head of the cultural department, Ms. Somovoi, to discuss my theme, "Libraries on the Agenda". In my function as Director of the Central and Regional Library of Berlin (ZLB), I also took part in meetings at the Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow (VGBIL), and the opening of our joint exhibition on the Hardenberg Collection. Hardenberg’s Books are in the ZLB in Berlin and in different Russian Libraries. In quite a few discussions, the topic of our IFLA Theme ’Libraries are on the Agenda’ was raised and the importance of advocacy was mentioned by the participants during the meetings. The Governing Board (GB) has elected Jesus Lau from México as a co-opted member for the Period 2007-2009, in order to have a better representation from the Latin-America and the Caribbean Region on the Board. It has also co-opted the chair of Management of Library Associations Section, Sinikka Sipilä. Sjoerd Koopman gave a presentation on the role of libraries at the main annual conference of our sister organisation ICA, the International Council on Archives, at the CITRA (the International Conference of the Round Table on Archives) on 13 and 14 November 2007 in Québec City, the venue of the IFLA Congress in August 2008. On November 15, GB member Danielle Mincio met with a group of members from France from the President’s Information Society Working Group to discuss representations at relevant meetings in Paris. With best wishes to all of you Claudia Lux December 2007 The Letter of the President "LOP" is distributed by e-mail at least once a month to provide 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. |
||||
