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IN THIS DOCUMENT:

Council Resolutions

Record Attendance at IFLA '97

Conference Papers

Guest Lectures

Pre-Session Seminar

Workshops

Library Visits

IFLA Exhibition

IFLANET Unplugged CD ROM

IFLA Journal

Future IFLA Conferences

 

Highlights of the 1997 IFLA Conference, 31 August - 5 September 1997

 


PRESS RELEASE: for immediate release
October 17, 1997

by IFLA Headquarters

Highlights of the 1997 IFLA Conference, 31 August - 5 September 1997
Copenhagen, Denmark

The IFLA '97 Conference will be remembered as a Conference of new beginnings and a Conference during which a number of major initiatives were taken, especially with regard to Copyright and Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. IFLA '97 also witnessed major changes within IFLA's main steering bodies: with a newly elected IFLA President in Mme Christine Deschamps of the Bibliothèque de l'Université Paris V - Rene Descartes in Paris, France and several new Executive Board Members. (Details of this appear in a separate document on IFLA-L as well as on the IFLA web site - www.ifla.org).

Council Resolutions

Poised on the threshold of a new and exiting era in information, IFLA '97's universally appealing theme "Libraries and Information for Human Development" reflected the wider impact which today's information revolution is set to have on society as a whole, not just on librarians and information professionals. This was echoed in two major Council resolutions passed during the Conference.

The first formally establishing IFLA's Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (CAIFE) and the second formally establishing IFLA's Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters. (The full text of both resolutions has been posted on IFLA-L and IFLA's website). Invitations have been circulated to IFLA's Association Members to nominate members for the new committees and appointments will be made during the December Board meetings at IFLA Headquarters. Two chairs have already been proposed:
they are - Marianne Scott, National Librarian of Canada, for the Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters, and Alex Byrne of the Northern Territory University Library in Australia for the Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (CAIFE).

During IFLA '97, the Danish Organizing Committee graciously offered to establish an office in Copenhagen, for a two year period, to support IFLA's activities in the area of freedom of expression and access to information.

Record Attendance at IFLA '97

This year, a record total of 2976 delegates from 141 countries attended IFLA '97. Thanks to the Danida Grant, over 150 delegates from the developing countries were able to attend the IFLA Conference this year too - a hitherto unprecedented number. For many, it was their first experience of an IFLA Conference. The Union of Danish Librarians (Bibliotekarforbundet) and the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark also sponsored the registration fees of 20 delegates from Russia.With the rapid rise in the use of the new information technologies, librarians now, more than ever before, are having to redefine themselves and re-evaluate their roles and responsibilities. The IFLA annual Conference grows in importance as the place where networking between professionals across the globe takes place amidst an exciting professional programme and a wealth of international exhibitors.

Record Number of New Members registering at an IFLA Conference A record number of 50 Conference delegates registered as IFLA members during IFLA '97. Also, two Danish companies, Dansk Data Electronic (DDE) and the Danish Library Centre (DBC) joined IFLA as Patron and Sustaining Sponsors, respectively and, since the Conference, we are also delighted to be able to welcome both Sun Microsystems (US) and MCB University Press (UK) as the most recent additions to the IFLA Sponsor category of membership.

Conference Papers

Over 150 papers were delivered, and simultaneous translation was provided in all of IFLA's official languages: French, English, Russian, Spanish and German. The full text of all IFLA '97 Conference Papers, including 170 translations, can be accessed on IFLA's website at: http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla63/63cp.htm

Papers were given on a wide range of themes including: "Financing and Budgeting in a time of Change"; "ILL Protocol Standard: Interlibrary Loan in an Open Networked Environment"; "Cataloguing for the 21st Century"; "Issues on Ownership and Availability of Electronic Information"; and, "Public Libraries and Lifelong Learning".

Guest Lectures

Three Guest Lectures were given at IFLA '97: Sir Roger Elliot, Chairman of the ICSU Press, spoke about the 'Impact of Electronic Publishing on the Scientific Information Chain'; Ms Ursula Owen, Editor and CEO of Index on Censorship - the only international magazine for free expression, spoke about Censorship, access to information and freedom of expression; Ms Esther Sibanyoni, Woman of the Year and Librarian at the State Library of Pretoria, South Africa, spoke about the many community projects she has set up since the state of emergency in South Africa. The full text of these papers will be published in the October/November issue of IFLA Journal.

Pre-Session Seminar

This year's IFLA Pre-Session Seminar focused on "Bridging the Information Gap through new Technology", and was attended by 42 librarians from the developing countries. Simulataneous interpretation was provided throughout the session.

Workshops

Over twenty Workshops were held, many of which proved to be highly innovative, such as the joint workshop between IFLA's Section for Libraries Serving Disadvantaged Persons and the European Dyslexia Association on "Access to Information: Serving Persons with Dyslexia" and the UDT Core Programme Workshop on "Introduction to Internet Metadata".

Library Visits

Delegates were able to visit to number of libraries selected from a list of over 35 including, among others: The Danish National Library for the Blind, The Danish Central Library for Immigrant Literature, Roskilde University Library, the Library of the Royal School of Librarianship, and Danish Veterinary and Agricultural Library.

IFLA Exhibition

This year's Exhibition welcomed 184 exhibitors representing all areas of the profession, including publishers, subscription agents, manufacturers of library software and hardware, Furniture and shelving specialists, etc. An Internet Bar was also made available to Conference delegates for use throughout the conference.

IFLANET Unplugged CD ROM

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of IFLA Patron Sponsor, SilverPlatter Ltd. and the National Library of Canada, the IFLANET Unplugged CD ROM was produced for the second year running. This CD ROM contains a frozen snapshot of IFLA's website and this year, for the first time, featured a "virtual exhibition" where suppliers and producers of library products exhibited some of their products. The CD ROM was given away, free of charge, to all IFLA Conference delegates.

IFLA Journal

A complete report on all the main events taking place at IFLA 97 will be published in the October/November 1997 issue of IFLA Journal.

Future IFLA Conferences

  • 1998: Amsterdam, Netherlands (16-21 August)
  • 1999: Bangkok, Thailand (20-28 August)
  • 2000: Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2001: Boston, USA
  • 2002: Edinburgh/Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 2003: A competition was announced during IFLA '97 to select the host country for IFLA 2003.

Details on how to enter this competition to host IFLA 2003 can be obtained from IFLA Headquarters.
Email: IFLA@ifla.org

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