IFLA

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Best wishes for 2005!

English text SPANISH

Dear Colleagues

Following the tragic ending to 2004 with the devastation wreaked by the Indian Ocean tsunami, it has been heartening to see the generous response of the world's people to the plight of those who suffered from that disaster. This offers hope that 2005 will be a good year for international cooperation for the benefit of all peoples.

IFLA is well positioned to lead that cooperation in our fields of endeavour and in partnership with colleagues in archives, museums, telecentres and knowledge centres, and other fields. IFLA's three pillars (Society - Members - Profession), which was announced in December, provides a strong framework for us to respond to the challenges of this year and beyond. The Governing Board is working on a business plan which will enable IFLA to pursue our agendas for the benefit of society, to assist our members and to advance our professional interests.


Our responses must include assistance for those who are in the greatest and most urgent need including the victims of the tsunami and the sufferers from the AIDS pandemic. We are working with international organisations, including Unesco with which we have a long established high level consultative relationship, to address these important issues.

We must continue to promote literacies for lifelong learning and, to that end, the Governing Board has established a Presidential Committee for the International Agenda on Lifelong Literacy which will report by the time we meet in Oslo in August. The Committee includes leading experts in the field and will be informed by consultation with Professor Martin Nakata on the issues relating to Indigenous peoples.

Placing these and other issues in the broad global context, we must build on our success in the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society and take full advantage of the present phase which will culminate with a Summit meeting in Tunis next November. It will be preceded by an IFLA conference in Alexandria, Egypt which will be hosted by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina - a major event which will signal the importance of libraries to governments and international organisations.

We welcome the Secretary General, Professor Peter Lor, who assumes duty on the 15th February, 2005 () and we thank Acting Secretary General Sjoerd Koopman and the IFLA HQ team for their contributions to the smooth running of the organization during the interregnum period.

Our Division, Sections and Core Activities continue to provide the lifeblood of our professional achievements. Their projects, initiatives and publications make extraordinarily valuable contributions to our practice in library and information service. Through their work and that of the National Organising Committee, we are looking forward to another excellent World Library and Information Congress in Oslo. We look forward to seeing you there.

Over the next few months we will be holding the elections for President-elect, members of the Governing Board and the Standing Committees. At this time of tremendous development and change, we need the best possible candidates from around the world so that IFLA will be strengthened to rise to the challenges.

We encourage you to nominate your most talented colleagues so that they may join us in our important work. Nominations must be received at IFLA HQ by the close of business on Wednesday, 2 February 2005.


All the very best to each of you, your colleagues and your families for 2005.


Kay Raseroka
IFLA President

Alex Byrne
President-elect