IFLA Attracts over 4,000
to Glasgow Conference
“Computers seem as omniscient as the eye of God ever was,” said Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney in his keynote address to some 4,765 library and information professionals from 122 countries at the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Glasgow, Scotland, August 18–24.
Many of the 220 conference sessions grappled with the dilemmas and challenges created by computer omniscience, such as intellectual property rights, digital preservation, and open access to the Internet.
Presiding over the conference, IFLA President Christine Deschamps of France noted, “Few professions have managed to make the new technologies their own as we have, have managed to adapt so effectively, have made such good use of technical progress to create products, formats, and standards.”
In addition to the working sessions, IFLA 2002 offered attendees many tastes of the culture and customs of the host country, including a concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow and a reception at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh, followed by a full-scale military tattoo outside Edinburgh castle.
Founded in Edinburgh in 1927, IFLA returned this year to the United Kingdom for the first time since 1987 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. A full report on the conference is scheduled for the October issue of American Libraries.
Posted August 26, 2002.
|
