Argentine novelist Tomás Eloy Martínez, currently director of Latin American studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, keynoted the conference at the historic Colón Theater with a stirring paean to books and libraries. “During my adolescence,” he said, “librarians seemed to me extensions of God, heirs of an inexhaustible knowledge.” IFLA President Kay Raseroka of Botswana struggled through her opening speech as the theater’s sound system repeatedly failed. Finally, she quipped, “For those of you in the First World, this is a shock, but in the Third World, this is what we live with and accept.” However, the bulk of the conference took place at the city’s new Hilton Hotel, which provided efficient facilities for meetings with simultaneous translation and exhibition space for some 120 publishers, associations, and other vendors.
Conference organizers Marta Díaz and Ana María Peruchena Zimmermann explained that the poor economic situation and the devaluation of the peso forced the local committee to take out loans and receive assistance from other national associations in order to meet financial obligations. IFLA headquarters staff said that the day before the opening session, Colón Theater workers demanded more money, and negotiations that went on through the night were at least partially responsible for the equipment breakdown, late start, and disorganized crowd control.
Nevertheless, the conference offered delegates ample tastes of the rich culture of Argentina, including library tours and a program at the Ópera Theater featuring the Nehuen folk ballet, the Página Mágica avant-garde circus, the Página choir, and a demonstration of the tango. Some 300 Americans attended the conference, delivering papers and participating in the over 200 programs, committee meetings, and working sessions offered at IFLA 2004, the first federation annual conference ever held in South America.
A full report on the conference is scheduled for the October issue of American Libraries.
Posted August 27, 2004.