IFLA in Kilter

The lit-up computer screen is now our symbol of knowledge and power, “omnipresent and omniscient as the eye of almighty God in days gone by,” 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.

Playing with the conference theme, “Libraries for Life,” Heaney noted that “in the first place and in the last resort, libraries are for dear life also.” Both writers and librarians are “involved in a holding action,” he said, looking for ways to hang on to the world’s creative output. Heaney observed that librarians are having to reinvent themselves in ways that can scarcely be imagined.

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.”

Assessing the Information Age

In a talk titled “Flaming Intimacy: Information and Identity,” British Council board member Gerard Lemos observed that the Internet has fundamentally redrawn the way in which people can organize themselves, for both peaceful protest and terrorism. In depth and perception, however, technology has a long way to go in keeping up with human beings, he said. Ultimately, it “brings enormous potential to do good if people like you can help us to manage information in real time, across the whole system, and in a way that is practitioner-focused, not solely for the benefit of theoreticians.”

Talking about “indigenous knowledge” and “Western ways of knowing,” Martin Nakata of the University of South Australia’s Aboriginal Research Institute posited that the Internet has eliminated some barriers and has been embraced by many indigenous peoples. “The global push to describe and document indigenous knowledge is gaining momentum,” he said, “without any commensurate interest in the epistemological study of indigenous knowledge systems.”

To the delight of her IFLA audience, author Anne Fine built a convincing case for the preservation of some traditional library values in the face of technology. Calling herself “a library child,” she cautioned librarians against turning children into “mouse clickers” rather than readers. She urged librarians to stop selling off perfectly good books from library collections in the interests of space.

“The library is the last bastion of possibility,” Fine said, and “the sense of real welcome now extended to the child” is the most dramatic change in libraries she has seen in her lifetime. Children need librarians, especially in an information age, she said, because they do not have the skills “to distinguish between the sensible, the outlandish, and the simply mad.”

IFLA President-elect Kay Raseroka of Botswana held a brainstorming session to prepare for her presidency. “Bridging the digital divide is our major concern,” she told the U.S. caucus. Raseroka is the first IFLA president from a Third World country. Combined with changes in federation governance, her election is further evidence that IFLA, as Winston Tabb (one of five U.S members of IFLA’s newly streamlined Governing Board) said, is changing “from an opaque organization to a transparent one.”

Five-year IFLA Treasurer Derek Law of Scotland, outfitted in a kilt, said he had been boosting Glasgow for his entire term, and was pleased to report that “things are looking positive on most fronts,” especially corporate support. He joked that he had to be “very parsimonious, indeed very Scottish,” in his management of IFLA finances.

Displays of cultural prowess

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, sponsored by publishers John Wiley and Sons, a reception at the Glasgow Science Center with full hands-on access to the facility, and a reception at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh, followed by a full-scale military tattoo outside Edinburgh castle, where IFLA-goers joined throngs of Brits as kilted bagpipers and military units from around the world displayed their musical and marching skills.

Founded in Edinburgh in 1927, IFLA returned this year to the United Kingdom for the first time since 1987 to celebrate its 75th anniversary and produced a short history of the federation (written by Donald G. Davis of the University of Texas and Carol Henry, IFLA executive officer since 1979 who retired last November) for the registration packet. Deschamps even introduced a specially written “IFLA tune” at the first meeting of the council.

Belgian delegate Herman Liebaers, 1970–74 IFLA president and current honorary president, gave a history of the federation from his perspective. Focusing on the period of the Cold War, Liebaers noted how words like “democracy” and “capitalism” have been misconstrued. “I was only a capitalist in the U.S.S.R.,” he quipped. “At home, I was only a poorly paid civil servant.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea sent delegates—Chong Thae Gyong, deputy director of the Grand People’s Study House (national library) and Li Hyok Song, a staff member of the Korean Library Association—to IFLA for the first time in many years. Their presence typified some of the difficulties Americans face when navigating an international conference at a time of increased global tension. When they spoke to American Libraries, nervously and through an interpreter, the North Koreans seemed keenly aware that American President Bush had called them part of an “axis of evil,” and they invited AL editors to visit Korea and learn for themselves.

The events of September 11 lent a somber undertone to the conference, but many U.S. delegates sensed that other attendees avoided discussion of the issue. In one of the few public references to the terrorist attacks, IFLA Secretary General Ross Shimmon said it was “sobering” to note that “extraordinary events seem to follow the IFLA conference around the world.”

ALA President Maurice Freedman told the U.S. caucus that an ALA resolution recommending that “IFLA study the needs of Palestinian libraries and cultural institutions and establish a mechanism for providing assistance” had been sent to the IFLA Governing Board. Little was said about its fate in other major conference forums.

U.S. delegate Al Kagan presented a set of 13 recommendations from the IFLA Social Responsibilities Discussion Group at the second of two IFLA council meetings. Calling for the federation to set objectives with regard to rural library development, literacy, fee-free service, and other areas, the recommendations were accepted without fanfare.

U.S. delegate James Neal led off a session on copyright, one of IFLA’s core activity areas, focusing on the thorny issue of repatriation of library materials. Among his points: Probably all the libraries represented at the conference have cultural treasures; probably none have policies in place to deal with the issue of repatriation. Ekaterina Genieva of Russia noted that repatriation of stolen materials, though not always a legal requirement, is always a gesture of good will. Jesus Lau of Mexico raised touchy issues about library materials that have been taken from his country to South America.

Genieva also presented immediate past IFLA president Robert Wedgeworth with a medal commemorating the 1991 IFLA conference in Moscow, where delegates witnessed a coup d’etat (AL, Oct. 1991, p. 846+). The Russian delegation also presented a handmade book to the National Library of Scotland and a commemorative scroll signed by President Vladimir Putin to IFLA—all in remembrance of that fateful Moscow meeting.

Manifesto and Declaration

The IFLA council unanimously adopted an Internet Manifesto prepared by the Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) core program. Approved in March by the governing board and proclaimed in May, the manifesto states that “unhindered access to information is essential to freedom, equality, global understanding and peace” and calls for the removal of barriers to the flow of information, “especially those that promote inequality, poverty, and despair.”

The manifesto amounts to a political and social agenda for the federation, proclaiming that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression” and that “the global Internet enables individuals and communities throughout the world, whether in the smallest and most remote villages or the largest cities, to have equality of access to information for personal development, education, stimulation, cultural enrichment, economic activity, and informed participation in democracy.”

Dealing with the problem of offensive material on the Internet, the manifesto states that librarians should “promote and facilitate responsible access to quality networked information for all their users, including children and young people”—key words being “responsible” and “quality.”

The manifesto also includes a statement on libraries’“responsibility to serve all of the members of their communities, regardless of age, race, nationality, religion, culture, political affiliation, physical or other disabilities, gender or sexual orientation, or any other status.” It further states that “IFLA encourages all governments to support the unhindered flow in Internet accessible information via libraries and information services and to oppose any attempts to censor or inhibit access.”

Presented to IFLA Council by FAIFE chair Alex Byrne, the Glasgow Declaration on Libraries, Information Services, and Intellectual Freedom was adopted unanimously by the council. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of IFLA, the declaration proclaims the federation’s dedication to the intellectual freedoms expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

FAIFE also announced the release of the IFLA/FAIFE Summary Report 2002: Libraries, Conflicts and the Internet, an overview of the global situation relating to libraries and intellectual freedom and introducing the topic “libraries and conflicts,” which, sadly enough, has become more and more pressing for the international library community, noted Susanne Seidelin, director of the FAIFE office in Copenhagen.

School librarians were on the move at this IFLA conference. Not only did they build a model children’s library in the exhibit hall, they also issued The IFLA/UNESCO School Library Guidelines and published The School Library: Today and Tomorrow, a brochure in three languages—English, French, and Spanish. Their efforts celebrated the 25th anniversary of the IFLA Section of School Libraries and Resource Centres and drew attendees’ attention to the importance of school libraries around the world.

IFLA delegates also learned that because of changes in DANIDA, the Danish government granting agency, FAIFE and scholarship activities will be curtailed. At its peak, when IFLA met in Copenhagen in 1997, DANIDA offered 141 grants to librarians in developing nations (AL, Oct. 1997, p. 26–29).

IFLA’s Governing Board approved a “statement on libraries and sustainable development,” which states that “the international library community forms a network that connects developing and developed countries, supports the development of library and information services worldwide, and ensures these services respect equity, the general quality of life for all people, and the natural environment.” IFLA Secretary General Shimmon said the statement was released to coincide with the Johannesburg World Summit.

Another statement, on the preservation of digital information, was released by a steering committee of representatives of IFLA and the International Publishers Association. Titled “Preserving the Memory of the World in Perpetuity,” the statement contains principles and recommendations for libraries and publishers for preventing the further loss of digital materials.

Where Carnegie dwelt

Two busloads of IFLA-goers spent a day touring Dunfermline, birthplace of library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and home of the first Carnegie library.

American architect Jeffrey Scherer led a seminar on the use, reuse, and misuse of Carnegie buildings in the United States. His company, Meyer Scherer and Rockcastle, has been instrumental in the renovation and reengineering of several Carnegie libraries. “Politics are what form the basis of library buildings,” he said, adding that there is a resurgence of interest in the way concepts of what a library should look like and how it should function that were formed at the beginning of the last century.

Scherer said certain elements of the typical Carnegie building are proving superior to many of the innovations of the second half of the century, including the use of natural lighting, slanted surfaces for better reading, and collaborative seating for children.

Gloria Primm Brown, senior program officer for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, presented an overview of the organization’s recently reestablished library program. She said the corporation wants to establish a fund for the purchase of new materials for libraries. One of the major concerns of donors, she observed, is the fear that funding agencies will cut library budgets by the amount of grants a library receives, resulting in no net gain.

IFLA 2002 also marked the end of the Books for All program begun in 1973. The objective of raising $500,000 has been achieved, said project leader Lioba Bettem of Germany, and a “Fun Run” on August 18 raised an additional £300 (roughly $480). Best of all, she said, the program may close with a whopping $300,000 bequest from an unnamed donor. Lioba told AL she did not wish to jinx the donation by releasing the donor’s name until all the details were finalized. She emphasized that many children in African, Asian, and South American countries have learned to read with the help of Books for All.

The conference also featured a first-ever Mobile Meet, with bookmobiles from all over the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe, assembled for touring in the parking lot outside the conference center.

Gates million to Bogotá’s BibloRed

A growing number of awards are using IFLA as their venue. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation presented its third annual Access to Learning Award August 20 to BibloRed of Bogotá, Colombia.

An integrated network of public libraries, BibloRed over the last four years has built three libraries and upgraded 16 local libraries. The $1-million award is designed to boost an outstanding library organization outside the United States that provides feeless public access to information in innovative ways. The network was selected from 130 applications from 65 countries.

Interestingly, the award amount presented at the IFLA conference is larger than the federation’s entire annual budget. In Glasgow to accept the award at the historic Mitchell Library, Margarita Peña, secretary of education for the Bogotá district, called BibloRed an “agent of change” and said the award “will help us expand our efforts and create new opportunities that will improve the lives of many Colombians in the quest for a more equal society.”

“We hope that this remarkable project to improve public access to information in Colombia will serve as a model for other countries,” said Richard Akeroyd, director of international library initiatives for the foundation, which has given the international award to organizations in Finland, Guatemala, and Argentina, and is currently supporting other library initiatives in Canada, Mexico, and Chile.

The U.S. IFLA 2001 (AL, Oct. 2001, p. 34–38) national organizing committee announced the Fellowships for the Americas program to provide grants for librarians from North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean to attend the IFLA conference in Berlin next year and in Buenos Aires in 2004. Fifteen fellowships are expected to be offered for Berlin.

OCLC announced the 2003 Early Career Development Fellows: Selenay Aytac of Turkey, Anjali Gulati of India, Hyekyong Hwang of the Republic of Korea, Ibrahim Ramjaun of Mauritius, and Thi Nha Vu of Vietnam. The month-long fellowship, established in 1999, will offer participants an opportunity to train and observe at OCLC in Ohio and at selected North American libraries.

Thomson Gale launched its latest online resource, the Times Digital Archive 1785–1985, also at the Mitchell Library, in partnership with the Times of London. The archive offers “unprecedented access to one of the most respected resources for the study of 19th and 20th century history,” said Mark Holland, archive senior editor.

The Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, a unit of the National Center for Scientific Research in France, announced that it has taken over from the National Library of Canada as host of IFLANET, the federation’s Web site.

Closing remarks

The announcement that generally causes the most jubilation at IFLA conferences concerns the selection of a new site for a future conference. Competition has become intense. Four countries vied for the privilege of hosting the 2007 gathering, with Durban, South Africa, the winner. The South African contingent leaped to the stage at the closing session to sing their welcome in T-shirts reading, “Discover South Africa, Rediscover Yourself.”

In summarizing the conference for the closing session, Winston Tabb called it “a democratic, united community celebrating our diversity.” In the Scottish tradition, the crowd rose and joined hands to sing “Auld Lang Syne.”

The organizers announced that the high conference attendance in Glasgow will bring 160,000 Euros into the IFLA coffers, meaning the federation’s annual budget will finally top $1 million—news to warm the cockles of a parsimonious treasurer’s heart.

“Haste ye back!” called Derek Law, in his best Scottish brogue. For more on the IFLA conference, visit the IFLA Web site at www.ifla.org.

—Story and photos by Leonard Kniffel