Closing ceremony IFLA 2010

The ceremony began with awarding Claudia Lux, former President of IFLA, as an honorary fellow of IFLA. Her first IFLA conference was in 1987 and in 2010 she was blogging and on Twitter, making her point that IFLA has changed dramatically. She said she was able to achieve all that she did, “with a little help of my friends…with a lot of help of my friends.”

The next award was given to INIST, L’Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique for it’s significant contribution to IFLA as the worldwide host for the IFLA website from 2002 to 2009. 

The next award was given to Elizabet Ramos de Carvalho for her significant contribution to IFLA as the regional manager and in promoting the Latin American and Caribbean region. She says she shares the metal with her friends and colleagues from Latin America and the Caribbean.

IFLA also thanked the Swedish library association for hosting IFLA 2010 and in doing it so well with only one year’s notice.

Patrice Landry, chair of Professional Committee, gave the Newsletter of the Year award to Library Services for Multicultural Populations. He also awarded the best IFLA poster session for 2010 to African Water Information and Documentation System (African WIS) by Kabou Kamboukadio from Burkina Faso. 

Then, a video from http://www.meetpuertorico.com on Puerto Rico was shown to illustrate what future conference attendees have in store for them. The Puerto Rico Natioinal Committee chair then formally invited people to attend the 77th IFLA Congress from August 13-18, 2011. “We share your dreams and your expectations…to join efforts to better serve all.” Treats were then passed out so we could get a taste for Puerto Rico.

This was followed by Ingrid Parent, IFLA President-elect, speaking in Swedish and then thanking the Swedish National Committee in English for their amazing work hosting the IFLA Conference this year. Additional thanks go out to the sponsors, the exhibitors, the communication team, the interpreters, the staff, and many many others including the delegates. The ceremony then showed a photo slideshow of the conference and a video about “the hero” with closing words from Agneta Olsson, the chair of the Swedish National Committee. 

We spent the week in Gothenburg immersed in information, cultural activities, and Swedish hospitality. To the city of Gothenburg, to IFLA, to all those who volunteered, thank you for an amazing, unforgettable week! You have welcomed us, you have impressed us, you have inspired us.    
     

E-learning SIG

Barbara Sen, Information School, University of Sheffield, UK
There are many positive benefits to using e-portfolios.  The University of Sheffield encourages reflective journal writing with their MA library students. They call their e-portfolio “The Secret Diary of Librarian Mole: My Online Learning Environment.” These entries build to an e-portfolio and are supposed to launch them into their first professional publications. Within their 30 credit Management module, the Reflective management journal = 30% of module grade. They use both formative and summative assessments. Reflections are not just “all about me;” it is about being yourself in a wider context. Through the experience, students felt empowered. The e-portfolio allows for supporting evidence to be attached. Flexibility is another benefit since  remote access is possible. Also, it enables instructors to get to know their students quickly and to give prompt feedback. It also reduces administration.  

Bob Pymm, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia
The ideas of doing practical work experience as part of academic study. This is common in many professions such as in the field of medicine. It links classroom learning with the work place. It also is seen as valuable in obtaining employment. It has been identified as one of the 12 core topics in a joint European LIS curriculum.  Students often provide new ideas and perspectives to the library they are placed in and hopefully contribute positively to their work place. Experiential learning is a valuable part of the curriculum. Within the practicum, students are supposed to keep a reflective diary and thus thinking about their experience. It is used as a basis for assessment and understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a placement
It is a means for marketing self. 

Primoz Juznic, Department of Library Science and Book Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Comparison between LIS departments at  University of Ljubljana and Charles Sturt University. The took 35 students from each university to complete surveys reflecting on their practicum experience. Over 90% of Australians and 83% of Slovenian students thought it was worthwhile. 46% of Slovenian students wanted a longer practicum experience while only 8% of Australians felt that three weeks was too short. All the Slovenian diaries are put on the web and shared with their practicum placements, but this is not the case in Australia. Generally, the students had similar experiences. They agree that this is a very important experience for their future careers.  Juznic stated that he was surprised that there was not much published on practicums when the students wee looking at their literature reviews. He said that this was a great opportunity to strengthen and encourage more of this. 

Corrinne Hills (DRUG ARM Australasia Library, Brisbane, QLD, Australia), Rebecca Randle and Joanne Beazley (Logan City Council Libraries, Logan, QLD, Australia)
How do you state on top of your game after you graduate? Professional development is the answer. In February 2009, a pilot study called Pebble Pad was launched for e-portfolios in both education and career development. Randle showed a few screen shots from her e-folio and highlighted the many advantages of using an e-folio. They are fast, flexible, and information can be updated automatically. It can support mobile learning. It is a personal learning system that provides an innovative platform to display your learning and prove the practical skills you have to future employers. They are a valuable resource. Transferrable skills is important don’t have a lot of library experience. E-portfolios can demonstrate this.  

Libraries Promoting Reading in a multicultural, multilingual society

Maija Berndtson, from the Helsinki City Library, Helsinki, Finland, discusses her paper entitled “Libraries promoting multimodal literacy in an intercultural society.” She states, “We are empowering people. We need to focus on our customers, our users, our citizens–more perhaps than our institutions.” She poses a few interesting questions: What does it mean to be literate in a digital world? Do we live up to the manifesto, to UNESCO’s goals? When we are doing our everyday work, we often forget these things. Which direction should we go? 

She states that Libraries need to support the official country’s language and culture, as well as encourage other cultures within it.  For example, she was very proud of the language cafe where people came together to learn Finnish together. While they learn Finnish, they learn about each other and the cultures they come from. “How are libraries going to meet the challenges of the future?” she asks. “i don’t know how open we are.” She calls for communities to integrate and not separate. She defines the difference between multicultural and intercultural. Intercultural is a process and we really have the possibility to be an intercultural meeting place. Reading and literacy is basic in every country. Every one of us should start every day with a mantra, “I am doing powerful work because I am empowering people.”

Ray Dioron, faculty of education, University of PEI, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Marlene Asselin, faculty of education, University of British Columbia present their paper “Building a culture for reading in a multicultural, multilingual world.” Their goal is to show the link between literacy and libraries.  

Ruth Fassbind-Eigenheer, from Bibliomedia Schweiz, Solothurn, Switzerland, presents her paper “Intercultural library networking in Switzerland: Sharing materials and knowledge. First, libraries need materials and materials for reading promotion. Second, they need knowledge about multicultural populations. Bibliomedia Schweiz has both.       

Jamie Campbell Naidoo from the University of Alabama, presented his and his collegues’ paper “Celebrating culture: reading and family literacy @ the library with the Latino Reading and Literacy Programs “El dia de Los ninos/el dia de los libros (dia)” and “noche de cuentos.” all the authors are members of Reforma.

Briony Birdi from the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, presents her paper ‘We are here because you were there’: minority ethic genre fiction in UK public libraries. She starts by discussing the perceived separation between British Muslims and white citizens. She focuses on minority ethnic fiction in UK libraries. 

“Come to your library”: BLA project for promotion of reading in West Bengal, India, presented by Ratna Bandyopadhyay from the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bangal, India. The impact of her programs includes 15% increase of new members in 6 months and a regular attendance increase of 17%. Teachers and students took part in these library programs as well. They plan to extend this work in phases to all other public libraries. 

“Reading–what to purchase, and why?” presented by Ingrid Atlestam from Kultur I Vast Refionbiblioteket/the Vastra Gotalund Regional Library, Goteborg, Sweden, and Randi Myhre from Immigrant-institutet/The Immigrant Institute, Boras, Sweden) 
1/4 of people in Gothenburg were born outside of Gothenburg.  

1. Easy access to reading materials. Often, visitors will not ask for help or request books from other libraries. It makes it that much more important that the appropriate books are on the shelves. 
2. Immigrants among library staff
3. Purchase of second language learning media is top priority
4. Supply newspapers and magazines in different la gauges for newcomers
5. It is important to purchase literature from mother tongue
6. Non fiction in different languages is important for children, primers, schoolbooks
7. Non fiction for adults in different languages is requested
8. Leisure reading in mother tongue is mostly requested by well-established residents

The process:
A. Engage in dialogue with users
B. Two main patterns of library usage: well-established residents and newcomers. Prioritize newcomers’ needs of nonfiction.
C. Pedagogical task: show resources available online, improve marketing of educational service and activities
D. Collection management: examine how stocks in different languages used are used for evidence based decision making for new media purchases
E. Improve national/supranational support of library services for immigrants
         

FIRST TIMER´S SESSION

Dear All,

The first timer´s session we had yesterday was very great.

Young Librarians as well as library students are encouraged to join and participate actively in IFLA programmes. It is and, will forever continue to be very rewarding.

Start the preparation for 2010 IFLA right now!

Thank you for accepting my advice.

Ngozi b. ukachi

BSLA

Ellen Tise, IFLA President, announces the participating countries for the first year of Building Strong Libraries Associations (BSLA): Cameroon, Lebanon, Peru, Ukraine, Botswana, and Lithuania. These countries have committed to this two year program. It is a capacity building program designed to benefit associations, libraries, and their communities to provide better and more equitable services. Capacity building includes training, helping to create partnerships, and mentorships. Experts in library associations are partnered with each country project and library association.

Lost in translation?

My first experience with the translation system made me quite aware of how lucky I am to speak the language that so many people present in at this conference. It is not easy to listen to the translation when the speaker can also be heard. Also, if the speaker speaks quickly, you can hear the hurried tone of the translator as she tries to keep up, tries to find a place to breathe, tries to find the right word to use when all the while the speaker moves forward. She stumbles, she catches up, she backs up for a second. All of this I am aware of while the content of the speech only comes to me in waves.

On the other hand, the translation headphones were exceptionally helpful when listening to a speaker that is speaking in my own language. There is no static, no delay, and the speaker’s voice is that much clearer because all the normal background noise of people moving about is silenced. All I can here is the speaker. This makes me think I should always use the translation headphones even if I don’t need the speech to be translated.

The other strange thing that happened is at one point the translator started translating the speaker into a different language. I switched through all the channels to listen to the many different languages that was being translated in and eventually I returned to the English channel and by then it was working, but I missed the beginning of the presentation. Granted, it was probably only about a minute, but imagine how difficult it would be if these small glitches had to be dealt with for every speech, every seminar, every day. How would this experience effect my overall satisfaction of the conference? How would this experience effect how I saw myself; would I only see myself as other? How would this experience effect my ability to attend all the conference seminars when just one seminar with the translation system made me a little tired? These are just some of the questions that went through my head as I tried to pay attention to the speaker and if I’m thinking all these thought, how am I getting anything out of the speech at all? 

It made me realize firsthand how powerful language is and how it can be used to enhance the divide between people. If this one experience is this difficult, what makes me think people would be willing to patiently surf the web that is primarily in English if they don’t speak English? How can services be relevant to users if they don’t read or have some other barrier between them and the knowledge the library is storing? These are questions that are often posed, but I’m grateful for this experience because it shows me personally how language becomes economics, becomes quality of life, becomes one’s way of seeing truths in the world.