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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 54| December 2001
67th IFLA Conference and General Council and 28th Conference of Directors of National Libraries
The 67th Conference and General Council of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) was held in Boston this year from 1625 August. The conference theme was Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age. Four staff from the National Library attended the conference: Jan Fullerton (Director-General), David Toll (Deputy Director-General), Pam Gatenby (Assistant Director-General, Collections Management) and Jasmine Cameron (Assistant Director-General, Executive and Coordination Support).
The Conference was the biggest on record, boasting 5300 attendees, some 2000 more than any previous IFLA Conference. It also hosted the largest number of exhibitors, the largest number of first-time attendees and the largest ever American delegation. The Hynes Convention Center, located in the city centre, provided an excellent venue for the many meetings, events and seminars held each day.
The Opening and Plenary Session on 20 August featured a keynote address from Jonathan Kozol, a well-known champion of education and equal access to information for Americas poor. He gave a stirring address in which he stressed the importance of libraries as providers of information to all.
On 21 and 22 August, a display of 68 poster sessions was held. David Toll assisted with the joint poster session The Renardus Project and the Australia Subject Gateways Forum: Collaboration between Subject Gateways in Europe and Australia. On 23 August Pam Gatenby spoke at a seminar hosted by the IFLA Section on National Libraries, National Libraries with Management and Marketing Workshop. The seminar covered several topics including how to raise the profile of national libraries and how to market the content of national libraries.
The 68th Conference and General Council of IFLA will be held in Glasgow from 1824 August 2002. The theme will be Libraries for Life: Democracy, Diversity, Delivery.
The Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) was held on 22 August at the Boston Public Library. This annual Conference is held traditionally on the Wednesday of the IFLA Conference week. As Chair of CDNL for this and the next three annual meetings, Jan Fullerton welcomed 80 participants to the 28th meeting of CDNL. Four presentations on programs of interest to national libraries were given in the morning: The European Library (TEL) Project by Lynne Brindley (Chief Executive, The British Library); the Development Program for National Libraries in Central America by Dr Francis Polo Sifontes (Director, Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala); The Slave Trade Archives Project by Mr Abdelaziz Abid (Information Society Division, UNESCO) and the PANDORA Archive by Pam Gatenby.
In the afternoon discussion concentrated on three topics nominated by
CDNL members: promotion of national libraries; performance management and
benchmarking for national libraries and digital issues including the role
of national libraries in collecting and preserving digital publications. A
new CDNL Committee on Digital Issues under the chairmanship of Dr Wim van
Drimmelen (General Director, Koninklijke Bibliotheek) was formed to
replace the CDNL Committees on Digital Preservation and Persistent
Identifiers. CDNL members also agreed to form an IFLA Core Programmes
Review Committee to look at the current focus of the IFLA Core Activities
Programme and to devise new avenues of support for the Core Programmes.
The Chair of this new Committee is Dr Chris Chia (Chief Executive,
National Library Board of Singapore).
Jasmine Cameron
Above, from left to right: Ms Angela Kinney, Director of National Services, Library of Congress; Ms Pam Gatenby, Assistant Director-General, Collections Management, NLA; Mr Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress at the IFLA Section on National Libraries seminar
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au