EDITORIAL Back To Our Roots Ross Shimmon the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ in the future. Diversity was ably during the opening ceremony, the tackled by another plenary speaker, IFLA is, as those of us involved in cutting of several cakes, and the Martin Nakata, whose ‘Indigenous its organization for 52 weeks a lecture of reminiscences by former Knowledge and the Cultural Inter- year know only two well, is much IFLA President Herman Liebaers), face: underlying issues at the inter- more than a conference. Neverthe- but also for a series of innovations section of knowledge and infor- less it is our flagship event. This and special features. The first of mation systems’ drew conclusions year the 68th IFLA conference was these was the Mobilemeet, which for the information profession of held in Glasgow, in order to cele- attracted 39 mobile libraries from the complexities arising from the brate, in the land of its birth, its Sweden, Holland, Ireland, England interface between the indigenous 75th anniversary. Everyone con- and Scotland. A Fun Run was held and academic domains. The texts cerned with the planning of this to raise funds for the IFLA/ of the papers by Seamus Heaney conference was determined that it UNESCO project ‘Books for All’. and Martin Nakata are reproduced would be a memorable occasion, The opening ceremony took place in this issue of IFLA Journal; the and so it proved. on Monday morning, closer than paper by Anne Fine will appear in usual to the beginning of the event. the next issue. More than 4,300 people attended. A piper, another characteristic fea- They came from 131 countries. ture of this year’s conference, then These and other features, such as Among them were over 1,000 first- led the participants into the exhi- the Mobilemeet, the very popular timers. As usual, the host country bition for coffee and traditional Model Children’s Library in the provided the largest number of Scottish shortbread. A poem ‘The exhibition, and the brainstorming participants with 1,443. But over Welcome’, reproduced in this is- session held by President-Elect, Kay 500 came from the USA, 158 from sue, was written for the occasion Raseroka (also reported in this is- the Russian Federation, 145 from by Edwin Morgan, Glasgow’s poet sue), as well as many of the open France, 140 from the Netherlands laureate. A very welcome special sessions and workshops, contrib- and over 100 from China. Clearly feature was the programme on the uted to what many people thought the IFLA conference is on some- final Friday morning, usually de- was a more coherent conference thing of a roll, with over 4,000 at- voted entirely to business meetings, experience this year. tending both last year’s conference with a series of presentations by in Boston and this year’s in Glas- authors and a challenging session If we are to cement the IFLA con- gow. I wonder how many will trav- facilitated by ERPANET. ference as the leading international el to Berlin next year? gathering of library and informa- Although every IFLA conference tion specialists, we will have to It is a challenge to organize an event has an official theme, the devolved continue to introduce new and in- of this size, with 220 meetings, way in which we build up the pro- teresting features – and to market 166 conference papers, 58 poster gramme means that there often the event as a ‘must attend’ profes- sessions and 25 workshops. It is appears to be little connection be- sional occasion. We can only do also a challenge for the participants tween the theme and the papers this if the professional content is to choose which sessions to attend, presented. This year we tried to re- topical, interesting and relevant to weaving a pattern made up of pro- late programme more directly to the participants’ working lives. We fessional sectoral interests, appeal- ‘Libraries for Life: Democracy, Di- need to have much earlier infor- ing speakers and topics, plenary versity, Delivery’, the chosen theme. mation on the professional content sessions, exhibition visits, network- Beginning with Nobel Prize winner so that we can promote the con- ing and, of course, the social and poet, Seamus Heaney, whose open- ference in a professional manner. cultural events. Librarians involved ing address, ‘Stiles and Stacks, Old We also have to take note of what in any way in the running of our and New’ focused on the true val- participants say about the confer- 45 professional units have an even ue of libraries, each of the plenary ence. A number of reflections are more difficult logistical task, fitting speakers reflected the main theme, reproduced in this special issue. the business meetings of the IFLA or its sub theme ‘Building on the For the last few years the Royal Divisions, Sections and Core Ac- Past, Investing in the Future’. The Danish School of Library and In- tivities in between the rest of the final plenary speaker, for example, formation Science, Copenhagen, events. was Anne Fine, the United King- has conducted an evaluation of the dom’s Children’s Laureate. Her ad- conference. Niels Ole Pors pres- IFLA 2002 was memorable, not on- dress ‘Losing Sight of the Library ents some of the main results of ly for the various ways of celebrat- Child’ discussed the importance of the evaluation of IFLA 2002, in his ing the anniversary, (for example, children as library users now and article ‘Perceptions of the Quality IFLA JOURNAL 28 (2002) 5/6 233 Ross Shimmon In the Next Issue other traditional component of the Naturally, the IFLA conference pro- conference recorded in this issue is gramme contains technical updates The next issue of IFLA Journal (Volume the ‘Report to the Conference’ by on professional practice. Prudence 29 (2003) No. 1) will contain more Glas- President Christine Deschamps, W. Dalrymple, in her ‘Impact of gow Conference papers, including: delivered during the opening cer- Medical Informatics on Librarian- emony. ship’ examines the potential effects Jon Bing. Depository, copyright and the of the growth of medical informat- notion of a “document”. Natalie Blanchard. Provocative Thoughts In this the final, double issue of ics on librarianship. Lois Mai of a New Generation of Librarians. IFLA Journal for 2002, the Editor Chan and Marcia Lei Zeng in their Laurel A. Clyde. Continuing Professional has sought to include some of the paper ‘Ensuring interoperability Education For The Information Society. best papers delivered at the confer- among subject Vocabularies and Mariétou Diongue Diop. Les politiques ence, representing the professional Knowledge Organization Schemes; nationales du livre : le cas du Sénégal. and geographical range of IFLA’s a methodological analysis’ survey Anne Fine. Losing Sight of the Library activities. He contacted the chairs the methods used in a series of Child. of the Coordinating Boards of each projects aimed at improving the im- Anne Goulding and Rachel Spacey. Wom- of the eight IFLA Divisions and proving the interoperability among en and the Information Society: barri- ers and participation. the chairs of the Advisory Boards subject vocabularies and knowl- Gunilla Jonsson. The Basis for a Record: of the Core Activities, asking them edge organization schemes. Legal in the light of Functional Require- to nominate the best papers for deposit of publications is a subject ments for Bibliographic Records. publication. In all, 47 papers were that engages those concerned with John E. Lauder. Partnerships in Preserva- recommended. The Editorial Com- the acquisition and preservation of tion: the experience of the NEWS- mittee considered them all and de- national collections. John Byford PLAN 2000 Project. cided to publish 20, some of which in his paper ‘Publishers and Legal Matthew Nickerson. Heritage through have been held over to a future is- Deposit Libraries in the United Oral History and Archival Images. sue. Kingdom since 1610: effective or Gloria María Rodríguez. Las bibliotecas de Comfenalco en Medellín y su com- not?’ combines an historical analy- promiso con la formación de lectores. Apart from those already men- sis with a consideration of possible tioned, we range from early library ways forward in the digital age. Please note that, starting with Volume 29, history, with John Crawford’s ‘The 2003, IFLA Journal will be published four Community Library in Scottish His- No IFLA conference in this era times a year; the total number of pages tory’ to modern concerns arising can, or should, avoid the digital di- will remain the same as in previous vol- from the merger of library services vide. Among the papers treating umes. in Australia in ‘Managing Cultural this topic, Denise Nicholson’s ‘The Change: the challenge of merging Information-Starved – is there any of the IFLA Conference in Glas- library services, curriculum devel- hope of reaching the ‘Information gow.’ Ruth Rikowski records her opment and academic professional Super Highway’?’ has been chosen views in ‘A First-Timer in Glasgow: development’ by Sue McKnight. for this issue. It highlights the prob- impressions of the IFLA Confer- The world suddenly became a more lems encountered by the informa- ence, 2002’. For the last four years dangerous place after the tragic tion-starved in sub-Saharan Africa the Danish government’s develop- events on the 11th September last in their quest for self-development. ment agency, DANIDA, has pro- year. Edward T. Hart in his paper Professional development is, natu- vided funds for up to 30 people ‘A Look at Changes in Government rally enough, a common concern from developing countries to at- Information Policies after Septem- at any general conference. Gwenda tend the IFLA conference. Several ber 11’ analyses the subsequent im- Thomas, in her article ‘Building of them record their experiences in pact on the availability of official Bridges: LIASA and leadership de- ‘DANIDA Grantees’ Impressions information.