Annual library meeting brings nations together

Librarians are organized if they are anything. Not only do they organize books and other library materials, but they organize and work together to share ideas and get things done.

The North Suburban Library System where I work is a typical example of this organizational talent. NSLS is like a trade association for the libraries in the suburbs north and northwest of Chicago. On the state level there is the Illinois Library Association and on the national level there is the American Library Association. Internationally, there is the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions or IFLA.

Founded in Edinburgh, Scotland in l927, IFLA (www.ifla.org) now has 1,700 organizational members in 150 countries around the world. IFLA holds an annual meeting, or Congress as it is called, in a different country every year. It is a great honor for IFLA to meet in a given country. The librarians of a country must make a proposal to attract the Congress. It's a competitive process. This August, the 73rd Congress was held in Durban, South Africa.

I've attended about five or six IFLA Congresses in my years as a librarian, including one in Boston in 2001. It's a fascinating experience. First of all, the sessions are much more formal than one might find in the U.S. It has to be that way because all speakers' remarks are translated into several languages. As you enter the room where a session will be heard, you are offered a headset with controls so that you can dial the language of your choice if the speaker is not speaking a language you understand.

A highlight of all IFLA Congresses is the opening general session. This is the host country's opportunity to show off the country's culture and intellect. For example, when IFLA was in Boston, the cultural offerings were cloggers (Irish heritage) and a gospel church choir (African American heritage).

I wasn't able to attend this year's Congress in Durban, but my Illinois colleagues Alice Calabrese, director of the Metropolitan Library System based in Burr Ridge, and Jan Ison, director of the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, were in attendance and shared their observations with me.

"The highlight of the opening session was the talk by Justice Albie Sachs for the Constitutional Court of South Africa." Calabrese said. "We were privileged to hear someone who has risked so much for human rights," Ison continued. "Justice Sachs was imprisoned in South Africa for his beliefs and also lost an arm and eye to a bomb planted by South African agents when he was living in exile. Justice Sachs spoke about how books helped him emotionally while he was imprisoned in solidarity. The books were brought to him from a nearby library."

My colleagues also found what I have found every time I have attended an IFLA conference: around the world, rich or poor, libraries have the same issues. "For example," said Calabrese, "some of the issues we discussed with them relate to advocacy for library support, collection development and literacy issues. As a new democracy the freedom to read is very important to the South Africans."

Ison had the opportunity to tour libraries in the ZwaZulu-Natal Province because of a relationship the Lincoln Trail Libraries System has with the University of Illinois' Mortensen Center for International Librarianship. "It was a wonderful experience and the libraries were very busy community places," she said.

Hear my complete conversation with Calabrese and Ison on my podcast this week at www.sarahlong.org/podcast.