Sunday, August 14, 2011

The very busy and productive IFLA Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations met on Saturday, 13 August, from 9:30 to 3 at the Casa de Espana, an off site location. One of the successes of the Section is the development of the Multicultural Manifesto, now officially the IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto. Now available in 18 languages, the Manifesto text is available online on the Section website on ifla.org. On the website you'll also find the Section's award winning newsletter, strategic plan, and other publications. Other agenda items included discussion of IFLA President-Elect Ingrid Parent’s planned president’s meeting that will take place in Vancouver, BC from 12-14 April 2012. The theme of the meeting is Indigenous Knowledges: Local Opportunities and Global Contexts and several members of the section are working with Ms. Parent as members of her planning committee. Other business items included forming small groups to staff the Section’s poster session, to investigate a 2012 satellite meeting, review of the section’s communication plan. As Convener of the IFLA Special Interest Group on Indigenous Matters, I gave an update on the SIG activities including promotion of the SIG and progress on an ongoing publication on case studies of indigenous library services and protocols.  The Section’s mid-year meeting will take place in Egypt in early March 2012. The Section thanked outgoing members including outgoing Chair Mijin Kim and Secretary Susana Alegre and welcomed new members and officers, including a new newsletter editor. A call will soon go out to recruit someone to assist the newsletter editor by creating a template for submitting content. Section members will gather throughout the IFLA conference to attend programs and to meet socially at a group dinner on Monday night.

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