It is official, the IFLA Education and Training Section will revise these guidelines to include knowledge of indigenous ways. IFLA SIG Members: here's our big chance to start reviewing the guidelines and make suggestions in the content. The goal is to have the revision ready for approval at the 2012 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Helsinki.

http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/guidelines-for-professional-libraryinformation-educational-programs-2000

 

Chi megwitch, thank you very much, Education and Training Section! SIG members--let's get to work!

At the announcement of the Bill & Melinda Gates Access to Learning Award:
The recipient is the Arid Lands Information Network in east Africa! 

Thank you to the room of participants attending IFLA President-Elect, Ingrid Parent's Planning Session. Speakers provided examples of how libraries illustrate Ingrid's theme, "Libraries: A Force for Change." Sebastian Wilke, Convener of the New Professionals Special Interest Group, suggested that IFLA recruit and involve new professionals and connect them on a basic sense. His suggestions for doing so included: developing Web-based components to help new professionals get more involved in the IFLA network; improving on-site accessibility of conferences and events;  exploring future support, including mentoring programs such as “Adopt a Student.”

Richard Atuti, Director, Kenya National Library Service, provided an overview of plans, including the development of a national library, and other services within his country.

           
            Loida Garcia-Febo, Coordinator, New Americans Program, Queen’s Library, Jamaica, NY

gave examples of how her library saves lives. 47% of her library patrons are foreign born from 190 nations, speaking 160 languages. Examples of their services include an English for Your Health: a Health Literacy Curriculum for Beginning ESOL Learners. 

Anahera Morehu, Library Manager, Maori and Pasifika Services, U of Auckland, provided a summary of library services for Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. She asked:

How could you support the Education and Training section on providing a core element for professional development based on an indigenous knowledge paradigm?

How could IFLA support the IFLA Sig on Indigenous Matters to have the capability to become a Section?

Which recommendations from the IFLA SIG TF groups are you going to implement within your organization? When?

How could you integrate the understanding of indigenous knowledge paradigms within the information society? When?

Attendees then gathered in small groups to reflect on the theme, “Libraries: A Force for Change.” All attendees found the stories shared by the speakers inspiring and the theme resonated with their work—or their prospective work. There was a desire to document how libraries are forces for change through gathering stories or identifying metrics that libraries could use to document and assess their impact on communities. There was a desire to include newer members in the theme activities and to make sure that libraries are serving all of their communities, including those who are print disabled.  There was a desire to extend IFLA’s message within the organization and outside. In summary, the theme  can be expressed internally and externally, through soft messages and hard messages. As Anahera Morehu affirmed:  in bringing forth the IFLA President-Elect’s theme, “Libraries: A Force for Change,” “you need to be the force and that is where it starts.”

Come to the Library Services to Multicultural Populations Poster Session this week--session #80. Learn more about the IFLA/UNESCO Library Multicultural Manifesto and meet some of the talented Section members staffing the poster

See the call for IFLA President-Elect Ingrid Parent's President's Meeting, 12-14 April 2012: 

Indigenous Knowledges: Local Priorities, Global Contexts

IFLA Presidential Programme

Libraries - A Force for Change

Welcome to Vancouver, BC for the 2012 IFLA Presidential Programme Spring Meeting.

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.

 

Hola! I'm now at the 2011 World Library and Information Congress in Puerto Rico. Big tasks for tomorrow, Sat 13 Aug, include attending the Library Services to Multicultural Population Section's Standing Committee Meeting. We'll review minutes from the midyear meeting in Seville, announce meetings at this conference, discuss proposals for the 2012 midyear meeting and start plans for the section's program for the 2012 IFLA in Helsinki. I'll give an update on the IFLA SIG on Indigenous Matters. The US Caucus meets in the evening with reports and a reception.