On international duty

In The Hague last week for meetings of IFLA's Executive Committee and Governing Board.

I only got involved with IFLA - the International Federation of Library Authorities and Institutions - when I got the job at Ridgmount Street; until then, IFLA hadn't really been on my radar.  But if we believe that our profession is important in society, that professional association adds value, and that the information agenda is a global agenda - then we need IFLA.  Membership from around 150 countries can give a marvellous and mind-stretching cross-cultural mix to IFLA gatherings - most notably the annual World Library and Information Congress.  Programmes by over 50 different groups of volunteer activists contribute to a strong professional infrastructure and improved standards of professional service across the world.  Advocacy on a global level gets our profession on the agenda when dealing with the Big Issues of the information society - like intellectual freedom, intellectual property, and the digital divide.  IFLA does a great job - but there needs to be a stronger connection between IFLA and the daily working lives of individual library and information professionals.  I bet you didn't know, for example, that every member of CILIP is also a member of IFLA because, in IFLAland, CILIP is regarded as the national association for the UK.

In many ways IFLA internationally mirrors CILIP nationally in that both are generic member bodies seeking to cover the whole of the library and information domain.  Certainly, the topics under discussion at last week's EC and GB meetings (as we IFLA insiders say) could have come from the CILIP agenda - office reorganisation, financial stability, improvements in ICT, professional structures, advocacy opportunities, forthcoming conferences, changes in governance.  It's fascinating for  me, as CEO of a national professional body, to sit on the other side of the table as a Trustee of an international professional body.  Libraries, we say, are about learning throughout life.  Well, IFLA is certainly part of my continuing learning and personal professional development - both as a library and information professional and as your CILIP CEO.

If you want to know more about IFLA, go to http://www.ifla.org/, and keep an eye on the CILIP website in the New Year for ways in which CILIP can help you to get involved with the next IFLA World congress in Quebec City next August.