Pictures from Quebec

It's just taken me an hour to get from the conference session I was in back to my hotel room and this computer - a walk that, without pause, would take ten minutes. Why so long? Because no sooner has the walk started than it stops for a chat. Conversations in corridors and on the Convention Centre concourse are a key part of the IFLA experience - indeed an Indian colleague said to me yesterday that he comes to the IFLA Congress for the conversations not the formal sessions.

The picture of Claudia Lux, IFLA President, being serenaded by a man playing a saw with a bow (mentioned in my last blog posting) is today's front page news in IFLA Express, the daily newsletter published (in six languages) for delegates. I last saw Claudia at about midnight last night in the hotel bar. She'd been to six (yes, six) receptions in the course of the evening without anything to eat but it was too late to get any proper food in the bar - so the IFLA President was tucking in to an enormous bowl of crisps, acompanied by a glass of red wine. Truly (as I know from personal experience) leadership positions can sometimes be bad for your health!

Since my last posting I've been in three of the formal sessions of the Congress. Yesterday morning there was a thought-provoking and well attended discussion about barriers of access to government information jointly hosted by two of IFLA's Core Activities - FAIFE (Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression) anf CLM (Copyright and Legal Matters). Censorship, commodification, access to archived material, issues around FOI (Freedom of Information) and DP (Data Protection) legislation - all were covered in a wide ranging session expertly facilitated by FAIFE Chair (and CILIP Member) Paul Sturges. 

Some of these issues recurred in the session this morning hosted by IFLA President-Elect, Ellen Tise from South Africa - a brainstorming session giving delegates the oportunity to help Ellen develop the key themes she will promote during her Presidency. A fascinating round table discussion on the question "How can libraries/IFLA drive access to knowledge?"focussed on three responses: we can use our advocacy skills to improve the legal framework which constrains access to our resources; we can use our professional skills to mediate access to our resources; and we can use our marketing skills to attract and inspire users of our resources.

This focus on the value added by library and information practitioners links back to the third session I've attended - last night's showing of the film Hollywood Librarian. The film's creator, Ann Seidl, emphasised the importance of librarians not just of libraries - the need to promote not only the importance of our service but also the skills inherent in our practice - and Claudia Lux (before embarking on her tour of six receptions) spoke about the need to change the stereotypical picture of the librarian which exists in the minds of politicians, the media, and people in general.

My other appointment yesterday was with Maggie Haines, former CILIP President now resident back here in her native Canada - where, confusingly, everyone calls her "Margie" (with a long a and an r and a hard g ) rather than Maggie. We had lunch together and Maggie picked my brains about CILIP's Framework of Qualifications and Accreditation for a conference paper she's giving to Canadian colleagues in October. CILIP's FOQA is attracting worldwide interest and I sketched out for Maggie the developments likely to emerge from the current review (FOQA 2.0) and some thoughts about further developments beyond that review (FOQA 3.0).

But, as I implied at the start of this posting, there are two dimensions to an IFLA Congress: the pre-arranged sessions and meetings; and the chance conversations and reunions.  Like the conversation I had over breakfast with a Professor of Library Science from Canada about education and research in the library and information domain; and the conversation I had over a late-night glass of wine with a National Librarian from Africa about the importance of the human spirit. Or like the unexpected reunion I had with a group of colleagues from Norway  in a downtown pub a couple of evenings ago - which included a huge (and rather bristly) bear-hug from my old friend Frode Bakken.

The Bakken bear-hug made me think about the different ways we greet each other in different parts and cultures of the world - rather like the rehearsal of the Maori nose-pressing ceremony which I engaged in at the IFLA Congress a couple of years ago, in the lobby of a smart hotel in Seoul, much to the amusement of our Korean colleagues whose manners of greeting are rather less physical. Will it be a handshake or an air-kiss? Will it be just the first time of meeting or every time of meeting? If it's an air-kiss, then how many air-kisses will it be? And will the air-kiss be accompanied by some gentle back rubbing or arm patting? Over the years I've noticed a degree of grade inflation creeping into the greeting culture of international gatherings - some Dutch colleagues now go for three air-kisses (left, right, left) and even the Brits have started to pucker up...

So there we are - some "pictures" from yesterday and today in Quebec. Now I'm going to curl up with a French dictionary for a couple of hours (for reasons which will become apparent as the week proceeds) and then I'll take that long start-stop amble back into the Convention Centre again for some more preplanned meetings and unexpected conversations. See you later.