From the Chief Executive's Desk

Au revoir, Quebec

2008-08-16T22:40:00Z

This will be my last blog post from Le Congres de l'IFLA en Quebec. I hope you've enjoyed the running commentary. Normal - more intermittent - service will be resumed from Ridgmount Street some time next week.

Yesterday (Friday) was the day after the Closing Session and most delegates switched from conference mode into travel and/or holiday mode. The various Standing Committees of IFLA met to plan their programmes of activities for the next twelve months and I had a lengthy meeting with the Working Group on the IFLA Statutes to consider IFLA's Rules of Procedure (equivalent to CILIP's General Regulations). But otherwise it was a day for relaxation.

So I began by watching TV over breakfast as the Canadian women tried to beat the US women in the Olympic football ("soccer" over here) quarter final. In England there's a saying: in international football twenty two men run around and the Germans win. In Canada there's a similar saying: twenty two women run around and the Americans win. And thus it was with a goal in extra time to give the US a 2-1 win and deny the Canadians their first Beijing medal.

The lack of medals was beginning to cause a high degree of national anxiety as Canadian athletes achieved their personal best only to be berated by the media for missing out on the podium places. Happily the medal duck has now been broken and the sun in shining again in Quebec and across the nation.

After the Rules of Procedure meeting I took a stroll along the Heights of Abraham - the parkland by the St Lawrence river where, in 1759, the Brits under General Wolfe scaled the cliffs and routed General Montcalm's French force thus winning Canade for le Royaume-Uni. I wonder if the 250th anniversary of Wolfe's victory will be celebrated next year with as much fervour as the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City is being celebrated this year?!

A good walk should always be followed by a good dinner and the Louis Hebert on Grande Allee Est certainly provided that with excellent Canadian red wine to drink and (veggies look away now) caribou to eat. They even stuck a sparkler in my dessert, having been tipped off by my companions that today (Saturday) is my birthday. Oh yes, the IFLA Congress always ages me...

Today (Saturday) only the final twenty five or so people involved with the IFLA Governing Board are left. During my first meeting here - way back on the 7th of August - the Convention Centre was filled with the Knights of Columbus; now it's filled with the Canadian Bar Association (lawyers, sadly, not bartenders) with the IFLA presence scaled down to just the one room for the IFLA GB meeting.

It was a good GB meeting, if a long one. We started at 9.00am and ended just after 5.00pm with a presentation to the retiring IFLA Secretary General Peter Lor. Some of the agenda felt rather like a meeting of the CILIP Council as we considered the IFLA finances (budget forecast to break even at year end) and membership fees (increased for 2009 in line with Dutch inflation at 1.9 per cent). Some agenda items marked key milestones in work I've been engaged in personally: the new capacity building focus of the FAIFE programme of activity was approved; work on an advocacy framework for IFLA was endorsed; a set of strategic priorities for the period 2009 to 2011 was agreed; and the revised Rules of Procedure were ratified. Some agenda items set the scene for future professional activity by IFLA as we considered the increasing convergence between libraries, archives and museums, discussed the barriers in accessing personally identifiable information in historical records, and recorded formally our approval of the IFLA Manifesto on Transparency, Good Governance, and Freedom from Corruption.

We also shared our reflections of the Quebec Congress, recognising that outcomes will be discussed more formally at the next GB meeting, in The Hague in December, when we'll have all the facts and figures. The Governor General of Canada (who spoke at the Opening Ceremony) has requested a report on the problems experienced with entry visas so some good may come of that. The message for 2009 in Milan and 2010 in Brisbane is clear, however: if you need a visa, apply early so that any problems can be addressed well before the Congress begins. Some delegates did not find everything to their liking and the list of criticisms - around accommodation, access to translation headsets, deficiencies in the Convention Centre's facilities, and the quality of the cultural events laid on - sounded very familiar to someone who's been involved in organising an IFLA Congress (Glasgow 2002) and several Umbrella conferences. You can't please all the people all the time and when you're trying to do your best for over 3,300 participants (the latest estimate of attendance here) from over 130 different nationalities some things will inevitably go awry. But the GB agreed that the professional content of the Congress had been of high quality, the networking and sense of communication across diverse languages had been outstanding, and the city of Quebec had been a great location. We left the GB meeting and walked across the road to the Hilton bar for a final drink together in very good spirits.

Now it's Saturday evening. I'll close dowm my computer, go for a stroll, get a bite to eat, and then pack my bags and get ready for the long journey home which begins tomorrow (Sunday) lunchtime. It's time to return to the real world and it'll feel good to be back home when I arrive on Monday morning. Au revoir, Quebec - et merci beaucoup.

Not quite the end

2008-08-15T01:40:00Z

Well (thank you for asking) this afternoon went well. In the Council meeting we approved the changes to the Statutes and left any tidying-up to the Secretary General. In the Closing Session we were invited to Milan for the IFLA Congress in 2009 and heard that the Congress in 2011 will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you want to know more about Milan 2009 the initial announcement is on the IFLA website, www.ifla.org . And all that work with the French dictionary paid off - as Christine Deschamps, former President of IFLA, said, I must have had a good French teacher in school!

Afterwards, over a glass (or two) of wine, IFLA President Claudia Lux and members of the IFLA Governing Board thanked the National Committee for their work in hosting such a successful Congress - and thanked IFLA Secretary General Peter Lor for all his work for IFLA. Peter retires from his post with IFLA on 5th September.

But before the thanks and the goodbyes there were lots of other moments to enjoy and think about since my last blog posting. Last night the Public Libraries Section of IFLA launched a new IFLA professional publication, Public libraries, archives and museums: trends in collaboration and cooperation, which linked very nicely with this morning's meeting between the IFLA Executive Committee and representatives from other major international organisations in cognate fields. The key theme to emerge was convergence - between IFLA and the Conference of Directors of National Libraries; and between the library domain and the scientific domain, the cultural domain, and the museums/archives domain. More work will be done on this as the key international agencies continue the dialogue - but, as Ian Wilson, National Librarian and Archivist of Canada, pointed out, many major institutions are well ahead of professional bodies in embracing convergence. We need to find a modern form of professionalism which will transcend the boundaries and barriers of traditional professional domains - and this something that CILIP is working on already. I'll be writing about it when I get back to Ridgmount Street next week.

What else? An excellent dinner for the FAIFE Committee and friends last night at the Paris Grill - on my table, we heard fascinating stories of archiving the Stasi regime in the former East Germany, and of the current situation with libraries in Cuba. And preparation for more work on the governance of IFLA with various Standing Committee meetings tomorrow and the Governing Board itself meeting on Saturday. Just as there was a round of governance meetings before the official opening of the Congress, so there is another round of governance meetings after the official closure of the Congress. I'll tell you more about the governance of IFLA in the next couple of days - but now I'm off to get a drink and to lap up the praise from all those people who never believed an Englishman could master the languages of mainland Europe. A bientot, mes amis!

Headlines from Quebec

2008-08-13T18:06:00Z

What a great headline on the sports section of today's Globe and Mail - "Sync and swim." The article is (of course) about the synchronised diving in Beijing. I really like daft wordplay (the dafter the better) so thanks to the subeditor who made me smile over breakfast.

My latest encounters on the concourse? With Ismael Abdullahi who did so much to help in the establishment of CILIP's Diversity Group and who has been chatting with Ayub Khan (also here) about ways in which ALA and CILIP might work together on issues around equality and diversity. And with Eric Davies and Kayla Tomlinson - both former CILIP Trustees - who've both been confined to their hotel with food poisoning for the past 36 hours. It's par for the course: both usually return from the IFLA Congress with tales of illness or injury!

Other headlines from Quebec? New professionals discuss how best to engage with professional associations like IFLA (or CILIP); Team CILIP presents an Honorary Fellowship; It looks like a smooth ride for IFLA's Council meeting tomorrow; and I've completed my work with that French dictionary.

I'm a strong supporter of the IFLA New Professionals Group which aspires to be for IFLA what CDG (formerly AAL) is for CILIP - a place where new professionals can find a home, take responsibility, develop their skills, and make a difference. The New Professionals' discussion session yesterday afternoon was lively and full of good advice for associations wanting to engage with the next generation - go where they are (like, online, using social media), listen to what they have to say (because they're our future), support and empower them (through role modelling and capacity building), and give them a space where they can be in charge (like CDG/AAL). My own contribution was to suggest that associations should "practice euthanasia" - put a time limit on all offices so that the oldies have to push off and the newbies have to step up.

One way to engage with new professionals is to get them involved when they're students. When I took a stroll round the Poster Session in the Exhibition Hall a couple of hours ago I noticed that IFLA's Section on Education and Training (SET) is launching the IFLA Library and Information Science Student Award, to be conferred for the first time at next year's Congress in Milan. The best paper by a student submitted for the Congress will give that student an opportunity (with funding) to attend the Congress and present the paper. An excellent opportunity - and one I'll be suggesting that CILIP promotes to LIS students in the UK. More information at http:/www.ifla.org/VII/s23/index.htm

Last night the Congress offered delegates a "Cocktail Reception and Fun Night" but instead Team CILIP headed off to the Pub Saint-Alexandre on rue St Jean to join the gathering of alumni and friends of the Dalhousie University School of Information Management. Why? Because last year CILIP awarded Fiona Black, Director of the School, an Honorary Fellowship in absentia and this was an opportunity to make the award in person. Fiona is from Scotland so colleagues from CILIP in Scotland - Elaine Fulton and Rhona Arthur - joined President Bruce Madge and myself to hand over the certificate of Honorary Fellowship which had, miraculously, survived the journey from Ridgmount Street to the rue St Jean (via Birmingham and Newark) unscathed in my suitcase.

The evening was also an opportunity to catch up with an old friend. Norman Horrocks is known around the world for his leadership and wisdom and generosity, bestowed on generations of librarians. A Manchester man (and keen supporter of Man U, but we'll forgive him that), Norman's career as an educator and mentor has taken him from the UK to Cyprus, Australia, and North America.He's been at Dalhousie since 1971 where he's currently Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Professor in Fiona's School of Information Management. Without a doubt, one of the Good Guys - and someone I'm pleased, proud and privileged to call my friend. In fact he phoned me while I've been writing this blog entry to suggest we meet up for a drink tomorrow - something I'll look forward to.

Today, my role here as a member of the IFLA Governing Board is coming back into focus as we move towards tomorrow's Council meeting and Closing Ceremony. The deadline for Council resolutions has passed without incident and the proposed revisions to the IFLA Statutes have received overwhelming approval in a postal ballot - so they should get a smooth passage through the Council meeting. At the Closing Ceremony I'm giving the Vote of Thanks and I decided some time ago to do so in French - hence that French dictionary. Many thanks to my CILIP staff colleague Heather Taylor who translated my original script into French, and to my IFLA Governing Board colleague Rejean Savard who has helped me to give the script a more Quebecois nuance. I finalised the script earlier today. Now all I've got to do is rehearse it and deliver it. I'll let you know how it goes.

So here I go, off across the concourse again to pick up a printout of my Discours de Remerciement at the IFLA Secretariat Office. Thank you to the correspondent who suggested I put a couple of sandwiches in my pocket to stave off hunger if my stroll across to the Convention Centre is slowed down by unexpected meetings. It's good to know that there are people out there who are actually reading this stuff.

Pictures from Quebec

2008-08-12T15:53:00Z

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.

Ceremony, culture, cuisine

2008-08-11T01:44:00Z

One of the pleasures of the IFLA Congress is experiencing something of the host community and today (Sunday) we experienced the culture and history of Quebec in the Opening Ceremony and the Cultural Evening.

There were longeurs and naff bits as there always are at such events. I could have done without the recurrent epic poem in the Opening Ceremony and the mock sword fight between Generals Wolfe and Montcalm in the Cultural Evening. But hey, one person's brainwave is another person's excuse to head for the bar (if only) and there were some absolutely terrific highlights in both events.

Two marvellous moments of ceremony highlighted the opening event as we welcomed Her Excellency Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, who spoke with real feeling about the importance of libraries; and as we witnessed Laval University present an Honorary Doctorate to Ismael Serageldine, Director of the Alexandria Library. Two marvellous moments of artistic virtuosity highlighted the evening event as Patrice Painchaud rocked the audience with his dexterity on the electric violin (and then serenaded IFLA President Claudia Lux by playing the theme from the movie Titanic on a saw!); and a brilliant duo from l'Ecole de Cirque de Quebec had us gasping at their grace and athleticism.

A francophone community will always be a good bet for good food,and Quebec (particularly Vieux-Quebec) does not disappoint. If you're heading this way, I can recommend l'Echaude on the rue du Sault-et-Matelot. In the interests of research for this blog I've tried the red wine (from Quebec) and the white wine (from the Okenagen) - and I'll be happy to continue my researches!

Strolling round Vieux-Quebec after dinner you can't miss The Image Mill, a vast audiovisual production projected against the giant grain silos of the Port of Quebec telling the story of Quebec in four movements corresponding to the four centuries of Quebec's history. It's easy to have a laugh at this (and we did: Stockhausen meets Pink Floyd with visuals by Monty Python was our verdict) but there's nothing of comparable artistic daring in, for example, Liverpool's Capital of Culture programme. Every evening at 10pm regardless of the weather and free of charge. Well done, Quebec!

Oh yes, the weather. Beaucoup de soleil, mes amis, all weekend. Truly, the sun does shine on IFLA.

A bientot.