IFLA 2009 in Milan: impressions part 2

On Tuesday,  I attended the Social computing tools for learning and knowledge sharing
session of my own section in cooperation with the  Library and Research Services for Parliaments and Information Technology.  A very inspiring presentation was given by Madeleine Lefebreve (Ryerson University) about the use of mobile services for building community & collaboration with students.  Another approach was offered by Moira Fraser from the New Zealand Parliament who, instead of focusing on the tools, focused on engaging communities and knowledge-sharing between the people in her organisation. The ‘participatory library’ she called it. Before lunch I spoke on the use of social tools in the Public library of Vlissingen in order to improve customer service. I thereby focused on the combination of our internal wiki (internal dimension of social KM) with Question Manager, a new tool that makes the process of dealing with reference questions more transparent and which is based on the vision of making the best use of the knowledge librarians have (the external dimension of social KM).  We have now developed the tool and we will start testing it in September not only within our library, but together with partners like the Naturalis museum in Leiden.

After attending my own section’s meeting in the afternoon, I was asked to give a short presentation for a group of American students from Rutgers University who were at IFLA for their course on ‘International Librarianship’.  After my short talk, they had the opportunity to ask questions about librianship in the Netherlands and about knowledge management in my own library. What really struck me was the enthousiasm of these students and their eagerness to learn.  Tuesday night ended with a ‘social evening’, organized by IFLA.  What I enjoyed the most was the impressive concert in Milan’s Duomo and the beautiful exhibitions in the Palazzo Reale.

On Wednesday there was the Panel Discussion based on the outcomes of the off-site workshop held on Tuesday 25 August at the University of Milan, Digital Library Futures: user perspective and institutional strategies.Despite the fact that almost all sessions during the conference contained some web2.0-initiatieves and ideas, there was also a dedicated session of the special interest group Libraries and the Web 2.0. This could have been an interesting session, but it was poorly organized. Moreover, the room was too small and the discussion offered little added value for the many librarians with different levels and expectations towards the session. A missed opportunity, since the topic offers a lot of opportunities for librarians to have a good discussion. Despite this bad session, I had an interesting talk with Gillian Hanlon from the Scottisch SLAINTE. She told me that her organisation will draw up some guidelines for librarians who want to web2.0. They will be online around the end of September.

Another interesting session on Thursday was organised by the Reference and Information Services section:
The pro-active librarian: the how and why. Yoo-Seong Song (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA) (Designing library services based on user needs: new opportunities to re-position the library) talked about how reference librarians in his university were ‘forced’ to reinvent themselves into career counselors due to the changing needs of students.

To conclude my summary of IFLA’ s annual congress, I want to focus on the question why you should go to IFLA?

I hear a lot of people saying that it is not worth going to IFLA’s yearly conference for the following reasons:
-    The content is too academic
-    You do not have the opportunity to talk to presenters/authors
-    There are very few innovative examples of library work
-    It is too expensive
-    We read everything on the internet or on blogs
-    Etc..

I do not agree on some points. I do admit it is quite expensive to participate, but I do not agree with the other arguments. First of all, I think as a librarian it is your duty to stay open to what is happening in the universal library field. How can you provide local services without understanding the broader context of librarianship and of the way communities evolve?  Secondly, IFLA does not only focus on innovation, but on aspects of the information society and librarianship to concerns us all.  A good example is their advocacy work for more flexible copyright conditions for libraries (in the context of digitization) etc.. The main reason why I attend the conference is of course the people. As a participant you get ample ‘social and professional opportunities to meet colleagues from all over the world! Of courses, you can also meet them online, but face to face sharing offers so much added value to me!
If you really want to be involved in IFLA (like me), you can become a member (or your institution can) and get yourself engaged in one the many sections. In this way, you – as a librarian – can really make a difference. Moreover, being engaged offers so many opportunities for meeting like-minded colleagues and it is very rewarding. The way I see it, being an IFLA-member is a mission. It is a chance to make a difference in librarianship on a global scale. So… will I see you next year in Gothenborg?

For more information on the KM section, please take a look at the IFLA-website or contact me.