From August 19-25, 2017, the 83rd IFLA World Library – Information Congress has taken place in Wroclaw, Republic of Poland.
With the aim of achieving the global solidarity of the library sector worldwide to ensure the ability to make a difference in the people’s lives, enabling people to use knowledge to improve the society conditions, theme of the 83rd IFLA WLIC was selected: “Libraries. Solidarity. Society”. The Congress brings together over 3,100 library – information leaders and experts from more than 122 countries in the worlds.
Right after the Congress’s opening ceremony, over 240 scientific presentations, dozens of satellite conferences, seminars, open forums, panel discussions on current situation and future of the world library development have taken place. During the Congress, the Vietnamese delegation led by director of the National Library of Viet Nam has actively participated in such main sessions as:
- Attending the Conference of Directors of National Libraries all over the world (CDNL) to be held at Four Domes Pavilion Museum with participation of nearly 100 directors and high-level representatives of the national library worldwide. Under the theme “National Libraries connecting Continents and Communities”, participants have had the chance to follow up reports about activities of the National Libraries’ Section, listening to keynote speakers on such themes as: Cultural heritage linked data on the semantic web, tracing global information networks in historical newspaper repositories, new service solutions for national libraries, etc. The IFLA President and General Secretary have also had a special segment devoted IFLA’s Global Vision discussion. It was stated that national libraries have special responsibilities and are key institutions for effecting changes at a national level. The actions national libraries take, especially when acting in concert with each other, can ultimately have global reverberations. Taking leadership in national library-related campaigns is an important aspect of their ability to leverage, influence and advocate for the core values of the global library community. The conference has elected the CDNL Chair for the term 2018-2021, and Dr. Lily Knibberler – General Director of the National Library of Netherlands was elected the new Chair.
- Attending the IFLA President’s Section – A Call to actions, which shared insights on the challenges people are facing and explored the ways to turn these challenges into opportunities, called sharings point of views on developing the global library vision.
- Participating in the IFLA Global Vision Discussion: walking through reflections on highlights of the Global Vision regional kich-off workshops organized by IFLA between May and July 2017 in six regions: Africa, Asia and Oceania (including Vietnamese representatives), Europe, Middle East and North America, Latin America and the Caribean and North America; discussing about future of a united library field to cope with globalization, to build library core values, and to jointly develop a roadmap for the future of the world library sector.
- Participating in the UNESCO Open Session on Safeguarding the heritage for the future; the OCLC Symposium on Initiatives, Trends and new Researches of OCLC; Rountable discussion on the findings of the survey on National Library Fuctions conducted by IFLA National Information and Library Policy Special Interest Group since 2016; sessions about connecting users and libraries around the world, and the IFLA project Library map of the world.
On the sidelines of the Congress, the NLV delegation has also had effective meetings with such partners as: the National Library of France, Korea, Australia, Russia, the National Diet Library, American Library Association, OCLC…; visiting booths that introduce advanced library equipments and technologies at the congress exhibition hall to learn about new library development solutions.
At the Closing session, Ms. Glòria Pérez-Salmerón, theIFLA President term 2017-2019, has delivered a speech to officially accept the mission. The 84th IFLA World Library – Information Cngress (IFLA WLIC 2018) will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from August 24-30, 2018.
Photos of the Vietnamese delegation at the IFLA WLIC 2017:
Conference of Directors of National Libraries all over the world
Meeting with IFLA President Glòria Pérez-Salmerón term 2017 - 2019 and international colleagues
Explore and learn about advanced library equipment and technology
Congratulate Malaysian colleagues, host country of IFLA WLIC 2018
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News, photos: NLV