Librarians and Librarians:
Making a Difference
in the Knowledge Age
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Librarians and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age |
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ALISE plays an active role as a member of the National Organizing Committee for the IFLA 2001 conference in Boston. The Boston conference is sponsored by five of the six U.S. Association members of IFLA. In addition to ALISE, these are
Evelyn Daniel (North Carolina-Chapel Hill) chairs the program sub-committee. General programming for the Conference is done by the various IFLA Divisions, Sections, Roundtables, Discussion Groups, and the IFLA Professional Board. The U.S. National Organizing Committee (NOC) is responsible for the plenary speaker, opening session speakers, and all social and cultural events. The NOC also assists IFLA in finding speakers from the United States for programs through its sub-committee on program.
- the American Association of Law Libraries
- the American Library Association
- the Association of Research Libraries
- the Medical Libraries Association
- the Special Libraries Association).
If you are interested in participating in a program, please contact Evelyn Daniel. Further information on program participation may be found on the IFLA site in the IFLA Officers Handbook under Programmatic Concerns. A short summary appears below.
IFLA Conference Program Participation Possibilities. The IFLA conference includes five kinds of professional meetings organized by its divisions, sections, and round tables. These five types are:
These meetings may be sponsored by one or more IFLA groups. The IFLA Core Programmes may also be a co-sponsor of a meeting.
- Open Forums
- Workshops
- Poster Sessions
- Discussion Groups
- Satellite Meetings
Open Forums. Forum slots usually occur on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of the conference week. For these fora, speakers are invited by a section to prepare a paper in advance and deliver it to an audience. Papers are provided in all five official languages of IFLA (each section has the responsibility of getting papers translated); for some sessions simultaneous translation is available. In any event speakers must speak slowly and enunciate clearly for those whose first language is not that of the speaker.
An open forum is typically topical in nature and relates to the theme of the conference with the special emphasis that a section seeks to give it. The time slot for a forum is typically two hours with 3-4 papers or a panel discussion. Session planners draw on the suggestions of the sponsoring group for speakers. Rarely is financial assistance offered to session speakers.
Workshops. Workshops are typically sheduled on Thursdays during the conference week and may be either one day or a half day in duration. Workshops are generally limited to 50 participants and often presented off-site. The purpose of a workshop is for exchange of ideas and thus the emphasis is on short speeches or panel presentations and a lot of dialogue.
Poster Sessions. Typically around 20 posters are displayed in an area where a lot of traffic is expected. Poster programs are presented twice in two hour intervals typically on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the conference week from 12 to 2. POster sessions combine content and appearance. A presenter for a poster session should be informal perhaps with handouts tightly coupled to graphical elements in the poster display itself.
Discussion Groups. These are groups coalescing around a particular topic and established on a two-year renewal basis. These are very informal with no designated speakers or published programs.
Satellite Meetings. Satellite meetings are pre- or post-conferences that need a longer time than one day. They typically last two to five days and allow expanded coverage of a particular theme or a training course. They are held either directly before or immediately after the IFLA Conference either in the same city or in another city in the same or a neighboring country. They may be listed in the Conference Program. All expenses must be met by the organizers, although sponsors may be sought and fees may be charged. Efforts should be made to have papers translated into the IFLA languages.
"Satellite meetings are the full responsibility of the sponsoring Division(s), Section(s), Round Table(s) or Core Programme(s) to organize and finance. All proposals for pre- and post-conference satellite meetings must be submitted to and approved by the Professional Board at least one year in advance."
For further information on programming and participation, please contact Evelyn Daniel
Page revised 4/9/2000.
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