IFLA 2019 Congress Experience by IFLA WLIC 2019 Attendance Grant Winner

My first attendance at the IFLA World Library & Information Congress in Athens, Greece did not disappoint! I had the great opportunity to attend for the first time an IFLA Congress with generous sponsorship by Ex Libris and SAGE. I was advantaged to be selected as one of the attendance grant winners for IFLA ARL Attendance Grants for IFLA 2019 from Africa.

Pre-Conference Workshop

I arrived in Athens via Istanbul on the 21^st of August, 2019 to be part of pre-conference workshop organized by IFLA Journal Editorial Committee and the Social Science Libraries held at the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library, Piraeus, Greece, the pre-conference workshop was an eye-opener to the latest trends in social science research, thanks to the scholarship grants by the IFLA Journal Editorial Committee.

Main Conference

At the end of the pre-conference workshop on the 23^rd of August, along with other participants, I moved to the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre (MAICC) to pick the conference materials. MAICC offers the finest facilities, stunning aesthetics and cutting-edge technology. A landmark in the centre of Athens. I was not disappointed with what I have read about Athens around May 2019 when I was scheduling date for my visa interview; No doubt, Athens has been rising as Southern Europe’s most exciting city-break destination. The city’s appeal as a tourist destination is booming, thanks to infrastructure and cultural attractions, transportation network, green spaces, and the unification of the city’s main archaeological sites. I was privileged and excited to attend ARL meeting at the Athens College, where I was introduced as the Grant winner from Africa by the chair ARL standing committee; Mimi Calter.

The Opening Ceremony took place at the Lambrakis Hall on Sunday, 25 August. The event brought together over 3700 librarians and information professionals to discuss ideas relating to the Conference theme Libraries: dialogue for change. The second and third days of the Conference was an intensive and totally enlightening environment for me due to the large spectrum of topics discussed. Through the papers presented, I realized clearly that Libraries serve as open, free, democratic, inclusive and participatory meeting places. I had a chance to join interesting sessions where presenters talked about their publishing experience, open access initiatives, as well as measures to research evaluation. I also had a chance to talk to some of the technology vendors’ representatives exhibiting their products and services in the marketplace hall.

During the conference, I enjoyed learning about initiatives to drive change in international representation among scholars. I gained new knowledge by participating in sessions where topic experts presented their perspectives on Libraries: dialogue for change. I am grateful to have gained these perspectives.

Indeed the IFLA WLIC 2019 in Athens presents a great opportunity for my professional development and I am more than happy to be able to contribute to the discussions during the conference. The theme of the 2019 conference was Libraries: dialogue for change. As IFLA says, “Libraries serve as open, free, democratic, inclusive and participatory meeting places. I couldn’t agree more, and I dialogued extensively with new friends about the exciting future of libraries across the globe. The discussions that have the potential to define the future of our profession for years to come. Indeed, Athens inspires and seduces its visitors, leaving its mark on their hearts and minds. Surrounded by a lining of stunning seas and mountains, this travel-friendly city is filled with gems just waiting to be discovered. Ohhhhh I have to come back very soon!

I returned home very excited, awestruck by the excellent organization of the conference, and professionally richer by gaining plenty of new ideas to be shared among my colleagues back home in Nigeria. Thank you once again to IFLA ARL Standing Committee for offering me the funding: I am very grateful!

Adetomiwa  Basiru

Tekena Tamuno Library, Redeemer’s University, Ede Osun State, Nigeria.

tommybashy06@yahoo.com   adetomiwat@run.edu.ng

My experience in attending the 85th IFLA General Conference and Assembly held August 24-30, 2019 in Athens, Greece which had the theme, “Libraries: dialogue for change”, was fabulous as I had never had the opportunity to travel to Europe and much less to an IFLA congress. What I experienced during the days of the congress and in the city of Athens, set the tone to broaden my panorama and my vision of librarianship.

I am very enthusiastic about how much I learned and met people from different parts of the world, about sharing ideas and experiences from the different contexts in which we live within libraries in different regions of the world. Being my first Congress and being unfamiliar with the dynamics of it, I feel that I missed some important opportunities, but in general I bring to my country the enormous satisfaction of having seen and knowing that Latin America has much potential to participate with greater involvement in the tasks of librarianship worldwide in pursuit of the objectives of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

I never imagined being able to participate in an event of such magnitude, but thanks to the Academic and Research Libraries Section (ARL) with generous sponsorship by Ex Libris and SAGE, I was able to achieve it, definitely something changed in me and I feel renewed and with a lot of vitality to continue with my projects, right there I made friends with a Brazilian girl who contacted other Brazilian girls with whom I have given myself the task of collaborating in matters of penitentiary libraries.

As I mentioned in my letter of introduction, I have never liked to keep anything to myself and I have tried to share my experience with my colleagues, arguing that we have a great responsibility with our profession and with people, that it is time to get down to work. We usually think that everything is done and that a Latin American cannot do much, but the reality is that we have a lot to offer.

In short, something that surprised me was the ARL committee since all the members seem to me to be very united and excellent people committed to their work, personally I want to congratulate all of them because this noble action of providing this kind of support to young people has given me a lot of sense, I am an energetic librarian committed to providing my grain of sand to contribute to society and help people. In this sense I want to mention that the master’s thesis that I am about to finish has to do with the involvement of the librarian as an agent of social change seen from the perspective of human development. It has become much stronger and now I can see that indeed, this kind of opportunity can change one life and that life, perhaps, can change other lives.

The majesty of the acropolis made me reflect on knowledge and how it happens in different parts of the world. So in all these parts of the world there will be an urgent need for librarians to help manage and also to help build new knowledge.

I feel encouraged to participate more frequently in IFLA and would like to be part of some committee where I can do my best to continue to contribute to development in the library field where it reflects social change by reducing poverty, hunger and inequality, where there is better health and well-being, better education, and where there is peace and justice for all. I trust that I will do what I can from wherever I am and with whatever I have to raise the profession, evoking principles and values that will allow me to be constant in this fight to reduce social inequality, dignifying people.

Humberto Martínez Camacho, Mexico
IFLA ARL Grant Winner 2019