National Library at the IFLA Conference

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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) held its 78th General Conference and Assembly on 11-17 August 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. With about 4,000 participants, this conference was one of the largest IFLA conferences ever.

Abstracts of the regular tracks are available through the programme at the conference website. In addition, I would like to draw attention to the presentations held by a diverse group of representatives at the Exhibition area: http://www.libraries.fi/finnishlibraryworld/presentations/. They cover too many subjects to be summarized here, so please browse the list. Presentations on services of the National Library are also included.

On Friday, we gave short presentations to the visitors at the National Library of Finland. They may be found here:

Also Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen’s presentation on titled “National Library of Finland – Developing National Infrastructures” (http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe201208086283) is worth recommending for those who are interested in the roles and tasks of the National Library.
And yet a couple of pointers to the National Digital Library: the project has had a number of documents translated into English, including
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For us, as hosts, participants, and volunteers, the IFLA Conference was a wonderful experience in many ways. Naturally there was a lot of professionally interesting topics and discussions. What really made the conference special, however, was to see the wide spectrum of topics, challenges, points of view, and conditions, that libraries and librarians face globally – and to see, how we still can gather together around common aims.
And last but not least: despite of (to some) chilly weather, occasional mishaps, and long days in the depths of the conference venue, I only met happy and friendly people. It was the greatest reward by far!
esa-pekka.keskitalo(AT)helsinki.fi