ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


6 4 0  /  C&RL News

New Delhi, India, hosts librar­
ians from around the worldC onference 

C ircuit

B y Barbara J. Ford

The 1992 IFLA Conference

F rom  August 30 to Septem ber 5, 1992, the58th G eneral C onference o f the Interna­
tional Federation o f Library Associations

Institutions (IFLA) w as held in New Delhi, In­
dia. The them e of the conference w as “Library
and Information Policy Perspectives.’’ Approxi­
m ately 1,500 peo p le 
from 80 countries at­
te n d e d  th e  m eetin g  
including ab o u t 100 
d eleg a tes from  the 
U.S. a n d  a b o u t 500 
fro m  In d ia . R o b e rt 
W edgew orth, now  o f 
th e University of Illi­
nois at Urbana-Cham­

Attending the conference were (l to r): Robert
edgeworth, IFLA President; P. Mangla, Univ. 

f Delhi; U. Baxi, Univ. o f Delhi; and R. N. 
harma, Univ. o f Evansville.

paign, presided over W
the m eeting as IFLA o
President. S

The 100th anniver­
sary o f the birth o f S. R. Ranganathan (the fa­
ther of India’s library movem ent) was celebrated
an d  discussed during the IFLA program s an d  a
postage stam p in his honor w as released dur­
ing the opening cerem ony. The exhibits p ro ­
vided a good introduction to Indian libraries
an d  the opportunities they face. C onference
attendees w ere able to tour libraries at Delhi
University and Jam ia H am dard University.

Many program s w ere of special interest to
academic librarians including ones covering CD-
ROM, a d v a n c e s  w ith  ILL a u to m a tio n  a n d
interlibrary lending in India and the form er So
viet Union, Latin-American and C aribbean li
braries, the role o f national libraries in devel
o p in g  c o u n tr ie s , a n d  lib ra ry  s e r v ic e s  to
multicultural populations.

 

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O ne o f the m ost interesting meetings I at­
ten d ed  at the conference w as the program  on 
“W om en’s Status in Librarianship an d  Infor­
m ation N eeds o f W om en.” Speakers from the 
U nited Kingdom, the U.S., an d  India spoke on 
those topics; Indian w o m en  w ere especially 
vocal in discussing their program s an d  needs. 

nAd  proposal to  establish a w orking group on 
w o m en ’s issues in librarianship in IFLA w as 
developed. This group w ould prom ote research 
an d  the gathering o f information o n  the role 

and status o f w om en 
in libraries by orga­
nizing program s and 
providing a source of 
expertise on these is­
su es fo r IFLA. T he 
program  w as w ell at­
ten d ed  and w ell re­
ceived.

T h o se  fro m  th e  
 U.S. p resen tin g  p a ­

pers included: Thel­
m a  T a te  ( R u tg e r s  
University), Michele 

Cloonan (UCLA), Jay Lambrecht (University of 
Illinois at Chicago), D arlene W eingand (Uni­
versity o f W isconsin-Madison), Marilyn Miller 
(University of North Carolina at G reensboro), 
Suzine H ar Necolescu (M edgar Evars College), 
Barbara J. Ford (Virginia Com m onwealth Uni­
versity), Sharon H ogan (University of Illinois at 
Chicago), R. N. Sharma (University of Evans­
ville), M oham ed Aman (University o f W iscon­
sin ), J o s e p h in e  F an g  (S im m o n s C o lleg e), 
D onald Davis (University o f Texas at Austin), 
an d  Robert Holley (Wayne State University).

IFLA will m eet in Barcelona, Spain, in 1993; 
in H avana, Cuba, in 1994; a n d  in Istanbul, 
Turkey, in 1995. T he conferences are fascinat­
ing and provide a unique opportunity to learn 
about libraries around the w orld. ■

B a rb a ra  J. Ford is director o f  university library services a t Virginia C om m onw ealth University