ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 732 / C&RL News ■ October 1999 CONFERENCE CIRCUITLibraries as gateways to an enlightened world The 65th IFLA Conference by Hannelore B. Rader F rom A ugust 20-28, 1999, the In te rn a ­ tional F ederation o f Library Associations (IFLA) held its 65th conference in B angkok Thailand. Approximately 2,250 delegates from 117 countries atten d ed th e conference w ith th e them e “O n the Threshold o f th e 21st C en­ tury: L ibraries as G atew ay s to an E n lig h t­ e n e d W orld,” a n a p p ro p r ia te th e m e as w e e n te r th e n e x t m ille n n iu m a n d try h a rd to p re p a r e lib raries a n d p e o p le fo r th e in fo r­ m a tio n age. T he largest delegation (310 delegates) w as from th e U nited States an d th e seco n d largest gro u p (305 delegates) rep resen ted Thailand. More th an 100 exhibitors p resen ted various products a n d dem onstrations during several days o f th e conference. As w a s th e case last year, th e ALA b o o th w as m o st p o p u la r w ith c o n fe re n c e a tte n d e e s w h o s t o p p e d to pick u p lite ra tu re a b o u t o u r p ro fe ssio n a l o rg a ­ n iz a tio n s a n d to c h a t w ith ALA d ig n itaries. T he o p en in g cerem ony o f th e conference featured H er Royal H ighness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, w h o sp o k e a b o u t the im­ portance o f b ooks an d libraries in th e fight against illiteracy an d in preparing p e o p le for inform ation use in the 21st century. IFLA P resident Christine D escham ps re­ p o rted o n h e r challenges a n d activities dur­ ing th e first y ear in this im portant position. She outlined h e r priorities for th e organiza­ tion such as training, standardization, help for developing countries, an d support for free­ dom o f expression. T he last item has b een ad d ressed becau se IFLA will so o n b e a m em ­ b e r o f IFEX, th e International F reedom o f Ex­ pression Exchange. , OCLC a n d IFLA a n n o u n c e d th e IFLA/ OCLC Early Career D evelopm ent Fellowship, w hich will su p p o rt library an d inform ation science professionals from countries w ith d e ­ velo p in g eco n o m ies during th e early stages o f their career dev elo p m en t. U p to fo u r fel­ low ship recipients a y ear will travel to OCLC in O hio for fo u r w e e k s to participate in an intensive program o f lectures, sem inars, and m entoring. G uest lectures ad d ressed “R eaching th e information gateways: an unfinished task” and “T he dev elo p m en t o f hu m an rights/intellec- tual freedom in Asian perspectives w ith a par­ ticular em phasis o n cultural a n d ideological obstacles.” T he U ser E ducation R oundtable h eld a m eeting w ith the them e “Integrating Infor­ m ation Skills into a Changing Curriculum .” Speakers from Mexico, th e U nited States, the U nited Kingdom, an d Israel addressed th e them e in a variety o f ways. U n iv e rsity L ib ra rie s an d G e n e ral Re search L ib ra rie s IFLA’s Section fo r University Libraries an d G eneral Research Libraries, w ith a m em ber­ ship o f m ore th an 450 international m em ­ bers, sp o n so red th e follow ing programs: About the author Hannelore B. Rader is unive rsity lib ra ria n a t th e University o f Louisville, e-m ail: h.rader@ louisville.edu, a n d ALA/ACRL Representative to IFLA University a nd General Research Libraries Section mailto:h.rader@louisville.edu C&RL News ■ October 1999 / 733 • Perform ance m easurem ent in academ ic libraries. Discussions continued based on the publication M easuring Quality: In ternational G uidelines f o r P erform ance M easurem ent in A cadem ic Libraries, by Roswitha Poll an d Pe­ ter te Boekhorst, K. G. Saur, 1996. A num ber o f academ ic libraries aro u n d the w orld have u se d this w ork to begin m easuring their per­ formance. • Im plications o f the electronic in fo rm a ­ tion en viro n m en t f o r academ ic libraries, a n d in p a rtic u la r those in developing countries: A lternative structures f o r fin a n c in g a n d de­ livery o f services. Graham Bulpitt from the Learning Center at Sheffield Hallard University in th e U n ite d K in g d o m , a d ­ dressed new orga­ nizational an d f i ­ nancial models for academ ic libraries based o n the ex­ p e r i e n c e in th e U nited Kingdom. G unnar Sahlin fro m S to c k h o lm The Royal Grand Palace in U n iv e r s ity in cultu ra l visits fo r IFLA parti Stockholm , Swe­ den, discussed new organizational an d finan­ cial m odels for academ ic libraries in Scandi­ navian countries. Both speakers provided new ideas for academ ic libraries in developing countries. • Life-long learning in a n electronic envi­ ronm ent. Carolyn Argentati, from North Caro­ lina State University (NCSU), w ho addressed library-university p a rtn e rsh ip s in distance learning, discussed the leadership role taken by the NCSU libraries to create a learning and research center for th e digital age. This cen­ ter is com prised of faculty support areas such as intellectual property, scholarly com m uni­ cation, scanning and digitization, information technology for teaching, and space to develop instructional m ethods. Sabena R obertson from the University of Melbourne (UM) Library in Australia discussed how th e UM Library m eets th e challenges of providing information literacy in a netw orked environm ent. She described the “outplacing” o f a librarian in the context o f changing modes o f delivery of instructional programs. Such a librarian collaborated w ith academic staff and student support services to ensure that post­ graduate students learn how to effectively use information resources to help them m eet their lifelong learning needs. Christina Tovote from Malmo University in Sw eden talked ab o u t a n ew kind o f stu­ dent, o n e unfam iliar w ith university studies, an d h o w such a student can becom e infor­ m ation literate. She described the founding o f a n ew university to help educate people w h o are jobless an d immigrants an d prepare them for lifelong learning. D i s c u s s i o n s am ong the w ork­ s h o p a tt e n d e e s m ade it clear that m ost academ ic li­ b r a r ie s a r o u n d th e w o r ld fa c e sim ilar issues as p resen ted by the sp e a k e rs. T h ese issues include li­ brary support for d i s t a n c e a n d W eb-based e d u ­ catio n , b u ild in g Bangkok, one o f several cipants. partnerships w ith fa c u lty to in t e ­ grate inform ation skills into the curriculum, h o w to d o outcom e assessm ents, an d h o w to change education for librarianship to m ake it m ore realistic for the next century. The University an d G eneral Research Li­ braries Section addressed im portant issues currently o f concern to academ ic librarians w ithin th e international setting. Many o f the IFLA papers will be available o n th e IFLA site at http://w w w .ifla.org. S ig h t s e e in g in B a n g k o k In summary, the IFLA C onference presented m any program s o f interest to all types o f li­ brarians. A n u m b er o f cultural events sp o n ­ sored by the conference featured th e w o n ­ derful an d artistic Thai dancing an d music. Visits to som e of the 20 local universities were m ost educational. I w as fortunate to visit T ham m asat Uni­ versity, established in 1934, w ith an enroll­ m ent o f alm ost 26,000 students. It has a new (c o n tin u e d on pa g e 769) http://www.ifla.org 734 / C&RL News ■ October 1999 C&RL News ■ October 1999 / 769 useful in determ in­ ing w hether som e­ th in g h a s a lre a d y been invented and if o n e ’s idea is w orth pur­ suing. It is also useful in exploring inform a­ tion contained in patents relating to o n e ’s field o f endeavor. There are tw o sections of the U.S. Patent Database, although they cover the sam e patent information w ith com parable search options. T h e B ib lio g r a p h ic D a ta b a s e a t h t t p : / / 1 2 8 .1 0 9 .1 7 9 .2 3 / a c c e s s / s e a r c h - b o o l , html offers a rapid search o f patent front pages including all bibliographic data as well as an abstract and brief description o f the p atent’s contents. T he Full-Text D atabase section at h ttp :// 164.195.100.11/netahtm l/search-adv.htm of­ fers a m ore th orough search o f th e full text o f U.S. patents w ith all o f the text w ords in the paten t being searchable. It includes all b ib lio g ra p h ic d a ta as w ell, s u c h as th e in v e n t o r ’s n a m e , th e p a t e n t ’s title , th e assignee’s nam e, abstract, the full description of the invention, an d the claims. This data­ base also offers som e full-text im ages, al­ though I did no t find any patents w ith im­ ages available. The databases are easy to use w ith plenty o f b a c k g ro u n d inform ation a n d FAQs for p eo p le w h o are n ew to th e patenting p ro ­ cess. It is th e perfect place for prelim inary searches for inventors. However, the site does link to paten t law yers an d p aten t depository libraries for m ore in-depth assistance an d le­ gal inform ation.— G entry Holbert, University o f S o u th A la b a m a B io m e d ic a l L ib ra ry, gbolbert@ jaguarl. usouthal.edu P u b lis h e rs ’ C a t a lo g u e s H om e P age . Access: http://w w w .lights.com /publisher/. This site provides access points, organized by country, to publishers’ hom epages. For exam ple, clicking o n the hyperlink labeled “Russia” will take th e u ser to a list of publish­ ers b ased in Russia. D eveloped an d m aintained by Peter Scott o f N orthern Lights Internet Solutions, rep re­ sented publishers in each country are those that choose to participate in the directory and have registered. T hus in the exam ple o f Rus­ sian publishers, th e list (as of August 1999) held th e nam es o f 12 publishing com panies, a list that did not include the important presses operating out of Russian sc h o l­ arly academ ies. T he publishers of th e U nited States, Britain, an d the W estern E uropean countries are well represented. Because the links are maintained by the active cooperation o f the publishers, not all o f th e links are accurate. T h e s ite ’s in d e x o f c o u n trie s is o v e r­ w helm ed by the addition o f advertisem ents, w hich include three search engines sponsored by com m ercial vendors. T he graphical layout is visually noisy and a first-time user may over­ look the real value o f th e site. A link to this site is provided by th e invaluable Acqweb s i te ( h t t p : / / w w w . li b r a r y .V a n d e rb ilt, edu/law /acqs/acqs.htm l), w hich is a site w ith a b ro ad er com pass established for librarians w ith collection developm ent responsibilities. The strength o f the Publishers’ Catalogues Home Page is the organization o f publishers by country, giving access to catalogs o n an international level. The most significant limita­ tion of the site is in the w eak representation of academic presses in countries outside of the W e s te rn in d u s tr i a li z e d c o m m u n ity . — Sara Rutter, University o f Michigan, sara@ um ich.edu ■ ( “Libraries as gatew ays … c o n tin u e d fr o m p a g e 733) m ain library, w ith four levels underground an d three levels above ground. It w as inter­ esting to note that the Thai governm ent plans to free all universities o f state control within th e next five years. It w as also interesting to note that the library w as very heavily used, that it had very few com puters (although it has a new autom ated library system an d sev­ eral Internet connections), and that the elec­ tronic resources are still scarce. B angkok is an exciting an d interesting city w ith m ore than 10 million inhabitants. The traffic is a nightmare, but th e p eo p le seem to have ad ap ted to it. T he food is w onderfully delicious a n d th ere are m any restaurants. Shopping is plentiful an d bargaining is the acceptable w ay o f doing business. T he city is alive for 24 hours every day. It is a city of contrasts— beautiful flowers and palaces and enorm ous traffic jams and trem endous poverty. The m ost m em orable impression I have is that the people are very gracious, polite, patient, and highly likeable. ■ usouthal.edu http://www.lights.com/publisher/ umich.edu