IFLA WLIC 2017, 19th – 25th of August 2017, Wroclaw
Hege Kristine Myhrebakken and Inger-Marit Østby
Recievers of this year’s travelling scholarship from the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees
This year two librarians from an average sized municipality in Norway were given the opportunity to participate on the World Library and Information Congress in Wroclaw, Poland. In fact, this was the 83rd congress uniting librarians from all across the world.
Quite a few reflections were made during these days. But first and foremost, let us make a brief presentation of ourselves, our place of work, what met us in Wroclaw and how come we spent a few days just trying to comprehend what we were actually part of.
Both Hege and Inger-Marit are rather new to the library field, and our educations do not consist of traditional library and information studies. Hege attended Creative Writing Studies and Inger-Marit is originally a teacher. Our main library tasks are therefore communicating literature and literacy, organizing events and various kinds of meetings, encouraging and enabling learning and knowledge, and finding new- /strengthening “old” ways of including all kinds of people in the library.
We are engaged in our local trade union, but also this engagement is quite new to us. Being able to join the Norwegian delegation from the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees, was therefore a brilliant way of getting to know both the international library field and having better knowledge of the perspectives of the trade union.
The very first day of our stay in Wroclaw we were able to observe the annual committee meetings for section for Library Services to Multicultural Populations and section for Library Services for Children and Young Adults. Knowing that similar business meetings were going on in approximately 46 other committees, sections and interest groups at the same time gave us an understanding of the fact that international library work is not only happening once every August. It is however an ongoing process throughout the year, with several meetings and continuous corresponding between the committee members.
Being part of both the Newcomer Session and Opening Session gave us further knowledge about being part of an enormous gathering, as more than 3000 librarians from all over the world attended a beautiful opening ceremony in Centennial Hall.
We were able to experience this year’s IFLA-congress alongside a genuinely including and committed delegation from the trade union. But why does the trade union even show an interest in libraries? How come trade unions and libraries are considered a good match in Norway? We were asked these questions as we participated in the presentation of our poster (and leaflet) during the congress poster presentation. Close to 200 posters from all parts of the world were presented at this two day session. Most posters contained inspirational and relevant messages, some even had constructive and adaptable ideas for an average Norwegian library, but most of all the poster presentation gave us a better view of the interaction between libraries and trade union. Knowledge is power and knowledge strengthens democracy, this we know. Libraries represent one of very few, if not the only, institution in which provides for equal distribution of knowledge for all. Libraries raise “the low threshold” as one of its core values, and stresses the importance of creating a meeting place and an arena for discussion, debates and dialogue. In short; libraries strengthen democracy! It is of the utmost importance to trade unions and the tripartite social cooperation that these values are being nourished and implemented in society. Democracy and equal opportunities are essential to the coordination between authorities, employees and employers. This means that trade unions and libraries are not only a good match, but in fact a natural match.
The Norwegian, or the Scandinavian, model is however unique, and many people were curious about our poster. “Solidarity” is not just one of the most frequently used terms in Norwegian trade union ideology, it was also one of the focus points for this year’s congress.
How can focus on international relations add value to local library work? Why should librarians in a small municipality in Østre Toten in Norway care about access to information in Uganda or library services to a multicultural society in Canada? Or even reading for women in India? Why do we need to know that standard library service is actually not for free in many European countries? Why is it of value to us to talk to, and even get to know, librarians in Austria, USA, South Africa or even Malaysia? Why should we reflect on the fact that some of the listed speakers at the congress were not politically allowed or economically able to join the congress?
If we as librarians are supposed to be advocates for core values such as freedom of speech, democracy, critical thinking and equal opportunities, we truly believe that being part of an international network is of key importance. We need to occasionally see the bigger picture and broaden our horizons. We need to know of examples where a free, democratic library service is not obligatory. We should be conscious of the fact that most libraries worldwide do not have the same economical possibilities as we do in Norway. Maybe the answer to challenges such as giving good library service to a multicultural population can be found in Canada. Perhaps advice on how to recruit and train volunteers is found in Austria. It is even possible that the expertise on how to best preserve cultural heritage and local history is found somewhere in Asia.
The Norwegian National Librarian, Aslak Sira Myhre, stated in his speech that the library is all about inter human relations, and that the library service needs to expand beyond its four library walls in order to develop. We are left with the feeling that this is exactly what IFLA WLIC 2017 was all about. During our stay in Wroclaw we witnessed genuine enthusiasm for library development, we were inspired by successful projects from all over the world, we got new perspectives and last, but definitely not the least; we met people we would never have met if it was not for the IFLA WLIC. In fact, we think got library friends for life…