Negin Shokrzadeh | [ IFLA’s 85th World Library and Information Congress was held in Athens, Greece, on August 24th-30th 2019. This event was attended by delegates and volunteers from various countries around the world.
Participating in the IFLA’s World Library and Information Congress has been grown in the last years. As six experts from National Library and Archive of Iran (NLAI), two researchers from Islamic Consultative Assembly’s library, an expert from Iran Public Libraries Foundation (IPLF), and an expert from Shahid Beheshti University Library participated in the IFLA’s annual congress.
Currently, some Iranian Experts have been appointed as members of different IFLA committees. Fatemeh Pazooki Has appointed been as a member of the Committee on Standards and Public Libraries Committee. Masoomeh Niknia has been appointed as a member of the Workgroup on Bibliographic Conceptual Models (BCM Review Group). Hamideh Memari and Parisa Pasyar have joint Serials and other Continuing Resources Section of IFLA. Saeedeh Akbari-Daryan was appointed as a member of UNIMARC Committee. Also, Farnaz Daneshjoo, MA student of Allameh Tabataba’i University, succeeded to gain the IFLA Conference Participation Grant and presented her article in this worldwide congress.
At the opening meeting of the Public Libraries Panel, which was held on August 24, Fatemeh Pazooki, Head of the International Relations Committee of ILISA, and member of IFLA’s Standards and Public Libraries Committee, presented an article entitled Public Libraries and Crisis Management in Iran.
In her presentation, Pazooki outlined the activities of Iran’s public libraries through recent calamities occurred in Iran including Kerman and Kermanshah earthquakes and the flood occurred during new solar year of 1398. Also, she presented a summary of the activities of Iranian public libraries through the “Bahare Mehrabani (Spring of Kindness)” campaign.
Eventually, the head of the International Relations Committee of the Library and Information Society of Iran said: “We believe that information centers (consisting of librarians, libraries and even library members) have to be active when crises occur. They are expected to be among the most active sectors of society, and to play an effective role, both before and after the crises.
On the sidelines of the 85th IFLA World Congress in Athens, the Iranian delegation met Ms. Gloria Pérez-Salmerón, the IFLA’s President. The participants discussed about the areas of cooperation with IFLA. The Iranian delegation appreciated the efforts of Ms. Gloria Pérez-Salmerón during her tenure as IFLA’ President. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Fariborz Khosravi, Director of ILISA, donated a gift to Ms. Pérez-Salmerón. Likewise, in a meeting with Ms. Jan Richards, the Chair of Public libraries Committee of IFLA, the Iranian delegation donated a gift memorial to Ms. Richard.
This year Iranian Experts presented five articles in IFLA WLIC 2019; these articles are as follows:
•A problem-solving approach to clinical practice: Evidence-based Nursing in Iranian Scientific Publications and assessing using American Association of Critical Care Nursing-Levels/ Maryam Kazerani, Fatemeh Babaei and Azam Shahbodaghi;
•National Library of Iran as a platform for social dialogue: an analysis of an Experience/ Fariborz Khosravi and Saeedeh Akbari-Daryan;
•A conceptual framework for organizing Persian TV series based on the PRESSoo model
•Perceptions of Love in telling the love story of Leily and Majnoon using images of the products derived from it among adolescents in the library of the 5th district of Ekbatan, Tehran
•Free access to information in Iran, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Also, four Iranian posters were presented in IFLA WLIC 2019; Iranian posters are as follows:
•A Study about Organizational Climate with Customer-Satisfactory of Library of Art & Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality
•An Investigation on Factors Affecting Performance Improvement of Public Libraries based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
•Promotion of Environmentalism through Green Information Literacy in Iranian Public Libraries
•Natural Library: An Opportunity for Children to Familiarize with Practical Life Skills
Also, two Iranian papers were presented in a satellite meeting, which was held on August 23. Papers are as follows:
•Gray literature as valuable resources in the Natural Library of Iran: from Organizing to Digitization
•Survey of Grey Literature of National Library and Archives of Iran
IFLA is like a theoretical and practical knowledge checklist with nearly 60 specialized areas in which standing and ad-hoc committees are established. IFLA is led by its librarians and affiliated institutions.
Historically, various experts, such as Ms. Poori Soltani, Ms. Zahra Shadman and others, were members of IFLA committees and played a key role in its decisions. Fortunately, in the last few years we have had young and dynamic Iranian librarians who joined the IFLA’s specialized committees and participated in decisions taken by these committees. However, it is not enough to fulfill capacity of our libraries. Iranian librarians and the related institutions need to have a serious plan to support Iran’s active presence in IFLA’s management and board of directors.
