Friday, August 19, 2005

IFLA 2005, Oslo: Day 8 (Goodbye, Norway)

Day 8: 19 Aug 05. Last day in Norway.

Final meeting of the Standing Committee (SC) - Libraries for Children & Young Adults. We went through the rest of the agenda items, more discussion on the proposed section programme for next year's IFLA, assignments for articles for the next issue of the newsletter, more administrative matters, discussion of the proposed project.

The IFLA closing ceremony was yesterday, which I missed. Which was a pity because our SC won the Best Newsletter award (I mentioned in a previous post that our SC received a nomination).

The Section of Libraries for Children and Young Adults issues a regular newsletter for members containing news of children's issues worldwide. There are also news of conferences and projects. Free to sections members.

Here's the PDF of the June 2005 issue (IFLA Best Newsletter 2005 Award). Our SC chairperson attributed the award largely to the efforts of my colleague (the outgoing member of the SC). What a grand way to end her term!

This increases the expectations on my part, now that I'm taking over the role of Editor for the newsletter. Some of the experienced SC members joked to me about it, but they were encouraging as well. I tell myself it's not the award that I should aim for, but for the newsletter to meet the needs of the section first.

There was another award for our SC. A german colleague won a "Best Poster" award. Congratulations, Ute! (name pronounced as "Oo - tay"). A write-up will certainly go into the next issue of the newsletter.

The meeting this day started at 8am, ended at 10.30am. And with that, it concluded my first IFLA conference, though the work has just begun.

This conference has been meaningful for me because of the involvement in the standing committee. Great bunch of colleagues. They made me feel welcome, even though total interaction time was about 10 hours or less.

Working in the SC has given me a greater sense of purpose and brings my understanding of what it means to be a librarian to a different level.

Olso2005 19Aug05 001 - On way to Airport

Goodbye, Norway.

I've experienced only a small part of you. I like what I've seen. You're expensive (really, really expensive!) But the weather has been wonderful, and the people equally so.

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3 comments:

  1. Hey I was wondering if you seriously have part-time work at the library or maybe even at the Norway one. Do you think you can help?

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  2. Anonymous11:54 pm

    It has been interesting to read about your experiences in Norway - and about how a Singaporean view a bit of Scandinavia. 870 kr for a cab-ride sounds ridiculously high!
    I'm already looking forward to seeing your writeup from Seoul next year :)
    (http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/ - seen 28/6/05)
    Regards
    Lofi, a danish Librarian-in-spe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Lofi. Nothing in life is guaranteed. I hope to visit Seoul next year too, to learn from more librarians and see what else can be applied back at work.

    To Amon - yes we do have part-time work where there's a vacancy. Contact our HR folks. I can't help you with Norway though.

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