On 11-17th August, as a member library of IFLA, Hangzhou Public Library was invited to participate in the 78th conference of IFLA held in Helsinki, Finland. The delegation participating in the conference was comprised of five members, including Chu Shuqing (director of Hangzhou Public Library) and directors of some district/county (city) libraries.
IFLA (with the full name of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is the most authoritative and most influential non-governmental, professional and international organization in the library circle in the world, which founded in 1927. To promote mutual understanding, cooperation, exchange, research and development in the international library circle and information circle, IFLA will hold a conference every year in one of member countries. During the conference, participants of the library circle from different countries gather and conduct joint communication and deep discussion centering on the conference theme. The conference is an important platform for all of libraries in the world to enhance friendship and strengthen cooperation. Presently, IFLA has consisted of 1600 member libraries that distribute in more than 150 countries. Hangzhou Public Library became one member of IFAL in 2003.
The conference took “Libraries Now! - Inspiring, Surprising, Empowering” as the theme, and 3,300 experts and scholars from the book and information circle in many countries of the world attended the conference. The delegation of Hangzhou Public Library participated in such many communication and discussion activities as the new member meeting, the conference opening ceremony, meeting of the ancient book and manuscript professional committee, meeting of the standing committee of the public libraries, the meeting of the standing committee of Asian-Pacific region, meeting of the parallel session of the committee of free information acquisition and liberty of speech and so on.
During the conference, the delegation made suggestions to conference that the theme of the Singapore library parallel session of the next IFLA conference could be determined to be “connecting the past to future”, it can reflect cultural and historical change in Asia with old photos of urban buildings and streets and explain the deep effects of history and culture on present time and future. The suggestion was recognized by the conference and adopted. In addition, Hangzhou Public Library would also undertake the role of messenger in Asia, assist the ancient book and manuscript committee of IFLA to prepare the matters on holding meeting at Singapore parallel session of the next IFLA conference, and may make theme speech at such parallel session to introduce deep culture and history, beautiful environment and public cultural building achievements in Hangzhou to libraries from many countries in the world.
While participating in the conference, the delegation also paid visits to such many libraries of different types as Finland National Library, Helsinki Municipal Library, Arabia Library, Helsinki Science Library and so on. After the conference, at the invitation of Sweden Stockholm Municipal Library, the delegation went to Stockholm and visited the public libraries in that City. This further deepened exchange with the international library circle, and also provided a fine basis for further strengthening cooperation and widening cooperation channels.
