Read the full report here. 

In early 2013, the Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section received funds for a project to evaluate the benefits of attending IFLA conferences.  Moira Fraser Consulting won the bid to perform the work, and conducted a survey of Section members in July 2013. Sixty-five members from 44 countries responded to the survey.   

Employers paid for 70% of participants to attend the conference, with relatively small numbers who paid for themselves, or were paid for by either a donor organisation or Library Association. Nearly 90% of participants rated the pre-conference which is focused upon the work of Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services as more useful than the more general IFLA conference focused on the work of libraries generally.  According to the respondents, the key benefits of attending the conference for their organisations were to learn from other parliamentary libraries/research services, gather new ideas to develop their services, identify future trends that will affect their services, and assess their services against international best practice for parliamentary libraries/research services.  The report also made recommendations on what can be done to encourage Parliaments to support library staff’s participation in future conferences.

Read the full report here. 

Participants at the Section's 2013 Pre-Conference in Singapore