A Report of Library History/ Multicultural Libraries session in IFLA Columbus 2016 Conference
29 August 2016
What a wonderful Library History session at IFLA 2016 Columbus: "Libraries and Immigrants: Historical Perspectives"! I may be biased, but I thought the session went very well with three of our four speakers able to attend and present their papers with much passion and enthusiasm. The 4th speaker was caught up with the floods in Louisiana (she and her home are OK) so I read her paper though perhaps not with the same passion as she would have. All papers had different approaches to the topic and all were very interesting and appreciated by all present. In fact, there is a summary of the session at this website and the papers can be found at Session 192 of the Conference programme:
- Spreading Roots: The Origins of Jewish Libraries in Argentina, Irene Münster.
- Recalling an Arab American Dream: The Story and Legacy of Ameen Rihani’s novel The Book of Khalid and The New York Public Library, Raymond Pun.
- From Saigon to Baton Rouge: East Baton Rouge Parish Library and Vietnamese Refugees, 1975–1985, Suzanne M. Stauffer.
- and I am hoping that May Massee and the Buffalo Public Library: Service to Immigrant Children, 1906-1912, Sharon McQueen will be on the website soon.
In addition, I sought expressions of interest from those attending, to assist on the committee for this Special Interest Group and was delighted with the response. I will keep you posted on how things develop, and I will be sending out a Call for Papers for the 2017 Conference in Wroclaw Poland http://2017.ifla.org/ in the next little while. See you there!
Kerry Smith, Convenor IFLA Library History SIG