At Saturday’s Caucuses

The first day of IFLA WLIC 2014 included caucuses from around world. Throughout the congress week, there will be 14 different caucuses from many different continents and communities. An IFLA caucus is a gathering of delegates who share common backgrounds or interests that are united either by languages, country or region. They’re meant to be informative, fun and casual.

I had the opportunity to attend three caucuses.

IFLA President Sinikka Sipilä first welcomed all delegates to the Congress and to Lyon. She spoke with delight about her stay in France this past April and wished everyone a great congress.

French speaking Caucus

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The French caucus was convened by Réjean Savard (Quebec) and was the most heavily-attended. A number of librarians presented their ongoing projects and invited the delegates to come and talk with them. The French Committee for International Libraries and documentation (CFIBD) which worked with IFLA to organize the congress told us about how they worked to prepare the meetings, and even before that the application of France for hosting the congress. Delegates were invited to visit an exhibition of young-adult books in Lyon.

Africa, Asia & Oceania and Latin America and the Caribbean

Each year this caucus gathers a great number of different countries. Historically, there haven’t been enough delegates to hold caucuses for each country, or even separate continents, so IFLA decided to group them together and create a caucus that is possibly the most multicultural one. The main language for this caucus was English. The caucus was also an opportunity for African delegates to welcome people to attend to the 2015 WLIC Congress in Cape Town, South Africa.

Italy*

There was no official caucus on the program for the Italian delegates, but they decided to meet up for a spontaneous caucus. Before the meeting, IFLA express interviewed Anna Maria Tammaro from the University of Parma and Enrica Manenti who is the head of the National Association of Libraries in Italy, and she told us that the economic crisis had a real impact on Italian libraries, in terms of staff, opening of new libraries and even their book purchasing budgets.

IFLA WLICs are an international celebration, a family! The caucuses are open and a great opportunity to meet professionals from different backgrounds. So, by all means attend some and discover how libraries are working around the world!

*not an official caucus