South African librarian Ellen Tise is president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2009–2011. American Libraries caught up with her during the 76th IFLA World Library and Information Congress, August 10–15, in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she talked about international relations, energizing the profession, and open access to knowledge.
American Libraries: How was the IFLA conference for you?
ELLEN TISE: It’s been a wonderful, very stimulating conference. The theme for the conference, “Open Access to Knowledge,” links very much to my theme for two years as IFLA president. I’ve been inspired and stimulated by the thoughts and the ideas and all the discussions that came around this theme and how libraries need to ensure that we continue to provide the most equitable access to knowledge. We have had about 150 sessions in different languages, wonderful plenary speakers that really added value to our congress this year.
In your professional life when you’re not being president of IFLA, what do you do?
In my real life, I am senior director of library information services, basically the head of library services, at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve been there for about four and a half years now, and for most of my career I’ve been in academic libraries. I worked for one year in a public library. But, yes, it’s still my full‑time job. The IFLA job is part-time, and that actually is the congress annually, two board meetings in The Hague (where IFLA’s headquarters is), and then of course representing IFLA at various conferences, meetings, and events in different countries throughout the year.
How has your professional agenda meshed with the mission of IFLA and your work with the federation?
My professional agenda fits very much into IFLA and IFLA’s work. For all librarians, because IFLA is basically the international organization for librarians, it’s part of our professional development. We are able to share expertise, and this is what the congress provides. So just from an advocacy point of view, IFLA is a global voice for libraries, it advocates for libraries, for the sustainability of libraries, funding for libraries. In addition, the federation sets standards for libraries, providing guidelines, supporting libraries, developing librarians and library services. We have professionals in the library information field, library information science practitioners, and we also work with all other roles that involve information work. So it’s spread really from every discipline you can think of in the world, every subject. We have law, music, IT, education, everything, all the professions in the world in IFLA.
What is IFLA doing for young librarians who might be thinking about international work?
This is perhaps one area where IFLA should actually do a lot more. Just like other professions, we find that many people are retiring, and we’re not getting enough young people into the profession. IFLA has a new professional group, and this group is specifically there for library information science students who are new to the profession to get them involved in IFLA's work, understand how IFLA operates, and also for them to be able to explore new areas and bring innovation. If we’re going to bring in more young, new professionals, then it also means that we need to be able to communicate with them in the media that they are now used to—just like what we have to do with our users in our libraries.
The second program is called Adopt a Student. This is where we again are trying to get more students and young professionals into IFLA, get them involved. And of course because they are students and young professionals, they are not seniors, so they don’t normally have the funds to come to the IFLA Congress. That’s why it’s so important for us to use social media, so that we can also reach those thousands of young professionals and students in any part of the world so that they can participate and are able to share the experience of an IFLA congress. We need to develop more online tools, webinars, communication. As I travel to countries and I speak to young professionals and students, this is exactly what they’re saying. They would like to participate, but how do they do that? So let’s utilize technology and get them involved. They don’t have to come to an IFLA conference, but they can experience an IFLA conference and also benefit from it.
Don’t I have to work in a big association or research library or a national library and speak seven languages to get involved in IFLA?
Absolutely not. IFLA has seven official languages; it’s a multilingual organization. You are able to participate in any of the major languages in the world.
And as I’ve just indicated, it’s not just national libraries or just large metropolises, it’s all types of libraries. Young people and anybody interested in libraries, enthusiastic about library services, and who wants to get engaged and learn from librarians from all over the world and share the solidarity and compassion of libraries, if you have that, then you’ll find a way you can get involved in IFLA.
You spoke a little about your first year as IFLA president and your travel. What have you seen? What have you learned? What has really stuck with you?
It’s the vibrancy that still exists in the profession. People. The internet and the development and information technology and electronic materials—and social networking and all these new tools that you can use to find information. “Libraries are no longer relevant? Libraries not necessary? Why should we still fund libraries?” Of course some of those perceptions still exist, but to the contrary, as I go around the world, I see more and more the need for libraries. Librarians all over the world find new and innovative ways to make sure libraries remain relevant. New libraries are still being built. Of course, there are many countries that do not have libraries at all, and one of our plenary speakers here in Gothenburg showed us the statistics and the importance of the growth of the world’s population, and if the projections are true, in terms of how many people there will be on the planet earth by the year 2050, he said that we’re going to need more libraries than ever.
We need to develop librarians, give them more and more skills, and train them to work in this new environment. He said there are three things that are the most important things in the world: electricity, literacy, and libraries. If we don’t have those, if we don’t have people who can read and write, then people will not be able to develop. Wherever I go and speak to governments, they say they need libraries. People campaign for them every day in some countries. In South Africa, the country that I come from, we have school learners campaigning, and they went on a hunger strike about two weeks ago because they want to have libraries in their schools.
What are you looking forward to?
We’ve just ended our 2010 IFLA congress and we were all really inspired by what libraries do, how libraries want to ensure that everybody has access to information. We are now planning for our next year’s congress, which is going to be in Puerto Rico, which is very close to the continental United States. It’s an opportunity for many young librarians, new librarians, librarians from the region to come and share, so that we can hopefully have just as much of a quality congress as we had this year and can further support libraries and librarians in order for them to provide the best possible services that they can to the users no matter where they are in the world.
