Gates Foundaton Contributes $1.5 Million to IFLA Advocacy

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) began its Monday World Library and Information Congress agenda with a press conference attended by some 50 people. The biggest announcement came from IFLA President-Elect Ellen Tise, who introduced Deborah Jacobs, director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Program. Jacobs then confirmed that the foundation was presenting IFLA with a $1.5-million three-year grant for continued support of the federation’s advocacy efforts. "IFLA plays an invaluable role in the library community and its continued success will strengthen libraries throughout the world,” Jacobs said. “IFLA’s efforts to promote vibrant libraries with information services and public access to the internet help open the world of knowledge, information, and opportunity to many more people.” The Gates Foundation will present its annual Access to Learning Award tomorrow in Milan, when the name of this year’s winning library will be revealed. IFLA President Claudia Lux, Secretary General Jennefer Nicholson, Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters Chair Winston Tabb, and Mauro Guerrini, chair of the National Organizing Committee for the Milan conference, also talked about the work of IFLA. Tabb announced the release of a Joint Statement of Principles, guidelines for the 184 countries who are members of the World Intellectual Property Organization containing 12 principles for library provisions in copyright law that would acknowledge libraries as having an equal stake with publishers and rights holders. Other awards announced at the press conference were the OCLC/Jay Jordan Early Career Development Fellows for 2010, the de Gruyter Saur Award for Excellence in Library and Information Science, the IFLA International Marketing Award sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing, and the Shawkey Salem Conference Attendance Grant. Els van der Plas, director of the Prins Claus Fund, introduced Li Chun, director of the Beichuan Library in China, who was rescued from the rubble after being buried for 75 hours after an earthquake struck Sichuan province in west central China May 12, 2008, killing nearly 20,000 people. The Prins Claus Fund gave 120,000 euros to build a storage room for important collections from the destroyed Beichuan library, which was an important repository for materials related to the Qiang minority in China. Prior to the press conference, I had an opportunity to talk with Mohammad Abbas, head of the parliamentary library in Iraq. He was frank in his assessment of the dire situation in his country, noting that international assistance to libraries was most needed in two areas: technology training and the recovery of stolen or looted books. Abbas said his library had been established in 2006, “starting from zero.” Located in what is known as the Green Zone, it now contains some 10,000 books and 1,000 periodicals. “Our colleagues in Parliament are being targeted,” Abbas said. “A car bomb could explode at any time.” He said there seemed to be a growing threat of violence leading up to the elections scheduled for next January. He pointed to the recent explosion in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building and observed that “foreign forces” as well as “forces from the past regime“ are trying to interfere in Iraqi affairs. He said that while he believed the U.S. invasion was a mistake, a unilateral withdrawal before being sure that Iraq has a strong military would be equally disastrous.