{"id":1234,"date":"2025-07-09T16:50:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2025-07-11T10:59:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T09:59:04","slug":"what-its-like-to-be-an-ifladdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/2025\/07\/09\/what-its-like-to-be-an-ifladdict\/","title":{"rendered":"What it\u2019s like to be an IFLAddict"},"content":{"rendered":"

This exciting and humorous post is by \u00a0J\u00e9r\u00f4me FRONTY, Senior curator, Music department, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, Paris, France, Jerome.fronty@bnf.fr<\/a><\/p>\n

As the Astana, Kazakhstan, IFLA Congress is nearing, \u00a0\u00a0 and as I\u2019m preparing myself to leave the (fantastic) <\/em>IFLA ARL Section<\/em><\/a> after two terms, and taking over a new position at IFLA as Division Chair (Division A) I realize that I have been with the Federation for 15 years now and that I should tell a few light-hearted stories, or musings, to newcomers and old-timers alike. Just to make sure I am not a serious person (if anyone doubted it). So here it is, sorted out (we are librarians, after all) in Latin (see letter M below for non-Latin languages) alphabetical order.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

A is for Abrazo<\/strong>. Special welcoming posture typical of IFLA long-timers. Had been offset during the \u00ab\u00a0new normal\u00a0\u00bb of the pandemic. I\u2019m glad it is back.<\/p>\n

B is for Beethoven<\/strong>. Yes. I managed to bring him as a blog post on the IFLA ARL Section blog<\/a>, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

C is for Cross-fertilization<\/strong>. Could sound obvious, but in fact, not that much. There are so many entities and specialties within IFLA, and so many people are so busy, that it can be tempting to do things in the business as usual way. There are structural ways to do it, such as joint sessions during congresses. But maybe other ways, like sharing best practices.<\/p>\n

D is for Deadline<\/strong>. We love this at IFLA. Your action plan is due on such date, etc. But also: the next congress will be here or there. Entails great planning work.<\/p>\n

E is for Ethics<\/strong>. One of the outgoing Professional Council achievements is a Code of conduct<\/a>, typical for a large organization like IFLA, and that was lacking so far. Nice step. But ethics go a long way, I do believe, in many aspects.\u00a0 Sharing the IFLA experience beyond the privilege of being part of it should be one of them.<\/p>\n

F is for Funding<\/strong>. The F-word. It is obvious, and problematic at the same time. Improved transparency at the Federation level, and some sense of visibility as to what the future will be for IFLA make us more comfortable. At the individual level, the IFLA ARL Section has been a great provider of grants<\/a> to enable emerging countries colleagues to join the congresses, year after year.<\/p>\n

G is for Great<\/strong>. There is no need to make librarians great again. They are. But you need to make it known. Hence \u00ab\u00a0the global voice of libraries\u00a0\u00bb. It\u2019s called advocacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

H is for Headquarters<\/strong>. When you pay a visit to The Hague, as some of us did on the occasion of the Rotterdam congress (2023) you have a hard time reconciling the global reach of IFLA and the tiny offices that the Dutch national library generously allocates to its headquarters<\/a> (this is back in\u2026 1972<\/a>, and this is now in 2025<\/a>). That\u2019s good. See letter R below.<\/p>\n

I is for IFLA Express<\/em><\/strong>. A bit of nostalgy here. This was back in 2010 (Gothenburg, Sweden). A daily newspaper was indeed circulated onsite within the congress center, and translated in all languages. Hence \u201clanguage teams\u201d working so hard and timely that they almost saw nothing of the WLIC. I was one of them and did this again for some years. IFLA Express<\/em> became part of the congress website (here is the archive of the Singapore<\/a> one, in 2013). Then any Web browser became a translator on its own. You know the story. But see letter M, again, below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

IFLA Express team, 2011 WLIC, San Juan, Puerto Rico, photo Ross Becker\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>[click to zoom-in]<\/p>\n

J is for Joy<\/strong>. Yes. \u201cHere we work a lot, but we do have a lot of fun\u201d. This was the welcome address of an eminent American colleague chairing one of the Sections I Joined. A good principle, and a good practice, I feel.<\/p>\n

K is for Kids<\/strong>. Or should be. A library where there are too many adults in the room lacks something. Several professional units address this as a librarianship dimension, and there is a lot to do: school libraries, libraries for children, and so on. And some colleagues have children, as I do. Of course. But hey, I have never met children on an IFLA congress site.<\/p>\n

L is for Library<\/strong>. You saw this one coming.<\/p>\n

M is for Multilingualism<\/strong> (and multiculturalism). It used to be very high on the agenda of IFLA, and the Federation has pride in having more (6 + English) official languages than the UN (5 + English). Translation in Arabic, Chinese French, German, Russian and Spanish is still obvious for main policy documents. Now, where do we want to go from here when browser and\/or AI-generated translation<\/a> (simultaneous or not) is ubiquitous is an open question, not just technical I think.<\/p>\n

N is for Neutral<\/strong>. This is a tricky one. In a way, we are neutral, and should be. This is about tolerance, and an IFLA congress is about learning people\u2019s styles and cultures and professional environment in a way you may never see at home. But we are also heavily involved. And fighting for causes. There are many. Including Internet access neutrality.<\/p>\n

O is for OMG<\/strong>. Oh my God. During an off-hour, all-time-zones call I had to do from home, at one moment I turned the camera to the Christmas crib in my living room (for some, an old Provence-linked tradition in France, whether you are Christian or not (but there is a Religions in Dialogue<\/a> unit at IFLA)). I felt some surprise. There were so many different cultures around the screen, that being yourself meant, in fact, being the elephant in the room. See letter N, above.<\/p>\n

P is for People.<\/strong> A number of challenges and issues we address as librarians deal with technology, and one of our raisons d\u2019\u00eatre surely is helping people tackling the tools providing (or preventing) access to information and doing so, their personal development, which means, their freedom. So, in fact, it is not about technology. It is about people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 IFLA Posters Session, 2023 WLIC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, photo Matteo Cogliatti\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>[click to zoom-in]<\/p>\n

Q is for Q & A<\/strong>. I liked this kind of vademecum <\/em>(here is the Lyon<\/a>, France, one, 2014) that was provided to new delegates, so that they had both a sense of what a congress is like, how it works, and how to behave in there. Maybe we should keep it, and also do the same for virtual events, which do have, in fact, their rules and their codes.<\/p>\n

R is for Regions<\/strong>. The regional structure (Regional Council) is one of the clearest innovations of the new governance structure<\/a>installed by IFLA in 2021. It does not contradict the fact that all professional units (Sections, SIGs, etc.) are generally global (some are more than others, to be fair). But it introduces a matrix in the organization, and some sort of reality-check between the global and the local levels (see letter C above).<\/p>\n

S is for Satellites<\/strong>. Satellite meetings are events around a given congress (this one<\/a> was hosted for the IFLA ARL Section at Erasmus University in 2023). It might be tricky, because it has to benefit from the main congress aura, without eating up its sponsors or attendance base. But it\u2019s always a great way to give a focused, local dimension to your event. My advice: make it fully-funded and based on a strong local team.<\/p>\n

T is for Time<\/strong>. It does matter. 2027 will be the 100th anniversary of IFLA. We are here for the long run. But during each and every general assembly, there is a silent moment for the ones that have passed away since the previous similar meeting. It is one way of feeling they live on with us, and that we live on with what they achieved with IFLA and with us.<\/p>\n

U is for U-turn (no)<\/strong>. Librarianship is about progress. There is no, there should not be a way back. Or, isn\u2019t there? See the banned books. See the burnt libraries. But also, in our practices. Yes, we do a lot of planning. IFLA loves action plans (ha! due 1st<\/sup> of August, remember?…). But running so many performance indicators, are we still able to think out of the box?<\/p>\n

V is for Virtual<\/strong>. Environmental considerations on the one hand, habits developed during the pandemic on the other hand, may look like strong cases AGAINST a physical congress. In fact, if we choose the IFLA ARL Section as a proxy, not quite. Last year (a non-congress year) we made a number of virtual business meetings and some webinars. Still, some of us met physically in Istanbul for a Division-level meeting<\/a>, to which, believe me, nothing compares.<\/p>\n

W is for WLIC<\/strong>. Newcomer or not, anyone will be able to decipher it, and also, know that it stands both for the (often) annual conference and general assembly. Now, whatever your language, if you are able to pronounce this acronym, I owe you a beer.<\/p>\n

X is for X<\/strong>. The Unknown. \u201cPrediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future!\u201d You know the half-serious statement of this Nobel laureate, Niels Bohr. But at IFLA it is a serious joke, within and beyond the Trend report<\/a>, because librarianship is also about anticipating the future, in many ways (as a curator of heritage documents, my prime material is, in a way, the future of their access, meaning and posterity).<\/p>\n

Y is for Yes we can.<\/strong> So far, I\u2019ve seen only one US president sending a brief (friendly) message to all IFLA Congress delegates. Guess who. A clue: Columbus, Ohio, 2016<\/a>. See letter N, above.<\/p>\n

Z is for Zoom<\/strong>. That\u2019s just one of the tools. For meetings, webinars (here\u2019s IFLA ARL December 2024<\/a> one), many things. Then Basecamp. Infinity. Repository. WordPress (CMS). Mailchimp. You name it. It is not the least of cultural habits, at IFLA, to make you an early adopter of the best tools available worldwide (and I\u2019m saying this as an ink-and-paper, back-of-the-envelope guy). Then, see letter P, above.<\/p>\n

But also\u00a0(of course): A for Astana, B for Books (or Bureaucratic), C for Completely irrelevant, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 IFLA volunteers, 2013 WLIC, Singapore, photo IFLA HQ\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>[click to zoom-in]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This exciting and humorous post is by \u00a0J\u00e9r\u00f4me FRONTY, Senior curator, Music department, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, Paris, France, Jerome.fronty@bnf.fr As the Astana, Kazakhstan, IFLA Congress is nearing, \u00a0\u00a0 and as I\u2019m preparing myself to leave the (fantastic) IFLA ARL Section after two terms, and taking over a new position at IFLA as Division Chair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1257,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ifla.org\/arl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}