EIFL will have a big presence at the 80th IFLA World Library and Information Congress this year. The congress theme is 'Libraries, Citizens, Societies: Confluence for Knowledge'. 

EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) leadership, four grantees and six winners of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Award for Creative use of ICT in public libraries will travel to Lyon, France, to attend the conference in August.

EIFL-PLIP Impact Manager Ugne Lipeikaite, who is a member of the IFLA Statistics and Evaluation Section Standing Committee, will join the committee meeting on August 16.

Presentations of innovative public library services

Below is a list of sessions where EIFL-PLIP and EIFL-PLIP grantee libraries will present papers about innovative public library services:

Public library services for farmers

August 19, Session 140, theme: Role of information literacy in agricultural productivity and food security: An international perspective, 13:45 – 15:45:

• EIFL-PLIP Manager Ramune Petuchovaite and EIFL-PLIP Impact Manager Ugne Lipeikaite will present a paper discussing EIFL-PLIP supported public library services for farmers. The paper is titled Libraries as activators of farmer’s learning.

• Suzana Tanasijević, librarian at Public Library Radislav Nikčević in Jagodina (Serbia) will present a paper on their AgroLib-Ja service for farmers, which was initiated with EIFL-PLIP support in 2010.

Public libraries serving the needs of children and youth

August 19, Session 144, theme: Libraries in Africa meeting the needs of children and young adults, 13:45 – 18:00:

• Alikem Tamakloe, head of Volta Regional Library in Ghana, will present a paper titledInnovative Mobile Library Brings Rural School Children ICT and New Educational Opportunities, about their EIFL-PLIP supported hands on computer classes for schools in under-developed parts of Ho Municipality.

• Mary Kinyanjui, librarian at KNLS Kibera Public Library in Kenya, will present a paper on the value of tablet computers in supporting children’s education. The paper is titled ‘Kids on the Tab’: Kenya National Library Service’s tablet computers project for slum school children and discusses their EIFL-PLIP supported service in Kibera, the largest slum in Eastern Africa.

Public libraries promoting literacy

August 20, Session 169, theme: Literacy, Community and Responsibility – Literacy and reading, 09:30 – 11:30:

• EIFL-PLIP grantee CODE-Ethiopia will present a paper titled Applying an ecological model for library development to build literacy in rural Ethiopian Communities. The paper will be presented by Marlene Asselin (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada), Alemu Abebe (CODE-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and Ray Doiron (University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada).

Satellite meetings

The IFLA Public Libraries Section Satellite Meeting takes place on 12 August at the Library of Birmingham, UK. The theme is ‘The public library as an economic driver that helps generate and build communities’.

• Jean Fairbairn, EIFL-PLIP Communication Coordinator, will present a paper titled Small service, big impact: public libraries’ contribution to urban and rural development: the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme. The paper was jointly written by Jean Fairbairn and Ugne Lipeikaite. 

EIFL Public Library Innovation Awards presentation

August 19, Session 133, IFLA Awards Presentations, 12:45 – 13.45:

• Six winners of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Award for Creative use of ICT in public libraries will receive trophies and certificates. The six winners are Biblioteca La Loma (Colombia); Rijeka City Library (Croatia); Tallinn Central Library (Estonia); Kenya National Library Service (Kenya); Olsztyn Municipal Public Library (Poland), and Pietrari Local Public Library (Romania).

You can meet the winners before or after the award presentation, at the poster session, which also takes place on August 18 and August 19, from 12:00 – 14:00.

For further information about IFLA2014, visit http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80