13th IFLA Interlending and Document Supply Conference

Last week I travelled to Beijing to attend the 13th IFLA Interlending and Document Supply Conference.  It was a three day event held at Peiking University.  The event was hosted by China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) who provided a consistently welcoming and professional experience for those in attendance. I will be writing a full report of the conference that should be published in the FIL Newsletter (with the editor's blessing).  The conference was a great way to learn more about interlending practice, developments and issues.  22 papers were presented with a reasonable number of these being speakers from China.  This provided a fascinating insight into the world of Chinese interlending, systems and collection development.  There were also speakers from Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Australia and elsewhere. Translations of all presentations were also provided in Chinese as an abstract by the presenter (or for those that couldn't speak Chinese - a translator). In all, 150 participants attended from 20 countries. It was a great opportunity to share perspectives and thoughts.  It became very apparent to me by the end that  international interlending is very varied and as much as we share some common practices, we share as many (if not more) different ones .

For those able to stay over on the Saturday there was the opportunity to visit the Great Wall of China. 

The conference website has abstracts, presentations (ppt.) as well as photos.

http://ilds2013.calis.edu.cn/

As a member of the IFLA Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Standing Committee I seek to engage the committee with the interests of FIL and the UK interlending community in general.

 

 

 

Well, it was Exec Committee in Birmingham this week. We spent most of the meeting planning Interlend 2014. Edinburgh will make a brilliant venue!

Let us know if there’s something you would really like to see featured, and watch this space (and all the other channels) for announcements of KeyNote Speakers, calls for papers and, most importantly, the booking forms!

Even as I type, one of the committee, Mark, is attending the IFLA conference in Beijing; another reason to consider joining us when places become available.  Some committee members do come to the end of their terms of office next June.

I took the opportunity of being in Birmingham to return to the new public library there, and visit the areas I didn’t manage when there for the CILIP AGM last month. Although it was overcast for this visit, so the views from the top weren’t as good as before, I was able to see the restored Shakespeare memorial room, the amphitheatre and Children’s library.  Lots of interesting spaces, with some very funky furniture throughout the building! I can see it becoming a place to visit at every opportunity as there is so much to see, and different exhibitions throughout the year.

Visit http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/  for more details.

 

Document delivery, sharing books and rhubarb and custards...

Well it’s Welcome week here at the University of Reading so I’ve not actually been doing a great deal of inter-library loans related work the last few days. I’ve been helping new students find their way around the Library, running some welcome talks and tours of the Library, handing out freebies at the Library fresher’s fair and generally losing my voice from talking lots! To relieve my throat I’ve gone all olde worlde sweet shoppe and started eating these;

As part of our welcome talks and tours we explain how our holds system works (all the copies of a book are on loan, you place a hold on it, the Library recalls it from the person who has it on loan, they return it and we reserve it for you - join in if you know the words…)

The simple message of this system is - the Library is all about sharing things, if 200 students all need the same book, the Library is here to help share out the copies so everyone gets an opportunity to use it.  

The sharing ethos which is so fundamental to how a library works is also the baseline of interlending and document supply - we share materials with each other and with libraries all over the world so that our readers can get what they need. Having worked in inter-library loans for a few years now, I always think that fellow interlenders are the epitome of this libraries / sharing ethos. Not only do we share our materials but we also exchange information, whether it be about our services, systems or processes - interlenders like to talk about how we work.

The FIL committee are here to facilitate all this sharing - it’s always good to see colleagues chatting and sharing ideas at our events and there’s another opportunity coming up soon at our FIL@BL St Pancras day in November. Writing something for our newsletter is also a great way to share your methods with the community. And last but not least, don’t forget the FIL members forum - it’s there for you to discuss ideas and exchange practical tips - go on, do what you do best!

Anyone for a boiled sweet?

Natalie GuestFIL Membership Secretary