FROM THE PRESIDENT
NĀ TE TUMUAKI
It is the time of the year for new beginnings; a new financial year, Matariki and a new LIANZA council year.
LIANZA Council held a successful face-toface planning day at the end of June where we reviewed progress made on LIANZA’S strategic directions and agreed priorities for the coming year. We had thought that we would be heading into an intense planning phase for delivering the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2020 (WLIC2020). However, with the confirmation that we will be hosting WLIC in 2022 we had the opportunity to reset goals and priorities. Expect to hear more about the strategic directions in the next few months. As the 2019 World Congress approaches, I’ve been reflecting on the Congress theme ‘Libraries: dialogue for change.’ The theme invites us, the global library community, to discuss and reinterpret the role of libraries as promoters of change. It seems to me that now, more than ever, in this time of fake news and alternative facts we must promote and protect the role of libraries as places for dialogue and change.
The Congress is being held in Athens in August and the organising committee affirm that ‘Dialogue is the utmost expression of democracy, the basis for the freedom of expression and information and thus, the gear for a better future. Libraries serve as open, free, democratic, inclusive and participatory meeting places and mediators between knowledge and people.’ It is a particularly apt theme for a congress hosted in Greece as the word Dialogue according to the Oxford English Dictionary comes from the Greek word dialogos, logue meaning to speak alternately or converse and dia meaning through or across. In Athens the global library community will be conversing across many languages and cultures to further the work of libraries across the world.
It strikes me that as librarians and information professionals we are well aware of the potent potential of libraries as agents of social change however we need to be better at ensuring this potential is recognised by other sectors, by our communities and by our funders.
We have an opportunity in Aotearoa/new Zealand through initiatives such as the Digital Inclusion Blueprint and the Living Standards Framework to champion the work of libraries and the contribution they make to social mobility and education and belonging. Hosting the IFLA World Congress here in Auckland in 2022 is another opportunity for us to promote the role of libraries in our society, as are the Unsustainable Development Goals.
As I’m attending WLIC in Athens I’ll be focussing on learning about advocacy strategies we can leverage to promote the role of libraries in Aotearoa. Darren Mcgarvey in his recent book Poverty Safari describes libraries as ‘an engine room of social mobility’ he goes on to say that ‘Walking into a library is often the first step a person takes out of social exclusion, unemployment and poverty.’ We need to do all we can to ensure that our most vulnerable society members take that first step and walk into our libraries.