WHAT AN AMAZING TIME YOU CAN HAVE AT AN INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY CONGRESS OR... YAY! I MADE IT TO #WLIC2019 IN BEAUTIFUL ATHENA, GREECE

Sabine Weber-beard; is Senior Librarian - Kaeo and Systems Librarian for Far North District Libraries. Sabine says that getting a library job is “the best thing that ever happened and I tell everyone one who wants to listen that I have the best job in the world. Over the years I have run holiday projects, organized the Children’s Day activities, worked on library floats for Christmas parades, coordinated school visits and read story times. Of course it included all the general tasks of working in a library with cki/cko, collection development and care and customer service. I got asked to take over the library systems admin as I was curious enough to want to solve problems and not just comment on them.”

The best thing I ever did was apply for a free grant to attend the Kuala Lumpur Congress, and then get it. This shows that anything is possible.

Going to Greece for WLIC2019 was a decision I made soon after I was back from Kuala Lumpur –

I was the 33rd person to register.

Getting selected to be part of an international IFLA committee made this trip even more exciting and again shows that anything is possible. Becoming part of these projects is just amazing and is not something I thought was possible for me while working in the Far North District libraries.

But there, I was in a wonderful city with a rich history and more than 3,600 other librarians from over 100 different countries. I spent my time attending meetings, listening to speakers, voting for an award winner, participating in workshops, checking out the poster sessions, and talking to vendors.

Some highlights for me were the opening session and listening to the IFLA President, the President-elect session and the different IFLA information sessions. Catching up with old friends and making new ones was just magical. It was a great opportunity to be a face for WLIC2022 in Auckland and tell everyone about the amazing librarians we have and how wonderful it will be to come visit us. The message I gave everyone was to drink one cup of coffee less every day and start a Kiwi travel piggy bank.

Some years ago I thought IFLA was only for other people but I now know that that is not correct. To be involved in an international scene is just the most amazing and important thing ever. The IFLA messages are global messages and make it easy to work and communicate with people from all over the world.

I am so looking forward to 2022, so start that coffee piggy bank so I can meet you all at our IFL WLIC in Auckland!

Efcharistó (thank you)