Home > Events > IASL 2006 Conference Report

IASL Conference

Lisbon, Portugal - July 2006

Opening speech -- IASL President

Bom Dia!
Welcome to Portugal!
And to our American Colleagues, Happy Independence Day!

As President of IASL, I am most happy to welcome you to the 35th Annual IASL Conference here in Lisbon, Portugal. Our theme this year,The Multiple Faces of Literacy: Reading Knowing Doing, is central to the concept of school libraries around the world. I would like to thank The Ministry of Education in Portugal for recognizing the importance of school libraries, teacher-librarians and school librarians as being pivotal to the education process and inviting IASL to hold this year’s conference in Lisbon. I would also like to thank the dedicated members of the Local Organizing Committee for their hard work and dedication over the past two years that has brought us here today.

We are very fortunate to have a very special woman attending this year’s conference. Over 35 years ago, she had a vision of bringing school library professionals together on the global level. She worked with other colleagues in several countries and formed IASL. She is a fascinating woman, still traveling the globe in her more mature years, please welcome Dr. Jean Lowrie.

I would like to introduce some of the IASL Leadership team. The IASL Executive Committee is made up of myself, Karen Bonanno (Australia), James Henri (Hong Kong), Dr. Diljit Singh (Malyasia); Judy O’Connell (Australia) and Anne Lockwood (Australia). We have 10 Directors representing different parts of the world, unfortunately not all were able to make it to Portugal. With us we have European Director Lourense Das (the Netherlands), the USA Director Eleanor Howe (USA), the Oceania Director Elizabeth Greef (Australia), the Latin America/ Caribbean Director Katherina Berg (Brazil), and East Asia Director Angel Leung (Hong Kong).

IASL suffered a great loss in September 2005 with the unexpected death of Dr. Anne Clyde. Anne was extremely active in IASL and IFLA. She started the IASL website, School Libraries Online, and was always on the cutting edge of libraries and technology. It seems very strange for me to arrive at an IASL Conference and not see Anne, she was always there. No matter what she was doing or where in the world she was, she found the time to be at the annual IASL Conference. I know that some how, some way, she is with us today.

Before Anne died, she had a concept for a book on wikis and their benefits to education. She wanted to create a collection of writings examining wikis as collaborative tools. Her dear friend and colleague, Dr. Jane Klobas, took on this task for Anne and has just released this book dedicated to Dr. Anne Clyde.

As some of you know, I sometime like to include a short literary piece in the opening ceremony and this year I have selected a poem from one of the most important Portuguese poets of the 20th century.

Lisbon
I say:
Lisbon
When I cross the river–coming from the south–
And the city I approach opens as though born from its name
Opens and surges into its night-time spaces
Into its long shining of blue and river
Its body of shaped hills–
I see it better because I speak
It all shows better because I speak
Exposes better its being and need
Because I say
Lisbon, that name of being and non-being
With its secret meanders of amazement, insomnia, and tin shacks
And secret glitter of something theatrical
Its conniving smile of intrigue and masks
While the wide ocean dilates west
Lisbon rocking like a great boat
Lisbon cruelly built along its own absence
I say the city’s name
I say it in order to see

This poem was written by Sophia de Mello Bryner (Anderson) and was translated by Ruth Fainlight.
We are very fortunate to be in such a fine city. Enjoy the conference; enjoy your friends and colleagues, enjoy Lisbon, and enjoy this fine country of Portugal.

Peter Genco
IASL President
[4 July 2006]

Photographs courtesy of Peter Genco and Karen Bonanno

Closing speech -- IASL President

IASL Conference 2006 Lisbon, Portugal

Greetings!
Bom Dia!

It seems like it was just moments ago that I was on this stage welcoming you to Lisbon and the 35th Annual IASL Conference, and now, so soon, I must bid you farewell.

We have experienced an excellent conference here in Lisbon and IASL is extremely grateful to many, many people. Such an excellent conference could not have been possible without the dedicate work of many individuals and groups.

I would like to thank the Gulbenkian Foundation and the New University of Lisbon for the use of their facilities.
I would thank BAD (The Portuguese Association of Bibliotecários, Arquivistas e Documentalistas) for their support and guidance. The President of BAD has been with us most of this week, António Pina Falcão. For the moments he was not able to attend he was in The Hague at IFLA Headquarters making the final presentation for Lisbon to host the 2009 IFLA Conference. IASL wishes BAD good luck with their bid!

I would like to thank the Coordinator Teresa Calçado from the Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares (School Libraries Network) which is part of the Ministry of Education for inviting us to Lisbon and being supportive of the IASL mission and objectives over many years.
And last, but not least, I would like to thank the 2006 Local Organizing Committee, chaired by Isabel Alçada, for their hard work and dedication. I would like to ask the members of the 2006 Local Organizing Committee to come up on stage. I would also like to ask the IASL Director for Europe, Lousense Das, to join us.

Next year, in July 2007, IASL will head to Taipei, Taiwan for the 36th Annual IASL Conference. At this time, I would like to ask that the delegation from Taiwan come up on stage. I would also like to the IASL Director for East Asia, Angel Leung, to join us.

The Chair of the 2007 Local Organizing Committee will be Joyce Chen from the National Taiwan Normal University.
(Isabel Alçada opens and passes IASL flag to Joyce Chen.)
Now Joyce and her delegation would like to make a presentation to you about Taiwan and next year’s conference.
(DVD Video, singing, and dancing)
Thank you Joyce and the delegates from Taiwan.

When an IASL Conference comes to a close, I have a mix of emotions, I feel renewed by what I have learned, I am happy about the new friends I have made, I feel sad that we must now all go our separate ways, I feel encouraged that we will maintain global connections, and it is in that moment of silence right after the conference, that I reflect on all it has been.

One of our IASL members from South Africa brought a book for the display of Locally Produced Materials entitled The Writer’s Voice: A Workbook for Writers in Africa. The work discusses many different themes, including a section on silence. In the work there is an account, reported by Bill Moyers, on writing a poem by American poet Stanley Kunitz. He statesIt began as a poem about geese. Then the geese flew out of the poem. But their wings are still beating there.

May the wings of IASL forever beat here in Portugal. Obrigadu! Thank you!

Peter Genco
IASL President
[7 July 2006] 

IASL 2006 Delegates' Comments

The 2007 IASL Conference will be held in Taipei,Taiwan in July.

For more information about IASL, membership or services,
please contact theIASL Secretariat,
PO Box 83, Zillmere, QLD 4034, Australia,
or visit our website School Libraries Online.

Last Updated 21 August 2006 (KSB)