IASL CONFERENCE

Lisbon, Portugal
July 2006

Delegates' reports

| Australia | Netherlands | Portugal |

Dear all,
The 35th IASL conference in Lisbon has ended and that gives me the opportunity to reflect on the wonderful experiences I have encountered. I just want to share with you some of it. Lisbon is a great place with a lovely climate, tasty food and very friendly people. So, it wasn’t very difficult to feel at home. Combined with inspiring keynotes, fascinating sessions and school visits, successful meetings and the warm personal encounters with delegates, for me, the 35th IASL conference in Lisbon is one to remember.
As European Director I was certainly very pleased with the large number of European delegates; more than 220 Portuguese delegates and 60 from other European countries. Many of them participated in the ENSIL and Regional meetings. One of the topics at these meetings was the language problem. This conference has been fantastic in facilitating translations of the keynotes as well as the sessions. This was not only highly appreciated by the Portuguese but also by the other delegates, as all of us were able to attend sessions in multiple languages. The facilitation of translations is an issue again for upcoming conferences and following up on earlier discussions on IASL-LINK I guess this will be appreciated by many IASL members.
In relation to language and communication problems I delivered a speech at the Assembly of Associations meeting (see below for the text of this speech). For this speech I used a few quotes from a book by Maarten H. Rijkens (former CEO of Heineken brewery). This book is a compilation of phrases from English speaking Dutch politicians and CEO’s. Maarten collected these phrases for the past 35 years when he lived and worked abroad. The funny and sometimes hilarious use of the English language shows us that even for people who consider themselves professional English speakers, the English language knows many pitfalls. And this gave me some food for thought: if we don’t really understand each other, we will never be able to share information, pursue the same mission and cooperate on an equal basis.
Therefore I will do my best to work on the development of translations. As a first attempt to achieve results this topic was discussed during the ENSIL meeting in Lisbon. The ENSIL group agreed that:

  • all (European) non-English speaking school library associations are invited to develop at least one page in the English language on their websites
  • all English-speaking school library associations are invited to develop annotations in at least one other language especially with regard to the resources pages on their websites
  • all contributors to the ENSIL blog will be asked to send the information (resources, announcements etc.) in the original language with an annotation in English; this will create a multilingual website
    • We hope this initiative will be adopted for the IASL website as well as a first start to create a multilingual website.
    I would like to thank all delegates and speakers for their friendship and collegiality and for sharing their inspiring thoughts and activities. I would also like to invite the Lisbon attendees to share their experiences with colleagues in their own region, so the inspiration transfers to colleagues all over the world.
    All of those who were not able to join us, don’t feel sad, but start saving for IASL 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan.

    Speech for the Assembly of Associations, Lisbon Wednesday July 5, 2006
    Good afternoon,
    "How do you do and how do you do your wife or husband?" I have to warn you "I’m very focused on my fuck" and "I always get my sin".
    You probably have not the faintest idea what I’m trying to say and this is all very confusing, isn’t it?
    Well, the phrases I just used come from the book I always get my sin by Maarten Rijkens*. It’s a collection of English phrases used by Dutch CEO’s and politicians talking or trying to talk English. They have been collected by a former CEO of Heineken brewery during his international career, where he came across many Dutchmen trying to speak English. It shows how difficult it is to speak and write proper English and moreover to really understand each other.
    The language issue for IASL is an important issue and not easy to deal with. Recently a new discussion started on IASL-LINK about the language problems. It is very high on the IASL agenda again!
    How can we solve the language problem, keeping in mind that there are more than 6000 languages in the world?
    First of all, I believe, that we should be pragmatic and willing.
    Secondly, we need all the help and support we can get from you: individual members but especially from associations and institutions.
    Yesterday, there was an ENSIL-meeting. ENSIL stands for European Network for School Libraries and Information Literacy. Since almost a year ENSIL has a blog-site. At this meeting we agreed that we are going to try to put the information on this site in as many languages as possible. This means we will ask contributors to send a brief description of the information, activity or resources in their own language as well as in English.
    We also would like to ask the non-English school library associations to develop one page on their websites in the English language to outline their association or institution and its activities. And I would like to invite the English speaking associations to include short annotations in French, German, Spanish or any other second language on their websites, especially with regard to the resources pages.
    This is not the solution to all our language problems, but it is a first step! And you know what happens with first steps…they are followed by, second, third and more steps.
    So, let’s start now.
    "I thank you from the bottom of my heart and also from my husband’s bottom".

    [*Rijkens, Maarten H (2006). I Always Get My sin. s-Gravenhage, BZZTôH. ISBN 90 453 0561 5]

    Lourense Das, IASL Regional Director, Europe
    Netherlands
    [Submitted 4 September 2006]

    Return to country menu

    Dear Members,
    Here I am trying to express my own experience as a first-time participant in the IASL Conference in Lisbon. I'm a Portuguese librarian teacher and everything concerning school libraries calls my all attention. I'm doing a research about Porguguese school libraries with are part of a network known as RBE (Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares) and this conference had a huge impact on my studies. More keynotes were excellent and it was a privelege to listen to Ross Todd and Carol Kuhlthau.
    Among the many papers I've heard, I'd like to point out Marion Koren's: Serving the child: a human rights approach of literacy and learning. It was so important that it should had been a keynote as well. Her knowledge in this area is very impressive and she stresses so clearly the importance of the children's rights which sometimes we forget. Fortunately, I could buy her book, Tell me: the right of the child to information and I highly recommend it.
    Peter Warning's paper Don't ask me. Ask the horse: evaluating resource-based learning was excellent.
    Many other papers wer important, such as Gloria Bastos because she underlined very well the strengths and weaknesses of the Portuguese school libraries network.
    One of the most interesting workshops was Lesley Boon's: Engaging readers through choice as we all could experience such good ideas to put in practice.
    It is impossible to descrive how good, how well organized, how dynamic, how instructive, how exciting the whole conference was. Everyday we had lots of things to do, to listen to, to learn, to discuss, people to meet, experiences to know. Back home I'm still taking profit from the conference because, now, I became a member of IASL.
    I am most thankful to the Portuguese Education Ministry and my headmaster who paid my registration fee.
    (Taiwan...wait for me)

    Angelina Maria Pereira
    Portugal
    [Submitted 20 August 2006]

    Return to country menu

    Hi everybody,
    Peter has asked for our thoughts on this Conference and here are mine. This was my first Conference and so I did not know what to expect. I had travelled on my own from Australia, a flight of more than 30 hrs.
    The venue, the Gulbenkian Foundation, was excellent, a little oasis in the middle of a big city. I thoroughly enjoyed my morning walk, always with fellow IASL'ers, past the beautiful pink Spanish Embassy to the venue.(PS-what a dazzling art collection there is attached to this venue)
    Meeting people from so many parts of the world and hearing their stories was a highlight. I will always remember the kindness and gererosity of the Finnish contingent, led by the charming Hannaele(spelling?) and Cris and Anette from Sweden, Cathy from Alberta, Melis form Istanbul, Gabrielle form Sydney- the list goes on. We shared some great professional ideas.
    The wonderful professional organization of the Portugeuse committee, their infinite patience and kindness. I particularly remember Sandra, from the front counter, who organised the library tours and Maria who took us to the Sintra public Library.
    I loved the Library tours, especially the one to the Primary school at Loures. It was so obvious to us all the amount of preparation which had gone into our visit. The morning tea prepared for us was amazing.
    The official candlelit dinner in the walled garden of the Museu de Cidade was a magical experience.
    A professional highlight for me was being able to attend sessions by the gurus of the school library movement, Dianne Oberg, Carol Kulthau and Ross Todd. Previously, I had only ever been able to read about their work.
    I especially liked how flexible the Committee was about participation in the con-current sessions.
    Simply the joy of being in such an ancient city as Lisbon, to be surrounded and reminded by history on every corner. For some-one from such a young country as Australia that is such a pleasure.
    Finally, to realise that our similarities are greater than our differences I was just so sorry when it was all over. Now back home when people ask me how was the Conference I just say, it was fantastic, beyond my wildest dreams.
    Take a bow the Lisbon organising committee and the IASL movement.

    Margaret Spillman
    Australia
    [Submitted 11 August 2006]

    Return to country menu

    Last Updated 6 September 2006 (KSB)