Sally Gardner Reed at ILIPG Conference

International Conference, organized by the Innovative Library Initiatives Promotion Group

September 19-21, 2005

“Libraries as Gateways to the Information Society: Increasing Public Awareness” International Conference, organized by the Innovative Library Initiatives Promotion Group, of which Istanbul AIRC is a member, in cooperation with the Istanbul Branch of the Turkish Library Association, was held at Istanbul Bilgi University on Sept. 19-21, 2005. AIRC Istanbul contributed to the program by inviting speaker Sally Gardner Reed, Executive Director of Friends of Libraries USA. Her presentation on “ Marketing the Ideas of Information” was met with great interest by librarians, academicians, NGOs and state and local authorities. The objective of the conference was to encourage the perception of libraries as one of the basic elements in social, economic, scientific and democratic development of the community.

This conference was significant in that it brought together NGOs, local administrators and professionals in the field of information science for the first time. This was a major step in establishing cooperation and communication for a sustainable relationship between the relevant parties.  With the active participation of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Director, the conference received a great deal of media attention.

AIRC Istanbul, with the contribution of AIRC Ankara, prepared a subject-specific electronic page and bibliography focusing on the U.S. perspective. AIRC information specialists led a workshop entitled “Lobbying for Libraries”. The exchange of ideas and experiences were gathered and presented at the closing session of the conference.