By Tabora Bojang
The Gambia National Library Service Authority and its stakeholders recently organized a meeting on the way forward as well as challenges and opportunities confronting libraries.
The meeting is part of a larger venture implemented by the International Federation of Library Associations and institutions, IFLA, as the leading global body representing the interests of library and information services and their users.
IFLA’s global vision discussion brings together thousands of representatives of the library field in the world to explore and map out how a connected library field can meet the challenges of the future. It also intends to assist the library profession in developing concrete work plans on how to put collective vision of the future into practice.
According to the director general GNLSA Mrs. Matilda Johnson, the meeting is an offshoot of the regional workshop held in Yaoundé in May 2017 where African library leaders converged to discuss and map the wayforward for a global library vision.
“The whole idea is for the stakeholders to express their opinions on how they see the library, where they want the library to go in the next 5-15 years, what can as individuals do to make it happen, what the Governments can do to make it happen and how libraries can be more visible in national development,” she stated.
She noted that the conclusions from this discussion will then be gathered and synthesized by IFLA and the material will provide a basis for its Global vision report to be published in early 2018.
She added that after the publication there will be a second round of meetings that will lead to the development of a work plan on how to achieve the collective vision identified in an aligned collaborative way.
“This workshop will no doubt tackle if not all but most of these questions and I am positive that together, solutions will be found to any challenges identified,” she said.
