Conference Wrap-Up: International Federation of Library Associates Conference
Near the end of August, we headed to the 85th IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Athens, Greece. As a bronze sponsor and exhibitor, we were excited to meet with current customers and introduce Nexis Uni and Nexis to many others from around the globe.
Our own Marco van Gennip presented an informative session entitled, “Ensuring Trust, Credibility and Influence in Your Library: A Look Into the Importance of Search Relevance in the Digital World.” During the presentation, he focused on three key areas:
- How the four most-used search engines globally—Google, Bing, Yahoo and Baidu—have conditioned students, faculty and business professionals to rely on quickly retrieved, skim-able results
- Why search engines like those mentioned above yield less than reliable results because the search algorithms draw sources from the entirety of the internet—good and bad—leading to poorly filtered search results that lack the quality and accuracy needed
- What the implications are when quick results are exclusive of relevant, reliable and clutter-free results
We also had some learning moments during IFLA:
- IFLA is truly an international event with nearly 3,500 attendees who came from 140 different countries.
- Language isn’t a barrier when it comes to librarians showing their passion and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge—although we try to help with that.
- Next year’s IFLA event in Dublin should be even bigger. Apparently, a Dublin bump is a ‘thing’; so —planners expect 4,000 attendees to descend on the Irish capital in 2020.
- Tabby or Ginger kittens are the top pick for bookmarks—though they all went flying off of our sponsor table.
Last, but not least, we must say that despite the August heat, Athens welcomed everyone with their welcoming personalities and extra tasty food!
