Opening address. Purdue e-pubs. Purdue University. Sven Westberg Chalmers University of Technology

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1 Purdue Universiy Purdue e-pubs Proceedgs of he IATUL Conferences 1985 IATUL Proceedgs Openg address Sven Wesberg Chalmers Universiy of Technology Sven Wesberg, "Openg address." Proceedgs of he IATUL Conferences. Paper 1. hp://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iaul/1985/papers/1 This documen has been made available hrough Purdue e-pubs, a service of he Purdue Universiy Libraries. Please conac epubs@purdue.edu for addiional formaion.

2 OPENING ADDRESS Sven Wesberg Presiden of IATUL Chalmers Universiy of Technology Library, Gohenburg, Sweden I is good o be England nowha April'shere I shall no make a key-noe speech; I shall no anicipae anyhg of wha he real conribuors o his conference are gog o say, I shall, for reasons ha will become c1ear as I go aiong, dwell somewha on he IATUL pas and consequeniy draw raher heavilyon wha has already been wrien. Bu firsly I wouid like, on behalf of he Board of IATUL, o we1come you o he elevenh IATUL Conference. We on he Board are very pleased deed ha 50 many of our Members have been able o ake par his conference. As you know, he conference has been organized associaion wih F.I.D. - Federaion Inernaionale de Documenaion -and he IFLA secion of Science and Technology Libraries. Boh hese organizaions are represened a our conference by persons who are also IATUL members - IFLA by Dr. Franziska HezIe of he Fachhochschule Aachen and Secreary of he IFLA Secion of Science and Technology Libraries, F.I.D. by heir Presiden, Mr. Michael Hill of he Science Reference Library London. Anoher special menion is due o organizaions, formally ouside he acual membership of IATUL bu who have always aken grea eres our work and showed grea generosiy arrangg recepions a our conferences and elsewhere, I we1come very much deed he represenaives of BIackwell's, Pergamon Press, and Swes, no all here oday bu jog us durg he week. I would like also especiauy o we1come hose of you who have aken he rouble o come here from faraway counries and conens. We are glad o see wih us members from Ausralia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Souh Africa and he Unied Saes, I is, of course, a pleasure o noe ha boh Easern and Souhern Europe and Israel are represened here o-day, All of you - oid as weu as new members -are hearily we1come o our conference. 1

3 There is, however, one imporan mernber missg oday. I have he sad duy o ell you ha he Direcor of he Library of he Technological Universiy of Norway, Trondheim - Knu Thalberg - died only a few weeks ago. He had planned o ake par his conference, and we can only deeply regre his absence. Wih Knu Thalberg, we have los one of he mos noable and loyal IATUL Members, who, for several years, served our associaion as an acive member of our Board. In 1976, he very acively planned o hos he 7h IATUL Conference Trondheim. This, regrefully, was no - for economical reasons - possible o carry hrough, and I know ha he was disappoed as he always ook a very keen eres IATUL affairs. I would like you all o sand up a few momens silence homage o Knu Thalberg. The fuure of formaion resources for science and echnology is he subjec and heme of our conference, and o look forward, herefore, seems o be wha we should do. However, we have jus looked back for a momen, briefly, and, for a special reason, I will conue o do so his address. The Inernaional Associaion of Technological Universiy Libraries was fac founded Düsseldorf May 1955 as an ernaional forum for he exchange of ideas relevan o librarianship Technological Universiies around he wor ld, Among he founders were he Library Direcors of he Technological Universiies Delf, Dr. van der Wolk, and Gohenburg - Chalmers - Dr. Heml, who also became he firs Presiden of IATUL. In Sepember 1955, IATUL was recognized as a subsecion of he Inernaional Library Associaion's division of IFLA. I now works close associaion wih he IFLA Secion of Science and Technology Libraries. This means ha IATUL his year celebraes her 30h anniversary - a mere girl you migh say, when you compare her wih larger and older siser associaions - bu sill, conside rg wha has been achieved durg hose 30 years, quie maure. The ime relaion pas - presen - fuure - seems, agas his background, a relevan focal po for my address oday, I brgs o md he openg sanza of he firs of T.S. Ellio's "Four quares", "Burn Noron": "Time presen and ime pas Are boh perhaps presen ime fuure, And ime fuure conaed ime pas. If all ime is eernally presen All ime is unredeemable. Wha migh have been is an absracion Remag a perpeual possibiliy Only a world of speculaion. Wha migh have been and wha has been Po o one end, which is always presen." 2

4 )u ~d :0 3.1 IS w ). II 3.1 il ~s.1 0 S n \S ~n S Sig back and akg sock of wha has been migh be a help assessg where we are a presen and wha we may expec and demand from he fuure. IATUL - as i is pu our formaion brochure - is a volunary ernaional organizaion consisg essenially of a group of Ilbraries represened by heir library direcors and senior librarians wih closely similar eress and responsibiliies. I is small enough for he dividual members o be able o develop a close relaionship ye widespread enough o cover he eress of libraries operag virually all modern social, economic and poliical siuaions, Furhermore, he majoriy of he members provide library services no only o he research, eachg and suden members of a universiy bu also o he dusrial organizaions heir vicly. The essenial objecive is o provide a forum where library direcors can mee o exchange views on maers of curren significance and provide an opporuniy for hem o develop a collaboraive approach o problems. IATUL is an excellen example of he developmen of an effecive formal ernaional nework beween Ilbraries of similar ype wih a common high level of professional experise and offerg a similar kd of service. The possibiliy of IATUL beg acively volved he developmen of an effecive echnological Iibrary nework was implied recommendaion 7 of UNISIST repor (I 97 1) which says: "A srong sdenific library sysem should be recognized as an essenial componen of sdenific formaion ransfer modern imes. In collaboraion wih he ernaional and naional organizaions concerned (IFLA, IATUL, ec.) UNISIST should direc is effor o a saemen of he mimum se of funcions and levels of performance ha sdenific libraries ough o maa for heir opimum performance".. IATUL brgs is members ogeher a biennial conferences and encourages and simulaes conac and collaboraion beween hem durg he erveng periods. Though an dependen organizaion, IATUL maas close conac wih IFLA, of which i is an Inernaional Member. Wha - hen - is he achievemen of IATUL? I would recommend you o read Dr. Schmidmaier's paper on he hisory of IATUL which is shor and very much o he po.v In i are highlighed he associalons' saues, is publicaion aciviies and - specially - is conferences. Of special eres - oday - are, perhaps, he conferences. The conferences were preceeded by meegs held a Munich 1956, Fulda 1958 and Trier The firs conference, which was offically called so, was held Delf "Technological Universiies and Progress". I conue, dg Dr. Smidmaier: 1961 on he heme "In 12 papers and many discussions he whole range of librarianship Technological Universiy Libraries was covered. Unforunaely, separae Conference Proceedgs were no published". * IATUL Proceedgs Vol. 8, 1976, pp

5 The conferences followg his firs one have all been cenred on special hemes. Thus he second conference Sugar reaed he problems of "Modern Library Buildg and Equiprnen", Only absracs of he programme were published LIBRI. The Third WorJd's library problems were discussed a he followg conference a Haifa 1967 on he heme: "The Organizaion and Managemen of a Library a Developg Counry". No complee official record of his conference has been published. Library User Educaion - oday a recognized imporan par of a library's work - was he cenre of eres a he 4-h Meeg a Loughborough 1970 on "Educag he Library User", Apar from he lecures, demonsraions of pracical saff paricipaion user srucion were given. Compuerized formaion services were reaed a a conference - he 5h one a Vedbaek ouside Copenhagen, under he headg "Compuer-based Informaion Services Technological Universiy Libraries''. I was very well organized very pleasen surroundgs, and sce his was he firs IATUL conference I ook par, I remember i weil. The 6h Conference Zürich 1975 was on he heme "Universiy Libraries as Informaion Cenres". Eleven papers were read coverg he relaionship beween he Universiy Library and Informaion Cenres, he role of he Librarian, and coordaion of bibliographic acivlies, The 7h Conference 1977, a he Caholic Universiy of Louva, cenred on he heme of "Developg Library Effeciveness for he Nex Decade", while he nex meeg a Enschede he Neherlands reaed "Library Cooperaion", where he crucial po urned ou o be when o co-operae and when no o co-operae, or wheher you should ry o co-operae a all coss or raher prefer o go i alone. "Libraries and he Communicaion Process" as a conference heme was reaed a he foilowg meeg ' a Lausanne. I was presened a penerag and eresg roducory paper by Dr. Jean-Pierre Sydler, who was he Presiden of IATUL. A brillian surnmg up of his conference was given by Mr. Michael Hill of he 5cience Reference Library. I am sorry o say I was no able o aend he Conference a Essen 1983, bu he problems discussed here concerng "The Fuure of Serials: Publicaion, Auomaion and Managemen" - are problems ha we are facg daily and which sis on a soluion beg found. Apar rom he conferences, special semars have been arrangecf - he mos recen Delf on "User Educaion he On-Le Age 1I". The proceedgs of his semar have jus been pred and is currenly beg disribued o he membership. 4

6 -s. ~d a :e :>f :>f :1 as 0- r. d f f The IATUL publishg aciviies have, however, no been confed o he Conference Proceedgs. Anoher series, which appears irregularly, bu wih remarkable frequency, is he IATUL Proceedgs. The simijariy ile wih he Conference Proceedgs has, perhaps, caused some confusion he periodicals regisraion deparmens. Sill, his oher series is quie eresg as i has developed from raher general issues, where papers on very differen problems have been pu ogeher, o heme numbers where papers have cenred round a ma heme and highlighed differen aspecs and approaches o his heme. Thus we have such hemes as "User Educaion Universiy of Technology Libraries", "Library Buildgs", "Onle Issue", "Educaion for Work Technological Universiy Libraries", "User Educaion he Onle Age", "Library Developmen: Ausralia", So much for wha has been. Are here, oday, any regres abou wha migh have been? Lookg back, i is perhaps ofen easy o see and say ha his, ha and he oher could have been done beer - I sill hk ha even misakes can be useful ools for makg hgs beer now and he fuure. Our presen conference concerns he fuure: "The Fuure of Informaion Resources for Science and Technology and he Role of Libraries", We have a hos of papers and communicaions, vied and offered, o which we look forward wih eres. I do no consider i my role here o anicipae wha our conribuors are gog o presen, nor o offer a personal view of he implicaions of he problems ha i is necessary o discuss wih he framework of he commandg herne, Thus, I confe myself o once aga wis hg you all hearily welcome o our Conference. Thank you. e :h is - 5