Jamaica to host international librarian conference this year

The Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA) will host the 40th Anniversary Conference of the International Association of School Librarians (IASL), at the University of the West Indies, Mona, from the 7th to 11th August 2011, under the theme: 'School Libraries: Empowering the 21st Century Learner.'

IASL, which was founded in Kingston, Jamaica, in August 1971, approved the contract in Padua, Italy in 2009 for Jamaica to host the 2011 Conference.

The Conference will have participants visiting from all over the world including school librarians from Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, South Africa and India.

The organising committee is chaired by Dr Paulette Stewart, lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Studies at the UWI and president of LIAJA.

The conference aims to sensitise educators, policymakers and administrators about the role of the school library; to expose school librarians to international best practices; to share information about programmes and materials for children and youth throughout the international community and to promote research in the field of school librarianship.

Dr Stewart indicated that the organizing committee is expecting 400 librarians and educators to attend the conference.

The overseas participants will be exposed to various aspects of Jamaican heritage and culture by participating in organised visits to the Bob Marley Museum; Marcus Garvey's Liberty House; the Mico University College 'Inafca Museum; Port Royal and the Institute of Jamaica, in Kingston; the historic Spanish Town in St Catherine and Dunn's River Falls in St Ann.