and thanks for your response.

Being somewhat grey and grizzled myself – at 66 – what strikes me at IFLA is the number of participants near my own age. The congregation is old.

Whether it is getting older than before, I do not know. I am five years old – starting with Berlin 2003 – in terms of regular IFLA participation.

I don’t think there is much of a bias against young professionals as such. But the system of recruitment favours – unintentionally – the old work and war horses.

Those who want to go every year must have substantial travel support from their organizations. To sit on a section committee, you should be able to attend five meetings in a row.

That sort of finance is – in most cases – only available at the senior level of library organizations.

Today, this is more of a problem than in the past, I believe – since IFLA needs to master a different and demanding digital environment. Here, people born after 1970 (say) have an advantage.

Scholarships for young librarians will provide great experiences and lots of stimulating contacts. But IFLA is basically governed by the “regular crowd”.

Getting younger people into leadership positions will – as Bob McKee suggests – require a different approach. A stronger web focus – “web-supported cooperative work” – may help.

Thanks for quoting me on your blog. I had a brilliant time at IFLA but your blog piece reminded me of something that did irritate me slightly at the conference…

I was surprised by the amount of people commenting on how young they thought I was. Now, I’m not that young, I’m 31…perhaps in terms of the average age at IFLA I was one of the younger attendees? I don’t really mind when people comment on my age, but what I do take offence to is when they assume that I am inexperienced and dismiss my comments. Both I and a colleague experienced this on more than one occasion. I wonder if any of the other ‘younger delegates’ experienced this also?

That said, such comments were from a minority of people and I met lots of others who were more than happy to chat, share ideas, exchange business cards etc…and that’s what I’d like to remember about my first ever IFLA; the enthusiasm from other librarians about my research into social value, the energy in the speakers rooms, the friendly atmosphere at the social evenings and at the coffee stand in the trade hall…and of course the many e-mails that I’ve received since arriving home, from librarians all over the world, keen to develop research interests, or just taking a few minutes to say hi and to check I arrived home safely! Made me realise how lucky I am to be part of such an exciting, dynamic and caring profession!
Christine Rooney-Browne