I was late to the session Caught in the Middle: Immigration Controversy and Public Libraries (see session 316) because I kept chatting with people after the OCLC Update Breakfast, where Jay Jordan gave an update about OCLC for the packed room. I entered the room as Loida Garcia-Febo of Queens Public Library was discussing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, which ensures equal access to information for all. This joined nicely with the Opening Session John Wood speech, where he announced, similar to the Millenium Development Goals, Room to Read‘s own modified goals to provide an education for 10 million children in the developing world by 2020.

It’s an interesting sign of an increasingly globalized world that international policy documents, including the Library Bill of Rights, are being referenced as guides for creating local policy and service. While libraries are subject to local legislation, Garcia-Febo, and other presenters made the case that libraries can be advocates for the rights of all the residents of their communities, documented or not. These international policy documents can serve as a guide and compass for human rights-based local policy and law.

Renee Reed of Minneapolis Public Library discussed in the same presentation the climate of fear that many undocumented residents are living in, which impacts their perception of the library as a safe and welcoming place. I unfortunately had to leave in the middle of her presentation, though I’m sure she had many good ideas to share.

As often happens in conferences, sessions on topics you are interested in are held at the same time. I wanted to hear some of next session The Digital Revolution and Libraries–Where are We and What’s Next? (see session 144).

I walked in and “collaboration, collaboration, collaboration” was the topic of the presentation, another appropriate topic for the “global” frame of mind I was in. Another example of how session jumping can sometimes produce surprising connections between unseemingly similar topics. In this presentation, it was talking about collaboration for technology resources and policy.

OITP is attempting to create a policy for standards for connectivity and bandwidth to accommodate library services, library applications, web 2.0, and future unknown uses that patrons will have of public access computers. While people are dealing this on a local level, those of us concerned with public access computing are realizing that guidance is needed as to what will be needed to plan for future bandwidth needs. The first question at the end of the session was about our rank in the global community for connectivity, and about developing countries connectivity. One presenter noted that our 50 states are like 50 individual countries which makes for a complicated legislative environment.

Tomorrow, I hope to attend more sessions, such as Bilingual Subject Access for the 21st Century and The Cutting Edge: The Latest Information on Web 2.0.