IAALD Participates in RIBDA XIII

The XIII Reunión Interamericana de Bibliotecarios y Documentalistas Agrícolas (RIBDA), was held September 22-25, 2003 in Antigua, Guatemala. The triennial gathering was attended by more than 100 members and friends of the Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians (AIBDA). The conference proper was followed by the AIBDA General Assembly.

IAALD was pleased to participate in this regional meeting of Latin American agricultural information specialists on several levels:

·        Scholarships were awarded to three presenters to support their attendance at the conference:

o       Oscar Sanchez Gomez, Coordinator, Digital Project Library, Library Jose Figueres Ferrer, Technological Institute of Costa Rica,

o       Jose Antonio Gomez, Director of Social Action, Universidad de Murcia, Spain, and

o       Fernando Garcia Perez, Director, CIMMYT Library, Mexico.

Their papers will be published in a future issue of the Quarterly Bulletin.

·        IAALD Quarterly Bulletin Editor, Debbie Currie, gave a presentation on IAALD and presented a proposal for future collaboration with the AIBDA.

·        Currie also distributed the Spanish IAALD membership brochure to all attendees and staffed an IAALD exhibit booth during the conference.

Informal discussions throughout the conference and following the General Assembly indicated that there is strong interest in having the two organizations work together. For additional information about the conference, including the full-text of many of the papers that were presented, go to:

 http://www.iica.int/servicios/aibda/documentos/ponencias/ponenciasXIII.asp

 -- Submitted by Debbie Currie, February 2004