Librarians and Civil Society: a report on the Sofia 2002 Conference

摘要

Sofia 2002: Libraries, Civil Society, and Social Development took place 14-16 November 2002, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Sofia 2002 is the fourth international conference of the highly successful "Globenet" series, which includes conferences in Kansas City, Kansas (1995), Warsaw, Poland (1997), and Sofia, Bulgaria (2000). Each conference focused on the role of librarians in an increasingly international context, and particularly in the evolution of democratic and open societies. The fourth conference placed emphasis on the importance of libraries in developing and supporting civil society. Issues facing libraries in the development of civil society include the role of libraries in the development of national information infrastructures, libraries as centres of cultural change, as well as preservation, barriers to access to information, the education of new librarians, and patron services in the digital age. Sofia 2002 provided the forum for the discussion of these important issues.