Meet your Librarians: Jayshree Mamtora shares her IFLA experience

Jayshree in the Long Room of Trinity College, Dublin

Jayshree Mamtora is the Manager of Scholarly Communications here at the JCU Library. She coordinates library support for research staff and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students at JCU. If you're thinking of publishing research, Jayshree and her team support you throughout several steps of the journey - from learning about publishing academic research to helping with Read and Publish Agreements to getting your ORCID straightened out to getting your publications into the ResearchOnline@JCU repository, the Scholarly Communications team are the people to know.

Jayshree recently presented at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Conference in Ireland. She shares some of her highlights of the experience below:

IFLA in Ireland

Photo by Gulcin Cribb

At the end of July, I was pleased to be able to attend the IFLA World Library Congress in Dublin, Ireland. An annual, international conference for librarians the world over, the Congress is held in a different location every year with the first one held in Rome in 1928.  The pandemic led to the Conference being cancelled in 2020, and the 2021 conference was held entirely online. This year saw the Conference return to being held face to face, though with far fewer attendees, just over 2,000 as opposed to the 4,000–5,000 that would normally attend.  

The conference was a full-on experience packed with a varied and interesting program, and with opportunities to meet and network with colleagues from around the world. As a committee member of both the IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section, as well as the IFLA Regional Division for Asia and Oceania, it was great to be able to once again attend meetings in person, to progress the work of the sections, and to plan new activities while reporting on the ones that had been held in recent times.

One of the highlights of the Conference, for me, was the opportunity to present at the IFLA Academic and Libraries Hot Topics session which had as its theme, “Truth, Evidence and Memory: Academic Libraries as Cultural Rights Defenders”. Our presentation, Reconciliation – an Australian Perspective, prepared with my Library colleagues, Claire Ovaska and Bronwyn Mathiesen, and based on an article we published last year, presented Reconciliation to the world as we see it in Australia, how academic libraries in Australia are responding to it, and in particular, how JCU Library is working towards supporting the University’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Other presentations in the Hot Topics session were from France, the United States and New Zealand.

From Left to Right: Lorraine Haricombe - University of Texas Libraries, United States (Hot Topics Organiser); Lisandra R. Carmichael, Georgia Southern University, United States (Speaker); Jérôme Fronty, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Speaker) France; Jayshree Mamtora, James Cook University Library, Australia, Gulcin Cribb, Chair, IFLA Academic and Research Libraries; Rachel Esson, National Library of New Zealand, New Zealand (Speaker); and Te Paea Paringatai, Information and Knowledge Services Branch, The Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand (Speaker). Photograph by Gulcin Cribb.

From Left to Right: Jérôme Fronty, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), France; Te Paea Paringatai, Information and Knowledge Services Branch, The Department of Internal Affair, New Zealand and Rachel Esson, National Library of New Zealand, New Zealand; and Lisandra R. Carmichael, Georgia Southern University, United States; Jayshree Mamtora at the podium. Photograph by Gulcin Cribb.

On the Friday following the conference, tours were organised for delegates to a wide range of libraries. Without hesitation, I elected to visit Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room and the Book of Kells. The visit was scheduled for a time before it opened to the public to allow us to avoid the crowds. The beautiful Book of Kells is a medieval manuscript created by Early Christian monks around 800 AD, and written in Latin with the four gospels of the New Testament. We couldn’t take photos of the Book, however there were panels in an exhibition with excerpts where I was allowed to take photographs.

The Long Room, the world-renowned main chamber of the Old Library, was just as awe-inspiring as it looks in the movies and in photographs. Completed in 1732, and housing more than 200,000 of the library’s oldest titles, the Long Room also has a series of very impressive busts of famous philosophers and writers lining the walkways of the 200-foot room.

My next visit was to the Trinity College Dublin’s award-winning Brutalist Berkeley Library, built in 1967 and designed by Paul Koralek. Working at JCU Townsville Library with its own award-winning Brutalist design by architect James Birrell, and interestingly built around the same time, how could I not visit it! We weren’t able to take photos inside the Berkeley Library unfortunately, but were given special permission to take a look at the ground floor of the library. The upper floors were closed for filming Russell Crowe’s new movie. Sadly, I couldn’t wangle a part as an extra in the movie!

(If you haven’t visited our Brutalist library, the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library in Townsville, check out this video of the Library and its Special collection and make a plan to come and visit us.)

The IFLA WLIC Congress in Dublin allowed me to partake in PD at an international level, listen to new ideas from around the world and share some of mine, gain feedback on our presentation and meet new colleagues while catching up with old. Fáilte! – a true Irish welcome.

- Jayshree Mamtora

All photos by Jayshree Mamtora unless otherwise indicated.