First Deputy Director-General of the National library of the RK Ospanova B.K., head of  the service of conservation Sarsenbayeva B.Sh. participated in the work of the 80-th IFLA General Conference and Assembly on August 16-23, 2014 in Lyon city (France). The theme of the conference was “Libraries, citizens, societies: confluence for knowledge”. The programme of the activity included the open sessions, seminars, exhibitions, poster-sessions and satellite meetings before and after the congress. There took place the annual exhibition of library materials, audio-visual equipment, computer systems and publishers.

   On August 16, 2014 within the framework of the programme of the Congress there took place the Regional council for the delegates of the Congreess from the countries of the CIS (Caucus CIS), traditionally organized by the Library Assembly of Eurasia before the official openning of the IFLA conference.
   On August 17 there took place the solemn openning of the conference. It was opened by the co-chairperson of the French National committee of the IFLA conference -2014, mayor of Lyon city – Gerard Collomb and Bruno Racine – president of the National library of France. IFLA President Sinikka Sipila noted that the theme of the Congress “Libraries, citizens, societies: confluence for knowledge” supplements and is based upon her presidential programme “Strong libraries, strong societies” and also implements the main idea of the presidential theme: Libraries widen the possiblities of citizens and society. She strongly believes that libraries influence society and development, being conducive to the creation of equal possibilities, research and innovations, culture and rest for all. Thus libraries can be conducive to the creation of stronger communities and societies. Strong libraries are those libraries which have sufficient resources for the satisfaction of information requirements of their users. She is sure that the strong society consists of informed citizens who actively participate in the life of their communities and societies.
   On August 18 there took place one of the key events of the Congress – the adoption of the Lyon declaration on access to information and development. The document was presented by IFLA president Sinikka Sipila and mayor of Lyon Gerard Colomb. The translation into the Russion language is accessible at the site of the Lyon declaration at: http://www.lyondeclaration.org/.
   The main purpose of the Declaration is the inclusion of libraries into the agenda of the session of the United Nations Organization where at the present time there is agreed upon the new Development programme which will replace the Millennium development goals.  The programme will become a guideline for all the countries in their approaches to the improvement of the level of life of the population and will clarify the new goals for the years 2016-2030.
   On August 19 there in the city tower of Lyon city took place the annual meeting of directors of national libraries, in which there participated First Deputy Director-General of the National library of the RK Ospanova B.K. and the head of the conservation service Sarsenbayeva B.Sh.
   For one day the directors of the leading national libraries of the world discussed the problems of development of national libraries.
   The next IFLA General conference will take place in August, 2015 in Cape Town city, South Africa.

   A more detailed information about the work and the news of the Congress, access to the materials of the sessions (including the Russian language), interviews, photographs, videos, blogs etc. can be gained in the Internet “IFLA 2014 in the interactive regime”.
   The address of the IFLA site is www.ifla.org