Presenter: Martin Kesselman, Rutgers University, United States

Date: Friday, January 24, 2014. 9 a.m. Costa Rica Time (UTC−06:00)

Rationale: A group of organizations1 believes in the importance of libraries as the main channels for organizing, helping select, preserving and sharing information for development. Agricultural libraries and information centers have become a key factor in the building of new knowledge-based ecosystems. But the world has changed dramatically, in terms of not only the traditional physical library but also the needs of, and tools used by, readers, learners, consumers and producers of information.

Discussion of this issue started last year, during the Agricultural Information Specialists World Congress organized by IAALD at Cornell University. After it, we committed to explore the matter further, so a series of activities will be held during 2014 to define better the new roles librarianships need to explore and strengthen, as well as the main challenges facing agriculture libraries.

We want to start with a concept that has been around for several years but needs to be defined more clearly: the role librarians need to play in specialized organizations. Being embedded!! Mr. Kesselman will talk about the changing library landscape, the current value of librarians and the challenges they face. An inspirational talk to start 2014!>

If you are interested in joining us, please confirm your email by writing to [email protected], so we can send you the link for the webinar.