IFLA's Achievements under the Medium-Term Programme 1986–1991: A Personal Assessment

"When the Medium-Term Programme (MTP) 1986-1991 drew to a close, the Professional Board (PB), the steering body for IFLA’s professional work, in the fall of 1990 asked the then 56 professional units of IFLA, i.e., the five Core Programmes, the 32 Sections and 11 Round Tables, and the eight Divisions into which the Sections and Round Tables are grouped, to submit summary reports on their achievements under the MTP 1986-1991. To compensate for the rather low response rate of just over 70%, and to include facts and events not mentioned in the summary reports some of which were too condensed indeed the annual reports as published in the IFLA Annual were consulted complementarily, along with the annual IFLA General Conference brochures, the IFLA Directory; the IFLA Journal and also some of the Newsletters of the professional groups. The assessment of the achievements under the MTP 1986-1991, which cannot be but a personal evaluation, was presented at the Open Forum of the PB at the 57th IFLA General Conference in Moscow, as it was the last one under that MTP." [from the Introduction]