OZ 2011/4

156 ORGANIZACIJA ZNANJA 2011, LETN. 16, ZV. 4 It is a great honor and joy for me that Mr. Davor Šoštarič invited me to speak to you. I would like to congratulate him and his staff on the tremendous progress the development of software programs of IZUM, like COBISS and SICRIS, have made in the past 20 years. I do admire their success and hope that this continuing progress will go on also in the time of less money. Let me thank all members of staff who helped preparing this conference. Its success is the reward for the countless hours spent by each of them. A warm welcome to all teachers, students and postgraduate librarians, the alumni from IZUM-COBISS student-courses, the fact that you are here is a vivid example of Life-Long-Learning (LLL). Life-long-learning is a frequently used buzz-word especially in the field of information with its permanently changing technology and software packages. European Union has installed some programs for LLL like GRUNDTVIG activities (http://ec.europa.eu/education/ grundtvig/doc880_de.htm). Let me tell you about my own Life-long-Learning to demonstrate that it is not something new but a necessity for anyone, past or present, trying to make progress in whatever field one has chosen to work in. I started my university years with studying German Language, Geography and Ethnology with the aim to become either a teacher or a cartographer, something that fascinated me very much. The combination of subjects was not seen fit for becoming a teacher at that time – a few years later this was not the case any more – the profession in a folklore museum or as cartographer was made impossible because there was no offer of a post. After receiving my PhD in Geography I needed to start all over. Figure 1: Karl-Franzes University Graz I switched to Chemo-technology and finished after 2 years with a degree comparable with today’s bachelor degree. This probably led me to work at the University Library of Graz where they need scientists not only humanists. I did all library studies and examinations, I started as a cataloguer, and after three years became the Information Specialist for Chemistry using the Chemical Abstracts Services of Ohio/USA, called CAS. A year later I started to teach both students and librarians how to use the paper-form of an index or abstracts, like the Science Citation Index or chemical abstracts, biological abstracts, physics abstracts and so on. Almost ten years after starting to work at the library I became the system-analyzer for the first library-lending program of a number of Austrian libraries. In addition to that I became deputy librarian of the then director, Franz Kroller. FREE FLOW OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AMONG LIBRARIES Sigrid Reinitzer Karl-Franzens-University Graz doi:10.3359/oz1104156