I’m Ertuğrul
A librarian from Türkiye
An advocate for freedom of expression, diversity, transparency, and SDGs
"connect and share"
Dear Colleagues,
My name is Ertugrul Cimen. I am the Chair of the Regional Council and a member of the Governing Board of IFLA.
I am a Turkish librarian and the son of two devoted teachers. I vividly remember the happiness at home when I passed the university exams for library science. During my student days and professional life, I visited the Library of Celsus at Ephesus several times. And every time I felt that the spirit of those ancient Librarians was still alive, even though only the façade of the once flourishing library remains. This feeling was one of the most important motivations for me to pursue my library career.
Another important motivation was the synergy, spirit of solidarity, and global impact of the international library community working together, which I witnessed at the IFLA World Library Congress held in Istanbul in 1995, in the early days of my career. One of the most important milestones of my career as a library professional was the privilege of presenting a paper at the IFLA Congress held in Milan in 2009. At this Conference, it was clear to me that I definitely belonged to the IFLA community. With these thoughts in mind, I took on more active roles as a part of the IFLA family. I joined IFLA as a standing committee member in 2013, and I still volunteer on several committees. In the last couple of years, with the colleagues of the Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Standing committee, we helped to prevent the interruption of access to information with the pandemic response initiative we call RSCVD. The RSCVD initiative won the IFLA Dynamic Unit and Impact Award in 2020, and it is still meeting the needs of the global library community to this day. In the previous years, I have served as a DDRS Standing Committee member, information coordinator, secretary, FAFIFE advisory board member, and information coordinator at IFLA. I am always proud to be a part of IFLA and to participate in its activities.
