Dear members of the Information and Library Science community, 
For the fourth time, Koç University Libraries are organizing the 4th International Library Staff Week in Istanbul, between 8-12 May, 2023. The event brings together professional Library staff with varied backgrounds working in universities or other research orientated libraries with an interest in sharing ideas and networking with colleagues.
Our experience from similar events, started in Spring 2018, when we organized and hosted for the first time an International Library Staff Week, with the participation of 18 International Academic Librarians from 13 countries and 5 continents. Continuing, later on the same year 8 colleagues from the American Beirut University Libraries spent a week at Koç University and later on, in October, the Library hosted the Greek and Turkish Library Staff Week. In April 2019 we celebrated Spring and the Library profession with colleagues all over the world with our 2nd International Library Staff Week. In May 2022, we organized the 3rd International Library Staff Week. In total 23 attendees from 17 different institutions and 13 different countries attended our event.
We strongly believe that international events as such, offer the opportunity to share different professional and cultural backgrounds and experience in a friendly and relaxed environment and is a great start for potential joint projects.
In addition, Istanbul is a unique place to visit and Koç University stands strong in the international educational and research arena. Don’t miss the chance to be part of the experience!
The main theme of the 4th International Library Staff Week is Open Knowledge to Share: Access, Culture, Scholarship. Library and Information Science is a key sector that contributes to the development of open knowledge.Through this week, together we will investigate and analyze the following sub-themes; access, culture and scholarship.
During this week, library staff and visitors will have the chance to engage into fruitful discussions and exchange of professional and personal experiences, which will broaden their perspective on issues related to Information Science, strengthen their skills and hopefully plant the roots for future collaboration on joint projects.