Resumen de The Library Services to People with Special Needs Section of IFLA: an historical overview

Nancy Panella

• The Library Services to People with Special Needs Section of IFLA was founded in 1931 as the Sub-committee on Hospital Libraries. It was the fi rst sub-committee IFLA formed for a special user group, that is, hospitalized people who could not use external libraries. The young sub-committee soon saw, however, that due to a range of disabilities often secondary to the cause of hospitalization, some patients required special reading aids, for example, sensory or mobility aids. Those needs also became evident among community members, confi ned or not. Wanting to address them, the sub-committee expanded its focus overtime to include people who, for whatever reason, could not use conventional libraries, materials and services. This paper traces the sub-committee�s evolution from subcommittee, to committee, to sub-section, and fi nally section that today promotes library resources and services for a broad range of special needs people. Its growth in part refl ects the expansion of the Federation itself.