I was mobile all day and I could not post before. In early morning I arrived at the Finland Embassy which is located in Gaziosmanpaşa in Ankara like many other embassies. (it is ironic: the same named district in Istanbul is a lower class district and here in Ankara it is an upper class one) It did not take more than 2 hours to get the Schengen Visa. I am grateful for their help and also provision of an extended visa. As I might have already told, because of visa stuff, I have been postponing to attend conferences in Europe. Under normal conditions I am expected to attend a conference, a workshop and to lecture in the following months all in Schengen area and thanks Finnish embassy now I will not need to apply again and again.. (in fact, i would probably not apply and would not attend..) This is really good.

I am checking out some last minute stuff as this will be my very first visit to Helsinki. Nice to know that the airport has free wireless. What is nicer than to have web connection in a foreign land you visit for the first time (!)

I will be speaking at this session: http://conference.ifla.org/ifla78/session-75

Conference Session 75

Sleepwalking into a control society?

Committee on Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE)

Congress track 1: Open access and digital resources.

12 August 2012 13:45 – 15:45 | Room: Session Room 1 | SI

NOTE: this session will be live-streamed. Please see IFLA Express just prior to session time!

• Introduction and welcome
  KAI EKHOLM (Chair of FAIFE)
• The Internet is dead!
  SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN (Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA)
• Response: new media control in Europe
  ERKAN SAKA (Istanbul Bilgi University, School of Communication, Istanbul, Turkey)
• The IFLA Code of Ethics for librarians and other information workers
  PAUL STURGES (Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire United Kingdom)
• FAIFE update
  KAI EKHOLM (Chair of FAIFE) and PÄIVIKKI KARHULA (FAIFE Committee Member)

FAIFE Maker’s mark:

• The FAIFE Advent calendar
  PANU SOMERMA and JANI NIEMINEN (Entresse Library, Espoo, Finland)
• FAIFE Book Club
  JONATHAN KELLEY (ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• ALA most banned books in USA 2011
  BARBARA JONES (ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, Chicago, Illinois, USA)

The congress itself has a page dedicated to social media presence: http://express.ifla.org/

Twitter handle can be found in this post title: #wlic2012

Of course as a metalhead, the first thing that comes to my mind about Finland is Folk Metal bands! I will try my best to reach some metal scenes;) Oh boy these are all my favorites:

Genre’s most popular bands

• Ensiferum
• Turisas
• Finntroll
• Korpiklaani
• Moonsorrow
• Battlelore