Remarks by Dr. John Brademas, President of New York University, address the meeting theme--"Libraries and the Universal Availability of Information"--with special attention to research libraries and their service to scholars, the quality of public and school libraries, the plight of non-readers, the role of governments in supporting libraries and in assuring freedom of inquiry, and an international agenda for libraries. A presidential address by Else Granheim (Norway), entitled "From Copenhagen to Chicago," provides a retrospective look at IFLA and its activities from 1979 to the present. Also included in this compilation of plenary session papers are: (1) "The Role and Place of Soviet Libraries in Providing Universal Availability of Knowledge" (V. S. Lesokhima, Chief Library Directorate, USSR Ministry of Culture); (2) a response to the previous paper (P. B. Mangla, Professor and Head of the Department of Library and Information Science, and Dean of Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi, India); (3) "The Mexican National Program of Public Libraries" (Ana Maria Magaloni de Bustamante, Mexico); (4) "The Indivisible World: Libraries and the Myth of Cultural Exchange" (Daniel J. Boorstin, Librarian of Congress, United States); and (5) "Brazil--The Preservation of Culture through Technology" (Maria Alice Barroso, General Director, Biblioteca Nacional Argentina). (THC)