IFLA’s Governing Board meets in person in The Hague this week for three full days of meetings, as well as engagement with the Dutch library community. We’re happy to share below the key points on the agenda.

While the Governing Board has met regularly online over the course of 2024, its December meeting in the Hague will be just the second time it meets in person this year. Coming together in this way offers a valuable opportunity to explore strategic issues in more depth, take key decisions, and plan to maximise impact over the rest of the Board’s term. 

We’re therefore happy to share an overview of what is on the agenda on 9-11 December, and of course as always will share the decisions and other outcomes of our work soon after the meeting concludes.

Sustainability Strategy: a presidential priority is to put IFLA on a more solid financial foundation. The Board will discuss how to ensure an optimal relationship with Stichting IFLA Global Libraries (SIGL), in order to maximise investments in strengthening the field. In this context, we are also currently engaged in a legal process with SIGL in order to seek guarantees that the Legacy grant will only be used to support IFLA and relevant administration costs, as well as to prevent the termination of the Joint Account Agreement (JAA) between IFLA and SIGL. The JAA provides that IFLA will pass onto SIGL a fixed percentage of the costs it incurs in connection with its Legacy work – this covers operating and staff costs. 

The Governing Board will also consider a sustainability strategy, bringing together workstreams focused on diversifying incomes as well as making the most of our core strengths – our membership and volunteer community. 

Connected to this, we will be holding a workshop with Governing Board members to advance our thinking about how to ensure that IFLA is making the most of the potential of partnerships to boost our impact. 

WLIC review: we will be bringing together the hard work that has gone into the review of our World Library and Information Congress, led by President-elect Leslie Weir. This has looked comprehensively at the different elements of our Congress model, drawing extensively on the views and experiences of WLIC attendees as well as our wider membership and volunteer community. Completing this review is also one of the commitments made by IFLA President Vicki McDonald at the start of her term.

Code of Conduct for Volunteers: after a year of hard work, the draft Code of Conduct for IFLA volunteers will come to the Board for agreement. This offers a welcome guideline and reference point for people involved in IFLA, and will offer real and practical support. This work has been led by the Chair of the Professional Council, Te Paea Paringatai.  

Governance and compliance: the December meeting will also see a workshop focused on privacy. This is in line with global best practice, that requires that board members of organisations like IFLA are fully up to speed on data protection. Additionally, it will take decisions around how the role of Treasurer will be filled for the rest of the term. 

The Board will also be holding a first discussion about the governance review we will be launching in 2025, in line with the commitment made by the President at the start of her term.

Finally, there will be the standard reporting on IFLA’s finances, including updated forecasts for 2025 and projections for 2024. The Board will review, too, IFLA’s risk register and discuss a paper exploring the future of our Vouchers scheme. 

Preparing for WLIC 2025: Work is now well underway for our Congress next year in Astana, Kazakhstan, led by a joint programme committee of our Professional and Regional Councils. The Board will be receiving an update on this, as well as holding a final review of the Information Futures Summit held in Brisbane on 30 September – 3 October of this year, in order to draw lessons.

While much will depend on the decisions taken in the context of the WLIC review (see above), the Board will hear an update about the cities that have come forward as potential future hosts, as well as talk about next steps in identifying with which professional conference organiser we will work in future,

Activity planning and reporting: following the launch of the new Strategy at the Information Futures Summit, the Board will receive a paper reporting against this for the September to November 2024 period. Following the agreement of the budget for 2025 at the November Governing Board meeting, IFLA Headquarters is developing its plans for 2025, aligned with the new strategy, and  structured around a set of eight stories that describe the change we want to see. We will also look at next steps for the Library Map of the World.

Closely linked to the discussion on partnerships above, the Board will also look across the different externally funded projects in which IFLA is involved, including welcome support from the Arcadia Fund, the European Commission and the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Additional reports will come from our Professional and Regional Councils and Management of Library Associations Section, as well as our Advisory Committees. In particular, the Chairs of the Cultural Heritage and Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Information Advisory Committees will be joining live to talk about their work, and the strategic issues faced in their areas of focus. 

Finally, we are looking forward to making the most of the Board’s presence in the Netherlands to hold an event, organised and hosted by Dutch Library associations, at the award-winning public library in Tilburg – LocHal – to share Dutch and international perspectives around what AI means for libraries. Our hosts are expecting around 80 participants and we are grateful to colleagues in the Netherlands for organising this event. We look forward to a fascinating exchange of views.  

Look out for a message from the IFLA President, Vicki McDonald, reporting back on the Governing Board meeting and the Tilburg event.