We are grateful to the Dutch library community for putting on a great event at the impressive LocHal public library in Tilburg, crossing perspectives from Dutch actors and thinkers with the experience of the IFLA Governing Board.

IFLA’s Headquarters have been based in the Netherlands for over fifty years, building up a deep and strong history of working together.

With our highly successful 2023 World Library and Information Congress in Rotterdam, the global field had the opportunity to get to know Dutch libraries in more depth, learning about the dynamic and innovative approaches taken to rethinking the role of libraries in communities and societies.

In parallel, Dutch colleagues are also well represented within IFLA, not only sharing what they have learned, but also drawing on international ideas and innovations.

The positive experience is one that IFLA is very keen to pursue, making the most of its meetings in The Hague to engage with our members locally.

IFLA President-elect Leslie Weir

The Board was therefore very happy to be able to take the train to Tilburg, in the south of The Netherlands, in order to join an event at LocHal, the award-winning public library there, for an event designed by our Dutch hosts in order to share experiences and ideas on one of the most pressing issues today: how to work with artificial intelligence.

Following an opening by President-elect Leslie Weir, highlighting how the IFLA Information Futures Summit had allowed participants to explore questions around AI in different ways, Alessandro Bozzon from the Technical University of Delft made the case for more people-centered, function-orientated AI models that really help to meet needs. In this, he argued, libraries could be key interfaces and providers of skills.

Three Board members – Dilara Begum, Nthabiseng Kotsokoane and Silvia Stasselova – then talked about the insights that international engagement had brought them around AI, highlighting exposure to different tools and uses, approaches to skills development, and building a sense of agency in the face of technology.

We then heard from a wide range of Dutch actors, who highlighted everything from practical applications of AI to accelerate cataloguing as well as provoking new ways of engagement with books, to research into how journalism deals with AI.

There were also great local examples of work to boost engagement with technology at the local level, including through mobilising willing volunteers, plus presentations of exciting work in the US and Ireland from Board Members Loida Garcia Febo and Stuart Hamilton.

Erik Boekestijn and IFLA Secretary General Sharon Memis

Throughout this – and the presentation of LocHal as a whole – a strong focus was on a model of libraries that not only listened more closely to the needs of users, but also realised their potential as spaces for connection and creativity.

The event ended with IFLA President Vicki McDonald giving a look ahead to our World Library and Information Congress in Astana, where both AI and the contribution libraries can make to their communities will be high on the agenda.

We are very grateful to Erik Boekestijn for organising the event, and to Peter Kok and the team at LocHal for hosting us.