The future of futures in libraries: Updated Trend Report released
31 January 2025
As underlined at the time of its initial launch at the IFLA Information Futures Summit in Brisbane, the Trend Report is above all a tool available to library and information workers in order to think more purposefully about the future. Doing so is not only central to any sustainability strategy, but also supports resilience in changing times. Beyond this, it can also be a source of wellbeing and empowerment by helping us to stop feeling powerless in the fact of change.
The updated version of the 2024 Trend Report continues in this line, including both new scenarios and a chapter focusing on ways to think about the future.
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IFLA Trend Report 2024: Facing the future of information with confidence
Following on from the model of the original edition in 2013, as well as subsequent updates, the Trend Report 2024 is designed to provide the library field with a vital tool for planning for the future. This is the first major revision of the Report since the original – an exciting opportunity to g...
The scenarios, coming both from the core author team and an external contributor, help make different futures feel more real. They are not just interesting reads, but are also designed to provide a test for your own strategy – how well will your plans do in the future that the scenario describes?
The new scenarios explore ideas of popular control over technology, the growth of short-form video, the loss of whole nations to climate change, the need for community among older people, and the idea of ‘dark libraries’. The new chapter is based on a review of available guides and reflections on futures thinking, from UNESCO, national governments and independent think tanks.
After an exploration of where futures thinking comes from, it then looks at different ways of building ideas of what the future could look like, and then shares tools for using these to improve our own planning.
We encourage you to use these new resources to make futures thinking a part of your own work, and indeed to think about whether you can carry out similar exercises in your communities.
You can access the latest Trend Report and related releases via our dedicated webpage. The Trend Report is made possible by the financial support of the Gates Foundation, via Stichting IFLA Global Libraries.