Globally, while there is a lot of attention to threats to intellectual freedom, library and information workers are primarily concerned about the level of financial and political support for libraries and its impacts on how they can do their jobs. Yet there is, at least in some regions, optimism about the future.

IFLA’s 3rd Regional Advocacy Priorities Survey took place in May and June of 2025, and aims to share an understanding of what library and information workers around the world think about:

  • the political and advocacy environment for libraries
  • how connected libraries are with other sectors
  • which advocacy issues matter
  • how libraries are perceived by others
  • where our strengths and weaknesses are in advocacy

The full report shares extensive data and analysis, but offers a number of key overall lessons.

Ultimately, funding and political support are key: when considering the wider political and advocacy environment for libraries, concerns around funding and political consensus came to the fore, while the freedom to build collections featured less highly. While no region was particularly positive about the present, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa had a relatively optimistic look on the future, while Europeans and North Americans were more downbeat.

We partner better at local level and with non-governmental actors: while scores on partnership activity could have been better overall, these were clearly stronger when it came to relations with others at the local level. Connections seemed weakest with government actors, in particular with agencies and ministries outside of those directly responsible for libraries.

There is still a perceptions gap: libraries focused in their advocacy on a mix of more traditional and new issues, placing more emphasis on topics that are more clearly relevant to external actors rather than internal ones in most regions. However, despite libraries’ engagement, there is still work needed to ensure that libraries are seen as actors, especially in emerging areas of focus such as democracy, information integrity and climate.

We can get better at mobilisation and outreach: we believe that we are pretty good at making the case for libraries and communicating in an attractive way, as well as understanding laws. However, we give ourselves lower scores on activities that involve engaging others – both mobilising colleagues, and working with governments and media.

Access the report via our Repository

The report will be shared with incoming volunteer units in IFLA to support them in their action planning for 2025-2027.