Dear friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of the IFLA Asia and Oceania Regional Newsletter. 

The Regional Office is pleased to welcome our newly elected Regional Divisional Committee Chair, Kim Taunga. The RO looks forward to working with the new committee to create meaningful initiatives for our region.

In this issue, we are delighted to share key events, highlights and innovations from the region over the past quarter. Featured articles include coverage of the recently concluded Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reflections from a participant in the Chula-Global Library Visiting Fellowship, stories from a community library in Jhuwani, Nepal, and insights into the National Library of Indonesia’s efforts regarding legal deposit and manuscript heritage, alongside their month-long series of programmes celebrating the Bicentennial of the Java War, among other contributions.

As always, it was a pleasure to connect with many of our colleagues and friends at the World Library Information Congress (WLIC) held in Astana, Kazakhstan this year. We are pleased to feature a reflection piece by Dany Miller-Kareko, who attended her first WLIC as a recipient of the IFLA Emerging Leader Grant this year.

We would also like to extend our thanks to outgoing IFLA president 2023 -2025, Vicki McDonald and welcome our current IFLA President 2025-2027 Leslie Weir. Both Vicki McDonald and Lesile Weir have penned a message to all members and volunteers of the IFLA community which can be accessed here. 

In addition, IFLA has issued new statements on Network Usage Fees, which outlines the concerns and recommendations regarding the imposition of network fees for building infrastructure to carry increasing volumes of data over the Internet, and Contract Override, which sets out the risks of licensing practices for digital content and calls for action. The IFLA Governing Board has also recently approved of the establishment of an Advisory Committee on Ethics invites interested applicants to submit completed nominee and nominator forms by 26 September 2025, 15:00 UTC. More information can be found here. 

As always, we would like to extend our appreciation to all contributors and look forward to bringing you more updates about the conference and other regional developments in our upcoming issues.

Contributed by Michelle Lau, Manager, IFLA Regional Office for Asia and Oceania.