Vicki McDonald, IFLA President 2023-2025 and Leslie Weir, IFLA President 2025-2027
Vicki McDonald and Leslie Weir at the Closing Session in Astana, Kazakhstan

The below message was sent on behalf of Vicki McDonald, IFLA President 2023-2025, and Leslie Weir, IFLA President 2025-2027, to all Members and volunteers from 29 August 2025.

August 2025 marks the point at which we move from our 2023-2025 presidency to that for 2025-2027.

While the names and faces change, thanks to our close coordination and shared agenda, you will see continuity in our focus, maintaining and building the forward momentum that we have developed over the last two years. Moving from a strong position to a yet stronger one.

It is an important moment for me (Leslie) to recognise the incredible impact that Vicki’s leadership has had on IFLA and the global library community. Through her wisdom, her commitment, and her friendship, she was the right president at the right time for our Federation, and the histories of IFLA will surely only confirm this.

This continuity builds on a shared understanding that in turbulent times, the world needs its libraries more than ever. Working together, we can enable libraries to be bold in how they think about their services, their advocacy, their partnerships, and in support for their teams to not just to serve but to save their communities. Being bold will mean different things to different libraries, and to different regions and countries – recognising the needs of local culture, history and society.

It is therefore fitting that this President’s message is rather a Presidents’ message – from both of us – Vicki McDonald and Leslie Weir.

We both had a very busy conference! IFLA WLIC 2025 – the first ever in Central Asia – demonstrated the power of our Congress as a place where energy and expertise meet. We started by joining the New Professionals Special Interest Group’s IFLACamp on Friday 15 August where there was great enthusiasm and excitement for the week ahead. On Saturday 16 August we attended formal meetings including  the final Governing Board 2023-2025 meeting – see the summary here – and then never really stopped. Sometimes it felt like a blur, but with all of the selfies we took, at least there is a record!

With participants from over 115 countries, the 2025 edition highlights how WLIC – and our Federation as a whole – can be a place to exchange, learn and contrast in a spirit of respect and empathy.

There are many thanks due – to our amazing National Committee, to all those who ran programmes and contributed to them, to our conference volunteers, to our sponsors and vendors, to Kazakh Tourism, to our wider member and volunteer community, and of course to the IFLA HQ team.

As the high point of the IFLA year, it is also a moment for stock-taking, not least with our annual General Assembly. We looked back at the six priorities that have guided the work of the Governing Board over the last two years, celebrating the successes and progress that there has been made. You can read more in Vicki’s speech at the Assembly.

Looking ahead, Leslie’s first speech as President was an opportunity to set out priorities and commitments, which we further explored during the Governing Board meeting on 22 August.

  1. To implement the IFLA Strategy for the benefit of the library and information sector
  2. To maximise the impact of the IFLA Trend Report as a tool in support of strategic thinking in the global library community
  3. To engage with members and partners with a continued focus on communication and transparency
  4. To ensure an effective and well-functioning governance of IFLA
  5. To move forward with the IFLA Financial Sustainability Strategy
  6. To introduce the new WLIC model working together, beginning with Busan in 2026!
  7. To ensure that IFLA100 is dynamic, global, and inclusive, allowing both for reflection on the past and preparation for the future

Additional areas of focus include a fresh look at our elections process, our relationship with SIGL, and the development of a new Customer Relations Management (CRM) system to optimize the experience of all those who interact with IFLA. And of course, we will draw on your ideas and the work already carried out to ensure that IFLA100 is an opportunity to celebrate and learn from our past to maximise engagement and best prepare for the future.

Across this, we will take an approach at the Governing Board that ensures that there is the space and time to address the issues that need to be addressed, and draws strongly on evidence. And we will continue with monthly messages, dashboards and townhalls.

Finally, we both wanted to offer sincere thanks to the Governing Boards under our respective mandates.

For 2023-2025, thank you to Leslie Weir, Stuart Hamilton, Te Paea Paringatai, Alejandro Santa, Loida Garcia Febo, Kirsten Boelt, Nthabiseng Kotsokoane, Dilara Begum and Silvia Stasselová.

For 2025-2027, in anticipation of our successful collaboration, thank you to Te Paea Paringatai, Stuart Hamilton, Athena Salaba, Ertuğrul Çımen, Loida Garcia Fedo, Jan Richards, Julia Konopka-Żołnierczuk, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Anya Feltreuter and Silvia Stasselová. Thank you also to our extraordinary Secretary General Sharon Memis and Parliamentarian Martyn Wade.

We are stronger together, and now we will move forward to be bold to realise our vision of Sustainable futures for all through knowledge and information, as IFLA celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2027!

Kind regards,

Vicki McDonald, IFLA President 2023-2025

Leslie Weir, IFLA President 2025-2027