The below message was shared from 30 June 2025 with IFLA members and volunteers in IFLA’s official languages. 

Gamba Daru*

I hope that you are well.

I’m happy to be sharing an update about the work of IFLA, following our Governing Board meeting on Friday 20 June 2025. I’ll mainly focus on the topics that we discussed there, which cover many of the issues the Board and I identified as priorities at the beginning of our term, almost 2 years ago.

I express my gratitude to those members who joined us as observers. This is the first time that we have opened up a Board meeting to online observers, in line with our overall commitment to building closer connections between board and membership. We look forward to your feedback on this change.

IFLA’s financial sustainability continues to be a key priority. Firstly, we can advise of the signing of an agreement with SIGL concerning the disbursement of the money granted by the Gates Foundation to support IFLA’s work. This agreement covers the disbursement of funds through to 2030. The Board received plans from the Secretary-General for a multi-year strategy, aligned to the IFLA Strategy, to deliver strong results for the global library field. We look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming months.

We also had an update on work towards the presentation of our 2024 financial statement at our General Assembly, with our audit well underway.

We also received a further update on the Knowledge Rights 21 programme, a major initiative overseen by IFLA, delivered in collaboration with LIBER and SPARC Europe, and enabled by the Arcadia Fund. This programme is allowing a greater investment in advocacy, as well as support for national action around copyright and information law at national level across Europe. The outcomes of this work are shared with IFLA committees and groups – further strengthening our global work.

It’s exciting to see the WLIC2025 programme come together. I am particularly looking forward to my own session, and that of our President-elect, Leslie Weir. There will also be the opportunity to thank all committee members for their work during the 2023-2025 term, and welcome new office bearers.

There is still time to register for WLIC2025, and I encourage you to spread the word about our emerging leaders grants.

The Board also received updates on the bid process for WLIC 2026 and 2027. Both processes are on track for announcements to be made at WLIC2025. Determining and sharing the forward schedule for Congresses has been a priority and I acknowledge the work led by President-Elect Leslie Weir who was very well supported by the IFLA Team led by Deputy Secretary-General Helen Mandl.

Addressing other areas linked to the connection between the Board, our members and volunteers, I provided an update on our governance structure health check process. We have issued a survey to members of the Professional Council and Section officers, Regional Council and Divisions, Advisory Committees, Governing Board and IFLA HQ staff. The results of the survey will inform the Town Halls and Focus Groups. Details of how you can each contribute to those discussions will be shared in July.

There will also be an opportunity at WLIC2025 – Session 96 on Tuesday 19 August – to get more information on the health check and also share your views.

I also encourage you to read our new Code of Conduct for Volunteers, which is now on our website, as a resource to help our volunteers work optimally together in IFLA’s structures.

Concerning our Strategy, delivery is well underway, and I’m happy to share the slides presented by the IFLA Secretary General Sharon Memis. In addition to these, we also looked at the 2024 Key Performance Indicators for IFLA, prepared by IFLA HQ. 2024 was the baseline for the new strategy and the KPIs, and 5 year targets will be further developed over the coming months. These will help both IFLA HQ and the Board track which areas we need to prioritise to keep our Federation strong.

Closely linked to this, I wanted to thank all of those IFLA members who responded to the survey issued by IFLA HQ in order to build a baseline for assessing progress against our Strategy. You can already see some of the results in the Net Promoter Score statistics in Sharon’s presentation mentioned above.

Other topics on the agenda at the Board meeting included the approval of the proposal to progress the LGBTQ Users Special Interest Group to a Section. The members of the SIG have worked hard to fulfil the necessary requirements to achieve this, and I am happy to welcome them as the new LGBTQ+ Matters Section.

We also reviewed data from the recent IFLA elections, and explored the insights these offer into levels of engagement in different parts of our Federation, as well as the regional diversity of our volunteer community. Overall, we can see that this has remained stable compared to the previous term, and I hope for further improvement through the co-option process that will begin once our new units take up their mandates. You can see more in the slides presented at the meeting, and in our overall analysis.

As you can see, life has been busy at IFLA, and will continue to be in the weeks running up to our Congress. I’m looking forward to seeing our members and volunteers in Astana. Prior to WLIC2025, we will have the opportunity to meet in the launchpad sessions that I will be leading alongside President-elect Leslie Weir on 10 and 15 July. We are looking forward to some thoughtful and provocative discussions.

Sharon Memis (IFLA Secretary-General) and I will also be hosting town hall meetings on 30 June, 2 July and 7 July, at different times to suit people in all timezones. You can register here.

In other words, see you soon!

Vicki McDonald

IFLA President 2023-2025

* “Gamba daru” means “Good day” in the language of the Barunnggam people from the Darling Downs region of Dalby and Bunya Mountains – the community where I grew up.