NOTE: a version of this message was sent by the IFLA President on 5 October 2024 directly to all IFLA Members and affiliates, including directors and presidents of library associations. It was also sent to all IFLA volunteers.

I hope that you are well. 

I am sending you a short additional message to my regular monthly e-mails in order to share some news and thank you from the IFLA Information Futures Summit, which came to a close on Wednesday in my hometown, Brisbane, Australia. 

This year you have been hearing a lot about the Summit in my e-mails and IFLA’s wider communication. You will therefore know that the ambition was to have a really exciting, dynamic, collective discussion about the future of knowledge and information, and how we, as libraries, can shape this in line with our values and missions.  

From the feedback I’ve been receiving, I am confident we succeeded!  

For this, I’m grateful to our speakers, the Australian advisory committee, the colleagues at IFLA HQ, our sponsors, our great volunteers and of course all those who were able to join us.  

However, I am strongly aware that the Summit is only as valuable as the impact it has on how we think and work, not just among the 770 participants in Brisbane, but across the global library field.  

So with this e-mail, I wanted to share with you some of the materials from the Summit that, I hope, will be useful for you.  

First of all, please do watch the live-streamed elements of the Summit. We were happy to share some really exceptional presentations – on Day 1, our opening ceremony, Marek Kowalkiewicz’s excellent keynote on AI and the rise of the digital minions, and the launch of our Trend Report 2024, as well as the Open Panel exploring it further. On Day 3, we had Ng Cher Pong and Gene Tan’s engaging presentation bringing together many of the themes over the three days, plus our closing session.  

Secondly, we have the flagship publications – our Trend Report 2024, Strategy 2024-2029, and our Annual Report 2023. You will be hearing more about the Strategy of course, as well as the Trend Report, on which we’re holding a workshop with emerging leaders in order to think about how this can be the basis for learning materials.  

Third, there is the Brisbane Declaration. This is a summary of the discussions over the Summit, presented and approved by the participants at the closing ceremony. This will, I anticipate, become both a great advocacy tool and reference point as we think about the knowledge and information environment and international library collaboration we need as we head towards IFLA’s second century from 2027.  

And there’s more to come. We will have videos from our emerging leaders and other participants, collected ideas from our From trends to practice unconference sessions, and many of the speaker presentations. 

So please do keep an eye on our website and e-mails, make sure you are signed up to our Newsletter, take advantage of opportunities to engage.   

While the Summit has come to an end, the discussions and work are definitely not over! 

Kind regards,

Vicki McDonald
IFLA President 2023-2025