Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
The 10th Latin America and Caribbean Internet Governance Forum (LACIGF) took place in Panama City, on 2-4 August. LACIGF provides a space for multi-sectoral dialogue on the Internet Governance agenda for the region. IFLA was represented, highlighting how libraries can help tackle key issues facing the Internet today, from cost of access to educating Internet users about how to spot fake news.
The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, adopted on June 27, 2013, has been implemented in 30 countries to date, among which Malawi. The country’s accession instrument has been recently deposited at WIPO, and the Treaty will be in force in the country in October 14, 2017.
The Knowledge Management pre-conference Newsletter No. 22/June 2017 reviews program sessions sponsored by the Knowledge Management Section for the 83rd IFLA General Conference & Assembly
The IFLA Committee on Standards will meet during the WLIC in Poland.
LIDATEC will meet on Thursday 24 August in Poland, during the WLIC.
As highlighted in the Development and Access to Information Report 2017, produced by IFLA in partnership with the Technology and Social Change Group at the University of Washington, for access to information to be meaningful, people need skills and the right conditions. Libraries can play a unique role in delivering both, as highlighted in IFLA's submission to the latest call for examples on Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion.
For information to play a full role in helping people to learn, find work and live healthily, simply laying cables may not be enough. The way in which access to knowledge is provided strongly affects the impact it has in communities, especially those facing the toughest development challenges. At the Asia-Pacific regional Internet Governance Forum, IFLA set out how libraries can help.
While tools and standards for preservation are advanced for materials like books, this is not the case everywhere. As a result, when a community’s cultural heritage is on other materials, such as palm leaf manuscripts, it is harder for libraries, both individually and as a network, to pursue their public interest missions. A workshop organised by IFLA in Sri Lanka on 6-7 July started moves to address this problem.
The Hague, 20 July 2017— The worldwide response to International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) ‘s Global Vision Discussion, a venture which will generate a united library field and a roadmap for the future, has been nothing short of remarkable.
IFLA’s Environmental Sustainability and Libraries Special Interest Group (ENSULIB) is pleased to announce the winner of the IFLA Green Library Award 2017.
IFLA, in partnership with TASCHA, launched today the first Development and Access to Information (DA2I) Report at The New York Public Library, during the United Nations High Level Political Forum.
South Africa is reforming its copyright framework, and the Copyright Amendment Bill takes an ambitious approach that could set a great example not only for neighbouring countries but also internationally. It contains some very positive provisions for libraries and cultural heritage institutions, such as the recognition of library e-lending, the supply of digital documents, the possibility to make collections available through secure computer networks, the limitation of liability and on the making available of out of commerce works.
Following the decision of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to incorporate Extended Media Extensions in to the HTML Standard, IFLA has called for reconsideration. While recognising both the potential for technological protection measures to hinder infringing uses, as well as the additional simplicity offered by this solution, IFLA is concerned that it will become easier to apply such measures to digital content without also making it easier for libraries and their users to remove measures that prevent legitimate uses of works.
On Friday 14 July, at the main session of the United Nations High Level Political Forum: "Science-policy interface and emerging issues", IFLA intervened speaking on behalf of the NGO Major Group underlining the need for meaningful access to information in order to succeed in the UN 2030 Agenda.
The DA2I side event “2030 Vision: How Libraries Support the UN’s Work on Sustainable Development” was a unique opportunity to highlight and illustrate the major role of libraries in delivering effective and meaningful access to information driving progress for development at the national and global levels.