Message from the IFLA President, 20 September 2024
23 September 2024The below message was sent by the IFLA President on 20 September 2024 directly to all IFLA Members, affiliates, and volunteer.
Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
The below message was sent by the IFLA President on 20 September 2024 directly to all IFLA Members, affiliates, and volunteer.
The UN’s Summit of the Future comes to a close today, with the Pact for the Future – the key output text – already agreed. Through IFLA’s engagement in the preparatory process, and at events in New York, we were able to support calls for stronger recognition of, and support for, the role of information, knowledge, culture and libraries in achieving policy goals.
Following work that led to IFLA's 2018 Statement on Open Access in Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs), we're happy to release updated analysis of how open content licensing approaches are. This highlights some progress, but much work still to do to facilitate the dissemination and uptake of publications.
The IFLA Metropolitan Libraries Section’s focus for 2024-2025 is on urban transformation, sustainability, and civic engagement. The future of metropolitan libraries is entwined with the future of the large cities they serve. Cities are places where diversity and the density of people and ideas fosters innovation and well-being. At the same time, stark contrasts between wealth and poverty, along with pluralism, may generate friction. How can libraries contribute toward the achievement of equity and inclusion, sustainable urban growth, learning, and innovation?
With a grant from Spain’s Ministry of Culture, as well as the support of other generous sponsors, several IFLA Sections have come together and are pleased to organize the International Library Conference titled “Culture, Knowledge, and Community” in Barcelona, Spain, October 6-9, 2024.
IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section will be holding their 2025 Midyear Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, 5th through the 8th of April.
IFLA hosted Melissa Levine, Chair of our Advisory Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters in the Netherlands as a Fulbright awardee.
The meeting will help kick start a number of key processes, including our nominations and elections, as well as budget and work planning for 2025. There are updates about the Information Futures Summit, IFLA’s finances, and decisions about the logo and theme of WLIC 2025.
Enjoy the latest newsletter from the Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section!
IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section actions update; News from parliamentary libraries and research services worldwide; IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section projects; New publications, articles, and events reviews
IFLA and its new prize sponsor Baker & Taylor are happy to announce the nominated libraries for this year’s prestigious prize for the best new library in the world.
The creation of the new Advisory Committee on Open Science and Scholarship (OSS) was endorsed by the Governing Board in late 2023 and membership finalised in early 2024. OSS continues and builds on the work of many IFLA initiatives, including a statement on Open Access and Open Access Working Party. Its members span IFLA’s regions and many library types, showing how open science affects all parts of the profession.
In the coming months, we will be sharing a range of publications and tools focused on answering key questions for the sustainability of the library field. Find out more about this work, made possible by the financial support of Stichting IFLA Global Libraries, established by IFLA to manage the legacy grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to IFLA in 2016 when the BMFG Global Libraries programme ended
This is our second update on the progress of a draft code of conduct for volunteers.
Following the 2024 Trend Report Literature Review, IFLA ran a survey in August to gather perspectives on the impacts of the Trends identified, as well as the connections between them. The results are now available, and will support the definition of scenarios in the full Trend Report.
The IFLA IT Section, the Big Data SIG, the AI SIG and all volunteers and professional units partners are pleased to announce that the online event "IFLA 24 Hours of Global IT", held on Wednesday, August 28th, was a great success. The event attracted a large audience (nearly 500 live attendees) and featured a diverse and engaging set of presentations.