Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
The importance of access to information as a right for all is of course at the heart of IFLA’s values. It is both a valuable goal in its own right, and an essential precondition for the achievement of so many other rights – to education, health, culture, science and more.
Parliamentary Libraries contribute to democracy through the provision of information, of reference and research services, of subject matter expert support to parliamentary committees and associations, and in many cases, the provision of information to the public about parliament. IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments discusses the work and its challenges.
The IFLA Law Libraries Section has been involved in promoting access to government information, with a particular emphasis on access to law and legal information, for many years. Access to legal information is a critical part of ensuring citizens can be active participants in democratic governance.
Constitutions assign to parliaments not only the functions of law making and approval of expenditure/taxation but also the role of overseeing the work of the executive branch of government. Focusing on this last function of parliaments Josefa Fuentes, IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments (IFLAPARL) Chair, analyzes some of the inherent challenges ensuring public access to information produced and attained by the libraries and research services in parliaments related to government information.
It is currently SDG Action Week, a period of focus on the steps required in order to deliver on the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. To mark this, IFLA has launched a number of new materials, as well as a mailing list to keep in touch around our work in this area.
In the UK, all material produced by civil servants, ministers and government departments and agencies in the course of their work belongs to the Crown and is Crown copyright. The material covered ranges from public records, government reports and legislation to Ordnance Survey maps, government reports and official press releases, and even academic articles sponsored by government departments. IFLA Government Libraries Section Information Coordinator, Jonathan Ginn covers the bases.
On 7 September 2022, the IFLA Governing Board was notified by Adjoa Boateng in a brief email that she was resigning as Chair of the Professional Council.
The Cataloguing Section’ Names of Persons project webpage has a new file from Iran, for Persian/Farsi language.
IFLA is proud to announce the open access publication of Navigating Copyright for Libraries - Purpose and Scope, edited by Jessica Coates, National Library Australia; Victoria Owen, University of Toronto, Canada; and Susan Reilly, Irish Research Electronic Library, Ireland.
For this year's International Literacy Day, we asked the members of IFLA's Literacy and Reading Section Standing Committee for their views on the day's theme - transforming literacy learning spaces.
In a little over a month, the city of Daejeon, Korea, will welcome key urban and regional leaders and thinkers from around the world in order to advance the sustainable urbanisation agenda. The theme chosen for the event – only the 7th such occasion – is local and regional governments breaking through as one. IFLA President Barbara Lison will be attending, and has sent the following message.
To mark International Literacy Day 2022, we’re taking a look at the work done by libraries in Indonesia in order to help the over 8.5 million people lacking basic literacy skills there to develop the capacities they need to participate fully in the knowledge society.