Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
ResiliArt x Mondiacult is coming to IFLA! Take part in this exploration of how libraries help enable the discovery, creation, and enjoyment of diverse expressions of culture to be a part of everyday life.
UNESCO has published the call for cities interested in holding the title of World Book Capital 2024. The successful candidate will have a great opportunity to develop and showcase initiatives that promote reading and books, benefitting their own citizens, and offering inspiration to others elsewhere.
Three Attendance Grants to the 2022 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Dublin, Ireland. Deadline for applications: 7 March 2022
Welcome to the second edition of the IFLA newsletter for 2022, with a special focus on Safer Internet Day. Find out about work inside and outside of IFLA to protect and empower internet users - especially children - as well as updates on the World Library and Information Congress, the work of our professional and regional units, advocacy, and upcoming events!
February is an important month for online safety education around the world, marking the annual Safer Internet Day (SID). As part of this, many educational institutions, including libraries, promote safe use of the internet and new technologies, as well as media literacy and overall online wellbeing in their communities. We interviewed New Professionals Special Interest Group Convenor Magdalena Gomułka to find out about how libraries in Poland are engaging.
IFLA’s Professional Units bring the brightest minds in the field together to address issues relevant to libraries and library and information workers at a global level. These international, diverse and vibrant groups of library experts are dedicated to building the capacity, and realising the potential, of our profession. Find out more about the projects they are undertaking, and how you can follow and get involved with their work.
The 15th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions will be held online from 8 to 11 February 2022.
Every year around the Sustainable Development Goals is a busy one, with 2022 no exception! There will be key opportunities to work through the structures and meetings around the Goals to ensure that governments and other stakeholders understand the contribution that libraries can make, and what they need to do it. This article looks to provide an idea of the themes that are likely to be at the top of the agenda this year, as well as two key ways of getting involved – through reviews of SDG implementation and engagement in key meetings.
As part of the February edition of IFLA’s newsletter, an interview with a founding member of the Dynamic Coalition on Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment outlines what the recent developments in online safety policy and practice can mean for libraries."
IFLA’s Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section will soon publish the results of a survey into how libraries around the world are finding ways both to deliver on children’s right of access to information, while also keeping them safe.
The IFLA Local History and Genealogy Section (LHG) Section hosted a webinar on 25 January 2022: New ways to approach the fields of local history and genealogy. A recording is now on the LHG YouTube channel.
IFLA has responded to a call for comments on the South African Copyright Amendment Bill, highlighting the need to reject proposals that will have a chilling effect on the work of libraries, and deepen divisions in terms of access to education, knowledge and culture.
The UNESCO Online Consultation on Cultural Policies for the Africa Region was held on 31 January and 1 February, hosted by the Republic of Senegal. IFLA was represented, making the case for libraries to be involved, from the design to the delivery of cultural policies and strategies.
Engaging around the Sustainable Development Goals represents a powerful way both of thinking through how libraries contribute to achieving policy goals, and building up networks and recognition by governments. We've brought together information about what's going on around the Untied Nations 2030 Agenda at the moment, as well as relevant materials produced by IFLA. Take a look through for more!
Through our work around the Sustainable Development Goals, IFLA argues that libraries are essential partners for development, and should be integrated into planning and implementation. Voluntary National Reviews provide a particular opportunity to set out where these partnerships stand, and how we can go further. We interviewed colleagues in Jamaica to find out more about how libraries are being involved in Review preparation there.
The latest update to IFLA's Marrakesh Monitoring Report sets out how countries around the world are protecting (or not) the rights of people with disabilities to access to information.
In September 2022, UNESCO will convene the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – Mondiacult 2022, hosted in Mexico City. IFLA will help bring the voices of the library and information profession to these discussions is through an upcoming virtual event: ResiliArt x Mondiacult – Libraries enabling inclusive and meaningful access to culture.
The January 2022 newsletter from the IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section is now available.