The IFLA President is the Chair both of the IFLA General Assembly and the IFLA Governing Board. They provide professional leadership for the Federation, as well as being the chief representative of IFLA outside of legal and formal proceedings.  

IFLA Presidents serve a term of two years, after two years as President-elect. They are directly elected by IFLA’s Membership.

IFLA President 2025-2027: Leslie Weir

Leslie Weir [portrait in red dress with glasses]

Theme: Be bold!

  • Acceptance speech, 21 August 2025:

President’s Agenda

Welcome, Bienvenu(e), Boozhoo, in Anishenaabemowen the language of the Algonquin Anishenaabe First Nation upon whose unceded, unsurrendered lands I have the privilege to live, work, and play. 

It is an incredible privilege to be IFLA President 2025-27, and I thank you for your trust in me. 

We live in volatile times in an ever evolving geo-political world and with the ever present climate change. The world needs libraries more than ever to Be Bold. 

Being bold may mean different things to different libraries, in different regions and countries – recognising the needs of local culture, history and society. Yet it requires a similar mindset across the field, and will without a doubt be facilitated and accelerated by global collaboration. 

Working together, we can enable libraries to think boldly about their services, be bold in their advocacy with their governing bodies, funders and in their partnerships, be bold in supporting their teams to develop the competencies needed for libraries of today to be successful in supporting and even saving their communities. 

This is the unique task of IFLA, and one that I am committed to delivering on over my time – in particular in the run up to the unique opportunity to reevaluate, reaffirm and reinforce our work with IFLA100.  

In particular we will accomplish this goal by: 

  1. Implementing the IFLA Strategy for the benefit of the library and information sector 
  2. Maximising the impact of the IFLA Trend Report as a tool in support of strategic thinking in the global library community 
  3. Engaging with members and partners with a continued focus on communication and transparency 
  4. Ensuring an effective and well-functioning governance of IFLA 
  5. Moving forward with the IFLA Financial Sustainability Strategy 
  6. Introducing the new WLIC model working together, beginning with Busan in 2026!
  7. Making IFLA100 is dynamic, global, and inclusive, allowing both for reflection on the past and preparation for the future

In this, I am deeply fortunate both to be building on the work carried out by my predecessor, Vicki McDonald, in 2023-25, and to have the support of an excellent team of collaborators on our Governing Board: Te Paea Paringatai as President-elect, Stuart Hamilton as Treasurer, Athena Salaba, Ertuğrul Cımen, Loida Garcia Febo, Anya Feltreuter, Jan Richards, Julia Konopka-Żołnierczuk, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Silvia Stasselova, as well as Sharon Memis as IFLA Secretary General and her team at IFLA Headquarters.

I look forward to working with you all – Be Bold!

Biography

I began my relationship with libraries, as many of you did, with my local public library and my school library. But it was when I was in university in Montréal that relationship shifted from borrowing books to lending them! As a student, I took a parttime job at the Côte St. Luc Public Library, open 10:00 to 10:00, 365 days of the year, as an evening circulation clerk. An innovative library at the time with only two rules, no eating and no fighting, led by my first mentor Eleanor London. I was bitten with the library bug! 

After graduating from university, I became the Head of Adult Circulation and by the following year I was enrolled at McGill University at the School of Information Studies. Since then I have worked in public, government, academic and national libraries in pretty well every role in the library. 

Libraries are my passion, and with my family and friends (many of whom are librarians), my life. 

Access Leslie’s full biography [PDF]

Messages from the IFLA President

Below are links to edited versions of messages sent directly to all IFLA Members—including directors and presidents of library associations—and all IFLA volunteers.

2025

President’s Dashboard

Below are links to regular dashboards reporting on progress towards the goals set out by the IFLA President.

2025