Standards work in progress

IFLA generally uses the term “standards” to refer to the following types of documents:

• Guidelines (documents specifying requirements, making provisions, and giving recommendations and basic instructions based on examples, about an action or behaviour)
• Best practices (documents suggesting the best course of action, providing information on methods or programs that have proven successful and can be adapted by others)
• Conceptual models
• Rules for resource description
• Data encoding schemes

They are developed following the IFLA Standards Procedures Manual.

Once completed and endorsed by the IFLA Professional Council on behalf of the Governing Board, new standards are published in the IFLA repository, announced via the news feed and included in the list of current IFLA standards.

IFLA Standards in progress

The following IFLA standards are in the standards review and approval process.

Standards under review

• Guidelines for Inclusive Library Services for Persons with Print Disabilities, revision of Libraries for the Blind in the Information Age: Guidelines for Development, 2005 (Status: submitted for review April 2025). For further information, contact: Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section
• IFLA Guidelines for Green Libraries, new guidelines (Status: project approved April 2024; submitted for review April 2025). For further information contact: Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section
• International Standard Bibliographic Description for Manifestation (ISBDM), (Status: reviewed by CoS in January 2025; returned to Review Group to revise and resubmit; resubmitted April 2025). For further information contact: ISBD Review Group

Standards reviewed and recommended for endorsement

• None at this time

Approved for publication

• None at this time

Standards reviewed and returned to the Units

• Guidelines for Audiovisual and Multimedia Collection Management in Libraries (draft 2017), revision of Guidelines for Audiovisual and Multimedia Materials in Libraries and other Institutions (2003) (Status: reviewed by CoS in June 2017; returned to Section to revise and resubmit; revisions projected under new title: IFLA Guidelines for Audiovisual Resources in Libraries and other Institutions; worldwide review held April-May 19, 2025, draft available for comment; expected submission July 2025)
  Further information, contact Audiovisual and Multimedia Section

Standards development in progress

• International Standard Bibliographic Description for LRM (ISBD for LRM), (project approved June 2025, in development, expected submission 2027). For further information contact: ISBD Review Group
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Children aged 0-18 (3rd edition), revision of 2nd edition 2018, (project approved October 2024, in development, expected submission 2026). For further information contact: Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section
• Multicultural Communities: Guidelines for Library Services (4th edition), revision of 3rd edition 2009, (project approved May 2024, in development, expected submission 2025). For further information contact: Library Services to Multicultural Populations
• IFLA Guidelines for Continuing Professional Development: Principles and Best Practices (3rd edition), revision of 2nd edition 2016, (project approved March 2024, in development, expected submission date 2025). For further information, contact: Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning
• Guidelines for Library Services for People who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or Deafblind, revision of Guidelines for Library Services to Deaf People, 2nd edition 2004, (in development, expected submission date 2025). For further information, contact: Equitable and Accessible Library Services Section
• Statement of International Cataloguing Principles (ICP), revision of 2016 edition, (worldwide review held March 26-May 16, 2025, draft available and statement of intent)

Completed and published standards

• UNIMARC Authorities Format Manual (UNIMARC/A) and UNIMARC Bibliographic Format Manual (UNIMARC/B), online editions, versions 1.1.0 (2024) (endorsed by the Professional Council March 2025) ** Published January 2025
• IFLA Guidelines for Making Libraries Accessible for People with Disabilities, revision of the Access to libraries for persons with disabilities checklist, 2005 (endorsed by the Professional Council December 2024) ** Published December 2024
• IFLA Guidelines for Libraries Supporting Displaced Persons, first edition (endorsed by the Professional Council November 2024) ** Published December 2024
• LRMoo, object-oriented definition and mapping from IFLA LRM, version 1.0 (endorsed by the Professional Council April 2024) ** Published December 2024
• Guidelines for Maintaining and Documenting IFLA Vocabularies (approved by CoS August 2023)
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners, 4th edition (endorsed by the Professional Council February 2023)
• Guidelines for Parliamentary Libraries, 3rd edition (endorsed by the Professional Council in July 2022)
• IFLA Guidelines for Professional Library and Information Science (LIS) Education Programmes (endorsed by the Professional Council in April 2022)
• Common Practices for National Bibliographies in the Digital Age (endorsed by the Professional Council in April 2022)
• ISBD International Standard Bibliographic Description : 2021 Update to the 2011 Consolidated Edition (endorsed by the Professional Council in February 2022)
• Competency Guidelines for Rare Books and Special Collections Professionals (endorsed by the Professional Committee in October 2020)
• Guidelines for Setting Up a Digital Unification Project (endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2019)
• IFLA Guidelines on Public Internet Access in Libraries (May 2019, endorsed by the Professional Committee in June 2019)
• Gifts for the Collections: Guidelines for Libraries, expanded 2019 edition (endorsed by the Professional Committee in March 2019)
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Children aged 0-18, 2nd edition, version 1.1.1, June 2018 (endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2018)
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to People Experiencing Homelessness (endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2017)
• Guidelines for translations of the IFLA ISBD namespace in RDF, version 1.0, April 2017 (endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2017)
• IFLA Library Reference Model: A Conceptual Model for Bibliographic Information (endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2017, amended and corrected December 2017 and again July 2024)
• Definition of PRESSoo: A Conceptual Model for Bibliographic Information pertaining to Serials and Other Continuing Resources, version 1.3, August 2016 (endorsed by the Professional Committee in March 2017)
• Definition of FRBRoo: A Conceptual Model for Bibliographic Information in Object-Oriented Formalism, version 2.4, November 2015 (endorsed by the Professional Committee in December 2016) Superseded by LRMoo version 1.0, April 2024
• Statement of International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) (approved November 2016, endorsed by the Professional Committee in December 2016)
• IFLA Guidelines for Continuing Professional Development: Principles and Best Practices, 2nd edition (approved June 2016, endorsed by the Professional Committee in August 2016)
• Guidelines for Parliamentary Research Services (approved August 2015)
• IFLA School Library Guidelines, 2nd revised edition (endorsed by the Professional Committee in June 2015)

See also the full list of current IFLA Standards.