The BSLISE Working Group has launched a new project profiling library and information science (LIS) students worldwide – “The Student Spotlight”.

The Building Strong LIS Education (BSLISE) Working Group is devoted to strengthening the international quality of library and information science education (LIS), and consequently, the excellence of LIS professional practice. It is made up of members from across the globe and is an initiative of the IFLA Section on Education and Training (SET), LIS Education in Developing Countries SIG, and Section on Library Theory and Research (LTR).  To learn more, see: https://bslise.org/

How does LIS education vary from one country to another? How does the experience remain the same? What is currently working for LIS students? — The Student Spotlight project hopes to address these questions in an engaging, interesting social media initiative. It is one of the ways to incorporate the LIS student experience into the conversations surrounding LIS education.

Developed by then Master’s student Amanda Thomson (USA), now an MLIS graduate, this project has started its coverage of the United States, Nigeria, and Malaysia.

Wish to know more about this project? Then, read Amanda’s contribution in the July 2020 SET Newsletter (https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/set/publications/ifla-set-newsletter-2020july.pdf).

Wish to participate in “The Student Spotlight”? Then write to bsliseifla@gmail.com.

Disseminate this information in your country among LIS schools. We are waiting to hear the voices of LIS students around the globe.

From 21 to 25 September 2020 the General Assembly of WIPO- the World Intellectual Property Organization – took place in hybrid mode in Geneva and online. IFLA worked alongside partners to represent and promote libraries and their interests on intellectual property issues.

The agenda of this, the 61st meeting, included several important items including the overall governance of the Organization, programming and budgeting, the Treaties of which WIPO is the guardian, and staffing matters.

While not on the agenda, a key theme in the meeting was the imminent departure of Dr Francis Gurry, who for 12 years has been Director General of the Organization. Dr Gurry opened the meeting with a report on what he viewed as the highlights of his tenure, with Member States subsequently commending all he had accomplished, and welcoming his successor Mr. Daren Tang (Singapore).

IFLA, like others, highlighted in particular the success of the Treaty of Marrakesh, agreed under Dr Gurry’s leadership in 2013. This Treaty, aimed at facilitating access to published works for people who are blind or visually impaired, has now been ratified, or acceded to, by 71 contracting parties, which together with Europe brings the number of ratifying countries to 98 countries.

In its statement, IFLA congratulated WIPO on the work done, highlighting the essential role of libraries in the ABC Book Service. IFLA also stressed the need to continue promoting accurate information about the Treaty in order to ensure the most effective possible implementations at the national level.

Unlike in previous years, there was no specific agenda item for the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, where IFLA focuses its efforts to promote international legal action on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries.

In advance of the meeting, Member States had underlined their unwillingness to discuss law-making activities while delegates from national intellectual property authorities could not attend in person.

Nonetheless, IFLA used its general statement to underline the case that COVID-19 has made for ensuring that libraries can rely on legal guarantees in order to carry on supporting education, research and access to culture, rather than just goodwill. Both of IFLA’s Statements are copied at bottom.                             

A key moment of controversy was around the opposition of China to the application of the Wikimedia Foundation as an observer to WIPO on a mixture of procedural and political grounds. As a result, the candidacy is now suspended until a next meeting of WIPO in 2021.

The blocking of the Foundation’s application is troubling, given the shared goals that IFLA and Wikimedia share. The intervention of the United States in order to support Wikimedia’s foundation was therefore welcome, but the silence of other blocs less so.

Next steps

With no formal discussion of WIPO’s law-making agenda, there remain questions about the mandate for WIPO’s policy committees, including the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.

In order to facilitate the work carried out within the Organization, Member States therefore agreed to hold an exceptional assembly within WIPO in the first half of 2021.

IFLA Statements

ITEM 5: General Statements

Thank you, I am speaking on behalf of IFLA, representing 2.5 million libraires globally.

First of all, I would like to share our condolences for the passing of Carole Croella of the Copyright Law Division – her dedication and professionalism did huge credit to WIPO and to the UN as a whole.

I would also like to thank Dr Gurry for his leadership, insights and support, and in particular the Marrakesh Treaty, and to wish you well in the future. Similarly, we congratulate, and strongly look forward to working with Mr Tang.

COVID-19 has shown that we need rules that work in the digital age, allowing libraries to support education, research and culture online as well as off. We of course welcome the goodwill shown by rightholders. But voluntary actions cannot substitute for the clarity and certainty that legislative action can offer. WIPO has a unique power to make this happen, helping governments and stakeholders alike.

Thank you.

ITEM 16: Marrakesh Treaty Assembly

Thank you, Mr Chair, and congratulations for your work both in the negotiation of the Marrakesh Treaty, and the work you are doing now within Ecuador.

I am speaking on behalf of IFLA, which brings together libraires globally, including those working to support users with print disabilities.

I wanted to congratulate WIPO on the recent ratifications and accessions, as well as the work of the ABC, which brings together so many libraries to provide access. It is a great indication of what WIPO can do to correct the market failures copyright can create, deliver the SDGs, and the demand that exists for this work.

Looking forward, the work highlighted by Mme Forbin to build understanding of the Treaty continues to be essential, as we still see misunderstandings which risk weakening its impact. Work to analyse the impact of the Treaty on access and markets would also be powerful, as well as consideration of an expansion to people with other disabilities and the institutions that serve them.

Thank you.

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will talk about  the OpenAIRE Community of Practice for Training Coordinators at the #RRI4REAL summit session, ‘Community involvement for RRI: towards the development of an RRI trainers community of practice’. 

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will give a presentation on OpenAIRE at this event organized by the NI4OS-Europe (National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe) Project in Armenia. 

The event aims to present the Armenian OpenAIRE NOAD, its primary aims and future plans to researchers, technicians, and stakeholders. Participants will share their experiences on Open Science and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) activities. 

EIFL has been engaged in copyright work in Kenya since 2008.

We have provided training and built capacity among librarians in copyright and advocacy with our partner, the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC).

EIFL and our partner library consortium in Kenya, the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC), have issued a fact sheet on the proposed US-Kenya Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement that aims to strengthen economic ties between the US and Kenya. 

This is the first time the US has sought to negotiate a deep FTA with an individual country in sub-Saharan Africa, and according to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), it can serve as a model for additional trade agreements across Africa. 

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue is to host a webinar on ‘Controlled Digital Lending in a Pandemic’. 

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) is an emerging practice whereby libraries lend print books in digital format to users on an ‘owned to loaned’ ratio (meaning that the number of simultaneous digital loans is limited to the number of physical copies held by the library). 

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has been bringing together governments, UN agencies, civil soceity and experts for nearly 20 years. It covers the whole range of issues at the intersection of digital technologies and the economic and social world, aiming to promote more equitable, sustainable outcomes.

As part of this, WSIS awards prizes for projects which deliver on its goals at a local level, and which can offer an inspiration to others. In 2020, a project focused on building libray capacity through eLearning was amongst the prize winners. We interviewed Heba Ismail PhD, Director of the Programme, as well as of the 2030 Arab Librarians project, and Secretary of IFLA's Continuing Professioanl Development and Workplace Learning Standing Committee:

1. Can you give a short overview of what you did through the INELI-MENA project?

INELI-MENA is an e-training leadership program, implemented by the Arab Federation for Libraries and Information (AFLI) and funded by Global Libraries Initiatives (GL) at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). It aims to:

1. Support future Arab leaders in public and national libraries by developing, improving their skills & competencies.
2. Build an active regional e-learning network of emerging leaders in libraries in the Arab region by the end of the program.
3. Encourage cooperation between regional library associations and specialists in the field through a cooperative project.

The program consists of:

• Online activities: a Moodle website was created to provide the participants with the learning modules; the website offered a translated version of Global Libraries INELI content, including the following modules: building successful teamwork; innovation; using data; risk management; resolving conflict; change management; advocacy; libraries and development (SDGs); and team projects.
• In-Person Activities: INELI-MENA conducted two convenings in Germany & Egypt.  
• Combined In-Person and Online Activities: innovators worked in teams to produce new, innovative services and programs and implement them in their public libraries. Innovators implemented six projects for their communities: a library for homeless children; a human library; two marketing plans; a program for developing talent; and a pre-school program.

2. What impacts did this work have?

The program was very effective in changing the mindset of librarians, their skills and their competences as most of them are now engaged as the board members of their national library associations, have won grants, have engaged in the IFLA Global Vision and other regional projects, and have won different awards. I consider this is one of the most important impacts of the successful collaboration.

AFLI succeeded in sustaining the program with the collaborative cooperation of library associations across Arab countries by implementing 4 national networks. We are working closely with other association from Arab countries to continue building capacity for librarians across the MENA region.

The number of trained librarians in the 4 networks exceeded 100 trainees (about 113 leaders) and is still growing.

3. Who was involved?

Let me first thank the Arab Federation for Libraries and Information (AFLI) in taking the lead to implement this unique e-training program that lasted for two years across the MENA region; and all of the INELI-MENA team for all their sincere efforts through the process of delivering one of the most powerful leadership programs across the Arab countries, Prof . Hassan Alsereihy (AFLI president, program regional expert); Dr. Khaled el Halaby (former president of ALFI); Prof. Emad Saleh (learning coordinator); Prof. Usama El Sayed (Program Evaluator); Ms. Rasha Essmat (network coordinator); Dr. Dalia el Gohary (Translator & Interpreter): Mr. Moahemd Fayez (accountant).

AFLI's vision in implementing the INELI-MENA program focused from the beginning on engaging one representative from each library professional association across the MENA region which shared common interests and values to ensure the sustainability of the program. This had a double benefit:

• Let the representatives observe and monitor from a very close angle the program to ensure its sustainability.
• Direct interaction with the participants through group projects and following-up with them in order to yield recommendations that will enhance the regional & local INELI-MENA experience.

In addition, AFLI engaged private sector companies who are working in the Middle East & North Africa to support the INELI-MENA program.

All the previous efforts resulted in training 31 middle management librarians from public and national libraries from 15 Arab countries.

4. How did you first find out about the WSIS prizes?

I was browsing the internet and came across EIFL website -ex-winner of WSIS- and I noticed WSIS logo on it, I begin to search for the award to get more information about it as it really captured my attention!   

5. What motivated you to apply for this?

The first thing that jumped to my mind was that the program deserves to be acknowledged worldwide. INELI-MENA had its impact on innovators, library community and users. What also encouraged me was that having started by training 31 librarians, the number is still growing as we sustain the program to train more librarians on leadership skills in the MENA region, as well as providing training through national networks on a voluntary basis by the AFLI team.

Adding to all the above reasons, I love the challenge of participating in different awards and grants, it opens your horizon to great resources that you would like to explore.

6. What was the process like?

After reading about the WSIS 2020 prize and its 18 categories -mentioned below-, we went through this process

Phase 1 (Submission phase): stakeholders were invited to submit WSIS related projects to the WSIS Prize 2020 contest.

Phase 2 (Nomination phase): revision of submitted projects that were result with a list of 30 nominated projects, twenty (20) projects per action line category.

Phase 3 (Voting phase): public online voting of nominated projects (identification of five projects per category with the highest number of votes - I would like to sezie this opportuinty to thank all IFLA members who voted for us to be one WSIS 2020 Champions in the e-learning category, the number of votes for our program exceeded 5000 votes, which could not be done without your support!

Phase 4 (Selection phase): selection of wining projects by the Expert group.

Phase 5 (Prize cermony): public announcement of winners during WSIS prizes 2020 cermony of WSIS forum 2020.

​7. What have the benefits of winning the prize been?

Being selected as one of the top five projects in the e-learning category and recognized as a Champion of WSIS 2020 is an honor by itself – it’s a prestigious award provided by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Moreover, your hard work gets acknowledged worldwide; giving you the possibility to get to know more stakeholders and grantees, exchange information on projects and share best practices between regions.

8. Can you imagine that other library projects could win in the future?

There is a direct linkage between the WSIS action lines and the SDGs, which have been firmly adopted by the library field as part of our work to boost our impact. Therefore, the chance for libraries submitting their application to the WSIS prize are very high if they meet the criteria announced and if they fit WSIS Action Lines. Libraries can submit proposals in the following WSIS action lines:

• C1. The role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
• C2. Information and communication infrastructure
• C3. Access to information and knowledge
• C4. Capacity building
• C5. Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
• C6. Enabling environment
• C7. ICT Applications:

• E-government
• E-business
• E-learning
• E-health
• E-employment
• E-environment
• E-agriculture
• E-science

• C8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
• C9. Media
• C10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
• C11. International and regional cooperation

9. What recommendations would you make to colleagues around the world?

 Show the great work libraries and librarians are doing! Show the world we are there, we are a key player in our field, be open to every opportunity and seize it.

More information about INELI-MENA can be found here:

• INELI-MENA website: http://ineli-mena.org/
• INELI-MENA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ineli.mena/
• INELI-MENA@YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jRWDY8dt4A
• To know more about WSIS, please follow this link: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2020

In the end of this meeting, I would like to thank IFLA for the interview, it had been a pleasure talking to you and thanks again for all IFLA members who voted for us.

Heba Mohamed Ismail, Ph.D.

IFLA CPDWL SC Secretary

Director of INELI-MENA program

Director of 2030 Arab Librarians

Libraries Technical Manager
Egypt's Society for Culture & Development
(Formerly Integrated Care Society)

In light with the growing global concern related to the spread of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), as a precautionary measure, the Steering Committee of the Eurasian Academic Libraries Conference (EALC) has decided to reschedule the annual conference from June 16-19, 2020 to September 30 - October 2, 2020. The conference will take place online.

The Nazarbayev University Library and the Association of University Libraries in the Republic of Kazakhstan invite you to the 9th Eurasian Academic Libraries Conference with the theme “Alive to Changes: Engage. Embrace. Ensure” which will be held in the framework of the Eurasian Higher Education Leaders Forum on 30 September - 2 October 2020 (Online) at Nazarbayev University (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan).

The Conference features distinguished researchers and engaging speakers. The conference will be a venue for scientific discussion, constructive exchange of information, best practices, and lessons, through oral and poster presentations. In addition, a range of special workshops and lightning talks aim to attract participants on wider issues of future-ready libraries and library professionals. 

We also extend our invitation to potential sponsors as exhibitors. As an exhibitor, you will enjoy exposure and direct marketing opportunities with practitioners and decision-makers in the field. You may choose from different sponsorship packages: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze.

The conference will also provide a live streaming link for those who can’t attend. 

The languages of the conference are English/Russian/Kazakh.

Please visit this link for more information:
https://nu.kz.libguides.com/EALC-2020

IFLA is proud to announce a new partnership with the Goethe Institut – Emerging International Voices – bringing together active, engaged and connected emerging leaders from around the world.

We are at a potential turning point in the way we live, work, learn and interact, and so inevitably in the work of libraries. At a time of uncertainty in so many things, digital technologies however seem almost certain to play a key part.

But what new possibilities do they open up? What challenges can they bring, both in terms of how libraries build and strengthen communities, and we they position ourselves compared to commercial digital platforms.

With so many questions open, it’s as important as ever to bring our ideas and perspectives together, and build an understanding of how we can ensure libraries can continue to fulfil their mission in the years to come.

To address these, IFLA is proud to be joining the Goethe Institut in the Emerging International Voices programme.

16 emerging library thought leaders from around the world will come together across a series of three webinars in order to discuss with prominent speakers, and develop their thoughts. Each webinar will be opened by IFLA Secretary-General Gerald Leitner.

Participants will then all prepare articles which will be published on the IFLA and Goethe Institut websites. You can find out more about each of the participants below.

We are glad to announce that the first parts of the webinars will be open for wider registration, and we will be carrying on the discussion on social media afterwards – watch this space!

Meet the thought-leaders:

EIFL has joined over 50 organizations that have committed support for the new Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA), which calls on all scholarly publishers to open the abstracts of their publications in a centralized infrastructure - Crossref - to facilitate large-scale access to and promote discovery of critical research. 

Forty publishers have already agreed to support I4OA and to make their abstracts openly available.

Academic librarians, faculty members, researchers, university administrators and grant and research staff are invited to attend this webinar on research data management services, co-hosted by EIFL and our partner consortium in Ghana, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana  (CARLIGH).

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, will speak about open science at the international conference, 'University Library at a new Stage of Social Communications Development', to be held in Ukraine.

In a week of meetings between 11 and 17 September, IFLA's Governing Board members met, discussed, and took decisions on the work of the Federation, including our Congress, governance, and finances. IFLA President Christine Mackenzie sets out the key points below..

Dear all,

First of all, I send my best wishes to you all. These are indeed difficult times as we continue to offer services in the face of uncertainty. The situation is tough for those obliged to keep their doors closed as well as for those now working to restart and intensify services. It is great to see users back in the library and I know how hard you must be working to make this possible. I wish you strength and courage and know that we will continue to see the same level of innovation and resilience that libraries have shown throughout the pandemic so far.

Last week IFLA’s Governing Board held a series of meetings in order to advance the work of our Federation. Everything was held virtually, meaning late nights for some and early mornings for others, and I want to thank my colleagues on the Board for their flexibility and commitment in participating. Our discussions covered the following key issues:

• As we announced on Tuesday, the Governing Board agreed that our 2021 World Library and Information Congress will take place online as a truly global event, with the welcome support of the Dutch National Committee. This offers us an exciting opportunity to develop ways to engage with libraries globally, and learn lessons that we can then apply in putting together a hybrid in-person and online conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2023. We continue to prepare for an in-person conference in Dublin, Ireland in 2022.
• We held a further workshop on IFLA’s governance review, celebrating a successful series of virtual round tables in August. This followed a survey on draft proposals in June and July that saw a strong and rich response from IFLA’s Members and volunteers, including additional letters setting out ideas and concerns. These meetings have helped clarify the Governing Board’s thinking, as well as highlighting issues remaining to be addressed. The Governing Board agreed that the Steering Committee – made up of our President-elect, Chair of the Professional Committee and myself, supported by the Secretary General and IFLA Parliamentarian – should now work to draft amendments to the IFLA Statutes, in consultation with the rest of the Governing Board. Our goal: to agree proposed amendments to the Statutes in time to present these at our 5 November General Assembly.
• Reflecting the strong desire expressed by our Members, the Governing Board agreed, as part of our work to boost diversity in our Federation, to include a formal statement on the subject in the Statutes. Clearly, our work here cannot be limited to such a statement, but it will provide a valuable starting point.
• In addition, the Governing Board agreed to a new structure for IFLA’s governance documents, committing to develop and agree on a Handbook that will help IFLA’s Professional Units understand the Statutes and Rules of Procedure, and learn from good practices in their work.     
• We discussed the effect of the pandemic on IFLA as an organisation, and on IFLA’s finances in particular. It is clear that there will be negative consequences, leading the Governing Board to restructure our 2020 budget in order to cut costs in line with decreased revenue. I want to offer special thanks to all who are continuing to support IFLA, especially our Members and donors.
• We agreed a new IFLA Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Libraries, underlining both the possibilities and risks that use of AI, inside and outside of our institutions can bring, and making recommendations to governments, library associations and libraries alike. This will be published shortly.
• The Governing Board agreed to an amendment to the Rules of Procedure in order to allow our nominations and elections process to begin in January. Assuming IFLA’s Members support the idea of allowing remote voting on changes to the Statutes at the General Assembly in November, this will then allow the time to carry out an electronic vote on the proposed new Governance structures. Candidates for elected positions in IFLA will then be able to present themselves based on the relevant rules.  
• In other meetings taking place during the week, the Professional Committee held a successful meeting, including discussions around how best to include IFLA’s volunteers in the preparation of WLIC 2021, the Dynamic Unit and Impact Award for our Professional Units, and the improved ranking of the IFLA Journal among publications in the library and information science field.
• The Governing Board voted to freeze membership fees this year, in recognition of the extraordinary circumstances Members are facing.

I hope that you have marked our General Assembly to be held on 5 November in your diaries, and for those unable to attend in person, you will make use of the possibility to vote by proxy set out in our Convening Notice. Further details on how to follow the meeting online will be shared soon.

Kind regards, 

Christine Mackenzie
IFLA President 2019-2021

In February 2020, IFLA received a WikiCite grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to carry out a WLIC 2020 satellite event in Dublin. Due to developments related to COVID19, the project was transformed into 6 online discussions with professionals in order to discuss projects, issues, progress of Wikidata, Wikibase and bibliographic data in the field of libraries.

These discussions, led by the IFLA Wikidata Working Group,  address several themes such as open citations, knowledge equity, language revitalisation, open access to scholarly publications, linking and visualising bibliographic data as they relate to Wikidata and Wikibase.

We thank our speakers, Megan Wacha, Ahava Cohen, Nicolas Vigneron, Sarah Hartmann, Barbara Fisher, Simon Cobb, Jason Evans, Karim Tharani and Stacy-Allison Cassin for sharing their visions with the library and wiki communities.

The series of resulting videos that you can find on IFLA’s YouTube channel and soon on WikiCommons, is currently available with subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese and French (Arabic and Chinese to come).

As a follow-up to this project, the IFLA Wikidata Working Group is organising a meeting on Thursday 8th October at 4:00 PM CEST seeking more people to be part of a larger library wiki community. The Working Group aims to continue actions and concrete work on the themes mentioned above. Registration required.

​Through resources, activities, and spaces for discussion, IFLA offers you ways to get involved in international librarianship. 

Explore the 10 ways YOU can do this!

Librarianship is a truly global profession, with millions of members all over the world. This brings with it great opportunities to learn, make links, and work together in support of great library services for all.

IFLA’s own mission is to help realise this potential by inspiring, engaging, enabling and connecting the field.

Explore the 10 ways YOU can do this - from learning more about our global field to sharing your own stories, from ten-minute activities to hone your advocacy skills, to becoming a member, from engaging with the IFLA Strategy to improving library Wikipedia.

• Images [PPT]
• Relevant links [PDF]

DUBLIN, Ohio, 22 September 2020—OCLC and LIBER announced today the launch of a discussion series on Open Science through webinars and discussion groups from 24 September-5 November. The series, based on the LIBER Open Science Roadmap, will help guide research libraries in envisioning the support infrastructure for Open Science (OS) and their role at local,…

The post OCLC and LIBER announce joint discussion series on Open Science appeared first on LIBER.

The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) is going to arrange a free virtual conference from September 27-30, hosted by APrIGF MSG and executed by APrIGF Secretariat. The
theme of this conference is Internet Governance for Good: Norms, Standards and Mechanisms. This is a regional conference on public policy issues around Internet governance and the Internet as a platform for library services is critical to our work.

IFLA has great roles at APrIGF by arranging a workshop. This year, the virtual APrIGF seems to be an especially good opportunity for us to attend. The full programme is available at https://ap.rigf.asia/#2020program

You can attend the following sessions and make this conference successful:
 The opening and closing plenaries, with high-level panel discussions;
 The workshop on ‘accessibility’ which follows the opening plenary;
 The IFLA workshop on Access to information: a holistic approach to meaningful digital inclusion, Wednesday 30 September, 05.15 06.15 UTC.
  The ‘town hall’ sessions which are opportunities for all participants to reflect on the matters discussed each day and summarize them to make contributions to the ‘Synthesis document’, the official outcomes document from APrIGF which is then submitted to the global IGF.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, 22 September 2020

In a first for IFLA, the 2021 World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) will be held online, as part of an accelerated drive to develop a new, more inclusive format for the most international event in the library calendar.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused, and continues to cause, major disruption to societies and economies around the world.

Faced with this, libraries have shown extraordinary resilience and inventiveness in order to continue to serve users. IFLA is working to do the same, with enhanced online support to our Members and volunteers.

The pandemic also challenges us to think again about how we work, both individually and collectively, into the future.

This is particularly true in our planning for the World Library and Information Congress – the most international event in the library calendar. Faced with continued uncertainty about the health, economic and travel situation into 2021, it already seems clear that business-as-usual is not an option.

This is not, however, a reason to stop, but rather to accelerate our work to create a new model for our Congress, in line with the IFLA Strategy.

In doing so, we can also address the increasingly pressing issues of the carbon footprint associated with Congress participation, and the difficulty we know that many face in attending in person, even in normal times.

As a result, we are happy to announce that our 2021 Congress will take place virtually, with the welcome support of the Dutch National Committee.

The physical conference previously planned in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will move to 2023, and take place in a hybrid online/in-person format. We continue to plan for an in-person conference in Dublin, Ireland in 2022, with a strengthened online element.

These are exciting times – we are building a new type of WLIC, following the same principles of transformation and inclusion that have shaped our Vision and Strategy, and are shaping our Governance Review.   

Our goal is to develop a programme and format that combines the best aspects of our traditional conferences with the possibilities that digital tools bring to include all members of our field, all around the world, meaningfully.

Achieving success will require the best of our creativity and experience. We look forward to working with Members, volunteers and participants to deliver this.

Gerald Leitner
IFLA Secretary General

EIFL will join the meeting of the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM) Advisory Committee for its mid-term meeting. The online meeting will provide an opportunity to share updates on copyright reforms around the world, as well as the impact of copyright laws on the provision of libraries services in COVID-19 times.