The IFLA Section of Public Libraries, with financial support from Unesco, is holding a seminar on the above topic at the Hotel Hoordzee, Noordwijk, Netherlands on August 12-14, 1998, prior to the 64th IFLA General Conference to be held in Amsterdam August 16-21, 1998.

The Section of Public Libraries carried out the revision of the Unesco Public Library Manifesto which was published in 1994 and is now available in over twenty languages. Following on that work the Section now plans to revise the IFLA Guidelines, the most recent edition of which was published in 1986. The aim is to produce a document that will be relevant to public libraries throughout the world. To achieve this, it is important to obtain the opinions of the invited participants on the contents of any future document on guidelines and standards for public libraries to contribute to the drafting of a successful revision. The outcome of the seminar will be reported to the Open Session of the Section at the Amsterdam IFLA Conference.