The following publications, documents and webpages offer glimpses back to the very beginnings of the Federation, along with details surrounding the many events that have taken place since.

See also our pages on past IFLA Presidents and past World Library and Information Congresses.

These documents represent a unique testimony of how the global library field has evolved over the years.

Beginnings

  • IFLA’s First Fifty Years: Achievement and challenge in international librarianship
    Ed. by Willem Koops & Joachim Wieder
    De Gruyter Saur, 1977 (IFLA Publications 10)
  • The History of the International Federation of Library Associations: From its creation to the Second World War, 1927-1940 [PDF]
    by Hanna de Vries
    Master’s Thesis, Loughborough University of Technology, 1976
  • On the origin of the international organization of librarians (IFLA):
    the Congress of Librarians in Prague, 1926 [PDF]
    by Rudolf Málek
    Libri 20, (1970) 3, pp. 222-224
  • Le livre objet de liberté apercu sur l’activité pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, au sein du Comité consultatif de la Croix-Rouge pour la lecture des prisonniers et internés de guerre. [PDF]
    par Frédéric Saby
    IFLA Journal 15 (1989) 4, pp.330-334
  • IFLA’s First Fifty Years: A reprise [PDF]
    by Joachim Wieder, Ed. by Harry Campbell
    IFLA Journal 28 (2002) 3, pp.107-117

Post-WWII era & beyond

  • IFLA—what it should be and do [PDF]
    by S.R. Ranganathan
    Libri 5 (1954) 2, pp. 182-189
  • IFLA and its Future Policy
    by Leendert Brummel
    College & Research Libraries 26 (1965) 5, 389-394
  • The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA/FIAB) 1961-1970 [PDF]
    by Anthony Thompson, IFLA Secretary General 1962-1970
  • With Malice toward None: IFLA and the Cold War [PDF]
    by Donald G. Davis Jr.
    IFLA Journal 26 (2000) 1, pp.13-20
  • The IFLA / UNESCO Partnership, 1947-2012 [PDF]
    by Peter Johan Lor
    Paper presented at the 78th IFLA General Conference and Assembly in Helsinki, 2012
  • The Dutch Tea Party of IFLA in the ’70s – A quick flash back of forty-five years before the Dutch Tea Party [PDF]
    by Herman Liebaers
    Paper presented at the 68th IFLA General Conference & Assembly in Glasgow, 2002

Overviews

IFLA Sections

Conferences

Historical material

  • 1927 Resolution establishing the International Library and Bibliographic Committee [PDF]
  • 1929 programme of the 1st IFLA Congress [PDF]
  • 1929 poster for the 1st IFLA Congress [PDF]
  • Le Congres Mondial des Bibliotheques: Rome–Venise, Juin 1929 [PDF]
    par Marcel Godet
  • First IFLA Statutes, 1929 [PDF]
Cinecittà Luce, footage from the 1929 Congress:
I congressisti bibliotecari sul Palatino
Il Congresso dei bibliotecari a Villa Falconieri