Publications about IFLA history

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
  doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_26_05_389

• The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA/FIAB) 1961-70 [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

• International Library Associations
  by W. Boyd Rayward
  Encyclopedia of Library History (1994), pp. 342-347.

• Library Universality in a Divided World [PDF]
  by Harry Campbell
  IFLA Journal 28 (2002) 3, pp.118-135

• 75^th anniversary brochure, 1927-2002 [PDF]

• History of IFLA as a Research Theme: Challenge & Commitment [PDF]
  by Klaus Plötz
  IFLA Journal 13 (1987) 4, pp. 349-354

• L’IFLA : lieu d’expression de l’identité des bibliothécaires
  par Frédéric Saby
  Bull. des bibl. de France, t. 34, n° 5, 1989

• The politics of promoting freedom of information and expression in international librarianship
  by Alex Byrne
  Doctoral Thesis, University of Sydney, 2006

• IFLA & Italy: a long-lasting friendship
  by Simonetta Buttò & Alberto Petrucciani
  quaderni di Libri e Riviste d’Italia 62 (2009)

IFLA Sections

• 40 Years of Technology in Libraries: A Brief History of the IFLA Section on Information Technology, 1963/64 – 2003 [PDF]
  by Sally McCallum
• Celebrating 20 Years: A Concise history of the IFLA Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations [PDF]
  by Marie F. Zielinska, 2001
• Development of the Profession: a history of the IFLA Section for Education & Training from 1974 to 2003
  by Ole Harbo and Russell Bowden, 2004
• Educating the Profession: 40 years of the IFLA Section on Education and Training
  Edited by Michael Seadle, Clara Chu, Ulrike Stöckel and Breanne Crumpton
• Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section: 50th Anniversary Leaflet
• Library Services to People with Special Needs Section 1931–2006: 75^th Anniversary Brochure [PDF]
  See also: LSN: A Historical Overview

• Public libraries and the influence of IFLA, 1930-1960, with special reference to Lionel McColvin’s chairmanship of the Public Libraries Section (1968) [PDF]
  by Anthony Thompson, IFLA Secretary General 1962-1970

Conferences

• Past IFLA Conferences

• 85 Years IFLA : A History and Chronology of Sessions 1927-2012
  by Jeffrey M. Wilhite

Historical materials

• 1927 Resolution establishing the International Library and Bibliographic Committee, later IFLA [PDF]

• Cinecittà Luce, footage from the 1929 Congress:
  • ‘I congressisti bibliotecari sul Palatino‘
  • ‘Il Congresso dei bibliotecari a Villa Falconieri‘

• 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]