The below editorial accompanies the April edition of the IFLA Newsletter, available here.

IFLA Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 4

Dear all,

The past weeks have not been easy ones for our Federation.

As a result, many of you have expressed a sense of uncertainty or desire for more information. I acknowledge this, and agree that those who have put so much of themselves into IFLA only deserve to receive accurate and timely information about their – your – our – Federation. I am working with my colleagues in the Governing Board to provide this effectively, without making the process of healing in future more difficult.

I am grateful to GB Member Halo Locher for his readiness to temporarily act as Interim CEO and execute the management tasks for our Federation.

Furthermore, in its recent meeting, the Governing Board decided to fill the open positions of President-elect and Treasurer temporarily with two GB Members, Nthabiseng Kotsokoane as President-elect and Kirsten Boelt as Treasurer. This decision was taken according to the Statutes that also stipulate that immediate elections must be initiated to fill these vacancies for the rest of the GB term. Therefore, the call for extraordinary elections for our new President-elect and Treasurer will be launched on Monday in an email to all members. According to the timeline, the results will be out at the beginning of July. Thus, we can celebrate the successful candidates at our Conference. I am looking forward to working with the new President-elect and the new Treasurer for the remainder of my term, and encourage a wide range of people to apply.

In short, I assure you that we are working towards rebuilding trust in the management of our Federation, and more information will be shared with you as the situation develops.

I do believe that we are turning a corner, and that we should not forget our focus on what matters most – the professional activities within IFLA and on the future. There is much to look forward to here.

I hope that you have the same positive expectations and feel the same excitement as me about our upcoming World Library and Information Congress, our first in-person meeting in three years. We will have much to talk about, and much to share. The registration numbers are positive and the professional and regional units, and advisory committees, are creating a very interesting and highly relevant programme that will take our profession forward into the future.

Our Conference is, I hope, also a great opportunity to move from simply thinking about how we can survive, to how our institutions and profession can have a transformative impact on our communities.

I look forward to working with you all to build a sustainable future, for our communities, our profession, and for our Federation.

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Kind regards,

Barbara Lison
IFLA President 2021-2023