The message below accompanies the August 2023 edition of the IFLA Newsletter.
IFLA Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 8

Welcome to the August IFLA Newsletter!

The start of the World Library and Information Congress is now just days away.

Me and my colleagues on the Dutch National Committee have been looking forward to welcoming the world to Rotterdam for a long time. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and I am personally deeply grateful to everyone who has helped to make it possible.

Through our theme – Let’s work together, let’s library – we want to show how Dutch libraries, and indeed all libraries, are all about action, innovation and inclusion.

Our conference will reflect this – not just through what visitors in person and online will learn about the Dutch library field, but also through the whole conference experience.

There is plenty that makes us different, but it is by bringing everyone together, and allowing everyone to participate, that we can make a strength of this diversity. This is what, with our conference, we plan to do.

This newsletter is therefore strongly focused on the Congress, with insights not just into the formal programme, but all the other activities we have planned, and ideas on how to make the most of your time.

There are also highlights of ongoing work by IFLA’s professional and regional units, as well as engagement in advocacy.

So read on, find out more, and for as many of you as possible I hope, tot zo – see you soon!

Theo Kemperman
Chair of the Dutch National Committee