Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
On 28 April, IFLA led a virtual session at the 2022 WSIS Forum, exploring innovative approaches to shared and public access for digital inclusion. Drawing on the experiences of public and community libraries, the workshop highlighted good practices and ways to maximise the impacts and reach of these services.
In its role as a member of the World Book Capital (WBC) Advisory Committee, IFLA was invited to participate in a meeting of the WBC Network, held in Tbilisi, Georgia. The meeting provided an opportunity to shape core documentation, and highlight the need for future activities to include libraries and library goals, as well as to meet with IFLA Members locally.
In September, ministers and other key cultural policy decision-makers will meet in Mexico City for MONDIACULT 2022 to discuss how they can better promote sustainable development. The Culture 2030 Goal campaign, of which IFLA is a member, has released a statement in preparation for this.
As part of the 2022 MozFest, IFLA hosted an interactive workshop examining what recent library experiences with media literacy learning can tell us about effective ways to tackle misinformation.
The new IFLA Statement on Cybersecurity examines what key cybersecurity concepts and principles mean in the context of library work - and how libraries, governments, library associations and educators can help build a safer digital environment for library users and staff.
On this International Women’s Day, we look forward to seeing the new and continued ways libraries offer support for a sustainable future – and we encourage libraries to share best practices and how you’ve implemented services.
Addressing persistent digital divides remains a key priority in internet governance policy dialogues and initiatives. Libraries bring valuable solutions, practices and lessons learned to this discussion – and the Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries (DC-PAL) continues to facilitate this learning and exchange within the Internet Governance Forum platforms.
February is an important month for online safety education around the world, marking the annual Safer Internet Day (SID). As part of this, many educational institutions, including libraries, promote safe use of the internet and new technologies, as well as media literacy and overall online wellbeing in their communities. We interviewed New Professionals Special Interest Group Convenor Magdalena Gomułka to find out about how libraries in Poland are engaging.
As part of the February edition of IFLA’s newsletter, an interview with a founding member of the Dynamic Coalition on Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment outlines what the recent developments in online safety policy and practice can mean for libraries."
IFLA’s Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section will soon publish the results of a survey into how libraries around the world are finding ways both to deliver on children’s right of access to information, while also keeping them safe.
The Pandemic has clearly focused minds on health, and how essential it is that we do not take it for granted. The right to health – and with it, the right to health information – have rapidly moved up the political agenda. Find out about the plans of our Health and Biosciences Section (HBS) and Evidence for Global and Disaster Health Special Interest Group (E4GDH), and in particular about the 2022 International Congress of Medical Librarianship.
In the early months of 2020, WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus underlined that in addition to fighting a pandemic, the world also needed to reckon with an 'infodemic'. As argued by the speakers at the WLIC 2021 session on Access to health information as a human right: A global call to action and practical steps, there is an urgent need for action to ensure that every person should have access to reliable health information and should be protected from misinformation.
10 December 2021 will mark international Human Rights Day – the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly in 1948. This year’s theme has a strong focus on equality in advancing human rights, a topic closely aligned with libraries’ own mission to build opportunities for all.
The upcoming 2021 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) offers libraries an opportunity to engage with internet governance policy dialogues, and to shape their role in helping achieve these ambitious goals.
A 2-part report by IFLA and EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) explores the roles libraries play in different national broadband policies and plans, and how such policy measures were implemented in practice.
Among the different types of human rights set out in international law, cultural rights have a particular relevance for libraries. Our institutions are key actors in guaranteeing the right of everyone to participate in cultural life, from creativity, to access, to the preservation of heritage. Professor Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights 2015-2021, focused on this topic in her keynote intervention at WLIC 2021.