Stay up to date with our latest developments, initiatives, and new resources!
The Blue Shield aims to be the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross. It takes a cross-sectoral approach to its work, including libraries, museums, monuments and sites, and archives. It works for the protection of the world’s cultural heritage by coordinating preparations to meet and respond to emergency situations as well as providing post-crisis support.
In the light of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the European Parliament has passed a resolution on analysis on access to culture in the European Union. This briefing offers a number of key quotes and arguments from which libraries and library associations can use in their advocacy around the importance of libraries in overcoming barriers to access to culture.
Half way through the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) IFLA attended the high-level conference on Europe’s shared history and values. The conference took place at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on 26 June 2018.
The PAC Regional Centre for Asia at the National Diet Library (NDL) of Japan is one of the sixteen IFLA PAC Centres that are spread all over the globe. The PAC Centres have a wide range of expertise concerning preservation and conservation as well as safeguarding cultural heritage. The PAC Regional Centre for Asia is specialised in paper conservation and digitization, it was this expertise that was shared with experts from Syria.
Libraries safeguard cultural heritage, and through access to information support the development and wellbeing of their communities, including in times of disaster. IFLA has put together a brief on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and what it means for libraries around the world.
The UNESCO PERSIST Project launched Guidelines for the selection of digital heritage for long-term preservation in 2016. We are glad to announce that a Spanish translation is now available, bringing the total number of languages available to six.
To identify and develop standards, guidelines and best practices for the collection and preservation of content in its diverse form (as stated in the IFLA Key Initiative 3.2.1), it was decided to conduct an extensive survey in the library sector to establish currently used standards, guidelines and best practices for material in any format.
Fragile! Careful Handling Required: Manuscript housing, conservation and metadata documentation for access
IFLA is deeply concerned by the announcement of the destruction of 140 000 books held by public-controlled libraries in Turkey. As established in IFLA’s Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom, decisions on the selection and availability of library materials and services should be governed by professional considerations and not by political, moral and religious views. Such broad and indiscriminate withdrawals of books from libraries risks challenging the principle that the right of freedom of access to information should be guaranteed in all but the most extreme circumstances.
The Twelfth Meeting of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict took place in Paris, on 29-30 November. IFLA was invited as one of the eminent professional NGOs who have a formal relation with UNESCO.
Today is the first day of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. For the next twelve months, libraries across Europe will be celebrating the importance of heritage, and the contribution it makes to communities. In doing so, they will underline the indispensable role they play in preserving, managing, and giving access.
The report from the scoping workshop sets out recommendations for implantation of coordinated regional work. Participants will continue to work together to deliver a metadata framework, as well as to explore other relevant issues.
The 39th session of the General Conference took place in Paris, on 30 October – 14 November. IFLA took an active part, attending meetings on UNESCO’s activities in the area of communication and information.
A statement by Gerald Leitner, IFLA Secretary General, on the recent disasters in the Caribbean region.
The World Book Capital initiative gives cities the opportunity both to celebrate local writing and culture, but also to promote reading and a love of books among residents and visitors. Bids are now open for 2020. IFLA welcomes candidates which recognise and promote the role of libraries in delivering more sustainable, literate and participatory societies.
UNESCO is a key partner for IFLA, given its involvement in many of the areas where libraries are most active – literacy, information literacy, culture, Internet governance, and of course safeguarding cultural heritage. The UNESCO session at WLIC 2017 focused on three areas where engagement is bringing benefits for libraries.
While tools and standards for preservation are advanced for materials like books, this is not the case everywhere. As a result, when a community’s cultural heritage is on other materials, such as palm leaf manuscripts, it is harder for libraries, both individually and as a network, to pursue their public interest missions. A workshop organised by IFLA in Sri Lanka on 6-7 July started moves to address this problem.
Collections and original documentary cultural heritage objects have, over time and due to a wide variety of circumstances, found their homes in countries and memory institutions which were not the original producers of these objects.
The IFLA survey on preservation and conservation will bring together resources around standards, guidelines, best practices for the library community.
UNESCO PERSIST Guidelines for the selection of digital heritage for long-term preservation.