Congress theme: “Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities”

IFLA Trend Report launched at WLIC 2013 on Monday 19 August

In the Spotlight

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IFLA Trend Report

During yesterday's Plenary Session at the 79th World Library & Information Congress in Singapore, IFLA President Ingrid Parent and Secretary General Jennefer Nicholson launched the IFLA Trend Report, looking into high level trends shaping our global information environment.

IFLA members can now sign up to access the IFLA Trend Report in full at trends.ifla.org.

With the IFLA Trend Report, IFLA hopes to do more than add one another static report to the digital archive, looking at the impacts of the internet and technology on a particular sector. In compiling the Trend Report, IFLA has harnessed the unique perspective it has to offer as an international voice for library & information associations.

The IFLA Trend Report isn’t looking at libraries in the information environment – it’s looking across society. It is not a static report but a dynamic, evolving set of resources and an online forum discussion for IFLA members to build on. The Trend Report is the starting point for IFLA members to bounce ideas off, and chart their own course in the information environment.

Make sure to read the summary of the Trend Report, ‘Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Insights from the IFLA Trend Report’

This is your gateway into the depth and breadth of information contained on the IFLA Trend Report web platform. It summarises the high level trends shaping our global information environment,identifies collisions between them and the resulting impacts for libraries.

The IFLA Trend Report platform you see is just the beginning of the conversation. It’s deliberately high level; it provides an outline for libraries. Now it’s over to our varied IFLA member library & information associations to add colour.

What you can do

We want to hear how the trends are relevant for your library: what does it mean for libraries serving children, or adolescents? How are public libraries going with the uptake of mobile and wearable technology? Is wearable tech even happening in your library yet? What about trends in your academic library? Without your input, it’s just another report.

The online discussion forum at trends.ifla.org will be the focus point for sharing the perspectives of libraries in your region.

Over the next year IFLA will be encouraging members to engage with the Trend Report. We want to see Trend Report discussions being continued at the local, national and regional level. It can be workshops, seminars, online discussions, blogs, interviews – add it as an agenda item to your mid-term meetings, include a seminar at your regional conference! Get creative, get engaged.

Most importantly, let us know about the discussions in your region: make sure to share the outcomes from your meetings on the online discussion forum.

For IFLA, we’re hoping to take the contributions from IFLA members to the Trend Report into our work with section committees, strategic partners, policy makers, other non-government associations and in broader discussions on digital policy outside the library sector.

So sign up at ifla.trends.org! If you’re at WLIC this week in Singapore, make sure to grab some Trend Report postcards (why not collect all five?) from the IFLA Booth and send them to your friends and colleagues.

Tweet about it (#iflatrends), facebook it, follow the online discussion forum, share the link with library colleagues and most importantly, start thinking about how you can continue the discussion in your region. You’re steering the ship now! Let’s see where these information trends take us.

Tweets

follow on Twitter Twitter hashtag: #iflatrends

The IFLA Trend Report has officially been launched here at #WLIC 2013! IFLA members sign up at trends.ifla.org.