The working group for the IFLA digital unification key initiative (WGDU) was an ad hoc and temporary working group. It developed guidelines for setting up a digital unification project, which are now available on the IFLA website.

It operated from August 2017 to August 2019, in order to deliver Key Initiative 3.2.2 of IFLA's Strategic Plan for 2016-19, which stated:

Instigate debate and exchange of ideas to explore collection and access issues for libraries in digital / virtual unification of documentary cultural heritage content

The group looked in particular at how to:

  • Raise international awareness for the problems and solutions around digital unification;
  • Help establish a vast international network which includes all the relevant parties to enable digital unification, and bring this together at an international level;
  • Draft a template Memorandum of Understanding for institutions to use when engaging in digital unification activities;
  • Draw up best practices;

The full terms of reference of the Working Group are available to download as a pdf.

Members of the working group were:

  • Victoria Owen (Member of the IFLA Governing Board) 
  • Jeanne Drewes (Representative of the IFLA Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Centres)
  • Njörður Sigurðsson (Representative of the International Council on Archives (ICA))
  • Lily Knibbeler (Chair of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL)
  • Te Paea Taiuru (Chair of the IFLA Indigenous Matters Section)
  • Guy Berthiaume (Chair of the IFLA National Libraries Section) (Chair, 2017-18)
  • Helen Vincent (Chair of the IFLA Rare Books and Special Collections Section)
  • Kristian Jansen (Expert member, British Library)
  • Heawon Hyun (Expert member, National Library of Korea)
  • Isabelle Nyffenegger (Expert member, Bibliothèque nationale de France) (Chair 2018-19)
  • Oren Weinberg (Expert member, National Library of Israel) 
  • Mara de Groot (Expert member, Centre for Global Heritage and Development, Leiden University) 
  • Ellen Tise (Expert member, Stellenbosch University, South Africa)