Trend Report
IFLA’s Trend Report series represents a key tool available to libraries globally in order to help plan for the future. Through this, it aims build the resilience and sustainability of our field during changing times, and so our ability to fulfil our missions. The IFLA Trend Report 2024 was released on 30 September 2024.
Launched in 2013, the series brings together the perspectives of thought leaders from inside and outside of the library field. They offer insights into the changes we are currently seeing, or may well see soon, that affect the world in which we operate.
They explore not just changes within libraries themselves, but also trends in the wider information and knowledge environment, recognising that libraries are part of a bigger ecosystem.
Importantly, the trends are presented not just to inform, but also to activate. The report comes from a belief that libraries are able to be actors in their own future, and indeed need to be in the interests of the communities they serve. Integrating these trends into our planning will mean we are better able to achieve this.
The latest edition of the Trend Report, released at the IFLA Information Futures Summit in Brisbane, Australia, takes this work to a new level. In addition to highlighting trends, it also explores what happens when these trends interact through a series of scenarios.
In line with the wider goal of the series, the latest edition is also not just to be read, but to be used. To help with this, the Report includes a set of ‘ways to play’ – ideas for how individuals, groups and associations can draw on the trends and scenarios to advance their own thinking.
Look out for further tools and information from the new Trend Report later in 2024.
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IFLA Trend Report 2024: Facing the future of information with confidence
Following on from the model of the original edition in 2013, as well as subsequent updates, the Trend Report 2024 is designed to provide the library field with a vital tool for planning for the future. This is the first major revision of the Report since the original – an exciting opportunity to g...
Find out about previous editions, updates and related material in the IFLA Repository.
Work on the 2024 Trend Report was made possible by funding from Stichting IFLA Global Libraries (SIGL).