About IFLA

IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession.

IFLA provides information specialists throughout the world with a forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research, and development in all fields of library activity and information service. Through IFLA libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

As an independent, international, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, IFLA pursues its aims through a variety of channels. We promote libraries and defend their interests in international forums such as the World Summit on the Information Society and the World Trade Organization. We publish a major journal, as well as guidelines, reports and monographs on a wide range of topics. We organize workshops and seminars around the world to enhance professional practice and increase awareness of the growing importance of libraries in the digital age. We collaborate with a number of other non-governmental organizations, funding bodies and international agencies such as UNESCO and WIPO.

Aims

IFLA's objectives are to:

• Promote high standards of provision and delivery of library and information services
• Encourage widespread understanding of the value of good library & information services
• Represent the interests of our members throughout the world

Core Values

IFLA embraces the following core values:

• We believe that people, communities and organizations need for their physical, mental, democratic and economic well-being, free access to information, ideas and works of imagination
• We believe that the provision and delivery of high quality library and information services help guarantee that access
• We are committed to enabling library associations and institutions throughout the world, and their staff, to participate in the work of the Federation regardless of geographical location
• We support and promote the principles of freedom of access to information, ideas and works of imagination embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• We recognize the rights of all members to engage in, and benefit from, IFLA's activities without regard to citizenship, ethnic origin, gender, language, political philosophy, race or religion

Membership

IFLA's aims, objectives, and professional programme can only be fulfilled with the cooperation and active involvement of its members and affiliates. Currently, nearly 1700 associations, institutions and individuals, from widely divergent cultural backgrounds, are working together to further the goals of the Federation and to promote librarianship on a global level. Through its formal membership, IFLA directly or indirectly represents some 500 000 library and information professionals in 150 countries.

Core Activities

IFLA has developed a series of Core Activities for its professional work. Funded from a variety of sources, but especially by national libraries, they concentrate on priorities for action.

• ALP: The Action for Libraries through Development Programme aims to further the profession in developing countries by assisting with education and training, supporting the development of library associations and helping with the introduction of new technologies into libraries. The ALP office is based at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
• FAIFE: The Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Committee furthers the cause of intellectual freedom, a key issue for libraries and librarians, by monitoring the state of that freedom in different countries, working with other agencies and responding on IFLA's behalf to violations of the principle.
• CLM: The Copyright and other Legal Matters Committee focuses on these issues, which are at the heart of library provision and of growing importance in the electronic environment. It aims to ensure that the voices of the profession and, importantly, of the users of libraries, are heard in the international arenas determining copyright legislation.
• ICABS: The IFLA-CDNL Alliance for Bibliographic Standards works to assure ongoing coordination, communication and support for key activities in the areas of bibliographic and resource control for all types of resources and related format and protocol standards. The ICABS office is hosted by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
• PAC: Preservation and Conservation focuses efforts on issues of preservation and initiates worldwide cooperation for the preservation of library materials. The PAC focal point is hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and there are a number of regional centres around the world.
• UNIMARC: The UNIMARC Core Activity is concerned with the maintenance and promotion of the Universal MARC format originally created by IFLA to facilitate the international exchange of bibliographic data. This activity is hosted by the Biblioteca Nacional in Portugal.

Professional Activities

Within the Federation, professional discussions, dialogues, information exchange and other activities take place within the 45 professional Sections. These are structured into 8 Divisions:

Division I: General Research Libraries
Division II: Special Libraries
Division III: Libraries Serving the General Public
Division IV: Bibliographic Control
Division V: Collection and Services
Division VI: Management and Technology
Division VII: Education and Research
Division VIII: Regional Activities

Divisions I, II and III are concerned with different types of libraries; Divisions IV, V, VI and VII are aimed at different types of library activities; and Division VIII is concerned with all library and information services in the following regions:

• Africa
• Asia and Oceania
• Latin America and the Caribbean

The Regional Sections promote all of IFLA's activities in their regions in close cooperation with IFLA's regional offices.

Publications

The results of the programmes developed by IFLA's professional groups are recorded and disseminated in our publications. IFLA Journal is published four times a year by Sage Publications. Each issue covers news of current IFLA activities and articles, selected to reflect the variety of the international information profession. The IFLA Annual Report records IFLA's achievements each year. The IFLA Publications Series, published by KG Saur Verlag, is a monograph series with six titles issued each year. Recent titles include Networking for Digital Preservation – Current Practice in 15 National Libraries, International Newspaper Librarianship, and The virtual customer: a new paradigm for improving customer relations in libraries and information services. The IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control, also published by Saur, is a continuation of the former UBCIM Publications New Series and includes titles related to cataloguing and information systems. The IFLA Professional Reports Series features reports of professional meetings and guidelines to best practice. Recent reports include Guidelines for library services to prisoners and Designing and Building Integrated Digital Library Systems – guidelines.

IFLANET: www.ifla.org

Our web site, IFLANET, has rapidly become a prime source of information not only about IFLA, but also on a broad spectrum of library and information issues. In addition, there are approximately 50 discussion lists on a variety of topics.

Offices

IFLA Headquarters is generously hosted by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) in The Hague, Netherlands. IFLA also operates three regional offices: the Africa Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, hosted by the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar; the Asia & Oceania Regional Office in Singapore, hosted by the National Library Board; and the Latin America & Caribbean Regional Office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

IFLA World Library and Information Congress

The IFLA World Library and Information Congress, held at a different venue each year and attracting more than 3000 participants, is the major forum for IFLA's professional programme. It is also the meeting place for IFLA's Council, the body of representatives of all members, which is the highest governing body of the Federation.

The following venues have been selected for future conferences:
2007 Durban
2008 Québec City
2009 Milan

Past conferences have been held in:
2003 Berlin
2004 Buenos Aires
2005 Oslo
2006 Seoul

History

The International Federation of Library Associations was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927 at an international conference of national library directors. The first IFLA conference was held in 1929 in Rome, Florence, and Venice, Italy. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in 1971.

In 1976, IFLA changed its name to include libraries as institutional members, though the acronym remained the same. IFLANET was born in 1993, and has since grown to be a major operational tool for the Federation. New Statutes and Rules of Procedure were approved in 2000 and 2001. They introduced a renewal of the structures of IFLA, and established the current Governing Board. Now, in an era in which international co-operation is needed more than ever, IFLA has realized an internationalism that is alive and kicking. The network – established and steadily grown during a period of nearly 80 years – is working thanks to the commitment of many professionals.

Contact details

7 IFLA Headquarters
P.O. Box 95312
2509 CH The Hague
Netherlands
Tel: +31-70-3140884
Fax: +31-70-3834827
Email: ifla@ifla.org
Website: www.ifla.org