Update 2018

IFLA is excited to share the 2018 Update of our Trend Report. It offers four more expert perspectives to the collection, providing libraries, library associations and others with key insights and reflections on the issues facing our field today.

Based on interventions at the 2018 IFLA President’s meeting, they pose four questions:

1. How can libraries prepare better for an uncertain future shaped by various trends? Can scenario planning help?
2. What can libraries do to resist the onset of a new digital dark age, marked by attacks on privacy, access, and truth itself?
3. In the light of growing unease with the power of major Internet companies, how can libraries respond?
4. Are libraries limited to providing content, or can they also form part of the information infrastructure through community networks?

The collection provides both encouragement and challenge to thinking within the library field. IFLA hopes that the global library field will take ownership of this, and use it in broader thinking about the future of libraries.

Let us know where your thoughts take you!

You can download the document as a PDF.