IFLA: The Global Voice of Library and Information Professionals

Every profession needs a unified voice on the world stage, and for libraries and information professionals, that voice is IFLA. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has spent nearly a century connecting librarians across borders, setting shared standards, and defending the public’s right to access information. For students preparing for careers in library science, understanding IFLA is essential because its policies, manifestos, and standards shape how libraries function almost everywhere, including in India.

What IFLA is and why it matters 🔗

IFLA is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that advances the interests of libraries, information services, and the communities they serve worldwide. It is widely regarded as the leading global body representing the people who rely on libraries and the professionals who run them.

The organisation was founded on 30 September 1927 in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the annual meeting of the UK Library Association. It officially began operating in 1929 with just 15 members from 15 countries. From that modest start, IFLA grew into the central meeting point for the global library community. Its headquarters are located at the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague, a city long associated with international cooperation and diplomacy.

One detail worth noting is the name itself. The organisation was originally the International Federation of Library Associations. The word “Institutions” was added in 1976 to formally recognise that not only professional associations but also individual libraries, universities, and other bodies were part of the membership. The acronym IFLA stayed the same, but the broader name reflected a wider and more inclusive scope.

The core mission 🔗

At its heart, IFLA exists to promote international understanding, cooperation, and the development of library services across the world. It does this through advocacy, professional support, and the creation of shared standards. The organisation lobbies governments, international bodies, and the private sector to secure funding for libraries and to promote policies that recognise libraries as essential to education, democracy, and social inclusion.

IFLA also sponsors the annual World Library and Information Congress, which promotes universal and equitable access to information for social, educational, cultural, democratic, and economic empowerment. This congress is the largest international gathering of the profession and a major platform for sharing research and best practices.

Core programmes and key activities 🔗

IFLA channels much of its work through focused programmes and committees. These cover three broad priorities: developing libraries everywhere, defending free access to information, and preserving documentary heritage. Together they represent the practical side of IFLA’s mission.

Preservation and conservation 🔗

One of IFLA’s longest-running and most respected efforts is its work on preservation and conservation, known as PAC. The programme was officially created at the IFLA conference in Nairobi in 1984 to focus efforts on preservation and to initiate worldwide cooperation for safeguarding library materials. Its core objective is to ensure that library and archive materials, in all formats, remain preserved and accessible for as long as possible.

What makes PAC distinctive is its decentralised design. Instead of operating from a single office, it works through a network of regional centres hosted by major national libraries around the globe. These centres build relationships with heritage authorities, promote best practices, assist in disaster response, and support capacity building across the library field. For a country like India with vast manuscript and print collections in many languages, this kind of preservation expertise carries real weight.

Free access to information and freedom of expression 🔗

IFLA strongly defends the principle that information should be freely and fairly accessible to everyone. This commitment is reflected in its work on free access to information and freedom of expression, often associated with the committee known as FAIFE. The idea is simple but powerful: libraries are gateways to knowledge, and that gateway should remain open regardless of a person’s background, age, language, or social status.

This principle runs through many IFLA documents. For example, the public library, as IFLA envisions it, provides services on the basis of equality of access for all, with special provisions for those who cannot use regular services, such as linguistic minorities or people with disabilities.

Development through libraries 🔗

IFLA also promotes the role of libraries in social and economic development. It argues that libraries are not just storehouses of books but active agents of literacy, lifelong learning, digital inclusion, and community engagement. The updated IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto emphasises the role of public libraries in sustainable development, positioning them as places for the exchange of information and culture that strengthen community involvement. This developmental focus connects libraries directly to wider goals like education for all and bridging the digital divide.

Membership and organisational structure 🔗

IFLA’s strength comes from its broad and diverse membership. The organisation brings together more than 1,700 members across roughly 155 countries, including national library associations, institutions, individual professionals, and corporate members. This global network gives IFLA the legitimacy and reach to influence library policy and practice on an international scale.

How IFLA is organised 🔗

To manage such a wide membership, IFLA divides its professional work into divisions and sections. Sections are the building blocks. Each one focuses on a specific type of library or area of professional interest, such as public libraries, academic libraries, cataloguing, education and training, library buildings, or services to particular communities. Related sections are grouped into divisions, which help coordinate work across similar areas.

Beyond these professional units, IFLA also has governance bodies that set overall policy and direction, along with committees and review groups that handle specialised tasks like standards development and copyright matters. This layered structure allows IFLA to be both broad in coverage and deep in expertise, with specialists contributing to the precise areas they know best.

Impact on library and information science 🔗

Perhaps IFLA’s most lasting contribution is the way it has shaped library practice through standards and international cooperation. When libraries in different countries follow the same descriptive rules, they can share catalogue records, exchange data, and serve users far more efficiently. IFLA has been at the centre of making this possible.

Standardisation and the ISBD 🔗

A flagship example is the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). The ISBD is intended to serve as a principal standard to promote universal bibliographic control, making basic bibliographic data for all published resources universally and promptly available in an internationally acceptable form. In plain terms, it gives libraries a common language for describing books and other materials so that a record created in one country makes sense in another.

The ISBD’s influence is far-reaching. It shaped major cataloguing codes worldwide, including AACR2 and the more recent RDA, and supported IFLA’s Universal Bibliographic Control programme. In India, ISBD principles have been adopted by the Indian National Bibliography and by major academic libraries, helping them integrate with international bibliographic networks while still serving the country’s diverse published heritage.

The partnership with UNESCO 🔗

IFLA’s impact is amplified by its close partnership with UNESCO. Several IFLA documents have been jointly produced and recognised as UNESCO manifestos. The most famous is the IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, first adopted in 1949, which proclaims belief in the public library as a force for education, culture, and information. The manifesto has been revised several times to keep pace with changes in technology and society, with the most recent update launched in 2022. These manifestos carry enormous moral authority and are used by librarians everywhere to advocate for better library services.

International cooperation and knowledge sharing 🔗

Finally, IFLA matters because it creates a structured space for professionals to learn from one another. Through its congresses, sections, publications such as the peer-reviewed IFLA Journal, and guidelines on everything from services to children to public internet access, it spreads knowledge and best practices across borders. A librarian in a small town in India can draw on guidance developed collectively by experts from dozens of countries. That pooling of expertise is exactly what an international federation is meant to achieve.

What do you think? If you were advising a public library in your region, which IFLA contribution would you find most useful: its preservation programmes, its access advocacy, or its cataloguing standards? And how might stronger participation in IFLA change the way libraries in your country serve their communities?

References

1. https://www.ifla.org/about-us/
2. https://www.ifla.org/history/
3. https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0022565/
4. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/about/ifla/index.html
5. https://www.ifla.org/news/updates-from-ifla-preservation-and-conservation-pac-centres-in-2022/
6. https://www.ifla.org/public-library-manifesto/
7. https://studyguides.com/study-methods/overview/cmknw2n2l0r4z01d5uojipmav
8. https://www.ifla.org/g/isbd-rg/international-standard-bibliographic-description/
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Bibliographic_Description
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_Public_Library_Manifesto