Tag Archives: Cultural Diversity

Measuring the Impact of Cultural Diversity on Development: how libraries can get involved

Without intercultural dialogue, peace and sustainable development are not possible. The UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (21 May) calls for recognition of the essential role that cultural diversity plays in enabling dialogue, building mutual understanding, and supporting better outcomes for all people.

IFLA has long championed the cross-cutting role of culture in building a better, more peaceful, world. As a member of the #Culture2030Goal Campaign, we have called for the recognition of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. We have further called for a dedicated goal for culture in the post-2030 development framework, see the Statement by the #Culture2030Goal campaign on UNESCO MONDIACULT 2022 for more.

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005 Convention) helps policymakers strengthen their commitment to supporting cultural diversity by providing a framework by which these values are transformed into actions.

By monitoring the implementation of this Convention, we can both measure the impact of culture on development in concrete terms and find a wealth of good practice examples that can inspire further initiatives.

For a practical approach to Cultural Diversity Day, this article will introduce the monitoring framework of the 2005 Convention – especially its relationship to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will highlight how libraries can get involved in reporting. Finally, it will introduce the methodology of an ongoing research project in which IFLA is mapping the role of libraries in the reports of the 2005 Convention, which will provide a clear picture of how libraries help achieve its goals.

Protecting and Promoting Diverse Cultural Expressions

Parties to the 2005 Convention have expressed a commitment to culture, in recognition of its importance for creating a rich, varied world and driving sustainable development.

The Convention provides a framework by which governments can strengthen international cooperation and work towards policy provisions that will protect and promote cultural diversity, as well support the creators, knowledge-holders, and institutions that make and share culture.

The Convention notably established the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD), which provides grants in support of a dynamic cultural sector in developing countries.

Note: the 2022 Call for Applications to the IFCD is currently open! Find out more here: 2022 IFCD Call for Nominations.

Another important aspect of the 2005 Convention is its article 11, which encourages active participation with civil society (including libraries and library associations). This provides a strong base on which to build future cooperation with national authorities who implement the convention and measure its impact.

Find out more: Get Into the 2005 Convention

Measuring Progress

In order to better monitor implementation of the Convention, inform evidence-based policymaking, and align with the UN Agenda 2030, UNESCO introduced a Monitoring Framework in 2015.

This framework is based around four goals, which are drawn from the Convention’s guiding principles:

Support sustainable systems of governance for culture
Achieve a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase the mobility of artists and cultural professionals
Integrate culture in sustainable development frameworks
Promote human rights and fundamental freedoms

Within each goal, the Framework determines several areas of monitoring, which are critical themes that support the goal. Each area of monitoring is assigned indicators which can be used to measure success, which are in turn confirmed through corresponding means of verification.

UNESCO 2005 Convention Monitoring Framework (2005 Convention Global Report 2022)

Example from the UNESCO 2005 Convention Monitoring Framework

Note that each goal is specifically linked to corresponding SDGs. Further, each indicator is linked to one or more SDG targets, which directly connect it to specific tasks or outcomes within the SDG framework.

From the above example, policies and measures which promote gender equality in the culture and media sector indicate progress towards the Gender Equality monitoring area. This supports Goal 4 (Promote Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), which aligns with SDG #4 (Gender Equality).

However, even more specifically, this indicator is linked to SDG targets 5.c, which concerns adapting policies and enforceable legislation to support women and girls, and 5.5, which concerns equal participation and opportunities for leadership.

Why is this framework important?

Evidence-based policymaking is key to successful implementation of the Convention. This framework helps policymakers and other stakeholders better understand how supporting cultural diversity can impact on sustainable development.

For IFLA’s members – looking at the Monitoring Framework is a practical way to envision how the work your library is already doing – or could be doing in the future – aligns with these goals.

To start, could you think of library initiatives that satisfy these indicators?

Policies and measures support diversity of the media (Goal 1)
Policies and measures facilitate access to diverse cultural expressions in the digital environment (Goal 1)
Operational programmes support the mobility of artists and cultural professionals, notably from developing countries (Goal 2)
Policies and measures support equity in the distribution of cultural resources and inclusive access to such resources (Goal 3)
Policies and measures promote and protect freedoms of creation and expression and participation in cultural life (Goal 4)

Explore further: Monitoring Framework – UNESCO 2005 Convention (from the 2005 Convention Global Report 2022)

Making your Impact Known

Countries that are party to the 2005 Convention are required to submit a report on their progress once every four years. These are called Quadrennial Periodic Reports, or QPRs.

In 2019, UNESCO reformed the reports to align directly with the Monitoring Framework. This data collections allows UNESCO to take a holistic look at how the world is protecting and promoting diverse cultural expressions, and how this relates directly to sustainable development.

UNESCO’s most recent overview of the state of cultural policy was debuted earlier this year: Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity: 2005 Convention Global Report 2022

Why are QPRs relevant for libraries?

QPRs present an opportunity for libraries and library associations to make their impact directly known to national cultural authorities and beyond.

Since 2019, UNESCO invites civil society stakeholders to participate in reporting with a dedicated Civil Society Organisation form. This form follows the reporting framework and allows civil society to share information on their initiatives for inclusion in the final national report.

UNESCO reports that 77% of QPRs submitted since 2019 included measures or initiatives undertaken by civil society organisations, so the willingness to include such input is clearly being demonstrated.

To make your impact known, follow these steps:

Find out when your country’s next QPR is due: Periodic Reports
Download the Civil Society Organisation form [download the word document here].
Review the Monitoring Framework and determine relevant measures and initiatives your organisation/institution/ association has implemented in the last four years
Get in touch with your National Point of Contact [list and contact details here], who is responsible for coordinating reporting in your country. Let them know you are completing the Civil Society Organisation form.
Share the completed civil society organisation form with your National Point of Contact roughly six months before the deadline for submission

Coming Up

In September 2022, the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2022 – will bring cultural policymakers and stakeholders from across the world together in Mexico City.

This conference will accelerate the global dialolgue on culture’s role in sustainable development and define immediate and future priorities.

Watch IFLA discuss ways in which libraries fit into these discussions here: ResiliArtxMondiacult 2022

To prepare for these discussions, IFLA is using insights collected through the 2005 Convention monitoring and reporting scheme to map ways in which libraries are being recognised as contributing to the goals of the Convention – and corresponding sustainable development goals.

There are myriad examples included in this body of information. For example, the 2005 Convention Global Report 2022 already provides some insight:

Goal 1: Supporting sustainable systems of governance for culture

“Several countries, including Egypt, Norway, Qatar and Slovakia, have begun extensive work to digitize their national libraries, thereby facilitating access to, and the discoverability of, local cultural content in several languages” (UNESCO, 2022, pg. 107)
“National Library for the Disabled [Republic of Korea] increased its membership by 84% in 2021 alone, as it expanded its provision in Braille, voice over and sign language” (UNESCO, 2022, pg. 105)

Goal 2: Achieve a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase mobility

“China and Niger signed a cultural cooperation agreement to exchange information and expertise in the areas of audiovisual, publishing, libraries and exhibitions” (UNESCO, 2022, pg. 178)

Goal 3: Integrate culture in sustainable development

“Developing and developed countries all implement a variety of measures for ensuring access to culture outside of the main urban areas… [for example] mobile libraries and bookstores deployed to stimulate reading (China, Egypt, Iraq).” (UNESCO, 2022, pg. 222)
“Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenge of digital exclusion, it is encouraging to see the reporting of measures aimed at ensuring greater connectivity in libraries across national territories (Argentina, Costa Rica).” (UNESCO, 2022, pg. 222)

IFLA will continue reviewing the body of reports submitted since 2019 to collect quantifiable data on the number of library-related measures and initiatives within each of the Convention’s four objectives. This study with further provide qualifiable data regarding innovative library initiatives that can serve as inspiration for the future.

Stay tuned for more in the lead up to Mondiacult 2022!

For questions or assistance: claire.mcguire@ifla.org

Upholding Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Reflections on International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day (21 February) is an annual affirmation of the important role that cultural and linguistic diversity plays in building sustainable societies.

Cultural and linguistic diversity are fundamentally linked to freedom of expression and access information; they are at the heart of the promotion of cultural and educational rights.

If the availability of educational material, cultural expressions, scientific information, and artistic works do not reflect the linguistic diversity of the community, the possibility for all members in the community to meaningfully engage with, and to benefit from, this material is severely limited.

International Mother Language Day 2022

As the world looks to post-pandemic recovery, considering the lessons learned over the past two years, the opportunities and challenges of digital technologies has become a central theme. Ensuring opportunities associated with technological advances are available to all is an important element of upholding universal rights and freedoms concerning expression, access to information, and cultural participation.

With this in mind, UNESCO has named the following theme for International Mother Language Day 2022: “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities”

UNESCO will take this opportunity to encourage a discussion on the role that technology has in advancing multilingual education and supporting the development of quality teaching and learning for all.

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, addresses this theme in her message:

Technology can provide new tools for protecting linguistic diversity. Such tools, for example, facilitating their spread and analysis, allow us to record and preserve languages which sometimes exist only in oral form. Put simply, they make local dialects a shared heritage. However, because the Internet poses a risk of linguistic uniformization, we must also be aware that technological progress will serve plurilingualism only as long as we make the effort to ensure that it does.

Libraries are gateways to information and knowledge, as well as community-level nodes in connectivity infrastructure helping to bridge the digital divide.

Making cultural and linguistic diversity a pillar of library collection development, cultural heritage preservation, and library programming promoting diverse cultural expressions can help further the role of libraries as key partners in preserving and promoting linguistic diversity.

Libraries for Universal Access and Meaningful Connectivity

Discussions on how technological advances may benefit cultural and linguistic diversity must first address the key challenge of bridging the digital divide. Any opportunities that can be brought about by digital transformation will not successfully reach those who could perhaps benefit most without addressing gaps in digital access.

Libraries bring valuable solutions, practices and lessons-learned to internet governance policy dialogues that prioritise addressing the digital divide.

For example, one of the takeaway messages from the 2021 Internet Governance Forum in Katowice highlights the role of libraries in the discussions on universal access and meaningful connectivity:

Public access through institutions such as libraries can help deliver on all of the components of access that help drive development – equitable and inclusive connectivity, content and competences. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that countries had to prioritise the massive development of connectivity infrastructure to connect the unconnected to an increasingly digital world.

IFLA urges discourse on the role of digital technologies in upholding cultural rights and promoting multilingualism to examine gaps in the connectivity infrastructure. We encourage policymakers to look to libraries as knowledge partners who can help work towards universal access and meaningful connectivity.

Find out more, and how you can get involved in this work, here: Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries: Annual report and a look ahead to 2022

The role of Memory Institutions in Selection of Digital Materials for Long-term Preservation

To enable the enduring preservation of and access to cultural heritage, including in digital form, in line with the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation, steps must be taken to preserve digitised and born-digital materials.

This can be a practical application of upholding plurilingualism through cultural heritage preservation.

Reviewing policies that decide what digitised and born-digital materials are preserved serves an important role in upholding UNESCO’s call to ensure that technological progress serves plurilingualism.

There is a need to address the questions – what material is being digitised? Are these decisions reflective of the world’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity? Who is making these decisions, and, if applicable, are they being carried out with appropriate community consultation?

Selection Guidelines

A tool to aid these selection decisions is the recently launched 2^nd edition of the UNESCO-PERSIST Guidelines for the Selection of Digital Heritage for Long-term Preservation.

These guidelines were created primarily for use by practitioners in cultural institutions who make the day-to-day decisions about which digital materials are candidates for long-term accessibility. They support practitioners in reviewing existing policies, highlighting important issues to consider, and providing guidance in drafting institutional policies.

The Guidelines stress that the material for collection that they refer to is intended to include digital content created by or about all ethnic, religious, gender, social, and political groups found in all regions of the world. The Content Task Force who created the Guidelines recommends that archives, libraries, and museums consult and collaborate with underrepresented communities when making selection decisions to ensure that documentary heritage created by and about these communities is identified for long-term digital preservation.

Access the Guidelines here in English, Spanish, and Arabic: 2nd Edition of the UNESCO/PERSIST Guidelines for the Selection of Digital Heritage for Long-Term Preservation.

Connecting Cultural and Linguistic Diversity to Sustainable Development

Agenda 2030 recognises the importance of education that promotes appreciation of cultural diversity, education for sustainable development, and recognition of culture’s contribution to sustainable development in Target 4.7:

By 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.

Achieving this goal will not be possible without recognition of the key role that multilingualism plays in education for sustainable development.

This is being reflected more and more in international efforts to address global challenges through education, culture, and the arts.

Here are some key developments that could provide inspiration to reflect on the role of libraries in connecting cultural and linguistic diversity to sustainable development.

UNESCO Futures of Education Report

UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative and recent report, Imagining our Futures Together: a new social contract for education, stresses the importance of promoting increased diversity in knowledge.

This includes linguistic diversity, diverse world views, and ways of knowing that have traditionally been left out of formal education, such as indigenous knowledge. The dimension calls for climate education to be prioritised in order to fundamentally reorient how the place of humans in the world is understood.

Read more about libraries in the Futures of Education Report: Libraries Contributing to a New Social Contract for Education.

International Decade of Indigenous Languages

The International Decade of Indigenous Languages will span 2022-2032, and calls for global action to preserve, revitalize, and promote the world’s Indigenous languages.

The recently launched Global Action Plan outlines and seeks to coordinate actions for national governments, indigenous peoples’ organizations, civil society, academia, the private sector and other actors.

The Action Plan includes much scope to involve librarians in this work, including the development of professional competencies for information and media professionals, including librarians, and carrying out of awareness-raising on the importance of including Indigenous language material in their work.

Find out more here: Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032)

Libraries around the world are already carrying out programmes to involve their communities in preserving indigenous culture, including oral tradition. See just one of many examples from the Library Services for Saskatchewan Aboriginal people, in which Indigenous storytellers take part in the annual Saskatchewan Aboriginal Storytelling Month, held both in libraries and through online platforms in order to reach more people.

Stay tuned for more information from IFLA on how libraries can be involved in the International Decade.

Inspiring action through multiculturalism and multilingualism in the arts

Cultural and linguistic diversity, expressed through the arts and both through traditional and digital platforms, add critical voices to efforts to address humanities most urgent challenges, such as the climate emergency.

During the 26^th UN Climate Conference (COP26), hosted in Glasgow in November 2021, the Climate Heritage Network officially launched the Climate Heritage Network Race to Resilience Campaign. This campaign calls for a scaling-up of efforts to use culture-based strategies to build climate resilience in our communities.

IFLA’s Secretary General, Gerald Leitner, joined the celebration to give a short address on the power of the written and spoken word in creating connections across cultures and finding solutions to humanity’s shared challenges:

Resilience requires connections. Connections to the past and the lessons it can teach us, but also connections between ourselves, binding us together. Connections enable us to mobalise to support each other, to understand one another’s experiences and values, to create and innovate in the way we face our common challenges. The written and spoken word provides one of the most effective ways we have to realise these connections. It moves, it forms, it enables actions at all levels. It should be available and accessible to everyone, because for culture-based strategies to enable us to build a more resilient world, they need to be inclusive. This is what libraries… look to achieve.

He went on to introduce the poet, filmmaker, and musician Rosanne Watt, who hails from the island of Shetland, Scotland. Her work is deeply connected to her homeland, a connection which she says she can express best through the Shetland dialect.

In this, she stressed the importance of Indigenous languages in bringing voices to climate action.

The use of digital platforms to enable remote participation enabled diverse voices to be brought to high-level COP26 events. Watch Rosanne perform poems in both English and the Shetland dialect on this occasion [YouTube].

To note: among the resources launched during COP26 in November 2021, Climate Heritage Network’s Working Group on Supporting Climate Action by Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples has launched a resource “Models of Supporting Climate Action by Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples” [access this resource here].

Get involved in the discussion!

The intersection of cultural rights with multilingualism and digital transformation will be among the topics explored at IFLA’s upcoming Resiliart x Mondiacult virtual event: Libraries enabling inclusive and meaningful participation in cultural life.

Join the conversation on Wednesday 23 February [15:00-16:50 CET]. More information and the link to register is available here: ResiliArt x Mondiacult at IFLA – Meet the Panel and Register Now!

A Look Back at the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development

The end of a year is a time for reflection and stock-taking, but also a moment to look ahead at what can be built on the year’s achievements.

As 2021 was the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, IFLA engaged with our global network to explore the role of libraries in supporting creativity, enabling the protection and promotion of diverse cultural expressions, and upholding cultural rights for all.

This has laid the groundwork for more engagement with culture, creativity, and sustainable development in the future. So let’s take a moment to reflect on what has been done and have a look at what is coming up.

Launching the Conversation

Libraries are a key resource for fostering equitable participation in culture on the local, national, and international scale. Exploring this topic during 2021 was an opportunity to strengthen library advocacy for cultural rights and sustainable development.

Read more on how libraries support cultural participation here: Libraries opening the door to cultural participation in the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development [February 2021].

In particular, IFLA got involved in library advocacy on this topic through engaging with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005 Convention). To start, we created a guide to help our members learn more about this convention: Get Into the 2005 Convention.

Building on this, we shared tips for actions that our members can take to engage with UNESCO on this topic: Highlighting the Role of Libraries in Protection and Promotion of Diverse Cultural Expressions [March 2021].

Bringing a Library Voice to the Debate

IFLA participated as an observer in the 14th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and provided ideas for how libraries can take steps informed by UNESCO’s priorities: Mobilising Libraries for Cultural Diversity: Next-Steps Informed by the UNESCO 2005 Convention [February 2021].

IFLA also brought libraries to the table for the Third Civil Society Forum of the 2005 Convention in May, moderating a session on culture and sustainable development.

We also worked with partners and within networks to bring a library voice to conversations focused on the importance of the cultural and creative industries in sustainable development, including through the session “Partnering through Culture, Heritage and Art for Resilient and Inclusive Recovery”, the Culture 2030 Goal Side Event at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum [July 2021], and the fourth UCLG Culture Summit, organised by United Cities and Local Government [September 2021].

Highlighting Examples from the Global Library Field

Library advocacy is not possible without input from library and information professionals sharing innovative projects, bold outreach strategies and all-around excellent ideas.

IFLA posted several calls for input over 2021 to hear how our global membership is supporting creativity and diverse cultural expressions in their libraries.

On World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, we reflected on how libraries contribute to sustainable development by enabling culture to be accessed, explored and shared – including in the virtual space: Learning, Encountering, and Exploring: Libraries Making Space for Cultural Diversity [May 2021].

IFLA then engaged with several of our Professional Units and carried out desktop research to find concrete examples of how libraries foster environments where diverse cultural expressions are encouraged, valued, shared, and protected.

The result is a wide array of examples of libraries in action to support creativity, which can be found here: Learning, Making, Doing: Libraries as Incubators of Creativity and the Creative Economy [June 2021].

Creativity and Cultural Rights at WLIC 2021

Creativity came to WLIC with the dedicated session: Libraries as Incubators of Creativity. This session invited panellists to introduce projects in which their library engages with cultural actors and creators.

Examples included artist-in-residence programmes in both university and national library contexts, makerspaces for creative entrepreneurs, and support for first-time authors. This event was submitted to the UN for inclusion on the official database, as well as the final report to the UN General Assembly, on events celebrating the International Year.

For more: Libraries as Incubators of Creativity: Ideas Generator.

Another WLIC 2021 Session exploring this topic was Music in the Library World, organised by the New Professionals Special Interest Group, in cooperation with the Audiovisual and Multimedia Section (AVMS) and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML).

Finally, for an inspirational introduction to the role of libraries are key actors in guaranteeing the right of everyone to participate in cultural life, be sure to revisit the Libraries Inspire Keynote: Transcript of the Session with Professor Karima Bennoune, immediate past UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights.

Looking Ahead

Throughout 2021, IFLA has worked to raise awareness of the role of libraries in supporting creativity and participation in cultural life. We have engaged with valued partners, participated in multisectoral networks, and put the spotlight on contributions from libraries around the world.

This has built a strong foundation for continued engagement in library advocacy for culture’s role in sustainable development.

IFLA will continue working with UNESCO, especially through the 2005 Convention, to ensure that the contribution of libraries in preserving and promoting diverse cultural expressions is recognised. To start, we will participate in the Fifteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in February 2022.

Another key event coming up in September 2022 is the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – Mondiacult 2022. IFLA will be following the preparations for this Conference closely and will keep you informed of developments and opportunities to get involved in the conversation.

As the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development year comes to a close, we thank all those who have engaged with us in exploring this topic. Libraries have a critical role to play in supporting creativity, cultural rights, and sustainable development, and IFLA looks forward to continuing to work with you to bring a library voice to the global conversation.

Get in touch: claire.mcguire@ifla.org

Strengthening Relationships, Empowering Communities: Library Reflections on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

On 9 August, we mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Through the 2021 theme: Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract, the UN calls for a new approach “based on genuine participation and partnership that fosters equal opportunities and respects the rights, dignity and freedoms of all”. Learn more about this year’s theme here [link].

Of course, meaningful change must come at every level, including in policies. However, creating community by fostering learning and partnership can be an important driver of positive change. Libraries are spaces for such participatory processes to happen. They can be nodes for education and conversation, for ensuring that voices are heard and that the lived experiences of marginalised peoples are centred in the narrative.

Engagement with Cultural Heritage

Access to knowledge, information, and resources are central to the mission of the library and information field. Critically, access includes access to cultural-relevant materials. This includes materials in a diverse range of languages and concerning the cultural expressions and life of the community of one’s choosing.

Accessing and interacting with cultural heritage and expressions are essential for the passing-down of knowledge within a community. They also enable meaningful encounters across cultures in the spirit of fostering multiculturalism.

We saw examples when IFLA’s Cultural Heritage Programme Advisory Committee organised the virtual event, Libraries Inspire Engagement with Cultural Heritage. This webinar invited speakers working with their institutions’ collections, visitors, community groups, and the larger public to help people experience, appreciate, learn from, and share cultural heritage.

Some perspectives shared centred on an Indigenous view of cultural heritage librarianship, and highlighted examples of how memory institutions can work on engagement with collections in partnership with concerned communities.

Here is a look at highlights from these conversations.

Indigenous Worldviews in Libraries

Camille Callison, chair of the IFLA Indigenous Matters Section and Librarian at the University of the Fraser Valley, Canada spoke about steps libraries can take to create relationship with Indigenous communities, towards building a cultural hub and a heart within our institutions.

An important step is including Indigenous worldviews in libraries and acknowledging the Indigenous communities who are the traditional stewards of the land.

The land itself can be a library – telling the story of the community’s creation and linage and the origin of nations. Community elders, the keepers and tellers of stories, are themselves living libraries and archives.

Translating this knowledge into library institutions can be done through building relationships with the communities. This can include inviting elders to give story-times and making opportunities for Indigenous artists to display, share and speak about the art they create. It also includes using appropriate terminologies in classification systems and subject headings, and by respecting the ownership of knowledge by Indigenous peoples, such as by correctly citing Indigenous knowledge – including knowledge transmitted orally by Indigenous storytellers.

She stresses the importance of training – both aimed at encouraging Indigenous peoples to enter the library profession, and through cross-cultural learning to enable library and information professionals of all backgrounds to work together to create more inclusive systems. These efforts are critical to ensuring the cultural relevance of libraries for Indigenous communities.

Watch Camille’s full address online here: LINK

Community-Driven Collections Engagement

Heidi Swierenga, Senior Conservator and Head of the Collections Care and Access Department at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada, shared several examples of how the institution enables Indigenous communities to access collections in a way that values the intangible heritage of community knowledge and tradition.

An important aspect of this work are the three types of access visits that the museum has developed. The first invites community groups or individuals to interact with collections at the museum itself, offsetting the costs of their visits through a granting programme. The museum also carries out study visits, in which collections of material are brought directly to communities. She highlights that these are reciprocal learning exchanges, where museum conservation staff enhance their own understanding about the objects, their creation and their meaning, from the community members.

The third type of access she detailed is loaning for activation. In this programme, objects from the museum collection that serve, for example, as traditional evidence of important rites and privileges are brought to communities to fulfil the function for which they were created.

These loans push hard again the traditional view of museum collection standards, as the usual requirements around environmental control and handling procedures of the objects are dropped to allow meaningful engagement with the object. This is made possible by aligning institutional practices with the key principle that Indigenous peoples have the right to manage and control their own material culture and information about that material culture.

We encourage you to find out more and see examples of these access programmes in action here: LINK

Leave No One Behind

Libraries are spaces for community, education, storytelling, cultural transmission and sharing. They are spaces where the narrative of our communities can be revisited, revised, and made more inclusive. They are hubs for community activation and participatory processes that push for meaningful legislative change.

Ensuring libraries are culturally relevant for Indigenous communities, creating connections that centre Indigenous worldviews and perspectives, and empowering Indigenous librarians, community leaders, artists and storytellers are all important aspects in ensuring libraries are active champions of development that leaves no one behind.

We encourage the international library community to work in partnership with Indigenous communities to create this space together.

Follow IFLA’s Indigenous Matters Section for more information about their work towards supporting the provision of culturally responsive and effective services to Indigenous communities throughout the world.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #54: Think of a way in which your work supports creativity

This week, the Conference of the Parties of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions takes place. IFLA will be observing, as well as taking an active role in today’s Civil Society Forum.

But delivering on the goal of the Convention – to encourage and support creativity by all, everywhere – is not just a question for international-level discussions.

Rather, it is something that requires mobilisation and engagement in every community.

Libraries have an important role to play here – arguably one that has often been underestimated.

Because while it can be easy to think of access to information being simply about making use of the works of other people, it is also a vital precondition for people to be able to create themselves.

Added to this are the possibilities libraries offer, through spaces, programming, and support, to encourage people to use their imaginations.

Around the world, we benefit from a stronger understanding of how libraries are key players in supporting creativity and innovation.

So for our 54^th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think of a way in which your work supports creativity.

Once you have an idea, think about how you can explain it clearly, for example to a library user, an artist, or a decision-maker.

Are there other things you could do to support creativity among the community you serve?

Let us know your ideas in the comments below!

Good luck!

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 1.1: Show the power of libraries in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals.

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below.

Learning, Encountering, and Exploring: Libraries Making Space for Cultural Diversity

On World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (21 May), the UN invites reflection and recognition of the importance of ensuring the ability to create and access diverse cultural expressions.

This is critical for implementing the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). Libraries have an important role to play in fostering an environment where diverse cultural expressions are encouraged, valued, shared, and protected. Find out more about the 2005 Convention through IFLA’s Get into Guide here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more important than ever to reflect on the value that access to and engagement with culture has for society. It also is an urgent call to work collaboratively to identify the gaps which must be addressed to ensure this access.

In 2020, IFLA marked this day by helping launch the #culture2030goal Statement on Culture and the Covid-19 Pandemic, a joint effort by IFLA and partners organisations. This statement called for culture to be at the heart of the COVID-19 response and reaffirmed the value of culture in the 2030 Agenda.

To build on this statement, we will take a deeper look at some examples of how libraries contribute to socially sustainable development by enabling culture to be accessed, explored and shared – including in the virtual space. Thank you to IFLA’s Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section, as well as to the wider library field, for sharing your stories!

Culture, Dialogue, and Social Inclusion

Promotion of a diversity of cultural expressions also includes creating space for dialogue among people and cultures, building respect and mutual understanding.

Many libraries offer programmes to inspire this dialogue in a literal way – through language learning programmes. These are often targeted at the most vulnerable members in society, and act as a means to promote social inclusion and cultural exchange. See examples from Norway and Germany for more.

The Bibliothèque Publique d’Information (BPI) Paris, France found that forging connection through language learning could continue despite closures due to the pandemic. A series of online FLE (français langue étrangère / French as a foreign language) workshops arranged by the library in 2020 connected French learners from both within France and beyond, including participants from Brazil, the United States, the Czech Republic, and Colombia [more here].

Like language learning, arts and art education can also be a tool for social inclusion – a vital aspect in towards the development goal “leave no one behind”.

The Invisible Youth Project (Finland) is one such example of an art-based initiative that targeted youth at risk of social exclusion by promoting creative self-expression.

Through this project, public libraries in the cities Jyväskylä, Seinäjoki, and Turku created space for participants to learn about a variety of creative activities such as design, cartoons, creative and therapeutic writing, digital storytelling, rap music, and video producing.

As social exclusion can stem from a variety of social issues, including poverty, disabilities, limited education, and migrant/marginalised backgrounds, addressing this is an aspect of sustainable development.

Libraries reaching out to those at risk of exclusion, while also promoting cultural expression as a means for social inclusion, can therefore be a driver of sustainable social development.

Cultural Dialogue Through Library Programming

During the pandemic, many libraries were faced with the challenge of connecting with their communities in the virtual space. For more, see our blog: Virtual Engagement / Actual Connection: building community around digital collections.

We can find many examples of virtual programmes that seek to help their audiences learn about different cultures and traditions through storytelling, such as this recent example from Qatar National Library: Eid Around the World: Unique Traditions from Different Countries.

These programmes can also help connect people to arts and cultural expressions – despite physical distance.

Connections through Poetry

In 2019, Bremen Public Library (Germany) established the project, Lyrik grenzenlos (Poetry without Borders). The goal of this programme was to create an open space for people to come together and enjoy poetry from all over the world.

In addition to building appreciation for the art form, this event included an element of cross-cultural exchange, as participants were invited to recite poetry in their mother tongue, and were accompanied by local musicians with international backgrounds. Poetry was shared in Arabic, Turkish, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Igbo, Persian, Russian and a variety of German dialects during the in-person event.

The library did not want to lose this community they had built in the face of the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, they went digitial, asking participants to create short videos of recitations. You can view the final video online [introduction in German].

As literature like poetry can be a vehicle for cultural exchange, it can also be a means to establish and celebrate a cultural common ground.

Recent hybrid in-person/virtual events at the State Public Library of Guadalajara included a celebration of poetic improvisation as a creative expression shared by Spain and Latin America.

This event explored the tenth, a form of poetry which originated in the Spanish Golden Age and has since become an important poetic-musical phenomenon, uniting Spanish-speakers on both sides of the Atlantic [more here].

Cultural Heritage and Modern Creators

Libraries can help connect unique expressions of intangible cultural heritage to contemporary creators, helping enable the continuation of tradition, while opening the door to modern interpretations.

The National Library of New Zealand Te Aotearoa included in its recent lecture series an event featuring researcher Michael Vinten, and his project collecting and publishing pre-1950 New Zealand art-song. The goal of this project, and the library’s session, was to help facilitate exposure to this form of traditional music to help modern musicians and music students include New Zealand material into their repertoire.

Another example of this was the National Library of France (BNF) participation in the Europeana Sounds project [more here]. The BNF provided metadata to help increase opportunities for access to and creative re-use of Europeana’s audio and audio-related content.

These examples showcase how libraries can help their communities discover and share diverse cultural expressions. Moreover, they exemplify how this goes beyond enjoyment of culture itself. Cultural programming in libraries can be a platform to build connections, facilitate cultural exchange, and enable the creation of new cultural expressions.

GLAM collaboration and cultural education

For International Museum Day (18 May), IFLA reaffirmed the importance of the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) sector working together to achieve goals relating to sustainable development (see more on our blog).

One example of libraries and galleries collaborating to connect contemporary art to library users, and find new audiences for both institutions, is the project How to Speak Art (Croatia). This was a cooperative initiative between Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević Library, part of Zagreb City Libraries, and Windows (Prozori) Gallery.

This project combined the curatorial expertise of the gallery with the library’s position as public community space to build exposure to and appreciation of contemporary art. It included an educational aspect for school children, which developed artistic literacy, and fostered an understanding of the role that art can have in their life.

Collaboration between cultural actors can present new opportunities for enhancing the social capital of the arts and those institutions which provide access to it.

Community Heritage Grants

Connecting resources to cultural actors and helping build capacity for community-level cultural activities is an important aspect of access to diverse expressions of culture. Libraries can play a key part in ensuring they achieve their goals.

Australia’s Community Heritage Grants are administrated by the National Library of Australia and funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (Office for the Arts); National Library of Australia; the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia.

These grants are aimed at helping community collections-holding organisations such as libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and Indigenous groups make their materials more publicly accessible.

Past grant recipients have included community galleries, arts and creative communities, such as the Anangu Uwankaraku Punu Aboriginal Corporation’s Maruku Arts Collection, the Papunya Tjupi Arts Indigenous arts gallery, and the Naracoorte Regional Art Gallery – all community-based galleries showcasing unique cultural heritage and contemporary creative expressions.

Through such programmes, libraries, especially National Libraries, who have the ability to collaborate with national and regional governments can have a real impact on the ongoing accessibility of arts and diverse cultural expressions.

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Libraries are key components in a sustainable ecosystem for creators and cultural actors. They are platforms for the arts to be experienced, enablers of multicultural and multilingual exchange and learning, and facilitators of initiatives that connect creators to opportunity.

IFLA will continue our work in advocating for the library field’s role in preserving and providing access to cultural heritage during the Third Civil Society Forum of the 2005 Convention (31 May 2021).

Get involved! As 2021 is the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, we welcome more examples of libraries creating space for diverse cultural expressions! You are invited to share your own.

World Heritage Day: Libraries, Access, and Engagement

The International Council on Museum and Sites (ICOMOS) is a global non-government organisation working for the conservation and protection of cultural places. As libraries are important features of cultural places and contributions to knowledge on cultural heritage, ICOMOS and IFLA are partners on many joint initiatives – see our work on the report, Culture in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda, for an example.

We are therefore excited to take this opportunity to reflect on the contributions of libraries to heritage discourse on ICOMOS’s annual World Heritage Day (18 April).

The theme of World Heritage Day 2021 is Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures.

Within this theme, “ICOMOS wishes to engage in promoting new discourses, different and nuanced approaches to existing historical narratives, to support inclusive and diverse points of view”.

Libraries are keepers of stories. We are also living spaces where everyone and anyone can meet, diverse points of view can be shared, and these stories can be told.

Libraries therefore have an important role in enabling complex pasts to be better understood, and diverse futures to be shaped.

UNESCO World Heritage

Visiting a World Heritage Site can be an awe-inspiring experience. Sites chosen for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List are deemed to be of outstanding universal value – meaning they offer a truly irreplaceable contribution to the shared heritage of humankind.

Visit the website of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to learn more about the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the List.

As impressive as a monument or site on the World Heritage list can be, there is often much more significance to be found beyond its façade.

Documentary Heritage and Historical Narratives

For World Heritage Day 2020, we explored how documentary heritage, namely materials on the Memory of the World register, can provide a deeper understanding of a related world heritage site.

An example that is equally relevant for this year’s theme is the World Heritage Site Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison (Barbados), looked at in parallel with the Memory of the World document An African Song or Chant from Barbados.

When one examines this site together with the testament of a life of enslavement, offered through the African work song, it is possible to get a far more complete picture of the human cost of colonialism.

See our blog article: Shared Stories: How documentary heritage enriches monuments and sites for more.

However, on this year’s theme, it is worth also examining how libraries as community spaces can help enable these discoveries and inspire conversations around them.

Inclusive Spaces for Diverse Futures

Cultural heritage is for everyone, but in order to support diverse points of view in cultural heritage discourse, cultural heritage spaces must be understood as being accessible to all.

In setting this year’s theme, ICOMOS acknowledges the role that the cultural heritage sector has in the critical examination of the past. The omission and erasure of points of view through the privileging of some narratives over others is a legacy that memory institutions must strive to reconcile.

For example, in recognition of this responsibility, International Museum Day 2020 was centred on Museums for Diversity and Inclusion. Within this theme, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) acknowledged that “there remains much to do to overcome conscious and subconscious power dynamics that can create disparities within museums, and between museums and their visitors.”

As champions of access for all, libraries too have a role to play in making cultural heritage not only accessible, but something in which anyone and everyone is invited to actively participate.

One way this can start is by engaging new audiences and emphasising inclusive and participatory ways to experience World Heritage sites.

Libraries as Accessible Spaces

As memory institutions, libraries are keepers of heritage through the materials they collect and make available. However, libraries are also living spaces – open to the public with a mission that centres on providing learning opportunities to all.

When present at a World Heritage Site, libraries help integrate the site with the greater social fabric of the community and reach new audiences through the services and programmes they offer.

For example, the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek is part of the “Classical Weimar” UNESCO World Heritage Site (Germany) and receives some 100,000 visitors each year. As a portion of the site’s value lies in its legacy of literary and scholarly achievement, it is appropriate that the library offers a publicly assessable, free-of-charge space for learning, research, and study. Specifically, the library provides access to over one million pieces of media, including over 170,000 items on open-access shelving at the Study Centre which users are free to peruse or borrow.

Further cooperation with the World Heritage Site’s education and inclusion and diversity programmes invites learners of all ages and backgrounds to use the library while also enjoying the historically significant space.

Dynamic, living libraries can combine historically significant buildings and collections with services that meet the needs of modern users. In doing so, they invite people into spaces with which they may not have otherwise engaged.

Libraries are spaces for people to come together to discuss and learn, and this is a value that can contribute to the democratisation of heritage sites. How libraries can support inclusive and diverse points of view within heritage spaces is a question that certainly must be explored further.

There is more to do!

IFLA has explored how libraries of all kinds are promoters of cultural diversity through their role as multicultural hubs.

The IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto upholds libraries as gateways to a cultural diverse society. This Manifesto states that “libraries of all types should reflect, support and promote cultural and linguistic diversity at the international, national, and local levels, and thus work for cross-cultural dialogue and active citizenship.”

To this end, cultural heritage sites – World Heritage or otherwise – are encouraged to view libraries in their communities or within their boundaries as learning, cultural, and information centres, and as vectors to further the educational ambitions of the site, communicate its value, and engage new audiences.

However, in doing this, institutions must reflect the diverse perspectives of the communities they serve. This includes making an active effort to centre, value, record, share, and make space for diverse voices and narratives.

Libraries within heritage sites of all kinds are encouraged to be proactive in developing the relationship they have with their wider communities and enable inclusive conversations on the site’s significance.

Has your library made space for diverse voices to contribute to cultural heritage discourse? We would love to hear about it in the comments.