Monthly Archive for December, 2018

Fear, Friction and the Fastest Moving Treaty – Copyright for Libraries in 2018

At the beginning of the year, we posted about copyright for libraries in 2018, looking into ongoing and upcoming copyright reforms in order to prepare our 2018 advocacy efforts. There were areas of promise, with helpful draft legislation on the table in countries such as South Africa or Japan. But […]

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Sustainability of Libraries : the Myanmar Experience

We are happy to present a guest blog by Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung, Executive Director, of the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF):   It’s easier to get on show business, the hard part is to stay there. Nobody stays famous forever. — Chris Rock   We are seeing so many people […]

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Libraries: Unleashing the Transformative Power of Culture and Creativity for Local Development

IFLA attended the first ever OECD conference examining the links between culture and local growth. The conference took place in Venice, an ideal venue to discuss the importance of culture and cultural heritage, and the newly launched OECD Guide: Culture and Local Development: Maximising the Impact. Culture is currently on […]

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Making Progress: Welcome Vote in South African Parliament on Copyright for Libraries

After years of discussion, the South African copyright amendment Bill was adopted by the South African National Assembly on 5 November. The process is not completely over, as the Bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence, which is likely to happen early 2019. As […]

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1 Day to Human Rights Day: Bringing Rights Together

In the last of our series of blogs in the run up to Human Rights Day, we’re looking at situations where different human rights risk being in tension with each other. We argue that in a number of key areas of potential clash, the work, professionalism and ethics of librarians […]

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2 Days to Human Rights Day: The Right to Culture

At two days to Human Rights Day 2018, the second-to-last of IFLA’s daily blogs looks at the right to participate in the cultural life of the community, or in short, the right to culture.  Amongst policy areas, culture is often seen as one of the least important. It rarely grabs […]

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3 Days to Human Rights Day: The Right to Participate in Government

For the fifth in our series of blogs looking at different articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, today’s contribution looks at the right to participate in government. It shows how libraries, by providing access to information – and helping people to use it – can support an active […]

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