IFLA Journal is an international journal publishing peer reviewed articles on library and information services and the social, political and economic issues that impact access to information through libraries. The October 2022 issue of IFLA Journal was developed in collaboration with the IFLA Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) to mark the 20th anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom.

In June 2022, the American Library Association (ALA) held its 2022 Annual Conference and Exhibition, its first major in-person conference since the pandemic began. Major themes that resonated throughout the conference included book bans and censorship; issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion; examples of successful library programming during the pandemic; library funding strategies; patron and library worker safety; information access; and technology trends and challenges.

The LIBER Annual Conference took place from 6 – 8 July 2022 in Odense, Denmark.

All presentations from the LIBER 2022 sessions have been uploaded to LIBER 2022 Zenodo Community Page. Official photos (by Saif Shneyin) can be found on Flickr here.

Since their launch in 2015, the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals have become embedded in the research community. Many funders want to see how research aligns to SDG targets and there are now programmes in place to measure university contributions to the goals. But how can libraries contribute to this vital work?

Christine Ollendorff, Directrice de la documentation et de la prospective à Arts et Métiers Science et Technologies et Claire Nguyen, Directrice adjointe et responsable du service de la politique documentaire du SCD de l’université Paris-Dauphine, analysent pour le BBF les impacts de la science ouverte sur la politique documentaire et l’évolution des compétences des professionnels.

First released in 2017, the COUNTER Code of Practice (CoP) now in Release 5, incorporates the concept of continuous maintenance. Last year, COUNTER’s volunteer teams, led by the Technical Advisory Group, have been working on a more significant update to the Code of Practice designed to better facilitate Open Access reporting, among other matters, and we’re now opening our work up to community consultation.

The full consultation can be downloaded as a Consultation document and is also available on GitHub.

This report explores the challenges, new developments and exciting opportunities for libraries in the future — reimagining the role of librarians as community leaders. PressReader, a platform of newspapers and magazines, first explored this topic in 2019 in this report. The goal is to analyse what has changed since then, what remains consistent and what lies ahead for library teams in 2022 and beyond. This report results from 6 experts’ insights based on the six main themes that emerged from these conversations. These insights were cross-referenced with a survey of over 400 library professionals around the world, about the challenges and strategies they’re implementing to tackle them.

Read also this article The evolving role of librarians: how is library leadership changing?

The pandemic experience underscores that print collections still are valued resources. Their use may change thanks to virtual environments,  but the importance of the library’s print collection will not. As library staff prepare to shape the New Model Library that works best for them, it probably is safe to say that the print collection will continue to have a significant role in library futures.

Previous research from Ithaka S+R and recent recommendations of the ARL/CARL Joint Task Force on Research Data Services have emphasized the importance of greater coordination between university units to guide users to the most appropriate services. To help libraries play a leading role in efforts to implement greater collaboration with other campus providers and promote roadmaps for users of these services, this fall Ithaka S+R will launch a new cohort project designed to help libraries create blueprints for coordinating data service offerings within and beyond the library.

This report looks back at progress Europeana Foundation has made against the Business Plan 2021. In 2021, in the face of unsettling times, Europeana doubled down on what matters to us – harnessing cultural heritage to help create the fair and inspiring world we want to be part of.