Libraries' Global Federation Opens Call for Voices on the Future of Librarianship

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, known as IFLA, wants people to help map where library work goes next across borders.

IFLA President Leslie Weir has announced a new body, the President's Panel on International Librarianship Futures. The panel will work on a working definition of international librarianship, a shared description of the field that can be tested and revised over time.

The panel's job goes further than a definition. According to IFLA, it will identify key considerations for IFLA members, volunteers, staff and others on the present and future of the profession. Its main product is a white paper, a report written to be used as a resource. It is not a policy document, so it will not bind IFLA or anyone else to act on it.

IFLA is looking for eight to 12 panelists who are already "actively engaged in futures work", meaning people whose daily work involves thinking ahead. Applicants are asked to submit an "expression of interest", a formal way of putting your name forward. IFLA published the call on 21 October 2026, and it has set 4 November as the date for full consideration of submissions.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, a member of IFLA's Governing Board, has agreed to chair the panel. The initiative arrives as the federation prepares for its centennial, a milestone that gives an organisation reason to look at its own future.

For anyone who has ever queued at a library counter, the appeal is easy to see. Libraries are one of the few places where a book can travel from a publisher's warehouse to a reader's hands without the reader paying at the till. Someone has to decide what the profession should look like in the years ahead, and this panel is IFLA's attempt to ask the people who think about that for a living.

Those who want to apply can find the full call on IFLA's website, where the instructions and dates are set out.