Brisbane, Australia -- 30 September 2024. We don't need to know for sure what the future holds for libraries and the communities they serve in order to be able to play a role in shaping it. The 2024 Trend Report, launched at the Information Futures Summit and made possible by SIGL support, offers a key resource for librarians, libraries and library associations looking to integrate tomorrow into their planning today.
Just over 10 years on from the original IFLA Trend Report, the world has not slowed down. Rising awareness of the consequences of knowledge injustice, further technological advances, sharpening political polarisation and of course the pandemic, amongst other things, have each impacted the information environment.
The library field has not been inactive in the face of the challenge.
We have adapted existing services and developed new ones, explored how we can continue to fulfil our mission regardless of changing lives for the better through knowledge and information.
The Trend Report is a tool for ensuring that we can continue to do this. It is available to any library and information worker, library or library association keen to make the future a part of their discussions today, and so better plan for whatever it will being.
The latest edition of the report – the first major update in over 10 years – represents a new dimension in this work.
Its preparation has been led by Professor Michael Dezuanni and Dr Kim Osman, Queensland University of Technology, who bring extensive experience of informing and shaping government policy in the digital age.
It explores seven key trends in the information and knowledge environment, from what we understand by knowledge itself, through technological, political and environmental dimensions.
The Trends
But beyond that, it looks at what can happen when these trends meet and interact, as they will inevitably do in reality. These intersections of trends are the inspiration behind a series of scenarios – stories about what the future of information and knowledge could bring, and what the role of libraries could be in them.
Both the trends and scenarios are building blocks that library and information workers, libraries and library associations can use in their planning. To help with this, the Report also offers ways to play.
Plan for the future
These propose exercises, from developing your own trends and scenarios to reflecting on what choices we need to make now in order to be ready for whichever future becomes reality.
Through this, we want to take our ability to plan for the future up a gear, and so with it our resilience and sustainability. Beyond this, we want to maximise the positive impact that we can have on these futures, recognising the unique strengths that libraries have.
As underlined by IFLA President Vicki McDonald in her foreword, ‘Library and information workers should not feel like spectators in the ongoing development of our sector, or indeed of the wider knowledge and information field that we are at the heart of. With the right tools, and the right attitude, we can not only be ready, but we can shape the future‘.
We therefore encourage the field not just to read the Report, but to use it practically. To help in this, we'll be sharing further tools and materials in the coming weeks and months, and look forward to finding out how the Report is being used to make a difference.
Download the Trend Report 2024, and find out more about the Trend Report series.
We are grateful to Stichting IFLA Global Libraries for the financial support that makes the Trend Report possible.