International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Identifies Five High Level Information Trends in New Report

The 79th Annual World Library & Information Congress (aka IFLA Conference and Assembly is now underway in Singapore and today the organization released a report (multiple resources) that, “identifies five high level trends shaping the information society, spanning access to education, privacy, civic engagement and transformation. Its findings reflect a year’s consultation with a range of experts and stakeholders from different disciplines to map broader societal changes occurring, or likely to occur in the information environment.”
Note: Most of the report is only available to IFLA members. A 16 page summary document (linked below) is available to all.

The Five High Level Trends

Here are the trends discussed in the report:
1. New Technologies will both expand and limit who has access to information.
2. Online Education will democratise and disrupt global learning.
3. Hyper-connected societies will listen to and empower new voices and groups.
4. The global information environment will be transformed by new technologies.

Insights Document

• “Insights” From the IFLA Trends Report (16 pages; PDF)
  A “conversation starter for the library community”.
  The full text of this document is available to all. 

Additional Links

• Trends Report Web Site
  Most of the links here go to items available only to IFLA members.

• Background About the Report 

• List of Contributors to the Report

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News