Comprehensive social trends and challenges in the life of libraries
Mosaics from the IFLA WLIC 2021 conference
Abstract
The IFLA (World Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Annual Conference (World Library and Information Congress – WLIC) was held on 17–19 August 2021, online for the first time in the organization’s 86-year-long history. In this summary, we give some insight into the rich professional offer of the event, which included more than one hundred and fifty programs. We give a foretaste of some of the features of the broad social discourse that explores what roles libraries have in a dynamically changing social environment and what trends influence their future. Some presenters also took perspectives outside the library sector into account. We believe that the conference will provide a starting point for further important and valuable global and local exchanges of views in order to fulfil the social functions of libraries in many ways.
