Whilst only a short time ago IFLA felt optimistic that August was far away enough to confidently proceed with the conference preparation plans, IFLA can no longer guarantee the one thing that you trust us to deliver, namely – a safe, financially sustainable, high quality event and programme.

The IFLA Governing Board and Irish National Committee have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 World Library and Information Congress. The decision has been published in full on IFLA’s website and via IFLA-L and we are in the process of contacting all stakeholders and registered delegates.

We know that this will come as an enormous disappointment to many of you who planned to attend the congress and who have worked actively on satellite meetings and programmes, who already evaluated papers and made contacts, if not invited speakers.

As you are aware, this decision has not been taken lightly. However, we are positive that we can all meet again in 2021 in Rotterdam and return to Dublin in 2022.  The News Media Section will keep its participants updated as further information comes out.