IPA senior leadership spoke about Freedom to Publish and sustainability at IFLA’s annual World Library and Information Congress, which was held in Rotterdam on 21-25 August. 

IPA Vice President, Gvantsa Jobava, spoke movingly on a panel called ‘European libraries: Platforms for Democracy’ where she described the challenges of working as a publisher in Georgia where she is regularly fighting government policies that are detrimental to the creative community. Jobava spoke about the necessity in such situations of publishers and librarians working together to promote literacy, freedom to publish and the importance of education.

Former IPA President and current Chair of the Inclusive Publishing and Literacy Committee, Michiel Kolman spoke on a panel about the importance of the UN’s Strategic Development Goals for publishing and of the IPA’s multi-year collaboration with IFLA and IBBY in the SDG Book Club. Later Rachel Martin, Global Director of Sustainability at Elsevier, helped the Dutch Publishers Association in launching the Dutch SDG Book Club, which complements others in Brazil, Norway and Portugal.

IPA Secretary General, José Borghino, met briefly with the new IFLA President Vicki McDonald, new IFLA Secretary General Sharon Memis, and the new Chair of IFLA’s Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Committee, Jonathan Hernández.