1. IFLA Trends Report
Segametsi Molawa
08-11 October 2013
LIASA 15th Annual Conference
Western Cape

2. Background information
• IFLA set a steering committee to investigate
the current digital information environment
• Literature review, experts and stakeholders
from various disciplines were consulted over a
period of 12 months.
• Five trends were identified, and they have a
great likelihood to impact on:
– Knowledge economy
– Services provided by libraries across the sectors

3. TREND
1
New Technologies will both expand and limit
who has access to information.
• The world’s information at your fingertips- but
what can you do with it?
• The value added by technology to information
literacy advantage those who have access and
disadvantage those without internet access,
literacy:

4. Questions from trend 1
• Who owns information in the midst of open
access through internet?
• Is internet able to determine the limitations to
access?
• How can you optimise the value of information
available for you?
South African priorities
• Strengthening information literacy initiatives.
• Internet and mobile access, their impact on
national development priorities

5. TREND
2
Trend 2
Online education will transform and disrupt
traditional learning
• Assumption is that online education resources are
making learning opportunities more abundant,
cheaper and more accessible. Our questions:
• If online education is free, then how much is it really
worth?
• If we’re learning together but studying alone – will
online education change the face of learning forever?

6. TREND
3
•
•
•
•
Redefining the boundaries of privacy and data
protection
What are the resulting impacts on privacy, and
protection of our personal information?
Who’s profiting from your personal information?
Does your government know more about you than you
do?
Who’s to be trusted more: your government or your
search engine? Or neither?

7. TREND
4
Hyper-connected societies will listen to and
empower new voices and groups
• What impact will hyper-connected societies have
on traditional political parties?
– Mobile technology impact.
• Open government initiatives and access to public
sector data will continue to improve, resulting in
more citizen-focused public services.

8. TREND
5
The global information economy will be
transformed by new technologies
• Will automated translation lead to greater
multi-cultural understanding?
• Will individuals and businesses be able to be
economically active from anywhere in the
world?