Hello Friends,

Hope all of you are keeping yourselves healthy and coping well in this difficult time.

IFLA Governing Board and Irish National Committee have cancelled the World Library and Information Congress 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In view of this, IFLA has prepared a resource page on “COVID-19 and the Global Library Field” to share information on what libaries are doing around the world to cope with the situation. IFLA has also produced a COVID-19 edition on “How to Spot Fake News” infographic as libraries have a role to maintain its reputation and skills to prevent misinformation.

In this challenging time, libraries have to roll out innovative ways to deliver services to our patrons, such as making use of technology to offer online collections and services. As libraries cautiously re-open to welcome back the patrons, restrictions on social distancing, safety protocols and the limit of numbers of people allowed at any one time would have to be implemented to safeguard the health of the patrons.

In the spotlight, we feature the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Library and Information Association of New Zealand (LIANZA) resource pages on COVID-19 and the libraries’ responses to the pandemic situation. ALIA has provided a comprehensive checklist for Australian Libraries to use as a guide in its reopening. We also feature articles on how China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore are coping with the current situation and gradually reopening some of their libraries.

On what’s trending in our region, we feature the IFLA Division V ( Asia and Oceania) collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Indian Library Association websinar sessions that address IFLA’s Global Vision & Strategies and Information Literacy: Knowing the right news in the digital age respectively. Other interesting articles include the World Book Capital Day 2020 in Kuala Lumpur and NLB Singapore weekly storytelling sessions to engage children in reading at home on its Facebook page

Please stay safe and take care everyone.

Soh Lin Li

Manager, IFLA Regional Office

For Asia and Oceania