Page 28 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

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Gerald LEITNER / From gatekeeper to gateway to gate-opener: A new role for the global library field 027

the progress that the Internet has brought. Who suggest that, faced with infobesity, we need an
information diet. That we should only listen to what they have to say, and disregard the rest. We
need ourselves to be careful.
We need to resist the temptation to say that everything online is untrustworthy, is unreliable. We
need to avoid looking arrogant, paternalistic, claiming that we alone know what is good for people,
that we alone have a monopoly on quality. This will too easily lead to rejection, to irrelevance. We
need to make a positive argument, not a negative one.
Having made the progression from gatekeepers to gateways to gate-openers, we need to avoid
falling back, we cannot just become gatekeepers once again, or be seen as wanting to play this role.
While celebrating the new possibilities there are for people to express themselves, to ensure
that a wider range of information is available than ever before, we need to underline how libraries
provide a solution to all of the challenges linked to information.
How libraries respond to the risk of decay and loss by preserving it over time.
How libraries respond to economic inequalities by ensuring that income is not a barrier to access.
How libraries respond to a lack of the skills needed to use information fully by providing
competences, from basic literacy to advanced critical thinking.
How by ensuring that access to information is meaningful for all, we can create stronger, fairer,
more innovative societies.
And in this, IFLA can help.
At the beginning, I talked about how the transformation of information and the transformation of
libraries necessitates a transformation of IFLA.
The shift from closed, to open to abundant information.
The shift from gatekeepers to gateways to gate-openers.
What this means for an organisation like mine, for its members.
I believe that we can, that we need to drive this change. Both through our advocacy work
with decision-makers at all levels, and through our work to inspire, to engage and to enhance
professional practice. There is so much good work already going on in the world. There is so
much good work going on here in China. And this work deserves to be shared, needs to be shared.
Because information is changing, so must we. And we can best keep ahead if we work together.
So I want to repeat the invitation that I made in my opening words.
IFLA is open, IFLA is ready to provide the space, the support, for the actions that will ensure that
libraries continue to play an essential role—a growing role—in the communities that they serve.
That they truly are gate-openers, catalysts, sources of opportunity and of the tools to realise them.
Through our IFLA Strategy 2019-2024, we have a framework, a basis for thinking through
aligned actions to achieve this. Join us in this. Help us not only build a strong and united global
library field for better lives, around the world.

Thank you!