On 19 June, the IFLA Governing Board’s published its decision to select Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as the host for the World Library and Information Congress 2024 (WLIC 2024). Since then, IFLA has received criticism about the decision as well as support.

As a global federation, all voices are important. The Governing Board has therefore decided to seek the advice of IFLA Members around the world by means of an advisory referendum. The results of the advisory referendum will allow the Governing Board to take a more informed decision.

The procedure of the Advisory Referendum is based on Article 13 of the IFLA Statutes, providing a mechanism for the Governing Board to determine the Members’ views on issues of importance. The mechanism is advisory only, not a binding vote.

IFLA’s voting Members are being contacted by UK Engage with an invitation to participate in the referendum which will close on 2 August 2023.

IFLA’s volunteers will also be invited separately to provide their views.

A briefing paper outlining the background and reasons for the decision, and some of the factors raised for and against the decision is available in PDF.*

We encourage IFLA’s Affiliates and others to use IFLA-L to contribute to the discussion.

The Governing Board will meet as soon as the results are available, and both their decision and the referendum results will be published immediately after.

*This file was amended on 12 July with updates to the “IFLA and Association Statements” section and to correct a typographical error.