The IFLA Trend Report: Looking Beyond the Walls in Library Planning

Strategic planning requires us to stop and take a closer look at our organizations and consider the impact that changes in the profession are causing, influenced by the society around us. These considerations lead us past our library walls, past our institutional walls and into a more speculative world of changes in the technological society. Scholars and pundits have provided us with many scenarios for the future, including a world of solely electronic resources and hyper-connected users. But how closely does this match reality and what are the trends in our larger society that will affect how we work in the future. This article provides an overview of several reports on the students and technologies that we work with and closely explores the IFLA Trend Report. The report was developed after discussions with individuals representing many non-academic, non-library organizations and provides us with a view of the larger trends forecast for the information society. The report is envisioned as a living document that invites further comment and wider distribution to the library world and beyond.