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IFLA, IPA and STM release joint statement on supporting ‘quality information’

The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) have issued a joint statement about creating quality information, noting that libraries and publishers are ‘affected by the same trends, and share many of the same concerns’.

Issued on 15 March, the joint statement said it was time for ‘practical progress’ and underlined the organisations’ common interests.  The participating organisations have also penned a joint letter to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s director general calling for steps to ‘ensure meaningful discussion’ on proposed action plans on exceptions and limitations for libraries, archives and museums. The joint statement said these exceptions and limitations for libraries would make it easier for libraries and publishers to work together on local, regional and national levels, and would ‘contribute to maximising access to information around the world in a sustainable fashion’.

The organisations also agreed they would work harder to identify and promote tools to help librarians and researchers avoid ‘deliberately deceptive’ scholarly journals, as well as reiterating the need for ‘meaningful preservation policies for the digital age’, recommending that the good practices already adopted by many publishers should be shared more widely, especially with government policymakers.

In addition, the statement reaffirmed the 2016 joint statement by IFLA and IPA that said there should be ‘no trade-off between quality and quantity of information’.

Read the full statement here.

 

Category: Library news International