Session Theme: "Future-ready data: transformative approaches to cataloguing"
Introduction
The IFLA Cataloguing Section is seeking proposals for papers to be presented at a session to be held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Busan, South Korea, 10-13 August 2026, on the topic of Future-ready data: transformative approaches to cataloguing.
As the world of information and data continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, libraries adjust their standards, practices, workflows and tools to meet the current demands and future-proof their data.
This session aims at examining the concept of transformation from different angles: when it comes to metadata, libraries do transformative work on a global level, through standardization, resource sharing, etc., but they are not always the originators of change. Reality on the ground can be quite fragmented, in a fast-changing landscape where every possible transformation seems to be happening at once. Through a dialogue between those different levels, the session will address a variety of topics such as the kind of transformation library users experience when new, user-oriented models are implemented in library catalogues, the challenges of implementing these in a deeply interconnected environment, where one institution's decision to implement can impact many others who are sharing data from/with them, the exposition of metadata on the web through linked open data and the unexpected transformation that is occurring with AI models tapping library metadata on a large scale.
Presentations will either be 5-7 minutes case-studies or longer 7-10 minutes presentations.
Deadline for submission of proposals: 10 May 2026
View the full call for proposals on the IFLA WLIC 2026 website.
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Joan Wang
East Asian/Chinese Studies Librarian
Washington University in Saint Louis
She/Her/Hers
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