IRRT (International Relations Round Table)

Information integrity is at the core of every librarian's professional mission.  Thirteen countries just signed a declaration making information integrity a priority.  The United States was not one of the thirteen.  The American Library Association has a duty to its membership to speak out for information integrity and to insist that the United States sign the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change.

On November 12, 2025, the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change was launched at COP30 in Belém, Brazil.  The Declaration established shared international commitments to address climate disinformation and promote accurate, evidence-based information on climate issues.  You can read the text of the Declaration here:

https://www.unesco.org/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2025/11/2025.11.12%20-%20COP%2030%20-%20%20Declaration%20on%20Information%20Integrity%20on%20Climate%20Change_final_ok.pdf?hub=780

The Declaration calls on governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, and funders to take concrete action to counter the growing impact of disinformation, misinformation, denialism, and deliberate attacks on environmental journalists, defenders, scientists, and researchers, attacks that undermine climate action and threaten societal stability.

To that list of occupations I would add librarians.  When factual information is under attack, librarians are under attack.  The Declaration aligns so closely with the American Library Association's work, it could be a mission statement.

It doesn't matter if the chance of persuading the United States to sign the Declaration is small; signing the Declaration is still the right thing to do, and persuading the United States to do it is still worth ALA's time and effort.

A public effort on ALA's part to get the United States to sign would remind people of the inseparable relationship between librarians and sound information, and would demonstrate librarians' willingness to fight whenever sound information is threatened.