SCSNEI-JNU Talk on Getting Published| 12 February

SPECIAL CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF NORTH EAST INDIA

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

 THE BOOK CLUB

Invites you to a Talk on Getting Published

 Speaker: R. Chandra Sekhar, Publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing India

 Date: Thursday, 12 February 2026

Time: 3-5 pm

Venue: Room 324, 3rd Floor, SSS-I, JNU

 ALL ARE INVITED

CFA: 'Problems of Growth', Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences, 28 June – 5 July, Italy

---------- Forwarded message ---------
**Deadline for applications is Friday 27 February 2026 **

Call for applications 

Problems of Growth: Nineteenth Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences
Biblioteca Antoniana, Ischia, Italy, 28 June – 5 July 2026

Applications are invited for this week-long summer school, which provides advanced training in history of the life sciences through lectures, seminars and discussions in a historically rich and naturally beautiful setting. The theme for 2026 is 'Problems of Growth'. The deadline is Friday 27 February 2026.

Organizers: Christiane Groeben (Naples, local organizer), Nick Hopwood (Cambridge), Erika L. Milam (Princeton), Staffan Müller-Wille (Cambridge) and the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

Confirmed faculty: Daryn Lehoux (Queen's, Canada), Dániel Margócsy (Cambridge), He Bian (Princeton), Patrick Anthony (Uppsala), Alison Bashford (UNSW), Hannah Landecker (UCLA), Edna Suárez-Díaz (UNAM), Sabina Leonelli (TU München)

For funding we are most grateful to Cambridge HPS, Cambridge Intesa Sanpaolo Fund, George Loudon, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Dohrn Foundation, Science History Institute, Centro Etnografico delle Isole Campane, Center on Science and Technology at Princeton University and the Italian Society for the History of Science. 

More information: <https://ischiasummerschool.org/theme>

About the school
The Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences provides advanced training in a lively international field that offers a long-term perspective on some of the most significant ideas, practices and institutions in the world today. The school, which has a tradition of association with the Naples Zoological Station, was revived in 2005 after a break of two decades and has run every other year since then other than during the coronavirus pandemic. We can accommodate up to 26 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The event provides a structured learning experience plus extensive opportunities for participation and interaction. English is the working language and we encourage exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries, national cultures and historical periods. Spending the week on an island, staying in the same hotel and sharing breaks and meals maximizes opportunities for exchange. These are enhanced through social events, including a welcome reception and a day trip to Naples, the morning spent learning about the history and current research of the Station, the afternoon free for sightseeing. There will also be a free afternoon to explore Ischia itself.

Introduction to the theme

Growth affords hope and attracts fear. Balanced growth feeds populations, fuels prosperity and imparts purpose to individual and collective lives. The unfettered growth of cells, pathogens, parasites and populations threatens physiological, economic and ecological collapse. Even balance may be a problematic ideal: norms of flourishing and beauty have guided discrimination by vaunting harmonious over retarded, excessive or monstrous growth. The sustainability of life on Earth, attempts 'to change the story of cancer' and the politics of human diversity: growth is at the heart of them all. Yet compared with other vital processes, notably inheritance, development and reproduction, growth in the life sciences has lacked status and attention. This summer school provides an opportunity to explore knowledges and practices of growth between antiquity and the present day while bringing together problems usually kept apart.

For Aristotle, vegetative growth was the lowest function of the soul and for that reason fundamental to plants, beasts and humans. Unlike fire, vegetative growth had a natural limit. Where minerals grew by external accretion or juxtaposition, living beings had the distinctive ability to expand by assimilation of nutrients from the inside out, whether organ by organ or from a preformed seed. Surgeons tried to remove those tumours, cankers and warts that resulted from an imbalance of humours among other causes. Generation, which was hard to imagine in mechanical terms, was often framed as a special form of growth. Late medieval philosophers brought together generation, projectile movement and the accumulation of capital as sharing the same basic problem, how a movement severed from its mover could continue to produce. In a balanced world, gain in one part was compensated by loss elsewhere. Large animals, according to Aristotle, produced fewer offspring, and the relative growth of one organ entailed the diminution of another. At Italian universities during the Renaissance, these ancient ideas were taken up and reformed by scholars including Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente, Andrea Cesalpino and Marcello Malpighi in attempts to reground the systematic study of nature and naturalize growth and development.

By contrast, it seems, modern approaches to growth, in biology as in economics, aimed for an overall increase—in size, in number of individuals and in productivity. As the ultimate source of economic progress the physiocrats postulated an inherent capacity of nature to reproduce. Naturalists like Lazzaro Spallanzani located the same reproductive and regenerative capacities in minute parts that made up animal bodies. But proper growth was also reckoned to occur within certain limits. In the principle of population, Thomas Robert Malthus expressed the limit set for the potentially geometric growth of human numbers by the merely arithmetic growth of food supplied from the land. More generally, in the hands of the population biologist Raymond Pearl the S-shaped curve came to capture the colonization of a new space, with slow initial acceleration towards exponential growth and then deceleration as environmental resistance increased and the 'carrying capacity' was reached. Based on computer simulations of the catastrophic consequences of runaway population and economic growth, the Club of Rome's bestselling report The Limits to Growth (1972) is a point of origin for debate over 'degrowth' and 'sustainable growth'.

Classical discussion of growth within organisms had been informed by the canons of beauty appropriate to each stage of life, with more attention to proportion than size. Beginning in the eighteenth century, longitudinal measurements of human growth aligned with demands for military manpower and projects of social reform. Measurement fed debate over the roles of heredity and environment. On the one hand, anthropometry ultimately produced distinct growth equations for groups defined by age, sex and race. Unbalanced growth was associated with monstrosity and other ways of falling short of the white, male model. On the other, failure to grow became an index of deprivation, most obviously, as physiologist Angelo Mosso argued, in the stunting of factory children. Eugenicists, notably criminologist Cesare Lombroso, were concerned with imbalance at the level of populations.

Standards justified clinical intervention in pathologies of growth. James Tanner, who led the Harpenden study into growth through puberty into adulthood, pioneered the treatment with growth hormone of children who looked set to miss out on the advantages of height. Since the 1980s ultrasound measurements of fetuses have identified growth restrictions on an ever larger scale. Yet even after major surveys from Turin to Nairobi, it is controversial to what extent the standards should be universal or tailored to demographic groups.

In the nineteenth century the knotty issues involved in defining individuals that were explored productively at the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli made growth hard to distinguish from maintenance and reproduction. An influential formulation held that reproduction represented growth beyond the individual limit. From the 1860s embryonic development was discussed in terms of the differential growth of parts. Inspired by D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form (1917), Julian Huxley set an agenda with Problems of Relative Growth (1932) and the notion of allometry, or the shape-changing growth of a part at a different rate from the organism as a whole. Mechanisms could be studied in ontogeny or changing patterns traced in phylogeny. In a famous essay, 'On being the right size', J.B.S. Haldane proposed that 'Comparative anatomy is largely the story of the struggle to increase surface in proportion to volume': more complicated forms enable the larger sizes that maintain body temperature at lower metabolic rates.

Within a species, tissues and organs must somehow 'know' when to stop growing. The cell theory framed organismal growth as the division and expansion of these elementary parts. Cancer, the disease that made biomedicine, came to be understood as a pathology of malignant growth. Research elucidated factors, not least growth factors, notably nerve growth factor discovered by Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi-Montalcini, that promoted, regulated and interfered with cell division. Alongside chemotherapies, weedkillers were developed that acted by causing rapid, uncontrolled growth. Synthetic auxins, the hormones that regulate cell division and expansion in plants, became notorious as the defoliant Agent Orange used by the British in the Malayan Emergency and the United States in the Vietnam War.

This sketch raises large questions. Should understandings and practices of growth be seen as having first sought balance, then promoted unlimited increase before recognition of the costs of growth called the whole framework into question? Or did gospels of growth acknowledge the need for some balance? Should we grasp growth as a modern or capitalist imperative, a potentially relentless power and a creative one through the transformation of quantity into quality? Or is a reason for its neglect in reflection on the life sciences (as distinct from economics and agronomy) that growth implies mere increase in size or number while the truly remarkable changes have seemed to result from qualitative alterations? Reflexively, reservations about growth apply to knowledge, too; simply accumulating data has seemed inadequate when we might need a whole new paradigm. A long-term theme and implicated in urgent problems, growth in and around the life sciences provides a rich field for historical deliberation and for trade between disciplines.

Programme
The school starts with registration and a reception on the afternoon of Sunday 28 June, and ends after dinner the following Saturday night. Departure is on Sunday 5 July. Lectures last for up to 30 minutes in one-hour slots, leaving at least 30 minutes for discussion. Seminars focus on pre-circulated texts. Groups of students will prepare each one with the seminar leader.

Daryn Lehoux (Queen's, Canada)

Lecture: Aristotle on nutrition, growth, residues and seed

Seminar: The 'faculty' of growth in Galen

 

Dániel Margócsy (Cambridge)

Lecture: Soil, vermin and ghosts: The limits to growth in agriculture and medicine in early modern Europe and Indonesia

Seminar: Humans and horses: Theorising size in early modern European Medicine

 

He Bian (Princeton)

Lecture: Growth and regeneration in early modern Chinese thought

Seminar: Growing empire, coining new names: Manchu as a language for flora and fauna nomenclature

 

Patrick Anthony (Uppsala)

Lecture: Toward a history of extractive sciences—and the end of the mineral frontier

Seminar: From bio-geography to necro-geography: Sciences of life and death during the Circassian genocide 

 

Alison Bashford (UNSW) 

Lecture: Growth, limits and the afterlife of Malthus

Seminar: Fertility decline and modernity's great deceleration: Where is reproduction/population in degrowth scholarship?

 

Hannah Landecker (UCLA)

Lecture: The butcher's philosophy: Transmuting knowledge of life into knowledge of growth in modern agriculture and medicine

Seminar: Practical approaches to working with visual documents: Exploring cases and patterns in an industrial trade journal archive

 

Edna Suárez-Díaz (UNAM)

Lecture: Geographies of malnutrition: The clinic, the lab and the committee

Seminar: Traditions of knowledge and intervention: Studying malnutrition and mental development in the land of Zapata

 

Sabina Leonelli (TU München)

Lecture: Growing data crops: Extractivism and agriculture

Seminar: Colonial trends in agricultural data sharing

Public lecture: Intelligenza ambientale: Come usarla per salvare il pianeta

Cost
The fee for students is €400 each, which includes hotel accommodation and all meals for the week. Students need to pay for their own travel to Ischia. The directors will consider requests to waive the fee for accepted students unable to raise the money themselves, when supported by a detailed financial statement and a letter from their department head.

Applications
Applications should be sent by email to <administrator@ischiasummerschool.org> and should include, please:

• a statement specifying academic experience and interest in the course topic (max. 300 words),

• a brief CV,

• a letter of recommendation.

The deadline for applications is midnight CET on Friday 27 February and applicants will be notified of the outcome by 13 March 2026.

Applications are invited for Namaste Governor Acharya Award 2026

NAMASTE GOVERNOR ACHARYA AWARD 2026

Applications are invited for five NAMASTE GOVERNOR ACHARYA AWARD 2025-26 from the PhD students of different Centers/Schools of JNU working on different aspects of research (e.g. political, social, ecological, environmental, gender, poverty, health, geography, literature, biodiversity, etc.) and welfare of the Eight States of North East India.

The applications should fulfill the following criteria:
1. The applicant must have got his/her PhD synopsis approved, between 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025.
2. The applicant can submit, in addition, any other publications on North East India.
3. The applicant has to provide documentary evidence of the work done on North East India.
4. Those who have received this award in previous years will not be eligible.

• Duly filled and signed application forms along with necessary documentary evidences must reach the office of the Special Centre for the Study of North East India (SCSNEI) on or before 15th February 2026, 5:00 pm.
• For any clarification, kindly contact Ms. Asha Joshi, SCSNEI/SSS-I, Room no.416, 4th floor, SSS-1, JNU. Contact no: 0ll-26704786, Email Id: scsnei@jnu.ac.in. For detailed information kindly visit SCSNEI Web page at JNU website (https://www.jnu.ac.in/scsnei) or contact the Office of SCSNEI.

FDP on Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, Bibliometrics, and Responsible AI in Scientific Research | 16-22 February; Kolkata, India

FDP on Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, Bibliometrics, and Responsible AI in Scientific Research

Date: 16-22 February 2026

Venue: Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

The Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, and Presidency University, Kolkata jointly invite applications from scholars, faculty members, and postgraduate students from all disciplines for a seven-day Workshop-cum-Faculty Development Programme on Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, Bibliometrics, and Responsible AI in Scientific Research, scheduled for 16–22 February 2026.
Objectives:
The programme is designed to strengthen the methodological competencies of early-career researchers in systematic review, meta-analysis, and bibliometric techniques, with a focus on open-source analytical environments. It integrates training in scientific writing, research integrity, and responsible AI to support transparent and high-quality scholarly communication. Participants will receive hands-on training in data management, analysis, and visualisation. The curriculum introduces structured and reproducible review methodologies aligned with PRISMA standards, including protocol development, advanced search strategies, data extraction, critical appraisal, effect size estimation, and research mapping. Training will incorporate R- and Python-based workflows, VOSviewer, Biblioshiny, ASReview, and other open platforms to promote openness, reproducibility, and robust research practices.
Target Participants:  This intensive, hands-on, and methodology-driven programme is designed to strengthen participants' competencies in PRISMA-aligned systematic reviews, meta-analytic techniques, and bibliometric research mapping, using open-source tools and reproducible workflows. A distinctive feature of the FDP is its strong emphasis on Responsible AI, research integrity, and transparent scholarly communication, addressing contemporary challenges in evidence synthesis.The workshop is intended for the faculty members, doctoral researchers, and postgraduate students including those preparing for doctoral enrolment, as well as independent researchers across STEM fields, medicine and public health, social sciences, business studies, and interdisciplinary domains. Librarians, information professionals, data stewards, and practitioners engaged in evidence synthesis, research evaluation, or research support services are also encouraged to apply. No prior experience is required, although basic familiarity with research design will be helpful.

Intake Capacity: 30 (Thirty)
How to Apply:
Applications must be submitted through the following link: https://forms.gle/4rCQbHPHty6mZoeC7. Selected applicants will be required to pay the registration fee (Payment details will be shared with selected participants in due course).  Registration Fee: INR 4,499/- for Faculty and Working Professionals; INR 3,999/- for Scholars, Students, and Others. What we provide: Workshop Kits; Tea/coffee and Lunch on all seven days; Certificate of participation. Note: Participants should bring their own laptops. Accommodation: Participants must arrange their own accommodation; however, assistance in getting nearby options can be provided upon request.

Participants are encouraged to come with a research idea and leave with a near-submission-ready manuscript, supported through structured protocol development, advanced search strategies, data extraction, critical appraisal, effect size estimation, and visualization. Selected participants will also have the opportunity to contribute chapters to an edited volume with Routledge/Springer, subject to scholarly quality and thematic alignment.

Last date for application: 06 February 2026

Further Details | Registration Form

CfPs: International Conference on "Youth Narratives and Cultural Practices Across the Globe in the 20th and 21st Century" | 28–30 October, JNU New Delhi

Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies
School of Language Literature & Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University

 is organising an International Conference on

Youth Narratives and Cultural Practices Across the Globe in the 20th and 21st Century

28–30 October 2026
JNU, New Delhi 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Youth, at present, occupies a major demographic share around the world, especially in the developing nations. Their role has been crucial in the realisation of ideologies, governance, economics and socio-cultural contexts in earlier centuries as well but more so in the 20th and 21st century. Literature, cinema, music, digital media, art, activism, and everyday cultural expressions produced by and about young people have consistently articulated experiences of inequality, justice, aspiration, resistance, and belonging. This international conference seeks to examine these youth narratives and cultural practices from a global and comparative perspective, situating them within the broader framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

From the greatest and silent generation who lived through the great depression and the two world wars, to the baby boomers who protested against the Vietnam war, all found solidarity and strength through cultural expressions. While the earlier navigated the challenges of their times and popularized jazz and swing music, the latter led to the creation of "Summer of Love". On the other hand, Gen X subtly paved its way through MTV culture. The millennials who constitute the largest generation group and are the connection between the Gen Z, Gen Alpha, Gen Beta and the earlier generations, articulate their aspirations, anxieties, and political consciousness through alternative public platforms like graffiti and street play. The later generations are born equipped with the smartness of the gadgets and know that the solution to a problem is just a click-away. They have created a whole virtual ecosystem of expression, activism, mobilisation wherein this ecosystem is one of the sites of movements. Across the world, youth movements have consistently emerged across hierarchical intersections of social belonging, some examples are the 2013 Gezi Park Protests in Turkey, Sunflower Student Movement of Taiwan and 2019 student rebellion in Hong Kong. 

The culture and literature that developed around these generations have overlapping tropes that hint at the universality of human development. While the cultural practices and perspective of each of the generations are different, the common denominator is their resilient approach and the hope with which they navigate the challenges. They have been instrumental in shaping social consciousness, collective memory, and future imaginaries. The Mexican Tlatelolco movement, the French Revolution, the Cuban revolution, the Emergency in India, Arab Springs are some popular examples. Their aspirations and articulations influence civil society, government, and human rights discourse. The sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations are a manifestation of this influence. 

Youth are actors of change and resistance and the recent youth-led protests in Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Peru, Argentina are examples of their awareness and power. The conference will provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars to analyse youth-led cultural practices as sites of informal learning, social critique, civic engagement, and ecological consciousness. It will examine both historical and contemporary case studies, enabling an internationally situated dialogue between twentieth-century youth movements and twenty-first-century digital and transnational youth cultures.

The conference is premised on the understanding that sustainable development is not solely a technocratic or economic endeavour, but also a deeply cultural and narrative process. Youth cultures play a crucial role in interpreting social realities, questioning dominant development paradigms, and imagining alternative, more inclusive and sustainable futures. By foregrounding youth voices and cultural expressions from diverse regions of the world, the conference aims to explore how issues such as education, gender equality, social inequality, urban sustainability, climate action, and peace are negotiated, represented, and transformed through narrative and culture, as such the conference invokes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. 

In particular, the conference will look at six SDGs- 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 13 (Climate Action), and 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). The conference aims to contribute to broader academic and policy discussions on youth engagement, cultural sustainability, and inclusive development. It seeks to demonstrate how youth narratives and cultural practices can inform more socially grounded, culturally sensitive, and supplement sustainable development frameworks. To realise this aim applicants should preferably situate their papers in alignment with at least one of the SDGs mentioned contextualised within sub-themes listed below. 

 

Themes and sub-themes

Youth and Politics

Youth as Agents of Political Transformation in the 20th and 21st Century

Student Movements and Democratisation: Comparative Perspectives from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe

Youth Activism in the Age of Precarity: Unemployment, Inequality, and Political Expression

Campus Politics and the Making of Public Intellectual Culture

Youth and Literature

Literary Representations of Youth in Novels and Short Stories

Coming-of-Age Narratives across Cultures: A Comparative Study

Youth, Identity and Migration in Global Literature 

Literature as Social Memory: Writing Youth Movements and Student Struggles

Youth and Cinema

Cinematic Depictions of Youth Cultures in Global Cinema

Counterculture, Rebellion and the Youth Hero on Screen 

Streaming Platforms and the New Visual Aesthetics of Youth

Cinematic Portrayals of Youth Identity, Rebellion, and Desire 

Youth and Music

Hip-Hop, Rock, Folk, and Indie Cultures: Youth Music Movements Worldwide

Digital Music Cultures and the Globalisation of Youth Taste

Music as Resistance and Identity

Youth and Social/Digital Media

Influencers reach and outreach defining Young Publics

Digital Youth Cultures

Memes, Movements, and Online Political Expression

Digital Citizenship and Youth Participation in Public Debate

Youth and Alternative Expressions

Graffiti, Street Art, and the Politics of Public Space

Eco-Activism, Slow Living, and Minimalist Youth Movements

Spiritual Alternatives: Neo-mysticism, Yoga Subcultures and New-Age Youth Groups

Embodied and Performance-Based Expressions

Who Can Participate? Scholars, educators, policymakers, practitioners engaged in, but not limited to, the field of Literature, Cultural Studies, Sociology, History, Media and Film Studies, Anthropology, Gender Studies, Urban Studies, Environmental Humanities, and Development Studies. 

Conference Highlights: The conference will have keynote and plenary speakers from academia, industry and government. It will have roundtable discussions, workshop, as well as a cultural program and exhibition. 

Format: Hybrid mode 

Language (Abstract): English (Compulsory) & any one of these (Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian, French, Russian) 

Language (Paper Presentation): English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian, French, Russian. 

Publication: Details of the same will be updated on the webpage. 

Important Dates (keep checking webpage for updates)

Abstract submission: 30th March 2026

Acceptance notification: 30th April 2026

Last date for registration: 30th June 2026

Last date for full-paper submission: 30th August 2026

Abstract Submission: Click here for Youth Conference Abstract Submission

IFLA Newsletter | January 2026

Discover what's new at IFLA in our first issue of the year!

͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌     ͏ ‌    ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

Share January 2026 —  Vol. 6, No. 1 View in browser IFLA Highlights IFLA's Governing Board has started the year with a first informal meeting focused on plans around IFLA100, and in particular work on our next Trend Report. Look out for first announcements about this in the coming weeks! President Leslie Weir has also shared a video message for the Emirates Library Forum, held this year in Sharjah, and joined a panel organised by the North America Regional Division Committee at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference in Toronto, Canada. You can read her New Year's message to IFLA's Members and volunteers on our website too! Meanwhile, IFLA Secretary General Sharon Memis represented IFLA at the Science Comes to Town conference in Split, Croatia, engaging with passionate Croatian public librarians, as well as encouraging science communicators to see libraries as an essential infrastructure.   Have you ever dreamed of visiting "the Land of the Morning Calm" 😌 —as South Korea is often called? Then join us in Busan for the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) 2026! The official WLIC website is now online, where you can register and access essential details, including travel guidance, flight options, visa procedures, and more, as Conference updates continue to roll out. If you're planning ahead and need a letter of invitation to request employer support, you can now generate a personalised letter online. The call for WLIC 2026 volunteers is also open—apply directly through the registration form. Interested in presenting a poster during the Congress? Submit your proposal by 8 April 2026. And stay tuned—grant opportunities will be added to the website in the coming weeks. The Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities (LPD) Standing Committee has published the Guidelines for Inclusive Library Services for Persons with Print Disabilities. These guidelines are the result of several years of collaborative work and a significant step forward for inclusive librarianship worldwide. The IFLA Environment, Sustainability and Libraries (ENSULIB) Section has published the IFLA Guidelines for Green Libraries. These guidelines provide a comprehensive framework for developing, managing, and evaluating green and sustainable libraries across diverse contexts. James Bennett has been selected as the new sponsor of the IFLA Public Library of the Year Award, a globally recognised celebration of the world's most inspiring new public libraries, where design excellence meets genuine community impact. The call for applications begins in February 2026! The IFLA Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Division invites you to its regional conference, held on 5-6 March in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala, focused on the transformation of libraries and the construction of a new professional paradigm. [En español] Read IFLA's first "Advoca8" Substack post of 2026! Each month, we highlight eight key areas of IFLA's policy and advocacy work to support and inspire your own efforts. In the January post, discover IFLA's advocacy priorities for 2026 across Headquarters, Advisory Committees, and beyond. Do you have an innovative, sustainable library project? Apply now for the 2026 IFLA Green Library Award—administered by the IFLA Section on Environment, Sustainability, and Libraries (ENSULIB) and sponsored by De Gruyter Brill Publishing and Library Juice Academy, with an extended deadline of 15 February 2026. A call for expressions of interest to join the new IFLA Library Publishing (LIBPUB) Section is now open. The Section, which originated as a Special Interest Group at WLIC 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, was formally recognised as an IFLA Section in December 2025, reflecting the rapid growth of library publishing as a distinct field. Interested individuals are invited to submit their expressions of interest by 16 February 2026 at noon CET. The 2026 IFLA PressReader International Marketing Award offers €3500 to attend WLIC 2026 in Busan and recognises outstanding library marketing projects, with applications open until 27 February 2026. Don't miss what's coming up at IFLA! Explore exciting upcoming events and register now, online or on-site, through our events page. Looking ahead, on 30 September 2027, IFLA celebrates its 100th anniversary! 🎂 Do you have ideas, initiatives, or partnership proposals to help shape this historic moment? Contact us at ifla100@ifla.org IFLA Membership renewals are officially open! So now is the time to renew your IFLA membership and keep learning, sharing and growing with a passionate global community of librarians. 💌 Check your inbox for an email from membership@ifla.org with renewal instructions ⏰ Deadline to renew: 31 March 2026 Don't see the email? Let us know - we'll be happy to assist you! Member Spotlight What happens when librarians from cities and remote regions come together to rethink their role? In September 2025, our member, the Armenian Library Association, united 100 professionals in Yerevan to transform libraries into inclusive, community‑driven spaces. Are you an IFLA organisation member? We want to spotlight you! Share what's new: successes, initiatives, and highlights in a few sentences using this form, and we'll feature your organisation front and center! Finally, we're delighted to extend a warm welcome to our new members ⭐ Eswatini Library & Information Association (ESWALA) – Eswatini Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation – Egypt Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences, University of Malta – Malta Mohammad Bin Jassim Alkulaifi Library – Qatar Association for Information Science & Technology – United States We look forward to your engagement and involvement! SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT @IFLA and use the #IFLA hashtag to get featured! Update your preferences / Unsubscribe