The Politics of Promoting Freedom of Information and Expression in International Librarianship

The Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) initiative took the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) outside its traditional focus on the status and techniques of the profession and postulated a new role for the Federation. FAIFE invested librarianship with a higher responsibility: to promote the fundamental human right to information. This responsibility has been embraced as the key principle underlying and informing library and information service.

This study traces the development and implementation of the FAIFE initiative by IFLA. It traces the origins of the decision to implement this initiative and assesses the outcomes of its first five years as it developed from a project into a continuing and central program of the Federation. Both the internal effects on IFLA and the consequences of the project for the profession of librarianship are explored. The Politics of Promoting Freedom of Information and Expression in International Librarianship: The IFLA/FAIFE Project offers a rare example of an international professional association in transition. In examining this project to promote unrestricted access to information as the reciprocal right of freedom of expression, the research becomes a case study of the politics of an expanding sense of professionalism.