The 35th meeting of the international organisations representing publishers and libraries in London on 9th March saw agreement on a number of these priorities. Participants came from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). They agreed that written works must be recognised as an essential pillar of heritage. In designing cultural policies and programmes, governments should ensure that the written word is properly preserved and supported. In line with the UNESCO Recommendation on documentary heritage of 2015, there need to be meaningful preservation policies for the digital age–the good practices already adopted by many publishers should be shared more widely.

Finally, they reiterated the message in the joint IFLAIPA statement of 28 September 2016 that there should be no trade-off between quality and quantity of information. While the growing amount of information that is produced and access is to be celebrated, there is an enduring need for excellence.

IFLA, IPA and STM confirmed a further meeting to take forward these discussions would be held in September 2018.