New Delhi: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) inaugurated the fifth edition of the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2016 in New Delhi, today. The theme of ICDL 2016 is Smart Future—Knowledge Trends that will Change the World.

The four-day conference is a part of TERI’s on-going efforts to create a better world for future generations through the adoption of new digital technologies. ICDL 2016 will not only create a roadmap for a smart future, but it will also try to tell us how to prepare ourselves for new challenges and opportunities in this transformative digital age.

The three strategic objectives of the conference, include predicting the future, preparing for the future and, finally, taking requisite actions to apply this knowledge to create, what is being called the ‘Smart Future’.

With five billion more people set to join the virtual world, digital connectivity is set to expand further and very rapidly. With this, it will usher gains in productivity, health, education, quality of life, and economic productivity, among others. In this context, organisations today must be agile and adaptive to be able to easily connect, transfer and share knowledge, deal with big data sets and, finally, find innovative ways to engage with their communities to achieve desirable and sustainable socio-economic outcomes.

Dr Ajay Mathur, Director-General, TERI, while underscoring the importance of national approaches to managing knowledge, especially through the adoption of new digital technologies in this digital era, said: “The core objective of the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2016 conference is to discuss perspectives on how planning for smart cities and other important aspects of our emerging urban lives must factor in the increasingly crucial role played by sophisticated and appropriate ICT tools and software services to intelligently manage, analyse and predict,  how our smart future could look like. This will ensure how countries and their institutions plan and build entirely new ecosystems in areas such as public security, air quality and pollution, public health environmental sustainability, socioeconomic innovation, participatory governance, better public services, planning and collaborative decision-making.”

Ms Donna Scheeder, IFLA President & Deputy Chief Information Officer, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, USA, said, “It is important for an institution to lead the change technology than lead by external sources to gain business advantage. There is a need to bridge the digital knowledge gap across the globe. This can also help in achieving the goal of eradicating poverty.”

This year the conference is being graced by dignitaries from India and abroad, notably by

Ms Donna Scheeder, IFLA President & Deputy Chief Information Officer, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, USA. Dr P K Bhattacharya, Fellow and Area Convenor also delivered the vote of thanks during the inauguration.

A total of 120 speakers from 22countries will be participating in more than 30 sessions during the summit. The conference will witness a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions, workshops, and exhibitions by national and international conference delegates on a range of themes and subjects like innovation and knowledge management, social media and analytics, Big Data, analytics and artificial intelligence, new digital technologies like cloud computing and the Internet of Things, among others.