The International ISBN Agency recently concluded its 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Regrettably, for the second year in succession we were compelled to hold the meeting as an exclusively online event because of the ongoing situation regarding Covid-19. As in 2020, we took the opportunity of the online nature of the event to run the AGM on three occasions across the different time zones. This year, the sessions of the AGM took place twice on Wednesday 22 September and once on Thursday 23 September 2021.

Delegates from all national and regional ISBN agencies across the world were invited to participate in one of the three sessions. Each session lasted for two hours and, across all sessions, over 100 delegates from over 70 different organisations were in attendance.

The AGM involved many of the same features as would have been the case had the event been held in person. There were presentations on the formal component which is required by statute, on the International ISBN Agency's website upgrade work and on compliance issues, amongst others. This last was especially interesting, given as it was by delegates from the national ISBN agencies who described their own experiences in encouraging compliance of the ISBN standard.

Indeed, we thank the presenters in particular and all national ISBN agencies in general for their contribution to a highly successful event. We sincerely hope that the 2022 AGM will take place in person and, if it does, we very much look forward to travelling to Oslo next year at the kind invitation of the National Library of Norway.