The Sixth "Shanghai International Library Forum" (SILF6) with "Smart City and Library Services" as the theme was held at the Shanghai Library on 17 – 19 July. 313 delegates from more than 20 countries and regions attended the forum, including librarians from the United States, Russia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Croatia, Mozambique, Serbia, Singapore and Spain, as well as experts and representatives of the library community throughout China, global partners of the Shanghai Library’s "Window of Shanghai" international exchange program, foreign experts and specially invited guests from the United States, Britain and Canada.

The opening ceremony was held at the Shanghai Library Lecture Hall in the morning of July 18 and was chaired by Mr. Mu Duanzheng, Chairman of the Shanghai Library Council. Wu Jianzhong, Director of the Shanghai Library gave an opening speech on behalf of the Shanghai Library. Ms. Ching-chih Chen, President of the Global Connection & Collaboration and Professor Emeritus of Simmons College, Boston read out the congratulatory letter of Ingrid Parent, IFLA President. Ms Elaine Ng Poh Choo, Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore National Library Board gave a speech on behalf of all participants.

On the opening day, Mr. Zhou Heping, Director of the National Library of China, Mr. Ian M. Johnson, Joint Editor of Libri, international journal of libraries and information services, and Mr. Zhu Xiaoming, President of the China Europe International Business School delivered keynote speeches. Carol Pitts Diedrich, Director of University Libraries at The Ohio State University, Mr. Hou Xiaoqiang, Chief Executive Officer of the Cloudary Corporation, Mr. Liu Wei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Library, Ms. Ching-chih Chen, Professor Emeritus of Simmons College, Boston, Ms. Marcia Lei Zeng, a professor of the Kent State University and Ms. Olga Laukova, Director of the State Scientific Library, Slovakia gave speeches at the plenary session.

This forum held three concurrent sessions on July 19, conducting discussions on such topics as “Library as an Infrastructure for Research and Learning; Enabling Librarians to Proliferate Digital Reading and Preserve Digital Memories”, “Coming of the New Integrated Library System: Supporting Cloud Computing and Mobile Services; Library Technical Service with Semantic Technologies” and “Management and Performance Evaluation of a Hybrid Library; The Core Values and Competitiveness of the Physical Library in an Omni-media Age”.

As important activities of the current "Shanghai International Library Forum”, the "SILF2012 Library Director’s Forum” with the theme of “Reform and Sustainable Development” and “A Window to the World - In Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Shanghai Library’s ‘Window of Shanghai’ Program” were held at the same time.