The COLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIBRARY at THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

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TheCOLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIBRARY at THE
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

• A CORNERSTONE OF THE INTER-AMERICAN
• SYSTEM

By Beverly Wharton-Lake Acting Director of the
Columbus Memorial Library
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Columbus Memorial Library

• Purpose
• Responsibilities
• Collections
• History
• Future

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Patrons of the Columbus Memorial Library
include...

• OAS Secretariat

• Permanent Missions

• Permanent Observer Missions

• Embassies

• Researchers from the General Public World Wide

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The OAS and the Inter-American System
Documenting the History, Preserving the Archives
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• Traditional Library
• Documents Program
• Archives
• Records
• Management

• Depository Libraries
• OAS Documents sent to 133 libraries in this
  hemisphere and world wide
• Publications Program
• Indexes
• Bibliographies

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Former Responsibilities of Columbus Memorial
Library

• Official Historical Research
• Library and Archives Development Program
  throughout Hemisphere
• Seminar on the Acquisition
• of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM)

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Ambassador Carlos Martinez Silva from Colombia
the memorial to be erected ought to be
something at once useful and made up of elements,
to which each government might contribute
independently, (and) it occurred to me that the
only plan which would satisfy all these
requirements was the establishment in Washington
of a memorial Library, to which each government
could send, on its own account, the most complete
collection possible of historical, literary and
geographical works, laws, official reports, maps,
etc., so that the results of intellectual and
scientific labor in all America might be
collected together under a single roof That
would be a monument more lasting and noble than
any in bronze or marble.
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Columbus Memorial Library Reading Room, 1910
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Pan American Union
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50th Anniversary of Name Change to OAS1948-1998
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Alliance for Progress
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The General Collection
Caribbean
HISTORY GEOGRAPHY
DEVELOPMENT
North America
Portugal
ART MUSIC
DRUG TRAFFICKING
Spain
HUMAN RIGHTS
France
TECHNOLOGY
WOMENS ISSUES
ECONOMICS
DEMOCRACY
Latin America
LAW
POLITICAL SCIENCE
EDUCATION
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OAS Documents Collection

Documents of the Inter-American Specialized
Organizations Collection
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The Archives
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Official Gazette Collection
United Nations Collection
and
League of Nations Collection
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Rare Book Collection
Maps and Atlas Collection
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Photograph Collection
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Leo Stanton Rowe Manuscript Collection
Personal and official papers of Dr. Leo S. Rowe
Director of the Pan American Union 1920-1946
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Increase in Reference Requests in CML
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Connect online to the Columbus Memorial Library
http//www.oas.org/columbus
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1889 - 2002
Celebrating the Columbus Memorial Librarys
113th Anniversary
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Future Challenges
Automation
Preservation
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Columbus Memorial Library
Corner-stone of the Inter-American System