OCLC Members Council Meeting

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• OCLC Members Council Meeting
• Dublin, Ohio, 21 October 2002
• UNESCO, LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT AND THE INFORMATION
  SOCIETY

Abdelaziz Abid Information Society Division UN
ESCO
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization

• Created in 1946
• Headquarters in Paris
• Field Offices 56
• Staff 2000 ( 500 in the Field )
• Regular Budget 270 Million Dollars
• Extra- budgetary resourcees 300 Million dollars
  
  
• 188 Member States
• Permanent Delegations
• National Commissions

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• UNESCO performs four principal functions
• Prospective Studies what forms of education,
  science, culture and communication for tomorrows
  world?
  
• Advancement, transfer and sharing of knowledge
  relying primarily on research, training and
  teaching activities.
  
• Standard-setting action preparation and adoption
  of international instruments and statutory
  recommendations.
  
• Expertise to Member States advisory services,
  policies, capacity-building and infrastructure
  projects
  

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• As early as in 1947, the Executive Board of
  UNESCO adopted a programme centered around the
  rehabilitation of educational, scientific and
  cultural life in war-devastated countries,
  principally in Europe, with the accent on
  libraries, museums and the free flow of
  information.
• In 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of
  India, opened the first modern public library in
  New Delhi, the outcome of a UNESCO pilot project.
  A similar library was later opened in Medellin,
  Colombia. Another one was opened in Nigeria.

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• The UNESCO Public Library Manifesto proclaims
  UNESCOs belief in the public library as a
  living force for education, culture and
  information, and as an essential agent for the
  fostering of peace and spiritual welfare through
  the minds of men and women. What should be the
  role of the library and the role of UNESCO in the
  new information context ?

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• Programme origin
• UNESCO Constitution
• promote the free flow of ideas by word and
  image.
  
• maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge
• ensure the conservation and protection of the
  worlds recorded knowledge
  
• encourage co-operation among nations in the
  exchange of publications
  
• give the people of all countries access to
  printed and published material produced by any of
  them
  

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• Assumptions
• Information and knowledge are essential for
• Advancing education, science, culture,
  communication
  
• Empowering people
• Promoting cultural diversity
• Fostering open governance

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• Objectives
• Promote international reflection and debate on
  the ethical, legal and societal challenges of the
  information society
  
• Promote and widen access to information in the
  public domain through the organization,
  digitization and preservation of information
  
• Support training, continuing education and
  lifelong learning in the fields of communication,
  information and informatics
  

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• Assist in bridging the digital divide
• Support the production of local content and
  foster the availability of indigenous knowledge
  and languages
  
• Promote the use of international standards and
  best practices in communication, information and
  informatics in UNESCOs fields of competence
  
• Facilitate information and knowledge networking
  at local, national, regional and international
  levels.

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

• 56 Information Services
• 50 at Headquarters, 50 in Regional Offices
• Central Library
• Archives
• Sectorial documentation centres
• 123 Databases
• Bibliographic
• Referral (many new link portals)
• Factual
• Full text

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
UNESBIB - 1971

• UNESCO Documents and publications
• 64 500 bibliographic references ( 2000/year)
  including
  
• Official Documents (General Conference, Executive
  Board)
  
• Mission reports
• Conference papers
• Research and technical reports
• Publications in education, science, culture,
  social sciences, communication, information,
  informatics.

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
INDEX TRANSLATIONUM Translated Books in all
fields 1979

• 1 000 000 Bibliographic references (100 000 /
  year)
  
• More than 100 countries
• More than 200 000 authors
• Availability
• CD-ROM
• Internet (whole database end 2001)
• Information service index_at_unesco.org

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
UNESDOC

• Full text database of UNESCO documents
• Operational since 1996
• Basis , Client/server mode
• 20 000 documents
• 750 000 pages, 150 000 pages / year
• 6 languages (English, French, Spanish, Chinese,
  Arabic, Russian)
  

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
DARE Directory in Social Sciences

• 12 000 records
• 4 700 Institutions
• 5 000 Periodicals
• 1 200 Information Services
• 600 Specialists
• Linkage between records (Institution/Specialist,
  Institution/Periodical)
  
• Availability Internet, printed directories,
  CD-ROM

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
Statistical database

• Data covering 200 countries and territories on
  population, education, scientific and technical
  manpower, research and development, culture and
  communication (libraries, book production,
  translations, newspapers and periodicals,
  museums, archives, cinema, radio and television).
  
• 2,7 Million data elements (220,000 per year).
• Some of these statistics, are available only
  from UNESCO.
  
• http//www.uis.unesco.org

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UNESCO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES
Co-operation with OCLC

• The UNESCO Library is very pleased with its
  subscription to WorldCat
  
• Up-loading UNESBIB into WorldCat envisaged and,
  once this is done, using the on-line cataloguing
  service offered by Prism
  
• Database to be re-formatted to Unimarc through
  ISO 2709
  
• While records in WorldCat appear under Library
  of Congress subject headings, the UNESCO Library
  uses the UNESCO Thesaurus
  
• http//www.ulcc.ac.uk/unesco

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CDS/ISIS

• The computerized Documentation
• System CDS/ISIS is a tool developed and
  distributed by UNESCO free of charge to libraries
  and information centers worldwide for almost 20
  years now.

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CDS/ISIS

• Around 18,000 registered users worldwide. This
  does not include all users licensed from regional
  or country distributors.
  
• Cooperation with the Library of Congress in
  developing CDS/ISIS Marc21Lite support. Next year
  plans include development of other Marc formats
  as well as metadata formats such as Dublin Core
• Expand CDS/ISIS coverage of world languages
  using UNICODE and other technologies for
  representing complex scripts

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WinIDAMS

• WinIDAMS, a software package for data mining,
  numerical information processing and statistical
  analysis
  
• Developed and distributed by UNESCO free of
  charge.
  

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Free Software Portal

• The UNESCO Free Software Portal gives access to
  documents and websites providing reference works
  for the Free Software movement.
  
• http//www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/in
  dex.shtml
  
• It is also a gateway to resources related to
  Free Software.

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UNESCO Libraries Portal
The UNESCO Libraries Portal was launched in
January 2001 as a service facilitating access to
Web resources on libraries and librarianship.
10,000 links websites of libraries, conferences,
training and job opportunities, information
management and international co-operation.
http//www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_bib

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Memory of the World

• Preservation and access

Prague National Library Catalogue of Arabic
Manuscripts Faridat al ajaib by Ibn al-Wardi
.
The world geography
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Memory of the World

• Awareness-raising
• Products
• CD-ROMs, books, web sites

Germany 42-line Gutenberg Bible
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Memory of the World

• Memory of the World Register
• 68 collections from 33 countries are inscribed

Australia The Endeavour Journal of James Cook
http//www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/register/index.
html
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Preservation of the Digital Heritage

• A wide consultation
• An international charter
• Dissemination of technical guidelines
• Pilot projects

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The Library of Alexandria

• UNESCO has been associated with the Bibliotheca
  Alexandrina project since its inception in the
  mid-1980s.

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The Library of Alexandria

• The Official Inauguration of the Bibliotheca
  Alexandrina, that was postponed from 23 April
  2002 due to events in the Middle East, took place
  on 16 October 2002 in Alexandria, Egypt.

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The Library of Alexandria

• A feasibility study for the design and prototype
  of the Library Information System has been
  carried out by a French firm.
  
• The Library adopted VTLS (Virginia Tech Library
  System), the last version called Virtua.

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The Library of Alexandria

• UNESCO has provided an Internet Server and
  technical assistance to develop the Internet
  homepage for the Library.

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The Central University Library in Bucharest,
Romania

• The Central University Library in Bucharest was
  set on fire during the events of December 1989.
  More than 500,000 volumes were turned to ashes.

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The Central University Library in Bucharest,
Romania

• A huge restoration work was started together
  with the expansion of the library building and
  the recovery of the library collection.

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The Central University Library in Bucharest,
Romania

• The library automation work was initiated with
  CDS/ISIS and replaced later by VUBIS integrated
  system. The new library was inaugurated in
  November 2001.

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National Library of Latvia

• UNESCO has set up an International Commission of
  Experts for the National Library of Latvia (NLL).
  The role of this Commission is of a consultative
  and advisory nature.

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National Library of Latvia

• Its members contribute to the development of the
  National Library of Latvia project, in particular
  by
  

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National Library of Latvia

• providing technical support
• developing a communication strategy.
• fund-raising

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National Library of Latvia

• To stimulate cultural revival and development
  in
  
• the Eastern European and Baltic Regions
• To support the nations goal to participate
  actively
  
• in Baltic, European and global economy
• Share Latvias cultural heritage with the world
• To provide critical information resources for
  the
  
• national educational system
• To help build a competitive work force
• To provide free public access to global
  information
  
• systems

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National Library of Nepal

• Reorganization of the Nepal National Library
  (NNL) in Support of Literacy Programme
  
• Setting up adequate central service to the
  general public in Kathmandu
  
• Setting up 4 pilot branch libraries in different
  regions of the country
  
• Developing a model for a public library system
  and community centres to service the village
  population.
  

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Jaffna Public Library
The library will enable the Sri Lanka northern p
opulation to bridge the gap in information and
knowledge resulted from years of civil war.

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The Library of Sarajevo
Ten years ago, in the night of 25 to 26 August
l992, gunners occupying the hills surrounding
Sarajevo destroyed the National and University
Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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The Library of Sarajevo
The Library intensively worked to reconstruct
collections and revive its functions in temporary
premises, with assistance by UNESCO, the World
Bank and the Government of Bosnia an Herzegovina.

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The Library of Sarajevo
The Library has increased its staff, accelerated
its operations and has moved to the premises
allocated to the Library in the former Tito
Barracks which have been refurbished under UNESCO
and World Bank funding.

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Rehabilitation of libraries in Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine
An expert group representing UNESCO, the Council
of Europe and IFLA to assess the situation of
libraries in Kosovo carried out a mission in
March 2000. An action plan proposed a range of
11 special programmes to be established, each
covering different needs and aspects of library
activities.

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Rehabilitation of libraries in Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine
1.    Legislation and administration programme
2.    Mobile library service programme
3.    Reconstruction Programme
4.    Book and Reading Programme
5.    Information Technology Programme
6. Professional Training and Development
Programme 7.    Cultural Heritage Programme 8.  
  Children and Youth Programme
9.    Open access programme 10.  Initiative Suppo
rt Programme 11. Twinning Programme

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Rehabilitation of libraries in Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine
The five programmes requiring the most immediate
initiative and a heavy part of external funding
are the Mobile Library Programme, the
Reconstruction Programme, The Professional
Training and Development Programme, the Books and
Reading Programme, and the Information Technology
Programme.

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Rehabilitation of libraries in Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine
UNESCOs efforts to rebuild libraries in Kossovo
could serve as a model that could be followed in
the rehabilitation of Palestinian libraries and
libraries in Afghanistan. The American Library
Association has passed a resolution on the
Destruction of Palestinian Libraries, Archives
and Other Cultural Institutions, at its annual
meeting last June and invited UNESCO to cooperate
with IFLA and their study group on Palestinian
libraries.

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UNAL NETWORK
The UNESCO Network of Associated Libraries'
principal objective is to encourage public
libraries to undertake activities related to
UNESCOs main goals such as the promotion of
human rights and peace, cultural dialogue,
protection of the environment, fight against
illiteracy, etc. and to establish contacts
between libraries of the North and of the South.

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UNAL NETWORK
Members organize exhibitions, literary events,
debates and lectures, exchanges of material and
information, seminars, twinning arrangements,
usually on a voluntary basis, as a means of
promoting UNESCO's ideals. 325 Member Libraries
in 80 UNESCO Member States currently participate
in the Network. 2 examples of activities carried
out within UNAL Developing African content
EX-LIBRIS annual competition.

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Multipurpose community telecentres
The community owned and managed multipurpose
community telecentre (MCT) to provide a range of
ICT facilities and associated training support
for both development activities and individual
users. At the core of these centres is the c
ommunity library function exploiting local
document holdings and national and world-wide
electronic information banks in support of
literacy campaigns, basic and non-formal
education, government programmes, and other
public service activity.

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Digital libraries
UNESCO is working with the New Zealand Digital
Library Project (NZDL) of the University of
Waikato (New Zealand) and the Human Info NGO
(Antwerp) to prepare and distribute on CD-ROM a
tri-lingual (English-French-Spanish) version of
the open source Greenstone Digital Library
software. It is hoped that Greenstone will sup
port the production and sharing of wide range of
compatible digital library applications.

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Digital libraries
A module for management of bibliographic data and
metadata for digital collections based on Dublin
Core (and compatible with CDS/ISIS) is under
development, to replace the rather restricted
present provisions of Greenstone.

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The Virtual Library of the Mediterranean

• The principal aim of MEDLIB is to bring together
  on the Internet, the documentary heritage of the
  Mediterranean whether produced in the region or
  elsewhere http//www.unesco.org/webworld/mediter
  /medlib.htm

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The Virtual Library of the Mediterranean

• Aspects of methodology, standards, and
  interoperability of library systems are being
  implemented in a medium- and long-term
  perspective. These projects aim at developing
  means of access and data exchange among libraries
  and between libraries and users, in a
  multi-language and multi-script context.

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Palestinian Virtual Library
The Universities of Birzeit and Al Quds in
Jerusalem are cooperating in the preparation of a
union catalogue. The two universities which use
the MINISIS software to manage their catalogues
have decided on a joint effort which allows
access to the collections in either university
irrespective of the location of the searcher. For
the project managers, this initiative is viewed
as the start of a digital Palestinian academic
library and the debut of a Palestinian academic
network.

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Palestinian Virtual Library
There are many historical documents concerning
the Palestinian cultural heritage (archives,
photographs, manuscripts, old printed books,
maps, etc ) which are scattered between public
and private collections in the Middle East as
well as in other Mediterranean and European
countries.

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Palestinian Virtual Library
Building a virtual Palestinian library to bring
these materials together, involving not only
Palestinian authorities but also Palestinian
universities, traditional Palestinian family
collections, American, European and Mediterranean
libraries and collections, and other bodies,
would prefigure the creation of a well
established, formal Palestinian national library
in the future.

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Ibero-American and Caribbean Digital Library

• This project is to
• Stimulate creation of National Digital Libraries
  in LAC
  
• Train librarians in digitizing, cataloguing,
  publishing and managing multimedia collections on
  the Internet
  
• Strengthen coordination among the LAC National
  Libraries taking advantage of their cultural and
  linguistic similitude in the framework of the DL
  project
• 4. learn how to manage a digital collection and
  plan its development and preservation

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Ibero-American and Caribbean Digital Library

• Four modules
• Digitization
• Cataloguing and description of the digital
  information
  
• published on Internet
• Software toolkit for the creation of a Z.3950
  server for
  
• Windows and Linux platforms
• Managing a digital library
• http//bdigital.ucol.mx

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Learning without frontiers and E-reference

• LWF promotes open learning systems using ICTs in
  the perspective of lifelong learning.
  
• ICTs provide greater flexibility, interactivity
  and accessibility through applications such as
  audio and video conferencing, virtual
  communities, Web publishing and CD-ROM tutorials.
  
• Through ICTs, learning opportunities can be made
  available on a 24-hour basis,

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Learning without frontiers and E-reference

• Examples of projects underway Distance training
  of educators using interactive television in
  Morocco, funded by the World Bank Learning
  environments for virtual schools and virtual
  universities Learning Networks for African
  Teachers Virtual campuses such as the
  Trans-European Tele-Education Network in Eastern
  Europe funded by the European Commission a
  proposed virtual campus for eleven Mediterranean
  countries, and the Information and Communication
  Academic and Research Network (ICARE) for
  South-East European countries.
•   Guidelines for e-reference library services
  for distance learners and other remote users
  being prepared in cooperation with IFLA and
  Aberdeen Business School in Scotland.

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Initiative of ITU recognizing the increasing gap
between information "haves" and "have nots" and
the role of telecommunications.
Two phases Geneva 10-12 December 2003 Tunis in 2
005. The anticipated outcome develop clear polit
ical statement and concrete action plan for
achieving the goals of the Information Society,
reflecting all the different interests at stake.

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UNESCOs Contribution to WSIS

• In the face of current imbalances of educational
  and cultural goods and services, it is necessary
  to
  
• reinforce internl cooperation enabling all
  countries to develop ICT-based educational
  services
  
• and to establish cultural industries that are
  viable and competitive at national and
  international level.

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UNESCOs Contribution to WSIS
The Summit should promote the protection and
strengthening of the global public good  in
the Information Society which include, for
example, the equitable access to information for
educational, scientific and cultural activities,
a vibrant public domain of information, as well
as the concept of public service broadcasting
acting in the public interest.
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Concluding remarks

• UNESCO is committed in cooperation with IFLA and
  bodies like OCLC to enable libraries and
  librarians to fully participate in the emerging
  information society. Librarians have an important
  role to play in the Information Age. They fight
  for important ideas like freedom of expression
  and thought, equality of access to information,
  and literacy.
• They uphold values that go back to the basic
  ideals of librarianship, in the greatest
  tradition of public libraries. This set of values
  is a priceless commons for the worlds libraries
  and librarians.

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Concluding remarks

• Thank you
• a.abid_at_unesco.org