World information Report 1997-1998

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World

information

report

1997/

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report

1997/98

U N E S C O

P u b l i s h i n g

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General editor: Yves Courrier Editor: Andrew Large The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this report and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Published in 1997 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP (France) Cover photo © René Burri/Magnum Graphic design by Jean-Francis Chériez Composed by Asco Trade Typesetting Ltd, Hong Kong Printed by Imprimerie Darantiere, Quétigny (France) ISBN 92-3-103341-7 © UNESCO 1997

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Preface

Developments in information processing and communication are at the heart of many of the transformations that have marked the latter half of the twentieth century. The phenomenon of the Internet highlights the accelerating pace of these developments and their potential impact on economic, social and cultural life. We are embarked upon an information revolution that promises to open a new era in human history, with consequences as far-reaching as those of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. In the fifty years of its existence, UNESCO has always been active in the information field. Its responsibilities in this regard are clearly stated in its Constitution, which assigns UNESCO the role of encouraging the international exchange of books and information as part of its task of promoting peace through the sharing of knowledge and the free flow of ideas. Two pioneers in this domain were Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, who helped to lay the foundations of information work by their tireless activities at the end of the nineteenth century. As well as establishing the Institut International de Bibliographie (1895), publishing the Universal Decimal Classification and organizing international congresses on bibliography, these two Belgian friends were closely involved in the creation of the League of Nations. Otlet had published in 1914 a Traité de paix général in which he proposed the creation of such an international body; and La Fontaine – Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1913 and subsequently a Belgian delegate to the League of Nations – was instrumental in creating the Bureau International de la Paix. They are names to be remembered in the history of international intellectual co-operation in the service of peace-building. In keeping with this tradition, the General Conference of UNESCO at its twenty-eighth session decided to address the crucial issues raised by the most recent technological developments in the information field. More particularly, Member States asked the Secretariat to provide the relevant support for their activities and in so doing to concentrate on the linguistic, cultural, social and ethical impact of the proposed information highways and of the new information and communication technologies. The Organization is thus accepting expanded responsibilities in a field in the process of radical transformation,

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where the opportunities for enhanced communication among individuals and communities are matched by the challenges to human solidarity inherent in technological progress. At the start of a new information era, it is instructive to look back to the invention that was to have such a decisive influence on human communications in Europe and later in the world at large – Gutenberg’s movable types. No one at the time of its invention could have foreseen the full impact of the printing press, which by facilitating the accumulation and spread of knowledge worked fundamental changes in the dynamics of intellectual and social life. Similarly, it is difficult from our present vantage-point to gauge all the likely cultural consequences and spin-off of the new information and communication technologies. However, the World Information Report should meet a real need in providing systematic information – to politicians, decision-makers, information professionals and the public at large – on some of the significant changes taking place in the information field and in highlighting major issues posed by the new technologies. The Report begins with a region-by-region survey of information realities throughout the world – archives, libraries, information services, databases, networks, legal frameworks, professional associations and training programmes. It goes on to describe the main infrastructure components of information work – the computer, multimedia and telecommunication technologies, the Internet, and the buildings that continue to house collections of books, journals, audiovisual materials and so on. It presents an overview of the most recent developments in relevant technologies together with an assessment of their potential. The third part of the Report examines issues arising from the convergence of information technologies, including topics such as the information society, information highways, the role of information in economic intelligence, the future of the book and the complicated problem of copyright in the electronic age. The Report concludes with a brief account of international co-operation and assistance in the information field. Within the compass of such a publication, it has obviously not been possible to offer an exhaustive treatment of all the topics covered. However, it is hoped that the reader will find in the

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World Information Report a useful selection of up-to-date summaries by highly qualified specialists from all parts of the world. We hope finally that the Report will serve as a reminder that the new information technologies, over and above their contribution to personal and national development, should serve to promote the goals proclaimed in the United Nations Charter for the peoples of the world as a whole – peace and its essential concomitant of ‘social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’.

Federico Mayor Director-General of UNESCO 13 November 1996

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Contents

Acknowledgements 10 Introduction Yves Courrier and Andrew Large 11

Part One: Information services worldwide A. Libraries and information services Chapter 1. East Asia and Oceania Josephine C. Sison 21 Chapter 2. South Asia Abhijit Lahiri 33 Chapter 3. The Arab States Mahmoud A. Itayem 47 Chapter 4. Africa Wilson O. Aiyepeku and Helen O. Komolafe 62 Chapter 5. Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Alexander V. Butrimenko 72 Chapter 6. Western Europe Giuseppe Vitiello 84 Chapter 7. Canada and the United States Carole R. Moore, Peter I. Hajnal and Ralph W. Manning 98 Chapter 8. Latin America and the Caribbean Estela Morales Campos 107

B. Archives Chapter 9. Asia Maria Helena Lima Évora 127 Chapter 10. The Arab States Moncef Fakhfakh 136 Chapter 11. Africa Peter Mazikana 144 Chapter 12. Europe and North America Trudy Huskamp Peterson 155 Chapter 13. Latin America and the Caribbean Jorge Palacios Preciado and Victoria Arias Roca 167

Chapter 14. Audiovisual archives worldwide Helen P. Harrison 182

Part Two: Infrastructures for information work Chapter 15. Computer developments Lucy Tedd 193 Chapter 16. Multimedia technologies Ching-Chih Chen 206 Chapter 17. Telecommunication technologies Martin B. H. Weiss 226 Chapter 18. The Internet Blaise Cronin and Geoffrey McKim 240 Chapter 19. Design criteria for large library buildings Harry Faulkner-Brown 257

Part Three: Issues and trends Chapter 20. The information society Nick Moore 271 Chapter 21. Information highways Mary Dykstra Lynch 285 Chapter 22. Economic intelligence Philippe Clerc 304 Chapter 23. Book publishing Philip Altbach 318 Chapter 24. Access to archival holdings and unique library materials Michael Cook 328 Chapter 25. Preservation of archival holdings and unique library materials Hartmut Weber 338 Chapter 26. Copyright in the electronic age Charles Oppenheim 349 Chapter 27. International co-operation and assistance Arashanipalai Neelameghan 361

Index 381

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Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank all those who contributed in one way or another to the preparation of the World Information Report. Mrs Suzanne Richer, President of the Intergovernmental Council for the General Information Programme, launched the project and followed it most carefully to the end. The members of the Advisory Board gave unreservedly of their advice and assistance in planning the outline, selecting the authors and reviewing the papers, as follows: Getachew Birru, Dean, School for Information Studies for Africa, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; Michel Cartier, Professor, Department of Communications, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada; Khalifa Chater, Director, Institut Supérieur de Documentation, Université de Tunis, Tunisia; Christoph Graf, Director, Swiss Federal Archives, Switzerland; Wolfgang Klaue, former President of the International Federation of Film Archives; Maurice Line, Information and Library Consultant, United Kingdom; Antonio Miranda, Director, School of Information Science, University of Brasilia, Brazil; Arashanipalai Neelameghan, Honorary Visiting Professor, Documentation Research and Training Center, Indian Statistical Institute, India; and Tibor Vamos, former Director, Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Science, Hungary. Ben Goodegebure, from the International Federation for Information and Documentation, George McKenzie and Michael Roper, from the International Council for Archives, and H. Sene, from Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar, also made a significant contribution. Within UNESCO itself, a large number of units and individuals contributed, often very significantly, at various stages in the preparation of the Report, from reviewing the original outline to final form. The enterprise would not have been possible without their willing collaboration and assistance throughout the process. Finally, special mention should be made of Francine Barral and Khalissa Ikhlef for the wide range of skills they displayed in the course of this undertaking, and above all for their untiring patience. ■■

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Introduction by Yves Courrier Division for Information and Informatics, UNESCO

and Andrew Large McGill University, Canada

S

ome words are used more frequently than others, and information clearly belongs to the first group. If, prima facie, everyone seems to be concerned with information, nevertheless different people will have different views of what is information. A physicist, an engineer, a computer scientist, a psychologist, a journalist, a decisionmaker, a librarian, an archivist or a documentalist – all of these professionals and many others deal in some way with information. What makes a difference is not the subject of their concern, information per se, but how they handle it and for what purpose. The physicist studies the relationship between order and energy, the telecommunication engineer measures the uncertainty of a message, the computer scientist designs ways and means to process bits, the psychologist describes how the human mind functions, the journalist makes news out of facts, while the decision-maker interprets facts and data to take decisions. The primary role of librarians, archivists and documentalists is to provide information for these and all other kinds of information users. They identify, acquire and organize information (or the documents containing that information) so that it can be supplied to clients on demand to meet business or leisure needs. In this broad and complex information domain, the World Information Report has been designed with a clear purpose in mind: to present to non-specialists, and particularly to decision-makers and the public at large, the wide reality of information provision as it is found throughout the world today and as it is being transformed by the technological, social and political developments of tomorrow. The starting-point is recorded information, that is, information which is already present on some medium. The medium itself can be varied: stone, clay, parchment, paper, slide, film, magnetic disk, optical disk or whatever. The information content can be fixed in space, as in the case of information recorded on stone walls, or available around the world, as in

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the case of information on an Internet site. Recorded information can appear as a single, unique document of great historical or artistic value, as, for example, in archive or museum collections, or it can be published in millions of copies, as with newspapers or paperback books. Information can be highly transient, as in a telecommunication broadcast, or highly durable, as with Sumerian clay tablets. Several professions are concerned primarily with handling recorded information. Some, like archivists and librarians, will give more attention to documents which are unique; others, like information or computer scientists, will aim principally at transmitting highly selected data as rapidly as possible. Professional principles as well as practices may differ. The present Report has been designed on the assumption that all the professions concerned with recorded information share some principles and concerns for one very simple reason: they all provide information services. In 1931 Ranganathan wrote his five laws of librarianship and the first one reads: ‘books are for use’ (Ranganathan, 1988). Three years later, in 1934, Otlet wrote: ‘The purpose of organizing documents is to make it possible to offer, on any fact or item of knowledge, relevant information . . . for the benefit of the largest number of users’ (Otlet, 1989). As Taylor (1986) pointed out, the unique principle underlying information services is the provision of added value to information. This value is added as a result of the various functions performed by information professionals: the acquisition, selection, organization, storage and dissemination of documents in whatever form they might take. Other professionals, of course, are concerned with adding value to information. Accountants and statisticians, for example, manipulate figures for accounting or statistical purposes. They can construct tables, graphs and charts from raw figures – recorded information – which make those figures more meaningful for their clients. Journalists also

add value to information by tracking it down, filtering and assembling it to provide news stories for their audience. In a different way, publishers, booksellers and telecommunication network operators add value to information by linking potential users from all over the world with that information. ‘Information’ is the middle term in this work’s title: the other two words are ‘Report’ and ‘World’. This is a report on the state of information provision today, with some explanation of how this state was reached and predictions about the direction in which developments are leading. The boundaries of the information-provision community are neither clearly defined nor stable at a time of rapidly developing information technologies. The World Information Report is precisely an attempt to reflect this moving reality as the twentieth century draws to a close. Starting with a description of information services as they are now, it also considers the technological developments that are set to modify this description in the years to come and the economic, legal and political consequences of these developments now and in the future. Authors were asked to eschew the scholarly paper approach, replete with quotations and citations. Instead they were asked to provide an overview of their field of expertise with a few further readings where applicable so that readers could pursue individual topics further should they so choose. There are currently around 200 countries in the world. This Report attempts to give a summary of information provision from a global perspective. A glance at the Index will reveal that reference is made to most, if not all, of these countries at one place or another. It seems safe to assert that few other books have dealt with this topic from such an international perspective. Nevertheless, it would be an exaggeration to claim that all countries have been afforded equal space. In the first place, published accounts of information systems and services, including statistical data of various kinds, are more

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plentiful for some countries than for others. Second, although information is a crucial ingredient for the successful development of economic, social and political life in all countries, whether developed, developing or underdeveloped, it is not the case at present that all countries have established such systems and services to the same degree. Third, although the authors have been selected on the basis of their international experience as well as knowledge of their chosen topic, it is understandable that authors will have more familiarity with conditions in some countries than in others. Taken together, however, the twenty-seven chapters in the World Information Report provide a comprehensive account of information provision around the world in the final years of the twentieth century. The World Information Report is divided into three parts. Part One provides a description of information services throughout the world. It is divided into two sections. Section A (Chapters 1 to 8) concentrates on libraries and information services. It adopts a geopolitical approach, dividing the world into eight regions, arranged from east to west: East Asia and Oceania; South Asia; the Arab States; Africa (south of the Sahara); Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States; Western Europe; Canada and the United States; and Latin America and the Caribbean. Although each author has chosen a slightly different approach, in general the following areas are addressed in these chapters: national libraries and information systems, academic libraries, public libraries, school libraries, specialized library and information services, professional associations, and education and training programmes for information personnel. Other topics such as information marketing, publishing and research are included in some of the chapters. Within this framework, authors discuss topics such as the introduction of information and telecommunication technologies into these regions, bibliographic control, database production and international collaboration

both within the region and between countries of the region and the outside world. The focus is on the present reality, and on the provision of facts, including statistical data, wherever possible. What is offered, in other words, is a description of the institutions, the people and the legal environment which together make up the information scene around the globe. This is a complex and contrasting reality, exhibiting at one and the same time impressive achievements and, on occasion, serious problems yet to be surmounted. Section B of Part One deals with archives. It adopts a similar approach for archival systems and services as in the previous section for libraries and information services. A geopolitical organization is used for Chapters 9 to 13, but the division of the world is slightly broader than in Section A: Asia; the Arab States; Africa (south of the Sahara); Europe and North America; and Latin America and the Caribbean. Topics dealt with include archival legislation, standards, institutions and holdings, technical facilities (including information and telecommunication technologies), budgets, education and training, and professional associations. Several authors discuss the related topic of records management. Chapter 14, in contrast, adopts a thematic rather than a geographic focus: issues concerning archival holdings of audiovisual rather than printbased materials. After this survey of information services throughout the world, Part Two (Infrastructures for Information Work) turns to technical matters. Information providers utilize a wide range of technological tools. The World Information Report presents in three separate chapters state-of-theart surveys of the most relevant technologies: computers, multimedia and telecommunications. Chapter 15 on computer developments begins with an overview of computing technology before examining computerized library systems, information retrieval, interface design and the human aspect of

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computerization. Multimedia information sources are of growing importance. Chapter 16 on multimedia technologies discusses the technology required both to use multimedia sources and to create them. The theme of Chapter 17 is telecommunication technologies. It outlines the components of any network as well as the role of standards and the various organizations designated to approve them. Although using all these three technologies, the Internet has been awarded its own chapter (Chapter 18) as a measure of its current and future importance in information delivery. Despite the undeniable importance of telecommunication networks in general, and in particular those networks linked to form the Internet, a majority of the world’s recorded information is still to be found on paper, microform, slides or film stored in buildings. The final chapter of Part Two is therefore dedicated to library buildings, or more accurately to the design issues related to large library buildings (archival buildings, with their somewhat different requirements, are not discussed here). Part Three (Issues and Trends) does not take a descriptive approach but rather discusses a number of important issues of contemporary concern. Several of these issues are related to technological developments, but others have a political, social or legal focus. Chapter 20 deals with the information society, whose characteristics are that information is used as an economic resource, that the general public is making increasing use of information as consumers, and that an information sector is developing within the economy. The chapter examines the origins and causes of the information society, and discusses information as an organizational resource. It also discusses the relationship between information and citizenship. Chapter 21 concentrates on information highways, the metaphor coined in the United States to describe the technological revolution in information processing and delivery that is sweeping the globe. The technological aspects

of networks and the specific impact of the Internet were covered earlier in Chapter 18. Chapter 21, in contrast, considers the broad political, economic and social implications of the new technologies that promise to reshape all our lives. Chapter 22 has a sharper focus: economic intelligence, whose objective is to give decisionmakers in enterprises or in government the knowledge to understand their environment and to adjust their strategies accordingly. It is argued that the effective use of economic intelligence can produce large dividends both for developed and developing countries. The topic is of relevance to this Report because economic intelligence is based upon the identification, collection and analysis of information. Economic intelligence is a relatively new concern, but one which seems set to become decisive in the years to come. With an estimated 200 million personal computers in the world (Cartier, 1996), and close to 40 million Internet users, is there a future for the printed book? Answers to this question undoubtedly vary, but Chapter 23 offers one response from a book publisher’s perspective. The author believes that books remain a primary means of communication and are central to providing information, entertainment and education to millions worldwide. The chapter discusses publishing from the perspectives of developed and developing countries, including the role of new technologies in book production. It argues that books are simply too convenient and too affordable to disappear. Chapters 24 and 25 both deal with issues of the utmost importance for all information professionals, but especially for archivists: access to and preservation of archival material. The potential conflict between the need to preserve for future generations rare or unique materials and the need to make such materials available now to users is discussed in both chapters. Chapter 24 deals with topics such as the appraisal process, legislation and

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standards for collection, preservation and access, and bibliographic control. The focus in Chapter 25 is on conservation and preservation techniques. Despite the potential of optical storage media for archival storage, it is argued that microfilm continues to provide a highly reliable and inexpensive storage medium for archival holdings and unique library materials. Copyright safeguards the rights of authors and publishers to reap dividends from their labour. But its abuse acts as a deterrent to freedom of access to information. Libraries in particular can encounter considerable copyright problems when seeking to provide clients with photocopies of copyrighted material. Even greater copyright problems are now being raised by electronic publishing, where authorship and ownership are less well-defined concepts than in the traditional world of publishing. These issues are explored in Chapter 26. Finally, to emphasize the global perspective of the World Information Report, the last chapter describes international co-operation and assistance in this area. The roles of the many international and regional agencies active throughout the world are discussed; the exemplary solidarity of information professionals and their strong concern for international co-operation have led to many co-operative efforts and produced impressive results. A work such as this emphasizes both the similarities and the differences between individual countries and regions. Many examples could be drawn from the Report to illustrate this point. No chapter can ignore the role of computing and telecommunication technologies in the provision of information. These technologies occur again and again as one reads through the twenty-seven chapters. Yet the level of technological development differs markedly between regions and between individual countries. To take a very different example, the need to provide effective access to information is of paramount importance to all information professionals,

but the problems in realizing this goal as well as the means of realizing it differ from country to country. Copyright is a recurring theme, but national legislation on this issue varies. It is intriguing to follow through the Report these intertwined themes, and to appreciate the commonality of the problems but the multiplicity of the solutions necessary to fit widely differing political, economic and social environments. This last point leads to a brief discussion of how this Report can be used. The chapters in Part One primarily deal either with libraries or with archives in specific regions of the world, and within these regions individual countries are examined. But many national and regional examples can also be located in Parts Two and Three even though they do not have location as their primary focus. Likewise, individual chapters in Part Two deal with specific information technologies, with the Internet and with library architecture. But again, numerous references will be found to these topics in Parts One and Three. Finally, Part Three emphasizes issues and trends in information provision, yet such issues are encountered repeatedly also in discussing regional concerns in Part One or infrastructures in Part Two. Copyright, for example, has an entire chapter devoted to it; nevertheless, many examples of copyright issues will be found in other chapters scattered throughout the Report. Whenever possible, links between the treatment of similar topics in different chapters are made by cross-referencing within the chapters themselves. The role of the Index is to supplement these cross-references by concatenating subjects that have been dispersed by the Report’s structure. If the overall logic of the Report led to a particular order of presentation of the topics, the reader, of course, is free to travel through it in any way. For instance, Chapter 20 (The Information Society), could be the starting-point, in which Nick Moore defines precisely what is meant by this term and indicates the economic factors which describe

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the phenomenon. This then sets the overall social framework within which the information professions must redefine their roles, giving a particular importance to this chapter. Another approach is to go directly after Part One to the final Chapter 27 by Professor Neelameghan on international co-operation and assistance. This sequence will emphasize the social importance of information work at the local, national, regional and international levels. The detailed description of the institutions and the professional groups in charge of providing information to all segments of society, for research, education, work or leisure, for profit-making or free public service, indicates that even though the impact of the new information technologies might be immense, certain basic principles and tried methods are still valid throughout the world, and may remain so for some years to come. In this kind of work, selection of one topic for inclusion inevitably means the exclusion of another topic (as it is, the World Information Report, by any account, represents a very substantial volume in terms of sheer pagination). For instance, access has been studied from the standpoint of rare books and archival material only. Universal access to publications has not been included even though tremendous efforts have been made in the last twenty years in this area. Similarly, the concept of a universal digital library and its impact on the future of libraries, free versus fee-based information services, problems of standardization and compatibility, the conversion of all preserved material to a digital format, education, training and human resource development for information professionals, digital publishing, and the role of information for development are just some of the important topics that have not been allocated a specific chapter in the Report (although most of them are touched upon within individual chapters). They represent topics which could be covered in any subsequent volume of the World Information Report. The authors were asked to follow certain

guidelines in the preparation of their chapters. First, as mentioned above, the chapters were expected to be factual and precise, but easy to read: they were not intended to resemble scholarly papers. Second, authors were requested to provide up-to-date and reliable statistical data whenever possible. The difficulty of meeting this objective was recognized from the outset: in too many cases data simply are not available; in other cases different data sets, even within the same section of one chapter, cannot directly be compared because they were collected using slightly different parameters. Overall, the authors have responded to this requirement with laudatory success. Third, authors’ attention was drawn at the outset to the many areas of potential overlap between individual chapters, but they were compelled to write their own chapter without the benefit of seeing anyone else’s chapter. The editors have done their best to eliminate needless overlap (some repetition, of course, is essential both to treat properly a topic of relevance to two or more chapters and to present the same topic from the different perspectives of several chapters). The blame for any remaining redundancy must therefore lie with the editors and not with the authors. Fourth, authors were asked to adopt an international approach in their coverage, drawing examples from a broad spectrum of countries wherever feasible (see above). The final requirement – probably most irksome of all for the authors – was that of confining their coverage to a very restricted number of pages. As experts in their fields the authors undoubtedly would have found it easier to write an entire book on the topic than fifteen or so pages! In many cases they were compelled by the editors to delete fascinating and relevant sections from their draft chapters simply to prevent the Report from reaching monumental proportions. In an endeavour of this kind, the editors must perforce rely upon the co-operation of their authors in meeting initial deadlines, submitting any revisions,

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and answering lingering questions which inevitably arise at the final editing stage. Without exception the authors have proved a remarkable team to work with, and the editors at this point would like to express their gratitude to them (full acknowledgements to the many people who made this Report possible are included elsewhere). The preparation of the Report involved thirty-two authors and two editors scattered over seventeen countries and five continents. It is difficult to contemplate such an international endeavour taking place over a short time-span without the contribution of information technology. Even though it was not made an essential requirement, in the event more than twothirds of the authors and both the editors could be reached by electronic mail. The same is true for the members of the Advisory Board, who were instrumental in the overall design of the Report, in the selection of authors and in the evaluation of the submitted chapters. All the texts without exception were submitted on diskette as well as on paper. Overall, the time saved in the preparation of the printed publication by the use of new information technologies can be estimated conservatively at between three and six months. To organize meetings, contact authors, obtain texts and clarifications, the Internet proved to be an extraordinary instrument: easy to use, accurate, most of the time reliable and above all terribly fast. Moreover, after careful consideration, it was decided to put a selected number of the papers in the Report onto the World Wide Web in English; this was completed by the end of November 1996. The texts which are on the Web (http://www.unesco.org/cii/wirerpt/vers-web.htm) have not been edited. They are the authors’ texts, sometimes revised better to meet the guidelines provided to the authors, but without the careful and time-consuming work of editing, proof-reading, composing and printing. The assumption is that this selection will raise the interest of potential readers for the edited and complete version.

Comments to UNESCO, in writing or by e-mail ([email protected]) are most welcome and will make the World Information Report an ongoing project. ■■

References CARTIER, M. 1996. Le nouveau monde des infostructures. Montreal, Fides, 192 pp. OTLET, P. 1989. Traité de documentation. Le livre sur le livre. Liège, Centre de Lecture Publique de la Communauté Française de Belgique. 445 pp. RANGANATHAN, S. R. 1988. The Five Laws of Library Science. Bangalore. 450 pp. TAYLOR, R. S. 1986. Value-added Processes in Information Systems. Norwood, New Jersey. 258 pp.

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Yves Courrier obtained a maîtrise en

Andrew Large is a professor at McGill

philosophie from the Université de Paris

University (Montreal) and Director of

X (Nanterre) in 1968. He then studied

its Graduate School of Library and

library sciences at the École Nationale

Information Studies. He has presented

Supérieure des Sciences de l’Information et des

conference and seminar papers in North America, the

Bibliothèques (Paris) and at the University of

Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia, and is the author

Pittsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Science

of around 100 books or papers. He is co-editor of the

from the same university. He has been professor

quarterly journal, Education for Information. Andy

(1971–78) and Director (1977–78) of the École de

Large has acted as a consultant for the Canadian

Bibliothéconomie et des Sciences de l’Information of

International Development Agency, the International

the Université de Montréal. He has published many

Development Research Centre, the British Overseas

papers on the foundations of information science,

Development Administration, the British Council and

linguistic theory and computerized information

UNESCO, and is currently presenting a series of

retrieval, education, training and human resources

workshops in Eastern Europe for the Open Society

development in information science. He joined

(Soros Foundation). Before moving to Canada, he

UNESCO in 1978.

taught at the College of Librarianship Wales.

Yves Courrier

Andrew Large

Programme Specialist

Director

Division for Information and Informatics

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies

UNESCO

McGill University

1, rue Miollis,

3459 McTavish Street

75732 Paris, Cedex 15, France

Montreal, Quebec,

Tel: 1-45-68-45-27

Canada H3A 1Y1

Fax: 1-45-68-55-82

Tel: (514) 398-4204

E-mail: [email protected]

Fax: (514) 398-7193 E-mail: [email protected]

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Part One. Information services worldwide A. Libraries and information services

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Chapter 1 East Asia and Oceania Josephine C. Sison SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, Philippines

T

he geographic areas covered in this chapter include the East Asian countries of China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea, on the one hand, and Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the twenty-one other small island countries in the Pacific, on the other hand. It gives only a general overview of the current state of library and information systems and services in these countries, discussed under the subheadings of national libraries and information systems, professional associations, education and training institutions and programmes, library acts and communications policy development, and information networking initiatives. Some indications of the main characteristics of professional practice in each country, where available, are also given, as are problems and trends.

National libraries and information systems Among the East Asian countries, Japan is by far the most advanced in terms of using information technology to provide the best possible information services to its users, although the Republic of Korea would almost be on a par with Japan. China, for its part, is still very much in the process of laying down the infrastructure in its bid to become a networked society in the near future. There are several major libraries and information centres in Japan involved in the provision of science and technology information as well as related information services. The National Diet Library (NDL) was established in 1948 to serve the Japanese Diet (Parliament) and the public. All publications produced in Japan are deposited in this library. It is the largest library in Japan with about 6,189,470 book volumes and 141,529 periodical titles. It currently has a staff of 850. The NDL provides all kinds of library services to the public, but research and legislative reference services are rendered exclusively to Diet members. The NDL collects 23,000 science

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Information services w 22o r l d w i d e

and technology journal titles and technical reports from overseas, and publishes the Directory of Japanese Scientific Periodicals as well as the Japanese Periodicals Index: Science and Technology. Another major national information system is the Japan Information Centre of Science and Technology ( JICST). Established in 1957 by law as a public corporation under the auspices of the Science and Technology Agency, its main objective as an information centre is to promote the development of science and technology in Japan. JICST collects, processes and disseminates scientific and technical information published in Japan as well as that published in other parts of the world. It is currently generating about 50% of its income from its services; the other 50% is provided by the Japanese Government. JICST has highly qualified staff numbering 320 at the present time, with a budget of 18.10 billion yen for the fiscal year 1995/96. The main activities and services of JICST include scientific information gathering, information processing and dissemination, library services and online information services. The JICST Online Information System (JOIS) makes available seventeen bibliographic and factual databases produced by JICST as well as 150 databases loaded on the Scientific and Technical Information Network (STN) International, a worldwide integrated online system sponsored by JICST. Another important organization in Japan providing vital information services is the National Centre for Science Information Systems (NACSIS), which is one of the inter-university research institutes under the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. NACSIS operates the Science Information Network linking university libraries, university computer centres and university research institutions to provide scholarly information to academic researchers. The centre provides a cataloguing information service, NACSIS-CAT, which uses a shared bibliographic description scheme, as well as

information retrieval services called NACSIS-IR. Among the twenty-five databases NACSIS maintains are KAKEN (abstracts of annual reports of grants-in-aid subsidized by Monbusho), GAKUI (index to doctoral theses submitted to Japanese universities), and GAKKAI (academic conference papers). Finally, the Japan Patent Information Organization, or JAPIO, ought also to be described. Established as a non-profit organization in June 1971, JAPIO is the largest provider of online, print and CD-ROM patent information services in Japan. Online information on Japanese patents, designs and trademarks is available through PATOLIS (Patent Online Information System). The staff of JAPIO is 300 and the budget for the fiscal year 1995/96 is approximately 23 million yen, entirely financed from its various patent information services. In China, the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) is one of the largest information services in that country. Established in October 1956, ISTIC is under the auspices of the State Science and Technology Commission or SSTC. ISTIC at present has a staff in excess of 1,100, and an annual allocation of funds averaging about 15 million yuan. The allocation covers about 70% of the budgetary requirements of the institute; the other 30% is generated from income from its information services. Dedicated to China’s economic, social, scientific and technical development, and to decision-making in matters related to science and technology, ISTIC provides the following services: information retrieval; information research; document delivery; technical information and consulting; education and training; publishing, printing and reproduction; and international exchange and co-operation. In the Republic of Korea, the government rationalized the various information services along specialized lines in 1990, with the rapid growth of its information industry. One of the foremost is

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KINITI (Korea Institute of Industry and Technology Information), created in 1991 and responsible for industrial and technological information. ETRI (Electronic Technology Research Institute) responds to the industrial information needs, and KORDIC (Korea Research and Development Information Centre) is the national science and technology information service system. KINITI is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and has 208 staff members at present. Its annual budget is US$12 million, and it is financed by governmental support (70%) and from fees collected from its various services (30%). Its goal is to acquire industrial and technological information from home and abroad, and to offer access to users through various means appropriate to their needs. KINITI offers a wide range of services such as collection of information resources, information processing and database construction, a computer-based information service network (KINITI-IR) for online information retrieval, an information search and analysis service, a Technical Information Management System (TIMS) for use by small and medium-scale companies, a document delivery and publication service, information marketing, and user training programmes. KORDIC was established by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1993, mandated to function as a centre for database development and services in the Republic of Korea. KORDIC developed and maintains the Science and Technology Information System (STIS), a project that aims to establish information-sharing channels among research institutes and universities, at the forefront of which would be the resources of their libraries. Through the STIS project, KORDIC developed its online retrieval system called the Korea Research Information of Science and Technology Access Line (KRISTAL), which currently contains twenty-two national databases containing about 600,000 records.

As a country with a highly developed information infrastructure, New Zealand’s two major information providers, the National Library of New Zealand and the Crown Research Institutes, will be briefly described. The mission statement of the National Library of New Zealand is to contribute to the building of a learning society and enterprise economy within New Zealand by supporting the creation of an environment where information is readily available and widely used. It collects, preserves and makes accessible an important part of the documentary heritage of New Zealand. The National Library is the principal adviser to government on library policy and information issues. It makes available an authoritative record of New Zealand publishing through the legal deposit requirements of the Copyright Act. The National Library makes available a reference collection of some 1.5 million book and non-book materials, as well as 8,670 current journal titles and monographs-in-series. Its services include loan and copy services, database services (New Zealand Bibliographic Network and Kiwinet), and publications such as bibliographies and training guides. The National Library is responsible for the maintenance of the New Zealand National Bibliography and Index New Zealand (INNZ) which is a subject index to the contents of New Zealand general and scholarly serials, newspapers, theses and conference papers. The ten Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) provide excellent research and related services for the benefit of the country, each of which is based around a productive sector of the economy or a grouping of natural resources, like the Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Limited (HortResearch) and Industrial Research Limited (IRL). They have their own libraries which provide computer-based information services, and are linked to an online system called CRInet. Other

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online systems that each of them can access include NZBN (New Zealand Bibliographic Network) and KIWINET in New Zealand, as well as other online services from Australia and elsewhere. The functions of the National Library of Australia (NLA) parallel those of the other countries already discussed. The NLA maintains the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) national bibliographic database, which now contains over 11 million records. The utility has over 1,400 institutional clients. The NLA is responsible also for Ozline, an online retrieval service providing access to thirty-five Australian databases. The NLA is now engaged in the complete redevelopment of ANB and Ozline. Undertaken in partnership with the National Library of New Zealand, the National Document and Information Service Project (NDIS) is a major A$14 million project which will result in a new service to be marketed under the name World 1. World 1 will provide access to information via an integrated approach where information services will be available from just one place (the ‘one-stop’ approach), instead of users having to go to several places. It will replace and extend the services currently provided by ABN and Ozline and plans to be operational by the end of 1997. In common with New Zealand, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Information Services is the mainstay of the information infrastructure for science in Australia. It publishes fourteen independently reviewed journals of Australian science, the Australian Bibliography of Agriculture, an index to all CSIRO publications, the Australian Rural Research in Progress database, Science and Geography Abstracts (SAGE), some thirty book titles a year and about twenty video titles a year, and provides access to nearly thirty databases on the Ozline network. With regard to the dissemination of science and technology information, CSIRO co-ordinates, for all its

thirty-five libraries scattered throughout the country, the purchase of their journals (in 1995/96 amounting to A$7 million of journal subscriptions), manages the quality control of CSIRO’s library network catalogue and develops services which improve access to the resources in these libraries. Finally, worthy of mention in this section is the National Library of Papua New Guinea. Although formally opened only in 1978, the National Library Service has been playing a key role in enhancing the social, economic and educational development of the people of Papua New Guinea. Aside from being a depository library for everything published in that country, the National Library also provides the same kinds of services already described in the foregoing countries in this section, like inter-library loans, computerized literature searching, database development and online access to remote databases in Australia and elsewhere.

Professional associations The value of having professional associations in library and information science to ensure the highest quality of performance among its practitioners has long been recognized in the region. The Japan Library Association ( JLA), for instance, was established as early as 1892, and is thus the third such association in the world to have been founded in the nineteenth century, after the American Library Association and the Library Association of the United Kingdom. In New Zealand, the New Zealand Library and Information Association (NZLIA) is interested in promoting the importance of the profession in the country. Its role is to look for and react to any developments which may affect its members and their institutions, and to oversee the development of library and information services in the New Zealand community as a whole. The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), for its part, sets and maintains

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professional standards by regularly assessing courses in library and information studies. The ALIA recognizes the courses offered that allow graduates to be admitted as associate or technician members of the association. The recognition process is designed to foster excellence in the provision of education for the Australian library and information services sector. There are four library associations in the South Pacific region: the Fiji Library Association (FLA), the Papua New Guinea Library Association (PNGLA), the Western Samoa Library Association (WSLA) and the Vanuatu Library Association (VLA). In addition, the Northern Pacific region has a group called the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives (PIALA), which includes libraries and librarians in the Marshall Islands, Palau, Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Education and training institutions and programmes The education and training of librarians and information professionals in East Asia and Oceania seems to be a major preoccupation in all the countries under review. Both formal degree programmes and short-term non-degree programmes are well established. As far as Japan is concerned, Matsumura (1995) thinks that the state of library and information science (LIS) education is rather contradictory. Although a total of eight universities (four national and four private) offer formal professional programmes of study for the education of library and information specialists, the provision of the Japan Library Law still authorizes a short course of nineteen credits, the completion of which also provides a means of professional qualification. As educational programmes vary widely in quality, there are many ways of becoming a qualified librarian – a situation that lowers the standard of qualified personnel in the profession.

The major university-based full educational programmes in Japan are currently being offered by the Keio Gijuku University, Faculty of Letters, School of Library and Information Science (undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral levels); the University of Library and Information Science (ULIS) (undergraduate programme since 1980, and MA programme since 1985); the Aichi Shukutoku University School of Library and Information Science within its Faculty of Letters (undergraduate programme since 1985, Master’s programme since 1988, and doctoral programme since 1991); the University of Kyoto, Faculty of Education (undergraduate and postgraduate programmes since 1951); and the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Education (undergraduate- and graduate-level programmes since 1952). Prior to 1978, library and information science education in China was available only at Wuhan University and Beijing University. In 1978, Wuhan University established a department of library and information studies offering programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In the same year, ISTIC also began to train postgraduate students. Many universities or institutions of higher education started to offer library and information specialization during the next ten years and some major information institutions set up education and training programmes to train information personnel. At present, a total of about seventy universities and colleges offer information studies programmes in China. These institutions are distributed over twenty-three provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. According to available statistics, these institutions enrol about 4,000 students per year. Master’s degrees are awarded in twenty information education institutions, which include universities such as Beijing University, Wuhan University, Jilin University of Technology and Nankai University. Others are research institutes such as ISTIC, the Documentation and Information

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Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China Defence Science and Technology Information Centre. Doctoral programmes in information studies were initiated only in 1991, with only two institutions offering them: Wuhan University and Beijing University. Two more universities now also offer doctoral programmes. Richardson (1995) reports that there are two main providers of formal librarianship training in New Zealand, although the New Zealand Library and Information Association (NZLIA) has a continuing education officer who co-ordinates, organizes and publicizes other training courses, meetings and initiatives. Other universities and polytechnics are also increasingly providing courses in areas such as records management and information systems that are of interest to librarians. Established in 1979, the Department of Library and Information Studies, Victoria University, currently offers a one-year (three semesters) Master’s in Library and Information Studies as the base-level postgraduate qualification in New Zealand. Since 1992, it has also been possible to complete the department’s diploma programme by distance education; it comprises specially developed coursebooks and a series of teleconferencing sessions held in centres throughout New Zealand. The Master’s programme is also planned to be made available by distance education. For its part, the Wellington College of Education provides the New Zealand Library Studies Certificate, a non-graduate programme for international-level staff. This twoyear distance education programme is for applicants who are already working in libraries but do not have any relevant qualifications. At the time of writing, education for library and information personnel in Australia is being offered at thirty-four institutions. The programmes prepare graduates for employment in many types of organizations and in all sectors of the economy. Some schools teach records management and archives streams as part of their total programme offerings.

One of the outcomes of ALIA’s course recognition process has been that qualifications are portable across Australia. Education for the sector is carried out at the Associate Diploma level for Library Technician, the Bachelor’s level for Librarian and Teacher Librarian, and the Graduate Diploma level for Librarian and Teacher Librarian. The Master’s level is obtained by course work or research and the doctoral level by research. Education for the library and information sector in Australia is continually being improved and some innovative courses are being offered, with emphasis on the provision of continuing professional development courses and of education for people in isolated areas of Australia. In the Pacific, two institutions offer education and training for library and information work: the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji, and the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in Papua New Guinea. USP offers a degree-level diploma programme in Information and Library Studies. The UPNG, for its part, provides library and information studies through its South Pacific Center for Communication and Information in Development (SPCenCIID). Its librarianship programmes are offered at three levels: Certificate, Diploma and Bachelor’s degree. A Certificate in Information Studies (Records Management) is offered by the centre, as well as a specialist Diploma in TeacherLibrarianship and a B.Sc. in Information Management. These correspond to position levels within libraries across Papua New Guinea. The range of problems in the region related to education and training is rather wide: nonstandardized curricular offerings in training institutions, leading to the uneven quality of graduates (Japan); the uneven quality of instruction provided by training institutions, and their pressing need for more financial support (China); the acute lack of training institutions and teachers (Papua New Guinea); and the need for more and better distance

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education programmes to train librarians in far-flung areas (New Zealand and Australia).

Public library acts and information policies The purpose of the Japan Library Law, enacted in 1950 and with amendments over the years up to 1985, is to provide for the establishment and operation of libraries, and to promote their sound development, thereby contributing to the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation, in accordance with the spirit of the Social Education Law of 1949. A major UNESCO initiative in the region deserves mention: the on-going Study on the Information Infrastructures for Planning Information Systems and Networks in Asia and the Pacific Countries (SISNAP), taking place under the auspices of the General Information Programme’s Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experience in Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific (ASTINFO). This international research project is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and is being carried out by the University of Library and Information Sciences of the Philippines. Initiated in April 1994, the aims of the three-year study are: to look at the status of national information infrastructures and services, the results of which will be useful for formulating national policy to guide the development of national information infrastructures; and to enable the developing countries to keep abreast of developments and lessen the gap between information-rich and information-poor countries, and more importantly to make them effective partners in developing resource-sharing mechanisms and networks in the region. It is also expected that the study will result in developing a conceptual model of how national information infrastructures and services should be developed and managed. Among the South Pacific countries, five have

National Library Acts: Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. The National Library and Archives Act 1993 of Papua New Guinea officially established the Office of Libraries and Archives, the National Library Service and the National Archives and Public Records Service, and identified their functions. In New Zealand, a number of laws govern the provision and management of information. Some of the more significant are the Public Libraries Act of 1869, the Archives Act of 1957, the Copyright Act of 1994, the Local Government Act of 1974 (and amendments), the National Library Act of 1965, the Official Information Act of 1982, and the Privacy Act of 1993. In terms of policy, the New Zealand Government adopted in 1993 Path to 2010 as a general statement of government policy and a strategic vision. In it, information is recognized as a key element in developing New Zealand’s future. Communication and information technology are seen as a crucial part of the national infrastructure that will enable the country to take advantage of the technological revolution currently sweeping the world. Despite several reports, studies and submissions, little progress has been made towards the formulation of a national information policy in Australia. The latest such report was submitted to the House of Representatives, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, in 1991 and rejected, based on the perception that it was not an important enough issue. Other sectors of Australian society, however, see the urgent need to work towards an integrated and interrelated set of information policies that will enhance the accessibility and usefulness of information and assure Australia’s competitiveness internationally. No country in the Pacific Islands group has a national information policy. Papua New Guinea, however, came out in 1993 with the first draft of its National Policy on Information and Communication. Discussions are also ongoing for the final-

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ization of the National Policy for Libraries and Archives in that country.

National research and information networks Most of the major countries in East Asia and Oceania are either starting or are already at an advanced stage in networking their libraries and databases. This is due partly to the importance attached by these countries to information as a tool for national development. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Australia and New Zealand, where information industries are at advanced stages of development. In 1995, operational control of AARNET, a high-speed computer telecommunication network that connects Australian users to the Internet, was taken over by Telstra, Australia’s major telecommunication carrier. The NLA’s online catalogue and all the major Australian databases are accessible via AARNET. In New Zealand, NZBN is an online computer system that links most public, university, government and special libraries in New Zealand to a central bibliographic database maintained by the National Library. NZBN’s prime function is to support libraries throughout New Zealand in their reference, interloan, cataloguing and acquisitions activities. There are over 260 member libraries. Kiwinet, the National Library’s online database service with a focus on New Zealand information, supports thirty-two databases of published information covering current affairs, New Zealand law, proposed legislation, politics, science, trademarks, education and health. World 1, mentioned earlier, will absorb both NZBN and Kiwinet by 1997. Tuianet is the New Zealand research and academic network, and comprises the universities, the Crown Research Institutes and the National Library. Other networks include CRInet, Pacnet, New Zealand Online, and PlaNet.

In the Pacific, Fiji, Noumea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and other countries have access to Internet services and are connected by e-mail. Fax, e-mail and the Internet provide the main routes through which information is communicated, disseminated and delivered. Currently existing regional information systems are the Pacific Information Center (PIC), the Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information System (PIMRIS) and the Population Information Center for the South Pacific (Pacific POPIN), all based at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Table 1 shows a matrix of information systems and services available in the Pacific. In China, the fastest developing data communications centres are Beijing and Nanjing, although in South China cities like Shanghai and other free trade zones are not lagging behind. The most prominent service providers at present are the China National Public Data Network (CNPAC), CHINAPAC, Springnet International, Beijing Posts and Telecommunications Public Mailboxes, the Internet, and Finance and Trade Networks. Local initiatives in networking, most of which use CHINAPAC, are the National Computing and Networking Facility of China (NCFC), the Tsinghua University Network (TUNET), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Network (CASNET), Peking University Network (PUNET) and the Chinese Education Research Network (CERNET). At present, PUNET users can access one of the largest scientific literature collections in China. In addition, a major library information retrieval system is being developed under the auspices of Beijing University. Japan embarked in 1994 on the establishment of the Inter-Ministry Research Information Network (IMnet), envisioned to be a seamless research information network that links national research institutes and other public research organizations, both in the country and abroad. The network is promoted under the co-ordination of all ministries

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and agencies, and financed by the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology of the Science and Technology Agency. Table 2 shows the various research-oriented information networks in Japan which are at the present time connected to the Internet. In Mongolia, a project is currently under way at the Centre for Scientific and Technical Information to develop a nationwide library network, involving the libraries of the Mongolian Technical

University, the Mongolian Agriculture University, the Ministry of Health and the Centre for Scientific and Technical Information. The Republic of Korea, like Japan, has a welldeveloped information industry, with the natural consequence that it has well-established national information networks. For instance, the Korea Research Environment Open Network (KREONet) and the Korea Education Network (KREN) are public-based communication networks for science

Staff in training

Population

No. of libraries 3

Land area (sq. km)

Technical staff 2

Capital

Prof. assn.

Status

Professional staff 1

Table 1. State of library and information services in the Pacific islands, 1996 National library

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American Samoa

Unincorporated US territory

Pago Pago

199

50 923

No

No

2

2

0

0

Cook Islands

Self-governing in free association with New Zealand

Avanua

236

20 000

Yes

No

1

8

34

3

Fed. States of Micronesia

Self-governing in free association with United States

Palikir

702

115 000

No

No

2

4

10

0

Fiji

Independent republic

Suva

18 274

750 000

No

Yes

23

138

100

130

French Polynesia

Overseas territory of France

Papeete

4 000

206 000

No

No

0

0

0

0

Guam

Unincorporated US territory

Agana

541.3

142 000

No

Yes

10

0

0

0

Kiribati

Independent republic

Tarawa

811

75 000

Yes

No

1

4

10

1

Marshall Islands

Self-governing republic in free association with US

Majuro

182

48 000

No

No

2

0

3

0

Nauru

Independent republic

Yaren

New Caledonia

Overseas territory of France

Noumea

Niue

Self-governing in free association with New Zealand

Alofi

Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands

21

10 000

No

No

0

4

6

2

19 060

183 000

No

No

1

2

5

0

260

2 200

No

No

0

3

3

0

Independent state

Port Moresby 462 840 3 950 000

Yes

Yes

20

0

0

0

Independent state

Honiara

28 896

330 000

Yes

No

1

8

15

5

Tokelau

Dependency of New Zealand

–

10 159

1 700

No

No

0

0

0

0

Tonga

Independent monarchy

Nuku’alofa

750

94 000

No

No

0

14

32

5

Tuvalu

Independent state

Funafuti

24

10 000

Yes

No

1

0

0

0

Vanuatu

Independent republic

Port Vita

12 200

155 000

Yes

No

0

3

21

4

Western Samoa

Independent state

Apia

2 831

168 000

No

Yes

2

18

25

2

1. Trained staff: at professional library level with degree and experience. About 50% have postgraduate qualifications. 2. Trained staff: with Diploma or Certificate and experience. 3. Including all types of libraries: schools, special, academic, public. Estimates only are given.

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information. Both of these networks were established to serve the information needs of the academic and research communities. The goal of KREONet, started in 1988, is to connect all the computing facilities of R&D institutes in the Republic of Korea (120 organizations currently are connected and the network is operated by the Systems Engineering Research Institute (SERI)). KREN was established in May 1990 and is supported by the Ministry of Education. It has three components: the inter-university network, the library network and the educational administration network. The library network component of KREN includes all national libraries, major public libraries, university/college libraries and special subject libraries. The goal of the library network is to connect by 1997 the 350 libraries scattered throughout the Republic of Korea using nineteen regional

switching centres. The effort, which is being coordinated by the National Central Library, has to date already standardized the KOMARC (Korean MARC) format to KS (Korean Standard), developed six domestic bibliographic databases, developed and distributed the library application software KOLAS for personal computers, and distributed UNIXbased software. Finally, the DNS (Dacom-Net Service) is the most popular data communication network in the Republic of Korea today. It is operated on a commercial basis by the Data Communication Corporation of Korea (DACOM). DACOM had a monopoly of the country’s data communication market since its establishment in 1982, but with government deregulation of such services in 1991, more than ten companies have started to provide similar services.

Table 2. Japan: research-oriented networks (funded by ministries and agencies) Backbone network

Ministry/agency network

IMnet

SINET

STAnet

MAFFIN

RIPS Network

Fund

Special Co-ordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology (Science and Technology Agency)

The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

Science and Technology Agency

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)

Operation

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co. (NTT) Kokusai Denshin; Denva Co. (KDD), etc.

National Centre for Science Information Systems (NACSIS)

NEC Co.

Computer Centre for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research (CCAFFR)

RIPS Centre (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, MITI)

AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)

For research Non-profit

University researchers and research supporting staff/researchers of national research institutes/academic societies/joint research groups For research Non-profit

Researchers and research-supporting staff of Science and Technology Agency

Researchers and research-supporting staff of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Researchers and researchsupporting staff of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, MITI

Protocol

TCP/IP, DECnet

TCP/IP

TCP/IP, DECnet

TCP/IP

TCP/IP, SNA, FNA

Start

1995

1992

1994

1991

1989

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Conclusions From this brief account of the existing information infrastructure in East Asia and the Pacific, we can draw the following two conclusions. First, while the developed countries like Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand already have well-established infrastructures for the provision of information services, the less-developed countries in the region are also taking decisive steps in developing their own systems in aid of their national development programmes. Second, the countries in the region under review recognize that the use of the new information technologies adds tremendous value to the information services they are able to offer to their users, and therefore strive to take full advantage of these, even in the face of severe financial constraints and lack of technological know-how. ■■

References ANON. 1995. The Present State of Information Resources for R&D in Japan. Country paper presented at the Second International Workshop on SISNAP, Tsukuba, Japan, 21–25 August. 21 pp. ——. 1995. Library Networking in the Republic of Korea. Country paper presented at the Second International Workshop on SISNAP, Tsukuba, Japan, 21–25 August. 6 pp. DORJBAL, T. 1995. A Status Report on S&T Information Systems and Services in Mongolia. Country paper presented at the ASTINFO Consultative Meeting and Regional Seminar/Workshop, Beijing, China, 18–23 September. 5 pp. EU-JAPAN CENTRE FOR INDUSTRIAL CO-OPERATION. 1995. EU-Japan Centre Directory of Sources of Japanese Information on Trade and Technology. Tokyo. GARTON, A.; JAGDISH, P.; SUCHIT, N.; FERNANDEZ, L. 1995. Pan Asia Networking: An Asian Survey. Ottawa, IDRC. 56 pp. HORIUCHI, S. 1994. JICST Standing at the Turn of the Century. Paper presented at the Third Annual STICA Conference, Taipei, Taiwan, 1–2 March. 12 pp.

KOREA RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION CENTER. 1995. Infrastructure for Research Information in Korea. Country report at the Second International Workshop on SISNAP, Tsukuba, Japan, 21–23 August. 13 pp. MATSUMURA, T. 1995. Study on the Information Infrastructures for Planning Information Systems and Networks in Asia and the Pacific Countries (SISNAP). Country report presented at the Tenth ASTINFO Consultative Meeting and Regional Seminar/Workshop, Beijing, China, 18–23 September. 5 pp. NEES, J. 1995. The New Zealand Information Infrastructure. Report presented at the Second International Workshop on SISNAP, Tsukuba, Japan, 21–23 August. 20 pp. OLDEN, A; WISE, M. (eds.). 1993. Information and Libraries in the Developing World. 2: Southeast Asia and Oceania. London, Library Association Publishing. 249 pp. PAPUA NEW GUINEA. MINISTRY FOR INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES. 1993. National Policy on Information and Communication of Papua New Guinea. Waigani, Papua New Guinea. 82 pp. PARK, HONG-SHIK. 1994. Recent Developments of KINITI’s Information Activities. Paper presented at the Third Annual STICA Conference, Taipei, Taiwan, 1–2 March. 12 pp. POUSTIE, K. 1995. Status Report on the Education and Training of Library and Information Personnel in Australia. Country report presented at the Tenth ASTINFO Consultative Meeting and Regional Seminar/Workshop, Beijing, China, 18–23 September. 4 pp. RICHARDSON, A. D. 1995. Education for Librarianship. In: A. D. Richardson (ed.), Library Service in New Zealand: New Zealand Libraries in the 1990s. New Zealand, Wellington College of Education. 302 pp. WILLIAMS, E. 1996. A Status Report on Library and Information Services in the Pacific Countries. Suva, Fiji, University of the South Pacific. 5 pp.

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Josephine C. Sison holds a Master’s degree in Library Science and a doctorate in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines, with Information Science as a co-major, which she took at the University of Pittsburgh (United States). For the past eighteen years she has managed the Agricultural Information Bank for Asia (AIBA), a computer-based regional resource centre for agriculture and related fields. As a member of the graduate faculty of the University of the Philippines, she has been handling courses on information systems planning and management and scientific and technical information processing, on a part-time basis since 1989. She joined the university as a professor on a full-time basis for the academic year 1996–97. She has undertaken numerous consultancies since the 1980s, on assignment in such countries as Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Fiji, as well as short-term assignments in other South-East Asian countries. She has served as a member of the Executive Board of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) since 1990.

Josephine C. Sison Project Officer Information Resources Unit SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) Los Banos, Laguna 4031, Philippines Tel: (94) 2361/2363/2365/ Fax: (2) 813-5697/(94) 2914 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 2 South Asia Abhijit Lahiri Ministry of Science and Technology, India

S

outh Asia demonstrates variety in geomorphology and in political and socio-economic status. The region includes both mainland and island states, and for the purposes of this chapter comprises the following countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. It has some of the most populous states in the world, with India topping the list at 884 million in 1992, followed by Indonesia (189 million), Pakistan (129 million) and Bangladesh (113 million), as well as sparsely populated island systems like Maldives (230,000) and Brunei Darussalam (270,000). Excepting Singapore, the bulk of the population lives in rural areas, for example Bhutan (94%), Nepal (88%), Bangladesh (83%), Afghanistan, Thailand and Cambodia (81%), the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam (80%). These rural areas are much poorer than urban areas in terms of physical infrastructure. The literacy rate, which does not necessarily signify full reading and writing capabilities, varies widely. While literacy in the Maldives, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam is above 90%, it is only between 30% and 40% in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. India has one of the world’s largest populations of qualified scientific and technical personnel, yet about half its people cannot even sign their names. This widespread illiteracy, while dampening demand for printed materials, calls for extensive information transfer through audio, video and multimedia products. Most of the countries have introduced vernacular languages in official work and higher education, and others are making efforts to do so. However, a knowledge of English is fairly widespread, except in countries like Viet Nam and Indonesia, where the early colonial rulers were French and Dutch respec-

33

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tively; these countries also have introduced English as the second language in their education systems. Such foreign-language proficiency has prompted several transnational information companies to set up a base in the region for their international operations. Politically, the region has experienced turbulence from the time the countries were freed from the shackles of colonial rule soon after the Second World War. While Viet Nam, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Cambodia are still striving hard to recover from the damage inflicted on their socio-economies by prolonged war and civil conflicts, a civil war still rages in Afghanistan. The other countries currently have more or less stable political systems, except for sporadic militancy and separatist movements. The fast-growing economies of Indonesia (6.7%), Malaysia (8.9%), Singapore (10.2%) and Thailand (7.4%), popularly known as the Asian Tigers and officially called the Newly Industrialized Economies, are now the focus of world attention. Side by side, there are countries which are far from being well-off in terms of per capita Gross National Product (1992), such as Bangladesh (US$220), Bhutan (US$180), the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (US$250) and Nepal (US$170), and relatively affluent countries such as Singapore (US$15,750), Malaysia (US$2,790) and Thailand (US$1,840). In spite of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being the highest in the region, India figures near the bottom in terms of per capita income (US$310). In all these countries, wealth is not evenly distributed across the population. The position of a large proportion of the population is much worse than these per capita GDP figures would suggest. In these circumstances, the role of information in mitigating the day-to-day problems of mere subsistence is open to debate. For sure, the conventional and modern information products and services (élitist!) discussed in the following sections do not have any place in the lives of many citizens.

Table 1. Sectoral contribution to GDP Country

Bangladesh

GDP (US$ billions)

Agriculture sector (%)

Industry sector (%)

Services sector (%)

23.8

34

17

49

0.2

42

27

31

India

214.6

32

27

40

Indonesia

126.4

19

40

40

Bhutan

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

1.2

–1

–

–

Malaysia

57.6

–

–

–

Myanmar

37.7

59

10

31

2.8

52

18

30

Pakistan

41.9

27

27

46

Philippines

52.5

22

33

45

Singapore

46

0

38

62

Sri Lanka

8.8

26

25

49

Thailand

110.3

12

39

49

Nepal

1. Figures not available. Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 1995.

The sectoral contribution to GDP also varies (see Table 1). Some of the countries, like Bhutan (42%), are heavily dependent upon the agricultural sector, whereas Singapore draws 62% from the service sector, followed by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand (49%), Pakistan (46%) and the Philippines (50%). Since the propensity to use information in agriculture is lower than in manufacturing and services, the higher sectoral contribution to agriculture would signify a low demand for information. One could infer from the above that the demand for information, especially library-based information, may not be high. This apart, the low investment capacity has been a constraint on growth of information access and communication facilities. Only three countries, namely Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Singapore, are reasonably well-placed in terms of radio, television receivers and telephones. Even in these countries access to daily newspapers

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•

Table 2. Access to information and communication facilities, 1992 (per 1,000 inhabitants) Country

Volumes in public libraries

Copies of newspapers

Radio receivers

TV Main receivers telephone lines

Afghanistan

–1

12 2

123

10

Bangladesh

5

6

46

5

2

Bhutan

–

–

16

–

2

Brunei Darussalam

1

1 059

74

271

238

176

Cambodia

–

–

105

8

1

India

–

31

79

37

8

Indonesia

32

24

149

61

9

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

–

3

125

6

2

433

117

430

150

112

Maldives

–

13

117

24

37

Myanmar

–

7

82

2

3

Nepal

–

7

34

2

3

Pakistan

12

6

87

18

10

Malaysia

Philippines

97

50

142

46

10

Singapore

–

336

648

380

415

Sri Lanka

28

27

199

49

8

Thailand

342

85

189

112

31

Viet Nam

–

8

103

42

2

1. Figures not available. 2. 1980 figures. Source: UNESCO, World Education Report 1995.

is fairly low. One out of three Singaporeans reads a newspaper; in Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam the figure is even lower: 12% and 7% respectively. Technologically advanced countries like India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines are also no better off; they have 8 to 10 telephone lines per 1,000 population. Table 2 reveals the sad state of affairs in this region with regard to information-access facilities. To sum up: • The bulk of the population is not informationdependent in day-to-day work and living.

A large proportion of the population cannot consume information, especially if it is delivered in written form. • The vast majority of the population does not have the means to access information. • People in general are not accustomed to pay, cannot pay or are unwilling to pay for information. In fact, information does not even figure in their list of wants. • The existing pattern of economic activities does not favour a growth in information consumption. • The countries do not have sufficient capacity to invest in infrastructural development. The resultant scenario of feeble demand and lack of capacity to mitigate the hardship is unlikely to change in the near future. The discussions that follow should be viewed against this backdrop.

Information publishing Book production (in annual number of titles) from this region is fairly high (see Table 3): India (14,438 in 1991), Indonesia (6,303 in 1992) and Thailand (7,626 in 1992); countries like Malaysia and Sri Lanka with smaller populations of around 18 million published about 4,000 titles. Although in some countries nearly one-third (Indonesia) to two-thirds (Thailand) of titles covered pure and applied sciences and social science, the growing demand for quality textbooks is none the less far from satisfied and the student population largely needs to depend upon foreign or locally reprinted foreign books. According to available statistics, publication activity has yet to gather momentum in countries like Pakistan and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Language proficiency, especially in English, would definitely help the countries of South Asia in their globalization process. Their foreignlanguage publications demonstrate the capabilities; for example, in 1991, 1,015 Malaysian titles out of 3,748, and 632 Sri Lankan titles out of 2,535, were

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Table 3. Production of and international trade in books Country

Afghanistan

Book production

International trade in books (US$ millions)

Reference year

Titles in science and social science

Total titles

Reference year

Export

1990

1 850

2 795

–1

–

–

–

–

–

1985

0

1.2

Bangladesh

Import

Brunei Darussalam

1990

13

25

–

–

–

India

1991

7 465

14 438

1992

13.1

39.8

Indonesia

1992

2 166

6 303

1992

0.7

17.4

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

1990

22

109

–

–

–

Malaysia

1991

1 615

3 748

1985

4.1

30.4

Nepal

–

–

–

1985

0.1

1.8

Pakistan

1992

32

70

1992

1.5

9.5

Philippines

1991

421

825

–

–

–

Singapore

–

–

–

1992

231.5

104.4

Sri Lanka

1992

2 680

4 225

1992

0.2

5.7

Thailand

1992

5 167

7 626

1985

0.3

8.2

1. Figures not available. Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1994.

in English. In spite of a strong local language base, 40% to 50% of Indian books are published in English. Statistics on periodical publications, especially professional journals, are very sketchy. In this case, however, it is the quality and timeliness rather than the number that counts. For example, while about 2,000 science and technology journal titles are published in India, only 174 are listed by the British Library Document Supply Centre, twelve are covered by the Science Citation Index, fifteen by INSPEC and nineteen by MEDLARS. Authors from developing countries usually send their good papers for publication in foreign journals to gain better visibility. The resulting low quality of papers, lack of editing facilities, high cost of production and low market potential dampen the spirits of local publishers.

School libraries The state of school libraries in the region is more or less uniformly poor. When some of the schools do not even have trained teachers, it is too much to expect that they will have professional librarians. If by chance they do have a ‘librarian’, it is one of the teachers in the school who is given the additional charge, with or without proper training, of managing the library. When many schools cannot afford to provide appropriate furniture for their students, setting up libraries is well beyond their dreams. With the limited resources at their disposal, they can acquire only a few textbooks and cheap story books. Only a country like Brunei Darussalam can well afford to create library facilities in all the newly built schools. There are also other exceptions. For example, in Viet Nam the total of 16,500 schools can boast

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13,000 libraries run by as many as 13,819 staff, of whom nearly 4,000 are professional librarians. Similarly, 8,435 government schools in Malaysia (6,965 primary schools and 1,470 secondary schools) have school resource centres, and personnel at various levels are trained on a regular basis. In India the implementation of the National Literacy Mission has brought out the need to provide reading materials at the school and village levels; how this will be organized remains to be seen. The National Library of Indonesia’s scheme of providing short introductory training for teachers with the possibility to accumulate credits, and the endeavour of the Centre for Library Development to set up model school libraries in twenty-six provinces, are experiences to learn from.

Strengthening higher education libraries in Indonesia started as late as 1988 with World Bank support. Now all forty-five universities and institutions have well-developed libraries. Progress has been equally marked in the nine university libraries of Malaysia. The libraries in Thailand are well-developed in terms of services. A process of organization is under way for the 105 university and college libraries of Viet Nam. In Myanmar, lack of funds has constrained library development in the three universities and specialized institutions. However, irrespective of the attention that library development received, the tale of woes, such as lack of financial resources, dearth of space and shortage of trained staff, remains more or less the same across the countries of the region.

Academic libraries

National and public library systems

After gaining independence, the new governments undertook the task of strengthening their academic and research infrastructure. In Bangladesh, the National Science and Technology Policy announced in 1986 aimed at attaining a strong S&T capability. It provided for a three-tier national S&T information system, with the Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (BANSDOC) at its apex. In India, since independence in 1947 there has been a proliferation of universities and R&D organizations. However, in terms of collections, very few universities are information-rich. The disparity is more pronounced when they are compared with professional institutions like the five Indian Institutes of Technology – each with annual acquisitions of over US$500,000 – and the Indian Institute of Science with US$1 million. Even in terms of services, the academic libraries are way behind the community of national laboratories – the forward-looking step of the small Gulbarga University in subscribing to CDROMs in place of print products may be cited by way of exception only.

Differing perceptions of the role that the national library and the public library system should play in intellectual, societal and literacy development, and varying levels of investment and workforce inputs, have given rise to widely dissimilar patterns of development. At one end is the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia (National Library of Malaysia) which spearheads the library movement of the country, and on the other the Nepal National Library that is being revamped with UNESCO-DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) support. The Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia has over 1 million books, adequate space for 1,000 readers and the necessary facilities for the handicapped. Equipped with a local area network (LAN), it prepares a wide range of computerized products and assumes the co-ordination responsibilities for the national library networking project. The high point in national and public library movements is found in Singapore. The report of the Library 2000 Review Committee in 1994, the IT 2000 plan, and an information technology usage survey in 1992 had set the pace for the development of

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the National Information Infrastructure. The Library 2000 plan will see the establishment of a constellation of libraries of all kinds. The Tampines Regional Library offers a wide array of state-of-the-art information delivery systems: CD-ROMs, interactive television, laser disk players, a public view data service, online public access catalogue, remote dial-up access to the library catalogue, and so on. In contrast, the National Library of India provides only traditional services. The Indian National Bibliography of the Central Reference Library is way behind its schedule. The national libraries in specific subject areas – that is, science at the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), medicine at the National Medical Library and agriculture at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute – are in a better state. INSDOC publishes Indian Science Abstracts, which is now on schedule and compiles the National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials in India, available online. The National Library of Pakistan, on the other hand, was inaugurated as recently as 1993. The computerized preparation of the Pakistan National Bibliography and special directories has been initiated. Since 1992, in Viet Nam, all provincial public libraries have been provided with PCs for the creation of local databases. After establishing linkages with the National Library in 1994, the provincial public libraries derive assistance for database development from the National Library and in return contribute new records to the national union catalogue. The existing Nepal National Library is being reorganized to contribute to the improvement of literacy through pilot public and school library services, in close association with the Basic and Primary Education Programme. As in the case of India, the public library service in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand is thinly spread. The units are understaffed and underfinanced. It is proposed to improve outreach to rural areas, which is low, by using bookmobiles.

Specialized information services Specialized services are offered by organizations of diverse legal and economic status. The most prominent of these are the national information and documentation centres such as BANSDOC in Bangladesh, INSDOC and the Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre in India, the Centre for Scientific Documentation and Information (PDII-LIPI) in Indonesia, the Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre (PASTIC), and the National Centre for Science and Technology Information and Documentation (NACESTID) in Viet Nam. These national centres are better endowed in terms of financial and human resources, and better equipped. Their activities usually include partly or fully computerized library services, database development and database services, document supply services, specialized training, compilation of the national union catalogues, and the like. Library and information units attached to national laboratories, industries, government departments and executive agencies provide information services in specific subjects; for example, the petroleum company and law library in Brunei Darussalam, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the National Chemical Laboratory, Central Leather Research Institute, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Central Manufacturing Technology Institute and National Institute of Immunology in India, the rubber and palm oil institutes in Malaysia, the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and the Agricultural Projects Services Centre in Nepal, the Pakistan Forest Institute, the Natural Resources Energy and Science Authority of Sri Lanka (NARESA), and the National Research Council of Thailand. These organizations generally have enough resources to invest in information materials, equipment, space and human resources. In the larger national interest, the resources of

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such closed groups should be made accessible to a wider user base. A forward-looking step in this direction has been taken by the following Government of India programmes: the National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT), the Bio-technology Information System (BTIS) and the Environmental Information System (ENVIS), which support specialized information facilities around existing nuclei and enable their services to extend to the national community of users. The Philippines also has programmes of a similar nature. The Science and Technology Information Network (SciNet-Phil) is a consortium of libraries and information centres in twenty-one agencies under the Department of Science and Technology. It has been designed to promote and improve the flow and use of scientific and technical information through resource-sharing. In Pakistan, development has followed two paths: one for science and technology, covering major sectors like agriculture, industry, energy, medicine, water resources and general science and technology; and the other including the National Library, the National Documentation Centre and the National Archive Centre. International assistance has helped to develop similar facilities in the Sri Lanka Scientific and Technical Information Network (SLSTINET), Viet Nam’s (NACESTIO) and Indonesia’s IPTKnet.

Information technology applications Computer applications in the region were at a low level until the advent of micro CDS/ISIS, software developed by UNESCO. Because it is distributed free of charge, its use has grown at an exponential rate in the region. In India, the CDS/ISIS installation base has grown to about 1,300, with about 3,000 application specialists trained through about 200 low-cost workshops. The software is used for database development, maintenance of personnel records, patient

records in hospitals, and so on. A comprehensive library automation package called SANJAY, based on CDS/ISIS, has been developed for small and medium-size libraries. Interfaces for local language handling have been developed in India, Thailand and Viet Nam. MINISIS, a package developed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, is also popular in the region, but the growth in its applications base is constrained owing to the relatively uncommon hardware platform (Hewlett Packard 3000 series) that it requires. Some more affluent institutions use software like VTLS, ATLAS, URICA, TINLIB and TECHLIB in minicomputer, mainframe computer, network and client-server environments (Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Few countries in the region have made efforts to develop library software indigenously.

Development of library networks Growing awareness of the need for resource-sharing, the all-round resource shortage, an increase in computer installations or access facilities in libraries, an enhanced skill base, and improved telecommunication facilities within and across geographical regions have been responsible for the recent spurt in library networking activities. In Bangladesh a comprehensive project on automation and networking of science and technology libraries is currently under implementation. In contrast, India has adopted a three-pronged approach: metropolitan library networks in major cities; countrywide networks of academic and research institutions, such as INFLIBNET; and sectoral networks on bio-informatics and the environment. The Jaringan Ilmu project in Malaysia is planning to establish a countrywide library network which will include academic institutions, fourteen state public libraries and thirty selected government libraries. Additionally, a government information

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system called Civil Service Link was launched in 1994 to facilitate access to government information. The PHnet, managed by the Philippine Network Foundation Inc., connects leading academic and research institutions. In Thailand, the Provincial University Library Network (PULINET) for provincial universities, and THAILINET (Metropolitan) for twelve universities in Bangkok, piggy-back on the computer network of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre. The population network – THAIPOPIN – links eighteen institutes. The Asian Institute of Technology has created the Thailand Inter-University Network (ATUNET). The VESTENET (Viet Nam EconomicsScience-Technology-Environment Network) being developed by NACESTID links nearly 100 organizations in Viet Nam today. Connectivity to the Internet has assumed the utmost significance for the countries of the region. While most of them have basic access only, a few like India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have full facilities. It is believed that research and development workers, and the business community – especially stock-market operators and marketing people – are the most prolific users. But the home pages on popular events like the 1996 World Cup Cricket Tournament played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and the 1996 Indian national parliamentary elections were big hits and helped to bring the Internet revolution closer to the people.

Computerization and database development Examples of the whole range of computerized information activities can be found in the region: management of routine housekeeping functions (Brunei Darussalam), creation of catalogues for public access (India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand), shared cataloguing (Singapore, Malaysia), facilitating the

book trade through networking (Singapore), and preparation of a national union catalogue of serials (Indonesia and India). Databases covering periodical articles and/or research reports or conference proceedings are compiled in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Preparation of national bibliographies apparently gets lower priority these days. Of late, there has been a spurt in the production of directories in various forms. Their coverage of topics like information on local periodicals, scientific and technical institutions, libraries, research projects and subject experts is common to almost all countries. However, the depth and segmentation may vary. It is worth while to recall the recent decision of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Chamber of Commerce and Industry to set up an electronic database of business information with the participation of seven member countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Enthused with the success of their database development efforts, some countries in the region have taken up the task of creating subject-specific databases of both national and international information. The most notable venture is the Asia Pacific Information Network on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (APINMAP) in which a number of South Asian countries actively participate. Starting on a low key, the database development activities by the IDRC-supported consortium have matured to such a level that an internationally marketable CD-ROM product, Asian Health, Environmental and Allied Databases (AHEAD), could be generated, thereby ensuring APINMAP’s self-sustainability. The stimuli behind local database ventures originate from the need for information in areas for which the global databases do not give in-depth treatment or where local information has greater importance than international information. For example, while several databases on textiles are avail-

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able, the Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research Association, India, complies a separate database incorporating information on natural fibres, handlooms, etc. Similarly, the Thai National Documentation Centre has prepared compilations on village technologies, rubber products and Indexes to the Royal Decree, Legislation, Declaration, Ministerial Regulation and Industrial Standards related to Science and Technology (1993). The Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia maintains PALMSEARCH. The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore, generates the PATS database. It appears that agriculture is one subject on which almost all countries have databases in some form or another, as well as the magnum AGRIASIA database produced by the Agricultural Information Bank for Asia (AIBA). It is true that as yet no database from the region has been a blockbuster in the international market. Nevertheless, a potential does exist. The countries in the region have been successful partners in international database efforts like AGRIS, INIS and INFOTERRA. It is also understood that some wellknown Western database producers get part of their work done on contract from various public and private enterprises in the region. Proficiency in English, a capability in computer applications, subject knowledge, a vast number of educated but unemployed or underemployed people, and by and large cheaper labour could help the countries in the region to strike it big in the global information market.

CD-ROM and online applications Since the beginning of the 1990s, the use of CDROM databases has grown at a rapid pace. This was catalysed by UNESCO, which provided workstations complete with CD-ROM drive and selected CD-ROM databases to a few expert institutions in the region; these small facilities had a great demonstration value. Now, of course, utilization of CDROM products such as MEDLINE, AGRICOLA,

AGRIS and CABI is relatively common in almost all countries. Perhaps MEDLINE has the largest installation base, owing to the generous support provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). Conversion of databases to CD-ROM has yet to take off, as large databases that can reasonably occupy an entire CD-ROM are few, unless collaborative inputting arrangements like those of AHEAD are arranged. Accessing database hosts in Europe, North America and Japan may not be a technical problem for the South Asian countries, but payment for searches could be. As yet no large commercial host has appeared in the region.

Information market development Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam have taken measures to develop the national information market. The most notable endeavour is the Industrial Technological and Market Information (ITMIN) network of Sri Lanka. This network of databases is a public limited-liability company whose shareholders are a mix of public and private agencies. The company, also assisted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of Sri Lanka in the initial stages, is mandated to set up the backbone for a national information infrastructure, to strengthen and upgrade industrial, technological and commercial information activities in the country, to enhance professional capabilities in related spheres, to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and skills among information technology professionals and end-users, and to provide information services to foreign investors. The experiment will help to establish the viability of the market-oriented approach to information management at the national level. In India commercialization is being independently pursued by almost all programmes, including

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the National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and some of the larger libraries have opened their facilities to outside clientele on a daily/monthly/annual fee basis or on a block-grant basis. The concept of marketing is widely discussed in various forums. This is just the beginning. The allround budget crunch and consequent need to supplement resources through revenue generated by selling information products and services, the general demand to improve access to information for a wider user base, and increased appreciation of the fruitful role that information could play in decisionmaking systems will invariably force greater use of marketing concepts in the future.

Education and training The region also displays a wide diversity in education and training (see Table 4). In the Philippines formal library education started as early as 1914 at the University of the Philippines, and in India in 1937 at the University of Madras (non-formal training was

Table 4. Formal library and information education facilities in South Asia, 1995 Country

Bangladesh

Postgraduate

Master’s Bachelor’s level level

Diploma Certificate

1

1

0

3

1

30

32

78

0

0

Indonesia

0

1

3

8

0

Malaysia

0

3

1

0

1

Nepal

0

0

1

0

0

Singapore

1

1

0

0

1

Sri Lanka

1

0

1

1

1

Thailand

1

6

8

0

0

Viet Nam

0

1

3

0

1

India

Source: Papers presented at the Regional Seminar on Information Education Strategies for the 21st Century, Beijing, September 1995.

initiated in 1901 at the National Library, Calcutta). In contrast, a Bachelor’s level course was introduced in Nepal only in 1995/96 at Tribhuvan University. The numbers of library schools are also impressive: for example, India has seventy-eight and the Philippines fifty. The professional associations in this region, like those elsewhere in the world, also play an important role in library education by organizing short courses, seminars, etc. The Sri Lanka Library Association (SLLA) and the Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) shoulder an additional responsibility by participating in the conduct of formal courses as well. In Sri Lanka, in addition to the degree and postgraduate diploma courses, the University of Colombo also offers a three-part certificate course for working librarians. Interestingly, the Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC) uses a bus equipped with computer network facilities that goes from place to place conducting training courses. The Library Association of Bangladesh (LAB) plays an important role in library education by running a one-year postgraduate diploma course (since 1989) and conducting a six-month certificate course twice a year in four different cities. The National Administration of Educational Management has an elaborate programme for school librarians. Library Science is also a part of Bachelor of Education courses. In India, an entire range of facilities for formal education is available today, but only those offered by INSDOC and the Indian Statistical Institute’s Documentation Research and Training Centre keep in step with technological developments. Efforts made by regular university departments to modernize are handicapped by poor budgetary support. Among several distance educational facilities, the one run by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is worth mentioning for its excellent course materials which include television

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broadcasts, video clips and contact programmes run by its regional centres. The Philippines also has a wide variety of educational facilities. Apart from the regular university programmes, the Institute of Library Science offers sectoral specializations in law and health sciences librarianship. In six years about 150 information specialists from fourteen countries were trained in the UNDP-UNESCO nine-month, non-degree, postgraduate training course for science information specialists. The Department of Science and TechnologyScience and Technology Information Institute (DOST-STII) conducts training courses and seminars of one to two weeks’ duration on data communication, database management, local area networks and the Internet. The Philippine Professional Regulation Commission has issued guidelines which encourage continuing professional education for registered librarians. In Malaysia, the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia provides in-service training, professional development of library staff and induction training for new recruits of all ministry and federal department libraries. A comprehensive assessment of information education facilities in Asia and the Pacific was made at the Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experiences in Asia and the Pacific (ASTINFO) Regional Seminar on Information Education Strategies for the 21st Century, held in Beijing in September 1995. The following problems were identified by various countries: • Shortage of information professionals skilled in using information technology. • Lack of in-service training facilities for librarians in computing and telecommunications. • Insufficient attention to the needs of the various sectors of the economy, especially those of industry. • Lack of attractiveness of the information science programme for the best students.

• • •

Infrequent revision of existing curricula. Shortage of qualified teachers. Paucity of financial resources for both teaching institutions and students. The countries agreed on a regional project to prepare information professionals for the twenty-first century.

International support Mention of the kind of expert guidance and financial and infrastructural support received by the countries in the region from external sources for the development of their information systems, centres and services has already been made above in the relevant sections. However, the picture is not complete without particular mention of the services rendered by UNESCO and its regional programme, ASTINFO. Apart from germinating and nurturing the National Information System (NATIS), UNESCO has also been providing the building blocks, such as the CDS/ISIS software for information storage, processing and retrieval, and the Common Communication Format (CCF) for the exchange of data (now de facto standards in South Asian countries). The UNESCO programme also helped in popularizing CD-ROM and online technologies, and in the development of skilled information professionals. The study on the Information Infrastructures for Planning Science Information Systems and Networks in Asia and the Pacific (SISNAP) was jointly formulated by the University of Library and Information Science, Tsukuba, Japan, and UNESCO PGI/Bangkok within the framework of ASTINFO, and is funded by the Government of Japan. It will result in the development of methodologies supported by case-studies and background reports that can be used for planning and resource mobilization efforts in the countries of the region (to start with, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as New Zealand and Fiji). Trans-

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Community Learning and Resource Centres (CLARC)

country programmes like APINMAP helped in identifying common problem areas and in exploring solutions on a co-operative basis, thereby providing an ideal ground for testing the concept of Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries (TCDC). Further details can be found in Table 5.

CLARC, an initiative taken by the General Information Programme of UNESCO, aims at improving the downstream information services, in

INIS

HELLIS

RINSCA

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan

3 3 3 3

Brunei Darussalam 3

Cambodia

3 3

India

3

3

3

3

Indonesia

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3 3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

Lao People’s Democratic Republic Malaysia

APCTT

TIPS

3

APINESS

AGRIS

3

ENSICNET

INFOTERRA

3

SAARC/DS

ASTINFO

Country

APINMAP

Table 5. Participation in international information ventures

3

Maldives Myanmar Nepal

3

3

3

Pakistan

3

3

3

3

3

Philippines

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

Singapore

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3 3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

Sri Lanka

3

3

3

3

3

Thailand

3

3

3

3

3

Viet Nam

3

3

3

3

3 = Participating countries. ASTINFO: Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experiences in Asia and the Pacific INFOTERRA: Information Referral System for the Sources of Information on Environment AGRIS: Agriculture Information System TIPS: Technology Information Promotion System INIS: International Nuclear Information System HELLIS: Health Information System RINSCA: Regional Informatics Network for South and Central Asia SAARC/DS: South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation/Documentation System ENSICNET: Environmental Sanitation Information Centre Network APINESS: Asia Pacific Information Network in Social Sciences APINMAP: Asia Pacific Information Network for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants APCTT: Asia Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology

3

3

3 3

3

3

3

3

3

3 3

3

3

3

3

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parallel with the development of library and information institutions at the national level. The pilot projects of CLARC were conceptualized to develop an approach that would make literacy classes better understood and appreciated by the target group – that is, people in rural, isolated and depressed areas of developing countries. The objective was also to strengthen institutional linkages between the target community and existing resources and facilities at the national and local levels. After case-studies in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, the concept was implemented in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines and Viet Nam. CLARC has been used most notably to develop a project for nineteen depressed provinces of the Philippines under the Social Reform Agenda of the President.

Conclusions This discussion presents a picture of abundance and deficiencies in information resource development and utilization in the region. While some countries are surging ahead in information development in tandem with their rapidly growing economies, others are still bogged down with subsistence problems. Irrespective of the state of socio-economic development in these countries, a vast section of the population as yet is untouched by the informationtechnology revolution. It will require a lot of ingenuity on the part of information scientists and technology developers to find ways and means to reach the entire population so that they also taste the fruits of modern developments. A broad knowledge base of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, economics, political science, arts, architecture and humanities has accumulated through the thousands of years of civilization of which the region can justifiably boast. This knowledge base, if systematically collected and organized, would complement modern knowledge development. But this would call for the

development of new information models, tools and techniques. ■■

Further reading ASTINFO. 1995. Information Education Strategies for the 21st Century. Report on the 10th ASTINFO Consultative Meeting and Regional Seminar, Beijing, China, 18–24 September 1995. Bangkok, UNESCO/ PGI. 139 pp. HEPWORTH, M.; CHENG, M. 1995. Librarianship and Information Work in Southeast Asia. In: Maurice B. Line (ed.), Librarianship and Information Work Worldwide, pp. 233–57. London, Bowker-Saur. LAHIRI, A.; SUNDER SINGH, B. G. 1990. Bibliographic Databases and Networks: Indian Scenario. In: S. S. Murthy et al. (eds.), Bibliographic Databases and Networks. Proceedings of the International Conference, New Delhi, India, 22–25 February 1989. Part 1, pp. 41–65. New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill. Study on the Information Infrastructures for Planning Information Systems and Networks in Asia and the Pacific Countries (SISNAP). Report of the 2nd International Workshop. Tsukuba, 1995. 21 pp. UNDP. 1995. Human Development Report 1995. New Delhi, UNDP. 230 pp. UNESCO. 1994. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1994. Paris, UNESCO. 964 pp. ——. 1995. World Education Report 1995. Paris, UNESCO. 144 pp.

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Abhijit Lahiri obtained his Ph.D. on Computer Applications from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1972, and then joined the Operations Research Group (ORG), Baroda. In ORG, he was primarily involved in studies on systems analysis and long-range forecasting. His present assignment with the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology includes design and development of information and data systems of various kinds. He also heads the National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT). He has been a consultant for UNEP and UNESCO on information systems in developing countries. In 1990–91 he was awarded the Senior Scientist Bursary by the Commission of the European Communities, and during this period he worked with INFOTAP S.A., Luxembourg. His special interests include information marketing and information systems in science and technology.

Abhijit Lahiri Adviser Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Ministry of Science and Technology Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road New Delhi 110016, India Tel: 662626 (PABX)/667373 (EPABX) Fax: (11) 6960629/6514567/6511682 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 3 The Arab States Mahmoud A. Itayem Expert and consultant, Jordan

H

istory and archaeology testify to the fact that most Arab countries are located on the sites of various ancient civilizations containing seats of learning with libraries that have contributed to the development of world civilization. In the Middle Ages book production flourished to the extent that in Andalusia (in present-day Spain) there was a catalogue comprising more than 56 volumes, each containing 400 pages on each of which were listed 20 entries (Al-Ishsh, 1991). Mosques also served as repositories of human knowledge and played important cultural and educational roles similar to those of present-day schools and public libraries. Two current Arab universities – Zeituna in Tunisia and Al-Azhar in Egypt – date back to that era. Many Arab libraries, particularly national and academic libraries, are attempting to reassemble their former manuscript collections that are now scattered all over the world. The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) established the Arab Manuscript Institute for this purpose. The Al-Albait Foundation in Amman, Jordan, has collected 1,600 catalogues of Arabic manuscripts. Arabic books were first printed in Europe in 1514 (Rome) and 1620 (Paris). Printing was first introduced to the region itself in Syria in 1706, followed by Egypt in the late eighteenth century, Iraq in 1830, Palestine in 1847, Algeria and Oman in the mid-nineteenth century, Tunisia in 1861, Saudi Arabia in 1882, Jordan in 1992 and Kuwait in 1947 (Ali, 1992). This study does not concern itself with history, however; those interested in this topic can find numerous sources, including those published in the Encyclopedia of Islam. Arab libraries and information centres in their present sense date back to the nineteenth century, or even more commonly to the present century. Presently all types of libraries are represented in most Arab states, with variations in levels of

47

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progress, as will be detailed below. It should be noted, however, that no Arab state as yet has established any information policy or introduced overall legislation for the various types of libraries.

National libraries Overview Five Arab states, namely, Djibouti, Kuwait, Oman, the Sudan and Yemen, do not have a national library, although Oman has the nucleus for one, and Kuwait, the Sudan and Yemen have libraries or information centres that perform part of a national library’s functions. Moreover, the national libraries in Lebanon and Somalia have suffered great damage from civil war. The first national library in the region was that of Algeria, established in 1835, while the most recent is the Jordanian National Library, established in 1990. Some are also national archives as in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Morocco. Most national libraries are responsible to the Ministry of Culture (Algeria (1835), Egypt (1875), Jordan (1990), Lebanon and Mauritania (1965), Morocco (1962), Somalia (1986), the Syrian Arab Republic (1984) and Tunisia (1910)), two to the Ministry of Culture and Information (Iraq (1920), Qatar (1962)), and one to the Ministry of Education (Bahrain (1990)). In the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya the National Library (1950) is responsible to the Centre of Green Book Studies, in Saudi Arabia (1990) to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (1981) to the Cultural Foundation. Every library has legislation (law or regulations) defining its objectives, functions and organizational structure. Functions Preservation of national heritage With the exception of the UAE, all Arab states with or without national libraries have legal deposit laws or regulations. Jordan’s law is the only legislation

that covers computer software. In the Sudan, with no national library, legal deposit is entrusted to the National Archives. But enforcement of legal deposit legislation is far from satisfactory in the region as a whole, particularly concerning official publications, and comprehensive coverage of all types of materials produced in the country has not yet been achieved. Dissertations, for instance are entrusted to the EinShams University Library in Egypt, and printed music to the National Music Conservatoire in Tunisia. Moreover, all national libraries, except in Morocco, claim that they collect materials relating to their respective countries or written by their citizens and published elsewhere, but it is evident that they all lack the mechanisms for doing so. Few Arab countries have copyright laws. An Arab copyright agreement, however, was signed in 1981 by fourteen states. Bibliographic activities based on national products All national libraries except in Lebanon, Mauritania and Somalia publish national bibliographies. They differ in frequency; all are annual except Algeria (semi-annual), Egypt (quarterly) and Tunisia (three times per year). The contents also vary as most cover commercially published materials while some cover government publications, school textbooks, periodicals and dissertations. The size of the publishing industry, however, is very small, as indicated in the following figures (annual number of titles): Algeria 506 (1992), Egypt 2,599 (1991), Iraq 540 (1992), Jordan 500 (1993), Kuwait 196 (1992), Oman 24 (1992), Qatar 368 (1993), the Syrian Arab Republic 598 (1992), Tunisia 539 (1993) and the UAE 293 (1993); the total production of the Arab states ranges between 6,500 and 8,000 titles, less than 1% of world production. International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) have been applied in Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, while Jordan and Tunisia are in the process of introducing them. An Arab standard (ASMO 521) is available for ISBN, but

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few Arab states have introduced it as a national standard. Lists of periodicals are separate from the national bibliographies and tend to be published at irregular intervals. No such lists have been published in Bahrain, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Mauritania. Algeria and Morocco have ISSN databases. The estimated number of periodicals published in the region is 2,600 titles, according to current Arab newspapers and journals at ALECSO. International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs) are comprehensively applied only in Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Some journals have been assigned ISSNs directly from the International Serial Data System in Paris. An Arab standard (ASMO 581) is available for ISSN, but again few Arab states have introduced it as a national standard. Although some states have made attempts to publish indexes of periodical articles, mostly through centres other than national libraries, the national libraries in Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Arab Republic are the only ones doing this on a regular basis. The former comprehensively covers Saudi Arabian serials (202 titles), while the latter covers eighteen newspapers and fifty-two journals and is published quarterly. Partial indexes are published, mostly commercially, but some have failed to continue. Bibliographic activities based on holdings Only the Saudi Arabian and the UAE national libraries compile union lists of periodicals, and this illustrates the secondary role played by Arab national libraries on the national scene. Elsewhere, data are collected by other centres such as: the Abdul Hameed Shoman Library in Jordan, the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET), the Centre National de Documentation (CND) in Morocco and the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR). The latter used to issue a Gulf list as well. The Saudi Arabian

King Fahed National Library is now in the process of achieving this and it has been under consideration in Jordan since 1972. Specialized bibliographies and/or indexes are published irregularly by the national libraries of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic and the UAE. Other publications such as research reports, annual reports, directories, library literature and publicity materials may be found in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic and the UAE. Services The national libraries of Bahrain, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Qatar, the Syrian Arab Republic and the UAE also act as public libraries. Three of them extend to branch library service: Bahrain (ten branches plus a mobile library), Egypt (twenty-six branches in Cairo) and Qatar (six branches). Others do not allow external circulation. Moreover, all national libraries offer a reference service, although quantitative statistical data are not available. The national libraries of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and the UAE are willing to receive staff from other libraries for training (but other institutions are competing actively with them in this field). The national libraries of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Arab Republic play an active role in organizing local, regional and international book exhibitions. Resources Table 1 lists the human resources, collections and physical facilities of the various Arab national libraries. In addition to the various national developments, ALECSO decided in 1991 to establish an Arab regional library in Tripoli. The Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has provided the

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Kuwait - Staff: 50 ; Books: 187,000 ; Periodicals: 446 ; Audio-visual: 5,000; Manuscripts: 59; Area (m²): 9,000; Seats: 80

Table 1. Resources of Arab national libraries State

Staff

Collections Books

Algeria

–1

Periodicals

950 000

–

63

218 000

625

1 090

697 795

7 750

Iraq

95

575 744

Jordan

70

50 000

Bahrain Egypt

Theses

Audiovisual

–

Premises Manuscripts

Maps

Others

Area (m2)

Membership

Seats

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

30 309

57 000

–

–

–

5 000

–

120

15 280

5 298

–

41 400

–

111

600

–

377

10

–

50

...2

4 205 8 060 615 3 30

3 000 4

2 000 5

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Mauritania

8

10 000

–

–

–

4 000

–

–

–

–

–

83

500 000

600

7 185

400

10 994

600

Qatar

137

354 327

–

306

4 125

1 821

–

Saudi Arabia

204

232 417

789

11 817

22 805

850

6 070

Morocco

2 000 6 – 51 306 7

–

1 672

–

–

10 875

–

28 000

200

–

Syrian Arab Republic

302

170 374

2 476

3 103

8 755

19 114

114

–

22 000

42 373

650

Tunisia

148

1 500 000

13 000

15 000

–

40 000

5 000

–

6 000

7 500

250

54

310 000

2 000

–

13 500

9 000

–

–

5 000

1 000

360

UAE

1. Figures not available. 2. Not applicable. 3. Original documents administered as archives. This is in addition to 4 million pages on 2,000 reels of microfilm and 68,652 microfiches. 4. Reports. 5. A new building of 16,000 m2 is being planned. 6. Linear metres of archive shelving. 7. Government and private documents. The library also has a collection of 19,000 coins and 1,000 CD-ROMs. Source: Wise and Olden (1994), partly updated.

premises, but implementation of this project appears to be slow.

National scientific and technical information centres It is difficult to define accurately what is meant by ‘national scientific and technical information centres’, as these vary in their designation, objectives, status, types of collections and services. Some have the term ‘national’ distinctly in their names, sometimes to signify national subject coverage, national services, or both. Some have libraries as physical stores of materials, but some do not or are restricted to certain forms such as microfiche. The rest are just special

libraries but providing national services. In terms of affiliation, they can belong to a ministry, public institution or a university, or be autonomous. They also differ in the level of sophistication of their automation. Few centres are also responsible for national or sectorial networking. Table 2 shows available information on such centres in those states that have them. Three national scientific and technical information centres are doing relatively better than the others and are directly involved in information networking, both internally and externally. The Moroccan National Documentation Centre has seven regional nodes in the country, and links with international information systems such as the

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Table 2. Arab national scientific and technical information centres States

Specialization and number Science and technology

Agriculture

Economics

Humanities

Collections Law

–1

Medi- Sciences cine

Databases

Books

Periodicals

Others

Bibliographic

Factual

2

Algeria

1

1

1

1

–

–

–

–

–

10

Bahrain

1

. . .2

...

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

–

Egypt3

54

1

...

...

...

1

2

–

–

–

11

6

Jordan5

1

1

1

...

...

...

...

72 300

1 988

500

3

...

Kuwait

1

...

...

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

–

...

...

...

...

2

...

...

–

–

–

2

2

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

26

...

...

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

2

...

Morocco

1

1

...

...

...

...

1

–

–

–

–

–

Saudi Arabia

17

...

1

1

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

–

Sudan

1

...

...

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic

1

1

...

...

...

...

...

–

–

–

–

–

Tunisia

1

1

...

...

...

...

1

–

–

–

–

–

...

...

...

...

...

...

8 121

750

250

–

–

Lebanon

UAE

18

1. Figures not available. 2. Not applicable. 3. Egypt has two networks: ENSTINET and the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC). 4. Includes one on industry and another on energy. 5. Jordan has now a National Information Centre as co-ordinator only. 6. One as a national information centre and the other for industry. 7. King Abdul Aziz City of Science and Technology. 8. National Medical Library of the United Arab Emirates University.

International Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS). The ENSTINET network in Egypt has a focal point for seven sectorial nodes – science and technology, agriculture, energy, industry, social and criminological research, medicine and reconstruction – and now publishes the Arab scientific abstracts. But the most advanced of them all is the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). This City is linked internally to all university libraries and many ministry libraries, is the focal point for GulfNet, and has access to many online services throughout the world. The centres in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, in con-

trast to other states, are effective in documenting grey literature, particularly in agriculture, and publicity publications in their respective countries (Wise and Olden, 1994).

School libraries Education has progressed relatively fast during the second half of this century. Table 3 summarizes the size of school populations in the Arab region as stated in the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995. Nevertheless, illiteracy is still high at more than 43% of the population at the age of 15 years and over. This rate varies a lot among individual states, as it is

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Education is developing quantitatively rather than qualitatively. Schools ignore, for instance, individual learning and a shift from a teacher-oriented to a student-oriented educational system. School libraries are not contributing to the educational process in its modern sense. Most existing libraries in the preschool and first levels are no more than a cupboard in an inaccessible office of the school. The other weak point is the staffing, sometimes non-existent, but mostly only part-time or insuffi-

Table 3. Enrolment and teachers in first and second levels of education Level

Enrolment

Teaching staff

1st

32 834 000

1 401 000

2nd

16 642 000

981 000

49 476 000

2 382 000

Total

Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995.

more than 60% in Mauritania and Somalia, but only 7.8% and 13.4% in Lebanon and Jordan respectively.

Table 4. School libraries in the Arab region State

Schools No.

Algeria Bahrain Djibouti

Kindergarten

1st level

2nd level

Staff

Libraries

No.

Libraries

No.

Libraries

No.

Libraries

Full-time

Part-time

2 355

–

–

13 970

–

–

–

–

–

254

–

64

–

167

162

23

23

139

–1

. . .2

Qualified

– ...

–

–

–

–

56

–

–

–

–

–

Egypt

22 940

–

1 569

–

15 861

–

5 510

–

–

–

– –

Iraq

10 879

–

554

–

7 611

–

2 694

1 925

–

–

131 341

Jordan

3 943

–

634

–

2 514

1 577

795

611

880

1 345

Kuwait

465

465

120

120

258

258

87

87

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

2 100

–

–

–

–

–

–

Lebanon Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Mauritania

–

–

–

–

1 635

–

–

–

–

–

– –

Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar

–

–

–

–

4 420

–

–

–

–

–

618

–

10

–

494

–

110

–

339

–

–

1 910

–

436

–

1 141

796

333

278

–

–

–

380

–

57

–

256

–

67

–

131

–

–

Saudi Arabia

–

–

–

–

10 228

–

–

–

–

–

–

Somalia

–

–

–

–

1 224

–

–

–

–

–

–

Sudan

–

–

–

–

8 016

–

–

–

–

–

–

14 653

1 129

982

–

12 152

–

1 519

199

1 618

–

–

–

–

–

–

4 201

–

–

–

–

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic Tunisia UAE Yemen

801

–

–

–

401

–

400

357

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

1. Figures not available. 2. Not applicable. Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995, and annual statistical reports from some countries.

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ciently qualified. Moreover, concern about school libraries only starts at the second level, when it is too late for the student. The shift from a traditional school library to a resource centre is very rare; instead, some resource centres are established outside the school environment, presumably to serve a number of schools (Jordan has established three such centres). Added to this, students are not given enough time to use their libraries. As a consequence, in all Arab states that allow private schools, their libraries are doing much better than those in the public schools. Table 4 summarizes the quantitative situation.

The size of school library collections is not available, but the following figures may serve as indicators: Iraq 1,500,000 volumes at the second level; Jordan 3,570,172 at the first and second levels; Kuwait 1,550,272 at all levels; Oman 132,000 at the first and second levels; Qatar 471,000 at the first and second levels; Tunisia 1,036,000 at the second level; and the UAE 667,000 at the second level. This means that the highest rates of books per student, three and five books in Jordan and Kuwait respectively, are still too far from well-established international standards.

Table 5. Universities and university libraries in the Arab region State

Universities

Libraries

Students

Teaching staff

Collections

Library staff

Books

Journals

Others

Algeria

6

–1

237 379

15 450

–

–

–

Bahrain

22

–

7 531

457

–

–

–

–

14

226

687 200

38 828

2 655 000

11 930

30 000

–

Iraq

10

117

130 433

–

2 273 159

–

–

717

Jordan

18

–

60 664

2 832

1 258 847

9 439

–

400

Kuwait

1

–

20 026

970

700 000

–

–

–

Lebanon

4

74

85 490

5 400

1 100 000

–

–

–

Egypt

–

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

5

–

72 899

–

–

–

–

–

Mauritania

1

–

6 747

248

–

–

–

–

Morocco

7

–

234 946

7 777

–

–

–

–

Oman

1

–

3 615

–

–

–

–

–

12

–

29 380

1 220

401 706

2 068

13 750

–

Qatar

1

–

7 351

637

–

–

–

–

Saudi Arabia

7

–

174 788

12 669

–

–

–

–

Somalia

1

–

15 672

817

–

–

–

–

Sudan

5

–

59 824

2 043

–

–

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic

5

–

178 516

5 997

–

–

–

–

Tunisia

6

42

63 000

4 000

–

–

–

–

UAE

1

–

8 000

750

300 000

2 000

–

–

Yemen

2

–

53 082

1 800

–

–

–

–

Palestine

Total

2 132 171

1. Figures not available. 2. One is a college. Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995; Wise and Olden (1994); and national statistics.

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One may reasonably assume that many problems encountered by libraries in general are linked to the insufficient development of school libraries in particular.

Academic libraries University libraries The Arab universities differ in their library organization as some have autonomous faculty libraries with or without a central library, while others are fully responsible to the central library. All library operations are decentralized in the former case, while fully centralized in the latter. Table 5 summarizes the situation of university libraries and the population they serve. University education is almost free in all state universities except in Jordan. Private universities (which of course are not free) are rather few in number except in Jordan and Palestine: there is one in Egypt and in Iraq, two in Lebanon, seven in Palestine (no state universities as yet) and ten in Jordan. One more is under construction in Palestine, as are two state universities in Jordan. The only Arab state without any higher education institute is Djibouti. An astonishing feature of university libraries in the region is the lack of co-operation even within the same university, particularly in the case of those with decentralized faculty libraries. In spite of formal agreements within a state hardly any aspect of cooperation exists. This has led to a lot of wasted effort and resources, particularly in acquisition and technical processing. One positive stand is the agreement for interlending between Gulf university libraries, signed in 1985. These universities are also linked to GulfNet. Except for Gulf university libraries, automation is rather slow. The packages used so far are: MINISIS, DOBIS/LIBIS, CDS/ISIS (mini-micro version) and VTLS. Some institutions have developed local packages; others are linked to online services either directly or through the national informa-

tion centres in their respective states. Some of these are also connected to the Internet, while many have expressed interest in CD-ROMs and even acquired some titles, particularly bibliographic databases. Another serious problem is the lack of professional staff and recognition of their status: many library directors are non-professionals. It is not even unusual to find only two to three professionals in a library with more than 100 members of staff. The Union of Arab Universities (UAU) signed an agreement in 1986 with the University of Jordan Library naming it as depository library for Arab theses. Since then, the library has issued an index of deposited titles, and some 6,000 titles have been received. Other higher education institutions Various other higher education institutions offer post-secondary education for a period of two to three years, or technical degrees. They are mostly state-financed, except in Egypt and Jordan where some are private, and concentrate mainly on vocational and technical education. Their problems are identical to those of university libraries, but more serious in respect of collections and staffing. Table 6 summarizes the situation.

Public libraries Adult public libraries As mentioned above, national libraries function also as public libraries, and Bahrain, Mauritania and Qatar have no other public library system. Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen have no public library systems at all. The situation in the remaining Arab States is summarized in Table 7. No legislation organizing the overall public library services exists in any Arab state. Responsibility is distributed among different government agencies in most states: municipal, local government, ministry of education or ministry of culture. In a few cases, however, libraries are private. No kind of co-

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Table 6. Other higher-education institutions and libraries State

No.

Students

Teachers

Collections

Library staff

Books

Journals

21 849

2 143

–

–

Algeria

–1

Bahrain

–

767

95

–

–

–

Djibouti

. . .2

...

...

...

...

...

–

Egypt

98

260 603

–

–

–

–

Iraq

30

49 209

–

374 826

–

106

Jordan

48

–

–

557 721

1 691

109

Kuwait

–

8 373

–

–

–

–

Lebanon

–

–

–

–

–

– –

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

–

–

–

–

–

Mauritania

–

820

18

–

–

–

Morocco

–

–

–

–

–

–

8

3 025

296

–

–

9

19

4 110

401

237 366

1 246

– 1

Oman Palestine Qatar

1

179

11

–

–

Saudi Arabia

–

17 837

2 134

–

–

–

Somalia

–

–

–

–

–

–

Sudan

–

5 576

589

–

–

–

115

19 594

1 660

–

–

41

Tunisia

–

14 163

879

–

–

–

UAE

–

1 737

354

–

–

–

Yemen

–

–

–

–

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic

1. Figures not available. 2. Not applicable. Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995; and national statistics.

ordination or co-operation exists. Human resources are very inadequate. Services are very traditional except in a few instances, such as the King Abdul Aziz Public Library in Saudi Arabia and the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Library in Jordan, both of which are fully automated using MINISIS. The latter offers a unique service by having a computer library with fifteen computer workstations for both adults and children. Most users are students from all levels of education, emphasizing the educational rather than the recreational function of the public library.

C h i l d r e n ’s l i b r a r i e s Children’s libraries may be part of the public library, whether separate or sharing the same premises, or independent. Interest in children’s literature and libraries is rather unsatisfactory, as reflected in Table 8. Sponsorship from top-level personalities such as Queen Nour of Jordan, Mrs Suzan Mubarak in Egypt and Sheikha Fatima Zayed of the UAE is a very interesting recent feature for children and their libraries.

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Table 7. Adult public libraries State

No.

Collections Books

Others

–

–

–

–

–

4 611 395

–

–

2 496

63

1 019 806

Egypt

– 489 2

Journals

–1

Algeria Iraq

Staff

–

Jordan

86

476 667

1 520

1 165

210

Kuwait

1 (18 branches)

272 000 –

– –

– –

– – –

Lebanon

119

–

–

–

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

–

–

–

–

–

Morocco

–

–

–

–

–

Oman

–

–

–

–

–

Palestine

41

248 208

571

3 010

131

Saudi Arabia

68

1 129 598

1 099

294

262

Sudan

–

–

–

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic

–

–

–

–

–

261 3

2 492 957

–

–

590

11 4

–

–

–

–

Tunisia UAE

1. Figures not available. 2. Branches for municipalities and/or local governments. 3. Including twenty-one mobile libraries. 4. Including four branches of Dubai Municipal Library. Source: UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995; national statistics; Wise and Olden, 1994.

Special libraries Special libraries are those found in government and public agencies as well as private ventures such as banks, chambers of commerce and industry, companies, societies and research centres. They all tend to be rather small, varying in quality and size from a few hundred to tens of thousands of volumes, but no data are available from any Arab state. As compared to others, some of these libraries are advanced as regards automation and link with online services, and are interested in the Internet. Most of the more advanced ones are from the public sector: central bank libraries in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia; the Ministry of Finance in Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Planning in Kuwait. In the private sector, libraries in

commercial banks, business and industry are now feeling the pressure to provide effective information services.

Workforce development Library and information science schools With the exception of Morocco (where the school reports to the Ministry of Planning which has been recently disbanded), the schools of library and information science are all university departments, mostly in faculties of arts, but also in faculties of social sciences or education. There is no such school in Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, the UAE or Palestine. Kuwait has one post-secondary department and Jordan has two, while Algeria, the Sudan and Tunisia have a diploma programme in addition to formal

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T h e A r a b S t a t57e s

Table 8. Children’s literature and libraries in the Arab region State

Children’s books

Children’s magazines Weekly

Children’s libraries Books

Journals

Others

Algeria

17

–1

–

–

–

–

–

Bahrain

55

1

5

8

–

–

–

Djibouti

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Egypt

63

2

3

–

–

–

–

Iraq

42

1

...2

2

–

–

–

Jordan

23

1

1

30

78 000

54

–

Kuwait

...

...

1

...

–

10

3

Lebanon Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Mauritania Morocco

Monthly

Collections

73

–

–

–

–

–

–

12

1

4

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

– –

22

2

1

27

–

–

Oman

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Palestine

–

–

–

50

54 524

64

1 160 –

Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syrian Arab Republic Tunisia UAE Yemen

4

...

1

1

–

–

27

2

2

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

7

6

5

14

–

–

–

34

...

6

161 4

–

–

–

129

1

4

28

–

–

–

20

1

1

5

–

–

–

–

–

2

12

–

–

–

1. Figures not available. 2. Not applicable. 3. In addition to the mobile library service run by the Institute of Women Studies in the Arab World. 4. Most are either at the cultural centres or the mobile library service. Source: Arab Council for Childhood and Maternity Annual Statistical Report 1994; and some national statistics.

university study. Unfortunately, Jordan has suspended its postgraduate diploma as of 1995. The situation of the university departments is summarized in Table 9. Teacher/student ratios are below international standards in most schools. The curriculum is mostly unbalanced as courses unrelated to librarianship and information science account for about 43% of the entire BA programmes. Modern information technology is creeping slowly into the curriculum, with the Moroccan school the best equipped.

A recent development, hopefully signalling better co-operation, co-ordination and harmonization, is the formation of the Society of Arab Library Schools (1993), located in Rabat, Morocco. Continuing education As the role of library schools in training is too often unsatisfactory, continuing education activities are run by library associations, library sections of the ministries of education, some national information

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Table 9. Library schools State

No. of schools Total

BA P Dipl

Student enrolment MA

Algeria

4

3

2

1

Bahrain

1

...

1

...

Egypt

5

5

1

Iraq

3

3

Lebanon

1

1

PhD

. . .1

BA P Dipl

Graduates

MA

PhD

BA P Dipl

–2

Staff

MA

PhD

Fulltime

Parttime

1 800

33

40

...

390

–

...

60

–

...

...

31

...

...

...

51

...

...

1

–

3

2

1 650

45

25

24

3 750

374

65

34

36

–

...

1

1

–

...

21

–

–

...

73

–

–

–

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

–

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

3

3

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

–

Morocco

1

1

...

1

...

–

...

15

...

–

...

89

...

–

–

Oman

1

1

...

1

...

128

...

–

...

53

...

...

...

–

–

Qatar

1

...

1

...

...

...

20

...

...

...

–

...

...

3

–

Saudi Arabia

5

5

...

3

3

–

–

–

2

–

–

–

–

51

–

Sudan

4

3

1

1

...

–

–

–

...

–

–

–

...

–

–

Syrian Arab Republic

1

1

...

...

...

2 048

...

...

...

106

...

...

...

–

–

Tunisia

1

1

...

...

...

70

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

1

39

1

1

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

...

...

...

–

–

32

28

6

11

6

Yemen Total

1. Not applicable. 2. Figures not available. Source: Wise and Olden (1994); Qdoura (1993); Mahmoud (1992, 1993).

centres, some national libraries and some regional and international organizations. But this training is not carried out systematically, and no follow-up programmes are ever done anywhere. The topics are mostly traditional, and the region is in bad need of training programmes for the trainers, using modern techniques. Conferences and seminars are held in the region both nationally and regionally, although the latter are diminishing owing to the severe financial crises Arab organizations are facing. On paper, there are twelve library associations at the national level in ten states (Bahrain, Egypt (three societies), Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia). But it is difficult to assess their activities in

concrete terms. For instance, only the Jordanian Library Association has continued issuing its quarterly journal, Risalat al-maktaba (The Message of the Library) since 1965. All the other journals, in any case few in number, either face interruptions or have ceased publication (Qanded, 1995). There are four other regional associations: the Arab Federation of Libraries and Institutions (AFLI), established in Tunis in 1985, the Arab Association for University Libraries, established in Kuwait in 1976 (no longer existing), the Arab Branch of the International Council on Archives (ICA) and the recently formed Society of Arab Library Schools. The American Society for Information Science (ASIS) has a Gulf branch. Arabic professional library literature is rather

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weak; current journals (other than those intended for bibliographical control) number only nine titles for all the Arab states put together. The other important part of library literature is the provision of working tools in Arabic. For cataloguing purposes, the Anglo-American cataloguing rules (AACR2) were arabized and published by the Jordanian Library Association, while all International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions (ISBDs) were arabized and published by ALECSO. The eleventh and twelfth abridged editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) were translated and modified by ALECSO. Filing rules were prepared and published by the Arab League Documentation Centre (ALDOC). The Jordanian Unified Format, based on the Common Communication Format (CCF) of UNESCO, was prepared by the Jordanian National Information Centre. Sixty-two Arab Standards on documentation and information based on International Standards Organization (ISO) standards were issued by the Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology (ASMO) before it ceased to exist as an independent Arab Organization. Since 1990 it has become a department of the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO), and no further standards have been issued in the field of information. Subject headings and thesauri have also been published, although the former cater for small and medium-size libraries. There are now four general lists and three specialized, while there are sixteen specialized thesauri, two monolingual, and the remainder bilingual or trilingual. The list of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) also is being translated.

International organizations The Secretariat-General of the League of Arab States, through ALDOC, took the initiative to create an Arab network (ARIS-NET). ALDOC accomplished

this through many practical measures: organizing meetings, publishing manuals and bibliographies, holding regional and national training courses, arabizing MINISIS and CDS/ISIS, and preparing Guidelines for Preparing a National Policy for Information Systems and Services in the Arab World (ALDOC, 1989). The latter was distributed among Arab states, but no state has applied it since 1989 and the project has faded out, with no more action being taken since 1992. ALECSO is currently drafting a strategy for documentation and information in the Arab world (ALECSO, 1996). The document will be distributed soon among members. ALECSO also has established the First Arab Bank of Information for Education, Culture and Science (FARABI). Other Arab organizations were much more active during the 1980s. They now rarely hold training courses, seminars or conferences and their own information services lack adequate resources and have reduced their activities. The Arab non-League organizations are not much better, except for the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consultancy (GOIC), which has an industrial network for its members. The only regional organization that can be mentioned is the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), which is sponsoring the creation of a Pan-Islamic information network for the benefit of the Organization of the Islamic Congress (OIC). As far as international organizations are concerned, most of the Arab states are members of the various international systems (AGRIS, the Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS), etc.). Now the World Health Organization (WHO) is providing a number of Arab countries with the MEDLINE database on CD-ROM, publishes the Arab Index Medicus, sponsors the translation of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and runs CEHANET (for Environmental Health) for its East Mediterranean Office (EMRO), whose members include eighteen Arab states.

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Communications and information marketing Telecommunications in most of the Arab states are developing much faster than libraries and information services. Those still suffering are mainly Mauritania, Somalia and the Sudan. Some, such as the Gulf states and Tunisia, have already developed their national data transmission networks. Many recently automated libraries and information centres are now using local area networks (LANs). The problem that has not been solved is the creation of national and Arab information networks. Apart from the few existing examples – ENSTINET, GulfNet, KACST, GOIC Industrial Network, EUN (Egyptian Universities Network), and CND (Rabat) – no really serious work has been done. Some networks, such as in Jordan and Syria, are at the planning stage. On a regional level, ARIS-NET has not materialized. With the regional satellite, Arabsat, in existence the technical aspects are negligible, but the more serious problem of transborder flow of information has not yet even been considered. At the international level, many national information centres, and some university, public and national libraries, utilize (though not yet effectively), well-known online services. CD-ROMs, particularly in the case of MEDLINE, are taking their place and WHO has helped in this respect. The private sector is starting to get involved in information marketing. In many Arab states commercial enterprises are now using the Internet. Others have created databases and provided access to them. The best example is the Arab Information System in Dubai, with about 150,000 press clippings accessible worldwide. Commercial centres in Amman, Dubai and Cairo are also providing information services.

Conclusions Generally speaking in the Arab region, all types of library and information services at all levels are suf-

fering from many constraints that can be summarized as follows: 1. Insufficient financial resources for information services even in oil-producing countries. 2. Shortage of adequately skilled staff, particularly in the areas of information technology. 3. Underutilization of existing information resources. 4. Lack of co-operation, co-ordination and networked systems. 5. Lack of support for information services from policy-makers, planners and political leaders. 6. Low reading habits among the literate public and consequently low use of information in the decision-making process. 7. Absence of information policies and related legislation. 8. Many library and information activities are individualized and not institutionalized. 9. The Arab, regional and international organizations are not providing adequate technical support systematically (Itayem, 1993). The gap between the haves and the have-nots is not narrowing, but rather the have-nots are becoming more and more dependent on the haves. Enormous efforts have to be made in most countries of the region, taking account of ALECSO’s effort in drawing up an adequate strategy. ■■

References ALDOC. 1989. Guidelines for Preparing a National Policy for Information Systems and Services in the Arab World. Tunis, ALDOC. (In Arabic.) ALECSO. 1996. Strategy of Documentation and Information in the Arab World. Unpublished draft. (In Arabic.) ALI, M. S. 1992. History of the Printed Arabic Book. Algiers, Dar al-Huda. (In Arabic.) ARAB COUNCIL FOR CHILDHOOD AND MATERNITY. 1994. Annual Statistical Report on the Status of the Arab Child 1994. Cairo, The Council. (In Arabic.)

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AL-ISHSH, Y. 1991. Arab Public and Semi-public Libraries in Iraq, Syria and Egypt in the Middle Ages. Beirut, Dar al-Fikr al-Muaser. (In Arabic.) ITAYEM, M. A. 1993. Strategy for Developing Libraries in the Arab World. Paper presented at the Seminar on Strategy for Documentation and Information in the Arab World, Tunis, 7–10 December 1993. MAHMOUD, U. S. 1992. Teaching Librarianship and Information at Arab Universities 1951–1991: Study of Teaching at the First University Degree Level. King Abdul Aziz University Journal, Arts and Humanities, Vol. 5. (In Arabic.) ——. 1993. Teaching Librarianship and Information at Arab Universities 1951–1991: Study of the Teaching Situation at the Postgraduate Level. Arab Journal of Libraries and Information, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 5–59. (In Arabic.) QANDED, Y. 1995. Library Associations in Greater Syria: Their Situation and Means of Activation. What is New in the Book and Library World, No. 6, pp. 84–8. (In Arabic.) QDOURA, W. 1993. Manpower Development at Libraries, Documentation and Information Centres and Archives in the Arab World. Paper presented at the Seminar on Strategy for Documentation and Information in the Arab World, Tunis, 7–10 December 1993. (In Arabic.) UNESCO. 1995. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995. Paris, UNESCO. WISE, M.; OLDEN, A. (eds.). 1994. Information and Libraries in the Arab World. London, Library Association Publishing.

Mahmoud Ah. Itayem holds a Master’s degree in Arabic from the University of London (1971). He has been a teacher for ten years, Assistant Head then Head of the Libraries Division in the Ministry of Education in Amman for ten years, Director of the Library and Information Centre at the Royal Scientific Society in Amman for three years, Director of Documentation at OAPEC in Kuwait for five years, and Private Expert and Consultant (1981). He has conducted and/or lectured at more than fifty courses, attended forty-two conferences, seminars, etc., and visited libraries and information centres in all the Arab countries (except Mauritania), most countries of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Ghana. Mr Itayem is the author of various books, more than 150 articles, papers or lectures and thirty-four consultant studies.

Mahmoud A. Itayem Expert and Consultant, Library, Documentation and Information Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation P.O. Box 950545 Amman, Jordan Tel: 679182/679166 Fax: 9626-672541

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Chapter 4 Africa Wilson O. Aiyepeku and Helen O. Komolafe University of Ibadan, Nigeria

T

he summary data, facts, and statements presented in this chapter cover the West African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; the Central African countries of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Gabon, and Sâo Tomé and Príncipe; the northern East African countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia; the Central East African countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda; the Southern African countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe; as well as countries in the Indian Ocean, comprising the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and Seychelles. Systematic research, using the most up-to-date resources in libraries and bibliographies, print and electronic databases, within and outside Africa, has produced a clear pattern of library and information services, which are described in six sections. Two sources in particular – Librarianship and Information Work Worldwide (1995) and the Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Services (1993) – constitute the starting-point of any comprehensive search for relevant documents, publications and references. Our concluding remarks highlight three aspects of African library and information services which may have tremendous implications for efforts to accelerate the socio-economic development of the region.

Public sector services The evolution of public sector library and information services in sub-Saharan Africa (that is, Africa excepting the Arab States) has followed essentially three cultural-linguistic traditions: English-speaking, French-speaking, and Portuguese-speaking. Multilateral, international and bilateral development assis-

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tance have tended to strengthen national and municipal services. Among those, one may cite: Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), UNESCO, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the British Council, the French Government and the French Summit, through the ACCT (Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique), and the AUPELF-UREF (Agence Francophone pour l’Enseignement et la Recherche). Occasionally, however, external assistance has been geared towards promoting or sustaining subregional and regional services as well (see Chapter 27). Academic institutions at the tertiary level, comprising universities, polytechnics, technical colleges and colleges of education, play a key role in the provision of public library and information services. Almost invariably, the services are an integral part of their pedagogic and research responsibilities. In some countries, university libraries serve as national libraries as well, either on a temporary basis (as in Nigeria before the National Library Act of 1964) or because a national library has been neither planned nor implemented. Consequently, large library collections of between 100,000 and 500,000 books, periodicals, unpublished manuscripts and non-book materials are not uncommon in many African university libraries. Significantly more modest resources are typical of academic libraries at lower levels. However, the downturn in the economic fortunes of African countries during the last decade or so has had a devastating effect on the quality of library services in academic institutions, virtually all of which are publicly funded. Most of them can no longer afford to buy new books, and large proportions of periodical subscriptions have been cancelled. With a corresponding inability to switch to the new information technologies, African university libraries in particular, and African academics in general, face a dim future indeed. International assistance agencies, such as the World Bank, are beginning to respond positively to the grave situation by

implementing massive rehabilitation projects, designed to restore services essentially to what they were in the 1970s and early 1980s. For instance, the World Bank has recently granted a US$15.8 million development loan to the Senegal Government for the improvement of library services in the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. This programme includes the renovation and the extension of the central library, the renewal of the collections, the purchase of equipment, computerization of the libraries and further training for the staff. Special libraries have fared marginally better than their academic counterparts only because they are generally smaller, concentrating on well-targeted sectors of African economies – industry, agriculture, health, etc. – and without the responsibility of providing services to students. But the need to adopt modern information processing and delivery services is probably greater and more urgent in this sector – a need that remains unmet mainly as a result of severe funding constraints. Public and school library services are in a state of decline throughout most of Africa because the largely external initiatives which established them have not been sustained by adequate indigenous funding, effective literacy campaigns and indigenous publishing in the local languages (see Chapter 23). Consequently, old, foreign books continue to feature prominently on the shelves of many an African public or school library, on the questionable premise that it is better to have something to read than nothing at all! It is difficult to escape the conclusion, therefore, that the development of public and school library services is still very low down the priority lists of most African governments. Modern computer-based library and information services are beginning to make an appreciable impact in Africa, especially in the relatively wellendowed international research organizations. There is growing evidence that the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s (IITA’s) success story (pub-

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lished in the African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, which described how the services of a large library were successfully computerized), is beginning to have the desired multiplier effects in the region. However, inadequate funding and insufficient numbers of appropriately trained and motivated human resources constitute the main obstacles to more success stories of this kind. An encouraging development, as reported in Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the increasing attention to rural information services. The proceedings of a recent Seminar on Information Provision to Rural Communities in Africa (1994) strongly suggest that African governments may, at last, be addressing the fundamental issue of bringing library and information services to the vast populations of non-literate and rural communities in francophone, lusophone and anglophone African countries. As African governments, in collaboration with multilateral and bilateral development assistance agencies and international and nongovernmental organizations, invest more resources in the development of this vital sector of African library and information services, the long-awaited measurable impact may not be long in coming.

Private sector services The African private sector is dominated by the activities of big multinational corporations which specialize in such capital-intensive enterprises as mineral exploration and marketing (in Angola, Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa in particular), banking and finance, manufacturing, and trading in primary commodities. In virtually all cases, the headquarters of the enterprises are outside Africa, from where specifically African policies are determined and controlled. Consequently, direct private sector investment in African library and information services, in support of the corporations’ Africa-based enterpris-

es, is not common. Indigenous initiatives in this highly competitive area are relatively new and small, with little or no attention to the development of indigenous library and information services, so far. With the exception of the biggest enterprises, such as the well-known mining conglomerates of South Africa and the giant manufacturing and marketing United Africa Company of Nigeria, it is, indeed, difficult to locate effective library services in the African private sector. However, the increasing digitization of information services has been a boon to private enterprises, including those operating in Africa, which have appropriate resources and international connections to capitalize on the fast-growing business of transborder data flow. There is little evidence that African governments are even aware of the serious implications of telematics and transborder data flow in their development efforts. And yet, the evidence is strong that transborder data flow affects the international economic exchanges of all countries, and that African countries in particular are not getting much from the value-added direct benefits resulting from the processing and distribution stages of the raw data which they produce. Trade in information goods and services, for instance, has increased exponentially over the past three decades, partly in the context of growing trade in services generally. Increasingly, it is being recognized that data flows are commodity flows (either in their own right or because they are closely related to trade flows in other areas, such as shipping) and that, therefore, the subject should be regarded as an economic issue (see Chapters 20 and 21). It has also been established that transnational corporations are the major exporters of data and that their information flow activities must be closely monitored in the overall interests of both generator and recipient countries. The information advantage of transnational corporations may place domestic enterprise at a competitive disadvantage, thus hindering the emergence of indigenous capacities in

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host countries. This factor also bears directly on the bargaining positions of these corporations vis-à-vis states and groups within states (for example, trade unions). Evidently, Africa has much to ponder on this sensitive and potentially lucrative aspect of information services (see Chapter 22). Electronic commerce is beginning to make a noticeable appearance on the African business scene, especially in the region’s international capitals of Addis Ababa, Dakar, Johannesburg and Nairobi. In other locations, experimental or embryonic initiatives have not blossomed, largely because of severe limitations in telecommunication infrastructure and anachronistic or non-existent information and informatics policies.

Large national and regional services The land areas and populations of most African countries are small; only Nigeria and South Africa have sufficiently large populations to justify the establishment of large national library and information systems. Partly as a consequence, subregional and regional systems, as well as bilateral co-operative programmes, have been encouraged, one of which is described here. South Africa’s relatively sophisticated national library system is a model for other African countries in organization, funding support and comprehensive coverage of services normally associated with national libraries worldwide. The system comprises three national libraries: the South African Library (in Cape Town), the State Library (in Pretoria) and the National Library for the Blind (in Grahamstown). The South African Library and the State Library have deposit privileges, as do the Library of Parliament in Cape Town, the Natal Society Library in Pietermaritzburg and the Bloemfontein Public Library. The South African Library, founded in 1818, is the national centre for collecting and preserving legal deposit, and rare and unique material, with the addi-

tional responsibility of compiling retrospective bibliographies and indexes of Southern African materials. In 1990 it established a Centre for the Book to stimulate interest in the book and reading and to provide a meeting forum for publishers, booksellers and librarians. The State Library, founded in 1887, is responsible for co-ordinating the national bookstock, exchange programmes with other countries, interlibrary loans, redistributing surplus material and compiling the South African National Bibliography, which continues Publications Received in Terms of Copyright Act No. 9 of 1916, issued by the State Library from 1933 to 1958. It also co-ordinates the exchange of bibliographic records and national and international bibliographic standards. The South African Library for the Blind was founded in 1919 and became a national library for the print-handicapped in 1969. It produces and provides books in Braille and on tape, and offers a service for blind students throughout the country. Unfortunately, the National Library of Nigeria has not, so far, fulfilled many of the expectations described either in the 1964 Act which established it or in the revised National Library of Nigeria Act of 1970. It provides rudiments of national library and information services, using several rented and dysfunctional buildings in Lagos, separated by many kilometres of often chaotic roads. In 1975 and, again, roughly a decade later, all seemed set to commence the construction of a building complex befitting the National Library of Nigeria. On both occasions, political rather than economic reasons seemed to have frustrated the implementation of an important national project. Despite the severe handicaps under which it has operated for over three decades, the library has managed to record some notable achievements. The National Bibliography of Nigeria has, since 1973, replaced Nigerian Publications: Current National Bibliography, issued by the University of Ibadan Library from 1950 to 1972, and is the

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National Library’s major publication. It also publishes Nigerbiblios, an in-house magazine. A notable activity of the library consists of sponsoring workshops to promote national information policies and subregional co-operation on the same subject. Two such workshops were held in 1991: Information Resource-sharing to Promote National Development in Nigeria, and Promoting Co-ordination and Development in West Africa through Information Resource-sharing, under the auspices of UNESCO and the National Library of Nigeria. Similarly, the library has provided funding to Nigerian academics to research topics considered vital to Nigeria’s socioeconomic development. Of particular relevance was The Perception and Utilization of Information by Policy Makers in Nigeria, a study sponsored by the library from 1977 to 1980 and published in 1989 as National Library publication No. 53. The Pan African Development Information System (PADIS), based at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is by far Africa’s biggest and most ambitious regional information service. Established in 1980 with substantial financial and technical support from IDRC, UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), PADIS was designed to promote regional capacitybuilding in documentation and information services and to foster co-operation in the use of modern technologies to process and use information in the region’s public service. As several evaluation reports have shown, the full realization of PADIS objectives faces many daunting challenges, including guaranteed regular funding, a long-term commitment by African governments to invest substantially and continuously in modern national information infrastructures, and significantly improved services in terms of relevance and visibility at the appropriate levels of public policy and decision-making in the region.

Professional associations and activities Every African country endeavours to have a professional body with a mandate to promote library and information services within its borders and to protect the interests of its practitioners. The members hope to meet, more or less annually, to discuss issues of common interest, and several of them attempt to publish some kind of professional journal. In reality, however, most African countries do not have effective national professional associations, for a number of reasons: librarianship is still very low down in the hierarchy of publicly recognized professions; there is a lack of national policies and programmes aimed at ensuring the promotion and the development of scientific and technical information; no statutory provision exists anywhere in the region for the registration of librarians; the academic qualifications and/or experience required for entry into the profession are not very demanding; and the professional librarians themselves generally have considerable difficulty in demonstrating the relevance of their calling to visible African development problems. The origins of subregional and regional professional associations can be traced directly to the collective resolve of African librarians to reverse the negative tendencies enumerated above. Thus, the West African and East African Library Associations were launched in the 1950s when all the member states were under British colonial rule. Similarly, the Association Internationale pour le Développement de la Documentation, des Bibliothéques et d’Archives en Afrique was established in 1959 for Frenchspeaking African colonies. Political independence in the 1960s seemed to have persuaded the members of the professional associations that they would fare better as national associations. However, the balkanization of the subregional and regional professional associations has generally left intact the challenges they were established to address.

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An additional impetus to balkanization came in the form of a strong desire to become independent members of international professional bodies, especially the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID), and the Commonwealth Association of Library Associations (COMLA). African regional and subregional divisions are active components of these international bodies, and a close reading of their activities suggests that their mandates are not very different from those of their pre-independence predecessors. Efforts are ongoing to attempt to revise the Western African Libraries Association (WALA) created in 1961. The professional activities and influence of the Standing Conference of African University Librarians (SCAUL) deserve a special mention. Founded in 1964, SCAUL comprises heads of libraries of universities eligible for membership of the Association of African Universities, based in Accra, Ghana; heads of university libraries in other parts of the world are accorded the status of associate members. The aims of SCAUL are to keep members informed of each other’s activities and, whenever possible, to correlate such activities in the common interest; and to support and develop university library services in Africa through conferences, sponsorship of research projects and meetings of specialists on African bibliography, cataloguing, classification and other aspects of academic librarianship. Since 1983 SCAUL has published, somewhat irregularly, the African Journal of Academic Librarianship. At the national level, the gap between publicly declared professional objectives and actual achievements is wide. With the important exceptions of South Africa and Nigeria, national associations of library and information professionals do very little more than hold annual meetings to present and discuss poorly researched papers, long on recommen-

dations. There is usually no mechanism to follow up such recommendations, with the result that the same recommendations tend to feature at subsequent annual meetings. Even in Nigeria, Nigerian Libraries, the official journal of the Nigerian Library Association, is not published regularly. However, some of the association’s state chapters appear more active than the parent body in organizing workshops and similar continuing education programmes for their members.

Education, training and research Formal education and training for library services has a distinguished record in most parts of Africa. The East African School of Librarianship (EASL) was founded at Makerere in 1962, with the assistance of Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. When the countries agreed, in 1990, to replace the University of East Africa with independent national universities, they also agreed to continue supporting EASL through the Council for Library Training in East Africa. Consequently, EASL remains the only one of its kind in the subregion dedicated to the education of library personnel for professional, subprofessional, and non-professional careers in librarianship. The Departments of Library and Information Studies at Addis Ababa and Moi Universities in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively, the Universities of Botswana, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and about a dozen similar schools in South Africa, also continue to make vital contributions to the training of all levels of library workers in the subregion. The German Foundation for International Development (DSE) has been particularly active in the subregion in organizing and funding the training of intermediary-level library personnel. The pattern is slightly different in West Africa. The Institute of Librarianship was established at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1959, with generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New

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York, to produce professional librarians at the graduate level only. Although conceived as a West African, subregional facility, the Institute (now Department of Library, Archival and Information Studies – LARIS) has remained essentially national, with a strong emphasis on research. At least six other Nigerian university-based departments of library studies, and several more in polytechnics and colleges of education, concentrate on professional and subprofessional training at the undergraduate level. Training for professional and non-professional careers in other anglophone countries of the subregion is provided at the Department of Library and Archives Studies, University of Ghana, and the University of Sierra Leone’s Institute of Library and Information Studies. In Senegal, the University of Dakar’s École des Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes (EBAD) has dominated education and training for library service in francophone Africa since 1963. EBAD offers two levels of training: an undergraduate programme for intermediate-level library personnel in two years, and a postgraduate programme for professional personnel, also in two years. Since the 1990s, professional training programmes have been offered by other universities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. With the exception of a couple of library schools in South Africa and LARIS, research has not been a strong feature of education for librarianship in Africa. LARIS awarded its first doctorate in 1973 and has produced about thirty more since; the combined figure for South African schools is slightly higher. These institutions have contributed appreciably to the research literature of the discipline, but, like most other African library schools, their success in founding and sustaining academic journals has, at best, been mixed. Formal education for information science is a recent African phenomenon, although the foundations had been laid in Nigeria’s LARIS as well as

in the leading library schools of South Africa. Morocco’s regional École des Sciences de l’Information (ESI) led the way in 1974, and it was not until 1990 that two similar information science programmes, exclusively at the postgraduate level, were established in Ethiopia and Nigeria. IDRC and UNESCO played crucial roles in the establishment of Addis Ababa University’s School of Information Studies for Africa (SISA) and the University of Ibadan’s Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS) in July and November of 1990 respectively. IDRC and UNESCO have continued to contribute generously to ensure the consolidation and expansion of the programmes of both schools. SISA and ARCIS run Master’s level programmes in information science, and ARCIS admitted its first doctoral degree students in 1995. Research, consultancy and advising services, and short-term retraining are the other programme areas of the schools. Both are pioneer members of the emerging Consortium of African Schools of Information Science (CASIS), the others being Morocco’s ESI and the University of Botswana’s Department of Library and Information Studies. Headquartered at SISA, and with a generous grant from IDRC for its first three years, CASIS seems poised to make a significant impact in the application of information science to help solve Africa’s multifaceted development challenges.

Information technologies and communication policy development It is generally agreed that Africa lags far behind other regions of the world in the application of information and communication technologies to address the region’s numerous socio-economic development problems. It would be fair to say that among the countries covered in this chapter, only South Africa has addressed this critical subject in a serious and systematic manner. Recognizing the pivotal nature of appropriate national information and

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informatics policies in the African context, and that time is not on the side of Africa in this rapidly evolving economic life, IDRC and PADIS jointly organized a Regional Seminar on National Information and Informatics Policies in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in late 1988. The published proceedings of the seminar (1990) suggest that ‘activities’ in regard to national information policies are observable at various levels in most African countries; the situation regarding informatics is, however, a little more bleak (see Chapter 21). The critical success factors in the development of appropriate information, informatics and telecommunication policies in Africa continue to be tackled. But relatively little attention appears to have been paid to the demonstration effect, as a proven instrument of group persuasion, in the drive to convince African governments to consider such policies as critical for national and regional development and, indeed, survival. Perhaps more attention should be paid to developing the kind of tool reproduced in Table 1 from a report of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, in order to make the desired breakthrough in the region. Experience in other parts of the world reveals two parallel trends: that the development of a unified

information, informatics and telecommunication policy is essentially a national (governmental) responsibility; and that the private sector must be carefully integrated into such national efforts. Africa cannot be different. Consequently, we underscore three of the nine recommendations specifically addressed to African governments in the published proceedings (1990) of the Regional Seminar on National Information and Informatics Policies in Africa: First, in view of the rapid advances in information technologies, their social impact and their impact on national development, the formulation of national information policies be speeded up so that these parameters can be properly assessed and controlled. Second, in view of the common level of development among countries of the Africa subregion and the similarities of problems encountered in harnessing information technology, regional co-operation be actively pursued in all areas of information development, including manpower development; standardization of training programmes in information technology; formulation of regional policies; and development of telecommunication facilities (including satellites); standardization in appropriate areas of information technology, etc.

Table 1. The impact of information technology applications in government Application

(Measure of) impact

Malawi: Foreign Trade Statistics System (1966)

Monitoring status of external trade enhancement

Zambia: Grade VII Examination System (1969)

Fast processing of secondary-school examination results and streamlining candidate selection

Kenya: Wagon Control System (1971)

Better fleet control and congestion reduction

Tanzania: Government Household Budget Survey System (1975)

Fast processing of nationwide survey data

Botswana: Fuel Control System (1982)

Tracking government vehicle movements and efficient resource reduction

Mauritius: Sales Tax System (1983)

Fast processing of sales tax data and efficient revenue collection

Zimbabwe: Voters’ Registration System

Cleaning voters’ roll and elimination of multiple registrations

Adapted from: Mohan Kaul and Han Chung Kwong (eds.), Information Technology in Government: African Experiences. London, Commonwealth Secretariat. Preliminary edition, June 1988.

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Third, in view of the important role played by the private sector in the generation, procurement, dissemination and utilization of information, African governments be invited to consider the participation of this sector in the process of policy formulation, implementation and review.

Concluding remarks These are, indeed, exciting and challenging times for library and information services worldwide, and the opportunities for their effective application in the African context are virtually limitless. In concluding this chapter, we should like to highlight three important aspects of African library and information services which may have tremendous implications for enhancing the health and progress of the region: increased emphasis on indigenous knowledge systems; greater attention to the productivity of library and information workers; and promotion of research dealing with the impact of information on decisionand policy-making processes. Recent research and publication activities on African indigenous knowledge systems, especially from Southern Africa, are most welcome. But they are far too few, too uncoordinated and too poorly funded. African library and information workers need to champion a vigorous campaign for comprehensive, longitudinal studies aimed at making lasting contributions to the world’s collective memory on all aspects of the exciting challenge posed by the topic. At present, Africa’s productivity levels in library and information services would seem to rank among the lowest in the world. What are the parameters of productivity improvement, especially in the context of strategic management, and how should the parameters be measured, vis-à-vis the parameters used to determine the productivity of other workers in a national economy? These are not easy questions, and we have no illusions that the answers to them will come easily or soon. But they

must be addressed now if the profession is to be perceived by policy-makers as belonging to the mainstream of African development efforts. Finally, African library and information workers should be acutely concerned about the worth of their calling in a region in which so many other areas of activity – primary health-care delivery; provision of food, shelter and quality education; and poverty alleviation – generally cry out for immediate attention by poorly endowed governments. And yet, a little reflection should remind us that effective library and information services underpin every decision and policy process everywhere, but particularly so in the context of Africa, which must survive to become an active part of a rapidly evolving Information Society of the Third Millennium. African governments must be persuaded to recognize the strategic significance of investing substantially and continuously in the global research effort to determine the impact of information, especially in the context of development initiatives. After all, the immediate beneficiaries of the results of such research would most probably be the African peoples themselves.

Acknowledgements So many libraries and information providers, within and outside Africa, contributed valuable resources for this chapter that we cannot possibly acknowledge them individually. However, one of them – the Library of IDRC Headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, and especially Bev Chataway, the Library’s Head of Research and Information Service – deserves our special gratitude. We are, of course, responsible for all errors of fact and interpretation found in the paper. ■■

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Wilson O. Aiyepeku holds a

Helen O. Komolafe holds a Bachelor’s

Bachelor’s degree in Geography (1967)

degree in Religious Studies and a

and a Ph.D. in Information Science

Master’s degree in Library Studies –

(1973). He is a qualified librarian and

both from the University of Ibadan, in

Fellow of the Institute of Information

1986 and 1989 respectively. She has

Scientists. He has taught library and information

practised medical librarianship at the E. Latunde

science since 1969 at the University of Ibadan, and was

Odeku Medical Library, College of Medicine,

appointed professor in 1983. He has been Director of

University of Ibadan, since 1990, and is an active

the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science

member of the Nigerian Library Association.

(ARCIS) since October 1990. W. Aiyepeku has been an Editiorial Board member of the Journal of Information Science, Education for Information and

Helen O. Komolafe

Information Technology for Development since 1979,

Librarian

1992 and 1995 respectively. Current research and

Medical Library

publication activities focus on development

College of Medicine

information systems, information in public policy, and

University of Ibadan

education for information. He has consulted for

Ibadan, Nigeria

numerous institutions and many international organizations, including the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNESCO and the World Bank/Global Environment Facility.

Wilson O. Aiyepeku Director and Professor Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS) University of Ibadan 6 Benue Road, P.O. Box 22133 Ibadan, Nigeria Tel: 2-8103621 Fax: 2-8103610/2-8103154 E-mail: library @ibadan.ac.ng

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Chapter 5 Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Alexander V. Butrimenko International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), Russian Federation

T

he changes in the social and political systems in the countries of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have had an impact on the national R&D systems and as a consequence have led to changes in the information systems, their priorities and goals. The different political situations in the countries of the region and the different rates of transition to a market economy have influenced the development of information and library systems in the various countries. To assess the changes in these countries, to help preserve accumulated knowledge in the form of databases and to help integration into the world information market, two organizations – the German National Research Centre for Information Technologies (GMD) and the International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) in Moscow – conducted a study covering twenty-one countries in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. A pilot study in 1992 dealt with database production and services (Courage and Butrimenko, 1993), followed in 1993–95 by an investigation of libraries and information centres as well as electronic information services (Courage and Butrimenko, 1996). Data collection and analysis was undertaken by thirty-five leading information centres and libraries in the countries involved. The studies provide information on 3,000 databases and 1,500 information organizations and libraries as well as an analysis of the structure, problems and developments of the information market and information services. In spite of many differences, there are also many similarities in the problems faced. These similarities were particularly obvious during the first three to four years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Comecon. Some of the countries of the region that started the transformation process earlier, such as Hungary, Poland and to some extent the Czech Republic, have already travelled a significant part of the road towards a new information and

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Eastern Europe and the C o m m o n w e a l t h o f I n d e p e n d e n t S t a t73e s

library system; others, particularly the Caucasian and Asian states of the former Soviet Union, are at the very beginning of adaptation and restructuring.

Organizational structure of national information systems Since the 1970s, in all East European countries there had been a well-established systematic information sector that was subject to central government planning and was organized as a hierarchical complex. These information systems were funded completely by the government, either directly or indirectly through the specialized allocation of funds for industry and R&D organizations – funds reserved exclusively for Scientific and Technical Information (STI). The information system networks consisted of three levels: the national level – source-oriented (journals, books, patents, grey literature and so on); the subject-oriented or ministerial level – information centres belonging to various ministries (metallurgy, construction, chemistry and so on); and the territorial-regional level. Most enterprises had specialized information units. This STI network included also ‘scientific-technical’ libraries. The national network was supervised by the ministry responsible for science and development (the names of these ministries varied from country to country: Committee for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Ministry of Industrial Development, etc.). National libraries and general public libraries were part of the structure of the Ministry of Culture, and university and high-school libraries were supervised by the Ministry of Higher Education. In practice there were no private information enterprises. Evaluation of the efficiency of the system was very difficult owing to the lack of criteria. The services and products were practically free and there was no economic feedback. Gradually national information systems became more expensive and less effective.

The political and economical transformation process affected the information systems of all Eastern European and CIS countries independently of the changes or retention of the organizational structure of the former STI and library systems. The transformation of the STI system went particularly far in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Among the former republics of the Soviet Union, Latvia and Estonia can be added to this list. In these two countries even the national centres for STI were closed. It can be said that in these countries the notion of a unified, state-supported STI system no longer exists. Involvement of the state is limited to support of single specific projects while the major part of this sector is left to the free market. For example, in the Czech Republic the information system, which in the late 1980s included about 1,800 information centres and units (one national centre, ten ministerial information centres, 417 subjectoriented information centres and 1,370 internal information units), is no longer a consistent system (see Table 1). In 1995 only 210 of these centres and units supported by the government could still be located. About 67% of the leading specialized information centres had closed. However, it should be understood that the former information network provided services almost exclusively to the R&D sector, and this sector has also been reduced very significantly. In 1989 there were 133,000 researchers in the Czech Republic, reduced to 40,000 in 1993. A very similar situation could be observed in other countries: between 30% and 70% of the former Table 1. Information organizations in the Czech Republic Information centres and units

1990

1995

State-supported

1 782

210

To be privatized

0

40

Private

0

310

Associations, unions and similar Closed or unknown

15

40

0

1 197

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information organizations and units have been closed (for example, Ukraine had 1,401 information organizations and units in 1990, reduced to 1,051 in 1994). Practically all information organizations changed their profile to some extent, adding to their services training and advertising, and providing partnermatching services. The staff was also significantly reduced, even in those organizations that were preserved in their former role. For instance, the staff of the Armenian Scientific Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (ArmNIINTI) was reduced from 300 to 100. The same level of reduction took place at the Georgian Scientific Research Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (TECHINFORMI). Employees in Kazakstan’s information organizations diminished from 3,540 in 1990 to 1,600 in 1995 and in Ukraine from 15,142 to 10,600. Thus staff reduction in these organizations was in the range of 40% to 70%. The backbone of a typical state STI system consists of a national information centre with its regional subsidiaries, as well as ministerial information centres. For example, the Czech Republic has a National Information Centre (NIC) with fifteen regional branches, and the Kazakstan State Institute for Scientific-Technical Information (KasgosINTI) has sixteen regional branches. The name of the national information centre varies from country to country, as does the legal basis of the relationship with regional centres. The number of regional centres is also very different, from very few in the Caucasian and Asian countries, as well as Hungary and Romania, to sixty-nine in the Russian Federation. In Hungary two leading branch-oriented information centres – the Information Centre for the Construction Industry (ETK) and the Information Centre for Industry (IIK) – were closed. Particularly in those countries where the involvement of the state in the STI system has been reduced, libraries have been requested to play a more active role.

Another interesting phenomenon can be observed in all the countries of the region. In spite of their attempts to do so, the former state-supported information organizations are as a rule unable to provide the economic and business information required by private enterprises under pressure from market forces. New private organizations are trying to fill this gap, but with relatively limited success. The private information sector can be identified first of all in the Czech Republic (eighty private organizations), Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Estonia (five), Kyrgyzstan (seven) and to a lesser extent in Belarus (nineteen), Latvia and Lithuania (six). In other countries there is either no private information sector or its role is negligible. Most of the private information organizations are extremely small: they employ between two and five persons and are financially unstable. Most of them, in addition to their information services and products, are involved in other activities such as small-scale trade, training or advertising. Two special cases are the Russian Federation and all the former republics of the Soviet Union. The country where the organizational structure has changed the least is the Russian Federation. All information centres with national importance in the former Soviet Union – that is, source-oriented and branch-oriented – were located in Moscow. The organizational structure of the national system for scientific and technical information, as well as the system of libraries, was practically left intact. This does not mean, however, that the changes have been small. Before 1991 the major source of income for information centres of all levels was direct or indirect state funding. Since that time state support has been reduced basically to the level needed to cover expenses connected with the preservation and building up of the information stock. The organizational structure consists of three levels, as in the former Soviet Union. All the former source-oriented All-Union Information Centres have

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been preserved. The number of branch-oriented centres (ministerial centres) was reduced (together with the number of ministries) from ninety-six in 1991 to seventy-eight in 1995. All administrative regions of the Russian Federation as well as the Republics of the Russian Federation have preserved their regional information centres, numbering sixtynine in 1995. Nevertheless, the operation of the centres has changed significantly. The staff and volume of processed literature were reduced by 20% to 50% at the source-oriented centres and 70% to 80% at the branch centres. The average number of employees in the branch centres was reduced from 200–300 in 1991 to 50 in 1995. The regional centres also lost about half their staff. The major part of their income now comes from services, governmental support accounting for about 10% of their budget. Owing to the financial dependence of the regional centres on local administration, the functions of the centres were also changed to satisfy the needs of the local authorities. Practically all information centres have been required to extend their services far beyond information services in the narrow sense. They provide various kinds of training, printing and copying of all kinds of materials, let their premises, and so on. In parallel to the preserved structure of the information system that formerly existed, the development of a new private information sector can be observed. Private information organizations specialize in the production of databases and directories on company information, business information, news, personalities, laws and so on. World as well as national literature was processed in the former hierarchically structured STI system of the Soviet Union almost exclusively in the source-oriented but also partly in the branchoriented centres. All these centres supplied republican (national) centres with information, databases and reference journals practically free of charge. Republican (national) and republican scientific-

technical libraries received a significant part of their stock in the form of free copies. These centres were located in Moscow. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union this basically free flow of information was stopped. All fifteen former republican (national) information centres had either to buy this information or to develop their own structure for processing the literature – an operation that is both time-consuming and expensive. These changes resulted in a considerable reduction of the information flow from Moscow. The Newly Independent States (NIS) were unable to pay for this information and they did not have an existing structure for database production of the world’s literature. Additionally, the national currencies of most NIS (perhaps with the exception of the Baltic countries) have remained weak against the Russian rouble. So, for example, Armenia has had no patent information from the Russian Federation since 1992, and the Scientific Technical Library of Belarus reduced its acquisition of Russian literature from 32,700 copies in 1991 to 12,800 in 1994. The major Lithuanian libraries received about 40% of their literature from the Russian Federation in 1991, reduced to about 3% in 1994. All CIS countries were forced to develop their own services for screening world literature, and in most cases these services are very fragmentary and of relatively poor quality. An agreement has been signed by the CIS countries for the creation of a common ‘Information Field’ that was intended to re-establish some kind of co-operation in the field of scientific-technical information, but financial problems remain; countries have not provided even the relatively limited funds needed by the secretariat, which was located at the Ukrainian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (UkrINTEI). In describing the structure of information systems in the region, one common feature can be observed. There is a certain specialization among centres (sources, branches, territories), but there is practically no specialization on products and ser-

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vices. All information organizations try to do everything – develop databases, operate hosts, publish and print directories and provide information services to end-users. There are no information brokers.

Databases Comparison of data collected in 1993 and 1995 shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of databases and database producers in the countries of the region. At the same time there is some concentration of services, demonstrated by a decrease in the number of vendors (Table 2). But most databases are still produced by small producers. This adversely affects in certain cases the quality of the databases and does not guarantee the continued production of initiated databases. The database producers are also heterogeneous, consisting of publishers, public authorities, companies, and internal information units of organizations, enterprises and universities for which this type of activity is a secondary activity. The proportion of database producers that depend on public funding or are nonprofit organizations has decreased considerably, whereas the share of producers operating on commercial terms has increased. In 1993, there were about 1,900 databases in the region. While production of about 600 databases was discontinued between 1993 and 1995, a considerable growth rate in terms of new databases can be found. The number of electronic information services increased by 53%, and that of database producers also shows a considerable increase. In 1993, 779 database producers accounted for 1,918 databases. Table 2. Quantitative development of electronic information services 1993

1995

Vendors

145

118

Producers

779

1 146

1 918

2 936

Electronic media/databases

Table 3. Distribution of databases by database producers Number of databases per producer

Producers, 1993

Producers, 1995

No.

%

No.

%

1–2

608

78.0

866

75.5

3–6

125

16.0

199

17.4

7 – 10

29

3.7

46

4.0

11 – 20

11

1.4

24

2.1

21 – 30

5

0.6

8

0.7

Over 30

1

0.1

3

0.3

Total

779

1 146

From 1993 to 1995, the number of database producers increased by 45% to 1,146. They produced two to three electronic media/databases on average (see Table 3). Only a small proportion of the databases (16%) can be accessed online via telecommunication networks. More than 80% of the databases are marketed only at the local level or are available only on media such as diskette or magnetic tape. The number of databases accessed online has nevertheless increased from 241 in 1993 to 429 in 1995 (an increase of 78%). This has coincided with a decrease in vendors of 14%; those vendors that marketed only one online database have in many cases discontinued their services. When viewed on a global scale, databases in the region account for only a small percentage of records (750 million records, or around 13%). About 50% of the databases in the region, mainly new databases, contain less than 10,000 records. Around 33% of databases have about 10,000 records, 14% have several hundred thousand records and only around 50 large databases (representing around 2% of the total) contain several million records. The average number of records per database was just under 19,000 in 1994. The electronic information services of the East European and CIS countries use the following distribution media: 429 are online databases, 27 videotex

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databases and the rest are on diskette or magnetic tape. Only a minor proportion of databases is made available online, even though the telecommunication facilities in Eastern Europe and the CIS have improved considerably. This is to be explained by the fact that demand for scientific-technical information has significantly decreased now that this information is no longer available free of charge as it used to be, and now that the new business databases are marketed on other media (diskette, magnetic tape). Multimedia databases which require more powerful telecommunication facilities than text-only databases are still absent owing to the lack of the technical prerequisites (see Chapter 16). Analysis of the databases by subject shows that those with scientific and technical information still predominate (the multidisciplinary databases also contain scientific-technical information). About 40% of the databases covered business information in 1995 compared with only 20% in 1993, and among them 3% held legal information (see Table 4). This increase in business databases occurred despite the fact that many new business databases have been discontinued because they are not produced on a secure financial basis and many are not demand-oriented. Many new databases, such as those containing company directories or brief company information, contain data which are already available on the market in some other form. On the other hand, business databases containing solid, detailed business information and company profiles are missing. The main reason for this state of affairs is that much financial data on business cannot be recorded and checked. If we analyse databases offered throughout the region by database types, we see that the share of bibliographic databases has dropped from 39% in 1993 to 29.8% in 1995. At the same time the share of reference and text-numeric databases, which mainly contain business and company information, in-

Table 4. Distribution of databases by subject (%) Subject

1993

1995

Natural science, technology, patents

65

44

Business, economics, social sciences

20

42

Others

6

4

Multidisciplinary

7

9

News

2

1

Table 5. Distribution of databases by database types Type

Producers, 1993

Producers, 1995

No.

%

No.

%

Bibliographic

750

39.2

887

29.8

Mixed

559

29.1

780

27.4

Reference/directories

419

21.9

716

24.1

Text and numeric

83

4.3

358

12.1

Numeric

54

2.8

107

3.6

Full text

52

2.7

88

3.0

1 917

100.0

2 936

100.0

Total

creased from 26.2% to 36.2%. Only 3% of the total are full-text databases (see Table 5). As far as the country of origin is concerned, about 57% of the databases are produced in the Russian Federation, although the number of databases discontinued in this country between 1993 and 1995 is very high (322). Since 1993, there has been a considerable increase in the number of databases, especially in the Czech Republic, Hungary and in some former Soviet Republics. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the CIS countries and the Baltic states cancelled, for financial and political reasons, their subscriptions to magnetic tapes supplied by large Russian information centres. Since 1992, these former Soviet republics have been producing their own databases, but their overall share is still very small. The 429 online databases are provided by 118 vendors the biggest of which are Russian, Hungarian, Czech and Bulgarian. Only one host, VINITI in Moscow, provides more than thirty data-

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Table 6. Distribution of online databases by vendor Number of databases

1993

1995

1–2

71%

66%

3–10

24%

26%

5%

8%

145

118

Over 10 Total number of vendors

bases online. They are accessible via the Internet. About 8% (ten) of the hosts provide more than ten databases online (see Table 6). As a rule these are the national information centres or their successor organizations. All other online databases are available from their producers, who can be accessed by telecommunication networks. A great problem in these countries is posed by the fact that the databases available online are scattered over the region and that there is no one powerful and efficient host. The database vendors cannot be judged by their sales volume since online databases are used only to a very small extent and only within the respective countries, so that there is hardly any turnover. The database licence fees are different for national and international users, the fees for national users being lower. There are interesting developments in the distribution of the databases by language. Two contradictory tendencies can be observed: the first, an increasing number of databases in native languages instead of Russian in the former republics of the Soviet Union, and the second, a growing tendency to create databases for international use, that is, in English and other West European languages. The growth of English-language databases can be seen particularly in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Libraries General libraries and national scientific-technical libraries are an important part of the national information system. National libraries as a rule are subordinate to the ministry of culture, and scientific-tech-

nical libraries to the ministry of science, education or industry. In some cases national (republican) scientific-technical libraries administratively are a part of the national (republican) centres for scientific and technical information. In other cases they are separate entities. Usually in those libraries there are also specialized departments on patents and grey literature (in the Russian Federation these are separate libraries). These two types of libraries were less affected than other public general and specialized libraries. They were able as a rule to preserve their staff, although in some countries there were significant reductions (for instance, at the Republican ScientificTechnical Library of Azerbaijan, the number of employees was reduced from fifty-five to forty-five, and at the Central Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences (Georgia) from 240 to 178). The total number of employees in public libraries was reduced from 12,648 in 1985 to 7,400 in 1994 and in specialized libraries from 2,775 to 2,100. The ability of these libraries to acquire literature, particularly foreign literature, was considerably reduced. Certain figures showing an increase in budget could be misleading. The fact is that the budget structure changed very significantly. The costs for rent, heat, water and electricity rose disproportionately, and in most cases the budget provided covers only operational expenses. Thus state support of libraries in Azerbaijan went down from US$3,194,000 in 1990 to US$108,000 in 1994. The budget of the Republican Scientific-Technical Library was reduced in the same period from US$149,250 to US$1,174. It is obvious that no literature acquisition could be carried out. A more or less similar situation can be found in Armenia, Georgia and Tajikistan. The situation is less critical in other East European and CIS countries, but almost everywhere there is zero growth in library stocks. Reduction of Russian literature is not compensated for by increasing acquisition of literature from

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Table 7. Acquisition of foreign literature by the Belarus Agricultural Library 1991 Acquisition from Russian Federation

Books (copies) Journals (copies)

Table 8. Acquisition of literature by the ScientificTechnical Library of Belarus (in thousands of copies)

1995

Acquisition from

Acquisition from other countries

Acquisition from Russian Federation

Acquisition from other countries

5 000

200

3 000

600

300

5

200

40

other countries (see Table 7 for one example from Belarus). Before 1991 acquisition of literature from Russia represented a significant part of the total acquisition not only in the republics of the Soviet Union but in other countries of the region as well. This fell sharply after 1991 (see Table 8). For example, in Bulgaria Russian acquisitions fell by 50% in general and up to 90% in some particular cases. In addition to obvious political and economic reasons, the total reduction in production of literature in the Russian Federation influenced this process (see Figure 1).

1991

Belarus

1994

2.50

1.40

32.70

12.80

Eastern Europe

0.13

0.26

Western countries

0.13

1.84

35.46

16.30

Russian Federation

Total

Table 9. Stock of the largest Bulgarian libraries (in thousands of copies) Library

Total 1990

Books 1994

National Library (NBKM)

6 537 6 700

Central Library for Technology

2 097

Central Patent Library

420

1990

1 470 1 503 116

118

1 700

7

Central Library for Agriculture

437

442

179

183

Central Library for Medicine

736

547

536

414

Library of the Technical High Schools

581

602

444

458

Thousands of copies 30

Scientific and technical literature 20

10 Fiction and children’s literature 0 1940

1950

1960

1970

1994

1980

Fig. 1. Book publishing in Russia.

1990

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Table 10. Data on the Scientific-Technical Library of Armenia, 1990–94 Stock (thousands)

1990

1994

Books (titles)

137

145

Books (copies)

434

452

Journals (titles)

3.7

0.7

Journals (copies)

589

634

Patents (titles)

14 974

16 622

Patents (document units)

16 797

17 483

2 723

2 833

Foreign journals (copies)

198

203

Acquisition of literature

734

24

19 840

20 805

6 193

3 241

Foreign books (copies)

Total stock Number of readers Number of attendances Number of loans

75

36

4 903

1 499

In most libraries the stock has not grown over the last few years (see Table 9). There has also been a significant reduction in public interest in libraries, as revealed by the drop in readers and loans. Table 10 demonstrates this in the case of the Armenian Scientific-Technical Library. Reduction of the budget is very typical for the libraries. But even when there has been an increase in the budget, it has not been sufficient to cover increased salary and maintenance costs (see Tables 11

and 12). Table 13 shows that in some cases there has been an improvement in the financial situation, but a more detailed analysis indicates that operational expenses are growing faster than the budget itself. Table 14, for the Latvian Academic Library, gives a fairly typical breakdown of the budget. It shows that available finances do not allow any development and are used mostly to keep libraries afloat. In Bulgarian libraries salaries consume about 30% of the budget of the central libraries, 40% in high-school libraries and 43% in regional libraries. Acquisition of literature by the State Public Scientific-Technical Library in the Russian Federation dropped from almost 450,000 copies from within the Table 11. Data on the most important Georgian libraries: staff and budget for acquisition Library

Staff

Budget (thousands of US$)

1990

1994

1990

1994

740

723

1 500

15.0

50

40

9

0.1

State Technical Library

184

183

214

2.3

Central Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences

240

178

98

1.0

University Scientific Library

350

290

77

0.8

1 564 1 414

1 898

19.2

National Library National Medical Library

Total

Table 12. Data on scientific-technical libraries in Kyrgyzstan Library

Stock (thousands of copies)

Budget (thousands of som)1

Budget (thousands of DM)1

Staff

1993

1994

1993

1994

1995

1993

1994

1995

1993

1994

1995

National Library

5 859

5 769

321.0

362.0

367.0

124.9

50.8

47.9

371

362

367

Scientific-Technical

5 582

5 672

153.5

491.5

715.5

59.7

68.9

93.5

116

116

116

Academy of Science

921

921

103.0

103.0

103.0

40.0

14.5

13.5

66

62

61

Medical Library

300

312

10.0

81.0

123.0

3.9

11.4

16.0

30

30

30

1. 1 DM = 2.57 Kyrgyzstan som (KS) (1993); 7.31 KS (1994); 7.65 KS (1995). Source: Deutsche Bundesbank.

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Table 13. Budget of the largest libraries in Latvia Library

Table 14. Budget breakdown of the Latvian Academic Library

Budget (thousands of US$) 1994

1995

National Library

955

1 080

Academic Library

634

728

Patent and Technical Library

253

280

Medical Library

174

192

Salary

Soviet Union in 1986 to 100,000 copies from the Russian Federation in 1994 (although acquisitions from abroad increased from 12,000 to around 50,000 in the same period). Figure 2 shows the distribution of acquisitions by various sources in one Russian library between 1988 and 1994. Table 15 reflects general tendencies found in many of the most important Russian libraries. Since 1991 the number of scientific-technical

1993

1994

1995

50.1%

43.1%

51.5%

Information and literature acquisition

24.0%

32.3%

21.6%

Infrastructure

18.3%

13.8%

17.3%

Overhead expenses

4.1%

9.3%

4.2%

Maintenance (building, hardware)

3.5%

1.4%

5.4%

Total Thousands of lats

222.5

353.8

377.8

Thousands of US$

400.0

634.0

728.0

libraries has been reduced in practically all former republics of the Soviet Union. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, the figure fell from 1,618 in 1991 to 1,401 in 1994, and in Kazakstan from 375 in 1990 to 143 in 1994.

Distribution of the acquisition of literature by sources 120 000 Russian Book Chamber (free copies)

100 000

Central libraries Book market

80 000

Publishing houses 60 000

Publishing houses (free copies)

40 000

Periodicals ‘Rospechat’

20 000

Microforms and copies

0 1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

Fig. 2. Acquisition of literature by the Russian State Public Scientific-Technical Library (GPNTB) from various sources (in number of copies).

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Table 15. Data from three Russian scientific-technical libraries of national importance 1990

1993

1994

State Public Scientific-Technical Library (GPNTB) Stock (thousands)

3 651

3 133

3 025

Journals (thousands)

1 106

1 160

1 112

New acquisitions (thousands) Staff

61.8 734

23.1

18.5

822

753

853

5 040

Budget Millions of roubles Millions of US$

6.2 10

0.85

2.5

Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences Stock (thousands)

4 644

3 634

3 591

Journals (thousands)

8 931

7 610

7 717

New acquisitions (thousands) Staff

164.5

342.2

39.1

1 167

929

941

100 000

100 000

100 000

24

27

27

New acquisitions (thousands)

427

404

407

Staff

576

497

443

357

1 690

Russian Patent Library (RGPB) Stock (thousands) Journals (thousands)

Budget Millions of roubles

3.2

Millions of US$

5.3

0.35

0.85

Conclusions

References

The further development of the information systems in Eastern Europe and the CIS requires a suitable information policy, such as the promotion of dedicated information centres and scientific libraries, and the production and supply of electronic information products. The growth of information services in this region will also be considerably dependent on future national and international promotional programmes. ■■

COURAGE, M.-A.; BUTRIMENKO, A. 1993, Der elektronische Fachinformationsmarkt in Osteuropa 1993 [The Electronic Information Market in Eastern Europe 1993]. Darmstadt, Verlag Hoppenstedt. 2 vols. ——. 1996. Electronische Informationsdienste in Osteuropa 1994–95 [Electronic Information Services in Eastern Europe 1994–95]. Moscow, IZWTI Internationales Zentrum für Wissenschaftliche und Technische Information, GMD Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik GmbH. 3 vols.

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Alexander V. Butrimenko graduated from Moscow State University (Physics) in 1964, obtained his Ph.D. in PhysMath Sciences in 1967, and the title of Doctor of Technical Science in 1981. He was a research scholar at the Technical University of Stuttgart (1970–71), Junior Research Scholar and then Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Problems of Information Transmission, Academy of Sciences, USSR (1963–74). He was Project Leader for Informatics at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna (Austria) (1974–80), Head of the Department for Computer Networks and Information Service at the Institute for Applied Systems, Academy of Sciences, USSR (1980–83) and Deputy Director for Research and Projects at the AllUnion Scientific-Technical Information Centre (1983–87). Since 1987 Dr Butrimenko has been Director-General of the International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI). In 1993 he was elected member of the International Informatics Academy and in 1995 member of the Baltic Academy.

Alexander V. Butrimenko Director-General International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) 21 b, Kuusinen St 125252 Moscow Russian Federation Tel: 095-198-7441 Fax: 095-198-72-30/943-00-89 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 6 Western Europe Giuseppe Vitiello Council of Europe, France

Libraries and the book chain In the book chain, libraries have usually played a rather self-contained role. As non-profit agents, libraries were cut off from the book’s economic life, which took the book to the reader via the publisher and the bookseller. With the take-off of the electronic publishing market, they are moving towards full integration in the book chain, where they are now likely to play an economic role. A rough indication of the relevance of libraries as an economic player in the book chain may be illustrated by the relationship between the turnover of the national publishing industry and the size of library acquisitions in the European Union. Table 1 gives the gross income of the publishing industry in twelve European Union countries, and the corresponding public library acquisitions expenditures per inhabitant (only public libraries have been considered because they are the most important purTable 1. Publishing incomes and library acquisitions in European Union countries, in French francs Country

Publishing gross income per inhabitant1

Library acquisitions per inhabitant2 Public libraries

All libraries

Germany

630

0.85

Luxembourg

382

1.80

4.98

France

367

0.85

2.86

Spain

366

0.42

1.85

Denmark

350

12.35

15.47

United Kingdom

316

3.10

6.71

Netherlands

306

5.27

8.21

Italy

249

1.54 3

2.12 3

Belgium

221

2.89

5.40

Ireland

158

1.20

2.64

Greece

145

0.83 3

3.37 3

Portugal

117

0.04

0.73

1. Data for 1989. 2. 1986–90 average. 3. Estimated figures.

3.68

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chasers of national literature) and total library acquisition expenditure per inhabitant. Data are drawn from an inquiry made by a consulting agency, BIPE Conseil, in 1989 (Ancillani, 1992), and library statistics (1986–90) issued by the European Commission (European Commission, 1995). These figures give a rough comparative vision of readership in the European Union, from an economic point of view. Table 2 shows the ratio of public library acquisitions to book industry gross income per 1,000 inhabitants. It is easy to see that countries are listed in a different order from Table 1. Table 2. Ratio of public library acquisitions to publishing gross income (per 1,000 inhabitants) in European Union countries Country

Denmark

Ratio

35

Netherlands

17

Belgium

13

United Kingdom

9

Ireland

7

Italy (estimated)

6

Greece (estimated)

5

Luxembourg

4

France

2

Germany

1

Spain

1

Portugal

0.3

It would be a mistake to draw firm conclusions from such library statistics, which do not take into account book exports (relevant especially in the British, Spanish and French cases) and acquisitions made by academic libraries. What is unquestionable, however, is that reading practices vary greatly in Europe and that they are independent of economic indicators (such as Gross Domestic Product). They are, instead, very much subject to national library policies as an essential ingredient of national book

policies. The generous budgets allocated for library acquisitions in Denmark (and more generally in all Scandinavian countries) are essential to maintain high-level reading practices and a quality book industry, and to maintain high rates of literacy.

Libraries and the information chain It is even more difficult to assess the role of libraries within the information chain, especially because there is no clear understanding of what an information chain is. Traditionally, the information services industry has been seen as information services and, to a lesser extent, the processors of such services. In this narrow sense, libraries may be counted among the most relevant information providers. The rapid expansion of the information market, and the expectations linked with the growth in demand for electronic information and entertainment, are now broadening the scope of the information chain by including providers of information content, such as publishing and other media industries, and the main actors in information delivery and processing, such as producers and distributors of hardware, software and communication equipment. This fact, known as the ‘convergence phenomenon’, has blurred distinctions between the main actors and created an all-embracing concept of the information industry (see Chapters 21 and 23). In such a context, what is the incidence of library and information services and how can their economic value be assessed? According to the European Union library macrostatistics, fees and charges placed by the libraries on their own services are estimated to be some 209 million ecus per year. This figure refers to the period 1986–90, at constant 1990 prices (European Commission, 1995). More than 10% of the income (21 million ecus in 1991–92, 26 million ecus in 1993–94) is represented by the receipts of the British Library Document Supply Service, by far the largest library document supplier in Europe (British Library, 1992, 1994).

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It is important to note that such figures relate to both electronic (or partially electronic) and nonelectronic information services. For the same period (1990), the electronic information services industry in the European Union was estimated at 3.1 billion ecus (it had developed to 3.6 billion ecus in 1992). This was at the time when the ‘convergence phenomenon’ had not yet started and the Internet was still a merely academic adventure. Today, it is practically impossible to give any statistical evidence and it is fairly risky to predict what the future of libraries will look like within the information chain.

2.4% per annum (in relation to an annual average rate of increase equal to 1.7%). Comparatively, public libraries in the twelve members of the European Union in that period experienced a slight reduction in staff (from 118,399 to 118,218). Also, the rate of increase in book stocks was higher in university libraries and corresponded in 1986–90 to 2.6% per annum; in total 283.4 million books were held (20.3% of the overall book stocks). In the other library sectors, the growth rate is considerably lower, ranging from 1.3% in national libraries to 1.9% in public libraries.

Libraries in Western Europe: general statistics

Table 3. Libraries in the European Union, 1981–90

According to the statistics issued by the European Commission, macrostatistics related to libraries in the European Union and other EFTA (European Free Trade Association) countries can be summarized as shown in Tables 3 and 4. On a historical basis (from 1981 to 1990) some macrostatistic trends in library activities and finances can be detected. The first, most straightforward conclusion is that while there have been no dramatic upheavals during the decade, a marked change has occurred in the relative focus of libraries’ investments, the main area of investment growth now being devoted to the higher-education sector. Many indicators confirm this. Library expenditure grew annually on average by 1.9% in the European Union countries and by 2.8% in the EFTA countries. But for higher-education libraries the rate of increase was, respectively, 2.7% and 3.5%. Comparatively, public library expenditure grew at a lower rate (respectively 2.2% and 2.6%). Most coherently, the average annual number of staff employed in higher-education libraries – 37,798 employees in the European Union – grew at a higher level than in other sectors (1.8% per year in comparison to an overall growth of 0.5%). As a consequence, staffing costs increased by

Libraries

Average 1986–90

Average 1981–85

95 880

88 461

Yearly library expenditure (millions of ecus)1

6 637

6 036

Yearly expenditure per head (ecus)1

19.52

17.85

% of GDP Staff employed

0.15

0.15

237 227

231 565

Library collections (millions)

1 396

1 272

Consultations per inhabitant

8.161

8.132

1. Constant 1990 prices.

Table 4. Libraries in non-European Union EFTA countries (including Austria, Finland and Sweden), 1981–90

Libraries

Average 1986–90

Average 1981–85

27 917

30 097

Yearly library expenditure (millions of ecus)1

1 515

1 419

Yearly expenditure per head (ecus)1

47.09

44.17

% of GDP Staff employed

0.23

0.24

43 035

42 724

Library collections (millions)

316

295

Consultations per inhabitant

8.682

8.464

1. Constant 1990 prices.

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The second conclusion concerns the unrelenting decline of school libraries, which mirrors the reduction in pupil numbers and the ageing of the population. All indicators confirm such a trend. From 1981–85 to 1986–90, library expenditure for school libraries grew by only 0.3% per year; as a percentage of the overall European book stocks, their holdings decreased from 22.6% in the first quinquennium to 20% in the second. Personnel remained steady through the decade and the annual average number of consultations decreased by 0.1% from the first to the second quinquennium. Even more eloquent is the figure concerning school library expenditure as a part of overall library expenditure, which was 17.9% in 1981–85 but fell to 14.1% in the second quinquennium (in the EFTA area the decrease is even more dramatic: from 21.1% to 16.8%). Finally, different rates of increase between library staff (on average, 0.5% per annum) and book stocks (on average, 1.9% per annum) may suggest an increase in the efficiency of library staff. This is certainly to be ascribed to the automation of library services, which has entailed revolutionary changes and enhancements in the provision of library services and their organization.

The changing role of national libraries In order to keep up with the great expectations laid today on national libraries, the budgets allocated to them have been proportionally increased. In 1981–85 the annual average expenditure of European national libraries was equivalent to 401.2 million ecus (expressed at 1990 constant prices), which represented 5.7% of the total budget allocated to libraries; during the years 1986–90 expenditure grew by 0.9% per year and reached 423.6 million ecus (European Commission, 1995). More than 50% of such expenditure is allocated to staff salaries, which total around 240.8 million ecus per annum. It is worth noting that, like many other libraries, national libraries are

developing forms of self-financing. The production of bibliographic services, once considered as a duty, has become a key aspect of the library industry with a strong commercial component: in the United Kingdom, for instance, receipts for national bibliographies reached £2,412,300 in 1991–92 and slightly declined to £2,123,000 in 1993–94 (British Library, 1992, 1994). This considerable figure does not take into account incomes related to online records captured by other libraries. In spite of budget increases, national libraries play a less dominant role within national library systems. The decline of the centralistic role of the national library within a national library system is apparent. In the 1970s and 1980s such a role was emphasized in professional literature and UNESCO documents: it seemed that national libraries could (and should) cumulate many functions, from legal deposit to the provision of national bibliographic services, from the extensive collection of foreign material to interlibrary loan, from national planning to research and development (Sylvestre, 1987). No national library today would subscribe to such a large range of tasks. Even well-established organizations, like the British Library or the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, are now starting to involve in their work other research libraries and to share the provision of library services, thus showing that there are alternative means of fulfilling information needs at a national level (Line, 1989). Looking at national library budgets, the case for shared functions seems even more justified. The top four national libraries in Western Europe are the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Deutsche Bibliothek and the ‘system’ of national libraries of Florence and Rome. The annual average budget, however, tops 100 million ecus only in the United Kingdom and is between 10 and 20 million ecus in a large number of West European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden). This is why the

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range of tasks assigned to national libraries is reduced in many cases merely to collecting, maintaining and circulating legal deposit publications, and to providing national bibliographic services. Moreover, the widespread diffusion of the Internet is democratizing access to information and abolishing more or less hierarchical levels among libraries. The possibility of acting as a ‘clearing house’ for requests concerning national information resources may also give national libraries a pivotal role within national library systems: by concentrating on a more restricted set of functions and by co-ordinating national plans to access information, national libraries are expected to play again a dominant role in the new electronic environment.

Public libraries According to European Commission statistics (1995), expenditure on public libraries in Europe increased from some 2,812 million ecus in 1981 to 3,338 million ecus in 1990, where both figures are expressed at 1990 constant prices. The annual average increase represents, therefore, 1.9% over the decade. Some 58% of public library expenditure was spent on staff and 17.9% on acquisitions. It is important to note that while the public library sector represented 49.5% of total library expenditure from 1981 to 1985, this percentage is lower from 1986 to 1990 (48.2%). The number of service points increased during the 1980s by 2.6%, which brings the average population per service point to 3,550. Only Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries are below this average. From one quinquennium to another, the average expenditure on acquisitions increased by 2.2% yearly and represented an annual expenditure of 592 million ecus in 1986–90. Big efforts in collection development are being made by the United Kingdom and Germany (each spending more than 100 million ecus per year), the Netherlands (51,442,601 ecus), France (46,640,429 ecus), Sweden

(55,047,146), Finland (48,287,196) and Denmark (42,565,288). The average number of library consultations in the public library sector was estimated to be 1,819,866 million yearly in 1986–90 for the European Union libraries, and 197,730 million for EFTA countries. In relation to the public they serve, library consultations are 5,351 per thousand population yearly in European Union public libraries and 6,145 in EFTA countries. Reading habits, therefore, seem to reflect the historical divide which has for centuries characterized literacy and cultural practices in Northern and Southern Europe. Just as in the eighteenth century, northern regions seem to have far higher levels of literacy than southern regions. The percentage of the population registered with public libraries is as high as 65% in Denmark and 58% in the United Kingdom, but smaller percentages are found in the Netherlands (30%), Ireland (19.5%), France (17%) and Germany (between 10 and 15%) (Poulain, 1992). In Western Europe, legislation for public libraries is very much linked with the general characteristics of the administrative law system in force in the country. In general, two different models can be detected: the ‘continental’ model, which is usually based on a general framework that makes provisions for local library systems, and the Anglo-Saxon model, where duties of the local bodies or ‘authorities’ are determined by specific ‘Acts’. Within the continental model, we must distinguish between federal and regional legislation on libraries, and the unitary states where the legislation is centralized. Negative trends and stagnation are commonplace themes for public library budgets in Europe, but certainly not for library activities. In order to cope with declining reading habits, stocks of talking books and audiovisual materials, whose consultation is almost double that of traditional books, have been reinforced. The list of public libraries providing access to the Internet is also growing larger every

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day. Especially in Northern European countries, special services are now being provided, such as reference services, business information, user-tailored information and community information. Such diversification of both library stocks and services has raised the issue of free access to information. For years, free services have been considered one of the basic tenets for librarians. After animated discussions on this topic, the revised UNESCO-IFLA Public Library Manifesto (see box, pp. 90-91) makes a distinction between basic services, which should be free of charge, and added-value services, for which libraries should be enabled to cover their working costs (Gattégno, 1994). Even before this change was accepted, librarians seem to have adopted a pragmatic attitude, keeping principles on one side and using them only for theoretical debates. According to the statistics provided by the European Commission, fees and charges as a proportion of total library incomes have increased slightly from an average of 2.99% for the quinquennium 1981–85 to 3.16% for the quinquennium 1986–90. But in the public library sector, they grew from some 90 million ecus in 1981 to 110 million ecus in 1990, where both figures are expressed at 1990 constant prices. This represents an annual average increase of 3.6%. Champions of a market philosophy would find even more arguments if their observations were limited to only a few countries. In the Netherlands, fees and charges represent 9.6% of total expenditure for libraries; they have increased, however, by 31% from the quinquennium 1981–85 to 1986–90. And in spite of a ‘weak’ increase by 19% from 1981–85 to 1986–90, fees and charges in Belgium now total 10% of the global library income. In the United Kingdom data are more controversial: here, too, fees and charges increased by 19% from the first to the second quinquennium, but self-financing incomes reached only 2% of the overall library expenditure.

Academic libraries The number of universities – and, as a consequence, academic libraries – has grown tremendously in recent years. Service points as a whole have increased all over the European Union. They added up to 4,421 in 1981–85, and to 4,874 five years later (for EFTA countries, the figures are, respectively, 1,308 and 1,361). At the same time, the budget allocated to academic libraries increased from an annual average of 946 million in 1981–85 to 1,079 million in 1986–90 (225 million to 265 million for EFTA countries) (European Commission, 1995). It is noteworthy that expenditure on academic libraries as a percentage of overall library expenditure has globally expanded: it went from 13.3% for the first quinquennium to 16.9% in the second (the phenomenon is less marked in EFTA countries where percentages are, respectively, 15.9% and 17.5%). For the European Union, staff numbers increased by 9% in five years (from 34,544 to 37,798; and from 3,803 to 4,246 in EFTA). Whereas university library acquisitions represented in 1986–90 20% of total library acquisitions, expenditure on them has grown from 14.5% of total expenditure in 1981–85 to 31.6% in 1986–90. In practice, expenditure for university library acquisitions has almost doubled in five years, whereas acquisitions in terms of volume remain steady. Disparities among European countries are quite striking. While Germany and the United Kingdom allocate, on average, respectively 385 million and 275 million ecus per year for their university libraries, among the remaining countries only in France and the Netherlands does the budget go over 100 million ecus per year. In the other European states it is generally well below 60 million ecus. Library consultations also vary greatly in the European countries. Their annual average number is over 30 million only in the United Kingdom and Germany, whereas it is below 10 million in countries with a relatively large population of higher-

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UNESCO-IFLA Public Library Manifesto, 1994

example linguistic minorities, people with disabilities

Freedom, prosperity and the development of society

types of appropriate media and modern technologies

and of individuals are fundamental human values.

as well as traditional materials. High quality and

They will only be attained through the ability of

relevance to local needs and conditions are

well-informed citizens to exercise their democratic

fundamental.

or people in hospital or prison. All age-groups must find material relevant to their needs. Collections and services have to include all

rights and to play an active role in society.

Material must reflect current trends and the

Constructive participation and the development of

evolution of society, as well as the memory of human

democracy depend on satisfactory education as well as

endeavour and imagination.

on free and unlimited access to knowledge, thought, culture and information. The public library, the local gateway to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong

Collections and services should not be subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship, nor commercial pressures.

learning, independent decision-making and cultural

Missions of the public library

development of the individual and social groups.

The following key missions which relate to

This Manifesto proclaims UNESCO’s belief in the

information, literacy, education and culture should be

public library as a living force for education, culture

at the core of public library services:

and information, and as an essential agent for the

1.

fostering of peace and spiritual welfare through the minds of men and women.

2.

UNESCO therefore encourages national and local

The public library

levels. 3. 4. 5.

and innovations. 6.

age, race, sex, religion, nationality, language or social

Providing access to cultural expressions of all performing arts.

7.

provided for those users who cannot, for whatever reason, use the regular services and materials, for

Promoting awareness of cultural heritage, appreciation of the arts, scientific achievements

The services of the public library are provided on

status. Specific services and materials must be

Stimulating the imagination and creativity of children and young people.

available to its users. the basis of equality of access for all, regardless of

Providing opportunities for personal creative development.

The public library is the local centre of information, making all kinds of knowledge and information readily

Supporting both individual and self-conducted education as well as formal education at all

governments to support and actively engage in the development of public libraries.

Creating and strengthening reading habits in children from an early age.

Fostering intercultural dialogue and favouring cultural diversity.

8.

Supporting the oral tradition.

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9.

Ensuring access for citizens to all sorts of

local, regional, national as well as international

community information. 10. 11. 12.

Providing adequate information services to local

level – has to be ensured. •

members of the community. This requires well-

Facilitating the development of information and

situated library buildings, good reading and

computer literacy skills.

study facilities, as well as relevant technologies

Supporting and participating in literacy

and sufficient opening hours convenient to the

activities and programmes for all age-groups,

users. It equally implies outreach services for

and initiating such activities if necessary.

Funding, legislation and networks •

those unable to visit the library. •

urban areas. •

The librarian is an active intermediary between

local and national authorities. It must be

users and resources. Professional and continuing

supported by specific legislation and financed by

education of the librarian is indispensable to

national and local governments. It has to be an essential component of any long-term strategy

•

The library services must be adapted to the different needs of communities in rural and

The public library shall in principle be free of charge. The public library is the responsibility of

•

Services have to be physically accessible to all

enterprises, associations and interest groups.

ensure adequate services. •

Outreach and user education programmes have

for culture, information provision, literacy and

to be provided to help users benefit from all the

education.

resources.

To ensure nationwide library co-ordination and co-operation, legislation and strategic plans

Implementing the Manifesto

must also define and promote a national library

Decision-makers at national and local levels and the

network based on agreed standards of service.

library community at large, around the world, are

The public library network must be designed in

hereby urged to implement the principles expressed in

relation to national, regional, research and

this Manifesto.

special libraries as well as libraries in schools, colleges and universities.

Operation and management •

A clear policy must be formulated, defining objectives, priorities and services in relation to the local community needs. The public library has to be organized effectively and professional

•

standards of operation must be maintained.

The Manifesto is prepared in co-operation with the

Co-operation with relevant partners – for

International Federation of Library Associations and

example, user groups and other professionals at

Institutions (IFLA).

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education students, like France, Italy and Spain. There are in Europe almost as many models of academic library systems as there are countries: libraries for which responsibility lies with the state (Denmark, Portugal) or with regional governments (Germany), libraries that have central co-ordinating bodies (France) or are completely autonomous (United Kingdom, Italy, Spain), libraries participating in an exclusively academic network (Sweden, Norway) or sharing networks with public libraries (the Netherlands, Italy). In order to overcome the fragmentation of their administrative assets, academic libraries have oriented their policies towards co-operation. Such a collaborative attitude may be on a voluntary basis, as in the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, or have a legal foundation, as in France. The creation of common automated tools, such as union catalogues, serial lists or databases of special materials, as well as the diffusion of information technologies and networking, is creating the requirement to improve co-operation on an informal and often pragmatic basis. On the eve of information superhighways, the rapid growth of electronic document services may raise questions about the copyright of documents and restricted rights of reproduction (see Chapter 26). In the words of Renoult (1994, p. 273), these ‘may be more than technical problems; defining agreement among authors and publishers is the major problem of the nineties’.

Library networks in Europe The increasing role of libraries within the information market depends very much on how library networks are going to develop in the future. Apart from being a formidable tool for co-operation between, and automation of, libraries, networks have undoubtedly boosted library activities. As they are today part of a virtually worldwide interconnected library via the Internet, the demand for library services is expected to increase at a remarkable speed.

The situation in Europe is rather ‘balkanized’, as Jacquesson (1995) put it. Library networks require, above all, continuing economic effort and timely updating of technologies. As they are promoted by national administrations, it is no surprise that every European state, except for Luxembourg, has its own network – and very often more than just one. Networks have been implemented in various ways; in some cases, a top-down approach has led to abstract patterns of application not always meeting library needs. In categorizing these approaches, four options may be identified: the regional, the administrative, the sectoral and the library system-related option. The regional approach is particularly notable in the United Kingdom and Germany. In the United Kingdom, for instance, three regional networks, BLCMP, SWALCAP and VISCOUNT, interconnect libraries situated, respectively, in the Birmingham, south-west and south-east regions. In Germany there are almost as many Verbundsysteme as there are Länder. Achievements are indeed varied and leave gaps in library development. Regional discrepancies may be fatal: SCOLCAP (Scottish Libraries Co-operative Automation Project), which had long been in existence, did not survive its restructuring. Even more sensational has been the disappearance of the Swiss network REBUS (Réseau des Bibliothèques Utilisant Sibil), which was recently disbanded by its funding bodies. The administrative option is typical in countries where a top-down approach for library policy and development is usual. France offers a good example. For a long time, library automation has been implemented in isolation, with the Bibliothèque Nationale going on a different track from research libraries. The new project of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France brings together some twenty libraries, mainly academic, for the purpose of co-operative cataloguing and acquisitions; it seems likely to lead eventually to the long-desired

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automated French union catalogue. The result of this top-down option is that networked information (BN-OPALE, the database of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Pancatalogue, the database of French university libraries, and Catalogue collectif national des publications en série) preceded the automation of library functions. The sectoral approach is to be found especially in the Scandinavian countries, where the division between public and academic libraries is traditional. Not surprisingly, when automation was implemented two distinct networks emerged. Only in Denmark did a political decision provoke the merging of the two networks a few years ago. In recent years there has been a tendency to interconnect libraries using the same automated library systems. Clubs of users spread all over Europe. In Spain, for instance, libraries using similar systems (like ALEPH or TINLIB) share resources thanks to the compatibility of their automated functions. Although this option may not be appropriate for all European countries, its easy implementation will certainly make such an approach more and more popular. ‘The golden age of networks is now over’, in the opinion of Jacquesson (1995, p. 207). Library networks blossomed during the 1980s, when they represented a real advance in library automation and working methodologies. Nowadays, the growing costs of their maintenance and management, the concurrent development of laser technologies (as optical disks), navigation on the Internet, and the emergence of integrated library systems working with standardized protocols on UNIX platforms have diminished their importance as bibliographic databases. They are no longer considered to be permanent, as the disappearance of REBUS, SCOLCAP and LIBRA (a French network) clearly illustrates. Their life is in danger unless they are able to provide new valueadded services. This has been the case for PICA (Integrated Catalogue Automation Project), which

started as a department within the Hague Royal Library, with the aim of improving co-operation between the national library and university libraries, and has now been privatized.

Library and information schools The last review of initial education for librarianship in Europe dates back to 1990, when the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) carried out an investigation of courses offered by library schools in the twelve countries of the European Community. The study was focused in particular on the information technology content of curricula (IFLA, 1990). Looking back at the results of such an investigation, it is easy to note that only six years ago information studies were still considered an innovative discipline. Today, information and communication technologies are permeating all programmes and new information technologyoriented courses have been developed in most of the library and information schools of Europe. Not only has the nature of the studies changed, but also their status. In 1990, many library schools were considered as providers of professional education and therefore included in the national vocational training schemes. Today, schools are fully integrated in the higher-education system. Many trends can therefore be detected. The first is a tendency towards diversification. The number of options and special subjects has increased, in order to meet a demand for abilities and skills likely to be applied in a variety of contexts. All important schools in Europe provide a wide range of options for different groups of students and information communities. In 1990 the number of schools offering Master’s and Ph.D. programmes was very low. Today the situation is rather the opposite. Although there are still countries, like Italy or Germany, where doctoral studies do not exist, many other countries provide this opportunity. Other interesting trends in library

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and information studies are, on the one hand, the emphasis on information management in library curricula and, on the other, the favour which comparative and international librarianship enjoys today. The only way to assess library school curricula is to see whether their content corresponds to the jobs offered by libraries and the competencies and skills that are required. An interesting survey carried out by the Direction de l’Information Scientifique des Technologies Nouvelles et des Bibliothèques (DISTB) of the French Ministry of Education identified no less than thirty-one jobs in French libraries (Université de Paris, 1995). In general, jobs identified in libraries are very obviously linked with library collections (cataloguing, acquisitions, collection development etc.), library management and automation. Some new and/or more specific jobs, however, are starting to become full-time positions in some libraries or groups of libraries; these include research and development, management of access to collections, and conservation. It is no surprise to discover that cataloguing, in particular, is a skill which is superseded now by a more general competence in access to, and management of, bibliographic data. According to the same investigation, thirteen competencies corresponding to traditional library work were detected (library management, cataloguing, normalization, information retrieval, etc.). Together with them, nineteen more general competencies not specific to libraries were also identified and seem just as essential. Among these are included law, management, computing science, statistics, foreign languages and marketing. In the face of such a large number of general competencies, one may reasonably ask whether there is still a need to have specific schools for librarianship as such or if specific library curricula should be included as special subjects in more general courses of studies; paradoxically, library and information schools may be the victims of the success of information studies.

Library associations In 1992, EBLIDA, the European Board of Libraries, Information and Documentation Associations, came into existence. With its thirty-eight full members and some eighty associate members, EBLIDA acts as the representative voice of the library and information science profession in European matters, and serves its interests. The objectives of EBLIDA are to foster consultation between members on matters of common concern and to act as a channel of communication between members, and above all between members and the European Union organizations. Although it operates mainly within the European Union, EBLIDA is intending to become a forum for all European organizations, both in the Western and Eastern parts of Europe. If we limit our analysis to the restricted sample of EBLIDA members, disparities in the status and size of professional organizations seem to mirror discrepancies in library developments in Europe. The bulk of its members comes from Northern Europe, in particular from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Especially in Scandinavian countries, the visibility of library associations is also ensured by the fact that some of them work as library staff trade unions. The objectives of library associations are more or less the same all over Europe. All of them promote librarianship by encouraging readership and looking after the interests of their members. Many of them are active in providing training programmes, in promoting staff exchanges, in organizing symposia and conferences, and in publishing journals and bulletins. Some publish extensively in library science and lobby for librarians’ interests within national parliaments. Only a few contribute to fix minimal standards for library education and assess governmental policies for libraries. Though similar in the objectives they pursue, the structure and size of library associations differ

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greatly in Europe, and not only because of regional disparities. For a country with a strong tradition of regionalism and particularism, it is remarkable that the Italian library association managed to maintain its unity, thanks to a flexible structure and the creation of regional boards. Such an achievement was impossible in Spain, where library and information associations are fragmented by both regions and sectors of activity, although there has been an attempt to create an umbrella organization (FESABID). In Germany, four associations, divided both by sector (academic and public librarians) and by rank (librarians and sublibrarians) formed in 1989 the Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Bibliotheksverbände. Even in France, where centralism is (or has been) a national belief, the effort to keep librarians unified has been unsuccessful and the Association des Bibliothécaires Français (ABF) does not represent the whole of the French profession.

Conclusions Technological change, the ‘convergence’ phenomenon and electronic publishing are going to affect profoundly the prospects of libraries and documentation centres. However, rather than being sectorally oriented, their future will depend very much on how the chains of which they are essential links – the book and the information chains – evolve. In relation to the book chain, not many changes are to be expected. A long-established practice and well-settled distinction of roles between publishers, librarians and booksellers does not leave room for surprise. The European print industry is expected to grow from 18,500 million ecus to 27,200 million ecus for the year 2000 (European Communities, 1993). Libraries, therefore, have only to adapt themselves to the increased flow of printed material. Some issues at stake between publishers and librarians, like lending rights and copyright, may create matters of contention in some countries (see Chapters 23 and 26).

A trend, however, may be noted. By virtue of information technologies applied to networked libraries, the traditional frontiers among categories of libraries are now blurred. Since it is possible to disseminate information through all points of the network, users can access it from all service points. Library models, which are sectoral and based on the category of users they serve, therefore need fresh updating. In other words, the topical distinction between, say, a public and an academic library is starting to fade. In relation to the information chain, competencies normally used in libraries are now highly demanded. The convergence phenomenon has enlarged the range of actors working in the information sector and, therefore, increased the need for skills in information management. This will have opposite effects on libraries: on the one hand, it may incite former library users to leapfrog intermediate links and to go directly to the sources of information. On the other hand, it may cause libraries to acquire different functions in the new electronic environment and to ‘converge’ with other sectors of electronic publishing into new forms of information production and distribution. In general, there are two strategic roles that libraries can play in the information environment. The first role is to act as active agents in the information industry. Although it can be said that this is practically the old library work differently labelled, the difference lies in the fact that libraries act now as commercial agents. This has not only enriched library budgets, but has also transformed librarians’ work by making it more similar to that of information brokers. In a limited number of cases, the new electronic environment may encourage libraries to be producers of the information they (or their parent institution) own. This is already the case for libraries holding rare books and unique collections. But – and this may be an important effect of electronic publishing on libraries – academic libraries wishing to dissemi-

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nate the results of research undertaken by their parent institution into the vast ocean of the Internet may choose to be information producers by acting in practice as an academic press. It is an illusion, however, to think that 95,800 libraries in Europe can immediately turn into businesses and start to make profit. In fact – and this is the second major role played by libraries in the information environment – technological advances and electronic publishing will reinforce their cultural and educational mission. It is well known that, in addition to primary and functional illiteracy, computer illiteracy is going to widen the gap between favoured and less favoured regions and groups of populations in Europe. There is much evidence to suggest that in future the dual society will grow larger, and not become smaller. Many people were struck, I suppose, by the results of a recent investigation on adult illiteracy carried out by the OECD (1995). In contrast to the traditional means of assessment, adult illiteracy was not defined in terms of levels of education (completed number of years in primary and secondary school), but as a broad set of information-processing competencies; in other words, how adults use written information to function in society. It was a surprise to discover that in countries where literacy is considered to be high and there is a large percentage of people who have completed their first cycle of studies, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, from 6% to 14% of interviewees were unable to make any inference from the information presented in a weather chart, a newspaper or a diagram. In interacting with electronic publishing products, the general public will have to overcome one more barrier. In addition to the classical ‘three Rs’ competencies, reading, writing and arithmetic, they will have to use new kinds of literacy in society, such as visual and technological literacy. There is a need, therefore, to start a new literacy ‘movement’ – and impetus for it should be given now.

By the year 2000, between 8% and 18% of the European book market will be electronic, with peaks of 15% to 25% for children’s literature and 20% to 30% for scientific, technical and medical literature (European Communities, 1993). Libraries will have to carry, within the educational system, the great responsibility of raising the overall levels of literacy and of reducing cultural gaps between groups of populations. They will have to be the essential liaison between users, who will inevitably be more illiterate, and knowledge, that will inevitably be more redundant and therefore more complicated to access. They will have to be prepared to cope with printed, online and offline products distributed through a great variety of channels and carriers. While their functions and tasks may change, their ultimate mission will have to be more than ever cultural and educational. This is a further confirmation of the accuracy of the statement made in the UNESCO-IFLA Public Library Manifesto, in which libraries are considered to be ‘a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision-making and cultural development of the individual and social groups’. ■■

References ANCILLANI, G. 1992. Il mercato del libro. Le prospettive dell’editoria nel Mercato Unico Europeo. Perugia, Protagon. BRITISH LIBRARY. 1992. Nineteenth Annual Report 1991–92. London, British Library Board. ——. 1994. Twenty-first Annual Report 1993–94. London, British Library Board. EUROPEAN COMMISSION. 1995. Library Economics in Europe. An Update – 1981–1990. By Phillip Ramsdale. Luxembourg, Directorate General XIII – Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research. (EUR 15903EN.) EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES. COMMISSION. 1993. Opportunities for Publishers in the Information Market. Luxembourg, Directorate-General of Information Technologies and Industries and Telecommunications. (EN 114926.)

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GATTÉGNO, J. 1994. UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. Libri, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 164–70. IFLA. 1990. Information Technology Content of Initial Professional Education and Training for Librarianship in the European Community. By Jan van der Starre. Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute of Polytechnics, Faculty of Information and Communication. JACQUESSON, A. 1995. L’informatisation des bibliothéques. Historique, stratégie et perspectives. 2nd ed. Paris, Éditions du Cercle de la Librairie. LINE, M. B. 1989. National Library and Information Needs: Alternative Means of Fulfilment, with Special Reference to the Role of National Libraries. Paris, UNESCO. ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)/MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY, CANADA. 1995. Literacy, Economy and Society. Results of the First International Adult Illiteracy Survey. Paris, OECD. POULAIN, M. (ed.). 1992. Les bibliothéques publiques en Europe. Paris, Éditions du Cercle de la Librarie. RENOULT, D. (ed.). 1994. Les bibliothèques dans l’université. Paris, Éditions du Cercle de la Librarie. SYLVESTRE, G. 1987. Guidelines for National Libraries. Paris, UNESCO. UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS X – MÉDIADIX. 1995. Premier recensement des métiers des bibliothèques. Edited by Anne Kupiek. Paris, Université de Paris X.

Giuseppe Vitiello is in charge of the ‘Books and Archives’ Programme of the Council of Europe and is Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft in Stuttgart, Germany. After working as Professor of Italian and Linguistics, respectively, at the Universities of Toulouse and Orléans, he joined the National Library of Florence where he was Assistant to the Director and Head of the R&D Department. From 1989 to 1991 he worked for DG XIII of the European Commission as expert for the Libraries Programme. He has been consultant for various firms and for the Portuguese Government. In the field of library and information science, his publications include, among others, Il centro bibliografico nazionale (Rome, 1988), Il deposito legale nell’Europa comunitaria (Milano, 1994) and Le biblioteche europee nella prospettiva comparata (Ravenna, 1996).

Giuseppe Vitiello Special Adviser, Books and Archives Council of Europe F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex France Tel: 88-41-20-00 Fax: 88-41-27-81/82/83 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 7 Canada and the U n i t e d S t a t e s* Carole R. Moore University of Toronto, Canada

Peter I. Hajnal University of Toronto, Canada

Ralph W. Manning National Library of Canada, Canada

C

anada and the United States both have a long and honourable tradition of library and information service to the public as well as to a wider constituency of institutions and other groups. This chapter is a brief survey of public libraries, school libraries, college and university libraries, special libraries and information services, commercial services, national libraries and national scientific and technical information units, professional associations, educational and training institutions and programmes, library legislation, and information and communications policy in the two countries, highlighting current status, recent developments and trends.

Public libraries The 1995–96 edition of the American Library Directory counts 9,101 public libraries in the United States; when branches are included for those public libraries that have a branch system, the figure rises to 15,273. These public libraries serve a potential population of 247,527,000, leaving only 6,288,000 unserved. Maine and New Mexico have the highest percentages (24.2% and 37.3% respectively) unserved. The 1996 Directory of Libraries in Canada reports 2,463 public libraries in Canada, including branches. These libraries potentially serve 25,454,000 Canadians, leaving 1,434,000 unserved (1991 Census). Manitoba is the province with the highest percentage (25.4%) unserved. In the United States an increasing number of librarians have come to realize that the most recent period of fiscal conservatism is not the downside of a finite economic cycle but rather the new economic reality (St Lifer, 1995). Yet public libraries have been able to achieve a positive record: over a five-year period since the beginning of fiscal restraint in 1990–91, 85% of public libraries responding to a * The authors gratefully acknowledge research assistance ably provided by Gillian Clinton.

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Library Journal survey reported budget increases averaging 7% annually, with materials budgets increasing by 8% and salaries by 7% per year. Staff increases were reported by 27% of responding public libraries, while 10% suffered cuts. The latest figures of funding sources for American public libraries, reported in the 1995 edition of The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, were: local resources, 47.46%; county resources, 29.42%; state resources, 13.3%; fees and fines, 3.1%; fundraising, 1.07%; federal funding, 1.4%; and the remainder from other varied sources. At a time of decreasing government funding, public libraries have had to find other means of support. In Canada, for example, the Vancouver Public Library has built partnerships with the corporate sector, and the Regina (Saskatchewan) Public Library and the Thunder Bay (Ontario) Public Library have launched fee-based research services (Haycock and Brigham, 1996).

School libraries The Bowker Annual (1995) reports that the latest United States budget failed to provide earmarked funds for school library materials in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, nor did it fund the Library Services and Construction Act even at the previous year’s level. In Canada, the government is implementing a strategy to expedite the creation of information highway infrastructure and content in Canadian schools (see Chapter 21). By 1995, over 6,000 of Canada’s 16,500 schools were connected to the Internet, as are over 100 of the 400 First Nations schools. School libraries tend to be focal points in this area. On the other hand, the proliferation of information technology in schools has often occurred apart from existing school library resource centres and school librarians. This has at times led to a lack of understanding by school boards and other decision-makers of the role of teacher-librarians, and

a parallel development of insufficient participation by teacher-librarians in ‘mainstream’ librarianship (Haycock and Brigham, 1996).

College and university libraries There are 4,684 academic libraries in the United States, of which 1,261 are junior college libraries (including 107 departmental, seven medical and three religious libraries) and 3,423 university and college libraries (including 1,482 departmental, 176 law, 210 medical and 105 religious libraries). According to the American Library Directory (1995–96), Canada has 503 academic libraries, of which 137 are junior college libraries (including forty-three departmental, one medical and three religious ones) and 366 university and college libraries (including 175 departmental, eighteen law, sixteen medical and eighteen religious libraries). The Directory of Libraries in Canada (1996) reports 700 college and university libraries. In an environment of ever-shrinking budgets and consequent cuts in staffing and services, resource-sharing and networking have become essential. In Canada, three southern Ontario universities (Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo) have agreed to co-ordinate their collections and services, emphasizing electronic information resources. The University of British Columbia is expanding resourcesharing in the life sciences with academic libraries in the north-western United States. Another response to reduced collection budgets has been the cancellation, often on a massive scale and on a regular basis, of serial subscriptions (Haycock and Brigham, 1996). Because of Canada’s immense size and relatively small population, Canadian libraries have also responded to the needs of students in areas of low population density by providing distance education programmes, increasingly through television broadcasts or through the Internet. Examples of libraries serving universities which support only distance

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education are Athabasca University in Alberta, Télé Université in Quebec and the Open Learning Agency in British Columbia.

Special libraries and information services The 1996 edition of the Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers lists over 18,000 special libraries in the United States and Canada. Reflecting differences in data collection and presentation, the American Library Directory (1995–96) shows 11,280 special libraries (including armed forces and governmental libraries, as well as special libraries that are academic or public) in the United States, and 1,524 special libraries (including public, academic and governmental ones) in Canada. The Directory of Libraries in Canada (1996) identifies 2,403 special libraries, of which 746 are governmental. Rising costs and shrinking budgets, particularly within the public sector, have caused many organizations to re-evaluate their information requirements. The result has been a reduction in the number of special and government libraries through closures and mergers. This has often precipitated increased information requests from the surviving agencies. Another response has been greater resource-sharing than before. In Canada, there is a trend to distribute government information on a cost-recovery basis, and the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services has begun formulating information policies and standards for special libraries (Haycock and Brigham, 1996).

Commercial services and products The FISCAL Directory of Fee-based Research and Document Supply Services (1993) lists 445 fee-based services provided by major research universities, special and public libraries and commercial firms worldwide, including about 330 in the United States and fifteen in Canada. Increasing numbers of highly qualified librarians, architects, library planners and other information specialists are available as private

contractors for the information sector. The 1994 Directory of Canadian Library and Information Science Consultants lists 175 consultants working in specialties ranging from cataloguing and indexing to database design, editing, records management and library administration.

National libraries and national scientific and technical information units The Library of Congress, the world’s largest library, serves the research needs of the United States Congress (notably through the Congressional Research Service), other branches of the United States Government, and libraries and the scholarly community in the United States and in all parts of the world. In 1994, the Library of Congress responded to over 1.4 million reference queries and requests for research assistance, accommodated 800,865 visitors and users of the collections, and provided 36,000 free interlibrary loans within the United States. It has made progress in developing the National Digital Library, aiming through a coalition of major institutions to digitize 5 million images by the year 2000. Other important projects involve preservation of library materials, the provision of online resources to the Congressional Research Service, and the Center for the Book, and a very active publication programme. The National Agricultural Library, although slated to merge into the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, will remain the national library in its field. The National Library of Medicine, serving the health sciences community, has expanded its online service, MEDLINE, and continues to create new databases and maintain its major publications programme. The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – the research arm of the United States Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research – and the recently established National Library of Education serve national needs in their

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sector. The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is the central resource for scientific, technical, engineering and business-related United States Government information. The National Library of Canada was established in 1953 and is governed by Canadian federal legislation. Its role is to preserve Canada’s published heritage and promote Canadian studies, to foster the development of library resources and services throughout the country, and to support resourcesharing on a national scale. The National Librarian co-ordinates federal government library services and administers the legal deposit regulations which require that two copies of current Canadian publications be deposited with the library. The library acquires, maintains and preserves a comprehensive collection of Canadian materials with special emphasis on Canadian history, Canadian music and music in Canada, children’s literature, and rich collections of newspapers and government documents. The library publishes the national bibliography, Canadiana, which lists new publications relating to Canada; maintains and makes available union catalogues of books, periodicals, newspapers and special-format materials for disabled readers; offers interlibrary loan, reference and advisory services to libraries and to researchers; and supports the application of technological advances to library systems. The research needs of the Parliament of Canada are provided by the Library of Parliament, which is distinct from the National Library of Canada. Established in 1841, the size and quality of its collections make it one of the most important libraries in Canada. Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) – for eighty years the principal science and technology research agency of the Canadian Federal Government – performs and supports research across the country, and assists thousands of clients every year through the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), the Industrial

Research Assistance Program and the Canadian Technology Network. NRC provides worldwide scientific, technical and medical information through CISTI. CISTI operates a range of services that rely on the expertise of information specialists, and maintains one of the largest collections of published information in science, technology, engineering and medicine in North America. CISTI’s new search engine accesses all NRC Web servers and more than 14,000 documents. CISTI publishes a listing of the scientific and technical serials in over 300 Canadian libraries: the Union List of Scientific Serials in Canadian Libraries, which is available in print and on CD-ROM (Romulus). A medical subset of the Union List, Canadian Locations of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE, is published annually. CISTI also offers information service packages, tailored to clients’ needs.

Professional associations in library and information science The 1996 edition of the Encyclopedia of Associations lists 101 library-related associations in North America. The foremost United States national association is the American Library Association (ALA), which has eleven divisions devoted to special functions or types of libraries. Founded in 1876, ALA had, as of 1 August 1995, 2,780 organizational and 53,664 personal members. The association’s current budget is US$31,597,153. There are also many specialized associations outside ALA, covering law, medicine, music and numerous other fields, as well as a variety of networks, consortia, and state and regional associations. There are more than 200 professional associations in library and information science in Canada. The most important ones are the Canadian Library Association (CLA) – with 4,000 individual and 900 organizational members, and an annual operating budget of about C$1.5 million – and its francophone counterpart, the Association pour l’Avancement des

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Sciences et des Techniques de la Documentation (ASTED). In addition, there are provincial associations such as the British Columbia Library Association, the Ontario Library Association and the Association des Bibliothécaires du Québec. School librarians have the Canadian School Library Association (a division of CLA) and the independent Association for Teacher-librarianship in Canada. For special libraries there is the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services (a division of CLA) as well as associations focused on a particular sector, such as the Canadian Health Libraries Association and the Canadian Association of Law Libraries. Academic library associations include the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries (a division of CLA), the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and the Canadian Association of Small University Libraries, among others.

taining to: (1) mission, goals and objectives; (2) curriculum; (3) faculty; (4) students; (5) administration and financial support; and (6) physical resources and facilities. The standards stress innovation, and encourage an active role and concern for future developments and growth in the field. The ALISE Library and Information Science Education Statistical Report for 1995 – which publishes data for United States and Canadian institutions – shows, for the two countries, 3,783 ALAaccredited Master’s degrees awarded to women and 1,022 to men in 1993–94; in the same academic year, 35 doctoral degrees and 99 Bachelor’s degrees were awarded to women, and 13 doctoral degrees and 120 Bachelor’s degrees to men. The corresponding figures for 1983–84 were: 2,942 Master’s degrees for women and 732 for men; 44 doctoral degrees for women and 36 for men; and 56 Bachelor’s degrees for women and 8 for men.

Educational and training institutions and programmes

Library legislation

The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac (1995) refers to more than 200 academic institutions in North America offering programmes in librarianship. The 1995–96 Directory of the Association for Library and Information Science Education lists fifty-seven graduate schools of library and information science – fifty in the United States and seven in Canada (as compared to fiftynine and seven, respectively, in 1985) with programmes accredited by ALA. Accreditation assures the educational community, the general public, and other agencies or organizations that an institution or programme: (a) has clearly defined and educationally appropriate objectives; (b) maintains conditions under which their achievement can reasonably be expected; (c) is, in fact, accomplishing them substantially; and (d) can be expected to do so. Reviewed every seven years, programmes are evaluated on the basis of six standards (revised 1992) specifically per-

In the United States a very important piece of legislation in 1994 authorized assistance to media resources in school libraries: P.L. 103–382 was signed by President Clinton on 20 October of that year. In its budget for fiscal year 1995, the Clinton administration requested $83,277,000 for public library services under the Library Services and Construction Act, Title I, and $19.7 million for interlibrary co-operation under Title III of the same Act. Zero funding was recommended for all other library programmes under the Act (public library construction, foreign-language materials and library literacy programmes). Noteworthy among other United States legislative concerns was a recommendation by ALA that Congress enact a law on a National Commission on New Technological Uses. In the area of United States government information, P.L. 103–40, the GPO (Government Printing Office) Information Access Enhancement Act was especially important. A five-year re-authorization of the Paperwork

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Reduction Act was not enacted by the House of Representatives (Henderson, 1995). In the realm of copyright – of major importance to libraries – the Copyright Reform Act of 1993 was not passed by the United States Congress (Platt, 1995). Canada is a federal state comprising ten provinces – each with its own legislature, executive and judiciary – and two territories. Culture and education are within the purview of the provincial governments or territorial administrations; legislation concerning libraries is therefore decentralized among these governments. Most provinces have provincial library services, and every province and territory has a centralized agency administering its own jurisdiction’s public library statute. On a national scale, the key pieces of legislation affecting libraries deal with the National Library of Canada and with copyright. In May 1995 an amendment to the legal deposit provisions in the National Library Act came into effect, eliminating the exception that had allowed publishers to deposit only one copy of a publication instead of the usual two copies if the retail price exceeded C$50. Other amendments to the Act increased the maximum fine for failure to comply with the legal deposit provisions, and extended the application of the statutory provisions to include federal government publications. The National Library Book Deposit Regulations were revised as well, introducing new exemption criteria for deposit. In May 1996 the government tabled a bill in Parliament to amend the Canadian Copyright Act. The proposed amendments include exceptions for libraries that would permit copying for purposes of preservation and would allow making a single copy of a periodical article for a library patron intending to use the article for research or private study.

Information and communications policy The United States National Information Infrastructure (NII), promoted by the Clinton-Gore

administration from the very beginning of its term, embraces a wide spectrum of information and communications: ‘people [who] create, publish, organize, preserve, manage and use information . . . ; information content . . . ; hardware and other physical components . . . ; software and news groups . . . ; standards, codes, regulations, and other policies . . . ’ (Bearman and Wallace, 1995). NII is built on the following principles and goals: promote private sector investment; extend the ‘universal service’ concept; be a catalyst to promote technological innovation and new applications; promote seamless, interactive, user-driven operation; ensure information security and network reliability; improve management of the radio frequency spectrum; protect intellectual property rights; co-ordinate with other levels of government and with other nations; and provide access to government information and improve government procurement. To implement NII, the United States Government has established an interagency Information Infrastructure Task Force, appointed a private-sector Advisory Council on the NII, and decided to strengthen and streamline federal communications and information policy-making agencies (see Chapter 21). Canadian Federal Government information policy is articulated in a set of legislation and policies which cover the following areas: security, access to information, privacy, management of government information holdings, communications, federal identity and management of information technology. The federal Depository Services Program ensures availability of government publications to the public through a network of full and selective depository libraries. The Blueprint for Renewing Government Services Using Information Technology, issued in March 1994, outlines the government’s strategy for moving toward electronic delivery of information and services. Canadian governments, both at the federal and the provincial levels, have adopted strategies con-

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cerning the information highway. The federal government’s Information Highway Advisory Council submitted its final report, entitled Connection, Community, Content: The Challenge of the Information Highway, in September 1995 (see Chapter 21). The Stentor Alliance, a group representing Canada’s major telephone and telecommunication companies, has supported the Council’s recommendations, but negotiations which will affect Canadian libraries must still take place. CLA and ASTED have called for as many groups as possible to have a voice in policy-making in order for Canadians to benefit from the information highway (Haycock and Brigham, 1996).

Concluding remarks Libraries and information services in North America are well developed at every level. Despite the inevitable vicissitudes in levels of financial support due to changing economic circumstances, libraries enjoy widespread support in both public and private sectors. The public library infrastructure represents a key component in the provision of equitable access to information and the continuing development of an informed citizenry. An array of new and old private libraries and information services continues to develop valued services in an era in which locating relevant information efficiently is more important than ever. North American libraries in all sectors face enormous changes arising from the revolution in information technology, occurring in an environment of severe economic constraint. A number of trends have emerged as libraries adapt to these challenges. Downsizing has led to increasing coordination and resource-sharing among libraries. Streamlining of acquisitions and technical processing activities, and increasing focus on public service activities, is apparent in nearly all institutions. Further development of consortia is evident and

many such new organizations are emerging, for example the Consortium for the Preservation and Enhanced Use of Canada’s Audio-Visual Heritage and the National Digital Library Federation (United States). Coming to grips with the emerging ‘digital library’ is a current concern in all areas of librarianship and information service. At present, libraries are frequently acting in the role of gatekeepers for the Internet, and librarians are serving as information specialists in assisting their clientele to locate critical information and in educating users to find information themselves. Gradually, libraries and archives are expected to integrate digital information fully into their traditional preservation and access activities, so that they can prepare for the twenty-first century with confidence. ■■

References BEARMAN, T. C.; WALLACE, D. A. 1995. National Information Infrastructure. In: The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1995, 40th ed., pp. 65–9. New Providence, N.J., Bowker. HAYCOCK, K.; BRIGHAM, D. 1996. Trends and Issues in Library and Information Services in Canada, 1995. In: The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1996, 41st ed., pp. 267–71. New Providence, N.J., Bowker. HENDERSON, C. C. 1995. Legislation and Regulations Affecting Libraries in 1994. In: The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1995, 40th ed., pp. 251–66. New Providence, N.J., Bowker. PLATT, J. 1995. Legislation and Regulations Affecting Publishing in 1994. In: The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1995, 40th ed. New Providence, N.J., Bowker. ST LIFER E. 1995. LJ News Report: Public Libraries Meet Fiscal Reality Head On. In: The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1995, 40th ed., pp. 3–10. New Providence, N.J., Bowker.

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Carole Moore has served as Chief

Peter I. Hajnal is International

Librarian at the University of Toronto

Organizations and Government

since 1986, where she recently chaired

Information Specialist in the

the Provost’s Task Force on the

University of Toronto Library and

Electronic Library System. Her

Adjunct Professor at the University’s

professional interests include using digital methods to

Faculty of Information Studies, where he teaches

preserve and disseminate our intellectual heritage. She

graduate courses in government information and

has served as President of the Canadian Association of

international documentation. He is also co-director of

Research Libraries, and is currently on the Board of

the University’s G7 Summit Research Group. He

Directors of the University of Toronto Press, the

holds and MS(LS) honours degree from Columbia

Association of Research Libraries and the Research

University and has pursued graduate studies in

Libraries Group. She has also served on the National

international relations. He has written, edited or

Library of Canada Advisory Board and received the

published a number of books, articles, bibliographies

Columbia University School of Library Service

and reviews, mostly in the field of international

Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987. She received

organization documentation and information,

and AB from Stanford University and an MS from

including the United Nations system. He has been a

Columbia University.

member of the editorial boards of specialized reviews in this field.

Carole R. Moore Chief Librarian

Peter I. Hajnal

University of Toronto Library

International Organizations and

130 St George Street

Government Information Specialist

Toronto

University of Toronto Library

Ontario M5S 1A1

130 St George Street

Canada

Toronto

Tel: 416-978-2292

Ontario M5S 1A1

Fax: 416-971-2099

Canada

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: 416-978-4825 Fax: 416-978-7653

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Ralph W. Manning is Heritage Officer (National and International Programs) at the National Library of Canada. He holds a BA from the University of Toronto, an MA from Carleton University and an MLS from the University of Western Ontario. He chaired the Task Force on Canadian Library Statistics in 1987/88 and is responsible for the National Core Library Statistics Program now being undertaken by the National Library of Canada. Mr Manning is active in the international cataloguing community and is Chairman of the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR. He is also a member of the IFLA Professional Board. One of Mr Manning’s key activities at present is the co-ordination of national and international activities in the area of preservation of library materials.

Ralph W. Manning Heritage Officer National and International Programs National Library of Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa Ontario K1A 0N4 Canada Tel: 613-943-8570 Fax: 613-947-2916 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 8 Latin America and the Caribbean Estela Morales Campos Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

T

he term Latin America conventionally designates an ensemble of eighteen countries, seventeen of them Spanish-speaking (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and one Portuguese-speaking country (Brazil). The Caribbean, sometimes also called the Antilles or West Indies, is made up of independent countries as well as several islands that are part of European countries or the United States. Some are English-speaking (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos); some Frenchspeaking (French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Haiti and Martinique); and some Dutch-speaking (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Suriname). The term Spanish Caribbean includes Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, which are geographically part of this ensemble of islands. The region has undergone a great many processes of synthesis, aggregation and amalgamation, and its identity is the result of the joint participation of indigenous, European and African cultures. During the colonial period, library practice naturally enough followed the model of the respective parent country: Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France or the Netherlands. At a later stage, Latin America and the Caribbean opened up to exchanges with countless other countries, although the original five came well to the fore. Library development is uneven in the region, and within each country there may be excellent services and access to the most sophisticated technology in some places, and shortcomings and even a total lack of basic library services in others. However, in general there has been considerable progress as well as an increasing participation at the international level, where the region has established its own identity and

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shown it has its own approach and can find its own solutions.

Public libraries Just as librarianship in general is in search of its own distinctive personality, there is a need in Latin America to clarify some specific aspects, and the concept of the public library is one example. Some countries, for instance, include even the national library within the definition of a public library on account of its being open to the general public, children and adults alike. Other countries may include school libraries. In still others we find a form of public library known as the popular library, which often seeks new ways of serving the least privileged sectors, generally with assistance from the community, non-governmental organizations or the state itself. There are also instances of rural libraries. Brazil exemplifies the first approach, Mexico the second, Argentina the third and Guyana the fourth. These libraries need to cater for the urban and the rural reader, and for the privileged and the marginalized reader. They must also cater for ethnic groups disregarded for long years but now given clear priority by reason both of their numbers and of the cultural wealth they contribute to the countries themselves, examples being Peru, Mexico and Guatemala. These countries and others face the challenge of offering library services to indigenous populations with their own interests and languages distinct from Spanish or Portuguese. Bilingual personnel are therefore being trained and collections being formed to meet this challenge. Some projects under way support the production of books in indigenous languages, both of a general kind and with the specific purpose of rescuing traditions. Examples are to be found in Venezuela, with the project ‘Caring for Indigenous Communities through Public Library Services’, and in Mexico with ‘La Semilla’ (the seed), a project of the National Indigenous

Affairs Institute. Both involve the publication of bilingual children’s works in the indigenous language and in Spanish. The public libraries are likewise beginning to offer services appropriate for immigrant ethnic minorities and in areas where various cultures converge, within a process of cultural integration which respects their individuality. Public libraries are places where the need to respect the diversity of information and of users is most clearly seen. Since public libraries belong mostly to the state, they are institutions where reading can take place on a democratic basis. In addition to the basic services on offer in all public libraries, special interest is shown in children as representing the future of each country. Children are encouraged to develop reading habits and are given assistance with homework. More specifically, children are given access to benefits that in most cases neither the home nor the elementary school can offer, such as computer workshops in Mexico. There is much concern to develop children’s collections in line with the interests of each locality. The Book Bank of Venezuela, for example, has spent many years researching and implementing reading promotion programmes and assisting in the publication of high-quality children’s books, backed by serious research into literary, community and publishing aspects. Other examples of special public library services are the community aid and information centres in Venezuela and Colombia, and the services for the blind in Jamaica and Cuba. In general, a great deal of interest is taken in rescuing the cultural identity of communities and taking library services to areas that are economically depressed and isolated for geographical or sociocultural reasons, with the support of mobile libraries or travelling kits. In the Caribbean, the public library uses mobile libraries to reach more inhabitants, operating from a central base with various service units. Noteworthy for its collections and the modern style of its building, and also the priority it gives to

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children and young people, is the Philipsburg Jubilee Library of Sint Maarten, computerized and with seventy-three years of service to the public behind it and an ambitious development programme up to the year 2023.

School libraries The development of both public and school libraries is closely tied to the economic and educational development of the countries, and the level of investment made in basic education. There are relatively few school libraries in the region and many of their functions are performed by the children’s rooms in public libraries. Surveys often present very high figures for school libraries. It is worth noting, however, that in most cases the reference is to classrooms that have been converted into group reading rooms, or little reading corners in the classroom with a few books. Estimates of such reading range from around 14,000 to almost 50,000 in Brazil, and from almost 4,000 to 10,000 in Mexico. There are in fact few fully structured school libraries, though Colombia, Costa Rica and Cuba, for example, make their school libraries an integral part of their education systems. These libraries may be staffed by a librarian or a teacher with a qualification in librarianship, or sometimes by a teacher with no specialized training. In Colombia the person in charge is a teacher-librarian; Costa Rica has librarians and teachers; Cuba has librarians; and in Brazil, although statutory provision is made for a librarian, often a teacher is in fact doing the work. Some networks of school libraries complete their coverage by means of travelling kits or mobile collections serving very remote or sparsely populated areas; or one library can serve two or three nearby schools, as in Cuba, Colombia and Brazil. School libraries in countries like Barbados, Belize, Guyana and Jamaica operate on something very like the British model, the aim being for each school to have its own library; where this is not pos-

sible, a mobile library operates from a central unit catering for a larger number of pupils. The ‘library corner’ formula is also to be found in primary schools.

National libraries Since 1988 the national libraries of the region have been working on a collegial basis with Spain and Portugal in the Association of National Libraries of Ibero-America (ABINIA), in which eighteen countries of Latin America, including three from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, are represented: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The association has held six assemblies to plan a variety of useful co-operative projects that have already produced highly valuable items both for libraries themselves and for researchers. One example is the CD-ROM Catálogo colectivo de fondo antiguo siglos XV–XIX (Union Catalogue of Antiquarian Collections from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries), which contains the bibliographic records of monographs printed up to 1900 based on information provided by national libraries, including those of Spain and Portugal. Another significant item is the book, Historia de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica: pasado y presente (History of the National Libraries of IberoAmerica: Past and Present). Both publications came out in 1995. Noteworthy among the projects under way are ‘The Latin American Press in the Nineteenth Century’ and participation in UNESCO’s Memory of the World project. The national libraries now have their respective legal deposit laws, though this is not the only manner of acquisition, since material may be received through purchase, exchange or donation. The national bibliography is the main means of informing the public of their collections. The national

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bibliographies of Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela are kept up to date. Venezuela and Mexico, for their part, are already preparing CD-ROM editions; however, there are countries whose national bibliographies, despite a great deal of effort, are out of date. As regards computerization, almost all use the CALCO (Catalogacaõ Legivel en Computador) format, designed by Brazilian librarians and based on MARC II. Internationally available commercial software is used, such as NOTIS in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Chile, Dynix in Mexico, and CDS-ISIS in small libraries and individual projects. The independent countries of the Caribbean have used as a reference the recommendations of the National Information System (NATIS) and UNISIST in the national planning of their library services, establishing National Councils on Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (NACOLAND) in Barbados and Jamaica, for example, where the national library plays a preponderant role.

University libraries These are often the best endowed in terms of budget, professional staff and technological infrastructure, which enables them to offer better information services for students and teachers. In many cases the libraries of the various faculties and campuses are coordinated by a central unit. Some of their procedures are centralized and use computer programs, sometimes developed individually. In other instances use is made in large universities of internationally available software such as Dynix, TINLIB and Aleph. The small universities have adapted Micro-ISIS for library operations. This has made it possible to compile union catalogues of monographs, periodical publications, theses and both online and CD-ROM databases of various types of collections. Much work has been done to co-ordinate these libraries through national systems, networks or authorities, examples

being the National Network of University Libraries (RENBU) and the Board of Argentine University Libraries ( JUBIUNA); the National Plan of University Libraries, which operated from 1986 to 1991, and the Brazilian Commission of University Libraries; the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education (ICFES); the National University Network of Chile; the Inter-University Library Co-operation Committee (CCBU) of Guatemala. The Ministries of Education and the Directorate for Information of the Ministry of Higher Education of Cuba and the Office of the Under-Secretary for Higher Education, and the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES) of Mexico also participated in this work. Noteworthy for the significance of their education and research programmes, for the number of students and programmes involved and for their influence in their countries and in the region are the Autonomous National University of Mexico (143 libraries) and the University of São Paulo (38 libraries), Brazil, whose library systems are very important in terms both of librarianship achievements and of co-operative developments for the benefit of information users in the area and for those studying Latin America from outside the region. They offer databases and catalogues on paper, CDROM, online or as Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs), with representative literature of the region as well as all kinds of printed, audiovisual and electronic material from elsewhere. Many Latin American universities take a leading role in their geographical area. They have been pioneers in the integration and individual development of technologies that have brought users into contact with information either on-site or around the world by means of telecommunications, particularly the Internet, gophers and the World Wide Web. These universities include the University of Chile, the Catholic Universities of Chile and Peru, and the University of

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Antioquia and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, both in Colombia. The University of the West Indies (UWI), in the Caribbean, has the most prominent group of libraries of this kind; the main library was established in 1963, in Mona, Jamaica, and there are branches in each of the various university regional headquarters.

Special libraries The situation of special libraries regarding budgets, human resources, technological infrastructure and services is very satisfactory. These libraries adapt most rapidly to change and to a commercial environment, with marketing strategies and self-financing of some activities. Some subject sectors – agriculture, medicine, science and petroleum – stand out on account of their national and regional organization, based on co-operative projects for the benefit of local users, Latin Americans and users in other regions. The agricultural sector, its associated areas and the Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists (AIBDA), with head offices in Costa Rica, are working in a co-ordinated and co-operative manner on databases of broad international coverage in which Latin America and the Caribbean are participating, such as the InterAmerican Information System for Agricultural Science (AGRINTER), now on CD-ROM. They also contribute to the International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS), and offer distance courses in collaboration with various headquarters institutions, producing instructional aids co-published by AIBDA and the University of Brasilia. Another example is the Caribbean Information System for the Agricultural Sciences (CAGRIS), which operates from UWI in Trinidad, and interacts with the libraries of the agricultural organizations of the member countries of the Caribbean community. Equally important is the

Information Network of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, also with its headquarters in Trinidad. The medical sector has seen the development of an extensive Regional Health System closely associated with the Regional Library of Medicine (BIREME), now known as the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences and Information Center, which has its headquarters in Brazil, and in co-operation with other countries produces a CD-ROM database of Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS). Work has also proceeded on the Latin American Index Medicus (Imla), a subset of the MEDLINE database. In 1994 BIREME published, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the first edition of the CD-ROM Red de Redes (network of networks), listing Latin American databases supporting development in farming and biotechnology, banking and finance, social sciences, economics and reform of the state, education, and child and family matters. Besides co-operating in BIREME, the Caribbean countries produce Medical Caribbean: An Index to Caribbean Health Science Literature. An area that has come in for special attention is science and technology, with the advent of CONACYTS or CONICYTS (national councils or commissions of research in science and technology). These authorities have set up libraries at their own headquarters or in research centres, as in the case of Chile and Costa Rica, which have a unit in the CONICYT itself. Information services are also offered by the Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute (IVIC) and the Institute of Documentation and Information in Science and Technology (IDICT) of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, which plays a key role in the use of information technologies, in providing refresher training for library staff and in the sale of services. Another field well catered for is petroleum, where INTEVEP of Venezuela, PEMEX

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of Mexico and PETROBAS of Brazil are prominent. The Industrial Information Centre (CIIN) of Costa Rica is concerned with industrial activity in general. A distinguished and long-standing role has been played by the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology Information (IBICT), founded in 1954, which provides services and back-up products for the scientific community using a variety of local and international databases, and the technological and telecommunication support required for present-day information services.

Human resources Library services in the region have not always been well endowed with qualified professional human resources, though the last two decades have been marked by significant progress both in university education and in training and retraining in all areas of librarianship and information technology. Library schools have made several attempts to study in a coordinated way such aspects as: the duration of university courses; delimitation of areas of study in librarianship, documentation, information science and information studies; identification of core courses and their subject-matter; the general approach regarding specialization, and the identification of the major areas of study, with growing emphasis on management, technologies and research; the relationship between curricula and the labour market; the predominance of sessional (parttime) teachers over full-time teachers; and the inadequate technological infrastructure and scarcity of highly specialized laboratories belonging to the organization concerned. Since 1993, and with partial UNESCO support, several meetings of Latin American library and information science educators have been held. They revisited many of the problems previously identified at other meetings convened by international agencies and by the Latin American Association of Librarianship and Information Science Schools (ALEBCI),

such as teaching personnel, inadequate library collections in the schools concerned and the need for regional co-operation. They also explored the possibility of distance education, the development of databases on librarianship literature produced in the region, and the use of such technological media as the Internet to promote inter-school communication. Outstanding countries in this area are Brazil, for its tradition of quality, the large number of schools with postgraduate, special-subject, Master’s and doctoral programmes, and the emphasis placed on research and scientific information programmes; and Cuba, for its education outside of regular university programmes and distance education efforts. In general, all countries agreed on the need for highquality university education and, in particular, the establishment of postgraduate courses. A few countries have no library schools but are planning training programmes, together with fellowship schemes for training abroad. All the countries organize continuing education courses in order to keep staff up to date with the evolution of library requirements. Such programmes are not always organized under the auspices of the schools, but jointly by professional associations concerned with general and specific education, the leading libraries of the country, library suppliers, international agencies and, to a much lesser extent, private agencies. In the non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean, education programmes are in general dependent on the respective parent countries or countries of economic and cultural influence, such as the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. However, there are programmes peculiar to the region that play a strategic role in the local development of librarianship. In some cases, only technical courses are available, such as the short courses organized by the Association of Librarians of Martinique and Guadeloupe in Fort de France. In others there is a very full array of graduate programmes, technical courses and a diploma for teacher-librarians, as in the case of Jamaica, which,

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through UWI and its Department of Library Studies, offers these opportunities not only to the English-speaking Caribbean but to the whole region. Continuing education, as in Latin America, is promoted by the university itself, the Caribbean Association of University and Research Libraries (ACURIL), and metropolitan and international agencies.

Research In recent years special importance has been given to promoting librarianship research in order to support education and assist in understanding universal and local phenomena, offering individual solutions appropriate to the situation and infrastructure of each particular environment. Many of the countries have begun tentative research through graduate theses; others, the minority, have established institutions for this purpose or have provided facilities in schools or major libraries for studying various aspects of the discipline, all offering worthwhile contributions to Latin American librarianship. Countries that have invested substantially in research include Argentina, which at the University of Buenos Aires has a research programme in its Librarianship Research Centre (CIB); Brazil, which has high-level research and teaching programmes at the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology Information (IBICT); Colombia, which operates the Research Centre (CI) at the Inter-American School of Librarianship; Costa Rica, with the Research Unit of the University of Costa Rica; Cuba, which has provided facilities in the José Martí National Library and in the Institute of Documentation and Information in Science and Technology (IDICT); Mexico, where the National University has established a University Librarianship Research Centre (CUIB); and Venezuela, with the Library and Archives Research Centre of the National Library Autonomous Institute and the Information Science Research and Development Centre (CIDECI) of the

Central University. CIB and CUIB are entirely devoted to research and their projects have been notable successes; CUIB also plays an important part in human resource training for research and in the production of librarianship literature in Spanish. In the Caribbean, particularly the Englishspeaking part, research programmes are getting under way with support from UWI, the Association of Librarians, the Jamaica Library Service and the National Council of Libraries, Archives and Documentation Services.

Technology, globalization, co-operation The incorporation of Latin America into telecommunication systems and the strengthening of the computer technology infrastructure have been key factors in integration and communication in the region, revitalizing its political, cultural and library bodies. This is clear from the references to information programmes made in such contexts as the IberoAmerican Summits (Latin America plus Spain and Portugal); the Cartagena Agreement and the Andean Pact between countries within Latin America; and, more recently, the joint effort of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and subsequently Bolivia and Chile to establish better information services in the subregion. Within the Caribbean area the Economic Community of the English-speaking Caribbean (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) should also be mentioned. Also relevant are the ongoing efforts of the Organization of American States (OAS) and UNESCO, with its Programme for Co-operation in Information for Latin America and the Caribbean (INFOLAC), which in some cases have been decisive in promoting a number of basic projects. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and, in some areas, the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) have also helped to bring Latin America and Caribbean librarianship into the

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global economic and information system. Latin American information technology has been prominent in the design of software for local and regional use, and in the compilation of CD-ROMs by BIREME and CENEDIC at the Universidad de Colima, Mexico, which has been designated by UNESCO as the production site for several Latin American CD-ROMs. Several countries are already making daily use of electronic mail, and are designing their World Wide Web and gopher sites as well as OPACs. This gives access to information and information suppliers, bringing the region into closer contact with the rest of the world, and vice versa. Infor-mation technology is also facilitating the collection of local and national statistics on Latin American and Caribbean librarianship, even though there are no official central agencies to consolidate data on national library and information services.

Professional publications A great deal of effort is spent compiling local library bibliographies in the language of the country, which in many instances, for want of publication resources and incentives for compilers, are issued in very small print runs with inadequate distribution arrangements, sometimes only circulating as grey literature. On other occasions, however, such bibliographies are issued by professional publishing outlets, and monographs may result from efforts by individual ministries, major libraries, associations or librarianship research centres. One such body is the Mexican University Centre for Librarianship Research, which has a budgeted annual programme of publications and a good publishing infrastructure. Congress papers are another specialist literature outlet, besides being a very important source of information on the development of the region’s library and information services. In almost all countries, associations of professionals and schools try to issue some form of periodical publication, bulletin, newsletter or review to report on their activities, give information about

projects and disseminate research findings. All these publications are fundamental to any effort to understand or shape the history of library science in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to each country’s publications, others provide a regional coverage of Latin American and Caribbean works, and they can be found on paper, online or on CDROM. They include the Data Base Directory of Latin America and the Caribbean (DIBALC), published in Mexico; Latin American Information and Librarianship (INFOBILA), a regional database also compiled in Mexico; the Directory of Information and Communication Networks and Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled in Cuba; and the Library Science Bibliography of the Spanish Caribbean and CARINDEX: Social Science and Humanities, both sponsored by ACURIL.

Associations In Latin America and the Caribbean, associations play a very important part in the professional development of members and non-members alike, giving impetus to the modernization of library services and defending and promoting the use of information. The association is the only organized group that operates in some countries, since not all have library schools and countries do not always establish other broader organizations, for want of economic resources and active participation by members. An exception to the rule is the Brazilian Federation of Librarians’ Associations (FEBAB), representing twenty-five local associations, which makes its presence felt in promoting information services and defending the profession. Almost all the associations have at least one information bulletin, and the most firmly established and affluent of them publish a journal. These associations nearly always hold annual congresses and publish reports on the papers read. Associations can form groups at the regional as well as the national level, and they also play an integrating role by encouraging co-operative work to assist in

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the professional development of members and of information services. These associations include AIBDA, ALEBCI, the Public Library Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (ABIPALC), the Association of Library Schools of the Southern Cone, and ACURIL. Latin American and Caribbean participation in the major international associations is growing apace and, in addition to participation on an individual basis, sections have now been formed for Latin America and the Caribbean in IFLA and FID.

Specificity and diversity of the Caribbean Many of the islands are now independent countries and their economies have become diversified. Their development is weak, however, and this makes them rather dependent on their present metropolitan or former colonial country (though the Spanish-speaking Caribbean now is more closely related to Latin America, with which its politics and culture are akin, than to the former colonial power, Spain). The Caribbean is a fragmented ensemble of many islands among which inter-communication and co-operation are not easy. This situation is reflected in its library development; the human resources are inadequate, albeit technically qualified thanks to local courses or courses organized by the former or present metropolitan power. As in Latin America, many of these shortcomings are offset by enthusiasm, imagination and creativity. There is great interest in ensuring that library services reflect the wide diversity of the many cultures that live together on all the islands. The information produced is correspondingly diverse, contained in bibliographies and union catalogues produced in English, French, Dutch and native or Creole languages. Despite all the economic problems, great interest is shown in local publishing, with emphasis on children’s works in native languages. The Caribbean Review of Books, founded by the University of the West Indies Publishers Association, reviewed 1,111 books published in or

about the Caribbean between 1991 and 1993, of which 808 were published outside the region. Of the 303 remaining, 129 were published in Jamaica (the largest country), 58 in Trinidad and Tobago, 33 in Barbados and the remaining 83 in the other countries. National libraries and some public libraries play a strategic role in reconstructing the history of the region, of the country and of the overseas conquests by Europe today and in the past. This concern for co-operation and integration, history and identity, and respect for plurality, multiculturalism and diversity of information is expressed in the project adopted by the General Council of Guadeloupe in 1994: the establishment of a Caribbean Library, which sets out to identify and promote all the material produced by and on the Caribbean and its zone of influence, including Venezuela, Panama and Colombia, and basing its extramural services on an extensive documentary network, all the result of combined local efforts.

Latin America and the Caribbean: neighbours who have joined forces In the last two decades Latin America and the Caribbean have seen a substantial development of their various library activities, regarding both the quality and range of services, and the technological infrastructure, collections and professional staff. This development matches the socio-economic and cultural progress of each country, which has prevailed over the improvisation and amateurism of many academic and economic activities. It is also linked with the opening of various types of information services to support governmental, academic, commercial and industrial decision-making. Progress made with information and library services is also related both to advances and setbacks in the publishing industry, whether using paper or electronic media, reading habits and the development of telecommunication and information technology, not to mention customs tariffs and legal and political

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measures encouraging the global flow of information. Although there has been progress in the region generally, some countries stand out in each of the subregions. In North America, Mexico has worked successfully on its public library system and in university and special libraries, besides providing opportunities for research and the production of librarianship literature in Spanish; its technological and telecommunication infrastructure has enabled it to offer the region electronic services and CDROMs. In Central America, Costa Rica offers an example of sustained development based on its cultural and educational level, having improved librarianship training, regional services for agricultural and social science information, and official information services. In South America a very special place is occupied by Brazil, which has made the most comprehensive and firmly based progress in library education and associated professional work, in the organization of networks and systems for various types of libraries, and in the attention given to scientific and technological information services and the preparation of information products that can be used throughout the region. Also prominent in this subregion are Venezuela, which has done much to coordinate and develop library and technological infrastructures linking its National Library with public and special libraries, and Colombia, which has for several decades been encouraging co-ordinated and co-operative work through library networks and systems of every kind, in addition to intensive work with mobile reading promotion units which bring libraries to parks, streets and other public spaces. In the Southern Cone, Argentina and Chile have a history of successful, though not continuous, development. In the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Cuba stands out for its concern to serve the general population and, of late, its marketing of specialist services. In the English-speaking Caribbean, Jamaica occupies a special place. As the largest and politically the

strongest country, it has an influence on the other countries and islands through its university, its library system, its library association and the regional projects for which it and Barbados are the headquarters. In the French-speaking Caribbean, Martinique and Guadeloupe are notable for their cooperative work, offering an example of the French approach to librarianship in America. In the Dutchspeaking Caribbean, Sint Maarten and Aruba are worthy of mention for their public libraries and their participation in international programmes inside and outside the Caribbean and Latin America.

Acknowledgements My thanks are due to colleagues and friends who permitted me to corroborate and, in the case of the following, obtain valuable data: Stella Maris Fernández of Argentina, Ivone Talamo of Brazil, Rocío Herrera and Olga Cecilia Velázquez of Colombia, Saray Córdova and Olga Rodríguez of Costa Rica, Homero Quezada of Mexico, María Elena Zapata and Alvaro Agudo of Venezuela and, from the Caribbean, Françoise Bernabé and Blanca Hodge. ■■

Further reading ACURIL. 1995. Carta informativa. Newsletter (Puerto Rico), Vol. 23, No. 59, pp. 12–17, 28–32. BANDARA, S. B. 1994. Caribbean Books in Print Project. In: IFLA-94, Booklet 4, pp. 7–10. Havana, IFLA. BETANCOURT VALVERDE, V. 1994. Diagnóstico bibliotecas nacionales latinoamericanas afiliadas ABINIA, año 1993 [Diagnosis of Latin American National Libraries Affiliated to ABINIA, 1993]. In: IFLA-94. Havana, IFLA. 32 pp. FERNÁNDEZ, S. M. La situación bibliotecaria en la Argentina en la década de 1980 [The Library Situation in Argentina in the 1980s]. Cuadernos de bibliotecología, No. 14. Buenos Aires. 71 pp. GOMES DE OLIVEIRA, H. 1995. Bibliotecas brasileiras e sistemas nacionais de informação [Brazilian Libraries and National Information Systems]. Paper presented

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at IFLA seminar, Turquía, 14–18 August. Turquía, IFLA. 22 pp. IFLA. 1987. Seminario Latinoamericano de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Profesionales afines. IFLA-1987, junio 1–5 [Latin American Seminar of Associations of Librarians and Allied Professionals. IFLA-1987, 1–5 June]. Caracas, IFLA. 112 pp. ——. 1995. El progreso de la biblioteconomía: identificación y evaluación desde las necesidades bibliotecarias de Centro América [The Progress of Library Science: Identification and Evaluation Based on the Library Needs of Central America]. Paper presented at the IFLA-ALP-LAC Symposium, Managua, Nicaragua, 5–8 March 1995. IFLA. 82 pp. MORALES CAMPOS, E. (ed.). 1989. Bibliotecología latinoamericana: una panorama general [Latin American Librarianship: A General Overview]. Mexico City, CUIB. 164 pp. Reunión de Investigadores y Educadores de Iberoamérica y del Caribe en el Área de Bibliotecología y Ciencias de la Información [Meeting of Researchers and Educators of Ibero-America and the Caribbean in the Area of Librarianship and Information Sciences]. 1996. Mexico, CUIB-UNAM. 387 pp. UNESCO. DIVISION OF STATISTICS. Library Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean. In: IFLA-94. Havana. 29 pp.

Number

21 + service points and bookmobiles

600 + 61 service points

216 (55)1

14 344 + 47 820 reading rooms

3 099 000

10 822 00

Costa Rica

Cuba

300

4 000 + travelling books

190 + 200 service points

Central schools + branches + travelling books

821

7 (13)

84 (11)

4 (14)

74 (66)

178 (26)

110 (14)

Network of School Libraries

Ministry of Education

Department of School Libraries. Resource Centre for Primary and Secondary Education

Ministry of Education. COLCULTURA

Ministry of Education

128 (22) 44

1

332 + 4 671 service points

81

1 279

293

1

El Salvador

National Network of Public Libraries

Ministry of Culture. National Library. Municipalities.

Central Office for Libraries

Network of Public Libraries. COLCULTURA

Ministry of Education. Department of Libraries, Archives and Museums

2+6 service points

Ecuador

Dominican Republic 5 396 000

33 424 000

Colombia

Curaçao

13 599 000

29 000

Chili

Cayman Islands

31 (10) 2 656 + 4 329 service points

1

907 (116)

152 000 000

200

Brazil

1

1 + 34 service points

Bolivia

Bermuda

Belize

2

Ministry of Culture

National System of School Libraries

Organization at the national level

2 1

1

30 + 1 250 branch libraries and bookmobiles

Number

University libraries

Barbados

National System of Public Libraries. National Library Foundation

Office for Municipal Libraries

Organization at the national level

School libraries

Bahamas

198 000

33 101 000

Argentina

Public libraries

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Aruba

Population

Country

Table 1. Public libraries, school libraries and university libraries in Latin America and the Caribean.

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Network of School Libraries

412 being regrouped + 187

3 838 + 10 000 classroom reading sets

(4)

(7)

107 000

1+6 service points

1. The figure in parentheses gives the number of universities and centres of higher education.

Virgin Islands

12 694

1

32

120 (37)

Autonomous Institute. National Library

1

1 bookmobile

1 +16 service points

(3) 42 (39)

Venezuela

20 249 000

55 000

213 + 687 service points

(4)

(5)

Uruguay

Trinidad and Tobago

Suriname

Sint Maarten

Saint Vincent

Puerto Rico

National Library

3 23 000 000

4

Paraguay Peru

(3)

770 (172)

Panama

30

Secretariat for Public Education. CONACULTA

1

1

2 Network of Public Libraries. National Library

1 + bookmobile

5 520

948

3

1

18

4 130 000

LDCs

Central Office for Libraries

Jamaica Library Service 13 department libraries, 155 branches, 5 deposit stations, 506 bookmobiles

18

Nicaragua

13 000

1 53 libraries under construction

Netherlands Antilles

Montserrat

Mexico

82 000 000

2 469 000

Jamaica

Ministry of Culture

(6)

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Martinique

5 462 000

Honduras

Guyana

7

70

1 National Library. Municipality. NGOs. Bank of Guatemala

Guatemala

9 000 000

Guadeloupe

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Table 2. Periodicals in Latin America and the Caribbean Country

Number of publications

Argentina

5

Barbados

2

Titles (selected)

Alumni Association of the National Library School. Bulletin Library Science Journal GREBYD/Information Bulletin SIIT Information Bulletin ABGRA Reference Barbados Library Association Bulletin Update Bulletin (Bridgetown) Bahia Library Association Report Information Science Minas Gerais University. Library School Journal Brazilian Journal of Library Science and Documentation Brasilia Library Science Journal. Terminology Information (regional publication) EIDISIS Journal COLCIENCIAS Newsletter The Book in Latin America and the Caribbean ASCOLBI Information Bulletin Interamerican Library Science Journal Reading Sheets Bulletin of the Costa Rica Library Association Libraries. School of Library Science, Documentation and Archives of the Costa Rica National University AIBDA Bulletin and Journal (regional publications) Information Bulletin Library and Information Science Journal Libraries Information Science Journal of the Jose Marti National Library ABES Technical Committee Bulletin Bulletin of the Guyana Library Association Bulletin of the Jamaica Library Association Jamaica Library Association News FFL/UNAM. Library Science Yearbook University Library (DGB/UNAM) Library Science Research (CUIB/UNAM) Information letter: ENBA Information Bulletin AMBAC APLA/Information

Brazil

11

Chili

2

Colombia

5

Costa Rica

6

Cuba

3

El Salvador Guyana Jamaica

1 1 2

Mexico

8

Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua

1 2

Panama

2

Paraguay

2

Peru

4

Puerto Rico

2

Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay Venezuela

1

Nicaragua Bibliography and Documentation Bulletin Bulletin of the Central Office for Libraries and Archives ALEBCI. Information Bulletin (Regional) Panama University. Library Science Department Bulletin Paraguay. Library Science and Documentation Information Peru National Library Bulletin Plenary Meeting. Journal of the School of Library and Information Science Phenix Peru Library Newsletter ACURIL Newsletter (regional) EGBCI Information Bulletin (University of Puerto Rico. Graduate School of Library and Information Science) Trinidad and Tobago Library Association. Bulletin

1 1

Uruguay National Library INFOLAC (regional publication)

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Table 3. Communication networks and systems in Latin America and the Caribean Argentina

11

Bolivia

3

Brazil

11

Chili

Dominican Republic

2

Peru

Ecuador

2

Puerto Rico

7 2

Guatemala

1

Trinidad and Tobago

2

8

Jamaica

1

Uruguay

7

Colombia

12

Mexico

8

Venezuela

9

Costa Rica

10

Nicaragua

2

Panama

2

Cuba

2

Table 4. Library science education in Latin America and the Caribbean Country

Levels, procedure

Argentina

First degree, master’s, doctorate. 9 university schools. 17 non-university schools. Continuing education

Brazil

Bachelor’s degree (4 years), 30 university-level courses: specialization, master’s (6), doctorate (3). Continuing education

Chile

2 universities. Pre-graduate. Special subject. Continuing education

Colombia

4 university schools; only 1 offers postgraduate-studies. Specialization. 1 distance education programme (4, 5 years). Continuing education

Costa Rica

University level: bachelor’s, 1st degree, master’s (2 years). 2 university schools. Continuing education. Refresher training in technology

Cuba

1 university. 1 vocational centre. Technical (upper secondary level). 1st degree, master’s, doctorate. Distance education. Continuing education

Guadeloupe

Short courses through Librarians’ Association. Training in Fort de France

Guatemala

1 university. Pre-graduate. Continuing education

Haiti

Technical level (some rudiments of librarianship)

Jamaica

1 university. Graduate. Technical

Martinique

Short courses through Librarians’ Association. Training in Fort de France

Mexico

6 universities. 6 1st-degree courses. 2 master’s. Continuing education

Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire)

Use Netherlands facilities

Nicaragua

1 school. University Centro América (suspended)

Panama

1 university. 1st-degree course. Continuing education

Paraguay

1 university school (4 years). Continuing education

Peru

2 universities. 1st-degree course. Continuing education. Diploma

Puerto Rico

2 universities. 2 master’s. Continuing education

Venezuela

3 universities. Pre-graduate. 1st-degree course. Specialization (master’s suspended)

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Table 5. Associations in Latin America and the Caribbean Country

Associations

Argentina

Federation (FABA), grouping 25 associations

Barbados

Library Association of Barbados

Bolivia

Library Association of La Paz

Brazil

Federation (FEBAB), grouping 25 associations

Chile

College of Librarians of Chile

Colombia

ASCOLBI, ASEBIAR, National Board of Librarianship, SNICA, GRUBE, GUI

Costa Rica

College of Librarians of Costa Rica

Cuba

Association of Librarians of Cuba, Cuban Society of Scientific and Technical Information

Dominican Republic

Dominican Association of Librarians

Guatemala

Librarianship Association of Guatemala

Guyana

Guyana Library Association

Honduras

Honduran Association of Librarians

Jamaica

Jamaica Library Association

Martinique and Guadeloupe

Association of Librarians of Martinique and Guadeloupe

Mexico

AMBAC (plus branches), BIBAC, ANBAGRO, ABIESI and ARAI

Netherlands Antilles and Aruba

Association of Librarians of Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (APLA)

Nicaragua

Nicaraguan Association of Librarianship and ABUEN

Panama

Panamanian Association of Librarians

Peru

Peruvian Association of Librarians

Puerto Rico

Association of Librarians of Puerto Rico

Trinidad and Tobago

Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago

Uruguay

Association of Librarians and Allied Professions of Uruguay

Venezuela

College of Libraries and Archives of Venezuela, Professional Association of Academic and Specialized Information Services

Table 6. Regional associations Association

Headquarters

Inter-American Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists (AIBDA)

Costa Rica

Caribbean Association of University and Research Libraries (ACURIL)

Puerto Rico

Latin American Association of Librarianship and Information Science Schools (ALEBCI)

Costa Rica

Public Library Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (ABIPALC)

Venezuela

Association of Librarians’ Schools of the Southern Cone

Uruguay

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Latin America and t h e C a r i b b e123a n

Estela Morales Campos graduated in librarianship and then obtained her Ph.D. in Latin American studies from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She was Research Officer at the Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas (CUIB) of UNAM, and was distinguished as researcher of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores de México. She served as Director of the Congress Library (1973–74) and of CUIB (1985–93). She then became Academic Secretary of the Research in Humanities Group of UNAM (1993–95). Since 1988 she has been a professor of postgraduate studies in librarianship. She is the author of six books and has published a large number of articles on librarianship. She is an active member of several professional associations at the national, regional and international levels.

Estela Morales Campos Professor Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Dirección General de Bibliotecas Edificio Biblioteca Central Ciudad Universitaria 04510 México, D.F. Mexico Tel: (5) 622-16-52 Tel/fax: (5) 616-06-64 Fax: (5) 550-13-98 E-mail: [email protected]

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Libraries and the book chain In the book chain, libraries have usually played a rather self-contained role. As non-profit agents, libraries were cut off from the book’s economic life, which took the book to the reader via the publisher and the bookseller. With the take-off of the electronic publishing market, they are moving towards full integration in the book chain, where they are now likely to play an economic role. A rough indication of the relevance of libraries as an economic player in the book chain may be illustrated by the relationship between the turnover of the national publishing industry and the size of library acquisitions in the European Union. Table 1 gives the gross income of the publishing industry in twelve European Union countries, and the corresponding public library acquisitions expenditures per inhabitant (only public libraries have been considered because they are the most important purchasers of national literature) and total library acquisition expenditure per inhabitant. Data are drawn from an inquiry made by a consulting agency, BIPE Conseil, in 1989 (Ancillani, 1992), and library statistics (1986–90) issued by the European Commission (European Commission, 1995). These figures give a rough comparative vision of readership in the European Union, from an economic point of view. Table 2 shows the ratio of public library acquisitions to book industry gross income per 1,000 inhabitants. It is easy to see that countries are listed in a different order from Table 1. It would be a mistake to draw firm conclusions from such library statistics, which do not take into account book exports (relevant especially in the British, Spanish and French cases) and acquisitions made by academic libraries. What is unquestionable, however, is that reading practices vary greatly in Europe and that they are independent of economic indicators (such as Gross Domestic Product). They are, instead, very much subject to national library policies as an essential ingredient of national book

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B. Archives

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Chapter 9 Asia Maria Helena Lima Évora Macao Historical Archives, Macao

T

his chapter is based on the Survey of International Archival Development conducted through a questionnaire by the International Council on Archives (ICA) in 1993–94 (see box, p. 128) and a questionnaire sent out by the author in early 1996. The response rate to each questionnaire was rather low, but taken together responses were received from 75% of the countries in the region. Nevertheless, this description of the region is still fairly sketchy.

Structure of archives Archives in Asian countries have the same purpose and functions as archives in other parts of the world. They are institutions whose major objective is the collection and preservation of public or private archives and records of permanent and historical value in order to make them available to the public. In some Asian countries the national/central archives derived from the record-keeping activities of former colonial administrations. In others they originated as branches of the national library and only recently began to be administered as separate departments with specific archival functions. Although the National Archives of India and Indonesia can trace their origins back to the last decade of the nineteenth century, most Asian archives were established in the 1950s or later and it was only in the mid-1980s and 1990s that they experienced significant development, partly owing to the evolution of information technology. Only recently have they developed national archival policies, established standards and enacted general archival legislation (see Tables 1 and 2). The archives systems in Asia have a structure identical to systems in other regions. The central archives, at the national or federal level, are the most important and largest institution in the country, responsible for identifying records of historical value in the public sector (and sometimes also in the private sector) and guaranteeing their regular transfer to

127

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Survey of International Archival Development

Tunis conference, was that there had been significant progress in the ten-year period, but that major deficiencies still existed. A number of key factors for assisting the future development of archive services both in the developing world

The International Council on Archives carried out

and in the emerging democracies of Central and

a major survey on archive development in

Eastern Europe were identified, including:

1993–94, which sought to compare conditions in

•

1982 with those in 1992. The survey covered legislation, staff, training, buildings, equipment,

•

quantities of archives held, quantities received

Providing an adequate building to international standards in which to preserve

annually, the state of catalogues and finding aids, and the experience of development actions.

Ensuring a proper legislative framework for archives and records.

them. •

The survey questionnaire was sent to all

Developing a comprehensive preservation policy.

Category A members of ICA (national archive

•

administrations, and state archive administrations

•

in federal systems) in around 160 countries and

Improving training opportunities. Further developing and adopting standards for archival description.

territories. A total of 122 replies were received, of

•

which thirty were from Europe, thirty-six from

The ten Regional Branches of ICA were widely

North America and fifty-six from elsewhere.

identified as a vital mechanism for international

Outside Europe and North America, the

archival development. Co-operation within and

breakdown was as follows: Africa, twenty; Arab

between the branches was shown by the survey

countries, five; Asia and Oceania, sixteen; Latin

analysis to be well established, widespread and

America and the Caribbean, fifteen. Comparisons

extremely valuable, especially in the field of

were drawn between relative conditions in Europe

training. In the light of this experience, the

and North America and those elsewhere, and also

conference concluded that emphasis should be

between relative conditions in Western Europe

placed on ‘South-South’ development initiatives,

and Central and Eastern Europe.

and on greater use of experts from the developing

The results of the survey, which was carried

Making effective use of new technology.

world. The need for effective tools to plan and

out by Michael Roper (United Kingdom), former

evaluate development projects was also

Keeper of Public Records, were analysed and

underlined.

presented at an international conference in Tunis in May 1995. The overall conclusion of the survey, reinforced by case-studies and debates at the

The proceedings of the Tunis conference, including detailed analyses of the survey data, were published in a special volume of the ICA journal, Janus, in 1996.

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Table 1. General archival legislation Country

Laws

Australia

Archives Act, 1983

Bangladesh

National Archives Ordinance, 1983

China

Archives Law of the People’s Republic of China, 1988 Implementation method of the Archives Law, 1990

Hong Kong

Public Records (Access) Rules

India

Public Records Act, 1993

Indonesia

Law on the Basic Provision of Archives, 1971 New legislation in 1993

Japan

Public Archives Law, 1987

Malaysia

National Archives Act, 1966

Macao

Macao Archival Law, 1982, 1989

Nepal

National Archives Act, 1989

Pakistan

Archival Material (Preservation and Export Control) Act, 1975 The National Archives Act, 1993

Republic of Korea

Yes (title of the Law is not known)

Singapore

National Heritage Board Act, 1993

Thailand

Order of Prime Minister’s Office, 1983

archival custody for preservation and use. Below the national or federal level the structure of archival services varies with the size of the country and its political and administrative systems. However, as a general rule the central archives also has some responsibility for co-ordinating archival services at regional, provincial, state and municipal or other local levels. The degree of authority may vary from country to country, however, and in some countries the provision of archival services at those lower levels of government may still be rudimentary and uneven. There are, moreover, countries that possess archives only at the national level, such as Nepal, Singapore and the Republic of Korea. In almost all Asian countries, archives of private organizations or institutions are not controlled by the national/central entity and they are not necessarily open to the public. The governmental authority under which archives are placed differs from country to country. Most are placed in culture or education, as in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand. But there are other arrangements: the State Archives Bureau of China

Table 2. Legislation on records management Country

Legislation exists

Laws

Australia

3

Yes (title unknown)

China

3

Retention schedule of the agency records, 1987; regulations on record acquisition, 1986; acquisition standards of records transfer, 1983; regulations on the filing and non-filing of agency records, 1987; standards on the design and construction of archival repository

Hong Kong

3

Yes (title unknown)

Indonesia

3

Regulation on disposition of records and archives, 1979

Malaysia

3

Yes (title unknown)

Macao

3

Macao Archival Law, 1989

Nepal

3

Disposal or discarding of government papers rule, 1970

Pakistan

3

Archival Act, 1993; secretariat instructions

Republic of Korea

3

Yes (title unknown)

Singapore

3

National Heritage Board Act, 1993

Thailand

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comes under the jurisdiction of the State Council; the National Archives of Indonesia is directly responsible to the President; the Records Service of the Republic of Korea is an agency of the Ministry of Government Administration; the National Archives of Japan is an auxiliary organ of the Prime Minister’s Office; and the Public Record Office of Hong Kong is a division of the Government Secretariat.

Holdings and finding aids Archives in Asia are responsible primarily for collecting public records, that is, those records which are created by public service departments, but there are some archives which also collect records of private institutions, family records and personal records (for example, in Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Thailand – see Table 3). The records come in a wide variety of forms. In addition to files of paper documents, most archives in Asia hold books, newspapers, gazettes, photographs, films, microfilms, slides, maps, plans, charts, drawings, audio and audiovisual records, architectural

models and posters. A few hold electronic records. Archives in former colonial territories usually have rich and varied collections of records inherited from the former colonial administrations. For example, the National Archives of Sri Lanka contain official records of Portuguese, Dutch and British administrations, as well as records of independent Sri Lanka. The Records Management and Archives Office of the Philippines holds documents of Spanish and American administrations. In order to make records available for public access, Asian archives produce a wide variety of finding aids such as guides, inventories, catalogues, indexes, lists, registers, accession lists, transfer lists and exhibition catalogues (see Table 3). In addition, several archives (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand) have participated in the Guide to the Sources of Asian History project, which facilitates the wide dissemination of their finding aids. Some of the volumes published in this series are available in English, others only in the national language.

Table 3. Holdings and finding aids Country

Holdings Public archives

Private archives

Australia

3

China

3

Hong Kong

3

Malaysia

3

3 3

Macao

3

Nepal

3

Pakistan

3

Finding aids Microfilm

Types

Automation

3

Catalogues; indexes; subject catalogues; inventories

3

3

Inventories; index; cards; record transfer lists

3

General guides; thematical guides; accession lists; transfer lists; catalogues; inventories; hand-written lists; administrative history

3 3

3 3

3

Republic of Korea

3

Singapore

3

3

Thailand

3

3

3

3

Inventories and catalogues

3

Register; catalogues; inventories; lists; index

3

Accession lists; catalogues; hand-written lists; catalogue cards

3 3

3 Guides; inventories; indexes; exhibition catalogues; online catalogues

3

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Preservation and conservation

Communication

At the level of the national archives about two-thirds of archival buildings in Asia are purpose-built and the majority have some form of humidity and temperature control. However, many of them are more than twenty years old and storage space is limited: some buildings are completely full and unable to receive new accessions; others will be in the same situation in the near future. Most Asian archives have conservation workshops and reprographic laboratories, but the supply of skilled technicians is distributed very unevenly between them. Where reprographic laboratories exist, microfilming is the technology most commonly used for the preservation of archival material. Records are microfilmed to preserve the information which they contain and to protect the fragile originals from excessive use and consequently from damage. Documents in poor condition are consulted only on microfilm (see Table 3).

Communication through exhibitions and archival publications is also an important function of archival services in Asia. Notable among exhibition programmes are the ‘Memorials’ established and administered by the National Archives of Malaysia. These permanent exhibitions, which commemorate persons and events of enduring historical, cultural or aesthetic significance, attract over 1 million visitors each year. Almost all Asian archives have a regular programme of archival exhibitions and publications, the latter including bulletins, annual reports, facsimile reprints of historic archives and technical publications, as well as finding aids (see above). Some archives also participate in radio and television programmes. Users can normally visit archives to consult records from Monday to Saturday; archives are usually closed on Sunday and public holidays. But there are exceptions: the National Archives of Nepal and Pakistan, for example, are open on Sunday.

Access to records

Legislation

In many Asian archives the records are open to the public when they reach twenty-five or thirty years of age, as, for example, in the archives of Australia, China, Macao, Nepal and Pakistan. Documents containing information that can affect individual privacy have a longer period of access restriction (varying between 70 and 130 years). On the other hand, in many countries there are some areas of government which do not transfer records to the national archives. The legislature, foreign ministry, ministry of defence and supreme court are the bodies most likely to be exempt from the operation of archival legislation or even to be governed by separate legislation, and their records may not be accessible to the public. Archives of totalitarian regimes are more bureaucratic than archives of democratic regimes and this has consequences for the availability of records.

Most countries in Asia now have modern archival legislation. New legislation has been enacted since 1980 in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Except in Japan and Thailand, this legislation gives the national archives an active role in records management, records appraisal and records transfer within the public sector, as also does the legislation of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Malaysia (see Tables 1 and 2). However, most national archives in Asian countries are not cocerned with records management in the private sector.

Human resources and professional training Most Asian archives face a major problem in respect of human resources – an insufficiency of professional and technical staff. The need for archival training courses at all levels is increasing in Asia, but it is not

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matched by the availability of places at archival schools. Staff can attend courses of archival education and training conducted by universities, colleges or institutes in only a few countries (for example, Australia, China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Other countries have to send staff abroad, mainly to Australia, Europe and North America, to acquire such training. Table 4 lists just a selection of the courses available in the region. Since in most Asian countries there are no archival professional training courses at the intermediate or higher levels, major archival institutions conduct local basic training as the principal way of preparing their new employees for archival responsibilities. Some of these basic training courses accept trainees from other archival institutions within the country and staff engaged in managing current records within government agencies.

Professional associations Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea have national professional

archival associations: the Australian Society of Archivists Inc. (ASA), the Chinese Archives Society, the Japan Society of Archive Institutions, the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand and the Korean Archives Conservation Association (KACA); but in general Asian countries do not have such national professional associations. However, most national archives are members of international associations. In particular, almost all are members of ICA and simultaneously belong to the appropriate ICA regional branch (China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea belong to EASTICA – East Asian Branch; Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka belong to SWARBICA – South and West Asian Regional Branch; Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam belong to SARBICA – South East Asian Regional Branch; Australia, New Zealand and the islands of Oceania belong to PARBICA – Pacific Regional Branch).

Table 4. Archival education and training Country

Education and training

Australia

3

China

3

Archival courses in twenty-two universities and colleges; courses in Archives College under the People’s University of China; Archivist Training Centre under State Archives Bureau

3

Diploma in Library and Archives Management, conducted by NARA Institute of Technology (three-year programme with major emphasis on library practices); short courses for Departmental Record Offices in the National Archives

Hong Kong Malaysia

Macao

Type of courses

Job training in the public archives

Short courses conducted by Polytechnic Institute of Macao; job training in the Macao Historical Archives

Nepal Pakistan

Three-week short courses organized periodically by the National Archives; Naitional Institute of Archives and Record Management to start soon

Republic of Korea

Archival professional training courses of one week conducted by Government Archives and Records Office

Singapore

Staff are usually sent to Australia, United Kingdom and United States for training; local job training

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In addition, archives in countries which are members of the Commonwealth are likely themselves to be members of the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers; Malaysia is a member of the South East Asian Committee on Microfilm; and Australia is a member of the International Association of Music, Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres – Australia Branch – IAML (see Table 5).

Archives budgets Most of the Asian archives do not have a designated budget allocation within the general budget of the governmental authority under which they are placed. However, the National Archives of Macao, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore assume that they receive, respectively, 15%, 16%, 0.01% and 5.6% of the total budget allocated to their parent body.

Information technology Generally speaking, archives have been involved in great changes with the use of modern information technology to automate archives management, especially through the application of computers for the arrangement and description of records. The result is faster and more accurate arrangement and description, as well as more efficient information retrieval. The use of computers in Asian archives is not widely developed, but the employment of word-processing or database systems to produce finding aids or to undertake other aspects of the management of archival material is now to be found in Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Viet Nam (see Table 3). An Asian computer network for exchanging archival information does not yet exist. However, archives can be linked to the Internet, where, for example, information about Australian Archives is already available.

Table 5. Professional associations Country

National associations

Designations

Australia

3

Australian Society of Archivists (ASA); Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA)

China

3

Chinese Archives Society, 1981

International associations

3

Designations

International Association of Music, Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres – Australian Branch (IAML)

3

ICA; EASTICA

Hong Kong

3

ICA; EASTICA

Malaysia

3

ICA; Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers; SARBICA; South East Asia Committee of Microfilm

Macao

3

ICA; EASTICA

Nepal

3

ICA; SWARBICA

Pakistan

3

ICA; SWARBICA; Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers

3

ICA; EASTICA

3

ICA; SARBICA

Republic of Korea Singapore

3

Korean Archives Conservation Association, 1995 (KACA)

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Conclusions

Further reading

Archives in Asia play an important role as an indispensable instrument for the history of both the whole continent and the individual nations. Consequently they must offer well-organized and structured services in order to give easier access to citizens and researchers. Until recently most archives in Asia were very isolated and unprivileged institutions. They have been gradually developed and provided with increased resources, as a result of the growing awareness of the important role they play in society. Yet the present situation is far from ideal. The scarcity of economic resources and the lack of proper archival policies are the main problems. From the survey of the situation of archives in Asia we can assume that all countries have archives at the national level, together with archival legislation which defines and establishes general policies and standards for the preservation of the national archival heritage. Many archives use microfilming technology to preserve records and a few have now started to implement and develop computerized systems to help with the arrangement and description of archival materials (see Chapter 25). Almost all the archives issue archival publications and are members of international associations. However, there are less positive aspects: lack of specialized human resources and almost non-existent professional archival education and training. In the absence of qualified personnel the archives are experiencing difficulties in tackling the problems of records and archives management. Another major problem is the uncertain financial background – often archives institutions have very limited budgets which do not guarantee them adequate resources for the implementation of a proper archives policy. ■■

FANG, J. R.; SONGE, A. H. 1990. World Guide to Library, Archive and Information Science Associations. Paris, IFLA. (Publications, 72/73). INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES. 1995. Archival Legislation 1981–1994. Archivum, Vol. XL (Albania– Kenya), 348 pp.; Vol. XLI (Latvia–Zimbabwe), 344 pp. Munich, K. G. Saur. MACKENZIE, G. P. Further Analysis of the International Survey of Archival Development. In: Proceedings of the Inter-Regional Conference on Archival Development of the International Council on Archives, Tunis, 1995. (Special issue of Janus, 1996.) NOR, Z. H. The National Archives of Malaysia – Its Growth and Development. In: Proceedings of the Inter-Regional Conference on Archival Development of the International Council on Archives, Tunis, 1995. (Special issue of Janus, 1996.) ROPER, M. The Present State of Archival Development World-wide. In: Proceedings of the Inter-Regional Conference on Archival Development of the International Council on Archives, Tunis, 1995. (Special issue of Janus, 1996.) World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services 1993. 3rd ed. Chicago, American Library Association.

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Maria Helena Lima Évora has been Director of the Macao Historical Archives since 1994. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Lisbon in 1985 and attended a two-year course in Archives and Information Sciences in the same institution in 1989–90. Her first work in 1986 was in the Macao Central Library, a department of the Cultural Institute of Macao. In 1991 she moved to the Macao Historical Archives (also a department of the Cultural Institute of Macao). From 1991 to 1993 she worked as an archivist and in 1994 became Director of the Archives. She is an active member of EASTICA (East Asian Branch of the International Council on Archives).

Maria Helena Lima Évora Director Arquivo Histórico de Macau Instituto Cultural de Macau Av. Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida No. 91–93 Macau Macao Tel: 592-919 Fax: 561-495

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Chapter 10 The Arab States Moncef Fakhfakh National Archives, Tunisia

Legislation and standardization Legislation on archives is very important, as it includes the definition of what constitutes an archive and what its scope should be, describes its administrative organization and the responsibilities of the various bodies and individuals involved, and also lays down the periods during which documents will remain classified. The statutes of most countries in the Arab region have appeared in various publications (International Council on Archives, 1995–96; La législation archivistique, 1996; The Arab Archives, 1990). This description is based on those sources and the updated results of a survey conducted in 1990 by the Arab Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ICA). Nevertheless, the following description cannot claim to be exhaustive. It emerges that many Arab states have legislation on archives, but the situation is uneven and varies greatly from one country to another. Three types of situation can be identified: • Countries with satisfactory legislation on archives. • Countries with old or outdated legislation. • Countries with no legislation on the subject. Only a few states, unfortunately, have acceptable legislation on archives. Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen belong to this group, but only Algeria, the Sudan and Tunisia have relatively sophisticated archive practices, while the recent appearance of legislation in Saudi Arabia has not yet borne fruit in the form of archive work proper. Algeria and the Sudan have more experience than Tunisia, where the practice of keeping archives was resumed only recently. Algeria and Tunisia have a great deal of legislation, which testifies to a certain level of activity, but also makes it necessary to keep the legislation up to date. Yemen has recently passed modern legislation as part of a pilot scheme for setting up a national archive system, undertaken

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with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNESCO, but archival practice is still in its infancy there. The Arab states where legislation on archives has become old or even outdated are Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania and the Syrian Arab Republic. In most cases, legislation in these countries is not concerned with the principles of records management but focuses on definitive (or historical) archives. The Arab states which have no archival legislation are Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates. It should be noted that Bahrain has a text regulating records management and that the United Arab Emirates has a few regulations relating to the conservation of financial documents. The number of countries without any real legislation on archives none the less remains high. However, apart from Morocco, they are small countries where the state apparatus is relatively new, and whose institutions until recently amounted to local governments. Furthermore, many of these countries are still monarchies. Morocco is a special case: archives are kept for the King’s private administrative offices but little is done in the sphere of public administration. The shortage or absence of legislation on archives is a function of the lack of importance some decision-makers attribute to it. The public conception of archives and their purpose is another factor here. Almost everywhere archives are esteemed only for their heritage value; the role documents play in managing the country’s affairs and assisting the decision-making process is forgotten. As record-keeping practices are not changing, there is no incentive to draft new legislation. Standardization is everywhere less developed in the archive sector than in other information sciences. In the Arab States, standardization is at best confined to applying known standards, particularly as regards conditions of conservation and building

construction. The standard governing the description of documents ( ISAD(G)) produced by the ICA has just been translated into Arabic and published in 1996 by the National Archives of Tunisia; the Dictionnaire de vocabulaire archivistique was also published in Arabic in 1995.

Archival institutions Organization Except for the Ottoman tradition examined below, archival institutions are relatively recent in Arab countries. In 1829, Egypt was the first Arab country to organize its archives, followed by Tunisia in 1874. Many countries took over the archive system established by the colonial power; others set up archive services much later. Some countries, such as Oman and Jordan, still have no real administration for archives. The legislative vacuum mentioned above as regards some countries is often accompanied by a lack of archival institutions. The attachment of an archival institution to a supervisory body can have an enormous influence on the development of the archive sector. The administration of archives obviously depends on the political system of the country (centralized or decentralized). The supervisory body varies from country to country: • The President’s administrative departments: Algeria, Lebanon and Yemen. • The Emir’s cabinet: Kuwait and Qatar. • The Prime Minister’s office: Bahrain, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. • The ministry of culture and/or heritage: Egypt, Iraq, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman and the Syrian Arab Republic. • The ministry of education: Morocco, Sudan. Archival institutions under the supervision of a body well placed in the political hierarchy have more facilities at their disposal for the accomplishment of their

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task, provided that decision-makers are willing. Many Arab archival institutions are not only attached to ministries of culture with little political authority, but are often dependent on other cultural sectors such as archaeology (in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) or the national library (Egypt and Morocco). The subordination of archive services to other structures often results in the marginalization of the field. As far as the administrative organization of archives is concerned, a distinction can be drawn between institutions regarded as departments coming under a ministry (or some other kind of supervision) and those established as autonomous bodies with a legal status and financial autonomy. This latter type of organizational structure usually gives the institution greater freedom of management and makes it better able to plan and carry out its work. There are nine countries in which the national institutions are autonomous bodies: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Organization of Arab archives at regional and local levels is embryonic. Except for Algeria and the Sudan, which have set up regional archive services, such organization is non-existent in Arab countries. The same is true of municipal archives, which exist in only a few large Arab towns. Buildings, equipment and budgets Purpose-built premises for archives are important tools for any national policy in this field. This type of building is still rare in Arab countries. Only Algeria, Bahrain, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates have purpose-built premises for their national archives. There are few such buildings for regional and local archives. The workshops and technical equipment needed for archives (restoration, microfilming, disinfection, de-acidification, computerization, etc.) are still inadequate. Furthermore, in Arab countries

there are not even any institutions providing training in restoration. Insufficient information is available on the budgets of Arab archival institutions. It is accepted, however, that many archives have great difficulty in fulfilling their tasks within their budgets. They often suffer from a lack of equipment and resources for adopting new technologies, particularly where they are under the supervision of ministries of culture or social affairs which themselves receive only a small proportion of the state budget. These institutions are entirely dependent on public funds and rarely have resources of their own derived from the sale of services, publications or other products. Very few foundations or private bodies provide assistance to archival institutions which, furthermore, do not enjoy the free services of voluntary organizations or individuals.

Holdings, collections and communication of documents The holdings and collections of archive material in the Arab States share the following characteristics: • The volume is comparatively small. Egypt, a country with a population of some 60 million, has only about ten linear kilometres of documents in its National Archives; next come the holdings of the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia, which have approximately five kilometres. • The oldest documents, with the exception of manuscripts, normally go back no more than four centuries, although there are a few examples of older documents. Various factors may account for this situation (political instability, social structure based on orality, etc.). • Collections of audiovisual documents are still limited. The material and intellectual treatment of archive holdings is generally carried out in the usual way. The number of research tools (inventories, lists, etc.)

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published in Arab states is still small. Very few have developed reference databases for definitive (historical) archives. Computer applications for archive work (accession, stock management, communication of documents, etc.) are almost non-existent in Arab archival institutions. It must be pointed out that the purpose of all archive work is to make documents available to users. Arab legislation on the subject places more emphasis on the confidentiality of documents than on citizens’ right to access them. Thus periods during which documents remain classified are generally longer than the average observed elsewhere. The distinction between a minimum period of 30 years and further periods of 60, 100 and 120 years is not always accepted and, even where the distinction exists, documents are likely to remain in the original departments when they are no longer of administrative use and to be deposited only after the end of that period. The practice of departments regularly depositing their public records in Arab archives is rarely observed, so it is difficult to find recent holdings that make it possible to study and research the second half of the twentieth century. Moreover, the citizen’s right to information is less developed and no Arab country has legislation regulating access to administrative records. The average daily number of users in the reading rooms of Arab archival institutions is low: about forty per day in the Sudan and twenty in Egypt – and these are the highest figures. The small volume of records kept and the paucity of sophisticated research tools may, in part, be responsible for the low number of users, but scientific research is also little developed. Consulting records is also far from being a social phenomenon affecting the history of families, individuals or communities; it is the prerogative of students preparing for university degrees and established researchers. The phenomenon of genealogical research, highly developed in the archival institutions of Europe and North America,

is virtually unknown in the Arab States (for example, the proportion of genealogists among users of the French National Archives is more than 60%, while it is less than 5% in Arab record offices).

Staff and training The first observation to be made about the staff appointed to Arab archival institutions is the small number of specialists (archivists and keepers) in relation to the volume of documents and compared with other countries. Similarly, there are few staff specialized in restoration, microfilming and computers. It is important to note that in Arab countries archivists have a poor image, which is sometimes that of the civil servant appointed to a degrading department as a disciplinary measure or because of professional incompetence. Yet professionals are a vital element in raising awareness of the importance of records – they have a vital role to play in any national policy on the subject, which they must promote and implement. This poor image also explains why there are so few Arab archivists on the international professional scene. In most Arab states, archivists are trained in the same university courses as librarians – there is no specialized institution for such training. Librarianship and documentation work have taken the lion’s share of training programmes. Furthermore, such training is available in only eight countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and Tunisia. Among these countries, Algeria, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Sudan and Tunisia provide fairly sound training for archivists. In 1993, Algeria and Tunisia set up a specialized training course for candidates with a Master’s degree. The training of senior staff, particularly archive keepers, is still inadequate, despite the fact that the profession requires a high level of training: in addition to professional and technical skills, the archivist must also have considerable knowledge of law,

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administrative and political organization, the history of institutions, new technologies, etc. Training for keepers is available only in Morocco, but is not specific to archives. Thus the Arab States continue to rely on keepers trained abroad. Continuing and further training takes place mainly at the national level. There are also a few sessions in computerized information retrieval organized by the Documentation Centre of the League of Arab States (ALDOC). Bilateral co-operation has taken place between Tunisia and Yemen in running continuing training sessions for Yemeni professionals with Tunisian instructors. Some Arab archival institutions also send staff to institutions in Europe and North America to improve their skills. There are few books on archives in Arabic. Arab professionals have produced little in this field and few international works have been translated into Arabic. Even the studies published by UNESCO, notably the RAMP studies on records and archives management, are rarely translated into Arabic, although many Arab archivists are monolingual. In addition, the training of trainers is not rigorously and systematically carried out everywhere, so that universities in Arab countries do not have academic staff specialized in the science of keeping archives as is generally understood.

Records management The conception of records that prevails in Arab countries is of a standard type: documents are regarded as records from the time they cease to be useful for the departments of origin. This means that there is no link between the management of records while they are useful to the bodies that have produced them and after this stage. This separation between the two phases of the life-cycle of documents accounts for the marginalization of archival institutions. They are seen as depositories responsible for gathering documents which are valued only

as heritage items or as curiosities. Furthermore, in some Arab Gulf states, archives are even called ‘historical documents centres’. This approach is not unique to the Arab region, but is also found in other parts of the world. What is specific to the Arab world is the interest in the oldest documents, from relatively distant periods; few studies are devoted to modern history. The comprehensive view of archives which sees documents as records from the moment they come into being is not widespread in Arab countries. Only Bahrain has a system of records management at the central government level, but there is as yet no organic relationship between the centre for files and documents that comes under the authority of the Prime Minister’s office and the Historical Documents Centre that comes under the Ministry of Justice. There is some know-how about management of public records in a few countries where formerly there was a British colonial presence, notably Egypt and Yemen, but these practices are far from amounting to a system of records management. Egypt has made an effort in the management of its public records through an administrative reform agency responsible to the Cabinet, and has set up a large computerized system to make legal and other documents available to decision-makers. But, here again, no link has been established with the National Archives, which come under the Ministry of Culture and remain separate from the process. An interesting experiment in records management conducted in Tunisia deserves mention. A comprehensive approach to records was decided upon in 1988 when one statute and three decrees were adopted concerning records management. The system is applied within the framework of a national plan for administrative reform and improvement. It involves listing current documents and files, determining how long they are to be conserved and the ultimate fate of each type of document and file, and giving them classification numbers to facilitate cur-

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rent use. The aim of the records management programme is obviously to improve the efficiency of government agencies. For some public establishments and businesses the tools have already been prepared and applied. As regards government departments, the plan has just begun and should be completed by the year 2000. Records management in the private sector in Arab states is no better than in the public. The strategic sectors of the economy are still controlled by the state, so the private sector consists essentially of small and medium-sized companies, many of which have become aware of the importance of records management as an aid to the decision-making process and a factor in more rational management. Records management is not a common practice in the administration of Arab countries; it is not inherent to Arab civilization. Although the Arab world had a highly developed administrative and documentary tradition in the Middle Ages, the region went through a long period of decadence marked by political instability that lasted until the colonial period. The Ottoman occupation did leave its mark in this field: the Arab countries which have a tradition of keeping records are those where the Ottoman presence was significant (notably Egypt and Tunisia). British influence in the Arab region also had its effect on the management of government records, even if relatively weak (Egypt, Iraq and Yemen). French influence did not lead to the establishment of records management, as there is no such practice in the French civil service (with the exception of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Professional associations It should be noted that in Arab countries archivists share the same professional associations with librarians, and that these associations were established by librarians. No Arab country has an archivists’ association, probably because archivists are so few in number. The fact that these information specialists are

trained in the same institutions has facilitated their being grouped together. Almost all Arab countries have professional associations, with the exception of some Arab Gulf states, where associations are not always authorized. Professional associations still have little impact. They have some influence on raising public awareness about the value of records, and participate in training, but generally they have no power over national policy concerning records, or even on issues such as standardization.

Archives, history, culture and administrative organization There is an organic link between records and historical studies. The collection and organization of records determines the development of historical studies. It should be noted in this respect that records concerning the twentieth century are relatively little developed in Arab countries, and the same is true of historical studies of the modern period. Historical study often remains the prerogative of specialized researchers. Some research on genealogy or local matters is carried out by individuals, especially the elderly, but not much in comparison with that in developed countries. Similarly, historical societies have few members compared with developed countries. While there is a fair amount of historical study, most is done by individuals working for university degrees. There are few research groups, particularly of a multidisciplinary kind. Production of historical studies is buoyant in countries with sufficiently large and well-kept archives, notably Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. The use of records in the cultural field can take different forms: exhibitions, publications based on documents for teaching or popularization purposes, source material for producing audiovisual materials, etc. In this respect, it should be noted that in Arab states such documents are more frequently used for political and patriotic than for cultural or scientific

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events. In general, only a few social and professional categories, notably the intelligentsia, visit exhibitions. Few catalogues of inventories or archive documents, or books based on archive documents for a general audience or for educational purposes, are published. In contrast, the publication of annotated manuscripts (old, handwritten works), particularly religious and even scientific manuscripts, is flourishing.

Archives and multimedia Multimedia techniques are making slow progress in the Arab States. Their use calls for financial resources and a propitious administrative and human environment. Information retrieval applications are being developed in some countries and a few CDROMs relating to heritage have been produced including the CD-ROM on the fragments of the Sanaa (Yemen) Koran produced within the framework of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, and the CD-ROM on archaeological sites produced by the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre (RITSEC) in Egypt. The spread of multimedia in the archives sector, however, encounters the question of the medium’s durability; conservation of original documents, because of their probative value, is indispensable (see Chapter 25). Multimedia at the moment, therefore, is more useful for distribution than for conservation.

Issues specific to the Arab region Many Arab states are in dispute with their former colonial powers – France, the United Kingdom and Italy – on the subject of archives. The archives transferred to these latter countries concern mainly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and are of a diplomatic nature, but some deal with the management of the country. As there is no international convention on the subject, each country has tried to resolve the issue in its own way. Algeria seems to be determined to obtain the originals, while other coun-

tries, such as Lebanon and Tunisia, have used microfilm (see Chapter 24). It should be noted that the former colonial powers have given insufficient aid for the funding of microfilming operations. As far as records predating the colonial period are concerned, Turkey inherited the records of the Ottoman Empire, which included most of the Arab States for a considerable period (from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries). Some Arab countries have been able to microfilm the documents that interest them, but this operation is still subject to two constraints: the Turkish National Archives processes Ottoman documents slowly, so many are as yet unavailable; and the Arab countries need to train specialists in Osmanli (which differs from modern Turkish) so as to be able to use the documents. Many Arab governments take no interest in contemporary records, which are therefore in danger of accumulating in poor conservation conditions and deteriorating. Tunisia, followed by Algeria, however, has undertaken a broad programme to improve this situation (Fakhfakh, 1995). It should also be mentioned that the concept of the citizen’s right to information is not shared by all Arab states. In practice, the confidentiality of government documents is often excessive, so it is rare to find in the Arab States studies dealing with recent history – issues, in other words, that are still fresh and may arouse public interest or even passion. ■■

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References The Arab Archives. 1990. No. 13–14. 244 pp. FAKHFAKH, M. 1995. Emergency Plan for Dealing with Accumulations of Records and Archives in Government Services: A RAMP Study. Paris, UNESCO. 44 pp. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES. 1995–96. La législation archivistique: 1981–1994. Archivum, Vol. XL (Albanie–Kenya), 348 pp.; Vol. XLI (Lettonie– Zimbabwe), 344 pp. Munich, K. G. Saur. La législation archivistique pour le développement du système national d’information. Archives nationales de Tunisie, Tunis, 10–13 mai, 1994. Ottawa, Banque Internationale d’Information sur les Pays Francophones. 2 vols.

Moncef Fakhfakh, Director-General of the National Archives of Tunisia, obtained his baccalaureate, specializing in philosophy and French literature, in 1966. He continued his studies at the University of Tunis (Faculty of Humanities), where he was awarded his Master’s degree in history in 1970. He taught history in secondary schools before being appointed Director of Studies at the Institut Supérieur de Documentation in Tunis in 1982. In 1985, he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on the Tunisian Government Archives, and was appointed to a teaching post in archival methodologies at the Institut. In 1986, he was invited to take over the direction of the General Archive of the Tunisian Government. He is President of the Arab Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (1988–96) and President of the International Association of Francophone Archives (1990–96). He has acted as a consultant to the United Nations and UNESCO, including the latter’s Memory of the World programme. He has published a book based on his thesis, and many studies and articles in the field of archives, including a study for RAMP (UNESCO programme on document management and archives).

Moncef Fakhfakh Directeur général Archives nationales de Tunisie Premier Ministère La Kasbah 1020 Tunis Tunisia Tel: (1) 260-556 Fax: (1) 569-175

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Chapter 11 Africa Peter Mazikana ARA-TECHTOP Consulting Services, Zimbabwe

T

he archival situation in Africa is as varied as the multiplicity of nations that make up the huge continent. Inasmuch as the more than fifty countries that comprise Africa vary in size from a geographical coverage of less than 1,000 square kilometres to 2.5 million square kilometres, populations of less than 100,000 to over 96 million, Gross Domestic Products (GDP) ranging from US$279 million to over US$110 billion and per capita incomes of US$60 to US$6,000, so too does the archival situation vary enormously. At one end of the spectrum are nations that have only the most rudimentary of archival infrastructures and where even the most basic of archival services are absent; at the other end are countries which have established advanced archival services and whose facilities and infrastructures compare favourably with other nations in the developed world.

Legislation While some countries in North Africa have archival institutions that date back several centuries, most sub-Saharan countries established national archives only after the Second World War. Benin, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe are among the few exceptions in sub-Saharan Africa that established national archives before 1950. Most countries have promulgated national archives or public archives acts which provide the legal framework under which national archives institutions operate and which control and preserve the archival heritage. The very few that as yet have no archives legislation, such as Uganda and Ethiopia, have draft legislation which is in the process of being formalized. The legislative instruments in general give the national archives the authority to deal with the records and archives of public entities such as central government, local government and parastatals. The degree of authority and control differs from country to country, ranging from giving advice to the right to inspect records and issue instruc-

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tions for their proper management and handling. In most of the legislation, the destruction of public records is forbidden without the consent of the national archives. Some of the legislation also defines the role of the national archives in relation to private records and historical manuscripts, and in certain cases controls have been introduced through the national archives to guard against the export of private archival collections deemed to be of national importance. Some of the legislation makes the distinction between public records and public archives, the latter comprising those public records that have been appraised and found to have a historical and enduring value and which must be preserved in perpetuity. In a number of countries the national archives also administer the legal deposit or printed publications acts which require the deposit of copies of all publications produced in the country. This in effect creates within the national archives the national reference library. The ministerial placement of national archives is varied, but the vast majority of the national archives are in the ministries of home affairs, education/sports/art and culture, and the president’s office. In a few countries advisory boards or committees have been created to assist the national archives.

Standards The standards applied in the acquisition, processing, preservation, conservation and usage of records and archives in general are those that have been developed by the International Council on Archives (ICA), particularly through the RAMP Study series of publications and the ICA specialist committees’ technical publications. In West Africa, standards from the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) and the International Standard Organization (ISO) have been adopted. There are also standards which have been developed by other organizations such as the International Records Management

Council (IRMC), the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA) based in the United States, the Records Management Society of Great Britain, and other specialist organizations. Standards also tend to be influenced by the practices of the former colonial powers, because most of the national archival institutions are based on the records of the former metropolitan entities and are reflective of the latter’s administrative structures and systems. The type of training received by the records managers and archivists, and the institutions giving the training, also have a bearing on the standards used.

Institutions Almost all countries in Africa have national archives or public records offices. The national archival institutions play the key role in the organization, management and preservation of records and archives at the national level. Their mandate tends to be allembracing because of the absence of similar facilities at the local government and parastatal levels and in the private sector, as is the case in other regions of the world such as Europe and North America. In a few countries there are municipal and local government archives, but these are the exception. In quite a number of countries the national archives have established regional offices but the functionality of these in the majority of cases is rather weak. Privatesector archives exist in some countries but these tend to be limited to large multinational corporations. In a number of countries private commercial records centres have been established. Architecture plays an essential role in the preservation and conservation of the archival heritage. The national archives in most countries occupy either purpose-built or converted buildings (most of the purpose-built repositories were constructed after 1960). But many archival institutions are housed in buildings which are inadequate (for example Mali and Côte d’Ivoire). In some cases, such as Cape

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Verde, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho and Uganda, the archives are temporarily housed in such places as the university library, the basement of a former colonial secretariat building or the national library. Few countries, however, have adequate space for the storage of the archives and most, even those in purposebuilt repositories, are facing severe space shortages in buildings that were filled long ago. Many of the institutions are unable to receive new accessions because there is no storage space. There are also problems concerning air-conditioning. Although most of the purpose-built repositories originally included air-conditioning systems, these systems in several cases have broken down or become non-functional for one reason or another. This has created serious difficulties, as often such buildings do not allow for adequate natural ventilation and the archival holdings are therefore at risk.

Holdings The size of holdings of conventional archives varies enormously from country to country. At the lower end there are countries such as Rwanda, whose archive holdings are less than 500 metres, while at the other end of the spectrum countries such as Mozambique have as much as 25,000 metres. A joint UNESCO–ICA survey in 1987 showed that twentyone countries had a cumulative total of 81,000 metres of archives, an average of 3,800 metres per institution. The archival holdings in most countries in subSaharan Africa are based on the former colonial administrations and there are many cases where the archives are only as old as the beginnings of the colonial occupation. National archives also often have historical manuscript collections or private archives comprising the records of non-governmental organizations and institutions as well as individuals. These archives can be varied and diverse: diaries and collections of eminent and scholarly individuals, archives of churches, educational institutions and sporting organizations, and business archives recording offi-

cial transactions such as policies, procedures and meetings. Archival collections are also held by various other institutions and individuals: religious organizations, universities, libraries and some large corporations can contain sizeable archival holdings. In Ethiopia, for instance, the National Library and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the University of Addis Ababa have rich collections of historical manuscripts dating back some five centuries.

Human resources The staffing levels vary considerably from country to country. In some of the large countries the levels are sizeable, with Kenya and South Africa at the beginning of 1996 having staff complements of 226 and 229 respectively, while Nigeria in 1989 was reported to have a staff of nearly 600. On the other hand, there are countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Sierra Leone with less than ten staff. The majority of institutions have between 10 and 100 staff. The ratio between paraprofessional and professional staff for nineteen countries surveyed between 1991 and 1996 was 91 paraprofessionals for every nine professional staff. The national archives face various problems in retaining trained and qualified staff, and the attrition rate is high. In 1987, for example, the National Archives of Mali and Guinea were reported to be handicapped by insufficient human resources. The high staff turnover is attributed to a number of factors including low salaries, low grading, lack of attractive career structures and the lure of the private sector. Government registry staff constitute the bulk of the records management staff in all countries. The registry staff, however, are not well trained and of low calibre. There are only a few countries with registry training schools. In West Africa, the Section of Archives of the École de Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes (EBAD) in Senegal plays an important regional role. In some cases, such as

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Zimbabwe, a vibrant training school has been closed temporarily. The morale of registry staff is reported to be quite low in most countries and they operate without recognition and some of the basic necessities. The low status of registries and registry staff also leaves them exposed to senior officers who openly flout and violate established procedures for handling records. There is an urgent need to upgrade the status of registries and to train and motivate the staff.

Technical facilities Most national archives in Africa have reprographic and conservation units or laboratories. These reprographic facilities consist mainly of microfilming equipment but there is also other document-reproduction equipment such as photocopiers and duplicators. Microfilming is used primarily for acquiring copies of documents whose originals cannot be obtained, for preservation purposes when documents are in a fragile condition or are constituted of materials which deteriorate rapidly, such as newspapers, and for the production of multiple copies of documents, as in the case of the records of the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which were microfilmed to provide copies to each of the three successor countries: Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Document conservation unit have been created to repair and rehabilitate archival materials from depositors that are received in a deteriorated condition. The main method of repair and restoration utilized is lamination, although a limited amount of encapsulation is done in some countries. Most of the countries with conservation units have lamination machines and only in a few countries is the hand method used. Countries such as Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania do not have conservation units. The need for conservation in a continent with such a harsh climatic environment is self-evident.

Unfortunately, in the government ministries and departments of a number of countries in Africa, the condition in which records are being maintained is a cause for great concern. There are numerous reports detailing situations in which records were exposed to excessive heat, humidity, mould, light, air pollution, insects and rodents. Records have often been dumped in storerooms and sheds where the roofs leaked, the windows were broken and doors were only partially effective. This grave situation has given rise in the last ten years to international rescue missions which have been used to salvage the situation and avoid total disaster. Such missions have been launched in the Gambia, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. For those countries that do have reprographic and conservation facilities, there are often insurmountable difficulties in maintaining equipment and acquiring adequate and appropriate supplies of chemicals and other materials. There are many reports of equipment that has broken down and remained unrepaired because of shortage of spare parts, as well as problems related to the antiquated nature of some of the equipment which was purchased in the 1960s and 1970s.

Budgets The budget allocations for national archives do not compare favourably with other government ministries and departments. Of the national archives in twelve countries that reported on their 1995/96 budgets, five felt that their budget allocations were fair while the other seven felt that they were unsatisfactory. The budgets ranged from a mere US$4,000 per annum in the case of Malawi to over US$3 million for South Africa. For half of these countries, their budgets in the last five years had increased marginally by up to 10%; the other half felt that while staff salaries had been increased to cope with rises in the cost of living, in real terms budget allocations had declined by up to 5%.

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In general, national archives and archival activities do not receive priority in the allocation of scarce national resources. In many countries the larger part of the budget is consumed by staff salaries, leaving very little for recurrent expenditure. There are reports of national archives which fail to purchase records storage boxes and are therefore not able to collect records from ministries. There are also cases where the funds are insufficient even to allow for transportation to collect the records. In some countries virtually all equipment in the national archives has been received as donations.

Records management in the public sector There is a severe crisis facing some African countries in terms of the management of public-sector records. The crisis is almost continent-wide, although a few countries are the exception and have records management systems that are operating very well (for example, Cape Verde). Reports made by consultant missions as well as returns submitted by national archives in response to international surveys paint a bleak picture of near breakdown in registry management in government ministries and departments. The reason why the registries are not operating well is that the national archives in most countries are hardly involved in the management of current public records. With a few exceptions such as Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the national archival institutions only concern themselves with semi-current and non-current records due for transfer to the national archives. And yet by that time, irreparable damage will have been caused to the records. Many countries have established records centres for semi-current records, but in a good number of the cases the records centres have been completely full for many years, making it difficult for new accessions to be received. As a result the records remain in the ministries and departments. Only a few countries have records centres at the regional and provincial

levels: Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia are examples of countries with regional centres. Reports have been made of records occupying all available space in registries and storerooms of government ministries. The crisis that faces many countries in terms of records management was aptly captured in one consultant’s report which described file index systems that were rudimentary or nonexistent. In several registries records were strewn all over the floors and under shelves; file covers were often torn and crumpled, frequently with large numbers of pages missing; heaps of dirty, tattered and misfiled records could be found in corners and on tops of cupboards; there was a lack of discipline among staff who seemed to be driven more by tradition than by need; and office equipment was in short supply, the few filing cabinets available being rusty and damaged. This is by no means the scenario in all African countries, and indeed many have well-organized registries, but all the same such situations are a cause for concern. Only in a few countries do national archives carry out regular visits to ministries and departments to undertake surveys. While standing instructions for the disposal of time-expired records exist in many countries, these are often outdated and cover only a small proportion of the records produced by the ministries and departments. There are cases where time-expired records are not disposed of because of lack of capacity in the national archives. In most countries public records become archives and accessible to the public after thirty years. There are notable exceptions, however, such as Botswana, which allows access at twenty years, Nigeria and Zimbabwe at twenty-five years, Lesotho at thirty-five years, Malawi at forty years and Sudan and Sierra Leone at fifty years. Archives are accessioned, listed, arranged and described so as to facilitate access by users. Nevertheless, there are reports in some countries of huge backlogs in the appraisal

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of records and the processing of archives, thereby delaying the availability of the archives to the public. There are often finding aids to the collections, and in some cases guides have been published. Unfortunately, in many countries these have not been updated for many years and some predate the attainment of national independence. Many of the archival institutions have search room facilities for researchers and the public. Some of these rooms have facilities for viewing stored cine films and microfilms, but in certain cases these collections are inaccessible because microfilm readers and projection equipment have broken down or become unserviceable. Both static and mobile exhibitions are occasionally mounted by some institutions while a few have educational programmes. Increasingly African governments realize that there is a close linkage between records, archives and efficient governance. This realization comes in the wake of the economic and political reform programmes that have taken place and the experiences that have been undergone. In a number of countries, such as the Gambia and Uganda, registry reform has been tied to the economic reform programme and supported actively. Attention is also being paid to voter registries in the realization that unless these are reformed there can be no true democracy.

Records management in the private sector Africa is undergoing fundamental changes in the private sector. These changes are a result of the economic transformation taking place and the liberalization of the economies. The demise of rigid import and foreign exchange controls and the privatization of many public institutions have immensely strengthened private sector activity. The most profound effect of the liberalization of the economies has been the influx of information technology into Africa. Whereas in the pre-1990 period there was only a handful of computers and other telecommunication equipment, today African

markets are awash with such equipment and the private sector has been at the forefront of acquiring this technology, much more so than the public sector. An increasing number are acquiring fax and e-mail facilities and a few have become linked to the Internet. Traditional records management, however, has not been a strong point in the private sector. Businesses remain characterized by decentralized and unorganized records management systems based on the operational units and individual offices. Very few in the private sector have received records management training other than the cursory treatment that it receives in secretarial and office management training courses. The standards of records management in the majority of businesses is therefore very low and no real attempt has been made to mobilize resources and effect improvement. The notable exceptions are the large multinational corporations, which often have elaborate records management procedures developed at their head offices. They also often have established in-house records centres and archives facilities. The availability of unemployed archivists has contributed to the development of archives in banks and large firms in countries like Senegal. In a few countries, such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, commercial records centres have also been established. In some countries consulting firms are providing services in records and information management. Although increasing numbers of private firms are manufacturing and distributing records management materials, supplies and equipment, a large technology gap remains in comparison with the developed world. South Africa is probably the main exception in this regard. The privatization of public enterprises has also endangered the welfare of large quantities of records. Even when the national archives could cater for the archival collections of former public enterprises such as parastatals, very few of these enterprises made use of this facility or had any relations with the national archives. When privatizing, little attention has been

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paid to the fate of the records which in the first instance were public records and archives but now belong to a private entity. The national archives have in any case, by and large, lacked the capacity to intervene in order to ensure that the records are adequately catered for.

Professional associations ICA is by far the most prominent professional archival association in Africa. It has established a network of regional branches: the West African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (WARBICA); the Central African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (CENARBICA); and the East and Southern African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA). The ICA branches, some of which are very active, allow archivists from African countries to meet and exchange ideas as well as to foster archival development. Some of the branches hold biennial conferences which are well attended and are often preceded by intensive workshops on topical themes. The chairpersons of the regional branches are ex officio members of the ICA Executive Board, thereby facilitating an important linkage on the international front. Through the branches ICA is able to fund certain activities within the context of its medium-term plans, and the member countries of the branches obtain access to funding through the Commission on Archival Development (CAD). ICA provides subventions for publication of the journals of the regional branches. Affiliation to ICA also enables African countries to access funding through various international agencies (see Chapter 27). Many national archives are also affiliated to such international organizations as the International Association of Sound Archives (IASA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). There are other international professional associations in Africa. Archivists

from countries in the Commonwealth, for instance, have generally affiliated with the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM). Some countries such as Benin, Ghana, Mali and Senegal have established national associations of records managers and archivists, but many others find that the number of archivists and records managers is too small for the establishment of viable associations.

Education and training Africa lacks adequate training facilities for professional and technical staff. Attempts made in the early 1970s to establish regional training schools were only partially successful. While the school at Dakar, Senegal, for French-speaking Africa seems to have fared better with its two degrees (technical and professional), the school for English-speaking Africa in Ghana has now become no more than a national centre. A number of countries have as a result established their own educational facilities at the national level. Countries such as Botswana and Kenya have graduate schools in archives and information science. Training facilities have been established also at the paraprofessional level, but technical training facilities in conservation and reprography are virtually unavailable. In the absence of such facilities, it is not surprising that most archives staff have to be educated or trained overseas. For English-speaking Africa, this has mostly been done by University College London (United Kingdom) which runs a Master’s programme. France has provided much of the training for French-speaking Africa, and Germany and Portugal have provided training for their former colonies. India has also done a lot of training, especially in conservation. A number of countries, such as South Africa, run their own national programmes within the national archives or through longdistance training, as in the case of the South African

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Higher Diploma in Archives Studies run by Technikon SA. Other countries with their own training programmes include Senegal and Mauritius. Continuing training in Africa is provided at the national, regional and international levels through workshops and seminars that are organized from time to time. ICA congresses usually include precongress seminars which are attended by young archivists, including those from the regional branches. Workshops and seminars are also organized through a variety of initiatives and organizations and through the ICA Medium-Term Plans. The ICA regional branches also often precede their own conferences with workshops and seminars. Increasingly, African countries are turning to each other for training support and arranging for staff attachments in institutions which have achieved excellence in some of their operations. The emphasis is shifting in archival training for African professional and technical staff. The curriculum being developed within Africa is beginning to put more and more emphasis on the management of current and semi-current records and on automation. While traditional archives principles and practices are still being taught, some elements which are less relevant to the African continent, such as palaeography and sigillography, are now being dropped. The historical bias and orientation is also becoming less pronounced in accordance with a changing professional perception of the role of archivists and the demands of information technology that are requiring a different breed of archivist.

Relationships of archives Archives are recognized as the primary instrument through which a nation’s historical heritage is preserved. African nations by and large recognize the importance of archives in the preservation of the nation’s history, and African scholars make extensive use of archival sources. A large part of the written archival sources, however, relate to the period after

colonization of the continent, and this has forced African nations to mount programmes for the collection and preservation of oral historical sources which narrate and chronicle the lives of the indigenous people. Many countries have developed active programmes for oral history and oral tradition. Some are based at universities and special institutions while others are run by national archives. The latter has resulted in soul-searching by some African archivists, who feel that national archives should not dissipate scarce resources by indulging in activities for which they are neither well equipped nor trained. The Kenya National Archives, which had an active programme for recording oral history and oral traditions before 1982, has discontinued this activity. Other institutions, however, such as the National Archives of Zimbabwe, continue to run active recording programmes. The placement of many African national archives under ministries with responsibility for culture has of necessity created close ties between archives and culture. Archives in Africa have long been viewed as a cultural heritage. The national archival institutions have also perpetuated this linkage and many of them continue to carry within their collections items depicting the cultural heritage. There are many instances where there has been conflict with museums who do not view favourably the retention by national archives of museum artefacts. Archivists hold the view that these constitute an integral component of archives collections bestowed on them. There is an increasing perception, though, that while archives cannot be divorced from the national cultural heritage, nevertheless national archives must pay more attention to information management operations, especially the management of current and non-current records. This view is strongly supported and promulgated by the United Kingdombased International Records Management Trust (IRMT), which has conducted several rescue mis-

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sions in Africa and has concentrated on overhauling registry systems in those countries. IRMT currently has projects in several countries including the Gambia, Ghana, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. The increasing emphasis on records management has also refocused archival activities on the administrative structures of government. Whereas in the past archivists viewed administrative history in relation to those records and archives received and registered, they are now being encouraged to be proactive and to be involved in the current operations of the record-generating agencies.

Archives in former colonial powers France, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom were the major colonial powers in Africa. On the attainment of independence and nationhood by the African countries, some records were transferred to the metropolitan countries while other natural accumulations of administrative records remained in situ. The new nations laid claim to some of the transferred records, and a limited amount of repatriation was done. By and large, however, the former colonial powers remained steadfast in their claims on the records and instead encouraged the copying of these records to give the new nations access. A number of copying schemes have been executed, primarily through the medium of microfilm (see Chapters 10 and 24). Kenya in the 1970s had a team based in the United Kingdom which visited various institutions, identifying and copying Kenya-related documentation. Zimbabwe in the early 1980s also went through a similar exercise. Namibia, which recently attained independence, has been identifying and acquiring microfilm copies of records held in South Africa and Germany. A notable exception to this general situation is that of former Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF). In the case of the seven territories comprising this colonial administrative unit (Dahomey, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and

Upper Volta), the archives remained in Senegal, which now is in charge of communicating documents to the respective successor states.

Archives of former repressive regimes The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994 saw the demise of the last bastion of minority rule in Africa. This event had been preceded by the attainment of independence by Zimbabwe and Namibia. In all cases, the repressive regimes are reported to have destroyed large numbers of records prior to the granting of independence, although it is difficult and perhaps impossible to ascertain and quantify the destruction that took place. The records that were already in the national archives remained largely untouched, although some withdrawals took place, especially from records centres. By and large the records in ministries and departments also remained intact, except for the security and defence ministries where, for instance, files of informers were incinerated. Africa has also had its share of single-party regimes in countries which had attained independence from colonial rule several decades ago. The movement for multi-party democracy in the late 1980s and early 1990s swept away some of these regimes. It is not possible at present to ascertain the fate of records after these transitions towards democracy because of the limited involvement of the national archives in the management of current records of ministries and governments. Perhaps when records series are eventually transferred to the national archives, the extent of the damage will be ascertained.

Impact of information technologies on archives Archival institutions in Africa continue to operate largely in a manual format in spite of the rapid changes taking place in the institutions that they service. Only a handful have automated their processes

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and many still lack such basic facilities as word processors and fax machines. Government ministries and departments, while still largely uncomputerized, are gradually acquiring new technologies. In particular, many are introducing personal-computer-based systems. Very few, however, have yet embraced the newer technologies such as optical disks. Estimates early in 1996 of usage of personal computers by government ministries varied from as little as 5% in Kenya to 100% in such countries as South Africa, while fax facility estimates ranged from zero to 100%. The highest percentage reported for e-mail was 30% in South Africa and 10% for the Internet in Mauritius. In many countries government requirements for automated data processing are fulfilled by central computing departments which usually have mainframe computers. Little has been done by national archives in Africa to deal with electronic media and the electronic records being generated by various agencies. In a few cases, such as Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, special facilities have been put in place, but still the services provided are limited and do not embrace control back to the point of electronic record creation in the agencies. South Africa began automation in 1974 and today has a database of almost 6 million records. The information technology revolution has provided both an opportunity and a challenge for archives. On the one hand, the availability of such mass storage devices as optical disks creates an opportunity for archives, and computerization can enhance the national archives’ capacity to process, manipulate and make information accessible. On the other hand, this opportunity has not been grasped, and this failure of archival institutions has been accompanied by a failure generally to cope with the challenges that the multimedia society poses as record-creating agencies adopt new technologies. Most African archivists feel that it is inevitable that the disciplines of archives, records management

and library science, hitherto seen as separate and distinct, will merge. In the first instance, the usage and manipulation of information technology makes it mandatory to acquire a common core of skills. In the second instance, the ability of the new media to store, process and manipulate information in hitherto unimaginable ways means that the distinction that used to exist among the disciplines will eventually become irrelevant. In the African context, information technology is only being used to a limited extent and therefore it will be a while before this convergence becomes widespread. In those countries where more progress has been made, however, the reality of convergence will be sooner rather than later. African archivists nevertheless caution against failure to recognize the unique nature of archives or to discard the time-immemorial principles of ‘provenance’ and ‘sanctity of the record group’.

Major problems facing archives in Africa The major problems facing archives in Africa are as much archives-specific as they are reflections of the general malaise afflicting the continent. Many parts of the continent have been ravaged by wars, droughts and other man-made as well as natural disasters which have inflicted untold misery and suffering. Against a background of ever-increasing populations and diminishing resources the competing priorities have been many, and archives development has been sidelined as nations have striven to provide the basic necessities of food and shelter. There is clear evidence that the archival development achieved by many countries in the 1960s and 1970s has been negated and reversed in many cases. In some countries the only guides that exist for archives collections are those that were published in the pre-independence period. Infrastructures and technical facilities established in the 1960s and early 1970s have disintegrated in some countries. Government ministries and departments operate without functional registry systems, with untrained

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and sometimes uncaring staff and without manuals to give guidance. The overall archival situation is one of severe crisis requiring urgent remedial measures. This must not detract, however, from the achievements of those African nations that have established viable and vibrant archival systems, and which in some respects have pioneered significant breakthroughs in archives development and are at par with similar institutions worldwide. This sharp contrast gives hope to African archives; the need is for international support to those nations and institutions which already have achieved excellence and international help to foster development in those less fortunate and facing catastrophe. ■■

Peter Mazikana, after gaining a BA (Hons) at the University of London and a Graduate Certificate in Education at the University of Rhodesia, obtained his Diploma in Archives and Information Studies at University College Dublin, Ireland. He is Managing Director of ARA-TECHTOP, a private consulting firm on records management which he founded in 1988. He has over fifteen years experience in records management, including six years as Deputy Director of the National Archives of Zimbabwe. He has been President of the International Records Management Council (IRMC) since 1995, President of the Association of Zimbabwe Consultants (AZIC) since 1993, and Secretary-General of the East and Southern African Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) (1992–95), and is currently editor of the ESARBICA Journal and Chairman of the Records, Archives and Information Management Association of Zimbabwe. He is the author of various publications and studies on archives.

Peter Mazikana ARA-TECHTOP Consulting Services 18th Floor, Livingstone House Samora Machel Avenue P.O. Box 4555 Harare Zimbabwe Tel: 4-731851 Fax: 4-793054 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 12 Europe and North America Trudy Huskamp Peterson Open Society Archives, Hungary

T

he capacity for classification – for seeing patterns in practices – is an essential characteristic of archivists. Characterizing the state of archives in the countries of Europe, together with Canada and the United States, requires identifying the faultlines that divide the region as well as the considerable bonds that bind it together. Archives have three universal purposes: to select the records of institutions, the papers of individuals and families and the artificial collections of documentary materials that have enduring value; to preserve them; and to make them available for use. Individual nations and archival institutions accomplish these purposes through programmes and projects which vary in emphasis and administration. Identifying the varieties of archival practice in Europe and North America requires assembling and analysing a sizeable quantity of data. Fortunately, in 1993–94 the International Council on Archives (ICA) undertook a worldwide survey on archival development, providing the basic data with which to make comparisons. All statistics in this essay are drawn from the summary of those census returns compiled by Michael Roper of the United Kingdom (see box, p. 128).

Models All European archives owe a debt to the GrecoRoman archival tradition. There are, however, several obvious groupings of archives, either by virtue of the legislative structure of the nation or by tradition. An important division pointed out in a recent paper by Sarah Tyacke, Chair of the ICA European Board, is the degree of control the national archives asserts over the documentary heritage of the nation. Tyacke points to three traditions. In one, the national archives asserts its role as protector of all (or virtually all) documents of national significance in whatever hands; this is the position of the archives service of France and Italy, for example. A second tradition has the national archives as the custodian of all archives

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in a system where all archives belonged to the state in the administrative sense as well as the cultural sense, as the state was by and large the only possible originator of archival materials; the (now former) communist states are the obvious examples. Finally, there are nations in which the national archives is the custodian of only the records of the central government and co-operates with but does not control the records of local government or the independent archives; Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States use this model. These traditional arrangements are shifting, however, as the political arrangements of states change. For states in the European Union, the general agreements on trade in cultural property pledge the member governments to control imports and exports of (among other items) documents belonging to a member nation’s cultural heritage. This may tend to move governments toward the first model, because the national archives is the governmental body most likely to have the expertise to determine export controls (the place already occupied by the national archives in some countries, such as France). The effectiveness of the control programme will depend on the national archives being knowledgeable about the totality of archival documents in the custody of public and private institutions and in the hands of private individuals. A second shift is occurring as the highly centralized models of the former governments of the states of Central and Eastern Europe break down, with regional and local governments taking independent control of the archives (for example, in Hungary) and a few independent archival institutions emerging. In 1993 the archival census found that in Europe 83% of archival legislation applied to records and archives below the central government level, but only 63% of the national archives as institutions had any authority over public institutions below the central level. The future model for many European countries may well be a national archival institution that has cultural hegemony, but

not administrative suzerainty, over the state’s documentary heritage. A second way to group European archives is by determining whether the national archival system integrates or segregates film, television, oral records and electronic records. The evidence here is primarily from archives at the national level. In 1993, 40% of European national archives were responsible for film; 31% for television tapes; and 37% for oral recordings. Interestingly, a higher percentage of archives report holding these media than report having responsibility for them. (These results are particularly unclear on the matter of film, for the survey did not distinguish between films made by a commercial film industry and films made in the course of the business of government, such as the videotape of a session of parliament.) The survey did not ask whether the national archives has responsibility for electronic records, but 43% of national archives report holdings. This is an area where significant changes should be expected, as governments divest themselves of monopolies in the radio and television industries (and with them the central archives of all radio and television for the nation) and as microprocessors render the old central computer facilities vestigial, resulting in electronic records created and (for active records) stored in the creating agencies. Whether governments will move to establish general archives for commercial and public radio and television companies is an active issue in a number of countries. All archives, however, whether in governments, businesses or private organizations, must soon manage electronic records (see Chapter 14). Turning to national archives per se, an obvious grouping is by parent organization. The 1993 survey found three main clusters: 26% of national archives report to the central organ of the state (e.g. president, prime minister, council of ministers); 20% report to home, interior or justice ministries (or their equivalents); and 51% fall under education and culture

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ministries. It is difficult to determine whether this easily identified divide is significant. (For example, the United States and Albania both report to the head of government; France and Hungary both report to the ministry of culture.) Hypothetically, of course, an archives that reports to a ministry of culture in a European Union country will find most support for handling materials over fifty years old, for that is the definition of cultural heritage supported by the European Union. Whether such an archives could find support for strong initiatives in the field of electronic records would depend on intragovernmental support relationships. In fact, however, archives can and do function effectively in all three groupings. Another way to group European national archives is by whether they are unitary (that is, they are responsible for the archives of all national governmental bodies, such as in Switzerland) or partial (that is, there are agency archives outside the remit of the national archives, such as in Poland). Reporting on the 1993 survey, Michael Roper found that only 51% of European archives are responsible for the records of the ministry of defence; 51% for the records of parliament; 60% for the records of the foreign ministry; 66% for the records of the head of state; 71% for the records of the ministry of internal affairs; and 71% for the records of the supreme court. The survey did not ask about major scientific bodies, but it is likely that many of those are also outside the control of the national archives. In all these cases (excepting, perhaps, the head of state), it is assumed that the agency itself maintains an archives separate from the national archives. Trends here are difficult to spot, but it may be that the expense and technical difficulty of maintaining the electronic records of these agencies will lead governments to reconsider the divisions, and in the name of efficiency and economy begin to combine some governmental archives, at least for non-paper media. In many countries the records of political par-

ties are carefully managed, owing to the sensitive relationships between parties and governments. In some countries, political parties donate their records to the national archives (for example, the United States); in others the government underwrites the maintenance of party records as independent archives (for example, in Finland). A special problem in Central and Eastern Europe is the responsibility for the archives of the former communist parties. At a meeting in Poland in 1995, archivists described three models. In one model, the party archives were first included as independent units within the national archives system but have gradually been transformed into separate archives of social and political organizations (for example, in Belarus, Latvia, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine). A second model absorbed the archives of former parties into the state archives at the appropriate governmental level (central, regional or local); this is the practice in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The third system combines the party archives with the archives of the former KGB in separate archives, with access rules that are different from the access rules for the national archives; this occurred in Lithuania and partially in Latvia. The minutes of the meeting in Poland show the archivists strongly endorsing the second path because establishing separate post-party archives or combining them with the archives of secret police may create the threat of their being taken over by existing communist parties or access to those documents being made as difficult as possible.

Shared concerns At the European Summit on Archives in 1996, delegates agreed that the three principal issues for European archivists are the management of electronic records, training for personnel (with a major issue again the handling of new record formats) and preservation of the European archival heritage.

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The management of current and semi-current records is an issue that generally unites the countries of Europe and North America, particularly in the face of growing challenges posed by electronic records. The 1993 survey found that 89% of European national archives have an active role in the management of current or semi-current records in ministries, making the pressure to provide electronic records guidance particularly intense. Conversely, most European archives do not operate facilities for storing temporary records, an important issue in managing large paper records series (the United States is a very major exception). Consequently, the critical issue for most European archives is providing guidance to the records creators, in particular in the area of electronic records, not in finding ever larger storage facilities for semi-current records. The electronic records issue binds Europe together. Although the development of the computerized office generally occurred earlier in Western Europe, the computerization of Central and Eastern Europe has occurred at lightning speed, as external donors put computers in parliaments and courts and as businesses snapped them up for commercial ventures. This means that the intensity of the computer question, particularly for the very latest systems, is at least as pervasive in Eastern Europe as in the West. Essential to the management of modern records is trained and constantly retrained staff. In 1993, the average number of professional staff in all European national archives was 505, but if the huge Russian national archival system is excluded, the average drops to 137. Between 1982 and 1992, reported the national archives, their professional staffing increased by 24%; again, if Russia is excluded, the staffs actually doubled. Hidden within these figures, however, is the ambiguity of who the national archives reported as professional staff. Further, there is the question of balance between professional and paraprofessional staffs. As Roper noted:

In the national archives of Central and Eastern Europe (both with and without the figures for Russia) the total number of other members of staff is lower than the total number of professional staff, whereas in national archives both in the rest of Europe and in developing countries it is higher. This suggests that in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe professional staff are undertaking work which elsewhere is performed by non-professional staff.

The means by which archival education is provided is a common concern among European archives but there is far from a common practice. There is archival education in state archives schools at the graduate level (Germany) and at the undergraduate level (the Netherlands) which leads directly to the qualification for employment in the state archival service; there are graduate (for example in Canada) and undergraduate degree programmes that are in general universities and are not tied to the government’s employment system. Some programmes offer full degrees in archives; others are concentrations within another discipline (history or library science); an emerging trend is to have a general programme in information studies that combines some elements of information science, librarianship, archival studies and history (the Netherlands and Switzerland). The 1993 study found that 49% of European countries have one or more archival training schools; the actual number was sixty-five schools with an average annual graduation of 995 archivists. A look at course syllabi also reveals enormous differences, with some schools offering traditional courses in sigillography and diplomatics and others emphasizing analysis of business processes and information systems. In-service training programmes are also common in European national archives. Some of these offer professional training roughly at a university level, while others are courses for paraprofessionals. In some instances these are open to the records staff in government agencies, to records managers employed by private organizations, or professional

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archivists outside the government. Some courses end with an examination and a certificate that can be used to demonstrate proficiency to future employers. The 1993 census found considerable numerical disparities between Central and Eastern Europe and the rest of Europe: Central and Eastern Europe reported 200 training programmes, with an average of thirty-three participants per programme, while the rest of Europe reported 1,134 in-service programmes with an average of sixty per programme. Six Eastern and Central European countries also reported training abroad; twenty-two European students attended short courses outside their home countries (three-quarters of these went to the Stage Technique International at the National Archives of France). Archival education increasingly is challenged to provide the new skills needed to manage archives in the current information age. Two shifts are occurring simultaneously: first, records are created and maintained electronically in the entities that are the sources of archival holdings, requiring archives to move aggressively to protect the archival information in the complex environment of modern management systems; second, archives are themselves introducing and adapting automation to facilitate work in the archives. Recent graduates from academic archival programmes emphasizing digital, processrelated information are entering European archival institutions and challenging with their enthusiasm the staff already employed there. Effective in-service training programmes are urgently needed throughout the European archival world in order to ensure that serious divisions of competency do not occur within the professional community. The third major concern identified at the archival summit in spring 1996 was preservation. There are many aspects to this problem: buildings, storage equipment and housing, laboratory treatment and reformatting for use. Again, the 1993 survey provides some data on the status of preservation

programmes in European national archives (see Chapter 25). Facilities are a central concern of archivists everywhere. The nature of archives is that the holdings are continuously expanding, and space utilization is a constant preoccupation. In 1993, 22% of European archives reported occupying central national archival repositories within the last ten years, but several major construction projects are under way or have been completed since then, including facilities in the Czech Republic, Hungary and the United States. Only 47% of the national archives in Europe reported purpose-built repositories; it seems reasonable to assume that regional and non-governmental archives occupy an even smaller number of purpose-built spaces. European archives also reported 66% of central repositories with temperature and humidity controls, and 49% with microform storage accommodation to international standards. By contrast, state archives in the United States reported 92% with purpose-built repositories and 92% with climate controls. All this suggests that European archives have major problems of adaptive re-use of older buildings, and consequently must struggle to maintain adequate preservation conditions for the materials stored within them. A related issue is how full the repositories are. In Europe, 86% of repositories are more than threequarters full, and 18% are completely filled. This is even more significant because the reported capacity for national archives in Europe increased by 58% in the period 1982–92. The average European national archives had 93,000 square metres of holdings in 1993. The statistics on transfers into archives are difficult to analyse, but the average national archival system took in nearly 6,000 linear metres in 1992. This figure probably includes some transfers into regional and other archives in centralized archival systems, not just into the national repository in the nation’s capital. None the less, the national archives are disturbingly full. And if national governments

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find it difficult to provide adequate space for everexpanding archival holdings, it seems unlikely that the non-governmental archives are faring any better. Tighter appraisal standards, a matter of active debate in (for example) the United States, will alleviate but not solve the space needs of archives. Without adequate repositories, a country’s documentary heritage is jeopardized. The technical facilities within repositories are a measure of the importance of preservation programmes to national archives. Here again, the 1993 data are difficult to interpret. Conservation workshops are reported in 50% of European national archives, and they average over two workshops apiece. Between 1982 and 1992 the conservation staff nearly doubled in these repositories, with the average rising to eighteen persons. If we turn to reprography, however, the picture changes. Only 13% of European national archives report reprographic laboratories, and the number of staff employed in them decreased by 7% overall (however, the reprographic staff increased by 10% in Central and Eastern Europe, offsetting a surprising 19% decrease in the rest of Europe). It is unclear whether the decline in reprographic staff in West European archives reflects a trend towards contracting out for reprographic services, using a different reformatting technique, or not currently duplicating holdings, awaiting further developments in electronic scanning or hoping that mass de-acidification will be cost-effective, making reprography unnecessary. In any event, the apparent lack of reformatting capacities in most European archives suggests that original records are made available to users, even those records that are extremely popular, setting up a future need for expensive conservation treatments. Preserving electronic records requires both physical facilities and the management of the physical and logical structures of the item. The technical facilities available in archives to handle electronic records are not as yet widespread. The techniques

for preserving electronic records have evolved with the changes in the information industry; for example, the preservation of flat files is well understood, the preservation of relational databases is fast becoming a standard practice and the preservation of electronic mail is rapidly emerging as a basic technique. The fast advances in imaging technology are currently causing very serious problems for European archives, both because their popularity means that more and more images are created, and because the hardware and software dependency of imaging systems is extremely high and the rate of innovation extremely fast, leaving orphaned systems (and images) littering the way. Add to this the developments in the television industry, linking sound, image and text, and the problems mount. At present the only means of preservation is duplication to a current system, assuming that the system on which the image was generated is still operating (or can be made to operate). And yet it is essential that archives grapple with these issues, for in the long term this is the way records will be created, maintained, and used (see Chapters 14 and 25).

Use and users The purpose of an archives is both preservation and use. One of the most significant developments for archives around the world has been the adoption of international standards for archival description, based on traditional archival practices but adapted for using computers to describe the holdings. This is particularly important, because European archivists estimated in 1993 that only about 50% of their holdings were adequately described but 83% were using computers to describe holdings. There is considerable variation between Eastern and Central Europe on the one hand, and the rest of Europe on the other; in the former 55% of the institutions use computers for description while in the latter the figure is 91%. As computers are rapidly introduced, adopting a standard format that can be shared electronically

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through the Internet will revolutionize archival use. No longer will users be tied to opening hours or transcontinental mail deliveries for service; neither will they have to consider wide variations in national descriptive practice. The day is approaching when the information about holdings can be searched in compatible versions worldwide. The use of archives is increasing everywhere in Europe, but with particular ferocity in Central and Eastern Europe. As holdings long unavailable are now released for use, scholars and genealogists (to name only two user groups) are streaming into research rooms. The 1993 figures, based as they are on 1992 data, capture only the beginning of this wave. In 1992, the number of visits to reading rooms in national archives in Europe was 139% of the number in 1982. The average was just over 13,000 ‘official’ researchers and 22,000 ‘other’ researchers per year. The average number of seats in reading rooms in Central and Eastern European national archives was ninety-one, and the rest of Europe averaged 173. It is difficult to compare this workload with the staffing reported, but in conversations with Central and East European archivists, they unanimously say that the combination of handling a wave of genealogists (a kind of researcher relatively little known in Central and Eastern Europe until this decade, and with research needs for which staff members had little training) and of absorbing the documents of the Communist Party and the wave of academic and other researchers interested in them has strained staffs nearly to breaking-point. Add to this the problems of low salaries in Central and Eastern European archives and sometimes the outright failure to pay staff, the lack of supplies and equipment, and the rapidly changing legal situation in these countries with implications for access to records, and it is nearly incredible that reference service managed to continue. One of the phenomena uncovered by the 1993 census was the huge increase in the number of visi-

tors to exhibitions at national archives. The average number of visits to a national archives exhibition in Europe was nearly 165,000, more than twice that in 1982. This reflects a growing awareness among archivists that the general public has both an interest in archival documents and a claim upon the attention of archivists outside the traditional research context.

Legal issues The adequacy of archival legislation is a matter of concern to archivists everywhere, but it has a special resonance in Eastern and Central Europe. As governments sought to transform themselves, they wrote constitutions or re-established former constitutions, often in great haste. These instruments of government were barely adopted when they began to be interpreted by specially established constitutional courts, often in a flood of decisions without precedent. Archives from Estonia to the Republic of Moldova faced new archival legislation; in addition, legislatures proposed other laws that had a vital impact on archival practices. As reported in 1993, 63% of archives in Europe were operating under legislation passed or revised in the preceding ten years. While avoidance of obsolescence is all to the good, this means that the archivists must learn to interpret these laws, develop a body of practice that accords with them, and consider what further revisions are necessary. This is not easy at any time, and in the turbulent politics of the 1990s this creates a substantial problem for all European archives. Any survey of European archives in the 1990s must include a discussion of the unfortunate effects of war upon the archives of the region. Outright destruction, damage, removal to another nation, division as national boundaries change: the archives of Europe are indelibly marked by the violent wars of the twentieth century. Archivists unite in mourning the actual destruction of documents, but the problems of restitution and division have separated as much as they have united archivists.

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The break-up of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslavia of Tito, to name only a few examples in this century, caused documents of signal importance to one people to be lodged in the archives of another. Two separate but related problems exist. First, a central power may have taken documents from a subordinate political entity to the central archives for safekeeping; the manuscripts of an important poet, for example, might have been taken to an archives at the capital, which means the poet’s legacy is now in a separate country from the one in which he wrote and in which he is revered as a national literary figure. Second, documents about the administration of the subordinate unit are always found in the central government archives; some of these are routine, but others – such as surveys of mineral resources – may be vital for the economic future of the formerly subordinate, now independent, nation. While duplication and shared standard description can alleviate the matter of exclusive control over the information, the frequent national devotion to the physical possession of the documents makes some of these cases particularly difficult to resolve (see Chapter 24). The massive removals of documents during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War continue to vex governments and archivists. While North America and Western Europe have largely – but not entirely – restituted archives among themselves, for Europe as a whole many bodies of archival material remain in the hands of countries other than the country of origin. The resolution of the question depends on the political relations between governments; here cultural property laws and interpretations of the breadth of the national documentary heritage play crucial roles. ICA has addressed this issue directly, through a statement in 1995 on the return of cultural property. Fifty years after the Second World War and nearly a decade after the political revolutions in Central and Eastern

Europe, the time has come to unite the European archival community through the restitution of inherently inalienable records. Similar issues are raised by the records of the former colonial powers regarding the administration of their colonies. Again, the use of duplication and standard description (particularly when the description is electronic and available through the World Wide Web) can alleviate but not resolve the questions of access to the information and the rights of both parties to control the documents (see Chapter 11).

The profession and its partners What are the positive aspects of the European archival enterprise, as the twentieth century draws to a close? What nourishes today’s European archivist? The single most positive sign for continued professional growth in Europe is the establishment of a European Board for Archives in 1992 and the adoption of a specifically European programme. Surmounting the old divisions and the potential new ones (such as the groupings of archivists of the European Union or the Council of Europe), European archivists agreed upon a very aggressive, six-point programme: 1. To co-ordinate a programme of material, legal and technical co-operation with the archival communities of the Russian Federation and Central and Eastern Europe. 2. To act as an information point for bilateral and multilateral agreements so as to facilitate the best use of resources. 3. To act as a forum for discussing difficulties which might arise. 4. To encourage access to the cultural heritage of Europe in the archival field by working for the provision of common databases and networks for archives and users through the relevant European organizations.

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5.

To promote the professional education, training and mobility of European archivists in association with the relevant ICA bodies. 6. To promote the dissemination of archival programmes being considered within the framework of the Council of Europe, the European Union and other European organizations to ensure a wider debate of the issues across the whole of geographical Europe. Within this setting an extensive programme of bilateral aid was developed, and a series of training sessions and colloquia on critical issues such as access were held. The European Summit on Archives, held in March 1996 in Munich, reaffirmed the desire for this continued, co-operative archival enterprise in Europe. The Council of Europe, UNESCO and the European Commission are major partners for the European Board. The programme of the Council of Europe, as described by Giuseppe Vitiello at the European Summit, centres on three issues: democratizing legal systems in new member states, preserving the documentary heritage of the member states, and enhancing access and improving archives. The council has supported bilateral round-table conferences, seminars on legislation and management, and a project for computerizing the finding aids to the records of the Comintern (Third Communist International). At the same meeting, UNESCO gave support to archives through the Memory of the World Programme and the Records and Archives Management Programme (RAMP), and an emphasis on access to archives as a basis for democratic societies. The European Commission has four active projects: 1. A multidisciplinary forum on electronic records, with the objective of developing a set of ‘best practices’ and enhancing co-operation. 2. A publication to exchange archival news in Europe. 3. The development of guides for member states on access to archives.

4.

The admission of archivists to exchange and training programmes. In addition to these three multinational organizations, the Government of Switzerland has developed a generous programme of archival support for former communist countries in Europe. The programme includes sponsoring training opportunities and distributing archival equipment and publications, with special emphasis on preserving the Historical State Archives in St Petersburg (Russian Federation), computerizing the Comintern finding aids, and assisting the development of archives in Albania.

Archives in transition Four factors have created massive changes in the archives of Europe within the last decade: the end of the Cold War, the rapid technological changes in records creation, the rapid social changes and the emergence of the possibility for unmediated communication in multiples. The end of the Cold War has made serious professional discussion of issues possible throughout the European archival community. It brought longsuppressed replevin issues to the forefront, and has made it imperative for archivists to find strategies to deal with records of joint heritages. For the most part, political barriers to professional discussion are gone. Rapid technological changes brought both crises and opportunities to archives. The computer revolution is one example, but the emergence of independent radio and television entities also raises serious questions of how to ensure preservation of that dominant form of communication. Preserving and making accessible these formats are too expensive for most archives to achieve alone, and international co-operation is required to find satisfactory practices. The rapid social changes that accompany the political and technological shifts also affect archives.

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The nature of the workforce is changing, with more women assuming managerial roles and the influence of technologically sophisticated archivists growing. The development of archival centres outside direct state control and state funding also brings a new set of social relationships among archives and archivists. And the new social conditions prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe give archivists a felt need to document social change and appear to be bringing a renewed interest in projects such as oral history and directed photography, creating and not merely selecting records of changing circumstances. Finally, the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web is bringing unprecedented changes to the archival enterprise. In describing and making available holdings, archivists have long developed finding aids, printed them and distributed them in person or by mail. Records have most often been used in research rooms; sometimes records are used through photocopies ordered after consultation with an archivist; sometimes records are used on microform ordered by an archivist and accompanied by some form of description. The general pattern, however, has been of direct communication, one-to-one, between archivist and user, with the archivist able to answer questions, clarify the structure of the holdings and in general mediate the research use. The World Wide Web and the Internet have changed that. The new pattern is unmediated communication in multiples. Archivists place descriptions on a Web site, and users from all over the world have simultaneous access without intervention of the archivist. Copies of documents placed on the Web site may be used in the order the archivist envisions, or may be used in random sequences over the course of the research. Archives descriptions will not only be seen by researchers, but by browsers and surfers. All of this places new demands on archivists to be clear, to be consistent, and to think in new ways about use and users. These four great engines of change are reflected

in the work of the European archival profession at large. Ethical and legal issues are now more visible than at any time since the start of the Cold War, resulting in the development of an international Code of Ethics for Archivists, the above-mentioned statement of principles on replevin, the development of a model for archival legislation and a statement on the management of records of former repressive regimes. Bilateral efforts, particularly within the framework of a multilateral body such as ICA or the Council of Europe, have a renewed vigour. But perhaps the most striking feature is the growing importance of professional associations. In North America, professional archival associations have a long, strong history. In both Canada and the United States the majority of archives are outside the administrative control of the national archives, and therefore the professional associations have played a critical role in fostering uniquely important bonds among individual archivists employed in widely divergent institutional settings. Many of these archivists are employed within a library, particularly a university library, and library practice has often influenced the archival tradition in the United States. Standards for archival education, codes of ethics, statements of best practices, publication of the major journals and newsletters, and a host of other initiatives have come from these societies of professionals organized in their own self-interest, rather than from the central archival institution. In Western Europe, the tradition of professional associations is also strong. The German archival association, the Netherlands association (now well over 100 years old) and the Society of Archivists in the United Kingdom, among others, are influential in shaping archival practice in their countries. In Central and Eastern Europe the pattern is different. A few strong national associations, such as in Poland, do exist, but in most countries the association is weak and in some countries does not yet exist. What are emerging are regional groups, led by

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national archivists. A first conference for Balkan archivists was held in 1996, with another conference promised in 1997; two conferences of Central and Eastern European archivists have been held in 1995 and 1996, with another planned for 1997. These conferences are opportunities for national archivists to come together and discuss issues; whether they will broaden into organizations of individual professionals will depend not only on politics but on the financial issues of support for organizing meetings, support for attendance and support to maintain an infrastructure between annual events. A further development is the interest in creating opportunities for archivists who share the same practical problems to hold professional discussions. Through ICA, groups have been formed to permit professional interchange among municipal archivists, church archivists, archivists responsible for the records of parliaments and political parties, and so on. While these are international groups, they are heavily influenced by the participants from UNESCO Europe. As these groups develop professional programmes, they will tend to strengthen the contacts between professionals outside the framework of the national archival systems. In summary, European archivists are beginning to have new means of professional development at hand. Co-operative networks, not all dependent upon the intervention of national archives and national governments, are developing. A healthy, vital profession, with no fundamental barriers to professional conversations or to shared competencies, has emerged over the last decade. The archival profession as we know it is largely an invention of the twentieth century. It is now ready for the challenges of the twenty-first. ■■

Further reading EUROPEAN COMMISSION. 1994. Archives in the European Union: Report of the Group of Experts on the Coordination of Archives. Luxembourg, European Commission. TURKO, K. 1996. Preservation Activities in Canada: A Unifying Theme in a Decentralized Country. Ottawa, Commission on Preservation and Access. UNESCO. 1993. Final Report. First Meeting of the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme, Pultusk, Poland, 12–13 September 1993. Paris, UNESCO. 44 pp. (PGI93/WS/17.)

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Trudy Huskamp Peterson is the Executive Director of the Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary. She spent twenty-four years with the United States National Archives, including more than two years as Acting Archivist of the United States. She is a past president of the International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (1993–95) and the Society of American Archivists (1990–91). Dr Peterson served as a Commissioner on the United States–Russia Joint Commission on MIA/POWs (1992–95) and as a Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies in Finland (1983–84). She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Iowa.

Trudy Huskamp Peterson Executive Director Open Society Archives Eotros uca 14 H-1067 Budapest Hungary Tel: (1)-117-4225 Fax: (1)-117-4102 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 13 Latin America and the Caribbean Jorge Palacios Preciado National Archives, Colombia

Victoria Arias Roca Ministry of Education and Culture, Spain

T

he task of assessing the current situation affecting archives in Latin America and making valid generalizations about it is certainly not an easy one. Although it is true that many shortcomings in the region’s archives still exist and that in some countries there has been scant improvement, in others a sustained process of change has been taking place since the 1980s that allows us to claim a qualitative leap forward in the history of archives. All kinds of limitations have traditionally affected Latin American archives: administrative neglect, a lack of definition of their legal and administrative status, organizational weaknesses, inadequate and insufficient buildings and facilities, budget constraints, obsolete technical working methods, non-professionalized staff, and poor theoretical and methodological development of record-keeping. All of these flaws have been shared by the archives in the region to a greater or lesser extent until quite recently. These negative features reflect, in turn, the nonexistence of any archive policy. This gap stems essentially from the scanty interest shown by public administrations in the archives they themselves produced and from the lack of vision of the public authorities in failing to understand the direct link that exists between proper record-keeping and the efficiency of the public administration itself, so essential for the transition to a modern society. As mentioned above, this backward situation has evolved somewhat since the start of the 1980s. Around that time, countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, together with Colombia later on, started to lay the foundations of their national archive systems. This trend has since then taken a firm hold and has been backed up by the legislative provisions recently enacted in some of these countries. In Cuba too, in spite of limited resources, a national archive system has been successfully set up and excellent work on preserving the country’s documentary heritage has been carried out over recent years. Other countries, such as

167

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Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela, are currently making efforts on different fronts to improve their archive structures and to link up their archival repositories in a functional nationwide network. In the remaining countries in the region, however, the flaws listed above are still predominant and the situation of neglect affecting the national archives may indeed be indicative of the general position of all the other archives in the country. It is true that the governments in some of these countries have brought out various legal provisions over recent years in an attempt to right the situation. Nevertheless, the lack of sufficient backing from the state in putting such provisions into practice has largely distorted their aims. Turning more specifically to archives in Central America, a ray of hope may be glimpsed in a recent event that took place in Costa Rica. The International Seminar on Archive Policies in Central America was held in April 1995 under the auspices of the Costa Rica National Archives, the Association of Latin American Archives (ALA) and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The conclusions and recommendations of this meeting bear witness to the firm wish of the countries in the region to join forces on legislation, infrastructure, personnel training and the conservation and treatment of archive holdings, with the support of friendly governments and international organizations. A summary of Latin American national archives can be found in Table 1 on pp. 170 and 171.

Legislation One of the factors contributing to the modernization of archives is the existence of modern, updated legislation covering all the different aspects involved in the archive function. A report on the situation of archives in Latin America, prepared by José Ricard Gallardo and José Maria Jardim in 1987 as part of the work carried out by the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH) and the

Association of Latin American Archives (ALA) Joint Group, mentioned the following as some of the shortcomings that existed in many of the countries: • The absence of an Archives Act. • The ‘mass of scattered legal provisions’, many of which were issued over thirty or forty years ago, which are no longer valid to cope with the problems facing archives today. • The extreme ignorance of this legislation on the part of those working in archives, particularly those who work outside the strict framework of national archives. • The tendency to confuse in practice the legal provisions governing the activities of national archives (regulations, operating manuals, etc.) with an actual archives act. In addition to the deficiencies listed above, the frequent non-compliance with current rules and regulations in practice constitutes a further obstacle. This in part may be explained by the problem as stated above. But also the new legal provisions have often granted authority and new functions, or set up new services, without providing the necessary financial and human resources to implement them. Likewise, non-compliance also has often been prompted by the fact that legislation has not gone hand in hand with the consequent regulatory development that would have made its application possible. These faults are still a reality. However, in the years that have elapsed since the report quoted above came out, some important changes in archive legislation have already been made or are soon to be made in several countries in the region. One group of countries that includes Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru must be highlighted first of all. This group has succeeded in bringing out top-level, up-to-date legislation that comprehensively regulates all the different facets involved in the treatment of documentary records in all the phases of their life-cycle, and structures the organization and running of their respective national archive sys-

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tems. In Brazil, a country with a federal structure, national-level legislation is supplemented by laws enacted in different states structuring their respective archive systems. The new bills presented by Cuba and Ecuador to overhaul their legislation are also worthy of note. Their respective laws regulating the national archive system were issued some years ago (in 1960 and 1982) and needed to be updated in certain areas. Mexico is a rather unusual case because it has managed to implement de facto a National Archive System nationwide, which it has been developing since the 1970s, yet it still does not have an archives act or a system act in place at a national level. This type of legislation does exist, however, in quite a number of its states, just as is the case in Brazil. For a national archive system to be set up in Venezuela, the current National Archives Act – dating back to 1945 – must be repealed first. A draft bill is currently at an advanced stage of its progress through Parliament and will eventually become the Organic Law on Archives. Just as in Brazil and Mexico, some states have recently started to pass their own archive laws. In the remaining countries of South America where no nationwide system of archives has been successfully set up to date, provisions have been passed over the last few years which have attempted to move in this direction. These new provisions in Argentina, for instance, have led to the restructuring of the Archivo General de la Nación and the extension of the powers of the Archivo Intermedio (Intermediate Repository) (1992). Likewise, in Bolivia, the creation of a system of public archives was provided through a number of Supreme Decrees enacted in 1989, which also regulated the transfers, appraisal and disposal of records with a view to streamlining the flow of administrative documentation. Nevertheless, the fact that the state has not come up with the necessary resources has prevented the system from functioning properly. In Chile, an

attempt has been made to overcome the extreme centralization in archives provided for by the 1929 legislation through the presentation of a bill aimed at creating seven new regional archives that would unload the National Archives and lay the foundations for a future nationwide archive system. The creation in 1992 of the Archivo del Siglo XX (Twentiethcentury Archive) also fits into this same strategy line. In all the Central American countries, with the exception stated above of Costa Rica, archive legislation is full of loopholes and has been poorly developed. Even in El Salvador, where a Special Law for the Protection of Cultural Heritage was passed in 1993, the treatment given to archives is limited. A new archives bill has been presented in Nicaragua and is awaiting its passage through Parliament.

Institutions Most national archives in Latin America were created back in the nineteenth century once the process of achieving independence from the colonizing nations had been completed in the region. The archives were set up with the twofold aim of collecting and preserving the documentary heritage corresponding to the colonial period and, at the same time, of receiving new records as they were created by the bodies and institutions in the new states. For a variety of different reasons, however, this latter function tended to be overlooked. Thus, by the second half of the twentieth century, many of the national archives had long since ceased to receive transfers from government departments. The overall image they presented was one of inward-looking institutions that devoted all their energy to research and were poorly represented within the wider administrative organization to which they belonged. Moreover, their internal organization was oldfashioned, making them inoperative. This shortcoming was never corrected despite the attempts that were made to that effect by the different countries. Likewise, the second-rank position they held within

Institutions

Accessions

Restoration/repair

Reference service

Exhibitions

6.2 Number of visitors

6.1 Number of exhibitions

6.

5 5 000

11 1 0001

13 632

13 5201

5.4 Number of recorded inquiries

13 835

8 4301

6 500

7 700

5.3 Number of items consulted

1 2001

4251

20 000

8

1 6191

4 6051

8881

7881

5.2 Number of user visits

5.1 Number of users

5.

4.1 Number of records treated

4.

3.3 Other archives (in items)

3.2 Other archives (in metres)

3.1 Conventional archives (in metres)

3.

2.6 Other archives (in items)

2.5 Other archives (in metres)

259

3 000

1 5251

2.4 Microforms (in items)

121

50

3 5101

Sound recordings (in hours) 5001

25

2 6101

Motion pictures (in hours)

Still pictures (in items)

2 000

10

5 000

8 000

1868

1

Colombia

325 5411

2.3 Audiovisual archives

2.2 Cartographic archives (in items)

11

0001

7801

1

1 6001

7 6701

1838

1

Brazil

2.1 Conventional archives (in metres)

Holdings

1821

1

Argentina

2 000

3

6

34 130

2 000

1 070

50

50

436

1

54

500

7

5 000

25 000

7 000

1881

1

Costa Rica

3 500

55 600

3 500

1 000

300

2 000

30

800

300

8 000

1938

1

Ecuador

6 000

16

2 500

7 800

4 000

5 000

1 507

500

132

68 733

130 000

1 000

8 216

7 000 000

8 729

40 550

1823

1

Mexico

1596

1

Paraguay

3701

205

241

10 2291

1861

1

Peru

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2.

1.2 Founding date

1.1 Number of institutions reporting

1.

Type of data (units of measurement)

Table 1. Latin American national archives, 1996

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1. Figures taken from UNESCO, UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1991.

10.3 Networks

LAN

Windows NT Clipper CDS/ISIS

10.2 Software

Fox Pro

Pentium PC (1) 486 PCs (27)

5 132

8 142

54

335

10.1 Hardware

Automation

753

Of which personnel costs (thousands of US$) 10.

2 748

9.1 Total current expenditure (thousands of US$)

Expenditure

12

16 300

21 500

Windows CDS/ISIS

2 servers 486 PCs (75) 1 scanner

835

1 812

32

86

16 000

6 000

Novell

Windows CDS-ISIS

PCs

493

2 237

19

80

7 000

750

Novell 2.11

CDS/ISIS

486 PCs (3) 1 ESC 6000 scanner

74

97

14

2 000

89 167

Token Ring

Micro-ISIS Oracle, etc.

Pentium PCs (9) PCs (58)

603

1 161

71

228

55 000

100

146

6

24

170

Novell

Clipper 5.2

486 PCs 486 server (1)

800

11

76

3 000

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9.

47

Of which professional staff

Personnel

8.1 Number of permanent staff

8.

4 040 9 3921

7.2 Shelving capacity (in metres)

Buildings and equipment

7.1 Gross area (in square metres)

7.

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the administrative structure made them, as a general rule, subordinate to other higher bodies, and that considerably reduced their capacity for action. However, recent years have seen an intensive overhaul take place in many national archives. This aims, on the one hand, at restoring their link with the government’s archives in order to return the flow of documents to normal and, on the other, at reinforcing their institutional position within the national archive structure. In several countries this process has been further consolidated by the recent enactment of legislative provisions that place national archives at the head of the respective national archive systems and significantly extend their previous tasks. The responsibilities conferred on the national archives by their new status include: drawing up, coordinating and overseeing national archive policy; organizing and managing the national archive system; setting technical standards and guidelines with a view to modernizing public records management; training the human resources required for the smooth running of the archives; guaranteeing and improving access to the information in the archives; and so on. In parallel with this process, and with a view to making it feasible for the national archives to perform these wide-ranging functions, in some countries they have been granted a higher-ranking position in the administrative hierarchy as well as the autonomy needed to develop and finance their own working programmes. Colombia and Costa Rica are both good examples of the progress that can be made when the necessary economic resources are available. The growing dynamism and scope acquired by many of the Latin American national archives over recent years is clearly visible, for instance, in the important professional events they have been organizing or fostering – many on an international basis. Take, for instance, the 24th International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (CITRA), the first of its kind to be held in Latin

America (Mexico City, 1993), the various seminars on archival description that have been held (Santiago de Chile, 1991; Mexico City, 1993; Cartagena de Indias, 1995), the International Seminar on Construction of Archive Buildings (San José de Costa Rica, 1993), the Preventive Conservation Course (Quito, 1994), the Seminar on Restoration (Santiago de Chile, 1994), the Seminar on Appraisal (Mexico City, 1995) or the International Seminar on Archive Policy in Central America (San José de Costa Rica, 1996). Another patent example of the dynamism of these archives can be found in their activity within ALA, whose working programme is the most farreaching of all the regional branches of the International Council on Archives (ICA). Nevertheless, it must also be acknowledged that in a handful of countries the limited support lent by the public authorities to their national archives makes it impossible for these structures to overcome their backward and poverty-stricken situation and become modern institutions.

Holdings The oldest records held in Latin American archives date back to the time of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest and colonization in the sixteenth century, and many are of extraordinary value. The shared history of Latin American countries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, when they lived through a long colonial period under either Spanish or Portuguese rule, has resulted in their archives tending to have many features in common. This similarity is evident right from the outset in the way the national archives are actually organized into two large sections – colonial and republican. Another point worthy of particular note with regard to the countries that spent time under Spanish rule is that, owing to the colonial administrative organization of the time, the archives of certain countries hold records directly related to the history

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of others. This enhances their value even further and makes it necessary to fully guarantee their preservation. An example is the Archivo General de la Nación in Lima that holds records on the extensive Viceroyalty of Peru, which included large tracts of land that today belong to neighbouring countries. Another example is the Archivo General de Centroamérica in Guatemala. Most of the holdings in Latin American archives are conventional archives. Cartographic material is also common and some repositories – not just the national ones – boast rich collections of maps and plans. Many of the national archives also hold documents on new media, particularly collections of photographs (see Chapter 14). At present, however, the existence of records held on computerized media is practically nil. The conservation of the vast documentary heritage held in their archives throws up enormous challenges to countries and its survival is sometimes under serious threat. First, the buildings given over to archives are not usually sufficient in number and their capacity tends to be wholly inadequate. Nor do their installations meet the right standards and conditions with regard to conservation. Taking the different national archives, only those in Costa Rica and Colombia are new and actually fulfil all the conditions required nowadays from an archive building. In Mexico, although the Archivo General de la Nación is housed in a former prison, the redesign work carried out in the 1980s has left the building perfectly fitted out for the purpose, although the problem of lack of space will arise before too long. In Venezuela, a splendid building designed to be the new headquarters of the Archivo General de la Nación is at an advanced stage of construction. Other national archives, however, are still suffering from serious space problems. Ecuador and Peru, for example, are still waiting for a new headquarters to be built. In Argentina, transfers to the

Archivo General de la Nación are also seriously handicapped for that reason and the same applies to the Cuban Archivo Nacional. In other countries such as Guatemala, Honduras or Paraguay, the lack of space is just another problem on top of the already precarious nature of the installations. All the shortcomings described above are usually even more marked in other types of archives, such as municipal archives, where in many cases the records are simply piled up in rooms that do not even meet the minimum standards for guaranteeing their conservation. The problem is especially serious in tropical countries (see Chapter 25). Some countries are well aware of the risks threatening the preservation of their documentary heritage. They have duly taken, or are taking, steps to identify that heritage with a view to being able to assess its volume, its state of conservation, etc., and to use the results of this evaluation to plan the strategies to be followed. Mexico and Ecuador each drew up some years ago their own census or inventory of archives nationwide. Other countries have done likewise. In some of these, the census work has been undertaken in the framework of a joint project with Spain – the Census-Directory of Latin American Archives Programme, run under the auspices of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture. Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru have all taken part in this project, and Chile and Paraguay have recently joined it. The resulting database in a standard format has been accessible through the Internet since early 1996 (http://www.mcu.es).

Human resources Over these last few years, many countries have made a huge effort to overcome the limitations of an extremely small staff and poor personnel training that have chronically affected their archives. The causes of this dysfunction are undoubtedly linked to the scanty importance bestowed on archives by the public authorities. This has been reflected both in the

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Table 2. Staffing levels National archives

Professionals

Technicians

Auxiliaries

Other

Total staff

Argentina

12 (25%)

7

28

47

Brazil

54 (15%)

70

211

335

Colombia

32 (37%)

29

25

86

Costa Rica

19 (24%)

30

31

80

Ecuador

5 (50%)

3

2

10

Honduras

1 (10%)

5

4

56 (23%)

87

70

6 (25%)

3

15

11 (15%)

26

4

≈ 40

Chile

Mexico Paraguay Peru

neglect of the installations and in the low wage levels allocated to archival jobs. All of this has had a direct effect on the stability, training and specialization of personnel. Many of the national archives still have reduced staffing levels, as Table 2 illustrates. Another frequent problem is the unbalanced composition of the staff. The norm tends to be for the number of professional-level staff to be very low, too few to deal with the problems posed by records management nowadays, especially when the rest of the staff tend to have only a very low educational level, making them unsuited to the performance of certain tasks. If we move from the national archives to other public repositories in the country, the situation worsens substantially. The administrative archives of bodies attached to the central or federal administration rarely have any professional-level staff, since the people who are responsible for them are administrative public officials who have not been required to undergo any specific training. Municipal archives also have serious staffing weaknesses; many are completely unstaffed and quite often this neglect even affects town councils that possess a rich documentary heritage.

10 30

243

35 (admin. staff )

76

24

Over recent years, however, particularly in some countries, this situation is undergoing substantial changes and the first steps are being taken towards establishing a personnel policy for archives. One the one hand, the respective national archives have managed to reinforce the number of specialized professionals on their staffs at the same time as they have included training for their employees on the list of their priority goals (for example, in 1982 Costa Rica’s National Archives employed five professionals and forty-three technicians, whereas in 1992 its workforce was made up of eighty-one employees including twenty-one professionals). On the other hand, training possibilities at university level have multiplied over recent years, as described below, and this will tend to change the professional profile of professional archivists before too long. They will cease to be graduates in history and social sciences and become university graduates who have followed specific archival studies courses. Lastly, another problem frequently occurring in the archives is the lack of personnel stability. This is especially serious when it affects management and other posts involving responsibility since, at the very least, it causes the activity of the institutions and the

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development of the work programmes to grind to a halt. Nevertheless, that trend seems to have subsided somewhat in a number of countries and there is now greater continuity in management posts.

Budgets Throughout the Latin American region, the economic resources allocated to archives have always been very limited and comparatively less than those given to other institutions in the cultural heritage sector such as museums and libraries. This fitted in with the back-seat position to which archives were traditionally relegated by public authorities and by society itself. Moreover, the general economic situation over recent years has led governments to take an even harder line on public expenditure cutbacks, and that has also had an effect on archives. These have seen their possibilities to purchase equipment, expand staffing levels or carry out large-scale projects such as the construction of new buildings or the simple rehabilitation of existing buildings highly limited. The lack of resources affects all kinds of archive institutions, including the national or general archives themselves, but it is much more pressing at other levels, such as in the regional, departmental or municipal archive facilities. The major slice of the funding allocated to archives is usually devoted to staff costs. The rest is used to cover expenditure on supplies and certain office materials. The poor situation makes it impossible even to undertake small-scale restructuring or expansion work, and also prevents any improvements being made to the range of services provided by the archive. Most archives have no other source of income than the budget allocated to them by the state. The possibility of obtaining additional outside resources through the sale of publications, reproductions, etc., is practically non-existent as the budget they are given is not enough to develop this type of activity. It must be pointed out here that in some coun-

Table 3. Archive budgets National archives

Total budget in thousands of US$

Personnel (%)

Maintenance and investment (%)

Argentina

2 748

27

73

Brazil

8 142

63

37

Colombia

1 812

46

54

Costa Rica

2 237

22

78

97

76

24

1 160

52

48

Paraguay

146

68

32

Peru

800

Ecuador Mexico

tries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador or Peru the national archives have administrative autonomy and their own budget which allows them to perform the basic functions they have been legally assigned. Additionally, it gives them the capacity to generate their own income through the sale of services or their own editorial programme. Other national archives, whose position within the administrative organizational hierarchy leaves them under the responsibility of a higher body (a directorate general for example), do not have this financial autonomy. Specific, updated information is only available on the national archives of some countries (see Table 3). It shows that the Costa Rica National Archives, on the one hand, have a budget which is the third largest in absolute terms, reflecting the importance of this institution, whereas on the other hand, an archive on the scale of the Mexican Archivo General de la Nación has a very limited budget. Although figures are not available, the national archives in countries such as Uruguay, Bolivia or all the Central American countries with the exception of Costa Rica have totally insufficient resources. In some cases, such as Honduras or Guatemala, this prevents them from guaranteeing even the physical conservation of the records they hold. The problem is especially serious in the case of Guatemala whose Archivo General de Centroamérica – for historic reasons – holds a

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great deal of documentation regarding its neighbouring countries.

Records management One of the main weaknesses traditionally affecting records in the Latin American area is the disordered growth and accumulation of records produced by the public administration, resulting in offices and archives that have become saturated with poorly controlled holdings. The following are some of the reasons for this: • Non-existent technical links between government agencies and national archives. • Non-existent programmes and regulations for records management resulting in the application of heterogeneous criteria for organization, appraisal and disposition by the public administrative offices themselves. • Lack of proper regulations for transfers, so non-compliance was standard practice. • Saturation of the national archives, which limited the possibility of receiving transfers regularly. • Shortage or non-existence of central archives within official bodies. • Limited training and staff with practically no archive skills in records services. • Non-existent legal framework for the protection of records as an instrument and as the history of public institutions. Brazil and Mexico were the first two countries in Latin America in which, during the 1970s, steps were taken to try to correct the situation of official records. The work carried out in both countries until the early 1990s has been described in an illustrative publication by the Latin American Group for Records Management which will soon be available under the title Archivos administrativos iberoamericanos. Modelo y perspectivas de una tradición archivística. This group, with the support of ALA, has been working since its creation in 1989 on a

methodology to help resolve the problems of Latin American archival repositories in the field of records management. The above-mentioned problems, to a greater or lesser extent, still exist in all the countries and affect the control, access and institutional and social utilization of records. Efficient policies and methodological guidelines need to be drawn up and developed urgently, and economic and human resources need to be allocated with a view to improving the quality of records services within public organizations and achieving integrated and standardized operation. The recent legislation in several countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica or Peru, is undoubtedly an essential instrument. It specifically attributes to the respective national archives the authority for issuing the necessary technical regulations to ensure proper management of records from the time they are created so that the archives of the public administration can be modernized.

Professional associations In Latin America, professional associations of archivists have traditionally played a much more limited role than similar organizations in North America or in many European countries. This is also proof of the lack of professionalization of people working in the archives sector. Although professional associations exist at the national level in most countries, these have had only a low profile because their tiny membership and their limited resources have prevented them from developing programmes of any great scope. Costa Rica is one of a number of countries that still does not have an association of archivists. Nor is there currently a nationwide archivists’ association in Argentina, although the professional associations that do exist in several of its provinces have banded together to form the Republic of Argentina Archivist Federation whose headquarters are in Santa Fe.

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Out of all the professional associations of archivists in the region the only one that has acquired any real importance is the Brazilian Associação dos Arquivistas Brasileiros, whose headquarters are in Rio de Janeiro, with subsidiary offices in other states. Its most outstanding activities include the convening every two years of the Brazilian Archive Studies Conference, whose high professional level is widely acknowledged and which is usually attended by archivists from abroad, together with its work in the field of education where it runs training courses. One important point to be underlined is that under the legislation passed recently in some countries, these associations are now directly involved in the management of national archives policy. This is true for Brazil, for instance, where it is laid down by law that a representative of the Associação must sit on the National Archive Council (CONARQ). In Costa Rica, too, by law one archivist must be chosen to sit on the Board of the National Archives from a shortlist on which at least one of the candidates must be a member of the Costa Rican Archivist Association.

Education and training Until very recently, most of the people working in archives had not undergone any previous training in the subject and they tended to be self-taught, with experience gained on the job. There has traditionally been an extremely limited supply of training and education opportunities of a general nature and a total lack of any specialized training. This has been the result of the lack of professionalization of the work of archivists, which meant that access to professional posts was not regulated, nor was there any defined job profile for the selection and recruitment of archivists. However, training has now become a priority in several countries as an essential requirement for progress in the implementation of the national

archive system. Thus, for instance, in Colombia, one of the five work programmes in the Operating Plan for the National Archive System is devoted to education and training. Moreover, legislation in different countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba or Peru explicitly bestows on the higher bodies of the national archives administration an active role in training staff working in public archives. Likewise, in Brazil and Costa Rica, legislation also provides for the collaboration of the higher archive administration with those state institutions that are responsible for drawing up national education policies or syllabi related to training archivists. Initial education and training Recent years have seen the number of university education possibilities multiply. Previously, as a general rule there were no specific university study programmes available for archivists, and archives work was either taught within the framework of librarianship and documentation programmes or it was an extra subject studied as part of a history degree. The situation has moved on considerably since then. On the one hand, it is clear that archives studies have begun to play a bigger role within university syllabi and, on the other hand, regulated studies on the subject are beginning to appear, including even postgraduate specialization programmes in archives. Following this pattern, a number of universities in Brazil teach graduate programmes in archive work: Rio de Janeiro University, Federal Fluminense University (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro), Brasilia University (D.F.), Santa María Federal University (Rio Grande do Sul), Río Grande do Sul Federal University (Porto Alegre, Río Grande do Sul) and Bahía University (Salvador, Bahía). Postgraduate or specialization courses are also taught at the University of São Paulo (a specialization course in archives organization), the Pernambuco Federal University (Recife, Pernambuco) and the Pará Federal University (Belén, Pará).

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In Costa Rica, it is possible to complete a university degree programme in archives studies lasting either two or four years, but there are still no postgraduate programmes available. In Mexico, archives studies are taught both in the Escuela Nacional de Biblioteconomía y Archivonomía (ENBA) and as a university programme. The ENBA currently offers a degree programme in archives studies and is co-operating with the Archivo General de la Nación to set up a postgraduate archives programme which could start in 1997. Nevertheless, the educational possibilities in archives studies are totally insufficient as there are currently only three institutions where the subject can be studied. Two offer a full degree programme and one a graduate programme at a lower technical level. In Argentina, the most important educational institution, owing to its long tradition, is the Escuela de Archiveros de Córdoba. There are also schools with three-year archives studies programmes in Paraná, Santa Fe, San Juan and El Chaco, and a full degree archives programme is available at the Instituto de Formación Docente de La Plata. The Escuela Nacional de Archiveros in Lima, Peru, offers a four-year higher education programme. Several universities also offer archives study courses as part of the syllabus for other degrees. With regard to the type of training given in these educational establishments, it seems that as a general rule it does not focus on one specific type of archives. Instead, training is intended for work both in archives and records services. In Peru and Costa Rica, however, the training has lately been aimed more at the latter. In other countries, such as Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador and Paraguay, archives studies are still taught together with librarianship and there is no specific training in this field at a higher level. In Colombia, degree-level courses are offered at the La Salle, Javeriana and Antioquia Universities. These

and the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia also offer postgraduate specialization courses in archives studies. Apart from university-level education, technical schools exist in nearly all countries where archives skills are taught at a technical level. However, in spite of the development of archives studies witnessed over recent years, the supply of courses available at both a professional and a technical level is still insufficient in most countries. In one or two odd cases, it is still necessary to go abroad to be trained in archives studies. Lastly, with regard to the efforts being made in different countries to design global training and professionalization systems for archivists to enable them to cope successfully with the challenges currently posed by archives, the proposal that the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil has been promoting is certainly an interesting one. The idea is to create a Latin American working group in collaboration with the Vocational Training Section of ICA in order to define a model for the education and training of future Latin American archivists. Continuing education and training There has been a traditional lack of general education and training opportunities for archive staff, and even less chance of employees receiving specialized training programmes in technical areas. For a long time, no staff training plans or refresher courses were run at all, and this had a negative impact on the effectiveness and quality of the service provided by the archives. Several countries, however, are making notable progress with regard to the professionalization of their human resources. Their national archives systems are taking the lead and promoting extensive training and refresher programmes which not only involve staff working in the national archives but also cover personnel in other archives. Basic training courses are offered through these programmes, as

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well as further training or refresher courses (for example, many courses and workshops have been run over the last two years on the ICA International Standard on Archival Description, ISAD (G), for archivists and other public employees working in archives. In several federally structured countries, the national archives are not the only levels in the system that participate in the training activities. In Mexico and Brazil, for instance, the archives in the states or municipalities organize their own vocational training or refresher activities (lectures, courses, workshops, etc.). In Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Paraguay, the respective national archives also organize training courses and other activities aimed at archives personnel working all over the country. In Brazil, the Association of Brazilian Archivists runs short courses to train and retrain personnel working in archives. In Peru, the Escuela Nacional de Archiveros is responsible for training archives personnel, with basic courses lasting one or two months and week-long seminarworkshops. In Peru, the Escuela Nacional de Archiveros is responsible for training archive personnel, with basic courses lasting one or two months and week-long seminar-workshops. Mention must also be made here of the archives staff training activities of the Latin American Regional Courses in Administrative Archives sponsored by OAS, and held annually in Peru. Similarly, there is a Training Programme for Latin America offered each year by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Spain which includes an Archive School Workshop run over two-and-a-half months in the Archivo General de la Administración de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). Short periods of more specialized training also take place in other Spanish archives and related centres. Despite the obvious successes achieved in some countries in the region, there is still much work to be done. On the one hand, there is a need to create or

improve the mechanisms available for providing professional and technical staff with the necessary opportunities to keep their knowledge and skills up to date and to have access to specialized knowledge. On the other hand, it will also be necessary to keep up the good work in education and training for staff in those parts of the system that most require it.

Archives of former repressive regimes The recent history of a great many countries in the Latin American region has been marked by the existence of dictatorial regimes that have kept tight control over the population. This control was implemented through the consolidation of repressive mechanisms and information services which in some countries reached impressive standards of ‘effectiveness’, putting together an astonishing armoury of information on people, organizations, and so on. Over recent years, many of the countries previously in the grip of this type of regime have suc-ceeded in restoring their democratic status. This has led to the thorny question of how to deal with the archives left by the repressive bodies from the previous period. There is also the need to come up with suitable formulas to avoid their destruction and to regulate their use and access in order to minimize the possibility of any unsuitable re-use of such documents (by a hypothetical new authoritarian regime or even in the context of a democratic state itself). No satisfactory solution to their dilemma has been reached to date in any of the countries that suffered from this problem, although international co-operation may help. UNESCO and ICA set up, in September 1994, an International Expert Group with the mandate to prepare a manual on the management of state security archives of former repressive regimes, whose draft has been completed and will be published within UNESCO’s RAMP studies series. Among the membership of the group there are two experts representing Latin American countries.

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Acknowledgements The returns to a questionnaire prepared and distributed in 1996 by the Colombian Archivo General de la Nación to Latin American national archives have been an invaluable help in drafting this report. Special acknowledgments are due to: Miguel Unamuno, Director, and Graciela Swiderski, Archivo General de la Nación, Argentina; Jaime Antunes da Silva, Director-General, Arquivo Nacional, Brazil; Grecia Vasco de Escudero, Director, Archivo Nacional, Ecuador; Patricia Galeana, Director-General, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico; Olga Sánchez de Machado, Director, Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay; and Aída Luz Mendoza, Director, Archivo General de la Nación, Peru. The responses to a survey, carried out in June 1993 by the Grupo Iberoamericano de Tratamiento de Archivos Administrativos among Latin American National Archives to assess the state of the art concerning records management in their countries, also have been of great help. ■■

Further reading ARCHIVO GENERAL DE LA NACIÓN. 1995. Plan estratégico del Archivo General de la Nación, 1995–1998. Santafé de Bogotá, Archivo General de la Nación. 32 pp. CHACON ARIAS, V. 1996. The Establishment, Extension and Modernization of Archival Systems and Services: The Case of Costa Rica. In: Proceedings of the Inter-Regional Conference on Archival Development of the International Council on Archives, Tunis, 1995. (Special issue of Janus, 1996.) GALLARDO, J. R.; JARDIM, J. M. 1988. Proposta para um programa de modernização dos sistemas arquivísticos dos países latino-americanos. Rio de Janeiro, Arquivo Nacional. 30 pp. (Publicações técnicas, 45.) GRUPO IBEROAMERICANO DE TRATAMIENTO DE ARCHIVOS ADMINISTRATIVOS. 1996. Archivos administrativos iberoamericanos: Modelo y perspectivas de una tradición archivística. Santafé de Bogotá, Archivo General

de la Nación (Colombia)/Ministerio de Cultura (Spain). (In press.) INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES. 1995–96. Législation archivistique/Archival Legislation 1981– 1994. In: Archivum, Vol. XL (Albania-Kenya), 1995, 348 pp.; Vol. XLI (Latvia-Zimbabwe). Munich, K. G. Saur, 1996. 344 pp. LOPEZ GOMEZ, P. 1991. El Archivo General de Centroamérica (Ciudad de Guatemala): Informe. Madrid, ANABAD. 324 pp. SEMINARIO DE EVALUACIÓN DEL PROGRAMA DE DESARROLLO DE ARCHIVOS DE LA OEA. (Córdoba, Argentina). 1986. Informe de participantes al Seminario sobre la situación archivística de sus países. Anuario interamericano de archivos, Vol. XIII, pp. 135–87. Córdoba (Argentina), Centro Interamericano de Desarrollo de Archivos. SEMINARIO DEL SISTEMA NACIONAL DE ARCHIVOS (2nd, Santafé de Bogotá, 1993). 1994. Normatividad archivística: Memorias [del] Segundo Seminario sobre Sistema Nacional de Archivos de Colombia, Santafé de Bogotá, 1–3 de diciembre de 1993. Santafé de Bogotá, Archivo General de la Nación. 212 pp. SEMINARIO DEL SISTEMA NACIONAL DE ARCHIVOS (3rd, Santafé de Bogotá, 1994). 1994. Los archivos de cara al siglo XXI: Memorias [del] Tercer Seminario del Sistema Nacional de Archivos, Santafé de Bogotá, 2–4 de noviembre de 1994. Santafé de Bogotá, Archivo General de la Nación. 236 pp. SEMINARIO SOBRE NORMAS INTERNACIONALES PARA LA DESCRIPCIÓN ARCHIVÍSTICA (Mexico City, 1993). 1994. Actas, pp. 5–17, Washington, D.C.

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Jorge Palacios Preciado holds a

Victoria Arias Roca graduated in

Bachelor’s and a Ph.D. in History

Philosophy and Humanities from

from, respectively, Universidad

Salamanca University and belongs to

Nacional, Bogotá, and Universidad

the Professional Archivists Corps

Sevilla. He is currently Director of the

(Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros,

Archivo General de la Nación (the General Archive of

Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos, Sección Archivos).

the Nation), Colombia. He has been previously

Since 1992 she has been working at the Spanish

university professor, Rector of the Pedagogical and

Ministry of Education and Culture, where she is

Technological University of Colombia (UPTC), Dean

Special Assistant to the Deputy Director-General of

of the Faculty of Education and Director of

the State Archives in the field of relations with

Postgraduate Studies in History and Academic

international organizations and archival co-operation

Secretary at the UPTC. He is also Director of the

with other countries. Prior to her current

Review ALA. He has written various articles on the

appointment, she served on the staff of the Spanish

importance of archives in research, as well as articles

Centre for Information and Documentation on

and book reviews in several periodicals and

Archives (Centro de Información Documental de

newspapers. He published a number of articles and

Archivos, CIDA) where she worked on the setting up

books on the slave trade and pro-slavery society in

of archival databases, in particular the Guide to Sources

Latin America. In 1995 he was elected President of the

for the History of the Spanish Civil War and the Exile.

Latin American Association of Archives.

In 1991, within the framework of the commemorations of the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery of America, she was entrusted the co-ordination of the exhibition

Jorge Palacios Preciado

Ciencia y técnica entre Viejo y Nuevo Mundo. Siglos

Director

XV–XVIII (Madrid, Palacio de Velázquez,

Archivo General de la Nación

June–August 1992), organized by the Spanish Ministry

Carrea 6a No. 6-91

of Culture under the auspices of the International

Santafé de Bogotá

Council on Archives (ICA). In 1993 she became a

Colombia

member of ICA’s Ad Hoc Commission on Descriptive

Tel: 337-20-46/47/48/49/50

Standards.

Fax: 337-20-19 E-mail: [email protected] Victoria Arias Roca Técnico Superior de Archivos Subdirección General de los Archivos Estatales Dirección General del Libro, Archivos y Bibliotecas Ministerio de Educación y Cultura Plaza del Rey 28 071 Madrid Spain Tel: 1-521-05-08 Fax: 1-532-50-89

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Chapter 14 Audiovisual archives worldwide Helen P. Harrison Open University Library, United Kingdom

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he audiovisual heritage is an important element within the cultural heritage and has achieved prominence in the twentieth century, the first to have been recorded on audiovisual formats. Audiovisuals are not new but have become of increasing importance as art, entertainment and information carriers. In some cases the transmission of sound and visual data has greater value and impact than the printed document – where, for example, there is a literacy or language barrier. Audiovisuals may also be the only suitable records for the oral or sonic transmission of culture and the arts (musical performances, oral history accounts or captured events of the time), news and other current items. The spread and development of modern technologies mean an increase in the role of audiovisual data carriers for communication, information and culture. Today’s radio and television rely heavily on archive material and it is estimated that more than 60% of radio and television programmes use archival or stock material for programming. What are audiovisual materials? The definitions are still being formulated, but audiovisual materials are to be understood as visual recordings (with or without soundtrack) and sound recordings irrespective of their physical base or recording process. The carrier usually requires a playback device. This definition is meant to cover the maximum number of forms and formats. Audiovisual materials should not be confused with multimedia; the former provide source material for the latter, and multimedia as such are not archival material (see Chapter 16). Two features of audiovisual materials add an extra dimension to the principles of collection and preservation: a proliferation both of formats and of systems of production and playback. These cause incompatibility problems between formats and systems. Archives have to maintain original playback devices and employ technical staff who know how to use and maintain the machinery. The Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of

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Moving Images, adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1980, provides a basic orientation for integrating and protecting audiovisual recordings as part of the cultural heritage of each nation.

Audiovisual archives Audiovisual archives are storehouses for a large proportion of the social and cultural heritage of the twentieth century. An audiovisual archive is defined as an organization or department of an organization which is focused on collecting, managing, preserving and providing access to a collection of audiovisual media and the audiovisual heritage, applying archival principles. Such archives contain huge treasures of unique material. Archives of audiovisual materials are relatively new, but they have proliferated in the past few decades. The first sound recordings appeared in 1877 and the first sound archive – the Phonogrammarchiv in Vienna – was established as a research archive in 1899, although it was not followed by others until the 1930s. Film appeared in the 1890s and archives began to be established in the 1930s. Photography had appeared earlier in the nineteenth century. Television was originally recorded on film, but video has been the principal material since the later 1960s. Although audiovisual materials have appeared so recently, time is not on their side and the longer we delay in gathering, conserving and preserving the materials, the less we shall be able to retain. It is vital that steps are taken now to collect and manage audiovisual materials properly before their fragile nature takes a further toll. Already much has been lost owing to ignorance, lack of awareness of the dangers and careless handling.

Typology Audiovisual archives vary in type, purpose and function, and until recently most of them were singlematerial archives: moving image (film or television), sound and still-image archives, the latter frequently

housed in more conventional archives of print materials. As the technologies converge so do the archives, to unite effort and conserve resources. Some archives take responsibility for all recorded materials, others take smaller bites and combine one or two of the materials. The larger archives cannot always combine materials in one department; the physical techniques required to deal with each material from the point of view of storage, handling and restoration need different expertise and materials are therefore separated by this parameter alone. Other functions of collection management can be applied to all the materials: documentation and information retrieval, and selection. Storage vaults may have to accommodate more than one material and the resulting environmental considerations will be different from those more stringently applied to individual materials. Alternatively, an archive may decide that it must apply the optimum storage and environmental values which apply to each material: single-material archives are more fortunate in these cases. Examples of combined archives are the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia, the National Archives of Canada, which include film, television programmes, sound and paper, and in the United States the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Academic archives also house audiovisual materials, many in universities for research, and latterly educational materials for distance learning. These may be small and specialized, or have substantial collections and preservation programmes. Specialized or thematic archives concentrate on a particular format, subject-matter or locality, or relate to specific cultural groups. Many examples could be cited, including the following: special events or periods in history (the Imperial War Museum in London, which includes audiovisual materials dealing with wars and conflict); regional interests (Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria); specific cultural groups (the Australian

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Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra); academic and research disciplines (Dansk Folkmindesamling); folklife collections (Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress); oral history (School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh, United Kingdom); world music (Oman Centre for Traditional Music); and specific organizations (United Nations). Many of these archives have developed within larger organizations. Production archives. Film companies, broadcasting companies and record companies maintain archives primarily for use and exploitation by the parent company. Many of these preserve and restore their materials for re-use, but the archives’ main obligation is to the parent organization rather than to preserving the cultural heritage. This may be left to a national archive, which obtains a selection of the production company’s material by deposit. Other institutions with archival responsibility include museums, cinematheques, videotheques and national libraries. Most of these are more concerned with maintaining stock for exhibition purposes, and originals may be deposited for long-term preservation in a national archive. There are also collections of last resort which attempt to conserve copies of material in usable condition, but seldom retain archival originals or masters.

Finance and investment Audiovisual materials result from a huge level of investment. Consider the costs of a television channel, or a film production or sound recording company. That the material is allowed to deteriorate through lack of funding for conservation is an unforgivable waste of financial resources and human talent. Considering the huge investment in production, the financial resources available for preservation of the material are ludicrously small. Although some archives were established by private means, the ultimate responsibility for the protection and mainte-

nance of a national heritage must lie with the nation itself, and this means government and granting bodies. It is incumbent upon government to ensure that the national heritage is protected for posterity. Archives in organizations such as broadcast associations or film production companies have commercial backing and motivation, and meet costs from their revenue. Once that commercial motive is fulfilled, however, it is generally acknowledged that, as with other records of the national cultural creativity, the cost of maintaining the collection reverts to government and granting bodies. Many valuable collections have disappeared for ever as a result of production company closures or changes in franchise when materials are not taken over by already overstretched archives.

Basic tasks of audiovisual archives The basic tasks of an audiovisual archive are collection, preservation, documentation and access provision. Methods of collection and acquisition vary, and include the legal or voluntary deposit of collections or individual items, the deposit of in-house productions (broadcasting organizations), donations, special agreements for copying nationally produced materials, and purchase. Other archives collect their own materials in the form of oral or video history programmes, with the purpose of recording cultures, languages and music before they disappear. Evaluation, selection and appraisal Closely allied to acquisition are evaluation, selection and appraisal. The audiovisual archive acquires materials according to a particular remit, balancing new acquisitions against existing stock and the purpose and function of the archive. Storage space and resources being what they are, archives have to select material for preservation on the basis of relevance, uniqueness and quality. Wherever possible an archive should be dealing with original materials, but

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originals are hard to come by. There is strictly only one original film, video or master sound recording. Such originals seldom survive and there are various forms of tampering with the products – cut/uncut versions, director’s/producer’s cut, censored and unexpurgated versions. Owners of original material may be reluctant to deposit their master material in an archive until they have no further use for it, by which time the technical quality has deteriorated. Three elements in audiovisual documents have to be considered in the selection process: the artefact or carrier, the information content and the aesthetic content, particularly with film and sound recordings. The artefact or carrier will designate the form of the audiovisual and influence selection for technical reasons. Can this material be replayed in the collection which acquires it, or is the carrier so esoteric that it has only antique value? Is the carrier in good physical condition or will it need transfer and/or costly restoration before or on receipt, or indeed is the damage irreparable? There are also implications for damage and disaster to the rest of the collection; canker present in one item may spread to others if it is stored untreated and without inspection. Should we try to preserve the information content by cramming work into dense formats to preserve more of it at the risk of losing its intrinsic quality? Archives have very stringent selection policies. It is widely quoted that archives select less than 2% of the material presented. Audiovisual archives, therefore, do not have a huge selection of material, but most of it has unique value, and such archives retain more material than many other archives. Some audiovisual collections will include several interpretations of the same work – for example, music recordings – or several records of the same event carried in different documents: a film, video or sound version. Guidelines for archival selection exist, but they are usually those of organizations with their own parameters. Selection of material is dependent upon

the function of the archive, the quality of the material and the uniqueness or rarity of the content. Audiovisual archives should concentrate on recordings of national origin. To avoid duplication of effort, material should be offered back to the country of original production or to archives with a more relevant collection remit. Preservation The main function of any archive is to preserve the heritage and the artefacts which make up that heritage. These are the major concerns of audiovisual archives. Many of the difficulties encountered result from the fragility or the volatile nature of the materials. The carriers are the weak link and the materials have to be transferred to other carriers that are more stable, with a longer life expectancy or more up to date. Audiovisual materials are made of polymers, and all polymers decay! Progress is being made to slow this decay and prolong the life expectancy of the carriers and thus the source material, but preservation measures will simply retard deterioration, not prevent it. The life expectancy of audiovisual materials is dependent on chemistry and storage and handling conditions. After 100 years much early film has been lost, especially volatile nitrate. Sound and video recordings are subject to attack from many enemies. No universal panacea has been found and the new technologies of optical disks are as prone to damage as the old. For example, there have been problems with vinegar syndrome producing tape and laser rot affecting optical disks designed to act as storage media for tape materials. Archives must copy material from one format to another to save the content, to overcome the obsolescence of equipment and systems, and to provide copies for research and other uses. There are three steps in preservation work: conservation (maintaining suitable storage conditions to prolong the life of the material and doing everything to prevent harm); preservation (active

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treatment of the material to maintain it in reasonable condition for copying and duplication); and restoration (the final step to restoring material to its former glory). Wherever possible the original data have to be preserved on the original format for future use by more advanced technologies of transfer and presentation. Guidelines and standards exist and can be adjusted to suit prevailing conditions – hot and humid climates call for different standards of storage and preservation than cold, temperate climates. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the British Standards Institute (BSI) all publish standards for composition of tape, and for storage environments and conditions. The international audiovisual NGOs also issue guidelines. Digitization is not yet the answer as there may be loss of quality in copying the original, even though clones will retain the quality of the copy. Digitization is often associated with mass storage techniques, but data density techniques are not necessarily reversible – hence the caution of technicians in retaining originals whenever possible. Access If preservation is the primary concern of the audiovisual archive, access is the second. Audiovisual archiving is a culturally motivated activity, intent upon the preservation of the audiovisual heritage because of its intrinsic worth, regardless of commercial potential. Such values are still important, but most archives are now growing faster than the financial resources to support them. There is therefore a certain necessity for archives to generate some income; there is also the public service aspect – that is, to provide access to the people whose heritage is contained within the archive.

Legal issues Copyright in archive material is usually vested in the owner and respected, but the archive itself requires

rights to acquire, copy, use and provide access to the material (see Chapter 26). Acquisition of material is achieved by some countries through legal deposit arrangements, but this will only cover a small proportion of the material acquired by an archive – that which is published. Much of the material is unpublished. Archives have ad hoc agreements with donors for voluntary deposits but, in the case of some commercial producers, the archive’s rights may be severely restricted. Archives are not in competition with producers or owners, and need some rights over material deposited with them, on which they may have spent considerable time, effort and money for preservation and storage. Archives are not simply convenient storehouses, and have to maintain the integrity of the material. Most especially they need rights to copy the material for preservation, access and exhibition purposes, and some rights to retain the material once acquired. Once deposited, archive copies should not leave archive premises but should remain under archive control.

Intellectual control Detailed cataloguing of archive material is essential to provide a permanent, accurate record, especially of the unedited, unpublished material which abounds. Many archives developed their own rules, but an international initiative is now under way to produce ground rules for all audiovisual materials. Ground rules are necessary for the exchange of information in electronic databases – if everyone uses different criteria, then confusion will result and information exchange be retarded. Accurate and rapid information retrieval is the goal of indexing, and essential data elements have to be devised to make this possible, even though each kind of material will have its own set of data elements. Retrieval by subject has been made easier by the introduction of computer techniques and free-text searching – but the terms for description of subject content have to be carefully chosen, based on

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international thesauri, or data and material will be lost. As electronic technology develops so the means of transmitting information – printed and audiovisual – are advanced. In a world of incompatible systems (computers are no exception), the search continues for a system capable of access by as wide a public as possible. Work has started to find the lowest common denominator for the transmission of information with the highest common quality, a sort of ‘ASCII’ code for all information. In addition to information retrieval, archives have to keep detailed technical records – what has happened to the material, its current format, has it been restored, if so on what system, how and why – to assist future technicians. The technical record is usually kept separate from the information record. There are many published information tools ranging from catalogues of holdings to discographies and filmographies, but national discographies and filmographies are compiled independently of the archives, because the latter’s stock is not comprehensive, even when legal deposit exists, and seldom up to date. Other discographies and filmographies are selective and cover directors, performers or composers.

Overview of audiovisual archives worldwide A recent survey of holdings in audio, film and video archives was carried out by the Library of Congress on behalf of Eastman Kodak. The figures are alarming. Even with the most stringent selection criteria and limited collection resources, the holdings of just 500 archives amounted to 11,175 million feet of film, 8.5 million hours of video, and 44.5 million hours of audio, and there are many more archives than this. A recent survey of audiovisual archives in Europe alone, Map-TV – Film and Television Collections in Europe, identified some additional 1,900 archives and collections for film and television. There are

approximately 40,000 radio and television stations around the world, many of which have archives; film archives exist in over eighty countries, and sound archives in fifty countries at a conservative estimate. A large part of audiovisual production will be lost for future generations without greater efforts from the international community to support the establishment and development of audiovisual archives worldwide.

Professional education Personnel working in audiovisual archives come from many different professions and scientific disciplines, and have long professional experience and on-the-job training. There is a serious gap, however, between the growing importance of audiovisual archives and the provision of professional education, a gap no less wide in developed than in developing countries. Audiovisual archivists need to be specialists with a thorough knowledge of archival principles and the special characteristics of audiovisual materials. There are two main types of audiovisual archivist: (a) collection managers, documentalists and selectors and (b) technical staff, who have to be of a high standard with thorough knowledge of their disciplines. There are few courses available; most are summer schools and seminars, but some longer courses can be found in existing schools of library and archival studies.

Memory of the World Programme The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme is an attempt to save the cultural heritage, and audiovisual materials cannot be excluded. These materials, however, are among the most vulnerable to destruction. Lost collections are a sad reminder of the ravages of time, chemistry, natural and man-made disasters, wars and conflicts, but fortunately endangered collections are currently being identified by this programme.

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International organizations

Further reading

Audiovisual archives have set up their own federations: the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) was established sixty-eight years ago, the International Association of Sound Archives (IASA) in 1969 and the International Federation of Television Archives (IFTA) in 1977. All have NGO status within UNESCO. Although each has its own constituency and membership structures, the audiovisual NGOs, ICA and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) have collaborated since 1979 in a Round Table on Audio-visual Records under the auspices of UNESCO. The Round Table has been responsible for many activities including publications, surveys, the development of guidelines and training. It provides an arena for audiovisual organizations to address common issues and improve the recognition and status of audiovisual archives as vital components in safeguarding the cultural heritage. The Round Table has an important subcommittee – the Technical Co-ordinating Committee – which organizes Joint Technical Symposia across its spectrum of interests and provides technical advice and expertise. In addition to the international NGOs there are several national and regional associations: the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) in the United States, the Association of Moving Image Archives (AMIA), with its network of interests in North America and beyond, and the recently formed South-East Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA). Other closely allied associations include the International Council on Museums (ICOM) and the International Council on Traditional Music (ICTM). Thus many associations are willing to assist if one knows where to look. The next step is to provide greater awareness of the expertise and advice available, and the Round Table under UNESCO auspices is a good place to start. ■■

BOSTON, G. 1991. Guide to the Basic Technical Equipment Required by Audio, Film and Television Archives. Milton Keynes, TCC. 104 pp. HARRISON, H. P. 1992. Audiovisual Archive Literature: A Select Bibliography. Paris, UNESCO. 153 pp. ——. 1995. Selection and Audiovisual Collections. IFLA Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 185–90. ——. Audiovisual Archives: A Practical Reader. Paris, UNESCO. (Forthcoming.) KLAUE, W. 1993. World Directory of Moving Image and Sound Archives. Munich, K. G. Saur. 192 pp. KOFLER, B. 1990. Legal Issues Facing Audiovisual Archives Paris, UNESCO. (PGI-91/WS/5.) 71 pp. UNESCO. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT WORKING PARTY. 1990. Curriculum Development for the Training of Personnel in Moving Image and Recorded Sound Archives, pp. 14–18. Paris, UNESCO. (PGI-90/WS/9.) 104 pp.

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Helen P. Harrison graduated in Psychology from Sydney University and trained as a librarian in the United Kingdom. She entered the archives world in the National Film Archive in London on the cataloguing staff and then worked for several years in Visnews, a newsfilm agency. In 1969 she joined the newly established Open University as Media Librarian, and worked there for twenty-five years, establishing library systems for audiovisual materials and an archive of programme material produced by the university. Ms Harrison is now consultant AV archivist at the Open University. She has been on the Executive Board of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) since 1981 and held positions as President, Secretary-General and Editor. She has represented IASA in many UNESCO meetings, and carried out several projects for UNESCO dealing with selection and appraisal, bibliography, legal issues and training with reference to audiovisual archives.

Helen P. Harrison 6 Barnhill Road Marlow, SL7 3E2 United Kingdom Fax: (1908) 64278

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Part Two. Infrastructures for information work

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Chapter 15 Computer developments Lucy Tedd University of Wales, United Kingdom

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his chapter covers current computer developments and provides an overview of how they have affected archive, library and information work. An international conference on networking and the future of libraries, organized by the United Kingdom Office for Library Networking (UKOLN) in 1995, included papers describing computer-based services which provide access to library information, local and remote databases (such as on the Internet and via networked CD-ROMs), full texts of journal articles, software for word processing, etc., and communications facilities for e-mail, file transfer and newsgroups in Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Library and information service managers now have a wide set of computer-based solutions from which they can select the best mix of services to meet the needs of their customers. Phrases such as ‘the electronic library’ and ‘digital libraries’ are beginning to appear in the literature. Collier and Arnold (1995) define the electronic library as ‘a managed environment of multimedia materials in digital form, designed for the benefit of its user population, structured to facilitate access to its contents and equipped with aids to navigation of the global network’. The Electronic Libraries (e-Lib) Programme in the United Kingdom, which resulted from a study (known as the Follett Report) into various crises affecting academic libraries, is funding sixty or so projects covering the areas of document delivery, electronic journals, on-demand publishing, digitization, training and awareness, and access to networked resources. Full details of the state of the projects are maintained on the web server at UKOLN (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/elib/). In the United States the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other agencies have funded six institutions to work on the Digital Libraries Initiative. Berry (1996) describes some of the work in progress and gives a definition from the University of Michigan Digital Library

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Project: ‘a digital library is the generic name for federated structures that provide humans both intellectual and physical access to the huge and growing worldwide networks of information encoded in multimedia digital networks’. The parallel developments of computer processing speed, storage facilities, multimedia and telecommunications now enable access from one workstation to huge information resources worldwide. The traditional view of a library as a store of information held locally is being eroded as the library becomes a gateway to information resources worldwide. This, of course, has huge implications for library users, information providers, librarians and information scientists. The first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was completed in Philadelphia in 1946, but all commands had to be input separately. The first stored program was written by Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester in 1948. Some of the journals that publish relevant papers in this area are also now fifty years old. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Documentation conceived for 1994 a special volume, Fifty Years of Information Progress, which contains many useful chapters outlining developments over the years.

Hardware and software developments Early computers were huge, expensive, complicated machines that consumed a lot of electricity, generated a lot of heat, needed specialist operators and were used for processing data in specialist laboratories. Their size, complexity and cost meant that they were not used for any library or information work until the mid-1960s, when transistors replaced the original valves. By then codes (such as the American Standard Code for Information Interchange or ASCII) had been developed so that text could be input, stored and output on these computers with the individual characters being translated into strings of binary digits.

Very large scale integration of the electronic components that comprise any computer has resulted in a huge increase in the power available and a decrease in the cost of processing. The 1980s saw the development of the microcomputer, which enabled many libraries and information units to acquire their own computer systems. By the mid1990s Personal Computers (PCs) have become commonplace in libraries and information units worldwide, and many people also have PCs at home. These PCs may be used for what has become known as ‘edutainment’, where educational packages which parents hope will improve their children’s education are used, as well as encyclopedias on CD-ROM (such as Microsoft Encarta) and games, of which a large number are available. With the development of the information superhighway many of these domestic PCs can now link to the Internet to access information sources that previously were only available in a library or information centre. Many professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, veterinary surgeons and lawyers, now have PCs on their desks. The battery-powered ‘laptop’ computer is a portable device that can be used when travelling on trains and planes. The hardware of a current PC comprises: • Central processor. The speed with which the processor carries out basic instructions (measured in millions of instructions per second (mips) or given as a frequency and measured in megahertz (MHz) ) and the amount of main store that can be accessed are factors used to describe a processor. The earliest computers processed up to 10,000 instructions per second and there has been continuous increase in this speed so that current PCs have a processing speed of thousands of mips. Intel is a major manufacturer of processors and in mid-1996 it announced plans for a 200 MHz Pentium processor which means that it will operate at two to three times the speed of current Pentiums. RISC or Reduced Instruction Set Computer chips have been designed

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with the aim of speeding up the time taken to process an instruction by limiting the number of instructions to include those most often used. Another approach to improve speed is to have parallel processors so that the processor is not, as in most situations, processing a set of instructions one after another (or serially), but instead several processors obey instructions in parallel. Although the speed of processing has increased dramatically the cost of processors has decreased equally dramatically. • The main memory. The main memory of any computer is used to store information that is currently being processed. The earliest computers were capable of storing only 1,000 to 8,000 characters of information. The amount of store has increased continuously over the years with a parallel decrease in costs. The most common form of memory can be written to as well as read from, and is referred to as RAM (Random Access Memory). The standard PC of today has a RAM of about 8, 16 or 32 MB (the unit normally used to refer to storage of one character is a byte; 1,000 bytes are called a Kilobyte or KB, and 1 million bytes are called a Megabyte or MB). • Input. A variety of input devices may be attached to a computer to enable information in any form (for example, text, voice, image) to be converted into the appropriate binary codes. The keyboard (many of which follow the QWERTY layout developed for typewriters in the late nineteenth century) is often the primary device for entering information. The original ASCII code was seven bits long and capable of recognizing 128 separate symbols. This is not adequate for representing the range of symbols used in languages throughout the world. There are various other standards used. For instance the Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology (ASMO) developed the ASMO 449 for Arabic characters, and the East Asian Character Code is based on work undertaken by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) in the United States for the processing of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ideographic char-

acters. Unicode is the general name used to refer to the International Standards Organization (ISO) 10646 standard 16-bit code which encompasses the world’s principal scripts and has been developed by a consortium involving computer manufacturers such as IBM and Apple, and software developers such as Microsoft, as well as RLG and ISO. A major input device of the 1990s has been the mouse, and its use to ‘point and click’ at sections of the screen is a common feature of current computer systems. Scanners can also be attached to PCs to input images or graphics. Laser scanners are used to input the information from barcodes on books and borrower cards in circulation systems or from journal issues for serials control systems. Video scanners can be used as input devices so that a videoconference can be set up over linked PCs with the participants able to see each other, or for medical diagnoses. Touch-sensitive screens allow the user to point directly at, for instance, a particular option from a menu of possibilities displayed. • Storage devices. The traditional medium for storing data is based on magnetic materials. Most PCs have a hard disk which is in a sealed cartridge that contains the read/write heads. The capacity of hard disks has increased greatly over the years from about 5 MB in 1980 to as high as 2.5 GB in 1996 (a Gigabyte, or GB, is equal to 1,000 MB). Data can also be input and output on to floppy disk and most workstations have a floppy disk drive capable of reading and writing 3.5 inch diameter disks. Optical storage media have become increasingly popular in recent years and many PCs now have an integral CD-ROM reader. The price of CD-ROM technology has dropped dramatically over recent years owing mainly to the popularity of CD-ROM as the medium for games and entertainment products. • Output. The most common output device is the screen or monitor. Many monitors now do not just display text information but can also display the complex graphics and video that have appeared for

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games in the home computer market, and are also used in multimedia CD-ROMs. Speakers can be attached to deliver sound linked to images on the screen so that, for instance, Nelson Mandela’s voice or the national anthem of Estonia can easily be heard when using Encarta. Laptop computers use flat screens based on liquid-crystal display technology as this consumes little power. Hard copy printout is still required and there are now many high-quality laser printers available. Again the technology of printers has developed greatly and prices have decreased over the years. The July 1996 issue of Personal Computer World published a comparison of what £1,500 would buy at various dates, showing the incredible developments in this area: 1979 Research Machines 380Z microcomputer with 16 KB RAM, tape interface and a second-hand teletype printer. 1983 BBC Microcomputer with disk filing and 800 KB store on two 5.25-inch floppy disks, a colour monitor and a dot-matrix printer. 1989 PC with 10 MHz processor, 640 KB RAM, graphics capability and a dot-matrix printer. 1992 386SX PC with 1 MB RAM, printer and Microsoft Works. 1993 486SX PC, 10 MHz processor, 8 MB RAM, 120 MB hard disk, Works for Windows. 1994 486DX PC, 33 MHz processor, 8 MB RAM, 424 MB hard disk, Works for Windows. 1995 486DX PC, 66 MHz processor, 8 MB RAM, 528 MB hard disk, multimedia capabilities with double-speed CD-ROM and sound card. 1996 Pentium PC, 75 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM, 1 GB hard disk, quad-speed CDROM drive, 17-inch monitor and modem (for Internet connection). Probably the major recent software development for library, information and archive work has been the use of the Windows interface. In the mid-1980s an

operating system known as PC-DOS (PC-Disk Operating System) was produced by the American firm Microsoft for IBM to use with its PC. At about the same time a completely different interface and operating system was developed for the Apple Macintosh computer; this made use of the point and click features of a mouse with different options displayed on the screen in the form of small pictures or icons. This type of interface became very popular with users and by 1990 Microsoft had developed a similar type of interface, known as the Windows 3 interface, for the IBM PC. Microsoft has also developed a wide range of office support software that is used in many libraries, information units and archives. Examples include Word (for word processing), Access (for basic database management) and Excel (as a spreadsheet). Many archive and records offices use industry-standard software for their work. Simonson (1995) describes the use of general word processing and database management software (that is easily and cheaply available) for archive purposes at the Surrey Record Office in the United Kingdom. He notes that the advent of multimedia computing, networks and the information superhighway places the onus on archivists to find ways of making the information in their custody available electronically. There is also an urgent need for archivists to understand and get involved in the information revolution that is currently taking place, so that a coherent strategy can be developed for managing the electronic archives of the future.

During 1995 Microsoft launched Windows 95, a 32bit multi-tasking operating system, and this is now beginning to be used in libraries and information units worldwide.

Network developments The general technology, history and worldwide implications of the huge developments in network-

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ing are discussed in Chapters 17 and 18. This section will provide a small flavour of how these developments impact on libraries and information units. When computers were first used in libraries it was often necessary to link terminals or workstations from remote branch libraries to the main computer system, or to link together various PCs so that they could, for instance, share a CD-ROM drive or a printer. These activities involved the implementation of some form of data communications network. A network used to link equipment over a limited area is known as a local area network or LAN. In many universities around the world there are campus-wide LANs that enable students and staff from all over the campus to link to, amongst other things, the library’s Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). Many libraries and information units have also become involved in providing access to a range of CD-ROMs via a LAN. There are many advantages to this approach: • Several users may have concurrent access to the same CD-ROM. • Library users may connect to a number of CDROMs from their own desktop PCs without having to handle the actual disc. • Expenditure on CD-ROM licences may be reduced. • CD-ROM discs and drives are protected from vandalism and theft. • CD-ROM titles can be centrally updated. There are various approaches to providing a CDROM network. The CD-ROMs can be attached to a network file server such as SCSI Express. Another approach is to use an optical server which is dedicated to running a group of CD-ROM drives. Products which provide this facility include CD-Net, CDManager and CD-Connection. A final approach, which is beginning to be popular, is to copy the CD-ROM data to magnetic disks. A major recent advancement in this area has been the development of products such as SilverPlatter’s Electronic Refer-

ence Library (ERL), which provide the user with a seamless way of accessing CD-ROM databases, local databases and remote databases. CD-ROM has proved to be very useful in many countries. However, bibliographic databases on CD-ROM do provide users with information on items that may not be accessible locally and so the number of interlibrary loans rises significantly. Siddiqui (1995), of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, reports on this as well as the extra workload and stress on reference staff. National or regional networks that link LANs or other computing facilities are known as wide area networks, the major one being the Internet. Often national libraries act as focal points in helping others in a particular country with this activity. The Conference of European National Libraries (CENL) is involved in the development of Gabriel – a World Wide Web server – which provides links to sources of information about the services and collections of members of CENL (Gabriel is to be found at http://gabriel.bl.uk/). It developed from work on Web servers carried out at the British Library (with its Portico server which, inter alia, provides access to images of treasures including the Magna Carta and the Beowulf Manuscript) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) in the Netherlands (with its Alexicon service and the Hundred Highlights of the KB, recognized as a model virtual exhibition of a national library’s treasures). The National Library of Malaysia (http://pnm.my/) is co-ordinating a project known as JARINGAN ILMU (or knowledge network) which involves many libraries in the country providing information for access on the Internet. The Network of Networks project in Latin America, which is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to improve the flow of information between eighteen networks in the region by the use of electronic mail, computer conferencing and the distribution of databases on CD-ROM (Ciurlizza, 1996). The project started in

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1993 and, as it developed, the possibilities of regional communication increased owing to the establishment of Internet nodes in places such as the University of Costa Rica and the University of Chile.

Development of library housekeeping systems Library housekeeping (or management) systems typically are integrated packages which include modules for various cataloguing, OPAC, acquisitions, circulation, serials control and interlibrary lending. A detailed description of almost forty such library systems available in Europe is given by Leeves (1994). These systems include those that originate in one of the European countries and are available in others (for example, BIBDIA (Germany), LIBER (France), Pica (Netherlands), SuperMax (Denmark) and VUBIS (Belgium)), as well as those that are non-European in origin, mainly coming from North America (for example, ADVANCE from Canada and Dynix, Unicorn and VTLS from the United States). An overview of some twenty-seven companies involved in library housekeeping systems for North America is provided by Barry et al. (1996), who report that minicomputerbased systems were sold by nineteen vendors, and sales in 1995 totalled 1,605 (as compared to 1,364 in 1994); the corresponding figures for microcomputerbased systems were ten vendors with sales in 1995 of 25,364 compared to 24,064 in 1994. The vendors selling most systems to academic libraries were Innovative Interfaces (INNOPAC), IME (TINLIB), Ameritech (Dynix and Horizon) and Data Research Associates (DRA). Great political changes have taken place in Eastern Europe during the 1990s and this has, amongst other things, opened the market for library systems. Borgman (1996) reports on developments related to library automation in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Regional Library Programme of the Open

Society Institute in Budapest, Hungary, was established in 1994 to support, promote and advance the information sciences in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and has recommended long-term goals for automated access to library information. In order to support these goals a series of library automation workshops has been held in various countries of the region. Some of the library housekeeping systems hold records in the Machine-Readable Records (MARC) format whilst others allow for the import and export of MARC-based records. There are a variety of MARC formats available and Campos et al. (1995) provide an overview of some of the national MARC formats (for example, CATMARC (Catalonia, Spain) and IndoMARC (Indonesia)) as well as the increasing use of the UNIMARC format. Countries that have adopted UNIMARC as a national standard include Croatia, Greece, India, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia. The OPACs of many libraries worldwide can now be searched using the Internet. Some of these OPACs have been designed to be searched over the Web whereas others can be accessed using a Telnet connection. A special facility known as Hytelnet (http://www.light.com/hytelnet/) was developed in Saskatoon, Canada, and is designed to help users in searching OPACs at all Internet-accessible libraries via Telnet. Facilities are available to search by country and by system type, and to look at help files for searching the different OPAC types. Recent additions to the list of OPACs looked at during the writing of this chapter included those of: the National Library of Turkey (ALEPH), Shanghai (China) Jiao Tong University (in-house system), Universitat de Girona (Spain) (VTLS) and Universidad de Mexico (TINLIB). The concept of an integrated library housekeeping package with the various modules accessing the same bibliographic record is beginning to be replaced by the concept of de-integration, with

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libraries buying different packages from different suppliers, and mixing and matching to best suit their particular needs. This has become possible because of various recent developments: • The move away from the proprietary operating systems used by the integrated systems of the 1980s to open systems based on UNIX; examples include Geac’s ADVANCE, Innovative Interfaces’ INNOPAC, Fretwell Downing’s OLIB, Sirsi’s UNICORN and IME’s TINLIB. • The move away from the proprietary database management systems to industry-standard relational database management systems. Examples include Geac PLUS’s use of Informix, Dynix HORIZON’s use of Sybase and OLIB’s use of ORACLE. • The use of client-server architecture in the design of systems. In the client-server model of computing a division is made between the applications software (which runs on a computer known as the client) and the database software (which runs on a computer known as the server). The two communicate with each other over a network using a communications protocol. Processing which involves data manipulation or screen display can be carried out on the client computer (thus reducing traffic on the network) and only database queries from the client and responses from the server need be communicated across the network. • The use of Z39.50. As defined by Dempsey et al. (1996), Z39.50 is a ‘retrieval protocol which allows client programs to query databases on remote servers, to retrieve results and to carry out some other retrieval-related functions’. Its main impact on libraries is to enable users to search, say, the OPAC of a neighbouring library using the same OPAC interface as in their local library. For this to happen the local system must have a Z39.50 client and the remote

system must have a Z39.50 server. Dempsey et al. list some of the library systems which incorporate Z39.50 client-servers; these include Geac ADVANCE, Dynix, INNOPAC, LIBERTAS, OLIB, Talis and UNICORN. Some of these clients are integrated with the standard OPAC (for example, LIBERTAS) while others are available as stand-alone products (for example, Dynix’s WinPAC). • Networking developments. Library housekeeping systems no longer operate in a standalone fashion. Libraries which use a system to manage local processing of stock also need to provide their users with access to a range of information services as part of the electronic library; this could include access to networked CD-ROMs, locally loaded databases, the Internet and so on. Several suppliers now make information about their products and their company available on the World Wide Web (for example, http://www.vtls.com). Pachent (1996) describes the process of choosing an automated information system for libraries, museums and archives in the county of Suffolk in the United Kingdom. The chosen system provides traditional library management functions as well as access to networked CD-ROMs, local databases, the Internet and (for a trial period) access to OCLC FirstSearch databases. Chisenga (1996) reports on the factors influencing the choice of library software in sub-Saharan Africa. There, as in many other regions, good vendor support is an important factor as there is a marked absence of staff in libraries with relevant computer skills. Some software producers organize for local agents to supply the necessary training and maintenance functions of support. If local support for Western software is poor and/or very expensive there is an argument for the development of local software; examples include the SISPUKOM library management software developed within Malaysia and the INGRID system,

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based on Informix, developed at Tartu University Library in Estonia. Library systems of the future will be very dependent on adhering to international standards. Work on standards forms part of the Open Interchange Initiative being carried out for the European Commission, and current information on a wide range of relevant standards for library and information work can be found on the Commission’s web server (http://www2.echo.lu/impact/).

Developments in information retrieval systems A general overview of the developments in both local and remotely accessible information retrieval systems is provided by Tedd (1993). Particular developments will be highlighted in this section. Te x t r e t r i e v a l s o f t w a r e For many years a range of software has been available specifically aimed at information storage and retrieval of text-based information. Examples of such software include BRS/Search, CAIRS, CDS/ ISIS, Cardbox Plus, HeadFast, IdeaList and InMagic. CDS/ISIS is very widely used all over the world as it is available free of charge to non-profit organizations in UNESCO Member States and exists in a number of language versions. A regular feature on CDS/ISIS is included in Information Development. One recent example given of the use of CDS/ISIS is the DRAiN (Drainage Information System) project which aims to co-ordinate information from various relevant research organizations in Egypt, France, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Uzbekistan involved in irrigation and drainage research. For many years text-retrieval software was used to process bibliographic data, but recent developments in storage technologies have meant that this software can now be used also for full-text retrieval purposes. The producers of this software have continued to develop their products and many now run

under Windows, can deal with graphical data as well as text data and can be used when creating local CDROMs. The directory by Wood and Moore (1993) provides details of about 100 such packages. A special category of text-retrieval software is personal bibliographic software (such as Pro-Cite, Reference Manager and EndNote Plus) which may be used by academic researchers and which offers pre-defined data structures and pre-defined output structures (to comply with bibliographic styles adopted by organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)) as well as standard facilities such as Boolean searching and batch importing of records. An introductory essay by David Bearman (1994) in a directory of about eighty software packages for use in archives and museums notes that the ‘problem with archives software has historically been that the market is too small and diffuse to support a range of products’. However, he points out that the Internet provides an exciting domain for archivists with the possibility of setting up World Wide Web servers of archives holdings which might include images and sound information as well as document delivery services (for example, British Columbia Archives and Record service (http: //www.bcars.gs.gov.bcca). This is also discussed in Chapter 24. Geographic information systems (GIS) GIS software comprises tools for the collection, analysis, retrieval and display of spatial information. Technologies that integrate the management and analysis of this type of data (from maps, weather satellites and so on) are being used in a variety of ways for environmental studies, global change research, transportation planning, urban planning, marine studies, and so on. As with bibliographic data, there is a need to share resources worldwide and the MARC format is being investigated as one possible solution. One of the projects – Project Alexandria (not to be confused with the plan for

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the new library of the same name at Alexandria in Egypt) – being funded in the United States as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) digital libraries programme, is developing a system to access spatial data in distributed databases. A number of papers on GIS is included in Information Technology and Libraries, June 1995 (Volume 14, Number 2). Range of publicly accessible databases Traditionally the information that can be stored and retrieved in computer systems used for library and information work has been structured into databases. The growth of databases has been rapid (from 300 in 1975 to 8,261 in 1994). Dalrymple and Roderer (1994) define a database as ‘a collection of data or a body of information that is organized for retrieval via a computer in any storage medium’, and they cover databases that may be online directly from the producer, through a third-party online service or in CD-ROM format. The types of information covered in these databases include: • Bibliographic data relating to articles published in the primary journals: MEDLINE (medical), Compendex (engineering), LISA (librarianship), Inspec (electrical engineering and computer science). • Details from the book trade (BookBank, BNB, BookFind, Books in Print). • Full-text information such as newspapers (The Times, the Guardian, the Independent), articles from specialist journals (ADONIS – Biomedical, BPO (Business Periodicals Online), New Scientist), literature (English Poetry) and patents (US Patents FullText). • Company information (Dun & Bradstreet, Jordans). • Multimedia products (McGraw Hill’s Encyclopaedia of Mammalian Biology, Hulton Deutsch CD Collection, Encarta, Cinemania). There is a wide range of organizations involved in publishing databases; these include traditional acade-

mic publishers (Oxford University Press, Elsevier), learned societies (Institute of Physics, Institute of Electrical Engineers), commercial companies (Institute for Scientific Information, Derwent), the computer industry (Microsoft) and the entertainment industry (Sega, Disney, Nintendo). Work on quality issues of publicly available databases has been undertaken by various online user groups, and Armstrong (1995) describes the concept of ‘database labelling’, which would provide the potential user with basic information about the database and the extent to which the information contained could be trusted. Access to publicly available databases As well as the traditional online search services (such as Dialog, DataStar, STN and ESA-IRS) there are now many others ways in which libraries and information centres provide access to publicly available databases for their users. Examples include standalone and networked CD-ROMs, locally mounted databases and Internet access. The online search services provide access to a range of databases. Many of the early databases were bibliographic and dealt with scientific and technical information. During the 1980s more specialist services appeared and the existing services broadened their scope. FT Profile, for instance, specializes in the provision of full-text online information tailored for the business community. OCLC entered the online search service field in late 1991 with FirstSearch, a service designed particularly for endusers. In the United Kingdom the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the funding bodies for higher education has organized the establishment of centralized databases for the academic community. By charging a university a fixed annual fee, searching becomes ‘free at point of use’ for researchers, teaching staff and students. The rise in the use of the Internet has been accompanied by the development of commercial,

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consumer-oriented online services. Examples include America Online, Prodigy, Compuserve, Genie and Delphi which are popular with end-users as they cover a range of information such as news, general health matters, encyclopedias, business information and magazines. Growth of Current Alerting Services Instant Article Supply (CAS-IAS) CAS-IAS provide access to the table of contents of several thousand current journals and also provide means of transmitting requested articles. By making use of CAS-IAS services some libraries are moving from a just-in-case mode of operation with respect to serials holdings to a just-in-time mode. Examples of CAS-IAS include OCLC FirstSearch (with the Article 1st and Contents 1st databases), UnCover (now owned by Knight-Ridder, which also owns Dialog and DataStar) and Inside Information (from the British Library). Interface developments The early online search systems such as Dialog, DataStar and ESA-IRS relied heavily on command languages for carrying out online searches, and this helps to explain why these systems were mainly searched by specially trained intermediaries. With the developments of OPACs and CDROMs in the 1980s, an interface was needed which could be fairly intuitive with searchers and needed no special training. The technique adopted was to provide the searcher with a menu of options on the screen so that an appropriate option could be selected which would then lead to another set of options or to the data. On the positive side, menus can be self-explanatory, easy for the novice searcher and give a structure to the search. However, they may be slow to work through and irritating for frequent searchers. With the major move to a Windows environment, many producers of search systems are devel-

oping their software to work in Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode. When a screen of potentially clickable items is presented it is not always obvious to the novice searcher where to go next in this twodimensional environment and so there are many aspects of screen design that need to be borne in mind by the interface developer. Schneiderman (1992) outlines eight golden rules for any designer of a search interface. Paraphrased these are: strive for consistency, enable frequent users to take shortcuts, offer informative feedback, give action sequences a logical structure, offer simple error handling, permit easy reversal of actions taken, make the user feel in control and reduce short-term memory load. Retrieval techniques Most retrieval software is based on the user combining chosen terms or phrases using the standard Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT in the search statement. Over the years various alternative techniques have been developed by researchers; these are referred to in the literature as best match, nearest neighbour, probabilistic retrieval, fuzzy sets, relevance ranking or ranked output. Some of these ideas are now appearing in commercial services such as Personal Library Software’s Personal Librarian, Dialog’s TARGET, and FREESTYLE developed for the LEXIS legal service and the NEXIS news service. Evaluating the performance of various information retrieval systems has been a topic of interest for many researchers over the years. A major initiative, known as the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC), involves a number of research groups from around the world testing their information retrieval techniques on the same databases of full-text items (Harman, 1995).

Human aspects of automation There are many potential problems related to the use of information technology in archive, library and information work, and these can result in useless,

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expensive and inappropriate systems. There have been examples of libraries where much time, effort and money is spent on the latest software and hardware but little time has been spent on revising work practices or ensuring that workstations are ergonomically designed for the people who use them. Only about 10% of the literature on library automation covers human aspects, whereas about 80% of the problems that arise in automation projects are thought to be caused by human or organizational matters. It is most important to consider people at all levels when setting up any form of computer system in a library. The real needs of the users must be taken into account in the design; library staff and computer staff need to know enough about each others’ areas of expertise so that they can communicate properly; systems librarians and network managers need to have suitable job descriptions so that they do not become too ‘techno-stressed’; workstations need to be suitably designed for their likely users; users need to have realistic expectations of the new system; and library staff need to be kept informed in an appropriate way. Traditional organization structures may need to be adapted with the introduction of new systems. In many countries where legislation is in place to cover the health and safety aspects of, say, working with VDU (Visual Display Unit) screens, managers are being forced to think about the human aspects of automation. There is much to be done in making sure that human factors are considered at all stages in the design of a computer system for use in libraries or information units. The impact on people of electronic libraries (IMPEL) is one of the supporting studies to the e-Lib project. Day (1995) reports on this work and notes that all librarians and information workers must be able to cope with the vast quantity of electronic information now available as well as to advise their users how to cope with it. Del Castillo (1995) reports on the use of information technology in libraries in the Philippines, and notes that problems

are due to lack of know-how, lack of direction, lack of funds and a weak telecommunication infrastructure. The first three reasons could be applied to many libraries all over the world. Some manufacturers make their products available on the world market and have invested efforts in translating the interface dialogue of their systems into various languages. TINLIB, for instance, is available in about twenty-five different languages and is used in libraries on five continents. ALEPH, from Israel, can handle several different scripts (including Arabic and Hebrew) within a single record and has been used in many East European countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. There are, though, few examples of truly multilingual systems for information retrieval; the Institut Textile de France developed a system (TITUS) which enabled searchers to search, in say German, for a document which might have been input in Spanish; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich has developed ETHICS; and in Malaysia, SISDOM is a retrieval system which deals with documents in Malay and English. Crawford and Gorman (1995) in a brilliant collection of essays warn against the madness of technolust and describe how ‘effective users of electronic resources must learn to surf the networks, and on occasion, to swim in information without drowning in data’. ■■

References ARMSTRONG, C. J. 1995. Do We Really Care About Quality? In: D. I. Raitt and B. Jeapes (eds.), Online Information 95. 19th International Online Information Meeting Proceedings, London, 5–7 December 1995, pp. 49–59. Oxford, Learned Information. 612 pp. BARRY, J.; GRIFFITHS, J.-M.; WANG, P. 1996. Automated System Marketplace 96: Jockeying for Supremacy in a Networked World. Library Journal, Vol. 121, No. 6, pp. 40–51.

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BEARMAN, D. 1994. Trends in Software for Archives and Museums, 1994–5. In: Brenda Wright (comp.), 1994–1995 Directory of Software for Archives and Museums, pp. ii–iii. Pittsburgh, Archives and Museums Informatics. BERRY, J. W. 1996. Digital Libraries: New Initiatives with Worldwide Implications. IFLA Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 9–17. BORGMAN, C. L. 1996. Automation is the Answer, but What is the Question? Progress and Prospects for Central and Eastern European Libraries. Journal of Documentation, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 252–95. CAMPOS, F. M.; LOPES, M. I.; GALVAO, R. M. 1995. MARC Formats and Their Use: An Overview. Program, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 445–95. CHISENGA, J. 1996. Factors Influencing the Choice of Library Software in the SADC-PTA Region. African Journal of Librarianship, Archives and Information Science, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 52–6. CIURLIZZA, A. 1996. A Network of Networks in Latin America. Information Development, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 21–5. COLLIER M.; ARNOLD, K. 1995. Electronic Library and Visual Information Research: ELVIRA 1. London, Aslib. 173 pp. CRAWFORD W.; GORMAN, M. 1995. Future Libraries: Dreams, Myth and Reality. Chicago, American Library Association. 200 pp. DALRYMPLE, P. W.; RODERER, N. K. 1994. Database Access Systems. In: M. Williams (ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. Vol. 29, pp. 137–63. Medford, N. J., Learned Information. DAY, J. 1995. Towards the Electronic Library: Impact on Librarians. In: L. Dempsey et al., Networking and the Future of Libraries 2. Managing the Intellectual Record, pp. 23–36. London, Library Association Publishing. 212 pp. DEL CASTILLO, V. 1995. IT in the Philippines – Current State and Prospects for the Future. Asian Libraries, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 72–88. DEMPSEY, L.; RUSSELL, R.; KIRRIEMUIR, J. 1996. Towards Distributed Library Systems: Z39.50 in a European Context. Program, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 1–22. HARMAN, D. (ed.). 1995. The Second Text Retrieval

Conference (TREC-2). Information Processing and Management, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 345–60. LEEVES, J. (ed.). 1994. Library Systems in Europe: A Directory and Guide. London, TFPL. 400 pp. PACHENT, G. 1996. Network ’95: Choosing a Third Generation Automated Information System for Suffolk Libraries and Heritage. Program, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 213–28. SHNEIDERMAN, B. 1992. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human–Computer Interaction. 2nd. ed. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley. 573 pp. SIDDIQUI, M. A. 1995. Compact Disc Indexes Effect on Interlibrary Loan at a University Library. Libri, Vol. 45, Nos. 3/4, pp. 178–95. SIMONSON, R. D. 1995. Surrey Record Office Information Technology Developments: The Use of Industry Standard Software. Program, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 135–46. TEDD, L. A. 1993. An Introduction to Computer-based Library Systems. Chichester, Wiley. 316 pp. WOOD, J.; MOORE, C. (eds.). 1993. European Directory of Text Retrieval Software. London, Gower. 380 pp.

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Lucy Tedd, who has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Manchester University, is currently a lecturer at the Department of Information and Library Studies (DILS), University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She is also Director of the International Graduate Summer School held annually in DILS and run in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh. She is editor of the quarterly journal, Program, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Documentation. Ms Tedd has published a large number of papers, and has spoken at conferences or delivered courses in many countries. Recently she has been involved in running library automation workshops for the Regional Library Programme of the Open Society Institute. Her main publication, An Introduction to Computer-based Library Systems, was first published in 1977, and the third (completely revised) edition was published in 1993. She is also a co-author of Online Searching: An Introduction, published in 1980, and its successor, Online Searching: Principles and Practice, published in 1990.

Lucy Tedd Department of Information and Library Studies University of Wales Aberystwyth Dyfed SY23 3AS United Kingdom Tel: (1970) 622188 Fax: (1970) 622190 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 16 Multimedia technologies Ching-Chih Chen Simmons College, United States

D

uring the last decade, there have been endless and dramatic technological changes in all three major areas of information technology – computing, communications and content. We have witnessed the advent of personal computers, worldwide packet networks, optical disk and other mass storage media, interactive video technology, image technology, digitizing and scanning technology, computer graphic technology, and the growth in both size and number of massive public and private databases – bibliographic first, then numeric, and now multimedia. These three major areas were rather disparate in earlier years. Now, they are becoming integrated and quite international in scope and impact. There is every reason to believe that this situation will continue at an even faster pace. Now, the world is going digital, and there is no turning back.

Background and history The concept of mixed media or multimedia has been around for some time, the form and its impact having been registered well before the advent of the computer, personal or otherwise. Though many people even today think of the computer mainly as a number-cruncher, early visionaries like Vannevar Bush already saw its future role as an information and media processing powerhouse in the 1940s. In his famous ‘As We May Think’, published in the July 1945 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Bush (1945) advocated mechanizing scientific literature by association with a device called ‘memex’. Bush’s idea endured and inspired two people about twenty years later – Douglas C. Englebart of the Stanford Research Institute and Ted Nelson of Xanadu. Englebart, influenced by Bush’s vision, developed a system for knowledge workers, called NLS (oNLine System) in 1963, which embodied many original ideas and concepts of hypertext, including windows, the mouse, electronic mail, and a hypertext-like ability to link and annotate documents. Nelson coined the word ‘hypertext’ in the

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1960s, which he described as non-sequential reading and writing that links different nodes of the text.

Hypertext and hypermedia/multimedia Hypertext mimics the brain’s ability to access information quickly and intuitively by reference. At the basic level, a hypertext system is a database management system which permits one to connect screens of information using associative links, and by allowing users to link information together, thereby creating trails through associated materials. At the more sophisticated level, a hypertext system has a software environment which supports collaborative work, communication and knowledge acquisition. When the system’s database structure is complex, it is common to supply a special node called a graphical browser which displays the structure of the database and serves to re-orient users who are dislocated. Hypertext is the forerunner of multimedia/ hypermedia. Although the concept of hypertext has been with us since the 1940s, it was brought down to the ‘household’ level only after the introduction of Apple’s HyperCard in late 1987. Using HyperCard, one can create links in a given work – an electronic book, multimedia presentation or anything that might best be explored in a non-linear way. Then, when users are reading or exploring, they can click on icons to zoom to related topics which may be in the same file or in another one. Hypermedia extend the hypertext concept to link textual material to all forms of material – graphics, image, video, animation and sound – that may be digitally encoded for storage and retrieval through computer-based systems. As early as 1988, CasaBianca (1988), in his attempt to publish a hypertextlike journal, Hyper-Media, graphically presents a typological framework of hypermedia in what he calls HyperMedia Map. He uses graphic icons, as shown in Figure 1, to illustrate how the world’s communications media – audio, audiovisual, film, music, video – have been incorporated with comput-

ers, communication networks, publishing and information resources, 3-D graphics, design and system management to enable us to provide multimedia/ hypermedia information in a new, global, ‘wired society’. Clearly, multimedia technologies are not one single technology, and there is no single product, or definable market. The term ‘multimedia technologies’ epitomizes technology integration through the use of multimedia tools. In order to summarize the above and facilitate our discussion on multimedia, a simple working definition of multimedia is proposed as follows. Multimedia extends the hypertext concept of non-linear and non-sequential links of textual material to all forms of material that may be digitally encoded for storage and retrieval through computerbased systems, including images, sound, graphics and animation . . . Thus, multimedia refers to a synthesis of text, data, graphics, animation, optical storage, image processing and sound. Clearly, multimedia technology is not a single technology, and

Fig. 1. HyperMedia Map. Computers

Publishing

Audio

Music

Audiovisual

Film

Video

3-D Graphics

Interactivity Communications Management

AEC

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there is no single product, or definable market. It epitomizes technology integration.

Multimedia tools and technology Input and output technologies: hardware and software for digital data, sound, i m a g e , v i d e o a n d fi l m s As librarians and libraries everywhere are still handling largely printed materials, it is important to understand that the information seekers are no longer satisfied with only printed materials. They will want to supplement the printed information with more dynamic sound, music, graphics, animation, photography and video, all of which can now be fed into an ordinary computer where they can be cut, changed, shaped, combined, manipulated, enhanced and reconstructed into all kinds of exciting information products. In order to benefit from the current multimedia environment, one needs to know the multimedia tools available in the market-place so that they can be used to bring multimedia to the desktop. Hardware and software for users of multimedia Currently the market-place is full of multimedia products, as shown by the thousands of titles included in any directory of multimedia titles, many of which are multimedia CD-ROM titles. For libraries’ interest, multimedia products of every reference type, as well as subject topics, are available. Because more and more products have incorporated rather large numbers of images, sound and digital videos, much more powerful hardware than the bare minimum requirement for a PC system will be required: • 80386 CPU. • EGA/VGA or VGA A Plus Graphics. • 2 MB RAM. • Double-speed CD-ROM Drive. • Microsoft Windows 3.1. The general rule is that whenever possible, try to acquire a system with as much speed, hard disk space

and RAM as possible. For example, some products will run properly only with a 486 or Pentium processor with at least 16 MB of RAM and a fourspeed CD-ROM drive. The unfortunate fact is that most multimedia application products are developed for users with the higher-end systems, and few have kept the low-end systems users in mind. Multimedia production tools Only a couple of years ago, producing multimedia applications was generally difficult, since most multimedia production tools were either not readily available or simply too expensive for general use. But fast technological development has made it possible for many to consider producing their own multimedia applications now. To facilitate librarians’ use of these tools for production purposes, those for both Macintosh and PC systems are included below. Although Macintosh tools are often preferred for the development of multimedia applications, they might not be readily available to libraries in developing and less developed countries. There are simply too many multimedia production tools to cover all adequately. For example, for the Macintosh platform alone, the Macintosh Multimedia & Product Registry (1995) lists on fortyfive pages over 700 tools in every possible category of production work. A similar publication including tools for the PC platform is IBM’s yearly issue, Multimedia Today: The Sourcebook for Multimedia. The issue for 1995 lists over 600 production tools. For illustrative purposes, the following discussion covers only a very small number of selective tools in some distinctive categories.1 1. Price information will be indicated by ranges of list prices for 1996. Although products can generally be obtained at lower cost from computer warehouses, list prices represent better the prices for countries outside the United States. The ranges are: L for up to US$299, M between US$300 and US$699, and H for more than US$700.

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Animation

Fig. 2. Macromedia’s Director 3.1.

The best known animation tool is Macromedia’s Director 4.0 (H) which is available for both Mac and Windows (Fig. 2 shows a screen from version 3.1). Macromedia’s Director is a powerful animation and authoring tool. Users can create, combine and synchronize graphics, text and animation with audio and video; add full interactivity with buttons and scripts; export and import QuickTime movies, etc. Conversion software is also available to convert Mac Director applications to PC and vice versa. Other notable software includes Adobe’s Premier 4.1 (H), Avid’s VideoShop 3.0 (M) for Mac, and Gold Disk’s Animation Works Interactive 2.0 (L) for PC.

Clip art and photography In this category, Photo-CD technology has been utilized fully by most producers to store about 100 images of clip art and photographs on almost every subject for both Mac and PC platforms (some store 600 when the top two levels of higher-resolution images are sacrificed). Of international interest, Educorp’s International Graphics Library is a CD with 32-bit QuickDraw images (L). These clip art images can be copied and pasted on multimedia applications. More clip art CDs can be found in various software catalogues from Image Club in Milwaukee (United States).

Development tools The market-place has over fifty development tools for multimedia authoring and digital publishing. For Macintosh, the most noteworthy is HyperCard (L) (current version is 2.3). It features an intuitive interface designed to guide users through the construction of hypermedia programs and presentations of various media elements such as pictures, paint graphics, QuickTime movies, audio, videodisk sequences

and text, where users want them simply and quickly. Other popular ones include Macromedia’s Authorware 3.0 (H) (Fig. 3) for both Mac and Windows, the Voyager Co.’s Expanded Book Toolkit (L) and SuperCard 3.0 (M). Other PC systems include Aim Tech’s IconAuthor (H) and Motion Works’ MediaShop (M) and ToolBook (M). Drawing and painting Most noteworthy in the drawing and painting category are Adobe Illustrator 5.5 (M) (Fig. 4), Canvas 3.5 (M), Macromedia’s Freehand 5.0 (M), Claris’ MacPaint 2.0 (M), and Adobe’s SuperPaint 3.5 (M). All are powerful illustration and design tools that simplify the creation, manipulation and refinement of artwork with advanced features for editing, text handling, colour support and more.

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Fig. 3. Macromedia’s Authorware Professional.

Fig. 4. Adobe Illustrator.

Fig. 5. Adobe’s Photoshop 2.5.1.

Image processing Adobe’s Photoshop (M) for both platforms (Photoshop 3.0.3 for Mac) (Fig. 5) is the most recognized and most powerful image processing tool. It lets users design artwork with a wealth of powerful painting and selection tools, or retouch and correct true colour or black and white scanned images with image editing tools and filters. It also has a wide range of third-party plug-ins for enhanced image manipulation, most notably Kai’s Power Tools 2.1 (L), which provides a set of three dozen powerful extension and filter plug-ins that expand the ability to create computer-generated artwork and manipulate scanned images. Aldus PhotoStyler 2.0 (M) for Windows is also a popular tool for PCs. Media catalogues A number of tools are available for organizing and quickly retrieving digital photos in categories.

Adobe’s Fetch 1.2 (L), Inspace System’s Kudo Image Browser (L) and Kodak’s Showbox (L) fall into this category for Mac, while Electronic Imagery’s Image-

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Fig. 6. Macromedia’s Swivel 3D Professional 2.0.4.

multitrack recording, precise editing of all musical events, etc. These include Unicorn’s Performer 5.02 (M) and Opcode Systems’ Vision 2.0 (M) for Mac, Midisoft’s Studio (M) for Windows and Turtle Beach System’s Wave for Windows (M) for PCs. DigiDesign’s SoundTool (M) consists of a sound accelerator card and Sound Designer II (software) which allow hours of CD-quality sound to be recorded on to a hard drive and edited with unparalleled precision. Optical character recognition

Manager (L) and Lenel Systems’ Media Organizer (L) are for PC users. Modelling and rendering Numerous powerful tools are available in the market-place for creating photo-realistic computer images and animation at an affordable price (under US$1,000) for the type of sophisticated work that was possible only with mainframe and minicomputers a few years ago. Some powerful tools are Specular International’s Infini-D 3.0 (M), Strata Inc’s Strata Virtual (L) for real-time renderer, Macromedia’s Swivel 3D Professional 2.0.4 (M) (Fig. 6) and Virtus Corp.’s Virtus VR (L). Tools from Strata and Virtus are for both Mac and PC systems. Music software Music is an important element of a multimedia production. Various tools are available as a MIDI (Musical Interface for Digital Instruments) sequencer, editor and performance tool that provides

For multimedia applications, there is a great need for text materials as well. Thus, it is important to have effective tools to be able to turn hard-copy printed texts into digital word-processing files. Optical character recognition (OCR) software is very useful for this process. An outstanding example is Caere’s OmniPage Professional (M) (Fig. 7), which is an advanced OCR solution to turn printed texts into word processing files. It is available for both Mac and PC. Another competitive OCR software for Windows is Xerox’s TextBridge Pro 96 (M). Presentation and video-editing software Many high-powered software tools are available for on-screen animation presentations with motion, sound and QuickTime, and flexible non-linear editing systems for Mac. For presentation purposes, Gold Disk’s Astound and Adobe’s Persuasion 3.0 (M) are powerful graphic and digital video software that will produce or deliver data-intensive multimedia presentations. Macromedia’s Director 4.0 (H), Adobe’s Premier 4.1 (H), and Avid’s VideoShop 3.0 (M) are powerful tools providing an economic means of professional video editing. Director and Premier are available for both Mac and PC systems. Other PC desktop presentations include Motion Works CameraMan (L), Eduquest’s Linkway 2.01 (L) and Linkway Live! (L), Lenel Systems’ MultiMedia Works (L), and IBM’s Storyboard Live! 2.0 (L).

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Fig. 7. Caere’s OmniPage Professional.

Special effects Like clip art and photographs for fast and easy use of still images, there are many clip media products available for immediate use of ready digital videos, such as Macromedia’s ClipMedia (M) with professional animation, sounds and videos arranged on CD-ROMs in various subject categories (education, business, medicine, etc.). Many products, like Olduvai Corp’s Sound Clips 1.0 (L), feature an average of 100 sounds per volume. In addition, software tools are available for producing special effects for multimedia production. One of the most used is Gryphon’s Morph 2.5 (L) for Mac, which smoothly transforms one image into another with dynamic morphing. Gallery Effect 1.51 (M) is another tool that transforms scanned photographs and other bit-mapped images into works of art. The counterpart of Griffin’s Morph (L) for PC is North Coast Software’s PhotoMorph 2 (L), which allows users to combine and apply sophisticated special effects to bit-map images and AVI video clips,

with features for desktop video, including motion morphing. Multimedia peripherals Multimedia requires hardware and software power and speed as well as special capabilities to capture sound, image and video. Thus, peripheral devices which can accelerate any process as well as performing any of the capturing functions are essential. In addition, because all multimedia elements will consume a large quantity of memory and storage space, there will be a need to look into those peripherals that can double memory as well as compress and decompress multimedia files. The following are samples of peripherals which are worthy of serious consideration. Accelerators Many accelerators and chargers, such as DayStar Digital’s Image 040 (H), can accelerate imaging functions up to 600%. Unfortunately these boards are

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IBM’s M-Motion Video Adapter/A (H) for PS/2 can receive and process analogue signals from multiple external video and audio sources, and then send them to a monitor and external speakers for immediate viewing/listening in multimedia application settings. In this way, a PC can be connected directly to an analogue videodisk device and grab the analogue videos directly to integrate into multimedia applications. The Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster 16 boards for PCs provide rich CD-quality stereo sound for multimedia, education, business, home and entertainment applications at affordable prices.

and video. For example, Macromedia’s MacRecorder Sound System (previously marketed by Farallon) includes both the digital sound recorder hardware and SoundEdit software for users to record, edit and play back live or pre-recorded sounds on a Macintosh. Digital frame and video grabbers are abundant in the market-place. For example, Radius’ SpigotPower AV (M) provides full-screen, fullmotion capture and playback of interlaced and noninterlaced JPEG video. It is able to capture and save full 24-bit colour data. Creative Labs’ Video Blaster boards of different models can bring full-motion video sequences to a PC. Users can capture analogue video sequences at up to thirty frames per second. Generally one connects the television video recorder, and/or video camera to these boards.

Digital cameras

Scanners

In the last two years, several reasonably priced highperformance digital cameras have been introduced. Apple, Canon, Kodak and others have produced such digital image capture devices at a cost ranging from $350 to over $1,000. Users should acquire cameras only after studying carefully their need for digital images. These digital cameras can be connected to hardware systems using any platform. Most digital cameras function like regular cameras and therefore are mainly for capturing individual images. Another type of digital camera which can capture both colour pictures and videos is becoming quite popular. Examples include VideoLab’s FlexCam (L) and Connectix’s QuickCam (L). These are compatible with all leading video digitizing boards. Each is an integrated colour camera and microphone and can produce video output in both NTSC and PAL.

Scanners are essential for turning hard-copy texts, pictures in both positive and negative forms and films into digital files. Because of these different original formats, there are also different types of scanners. These include: • Flat-bed scanners, such as Microtek’s ScanMaker II (M) and III (H) models, that convert printed and artwork to digital files. For example, the ScanMaker III (H) is a 36-bit colour high-resolution flat-bed scanner up to 1,200 dpi. Generally, a scanner with at least 300 dpi can be quite effective for multimedia application development. Although more expensive and higher resolution drum scanners are also available, they are generally too expensive (some are over $35,000) for general-purpose use. • Slide scanners that will do the same with photographs, such as Microtek’s ScanMaker 1850S (M). • Film scanners, such as Microtek’s ScanMaker 35t (H), that can scan any 35 mm slide in 24-bit colour mode in up to 16.7 million colours or in 8-bit grey-scale mode to capture up to 256 shades of grey.

generally quite expensive (over US$1,000) and are intended for high-end operations. Audio/video controllers

Digitizers and frame grabbers In addition to software, built-in hardware capabilities or addition digitizers and frame grabbers (generally these are additional peripheral boards) are required for real-time digitizing of sound, images

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•

Hand-held scanners (L) that generally provide a low-cost alternative for producing digital images for multimedia applications. However, the resolution of these scanned images is low and the images can easily be distorted.

Need for mass storage in information work (archives, library and information services) Library, information and archival work generally deals with very large quantities of information. Regardless of whether information sources are in printed or electronic formats, space is always a key issue. Mass storage is required to meet: • The need for a large-volume digital storage system for archival management. • The need to provide users with immediate access to the rapidly growing volume of data and information that is stored in digital information systems and is likely to be distributed on optical media in the future. • The need to provide users with access to multimedia information quickly and interactively through the integration of technologies. • The need to transfer a large volume of data and/or files from one system to another. The following will discuss briefly the technologies available for mass storage and the types of storage media as well as the drives available for using these media. Va r i o u s t e c h n o l o g i e s a v a i l a b l e f o r m a s s storage Traditionally libraries have used conventional media like film, microfilm and microfiche to store information materials, but they are bulky and rather expensive. With the advent of computer and optical technologies, mass storage has shifted mostly to electronic media. There are several different technologies available for mass storage on magnetic tapes, highdensity floppy disks, portable hard disks with a

capacity of over 2 GB, and optical disks. But it is optical media that are the primary ones for mass storage. Because of this, the following section will explore further the different types of optical media. Storage media: optical disks, CD-ROM, etc. The various types of optical media offer different storage densities, media formats, transfer rates, capabilities and compatibility among commercial vendors’ products. In the last decade alone, a flood of new media and applications – CD-ROM, laser videodisks, write-once and read-many devices, erasable disks, to name just a few – have been introduced, promoted and utilized. There is a wide range of optical alternatives available to provide the highest application flexibility to end-users. Figure 8, modified from a figure from Chen (1989), shows that optical media can be grouped into three major categories: • Read-only media. • Write-once and read-many. • Erasable. Under each of these major categories, a multitude of optical storage media can be found. For more detailed information on each of these optical media, see Chen (1989). All of them are essential for multimedia application developments. Drive and interface Each different kind of optical media requires an appropriate drive to be connected to a microcomputer system. Videodisk players Multimedia CD-ROMs have become popular products in recent years. Earlier, interactive videodisks were the popular means of presenting multimedia applications. Even today, some applications still choose videodisks as end products if quantities of still and moving images are large. For example, one side of a videodisk can store 58,000 still images and

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thirty minutes of video in dual sound tracks. These are huge in comparison to what can be stored digitally on a multimedia CD-ROM even with high-ratio compression. For the latter, we are talking about a few hundred digital images and less than twenty minutes of digital video in small windows. Thus, videodisk disk applications are still substantial. The major manufacturers of videodisk players are Philips, Pioneer and Sony. Each has produced several different models – industrial or general models with different playing speeds, and some with the capability of playing both NTSC (National Television System Committee) and PAL (Phase Alternation Line) disks. CD-ROM drives The CD-ROM drive is currently the most popular device; it can be used to play regular CD-ROMs (mostly text-based) and Photo-CDs as well as multimedia CD-ROMs. Speed is one of the most significant considerations when acquiring such a drive. In order to run a multimedia CD-ROM, the minimum requirement is a double-speed (2X) drive. However, 4-speed and even 6-speed are available in the market-place. The 4-speed drive is very affordable and can be purchased for less then US$200 per unit in the United States. CD recorders WORM and erasable drives are essential for mass storage, publishing and back-up of multimedia development materials. Earlier WORM drives played discs generally holding 100 MB to 200 MB of data. The latest WORM CD medium is CD-R (CDRecordable) which can store 600 MB of data and requires a CD recorder with appropriate software to record information on the disc according to the appropriate CD standard. For example, JVC’s Personal RomMaker, Kodak’s PCD Writer and Philips’ CDD 522 Compact Disc Recorder are only a few samples of such CD recording devices with hardware and software solutions that allow users to

premaster and master their own CD-ROMs inhouse on the desktop for both PC and Mac platforms. Optical Media’s TOPiX is a CD publishing system used to record information on CD. Once the information is recorded, the disc will be used in the same manner as any other CD-ROM by using a regular CD-ROM drive. It goes without saying that for multimedia application development, such CD recording devices are most useful! Erasable drives For multimedia work, no matter how big the size of the hard drive, one will quickly run out of storage space. Thus every multimedia product developer has some kind of device that can expand the hard drive’s capacity substantially. Such devices are also used to back up the materials on the hard drive. An erasable medium is very attractive for this purpose as it can be modified and/or re-used. However, erasable optical disk technology is still not very stable, and both the medium and the drive are quite expensive. An erasable drive can cost over US$2,000. Thus, one of the more popular products has been the SyQuest drive; each SyQuest cartridge can store from 44 MB to about 200 MB of data/information. Two of the hottest products in this line now are Iomega’s Zip and Zap drives, which are both easy to use and affordable. The Zip drive, which runs with its Zip disk (100 MB per disk) costs only a meagre $199 per drive and the disk is less than $20, depending on the quantity purchased (over ten will cost only $14.99 per disk). The Zap drive, with a disk capacity as big as 1 GB, costs only around $599. Because of this incredible offer, many personal computer manufacturers have decided to include a Zip drive as part of the regular system configuration. M u l t i m e d i a o p e r a t i n g a n d fi l e s y s t e m Multimedia hardware and peripherals To enter the interactive multimedia world, a minimum equipment configuration should be more than

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the bare minimum described earlier. It should consist of the following components: • A computer system with a minimum of 4 MB of RAM. • A 350 MB hard disk drive. • A 14.4 kbps modem (fax modem would be preferable). • A double-speed CD-ROM drive. • A portable videotape recorder. • A fixed videotape recorder capable of being connected to a computer output either directly or through an appropriate AV card inserted into one of the bus slots in the computer. • A television monitor for use during taping and playback. • A scanner. Additional hardware in the form of an LCD display panel or LCD projection system is highly recommended.

output to hard, floppy disk or to read/write compact disc. Costs and equipment/software The equipment cost varies greatly from one model to another, and from one configuration to another. Thus it is best to check with the vendors for current price information. However, it is safe to estimate that a PC Pentium multimedia system can be acquired from US$1,500 to $4,000, and a Macintosh Power Mac from US$2,000 to $5,500, depending on the system model, RAM size, hard disk size, and connected peripherals. Whenever possible, efforts should be made to acquire a system with as large a RAM and hard disk storage capacity as possible. The cost of software also varies greatly, ranging from less than $100 to over $1,000. However, powerful software like Adobe Photoshop costs about $600 and Macromedia’s Director about $900.

Multimedia software

Creating multimedia applications

The minimum software configuration for using multimedia products is rather low, since most products have plug-and-play capabilities with very few requirements other than the installation processes. However, the following are varying levels of software requirements for producing simple multimedia applications: • A basic editing software package, such as those available from Adobe, Avid, Radius and others. • An intermediate-level software system that would include all of the above plus a freestanding audio editing software package, a twodimensional modelling or rendering software package and a graphic/titling package such as Adobe Photoshop. • An advanced-level software system that would include all the above plus an advanced-level three-dimensional modelling or rendering software package, and an authorware package for

The abundant multimedia tools are to be used for creating multimedia applications. Yet how one goes about developing multimedia depends on the nature of the application and how it will be viewed and used. Although there is no multimedia development formula, the process does follow a series of basic steps (Jerram and Gosney, 1993, p. 29). These steps include: • Concept. • Content and interface. • Product. It is impossible in a short paper like this to cover every aspect of the process, but each major step, and the subsets within each step, are clearly indicated in Figure 9. Planning and design (including data preparation and processing) Planning and design is always the most important component of any development, regardless of whether

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Fig. 9. Basic steps in developing multimedia applications.

Concept • Conceiving an idea • Planning the development process • Outlining and prototyping Interface

Content

• Designing the architecture and interface • Creating interface elements

• Acquiring and producing content • Preparing content Product • Assembling the elements into a cohesive production • Testing and making adjustments • Duplicating and distributing the final product

it is technology-related or not. Usually at least half to two-thirds of project effort is devoted to this phase. In other words, the better a project is planned and designed, the more likely it is that it will be successful, effective, efficient and useful. For a multimedia application, after the idea is conceived and a conceptual framework developed, the planning process will have to go into the more minute details of plans and design, so that these will lead to the successful implementation of the application development. Many questions will have to be addressed: • What are the goals and objectives of the application? • Who is it intended for? • What is it going to deliver which is either not available or not sufficiently available now? • What is the delivery platform? • What multimedia elements will the application include? • What are the existing information sources and

which and how will these be used for the application? • Where can help and/or contributions be found? • What is the budget for the application, and how will it be budgeted? • What are the environmental limitations? • What existing multimedia tools – both hardware and software – are required? • Who is going to do what? • How will it be published? • What is the target completion date? Once these questions have been addressed, the multimedia developer can deal with all the problems and issues surfacing during both the pre-production and production periods. It is important to stress the importance of project design. This includes both the application design and interface design. Remember that an application can deal with ‘gold-mine’ source materials which are rich, relevant and essential, but if the presentation is not well thought out and the

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interactive feature of multimedia technology is not fully utilized, then the richness of the available knowledge base will not be fully exploited. On the other hand, even if the presentation of the multimedia application is well designed conceptually, it can still fail if the interface design is either poor or uninviting/confusing to the user. Few would be willing or able to visit the ‘gold-mine’. Design criteria for effective integration of different media In designing multimedia applications, it is essential to realize that the process of linking multimedia information in a hyperweb environment can be both confusing and disorienting. Gaines and Vickers (1988) list the following multimedia functionalities under three categories – essential, expected and desirable:

tion and licensing must be developed. Industry standards must emerge to facilitate diversity and universal connectivity. Preparation of multimedia documents After the planning, one has to determine what kind of information is to be included and published, and then prepare and process this information. Information sources can include all formats – textual, still images and motion videos, sounds and animation. This step involves information-gathering and preparation, and electronic management. The former determines the format to be chosen for inclusion, and the latter considers how to turn all the desired information to electronic forms and also how to manage them. Data preparation and processing Data conversion

Essential

Expected

Desirable

Integration

Diversity

Programmability

Freedom

Extensibility

Orientability

Flexibility

Sociality

Guidability

Usability

Spatiality

Recreatability Attributability Communicability

One needs to remember that beyond the many demanding technical elements that allow multimedia to come together, there is a sense of transcendentalness that occurs during the production process. While combining massive amounts of information, one commonly observes coincidences and encounters baffling developments. Great care must be taken to separate the intelligent realities from the illusions. Integrating the complex threads of interactive electronic communication requires an emphasis on the relationship between the designer/producers and their reader/listener/user/viewer. New access paths to source material and new procedures for protec-

Text. The existing text information can be available in both printed and electronic forms. For the printed information, all three popular ways of conversion to an electronic format – keyboarding, imaging (scanning), and optical character recognition – will be used. For the electronic files, once the delivery platform is decided, electronic text files will have to be converted for the chosen platform. Images. Hard-copy images will have to be scanned and stored in acceptable format for multimedia applications. The most popular format is JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group), but PICT (a Macintosh graphics file format, closely related to PCT and commonly supported in Macintosh format) and TIFF (Tag Image File Formats) are also popular with multimedia application software. When multimedia is moving closely with Internet and World Wide Web applications, GIF and JPEG with a very high rate of compression are preferred. Scanned

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images often need to be processed and enhanced by the use of software like Adobe Photoshop. Video. Using the video-capturing software via a video-capturing board, one can convert video sources from television, video recorder and video camera to digital video and save them in popular formats such as QuickTime movies (in both platforms), or AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) for PC applications. The standard for digital video is MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group). Again, liked the scanned images, captured digital videos will have to be edited by the use of software tools like Macromedia’s Director, Adobe’s Premier or Avid’s VideoShop. Sound. Through the use of sound recording software and a sound recorder, sound sources from tapes, cassettes and video can be converted to digital sound files, which can also be manipulated and enhanced by means of existing tools, some of them described earlier in this paper. Data compression for digitized data, sound and fixed and moving images Non-text files consume a large amount of storage space (for example, one colour image at screen resolution can easily take up about 1 MB of disk space or more); thus the issue of size becomes very significant, and hence compression and decompression. Compression is a widely employed technique to reduce the size of large files without appreciably changing the way a viewer sees the images or digital videos or hears the sounds. Once compressed, the file must be decompressed before it can be used. Compression and decompression can be accomplished by software alone or through the use of a combination of software and hardware. Take image as an example: compression software analyses an image and finds ways to store the same amount of information using less storage space. Compression hardware usually consists of a ROM chip with built-

in compression routines for faster operation, or a coprocessor chip that shares the computing load with the computer’s main processor. There are different levels of software compression: • Lossless compression: no information lost through the compression process. In this way, the file size is generally not reduced much. • Lossy compression: through the compression, some information is lost. This will reduce the file size more dramatically than the lossless one. The most common method for compressing image is called JPEG, which is a standard way of reducing image file size that discards information which could not be detected easily by the human eye. In compressing the digital video, the standard is MPEG. MPEG is an industry standard for moving images that uses interframe compression (or frame differencing) as well as compression within frames. There are different MPEG standards, such as MPEG I, which optimizes for data rates in the 1 to 1.5 MB/sec range (the common transfer rate of CD-ROM drives and T-1 communications links), and MPEG II, which optimizes for data rates above the 5 MB/sec rate (specifically for broadcast video applications). Interactivity in multimedia technologies There are many compelling reasons for using multimedia for education, training, information delivery, business, entertainment, etc. First of all, the power of pictures is enormous. Only recently, with the advent of multimedia technologies, have we been able to tap the undeniable power of visual images and other non-textual information sources. But equally appealing for multimedia technology is the power of interactivity – a concept extended from hypertext as discussed in the introductory section. Through the ages, information has been presented and absorbed in a linear fashion. Interactive multimedia brings the incredible freedom to explore a subject area with fast links to related topics.

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Distribution, storage and use of digital data and documents

on the Internet or the World Wide Web. The important thing is being digital!

Portability

Long-term conservation of electronic data

Mass storage and storage media were discussed above. Currently, most digital data have been stored on optical media such as CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, and Photo-CDs, and most interactive multimedia products are produced and distributed as multimedia CD-ROMs, or interactive laser disks. The portability of these products, specifically those on CDROMs, is great. When multimedia applications are stored or published on an optical medium such as CD-ROM, they can be distributed easily for intra-organizational use. For a few copies, in-house CD-R technology can be used to produce the CD-ROMs. When published formally, whether commercially or not, the CD-ROMs or laser disks will be mastered by companies like 3M, DMI, Philips, etc. The cost of production generally is around US$1,000 to $1,500, with an additional cost for each unit ranging from $1.50 to over $10 depending on the quantity of the order. Commercially produced CD-ROMs are generally published and distributed much like books, and they will be properly packaged with an attractive graphically designed cover, and publicized for sale either directly from the publisher or via distributors, or both. Currently over 10,000 multimedia products have been published. Use and re-use of stored documents When information source materials are in digital form and stored electronically on a digital medium, they can be used and re-used for any suitable purpose. They can be retrieved easily to answer an information inquiry, used to create multimedia applications, or used for resource-sharing in either a network environment or for electronic publishing

We are very much aware of the need to back up electronic data with additional copies of floppy disks, backup tapes, Zip or Zap disks, or CD-Rs. It is important to add that optical media, specifically something like CD-ROM, tend to give an impression that they are the ultimate conservation medium with no possibility of data loss. Actually this is not the case. There are reports on the lifetime of optical media such as CD-ROM, suggesting thirty years or more. However, it is difficult to verify the accuracy of these predictions at this time. All electronic media have the possibility of wearing out, and thus it is important to make duplicate copies in order to avoid data loss due to wear and tear. Optical media such as CD-ROMs and laser disks should be used carefully to prevent possible scratches on the surface. Nonoptical electronic media, such as magnetic tape and floppy disks, should be stored under proper temperature and humidity control. As for the storage of the source materials, it is important to continue finding the best ways to preserve and conserve them regardless of whether they are electronic or not. Most images and videos originally came from film or microfilm sources. These should be kept using the best conservation methods, since electronic image-capturing – still or moving – cannot currently produce images of as high a resolution as those on films and microfilms. Thus, as technologies advance, there will be need still to re-use the source materials in order to produce new images of higher resolution (see Chapters 14, 24 and 25).

Emerging technologies and future trends As the use of multimedia will continue to expand, it is fair to expect that more tools in every category outlined earlier will be introduced with more func-

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tionalities and at lower cost. Thus, creating multimedia applications will be easier as time goes on. With the explosive development and use of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and the exponential growth in use of Web browsers like Netscape, we are witnessing the exciting marriage of multimedia and the Internet/World Wide Web in a way never possible before (see Chapter 18). Instead of Web publishing with mainly still images, graphics and text, now virtual reality and Web publishing with avitars are being introduced by all major companies like Netscape and Microsoft. The forthcoming versions of Web browsers, like the 3.0 version of Netscape, are filled with all kinds of features and

capabilities to present digital videos, sound, animations, etc., as shown in Figure 10. In addition to the increasing capability to include all types of multimedia publishing on the Web, emerging technologies will enable exciting live multimedia Internet publishing as well as real-time fast delivery of multimedia broadcasting onto the desktop. A good example of live multimedia Internet publishing is the ‘24 Hours in Cyberspace’ event on 8 February 1996 (Arnold, 1996). On that day, Rick Smolan, producer of award-winning multimedia products such as From Alice to Ocean and Passage to Vietnam, pulled off the most ambitious Internet event ever undertaken by deploying hundreds of

Fig. 10. Advanced multimedia capabilities of Netscape Navigator 3.0.

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Fig. 11. The homepage of Global Digital Libraries (accessing the Louvre web site).

photographers and journalists around the world to electronically transmit stories, images, videos and audio annotations onto a live, one-day Web site. In total, sixty-three photo-illustrated articles from every part of the world were electronically published for global access within twenty-four hours. The event demonstrated the immense power of a new medium that goes far beyond the scope of television news, magazines, radio or newspapers. Clearly this big-time project involved hundreds of millions of dollars and offers us a glimpse of where the future of multimedia and Internet/World Wide Web are heading. But what about the immediate future for libraries? The prospect is equally excit-

ing. It is clear that more than ever, libraries around the world will be able to share information resources in a way that was never possible before. The digital global library concept has been advocated for quite some time, and it is possible now for us to have such a digital global library. Global communication makes it possible to connect national libraries from different part of the world. These national libraries become regional ‘knowledge centres’ which can access information from the entire global ‘network of networks’. High-density optical storage in jukeboxes makes a vast increase in global collection size possible. Cutting-edge technologies such as multimedia and digital imaging are available in this high-

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speed global network so that texts, images and even voices can be transmitted from one part of the world to another. At the same time, however, nationalism becomes a stronger theme: building national collections, serving as an information source for national government, and collecting national history or culture are of concern now more than ever. The use of multimedia and Knowledge Navigator permit the delivery of this information, as well as information from other countries, to citizens’ homes, schools and offices. In this kind of environment, printed information sources, such as books, journals and archival materials, meet a highly competitive technology.

Digital information sources become essential (Chen, 1994). The enormous possibilities for combining multimedia and the Internet/World Wide Web together have also been demonstrated. Figure 11 shows how one is able, at the click of an icon, to jump to any national library or other major library in a given country instantly (Knauth, 1996). Access can also be gained to information on the award-winning multimedia product, The First Emperor of China (see Figure 12). As long as the resources are in digital format – regardless of whether they are still images, video or sound – and are on a Web server, one can obtain this

Fig. 12. Accessing information on The First Emperor of China through the Global Digital Libraries Web site.

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information almost instantly from anywhere in the world. A graphic directory of over thirty national library homepages around the world can be found in Chen (1996). This is an exciting time! ■■

References ARNOLD, K. 1996. Rick’s World. Multimedia Producer, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 58–63, 84. BUSH, V. 1945. As We May Think. Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 176, No. 1, pp. 101–8. CASABIANCA, L. 1988. HyperMedia Map. HyperMedia, Premier Issue, p. 5. CHEN, C. 1989. HyperSource on Optical Technologies. Chicago, LITA. ——. 1994. Information SuperHighway and the Digital Global Library: Realities and Challenges. Microcomputers for Information Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 143–155. ——. 1996. Global Digital Library Initiative: Prototype Development and Needs. Microcomputers for Information Management, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 133–64. GAINES, B. R.; VICKERS, J. N. 1988. Design Considerations for HyperMedia Systems. Microcomputers for Information Management, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1–28. JERRAM, P.; GOSNEY, M. 1993. Multimedia Power Tools. New York, Random House. KNAUTH, K. 1996. Linking Libraries Worldwide: Profession Demonstrates the Power of Global Networking. LC Information Bulletin (US Library of Congress), Vol. 55, No. 8, pp. 166–7. Macintosh Multimedia & Product Registry. 1995. Vol. 8, No. 4. 448 pp. Multimedia Today: The Sourcebook for Multimedia. 1995. Vol. 3, No. 1. 312 pp.

Ching-Chih Chen, Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College, Boston, is an international consultant and international speaker on cutting-edge technology application in information-related fields. The author/editor of twenty-six books, including Planning Global Information Infrastructure (Ablex and NIT, 1994) and several books on multimedia and optical technologies, and over 100 journal articles, she is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Microcomputers for Information Management: Global Internetworking for Libraries. Active in several professional associations, Dr Chen has directed many R&D projects, including the interactive multimedia project PROJECT EMPEROR-1, and is the creator of the interactive videodisk product, The First Emperor of China, as well as multimedia CD-ROMs. Since 1987, Dr Chen has organized a series of New Information Technology (NIT) conferences in many parts of the world.

Ching-Chih Chen Professor and Associate Dean Graduate School of Library and Information Science Simmons College 300 The Fenway Boston MA 021155898 United States Tel: 617-521-2800 Fax: 617-512-3192 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 17 Telecommunication technologies Martin B. H. Weiss University of Pittsburgh, United States

T

elecommunication technologies have been changing the nature of personal and business transactions since the commercialization of the telegraph in the 1840s. The synergy between information service providers and telecommunication carriers was recognized in the United States as early as 1867, when an exclusive contract between Associated Press and Western Union was signed. The impact of telecommunication control on information dissemination has been researched by many authors since then (see, for example, Smith, 1980). But telecommunication is more than a means of information dissemination; it also provides information users with a means of searching out and interacting with information. With the emergence of digital computers, information became represented more frequently in digital format, so that it became possible to search databases and transfer information from remote locations. This trend began with large corporations and their centralized databases and has since permeated many aspects of life in industrialized countries, especially with the emergence of the World Wide Web on the Internet. Since the 1980s the use of computer-based information retrieval systems has become popular with many libraries and information service providers. In many public libraries, computer-based catalogues have replaced their traditional card counterparts, offering capabilities such as simultaneous access by multiple users, keyword searching and remote access. With the emergence of the CD-ROM, much original information has become accessible over computer networks. This paper addresses many of the key questions surrounding the basic technology and its application to the information industry.

Common applications of telecommunication technologies in information services This section defines and describes the requirements for the most common forms of services in use by

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information service providers. Many of these require telecommunication technologies, although analogous services are often available without this technological infrastructure. In subsequent sections, the commonly used implementations and infrastructure requirements will be described. Remote access Remote access is a user’s ability to make use of an information provider’s services at a distance. This is desirable because it enables information service providers to economize their operations (through appropriate centralization) without eliminating access for distant users. Thus, a large population of users can be served without extensive need to travel. Traditionally, remote access has involved the use of postal or telephone inquiries. This method has a number of both advantages and disadvantages over electronic information technology solutions. These can be summarized under three main headings: cost, training and speed. Traditional remote-access technology is more labour-intensive but less capitalintensive; electronic technologies are more capitalintensive and require skilled ‘backroom’ personnel, but fewer information specialists. Traditional remote-access technology requires virtually no user training but considerable information-specialist training; electronic remote access requires user training as well as computer professionals. Finally, traditional remote access is very slow by comparison to electronic access. Electronic remote access generally requires users’ data terminals to connect to an information service provider’s serving computer. This connection may be handled via a modem and telephone lines or a public or private packet data network. When connected to the service provider’s computer, users are able to interact with the system as though they were local to the service provider’s computer.1 In the Internet, the Telnet service is an example of this service type; in Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)

systems, this service would be the Virtual Terminal (VT) service. Electronic remote access also implies a reliable, high-quality telecommunication infrastructure. File transfer Remote access implies that the information being sought remains at the server when the session is over. If any information is retained by the user, such as notes or printouts, it is generally a small fraction of the information and is not kept in digital form. If the user wishes to acquire pieces of information of a larger size, then a file transfer operation is usually preferred. Traditionally, this might involve the acquisition, either in person or via the postal system, of books, journals, articles, etc. This analogy is not perfect because electronic file transfer allows pieces of information to be transferred that may not exist in print or other traditional media. While file transfers can be accomplished using remote-access services (if the user’s device has sufficient capabilities), this operation is limited and not efficient. Using file transfer mechanisms instead enables the efficient transfer of both text and nontext characters without the insertion of special characters. Furthermore, most file transfer protocols have additional error-checking functionality built into them. Thus, information transfers can take place completely and efficiently. Commonly used file transfer protocols are ftp for the Internet, and File Transfer, Access and Management (FTAM) for OSIbased information systems. 1. When using a personal computer as a data terminal, users must first execute terminal emulation software on their personal computer so that it behaves as though it were a terminal. More sophisticated systems using the ‘client-server’ computing model enable users’ local personal computers to share the processing tasks with the serving computer. Although this requires unique client software for each server, it can reduce the communications load between the user and the server.

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The most common form of this technology is electronic mail, although it need not be limited to this. The objective in electronic messaging technologies is to allow the efficient transfer of messages of all kinds between the users of a network (humans as well as machines). Recent research has taken a broader view of this question and considers the use of still, animated and video images, as well as audio, graphics and text, to pass messages. In this broader context, then, ‘voice mail’ is also a form of electronic messaging. Numerous standards exist for electronic mail. By far the most widely implemented standard is Internet mail. Designed to support the transfer of text files only, this standard has been modified to support non-text information, such as images and binary files, through the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) system. As with most Internet standards, these represent relatively limited, although highly functional, solutions to specific problems. In response to the more comprehensive needs of the user community, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) developed the X.400 series of standards. These standards represent a systematic and comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of electronic mail users. The implementation is much more complex, hence costly, than Internet mail; as a result, it has yet to be adopted as widely.

quently a collection of independent databases that must be queried separately. Traditionally, database searches have been performed by attaching to the computer that houses the database a remote-access protocol (such as Telnet) and executing queries on the database. In recent years, searches based on the American National Standards Institution/National Information Standards Organization (ANSI/NISO) standard Z39.50 and Z39.59 have begun eliminating the need for users to connect directly with, and therefore have accounts on, remote database machines. These standards allow for the delivery of query results to an end-user using a standardized remote-access protocol. This mode of database searching is more efficient and flexible for both the network and the database machines, so it can be expected to be implemented more widely in the future. On the World Wide Web, search engines (such as Lycos and Yahoo) have emerged to facilitate information searching in this decentralized environment. These systems create an index of Web pages that can be searched. The results of these searches are brief descriptions of a page and the links to those pages. These are different from traditional database-searching systems in that the search engines must actively compile and update information, since the World Wide Web is perhaps the ultimate example of a distributed and decentralized database in which no attempt at consistency is made.

Database searching

Electronic data interchange

Database searching is an application that is increasingly network-based. The databases that are searched were organized historically as a single database on a single machine. This is gradually changing with the introduction of distributed databases, in which the database is logically a single database but is physically distributed over several computers. Many of the CD-ROM-based databases seem to exhibit this characteristic, although they are fre-

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the direct computer-to-computer exchange of information. While this is a very general definition, EDI is really focused on the exchange of information normally provided in business documents such as bills of lading, purchase orders and invoices. With the emergence of EDI standards, such as EDIFACT and ANSI X.12, EDI has gained significant popularity. When both partners in a transaction use compatible EDI sys-

Electronic messaging

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tems, the benefits of using this approach over traditional mechanisms include cost savings, speed, error reduction and security. EDI standards define specific transaction sets that in turn define the way in which information is to be communicated; a transaction set is the equivalent of a form in a paper-based communication system. A transaction set must have certain content and format specifications to ensure that both parties can interpret the information correctly. Just as a form has ‘boxes’ for information, a transaction set has segments that contain defined data elements.

Telecommunication technologies The user needs defined above must be implemented on computer systems that are interconnected by telecommunication technology. This section will present an overview of the telecommunication technologies that are relevant to the user needs defined above. Physical infrastructure In broad terms, the physical infrastructure consists of three components: cables, switching systems and signalling systems. Cables are used to interconnect devices, switches are used to route calls through the network (over cables), and signalling systems allow network devices (such as telephones and switches) to exchange information. This section will summarize each of these components. Cables The physical infrastructure consists of a combination of cables and their associated outside plant. The primary types of cables in use are twisted pair, optical fibre and coaxial. Twisted-pair cables consist of two insulated wires twisted together; these types of cable are most often used to connect the subscriber’s equipment with the telephone network. Optical fibre is used most often for high-capacity transmission within the network, that is, to connect large subscribers. Finally, coaxial cables are used both

within the telephone network and for high-bandwidth transmission to subscribers’ premises, as in cable television applications. The former use is being replaced by fibre optics, while the latter use is fairly well developed and embedded. Wireless infrastructures have been important since the 1940s, but the locus of their use has changed. Early non-broadcast uses of wireless were focused on interconnecting telephone company facilities using point-to-point microwave systems or satellite-based systems. The emergence of fibre optics as a technically and economically viable technology in the 1980s has stimulated the replacement of existing wireless facilities of this kind and limited the new installations to situations where cable is not feasible. Today, the use of wireless is focused more on connecting ‘nomadic’ or ‘untethered’ subscribers. Cellular, General System for Mobile (GSM) and Personal Communications System (PCS) systems are examples of this use. Switching While many other elements do exist, the other key element of the infrastructure is switches. Switches serve to interconnect subscribers with each other, either directly (if they are local) or via other switches and inter-office transmission facilities (if they are not local). In order to function properly, the devices on the network must pass certain information to each other, such as ‘off-hook’ and ‘on-hook’ (which corresponds to ‘busy’ and ‘idle’) and the dialled number. The mechanism by which this information is passed is the signalling system. Switching technology has undergone a radical evolution since the early days of telephony. The simplest (and also the earliest) switches consisted of a panel of electrical jacks, one for each subscriber and trunk (as an inter-office transmission channel is called). A human operator connected subscribers with each other (or to trunks) using patch cords with plugs on both ends. In the United States, these man-

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ual systems were gradually replaced with electromechanical switches during the early part of the twentieth century. In the 1960s, these electromechanical switches began to be replaced by digital electronic switches. In other countries, this investment/replacement cycle may not be consistent with the experience of the United States. Signalling Signalling technology also has changed. The earliest signalling consisted of sharply rapping the transmitter to get the attention of the operator or called party. This was soon replaced by a combination of magneto and bell. The destination number was originally spoken into the telephone by the caller to the operator, who would complete the call. As automated switches and digit dialling came into service, these signalling functions were replaced by in-band techniques (with in-band signalling, the signalling information is passed through the same channel that the user’s speech will eventually use). As the network grew in size, and as electronic switches were introduced, it became possible to introduce out-ofband signalling systems, such as Signalling System 7, that allow faster call set-up and the implementation of new services. Out-of-band signalling systems, like Signalling System 7, are implemented by creating a packetswitched data communications network, and treating the voice switches and service providers as users of the network. The messages and protocols are standardized and optimized for the rapid exchange of short messages between these devices. Many ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) systems require a Signalling System 7 infrastructure (see below). Digital and analogue communications When a voice is transmitted over the telephone, the speech is converted to electrical energy by a microphone. Microphones create an electrical signal that is

modulated in proportion to the strength and characteristics of the speech energy. Commercially available microphones always generate an electrical signal that is continuous in time; such a signal is called an analogue signal. Voice telecommunications were transmitted in analogue format throughout the telephone network until the 1960s. As an electrical signal is transmitted over distance, it is subject to certain deleterious effects, most notably noise and distortion. Noise consists of all unwanted electrical signals that are added to the signal in the transmission channel. Distortion is generally due to imperfections in the design of transmission equipment. Neither noise nor distortion can be avoided. Many types of noise are additive; that is, they are added to the signal in the transmission channel. As the distance increases, more noise and distortion is added, so that, as a rule, the signal deteriorates as distance increases. In an analogue system, the noise and distortion cannot be removed from the signal at the receiver because of the continuous nature of both the signal, noise and distortion. In the 1940s researchers at Bell Laboratories developed methods by which an analogue signal could be sampled in such a way that the samples could be used to reconstruct an accurate facsimile of the original signal. When a signal is sampled in this way, it becomes possible to represent these samples by a number that is proportional to the strength of the analogue electrical signal at the time it was sampled. Since this number can be represented in any number system, the engineers chose the binary number system. In the binary system, the number takes the form of multiple digits (eight, in the case of telephony) comprising only ones and zeros. The primary advantage of representing a signal and transmitting it in this way is that the essential information contained in the signal is in discrete levels rather than in continuous levels. Thus, when the signal with the added noise and distortion arrives at the receiver, the receiver can remove much of the

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noise because it can reconstruct the signal that was transmitted based on the discrete levels (if the system was properly engineered). It is possible to engineer a digital transmission system with very low noise levels. Since binary numbers are in the format that is natural for computational devices, it is also possible to engineer a reliable transmission system through long and noisy channels using sophisticated signal processing and error detection and correction techniques. The spacecraft that send pictures to Earth from distant planets provide an example of such a demanding environment. Data and voice communications When speech is rendered as a digital signal, the distinction between voice signals and data signals begins to become arbitrary, since neither the switches nor the network equipment can distinguish between them. None the less, the services that are constructed on the network infrastructure to support voice applications and data applications are different. These different applications place different demands on the network infrastructure. Voice communications, whether analogue or digital, historically have been implemented by dedicating a portion of the network capacity to a call for the duration of that call. No other call can use the bandwidth dedicated to that call. For data applications, this arrangement was wasteful, since the line was idle for a large fraction of the time. Communications between computers are frequently ‘bursty’, that is, communication between devices occurs infrequently but when it does the devices need a fast connection for modest quantities of data. As a result, engineers developed mechanisms for sharing a line’s bandwidth among several simultaneous but different calls so that the line would be utilized more efficiently. The most widely adopted technique for this uses a set of technologies referred to collectively as packet switching. In packet switching, several data streams are bundled and transmitted together by sending a

small portion of each data stream at a time in the form of a ‘packet’. Each packet contains the address of the destination computer as well as other necessary control information, so that the packet switches (special purpose computers in the data communications network) have the information to handle each packet. The packet switches collect traffic from many computers and determine how to direct each packet so that it reaches its destination (a function called routing). While packet-switched networks clearly provided a more economical solution for data communications applications, packets can arrive with a variable delay because all facilities in the network are shared by all packets in the network. Although this is not troublesome for most data applications, it can pose difficulties when traffic, such as voice traffic, is routed through packet networks. New network technologies, such as those based on the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), are seeking to solve these difficulties so that a single network infrastructure can be constructed for all major telecommunications applications.

Integrated services digital network (ISDN) ISDN is an approach to extend the digitization of the telephone network to the user’s telephone. It is defined by a set of ITU standards that were developed in large part during the 1980s. Today, these original services are known as Narrowband ISDN, or N-ISDN. In recent years, the ISDN concept has been extended to high-speed services under the auspices of Broadband ISDN (or B-ISDN). This section will focus on N-ISDN, since those services today are defined and supported by commercially available equipment and services. ISDN goes beyond a simple definition of a digital signalling and transmission standard for the local loop (which connects the user’s telephone with the telephone switch). It defines an architecture for the delivery of a comprehensive set of integrated services

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over an end-to-end digital architecture. This architecture includes the standards for the necessary hardware, communications protocols and software functionality. From a user’s point of view, the most common N-ISDN services that can be purchased are the Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and Primary Rate Interface (PRI) services. Residential subscribers are most likely to purchase the BRI service, since it consists of the digital equivalent of two voice lines and a data line. In digital terms, each of the two voice lines is a channel with a bit rate of 64,000 bits per second (a 64 kbps channel, in telecommunications jargon). In ISDN terminology, channels that carry information at 64 kbps are called ‘bearer’ channels (or B-channels). The BRI signalling channel (data or D-channel) has a 16 kbps bit rate. The D-channel is used to provide services to the subscriber, including basic services such as call set-up. Because of its configuration, BRI ISDN is often referred to as a ‘2B + D’ configuration because it consists of two B-channels and a D-channel. For large users, such as businesses, a collection of BRI channels may not be ideal as they would lack flexibility. Such organizations would normally opt to purchase a Primary Rate Interface or PRI service. Unlike BRI, users under PRI can choose several channel configurations. Thus, PRI users (in the Table 1. Summary of the Primary Rate Interface for ISDN Channel type

Definition

Signalling channel (D)

64 kbps

Bearer (B) channel

64 kbps

High-speed channel H0

384 kbps

H10

1.472 Mbps

H11

1.536 Mbps

H12

1.920 Mbps

H21

34 Mbps

H22

45 Mbps

H4

140 Mbps

United States) might choose a 23 B + D service, a H0 + 17B + D service, or others, from the menu defined in Table 1. Users must negotiate the specifics of the interface with their service provider. Much more could be said about ISDN in terms of its functionality and its role in organizations. In brief, ISDN provides users with the capability of true end-to-end digitial connectivity with other users and service providers. Furthermore, ISDN provides much higher data rates than can be achieved using modems, with the possibility of having valueenhancing services integrated with the transport.

Data communications standards ISDN’s bearer and high-speed channels provide basic transport for a user’s voice and data. Functionally, this is similar to the traditional analogue channel provided by telecommunication service providers (although the equipment varies). When computers are communicating, new demands are placed on both the network and on the end-user devices – demands that do not exist in voice communications (see above). As computer networks evolved, many more problems had to be addressed in addition to that of ‘bursty’ traffic. These include error control, synchronization, security and information representation. It also became apparent that standards were important in computer networks. Two major groups of standards have emerged for computer networks – the standards consistent with the OSI Reference Model and developed by the ITU and the International Standards Organization (ISO), and the standards that emerged out of the ARPANET project in the United States, which are referred to as the Internet Standards (see Chapters 18 and 21). Open systems interconnection (OSI) The OSI Reference Model and its associated standards (generally referred to as OSI standards) emerged in the late 1970s. The origins of this

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movement are complex, but include user frustration with incompatibility between large system vendors and concern among the smaller of the large system vendors about the dominance of one company, IBM. The OSI Reference Model is a systematic approach to the generic data communications problem. It organizes communication in seven layers, each of which is assigned specific functionality. The bottom three layers (1–3) are network-related layers in that they explicitly involve network components. The upper layers (4–7) are end-to-end, and do not involve network components. Specifically, the data communications function is organized as follows: • Physical layer (1): Standards that relate to the physical and electrical interconnection of computing or networking devices, and standards related to the encoding and physical transmission of bits over a communications medium. • Link layer (2): Standards that relate to the transmission of information on a single medium. This includes error control, framing, synchronization and local addressing. • Network layer (3): Standards related to the transmission of information across several links and nodes. This includes global addressing and routing. • Transport layer (4): Standards related to the transport of information from end to end over a network. This may include multiplexing of a connection between several user processes and end-to-end error control. • Session layer (5): Standards that define naming and control for multiple connections associated with a single user process. • Presentation layer (6): Standards that are concerned with the representation of information. • Application layer (7): Standards that define protocols to support higher-level user functions.

X.25 standard Internationally, one of the most important data communications standards is the X.25 developed by the ITU. The X.25 standard defines the interface between a user’s equipment (Data Terminal Equipment, or DTE) and the network (Data Communications Equipment, or DCE) at the network, link and physical layers of the OSI Reference Model. The X.25 standard is formally limited to speeds of 64 kbps and lower, although higher-speed implementations can sometimes be found. X.25 uses the Highspeed Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol at the link layer and the X.21 physical layer connection. Since the X.25 Packet Layer Protocol (PLP) operates at Layer 3 of the OSI Reference Model, it must use globally unique addresses: X.25 uses the X.121 global addressing scheme developed by the ITU. Since X.25 only defines the interface between DTE and DCE, it does not define the manner in which data are handled within a packet network. In fact, different commercial networks use various protocols and network control techniques internally. X.25 does not make specific statements about the operation of a packet network; it merely addresses the interfaces to the network. X.25 is a connection-oriented network protocol because the protocol requires that a virtual circuit be established in the network before information can be transferred. A virtual circuit is a route through the network that all packets between the users will follow. It is a virtual circuit because it is not dedicated to the two parties, as it would be in a telephone connection; it merely behaves as though it were, even though the physical bandwidth is shared among many users. X.25 assumes a relatively unreliable network infrastructure from the point of view of bit errors. Thus, error checking and correcting is done on each link as it passes through the network. This process turns out to be very time-consuming, limiting the effective throughput of X.25 networks. As networks

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have improved over the last twenty-five years with the introduction of optical fibre and digital transmission, this performance penalty has become increasingly apparent, resulting in technologies such as frame relay, which forgo link-by-link error checking in favour of end-to-end error checking.

Directory Service Agents (DSAs) to be tied together into a logical tree structure. A DSA communicates with as many other DSAs as necessary, using the standard protocols defined by X.500, to resolve requests from an attached Directory User Agent (DUA).

X.400 and X.500 standards

TCP/IP protocols

ITU’s X.400 series of standards provides for a comprehensive approach to electronic mail services. It gives service providers a broad range of services that can be offered to their customers. This richness comes at the expense of ease of implementation and product cost, factors that have delayed the implementation and adoption of products based on the X.400 series of standards. X.400 is a series of standards because it consists of a number of distinct, albeit interrelated, elements. These elements include User Agents (UAs), Message Transfer Agents (MTAs) and several service elements, as well as the protocols by which these elements communicate with one another. The message body can contain information in text, facsimile, video, image, telex, videotex and other formats. The X.500 series of standards is designed to support the development of directory services. A directory service is a system-level capability that allows users to find the ‘symbolic name’ (or address) of a user or a service. Broadly speaking, a directory service supports not only the binding of a symbolic name with an entity (such as a user or a resource), but also allows for the management of that information in a systematic and structured way. The developers of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite originally solved this problem in a decentralized way by using the Domain Name System (DNS). X.500 considered the directory problem from a global and commercial perspective, and in the light of experience with X.25. Thus, they developed a hierarchical system that allows a system of locally maintained

The TCP/IP protocols, referred to above, are an important suite of protocols for data communications, developed under the auspices of the United States Department of Defense. These protocols have gained considerable commercial popularity and are the foundation of the Internet. Unlike the ITU and ISO standards, the TCP/IP-based protocols evolved through a collegial, informal process that emphasized working implementations. As a result, these protocols are often focused on a ‘simple’ solution to a specific problem without considering (and sometimes explicitly ignoring) broader functionality and systematic design. Despite these shortcomings, these protocols always produce working prototypes that may be (and often are) adapted for use in commercial products. The TCP/IP protocol suite consists of a set of lower-layer protocols (often Local Area Network standards such as Ethernet and Token Ring), a network-layer protocol (Internet Protocol, or IP), a transport-layer protocol (such as Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP), and application protocols (for example, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, smtp; File Transfer Protocol, ftp; and a virtual terminal protocol, Telnet). This approach completely omits the session and presentation layers. Unlike the X.25 packet-layer protocol (which is connection-oriented), IP is connectionless. In a connectionless protocol, no virtual circuit is established at the outset; instead, each packet contains the source and destination addresses of the end-users, and each packet is routed through the network independently. As a result, packets may take different

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paths through the network and arrive out of order. The network provides no guarantees to the endusers, leaving error control to them. IP provides global addressing (but not via X.121). The number of available IP addresses has become limited owing to the structure of IP addressing and the explosive growth of the Internet. A new version of IP (IP version 6) is due to be released in the near future to tackle that problem. The most commonly used transport layer, TCP, is connection-oriented and provides end-to-end error control as well as flow control. Given the military environment that was assumed when TCP and IP were developed, the combinations of protocols make sense. IP is very resistant to node and line failures, since the connectionless packets automatically find an available path to the destination. TCP ensures that messages arrive error-free at the destination in a way that does not excessively congest the network. The TCP/IP set of protocols has been a favourite of many academic researchers because it is extraordinarily flexible and amenable to experimentation. As a result, new concepts and services, such as the gopher information retrieval protocol and the World Wide Web concept (with its associated protocols and standards) are able to emerge quickly and easily.

The role of governments and international organizations Governments and international organizations have been intimately involved in telecommunication from its inception. The United States Government financed Samuel F. B. Morse’s experimental telegraph line between Baltimore (Maryland) and Washington, D.C., in 1837. In most countries the government soon entered the business by building networks and providing telegraph (and later telephone) services. As telegraph (and later telephone) systems expanded in Europe, it soon became neces-

sary to interconnect separate national systems. This interconnection imperative motivated the development of technical standards as well as guidelines for negotiating the terms and conditions of interconnection. Out of this need, the predecessor of the ITU was born. It did not take long for this need for interconnection to expand beyond Europe. With the arrival of the telephone, the charter of the ITU expanded beyond telegraphy, just as its charter would later be expanded to include radio transmission. Governmental roles Government plays several important roles in telecommunication, depending in large measure on whether the service provider is public or private. If it is public (that is, either a government agency or owned by the government), then government provides financing for the infrastructure. If it is private, the role of government falls more into motivating infrastructure development and regulation of private firms. Note that the term ‘public carrier’ refers to a carrier whose services are generally available to all, whether publicly or privately owned. One of the important roles of governmental and international organizations has been to finance the development of telecommunication infrastructures. This has ranged from special projects (as in the Morse example cited above) to complete infrastructure development, as with governmental Post, Telegraph and Telephone (PTT) organizations. Internationally, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have become involved in the financial support of telecommunication infrastructure building in developing countries. Regulation In countries where the telecommunication service provider is private (an increasingly common occurence), regulation is often necessary. Regulation is particularly important in situations where no viable

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competitor exists to prevent monopolistic pricing by the service provider. Governments must usually establish a credible regulatory capability as they look to privatize their telecommunication operators. The regulatory body must be independent of the service providers and serves the functions of preventing ‘abusive’ pricing, ensuring the economic viability of the service provider, and providing a stable legal and economic framework for telecommunication to enable the service providers to engage in long-term planning. Regulation frequently takes the form of tariffs. A tariff defines a service as well as establishing the price of the service. As common carriers, many telecommunication service providers are obliged to apply the tariffs uniformly to all persons or parties requesting the service. Since the underlying cost of the service varies by customer, this averaging implies an implicit subsidy from the low cost-of-service customers to high cost-of-service customers. As competition is introduced into telecommunication markets, these implicit subsidies (and hence the averaging strategy implicit in tariffs) become harder to sustain. This occurs because the relatively high-tariffed prices for low cost-of-service customers presents a market opportunity for new entrants. Regulation may also take the form of rules and standards. Unlike tariffs, which have explicitly economic subject-matter, rules and standards seek to restrict the behaviour of firms. Rules and standards can govern technical matters (radio broadcast, for example, and the ways in which different carriers must interconnect) or structural matters (for example, how firms must separate regulated business from non-regulated business, and which markets are open to competitive entry). Although these rules are often not explicitly economic, they can frequently have profound economic implications. International regulations have been set forth by the ITU and tend to focus on technical standards and mechanisms for co-operation between interconnect-

ing carriers. The ITU has not engaged in price regulation of service providers, although it has established a set of structures to facilitate the creation of international tariffs and periodic settlements between carriers. International telecommunication The establishment and operation of transnational communication links poses some special problems. While the ITU provides useful frameworks to facilitate this, many of the details must be worked out through bilateral negotiations between the countries involved. While there is a significant precedent for most negotiations, special problems can sometimes arise. These include landing rights for cable or satellite systems; accounting and settlements rates and procedures; facilities ownership; and telecommunication market structure issues, such as public versus private and competitive versus monopoly. Governments have taken active roles in defining these issues, although there is a clear worldwide trend toward private ownership and competitive markets (and away from public ownership and monopoly service provision). When telecommunication is provided by the government or by a government-owned firm, representation on international bodies and the status of the carriers is straightforward. With a privately owned carrier, or a multitude of privately owned carriers, this becomes more difficult. While the representation on international bodies, particularly the ITU, remains the same, the way in which international regulations are enforced and the way in which national policy vis-à-vis international telecommunication is made become more difficult. While each country with competitive, private carriers has developed different strategies for this, the general approach is relatively constant: private carriers with international links must agree to abide by ITU regulations by registering as a Registered Private Operating Agency (RPOA) and by collaborative

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development of public policies through national advisory councils of the foreign ministry.

carrier to defer other investments to meet the needs of the multinational user (see Chapter 21).

Multinational corporations

Standard-setting

Multinational corporations are often advanced users of a country’s telecommunication infrastructure. These corporations normally do not have the goal of enhancing a country’s infrastructure; rather, they are interested in the efficient operation of their global enterprise. Multinational corporations were most frequently the first users of technologies such as X.25, Frame Relay and EDI, for example. But multinational firms can have a bigger impact. As a large and advanced user, a multinational can command significant investment by the public network service provider because the multinational offers a future stream of revenues to justify that investment, and also because it has the means and technology to bypass the public carrier, if necessary, to ensure that its communication needs are met. While the bypass threat can be mitigated to some extent by the use of ‘landing rights’ and licensing, the use of these measures may be detrimental to further investments by multinationals. Once the infrastructure investments are made, many users can take advantage of the advanced services, since it is unlikely that the multinational will consume the entire capacity of the carrier. The multinational, then, can provide a stimulus for infrastructure development that can assist a country in further economic development. From a public policy perspective, then, a multinational can pose significant challenges to the status quo and to public policy goals. The needs of multinationals have stimulated the move to privatization and the entry of competition as mechanisms to meet their needs. The focused infrastructure investments needed to support a multinational’s needs can lead to conflicts with social equity concerns inherent in universal service policy goals. This conflict is particularly acute if annual investments are fixed, requiring the

Telecommunication is a ‘standards-intensive’ industry by its very nature. Thus, an important role of governments and international organizations is to foster the establishment of standards. There are many ways in which standards may be set and many organizational structures within which standards may be developed. Originally the ITU, as a treaty organization, was created very much to serve the needs of public telecommunication networks, while ISO was more focused on meeting the needs of equipment, system and software manufacturers and vendors. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the body within which standards for the Internet are developed, is loosely organized and informal. The traditional distinctions between these organizations are blurring and a good deal of cooperation takes place among them. The two most visible standard-setting organizations in the telecommunication business are the ITU and ISO; hence, only those will be profiled below. These profiles are very brief; more detailed information can be found on the World Wide Web (http://www.itu.ch for ITU and http://www.iso.ch for ISO). I n t e r n a t i o n a l Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s U n i o n (ITU) The ITU, a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, is the primary focus for international cooperation in telecommunication. As a treaty organization, the recommendations and regulations of the ITU carry considerable weight. It dates back to 1865, and became a Specialized Agency of the United Nations in 1947. In 1992, the ITU was reorganized, and has been aggressively pursuing procedural reforms to accelerate the development of technical standards. In general terms, the mission of

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the ITU is to facilitate international telecommunication, and its standards development activities are concentrated on fostering that mission. As a result, the ITU has been active in developing standards for radio transmission (and co-ordinating frequency usage), digital and analogue telephone systems, telegraph and telex, and selected data communications standards. In the domain of data communications, the focus has been on those standards of interest to public network operators, including X.25, Frame Relay and X.400. Telecommunication standards are developed within the ITU-T. The actual work of standards development is not funded by the ITU; rather, the ‘volunteers’ who prepare the documents that define the standards are supported by telephone carriers, industrial organizations and other interested parties. The ITU provides a framework and organizational support for these activities. International Standards Organization (ISO) Unlike the ITU, ISO is not a treaty organization. Its purpose is to achieve worldwide agreement on international standards – a purpose with a much larger scope than just telecommunication or information systems standards. For example, ISO sets standards in areas such as Fire Safety, Plastics, and Information and Documentation. Unlike the ITU, ISO is a federation of national standards bodies, governmental or non-governmental. As a result, industry has a strong voice and the right to vote. ■■

Further reading This paper has provided a high-level survey of the major technologies that are relevant to the information industry. Many of the issues presented here are relevant to the development of the national information infrastructures of countries around the world. The books cited below are good starting-points for learning more about the topics discussed.

BERNT, P.; WEISS, M. B. 1993. International Telecommunications. Indianapolis, Ind., Howard Sams. 465 pp. FRIEDEN, R. 1996. International Telecommunications Handbook. Norwood, Mass., Artech House. 419 pp. HALSALL, F. 1996. Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems. 4th ed. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley. 907 pp. SMITH, A. 1980. The Geopolitics of Information. New York, Oxford University Press. 192 pp. STALLINGS, W. 1993. Networking Standards: A Guide to OSI, ISDN, LAN and WAN Standards. Boston, Mass., Addison-Wesley. 464 pp.

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Martin B. H. Weiss is an Associate Professor of Telecommunications and Co-Director of the Telecommunications Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, an MSE in Computer Control and Information Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. His principal research activities have focused on the issues surrounding the development and adoption of technical compatibility standards. Dr Weiss is also interested in telecommunication policy, information policy, telecommunication services and network management. His industrial experience includes technical and professional work at several R&D and consulting firms. He was a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories from 1978 to 1981 and at the MITRE Corp. from 1983 to 1985; from 1985 to 1987 he was a Senior Consultant with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. He is the author of numerous conference and journal publications and has co-authored with Phyllis Bernt a book on international telecommunications. Together with Dr Bernt, he is currently preparing a detailed study of United States telecommunication regulations.

Martin B. H. Weiss Telecommunications Program Department of Information Science University of Pittsburgh 135 N. Bellefield Avenue 505 Building Pittsburgh PA 15260 United States Fax: 412-624-5231 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 18 The Internet Blaise Cronin and Geoffrey McKim Indiana University, United States

I

n a remarkably short time, the Internet has evolved from an academic curiosity to a mass medium. It has been heralded as the basis of economic salvation for developing nations, as a new scholarly communications system and even as an entertainment alternative to television. However, the Internet has also thrown into relief controversial issues relating to censorship and freedom of expression, pornography and intellectual property rights that have profound ramifications for both individuals and nation-states. This chapter describes and seeks to explain the phenomenon that is the Internet.

Origins The earliest experiments in what later became the Internet began in 1966 with the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The first nodes in the resultant ARPANET were created in 1969. In 1977, the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocols that underlay the Internet were demonstrated for the first time. In 1986, the National Science Foundation (NSF) created the first NSFNET backbone and allowed regional networks, mostly supporting universities, to feed into this backbone. By 1990, the Internet was supporting commercial activities. Even after all this growth and development, the same basic TCP/IP protocols remain in use and still serve to unify the Internet. In March 1989, the first World Wide Web (WWW) proposal was elaborated and circulated at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, and in November 1990 the first prototype Web browser was created (see Chapter 17).

Growth The most comprehensive and regularly administered survey of Internet-connected computers, or hosts, is the Internet Domain Survey (Network Wizards, 1996). Figure 1, showing the number of Internet hosts from 1981 to 1995, is based on this survey.

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From the data, it can be seen that the number of host computers on the Internet doubles approximately annually. Additional statistics on Internet growth are provided by the Internet Society (1996), and Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS, 1996). The number of computers on the World Wide Web, currently the most popular portion of the Internet, is doubling every four or five months. The number of electronic mail messages sent over the Internet is doubling approximately every year (Internet Society, 1994). As of January 1996, there were an estimated

9,472,000 host computers on the Internet (Network Wizards, 1996). International growth is highly variable. There is also considerable variation in Internet presence for different industry sectors.

Organization and structure A defining feature of the Internet is that no one person, company, government or organization has ultimate control. The Internet Society (ISOC), an international, non-governmental organization whose members consist of governments, corporations, indi-

Fig. 1. Internet hosts by year. 13 000 000

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viduals and not-for-profit organizations, co-ordinates many activities related to technical standards, globalization, administrative procedures, education and training, and scaling. The ISOC Board of Trustees is the governing body of the ISOC. The Internet Activities Board (IAB), a technical advisory group to ISOC, is responsible for oversight of Internet technical standards, for the standardsmaking process and for all protocols and architectures used on the Internet. In addition, the IAB acts as a liaison with other national and international standards-making organizations, such as the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and publishes the Request for Comments (RFC) document series that effectively defines Internet standards and conventions. The IAB and the Federal Networking Council (FNC) have delegated responsibility for co-ordinating the management and dissemination of unique Internet host computer numbers, domain names and other parameters to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) at the University of Southern California. The Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC), maintained by AT&T and Network Solutions, provides site, host, domain and personal directory services to the Internet. Protocols and standards are researched and developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which also administers the overall Internet standards-making process. An open organization of network designers, vendors and researchers, the IETF, manages Internet standards through the RFC document series. The chair of the IETF, along with the area directors of the IETF, form the IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group) that handles policy issues related to protocol research and development. RFCs, the official and published documents of the IETF (and thus the Internet), are divided into four different types: Standards Track, Informational, Experimental and Historic. Standards Track RFCs

go through three phases: Proposed, Draft Standard and Standard.

Access Access to the Internet is often divided into three classes, a trichotomy first proposed by Matrix Information and Directory Services (1994): the Core Internet, consisting of those who can provide or distribute information over the Internet, the Consumer Internet, consisting of people who can receive information over the Internet, and the Matrix, consisting of users with access to electronic mail systems who can exchange mail with Internet users, including most proprietary, corporate e-mail systems. Until recently, the most common way to access the Internet was through a university or government agency. However, in the course of 1995, the number of hosts in the commercial domain exceeded the number of hosts in the educational domain for the first time. Users with personal accounts generally access the Internet by dialling in with a modem, either through a commercial online service such as America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy, or directly to the Internet through a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), otherwise known as a Point of Presence (POP). These commercial services provide additional proprietary information not available on the Internet as well as Internet access. ISPs can range in size from a couple of simultaneous connections operating from an individual’s home to large, national providers such as PSI in the United States or IWay, Pipex, U-Net and Demon Internet in the United Kingdom. In developed nations, the telephone call to the ISP is most often a local call. Almost all the United Kingdom and much of the United States are covered locally by ISPs. Recently, ISPs have also begun to appear in other countries. In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 makes it likely that telephone companies, both local Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and long-distance carriers, will begin

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offering Internet connectivity as a standard service. France Telecom has also announced intentions to provide a consumer Internet service, one that will include (for an extra fee) access to its existing Minitel service. If this happens, it is unlikely that local ISPs will be able to survive without offering significant added value. In addition, some users have access to limited parts of the Internet (often just electronic mail) through local computer bulletin board systems (BBS) or community networks (‘freenets’). An alternative means of connection is through what is called a ‘shell account’, in which a user dials into a remote computer connected to the Internet. Users in this case may have limited access to certain Internet services (e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, and even the World Wide Web), although they generally do not have access to graphics or many of the more advanced services. The advantage of this type of account, however, is that it requires only a low-end computer and a slow modem, and it is particularly popular in developing countries, where higher-end equipment is often unavailable.

Economics and pricing Pricing models for Internet access are varied, and have been the subject of much study. Kahin (1995) describes the economics of the Internet in terms of the characteristics of its primary underlying technologies, leased lines and routers (computers used to direct data traffic), both of which are subject to large economies of scale. Additional factors to be taken into account are the continually declining costs of the computer hardware and the statistical multiplexing techniques used to combine the traffic from different sources into a steady average traffic stream, both of which serve to drive down marginal costs. MacKie-Mason and Varian (1995) approach Internet economics from the perspective of congestion control. They compare fixed-rate access to the Internet with the ‘tragedy of the commons’, wherein there is no penalty for increased use, resulting in ‘overgraz-

ing’ of the resource (for example, excessive crossposting of messages). They posit an Internet costing model based on: incremental packet cost, social cost of delay to others, network infrastructure fixed costs, incremental cost of connecting an additional user, and cost to expand network capacity. Most authors, even those in favour of a more use-based Internet pricing model, agree that some subsidies for civic, educational and not-for-profit use are required. Kahin (1995) discusses the provision of subsidies to schools and public libraries for Internet access. Subsidies are not peculiar to the United States, however. For example, in Tarragona, Spain, TINET (Tarragona Internet) has begun offering users free basic Internet service (electronic mail and Usenet news), and below-market rate full Internet service, and the Peruvian Scientific Network (RCP), seeded with monies from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is providing subsidized Internet access and training to the public. A Web site or page can also be the level of economic analysis. Thus far, relatively few sites charge for the content they provide, with the information either being funded through advertising or provided as a loss-leader to entice the user to purchase a more complete version of the product. The Fourth World Wide Web Survey revealed that the number of people unwilling to pay anything for access to Web sites had increased to 31.8% from 22.6% in the previous survey (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995).

Internet services Internet services are combinations of protocols and software programs that allow people to use the Internet in different ways. A number of genres have emerged over the lifetime of the Internet, and most are still being used today, albeit in various incarnations. Usenet is a distributed network of computers, predating the Internet but now running almost entirely on the Internet infrastructure, that exchanges messages via a set of agreed-upon protocols

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in collections of messages called newsgroups. These newsgroups can be thought of as electronic discussion groups, and are arranged in hierarchies. There are seven top-level international hierarchies of newsgroups, called comp (for computer-related discussions and information), sci (for the sciences), soc (for sociocultural issues), rec (for hobbies and recreational activities), news (for activities related to Usenet itself), talk (for debate-oriented activities) and misc (for activities not fitting into one of the existing categories or spanning categories). In addition to the global hierarchies, there also exist local, regional and national hierarchies (de for Germany, in for Indiana, etc.). Finally, there are alternative hierarchies that are carried by some news servers, including the anarchic alt hierarchy, which has been the subject of controversy owing in part to the sexually explicit nature of some of its newsgroups. While there is no central Usenet authority, a number of accepted rules and procedures have evolved that users and news server administrators abide by in the maintenance of Usenet newsgroups for the seven major global hierarchies. These procedures include calls for discussion about the creation of new newsgroups, calls for voting on the creation of such newsgroups, and protocols for the collection and counting of votes and subsequent action. Gopher, developed at the University of Minnesota in the United States, was the first multimedia-oriented network navigation tool. Designed to simplify network navigation for the user by allowing providers to present their information in the form of navigable hierarchical menus, Gopher, and its companion Internet search index, VERONICA, played a major role in increasing the accessibility of the Internet to the non-technical user. Although many Gopher-based servers still exist, Gopher has been largely superseded by the World Wide Web, which duplicates and significantly enhances its functionality. Undoubtedly, the most significant Internet ser-

vice is the World Wide Web – often referred to as the multimedia portion of the Internet. The World Wide Web is based on the concepts of hypertext and hypermedia. Information available via the World Wide Web is provided in the form of hypermedia pages, which look like pages from a magazine, combining graphics and text, but with the added feature that the user can follow links provided by the author to other documents. Users view these hypermedia pages with the aid of software programs known as Web browsers. While the first widely available Web browser was Mosaic, more recently Netscape Navigator has become the browser of choice for most people. Browsers on the World Wide Web access Web servers via HTTP, or HyperText Transport Protocol. Information on the Web is generally marked up with HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). HTML provides facilities for the incorporation of text, graphics, sound, video and hypertext links into Web-based documents, as well as document formatting. To provide documents over the Web, information providers mark up these documents using HTML codes (or tags) and make them available via an HTTP server. HTML is a continuously evolving standard, and HTML 2.0 is the currently accepted version, supported by almost every browser. HTML 3.0 is currently under discussion, though many Web browsers have already implemented some of its features. Some browser developers, notably Netscape and Microsoft, have implemented non-standard features, and a major discussion item among Web service developers is the degree to which these features should be utilized. Most recent developments in Internet service are intended to fit within the World Wide Web and HTML framework, which has proven remarkably extensible and flexible. Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a technology used to represent three-dimensional interactive objects and scenes.

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The most successful applications of VRML to date have been in the areas of molecular modelling and architecture. Recently, the VRML standard has been extended by the VRML Architecture Group to incorporate motion, through the Moving Worlds standard. The most significant extension of the World Wide Web architecture has been the development of Java. Created by Sun Microsystems, Java is a full object-oriented, distributed programming language. Instead of downloading static documents, a Web user can download active Java programs, which then execute in his or her Web browser (in platformindependent manner). Applications range from cosmetic enhancements of Web pages through remote scientific instrumentation to dynamic software rental.

Specifying Internet resources Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are strings of characters that specify completely the information needed to retrieve a resource available on the Internet. They include the protocol used to access the resource (‘http’ for the Web, ‘gopher’ for Gopher, ‘ftp’ for FTP, ‘telnet’ for Telnet, ‘mailto’ for electronic mail, etc.), the Internet host on which the resource is accessible, the port number on the host through which the resource is being made available (usually this number is absent, and a default is assumed), and the location (usually the directory path name) within the host at which the resource may be found. The location may also be omitted; in this case, the resource retrieved is usually the primary home page available on the specified host. Example of URLs include http://www.unesco.org/general/eng/about/ constitution/index.html (UNESCO’s Constitution), and telnet://infogate.ucs.indiana.edu (the Indiana University library catalogue). Web browsers use URLs both to retrieve documents directly and to link to documents from other pages. The URL scheme has some significant limitations. First, as URLs are primarily instructions for retrieving a resource, they do not identify the con-

tent or title of the resource itself. Consequently, the contents of a document may change, but its URL will not change at all if the location remains constant. Second, multiple copies of a document in different locations may have entirely different URLs, providing no clue that they are indeed the same document. There have been efforts to develop a more consistent and location-independent scheme for referring to Internet resources (usually referred to as Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)), but so far there has been no agreement, nor standard implementation.

Navigation Today’s best-known navigation tools include Yahoo!, Lycos, WebCrawler, OpenText, AltaVista, Inktomi, InfoSeek and Magellan. Each has its own particular focus, way of gathering material to be indexed, search language and interface. Several also offer value-adding features, such as Yahoo!’s browsable ontology. These tools are typically funded in one of four ways: subsidized by a university (many search engines start out this way, and then become commercial); a fee levied for access (such as with InfoSeek, which has a two-tier structure – the first level is free to users, and the more advanced capability is charged on a subscription and per-search basis); as a demonstration of indexing software or hardware (OpenText, AltaVista); and, most significantly, by advertising. Many search engines are funded using the broadcasting model – the content is not so much the product as the bait to deliver users to advertisers’ doors. These navigation tools also differ in terms of the body of documents to which they provide access. Yahoo! sources much of its content directly from document owners. This subject categorization, limited indexing and browsability make it ideal for initial investigation into the range of resources available on a topic, but less desirable for finding more obscure or specific information. Others, such as AltaVista and Inktomi, focus on speed and comprehensive-

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ness. Some search engines, such as McKinley’s Magellan, include reviews and ratings of many Web sites. Most of these search engines obtain indexable material through the use of a ‘spider’. Also known as robots or crawlers, spiders are software agents that rove from site to site, retrieving information, indexing it and following all links recursively. This is a lengthy, computationally- and bandwith-intensive process, and there are always more Web sites than have been visited by the spiders. There are several problems with this approach to indexing. The first is that sites which have not been linked to any of the sites indexed by a spider may not be discovered by the spider. Second, many sites have changed since they were originally indexed, and thus the indexes are often out-of-date, and contain many ‘dead links’. Third, many users may not want their sites to be indexed by these publicly available search engines, considering it an invasion of privacy. In addition, from the user’s perspective, these search indexes often generate a large number of false hits, which provide useless information.

Internet addressing and the domain name system Each host on the Internet has a unique address, or hostname. These are arranged hierarchically in groups called domains. The largest domains, toplevel domains, contain all of the hosts in a particular country, and are identified by the ISO 3166 twoletter country code. For example, the domain for Japan is jp, the domain for Brazil br, and for South Africa za. The full list of these country codes can be found at http://www.nw.com/zone/iso-countrycodes. Although the United States has a top-level domain, us, it also has the additional top-level domains com, edu, org, gov, net and mil (for commercial organizations, higher education, not-forprofit organizations, government, network providers and the military, respectively). Within each of these top-level domains are other domains, usually

representing a particular organization (a university, a government agency, a corporation). Within these may be Internet hosts, or subdomains, often representing particular organizational units. For example, the hostname of the primary Indiana University School of Library and Information Science Internet server is ‘www-slis.lib.indiana.edu’. This means that the host is in the edu top-level domain, and is thus a United States higher education institution. The ‘indiana.edu’ is a domain registered to Indiana University. The ‘lib’ is a subdomain within Indiana University, and ‘www-slis’ is the actual name of the computer.

Commercial use and users The business potential of the Internet has been evident for some time. It has been estimated that use of the Web is growing at 40% per month. Of course, there are many outstanding technical issues, relating in particular to bandwidth and responsiveness, which affect perceptions of credibility and reliability (for example, gateway failures, capacity limitations, dead links and server overloads). As a market-place the Web is unusual. The number and range of suppliers is unlike any other market-place: it is a World’s Fair, souk, shopping centre and direct mail catalogue rolled into one. Within the Web, marketing can be business-to-business, business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer. This plurality is a defining feature, and offers a mix of benefits for both producers and consumers. Producer perspective The generic attractions of the Web from a supplier perspective include (Cronin and McKim, 1996): • Lower entry costs: Virtual markets are easy to penetrate. • Re-purposing: A digitized product base can be configured in a variety of ways to create secondary product lines. • Direct customer access: The Web creates direct

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•

•

• • •

• •

connections between producers and consumers without recourse to distributors or a sales network. Lower distribution costs: The separation of content from the storage medium eliminates several steps in traditional industry value chains. Indirect sales channels: Retailers can exploit the Web to generate referrals to conventional wholesale/retail outlets. Pre-segmented markets: The Web encourages self-branding/self-segmentation. Lower advertising costs: Merely to have a presence on the Web is to advertise. Lower transaction costs: For providers of certain categories of goods the costs of doing business drop significantly. Lower exit costs: The converse of low entry costs are low exit costs. Secondary markets: Additional revenue streams can be generated by selling advertising space or designing home pages.

Consumer perspective The underpinning dynamic of the virtual market changes traditional relationships between suppliers and buyers in a number of ways (Cronin and McKim, 1996): • Shift from push to pull: The Web gives consumers a voice and the option of drilling down into product information. • Greater choice: The breadth and depth of product range that the Web encourages will translate into greater consumer choice. • Transparency: The Web creates transparency by facilitating consumer-to-consumer information exchange. • Disintermediation: The Web has been described as the instantiation of frictionless capitalism. • Price drivers: Transparency in the market-place makes it harder to fool consumers. • Convenience: Electronic shopping adds a new

• •

dimension to the concept of customer convenience. Customer feedback: Vendors will become highly sensitive to the voice of the consumer. Impersonality: Some consumers enjoy the sense of anonymity afforded by electronic shopping/trading.

Producer/consumer concerns Many companies’ reluctance to move quickly into electronic trading is a function of the perceived threat of break-ins to their internal networks by hackers. Other concerns have to do with the vulnerability of soft goods to piracy and the resultant loss of revenue. From a consumer perspective, Web markets raise issues of privacy. Consumers may seek safeguards that transaction meta-data will not be used for unauthorized purposes. From Internet to Intranet Many businesses, recognizing that the technologies of the Internet (and particularly the World Wide Web) are robust, easy to use, well-tested and flexible, have begun to use them not only in the construction of public Web-based presences, but also in the creation of internal corporate information-sharing networks. The Georgia Institute of Technology (1995) Fourth WWW User Survey notes intra-enterprise use of the Web as the most common commercial use. Such internal networks, often termed ‘intranets’, are a natural intention of the Internet, which has been used since its inception to facilitate discussion and the dissemination of information. Electronic transactions Models for secure commercial transaction over the Internet fall into three classes: those that seek merely to provide secure transportation of transaction information from purchaser to merchant; those that attempt to facilitate the actual funds’ authorization and transaction settlement process; and those that

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aim to reproduce the essential features of money in digital form. The first class is concerned with the provision of secure transfer of information from a browser to a server. There are two competing standards for the provision of this service: Secure HTTP (S-HTTP) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Although from time to time the security in such systems may be penetrated (for example, certain weak points can theoretically be exploited), in practical terms they are sufficiently fail-safe for the purposes of ordinary commerce. The second class is concerned with facilitating the entire electronic purchasing process. After an initial period of dispute, a draft standard for secure electronic transactions emerged in early 1996. Known as the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) standard, it provides a framework within which confidentiality can be protected, payment integrity ensured, and both merchants and customers authenticated to each other. CyberCash also provides a secure, though not yet SET-compliant, transactionfacilitation service. Most existing secure transaction techniques depend on public-key cryptographic techniques, which do not require the sender and recipient of encrypted data to agree upon a secret encryption password beforehand. These crypto-systems can also be used to provide facilities for authentication and digital signatures. One of the primary impediments to the spread of secure transactions internationally is the ITAR (International Tariff in Arm Regulations) that restricts the export from the United States of software using strong cryptographic techniques. Countries such as France also have strong laws against the export or use of cryptographic software. The DigiCash payment scheme is different in that the customer withdraws electronic cash from a DigiCash bank, and that electronic cash is actual money rather than just a credit card number. When the customer transfers DigiCash to the vendor, then, it is as though cash has been exchanged – the item of

value itself has transferred from customer to vendor. The DigiCash scheme also provides another ‘cashlike’ feature – payer anonymity. When electronic cash is exchanged, the payer is not necessarily identified to the vendor (as would be the case if a credit card number were exchanged). This ensures additional customer privacy, and prevents the purchasetracking and marketing information-gathering that is possible with credit card transactions. Finally, there are commerce models, such as that of First Virtual, which rely not on sending encrypted information over the Internet, but on e-mail verification and purchase confirmation.

Government applications Government organizations have been leaders in making information available over the Internet. The United States Federal Government has been at the forefront, with Web sites such as THOMAS, a repository of current and past legislative information, the LC Marvel information system (of the US Library of Congress), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Web site. The Bureau of the Census also makes extensive data available. National Technical Information Services, through FedWorld, provide pointers to all United States Federal Government information resources. Government organizations as diverse as the Brazilian Ministry of Planning (http://www.seplan. gov.br), the Ministry of Interior Affairs in Latvia (http://www.ugdd.lv) and the Ministry of Information and Communication in the Republic of Korea (http://www.mic.go.kr) all provide information about their functions and services via their homepages. Similar enthusiasm can be seen among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The United Nations itself has a Web site (http://www.un.org), with pointers to the sites of its departments and divisions, or to its Specialized Agencies such as UNESCO (http://www.unesco.org). A guide to the use of United Nations Internet-based resources has

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been released. The World Bank (http://www.world bank.org), too, has a well-developed Web presence.

Education, research and scholarship Although the Web is relatively tiny today, containing only a fraction of the world’s publicly available data, it is quadrupling in size annually and in six or so years may grow a thousandfold. It would be shortsighted, however, to see the Web merely as a distributed document store and/or digital reference library, though it increasingly satisfies both these functions. The Web is much more than a virtual equivalent of existing archival and library institutions. It is a dynamic environment that supports new kinds of foraging and communication in which scholars are anything but passive participants. Moreover, the Web is as much a showcase for authors as a source of documents. In its far-sighted electronic publishing plan, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) acknowledges that many authors view their works as ‘living on the Web’ and see networks as opportunities ‘for collaborative authoring and for dynamic documents that incorporate other documents’ (Denning and Rous, 1995). Features and issues worth considering are: size and scope, cost, ease of use, novelty, community and legitimacy. Size and scope The bypassing of traditional (institutional) information suppliers and reference sources will be a consequence of progressive migration to the Web. Commercial publishers, for their part, are coming to recognize the importance of digital publishing, and are struggling to develop a business framework for online enterprise. First, materials located on a server in Addis Ababa, for example, need be no less accessible than those hosted by one’s own institution in Bloomington. Second, statistical data sets, image banks, textual archives, information services, entertainment and much else are available on the Web without any partitioning on the basis of content, for-

mat or nature of medium. Third, the boundary lines drawn by disciplinary groups are ignored by the infinitely extensible latticework of hypertextual links that give the Web its unique character. Fourth, ‘grey’ literature is no longer the stepchild of primary publishing; the Web entertains semi-published and vanity items, irrespective of provenance or pedigree. Cost Although the commercial character of the Web is developing rapidly, many organizations, including universities, research institutes and government agencies, are actively making materials available at zero cost to users. Scholars, in many cases, benefit from their parent institution’s willingness to provide subsidized and unmetered Internet access in support of the teaching and research functions. The general absence of direct or metered charges, coupled with the savings in time and effort afforded by desktop access to the World Wide Web, underscore the costeffectiveness of the technology from the standpoint of time-pressed scholars with limited budgets for consumables and subscriptions. Ease-of-use Simplicity of use combined with interactivity make for a powerful technology, and recent software developments, notably Java, offer new levels of dynamic interaction. The increasing availability of statistical data sets on the Web will allow scholars to acquire and interactively analyse remote data. The implications, however, extend beyond local convenience. The worldwide reach of the Web means that academics and researchers in less-developed nations, handicapped by lack of resources or unable to travel abroad and work in foreign research institutions, can compensate, in part, by connecting and interacting with remote data sets hosted by First World institutions. In fact, the Web makes possible new kinds of technology transfer for educational purposes between centre and periphery nations. Convenience,

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combined with cost-attractiveness and local control, helps explain the success of non-conventional electronic publishing/storage ventures such as the Los Alamos Preprint Archive or the CERN Preprint Server in high-energy physics. These (and other) collectivist ventures have in a relatively short time established themselves as the primary information exchange/pre-publishing forums for international research communities, bypassing established mechanisms and procedures. Their success and transparency are such that concerns about legitimacy and institutional oversight seem to count for little, least of all with opinion leaders in the scientific cultures in question. The search for novelty Experientially, the World Wide Web offers scholars something new: a tool that eliminates distance, erodes arbitrary boundaries between domains and facilitates associative learning. Although the Web can be used as a document locator, its real strength may lie in the fact that it supports query-free browsing and promotes serendipity. The ability to forage for new ideas and insights in a hypernavigable and unbounded space is a singular aspect of the Web. Cyber salons and digital communities The Web functions as a global common; a shared space which creates new forms of social interaction. Berghel (1995) uses the term ‘digital village’ to capture the defining characteristics of cyber communities. The Web, with its unparalleled capacity to link scattered communities, can be a powerful catalyst for highly intensive and participatory exchange across national boundaries and disciplinary borders, though the outcomes of these interactions will not always or necessarily be for the better. As Poster (1995) observes, segments of virtual social space differ from the public sphere in important ways: they can be places where ‘rational argument rarely prevails, and achieving consensus is widely seen as

impossible’. Gresham’s Law seems, in some cases, to apply to the currency of digital discourse. The evolution of communities of interest, of virtual communities not bound by geography, ranks among the most notable developments stimulated by the Internet. One of the earliest, and most influential, of these virtual communities was the WELL (Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link), an 8,000-member, San Francisco-based virtual community. While it is impossible to measure the number of these virtual communities, their impact is undeniable. They take many forms, including LISTSERVs, Usenet newsgroups and various Web-based forums. General social norms and guidelines for discussion groups and virtual communities on the Internet, often known as ‘netiquette’, have emerged. Legitimacy Many of the barriers to the use of the Web in scholarship relate to the perceived legitimacy of digital documents, that is, the acceptability of documents existing only in electronic form as a part of the scholarly record. The first concern relates to plagiarism. The ease of copying, coupled with the sheer number of potential electronic texts, creates unparalleled opportunity for plagiarism. The second obstacle has to do with the difficulty in establishing the authenticity and authorship of electronic documents. The technologies and protocols that enable authentication of documents and document authorship, digital signatures and public key cryptography in particular, do exist but, for a variety of technological and political reasons, public acceptance and implementation of these has been slow. The third problem is that of ephemerality. Documents on the Web may be here today, but gone tomorrow, if the host organization loses funding, the individual providers leave their organization, or the will to make older documents available is absent. For the scholarly community to accept digital documents, reliably managed archives that use digital signatures and public key cryptogra-

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phy to ensure the integrity of their holdings will be required. But perhaps the most serious obstacle is the problem of version control. Documents available on the Web can change regularly, without their corresponding references (e.g. the URLs) changing. A scholar may cite a document, but by the time the citation is checked, the Web document may have changed (often providing little or no indication of the changes made). Archives of digital documents will have to take into account the need to cite a document as it exists at a particular moment in time. In the university sector, there is significant investment in the World Wide Web as an enterprisewide utility to support a range of core functions – teaching, scholarship, administration and market positioning. Rates of adoption and development are differential (within and across both institutions and countries), but the Web is clearly seen as a means of enhancing and accelerating scholarly communication, fostering indigenous/local publication, facilitating computer-mediated teaching and underpinning distance learning strategies. Also, at a time of increasing competition for revenue and resources, the Web can act as a lever in gaining an edge in terms of advertising, branding and recruitment.

Disillusionment and controversy There has been some evidence in recent months that use of the Internet may actually be slowing and frustration rising. Ironically, as bandwidth overall on the Internet increases, more and more people are accessing it from home using at best a 28.8 Kb per sec modem, and thus have effectively less bandwidth. This problem is accentuated by the increasingly graphical nature of most Web pages, which slows the transmission of documents greatly. Add to this the still-greater bandwidth required by more advanced multimedia formats (video, animation, sound), the proliferation of graphically intensive advertisements that do not contribute to content, and the expecta-

tion of television-like responsiveness, and user frustration is bound to result. The Internet has also provoked serious controversy. The original Internet users were primarily scholars and computer experts, whose prevailing ethos might be characterized as ‘anything goes’ and ‘information wants to be free.’ Commerce was originally forbidden by the NSFNET usage guidelines, and even thereafter was strongly discouraged. However, as the Internet grew and became more tightly integrated with society in general, many governments attempted to regulate it as they did established media, by applying stringent copyright and anti-obscenity legislation. The result has been several well-publicized clashes. For example, the 1996 Communications Decency Act in the United States applies legally weak ‘indecency’ standards to traffic on the Internet, which has spawned high-profile public protest. Controversies on the Internet have ranged from clashes of cultures to conflicts of national law. In one case the book Le grand secret, which dealt with François Mitterand’s battle with cancer, was banned in France by a judicial decision only to be posted on the Internet, thus infringing French copyright law. This event led some to consider stricter controls on Internet content. In another well-publicized case the Church of Scientology, an American-based religious sect, successfully obtained restraining orders and search warrants after a disaffected member posted copyrighted Church documents on the Internet.

The Internet and development Although there are computers on the Internet in most countries, penetration is strongest in the developed world. The top seventeen nations in terms of number of Internet connections are all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Countries such as Turkey, Brazil and Thailand, however, have made recent rapid advances in terms of Internet connectedness. It

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Table 1. Internet hosts by country, January 19961 Country

Hosts

United States 6 053 402 Germany 452 997 United Kingdom 451 750 Canada 372 891 Australia 309 562 Japan 269 327 Finland 208 502 Netherlands 174 888 Sweden 149 877 France 137 217 Norway 88 356 Switzerland 85 844 Italy 73 364 Spain 53 707 New Zealand 53 610 Austria 52 728 Denmark 51 827 South Africa 48 277 Belgium 30 535 Israel 29 503 Korea, Republic of 29 306 Taiwan 25 273 Poland 24 945 Singapore 22 769 Brazil 20 113 Hong Kong 17 693 Czech Republic 16 786 International Organizations 15 570 Ireland 15 036 Russian Federation 14 320 Mexico 13 787 Hungary 11 486 Portugal 9 359 Chile 9 027 Greece 8 787 Iceland 8 719 Slovenia 5 870 Turkey 5 345 Argentina 5 312 Malaysia 4 194 Estonia 4 129 Thailand 4 055 Slovakia 2 913 Indonesia 2 351

Country

Hosts

Country

Ukraine Colombia Croatia China Philippines Luxembourg Latvia Costa Rica Kuwait Venezuela Bulgaria Romania Peru India Lithuania Uruguay Bermuda Egypt Faroe Islands Ecuador Cyprus United Arab Emirates Bahamas Iran Morocco Kazakstan Jamaica Antigua and Barbuda Brunei Darussalam Panama Bahrain Nicaragua Dominican Republic Zimbabwe San Marino Greenland Lebanon Tunisia Armenia Malta Bolivia Macao Georgia Uganda

2 318 2 262 2 230 2 146 1 771 1 756 1 631 1 495 1 233 1 165 1 013 954 813 788 630 626 608 591 533 504 384 365 276 271 234 187 164 160 156 148 142 141 139 93 90 88 88 82 77 68 66 65 60 58

Monaco Guam Trinidad and Tobago Fiji Liechtenstein Cayman Islands Macedonia Albania Uzbekistan Guatemala Saudi Arabia Gibraltar Belarus El Salvador Anguilla Jordan Nepal Pakistan Kenya Algeria Senegal Namibia Moldova, Republic of Andorra Solomon Islands Antarctica Ghana Sri Lanka Côte d’Ivoire Barbados Vatican City Guinea Swaziland New Caledonia Belize Azerbaijan Ethiopia Tonga Cuba Cook Islands

1. Data are from the Internet Domain Survey (http://www.nw.com).

Hosts

56 55 55 52 44 42 39 36 35 27 27 26 23 23 23 19 19 17 17 16 14 11 10 10 9 7 6 6 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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is only in the United States and a few other OECD nations that users routinely have access to the Internet from their homes. Otherwise, access is provided almost entirely through universities, government agencies and businesses. Table 1 provides a breakdown of Internet hosts by country. Even assuming that a reliable telecommunications infrastructure and logistical support system exist, the prevailing culture, social structures, community values and established rhythms of life in many LDCs will challenge simplistic assumptions about the nature of technology transfer. How is indigenous knowledge shared and diffused throughout local communities from generation to generation, and how do these dissemination practices differ from the knowledge transfer process in industrialized countries? In their review of computing in North Africa, Danowitz et al. (1995) acknowledge that Internet connectivity, in particular, could weaken the enforcement of prevailing social values and hinder censorship of ideas and opinions inimical to ruling powers. To illustrate the importance of cultural relativism, it is only necessary to compare information access policies in, say, Sweden or the United States with those of China or Singapore. In the United States, the present administration is committed to connecting public schools, libraries and hospitals to the Internet as part of its National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative. If public libraries have Internet connections, so the logic goes, local citizens and community groups will become electronically empowered. Approximately 21% of American public libraries and 35% of public schools have some connection to the Internet – although such access is not equitably distributed. In many societies, pervasive networking may stimulate greater participation in the democratic process and, at the same time, add a further set of checks and balances on all levels of government. Networks can enable concerned citizens, local action groups or disaffected individuals to challenge authority directly,

to source important background information and to mobilize support from like-minded, but often geographically dispersed, groups. But universal democracy comes with a price tag: the technology platforms which facilitate open exchange also support electronic eavesdropping and cyber surveillance of dissident voices by, for example, government departments, national security agencies, or corporations (see Chapter 20). Of course, it is not an accident that Internet connections are scarce in closed societies. The perception among ruling élites is that real-time communication of news and views, whatever the medium, is potentially threatening. As Travica and Hogan (1992) noted, computer networks (particularly RELCOM and GlasNet) were a key source of otherwise inaccessible information at the time of the 1991 attempted coup in the Soviet Union and a means of mobilizing counter-action. Networking ruptures centralized control. Networks have the capability to destabilize autocratic regimes by diffusing and amplifying unorthodox views in both vertical and horizontal directions. A few governments have already expressed concern that the Internet will enable their citizens to obtain information from outside groups – in particular, dissident groups from outside the country – and are working on an infrastructure that will allow them a much greater control over Internet content. In 1993, the Institute for Global Communications launched the PeaceNet World News Service, which offers news rarely found in the mainstream press. Currently, a group of human rights organizations (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, PEN) is exploring the possibility of establishing a communication system over the Internet.

Internet demographics There have been very few reliable studies of Internet demographics. Most have been delivered through the Internet itself, and have thus been highly

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skewed towards advanced computer users. In 1995, CommerceNet, an organization dedicated to promoting standards for commerce on the Internet, along with Nielsen Media Services conducted perhaps one of the first controlled, random-sample surveys on Internet demographics in the United States. Among other things, the survey found that people with access to the Internet fell into the following age-groups: 16–24 (22%); 25–34 (30%); 35–44 (26%); 45–54 (17%); 55+ (5%). Overall 64.5% were male, 88% had some college education, and they were primarily either professionals (37%) or fulltime students (16%), while 55% had a household income of US$50,000 or higher. The survey also found that 17% of the total population of the United States and Canada had some access to the Internet, 8% had used the Web in the last three months, and 11% the Internet. Approximately 14% of all Internet users had purchased goods or services over the Internet. General demographic surveys of Web users have also been carried out by the Georgia Institute of Technology (1995) for the past three years, and provide a snapshot of Web users’ lifestyles, behaviours and attitudes. The mean age of Web users is 32.7; approximately 70% are male; median income is US$63,000 (well above the $36,950 United States median income); 76.2% are from the United States, 10.2% from Canada and 9.8% from Europe; 31% work in computer-related and 24% in educationrelated fields. More than 40% use their browser for six to ten hours per week, with shopping a much less frequently cited activity than entertainment or accessing reference information. Some trends can be inferred when comparing data from the third Web survey as compared with the current survey. The median income of Web users is dropping, indicating that use of the Web is becoming less socially exclusive. The proportion of women responding to the survey increased by 15%, although not by nearly as much outside the United States. The average age of

the respondents was down from 35 to 32.7 years. Finally, the proportion of Web users from the United States is diminishing, as usage from Canada, Mexico, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania increases.

Conclusions Although the Internet growth curve must inevitably slacken from exponential to logistic, there are no signs yet that the rate of adoption is abating; indeed, predictions of a billion users by the year 2000 are commonplace. While congestion is often cited as a major impediment to sustained, widespread use, it is conceivable that the technology/capacity trajectory will keep pace with the demand curve. Another factor to take into account is the phenomenon of intelligent agency, and whether in fact the Internet will be roamed mostly by programs, not people. It may, therefore, be helpful to think in terms of three worlds: the Internet (public space), the intranet (closed communities), and what we have chosen to term the ‘infranet’ (the backgrounded portions of the public Internet increasingly inhabited by automated agents working on behalf of the great majority of ordinary users). However, technical matters will not necessarily dominate. As transnational usage grows, a cluster of sociocultural issues will move dramatically to the fore. Primary among these will be concerns relating to censorship, social control, cultural contamination, linguistic hegemony and computer crime, though nations and individuals will, of course, differ markedly in the perspectives they bring to bear and their assessments of the benefits and drawbacks of open electronic communications: what one nation might consider an egregious example of censorship might well be considered wise social stewardship in another. More optimistically, there are those who view the Internet as a powerful tool for constructing identity, cultural self-awareness, and local selfsufficiency on an unprecedented scale. ■■

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References BERGHEL, H. 1995. Digital Village: Maiden Voyage. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, No. 11, pp. 25–7. CRONIN, B.; MCKIM, G. 1996. Markets, Competition, and Intelligence on the World Wide Web. Competitive Intelligence Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 45–51. DANOWITZ, A. K.; NASSEF, Y.; GOODMAN, S. E. 1995. Cyberspace across the Sahara: Computing in North Africa. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, No. 12, pp. 23–8. DENNING, P. J.; ROUS, B. 1995. The ACM Electronic Publishing Plan. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 97–103. GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 1995. GVU Center’s 4th WWW User Survey. (Available from URL: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/ survey-10-1995.) INTERNET SOCIETY. 1994. Growth of the Internet: Internet Messaging Traffic. (Available from URL: http:// www.isoc.org/ftp/isoc/charts/90s-mail.txt.) ——. 1996. Internet Society Information Services. (Available from URL: http://info.isoc.org: 80/ infosvc/index.html.) KAHIN, B. 1995. The Internet and the National Information Infrastructure. In: B. Kahin and J. Keller (eds.), Public Access to the Internet, pp. 3–23. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. 390 pp. MACKIE-MASON, J.; VARIAN, H. 1995. Pricing the Internet. In: B. Kahin and J. Keller (eds.), Public Access to the Internet, pp. 269–314. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. 390 pp. MATRIX INFORMATION AND DIRECTORY SERVICES. 1994. MIDS Press Release: New Data on the Size of the Internet and the Matrix. (Available from URL: http://www.tic.com.) MIDS. 1996. MIDS Home Page. (Available from URL: http://www.mids.org.) NETWORK WIZARDS. 1996. Internet Domain Survey. (Available from URL: http://www.nw.com.) POSTER, M. 1995. The Net as a Public Sphere? Wired, Vol. 3, No. 11, pp. 136–7. TRAVICA, B.; HOGAN, M. 1992. Computer Networks in

the Former USSR: Technology, Uses and Social Effects. In: D. Shaw (ed.), ASIS ’92: Proceedings of the 55th ASIS Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, October 26–29, pp. 120–35. Washington, D.C., ASIS.

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Blaise Cronin is Professor of Information Science at

Geoffrey McKim,

Indiana University and Dean of the School of Library

Manager of Information

and Information Science. He is also the BLCMP

Systems at Indiana

Visiting Professor of Information Science at

University’s School of

Manchester Metropolitan University in the United

Library and Information

Kingdom, and an Associate Consultant with Solon Consultants,

Science, has degrees in mathematics, and

London. From 1985 to 1991 he was Professor of Information Science

library and information science. A

and Head of the Department of Information Science, Strathclyde

former network analyst for Indiana

Business School, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom. He has

University Computing Services, he has

taught or consulted in more than thirty countries, and been an invited

been involved in the development and

speaker at fifty universities worldwide. Dr Cronin is author or editor

management of Internet resources for

of more than 200 books, reports and articles on strategic information

over seven years. He has taught courses

management, information marketing, scholarly communication and

in Web server design, Internet resource

citation analysis. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Information

use and management, and information

Scientists, Institute of Management, and Library Association, and a

technology in organizations. He is

member of several other professional associations. His editorial board

author of a recent book, Internet

memberships include Journal of Documentation, Library Quarterly,

Research Companion, and a member of

International Journal of Information Management and Revista

the Internet Society, the Society for

Española de Documentación Científica, and he was Founding Editor

Social Studies of Science, the American

of the Journal of Economic and Social Intelligence.

Society for Information Science, and the Association for Computing Machinery.

Blaise Cronin Dean, School of Library and Information Science

Geoffrey McKim

Indiana University

Information Systems Manager

Bloomington

School of Library and Information

Indiana 47405-1801

Science

United States

Indiana University

Tel: 812-855-2848

Bloomington

Fax: 812-855-0078

Indiana 47405-1801

E-mail: [email protected]

United States Tel: 812-855-2848 Fax: 812-855-0078

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Chapter 19 Design criteria for large library buildings Harry Faulkner-Brown Chartered Architect, United Kingdom

T

his paper considers planning and design aspects of new library buildings, and extensions and major reconstruction of existing buildings, with special attention to libraries that make a significant contribution at the national level. So many factors influence these buildings that a rationalization of common features is presented, since there are many similarities in the functions of large buildings designed to meet the needs of academic and research institutions, historical societies, state and national libraries. The many similarities are balanced by differences caused by the unique nature of governmental, educational, cultural, geographical and urban philosophy and practice, and by the community they serve. Some results are well illustrated in a recent publication (Melot, 1996). Several authors describe and illustrate many of the features of fifteen recent major library buildings. The variety is staggering; some are quite inspirational and cover regions as dispersed as the west and east coasts of the United States, Europe and Scandinavia, the Middle and Far East and parts of Africa. This is an important book of reference which can be of value to decisionmakers in any country contemplating a project for a major library building.

Functions Keyes Metcalf, the doyen of library consultants, wrote his important book Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings in 1965, and has become the great guide on this particular subject. The revised edition (Metcalf et al., 1986) contains the following statements of purposes: • Protection of books and collections of other records from the elements, poor environment and mishandling. • Housing of books and other collections in a variety of accommodations for ease of access. • Housing of the various catalogues and related bibliographic tools which enable the reader to

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find relevant materials in the local collections and supplementary holdings in other institutions. • Accommodation of readers and other clientele who need immediate or frequent access to collections and services. • Provision for staff who select, acquire, organize, care for and service the collections, and who aid readers in their informational needs. • Quarters for ancillary functions such as photocopy services, bibliographic instruction, audiovisual materials preparation, computer support facilities. • Quarters for library administration and business offices: such functions as personnel, finance, fundraising, publications, graphics or signage, building operations, security, supplies, mail and delivery services. • Study, research, and writing quarters for students, faculty and visiting scholars. • Space to publicize resources or services through exhibits, lectures, publications, etc. • Structure to serve as a memorial to an individual and symbolism of the institution’s academic life in pursuit of scholarly achievement. These physical provisions are designed to meet the present needs of the library building, but at the same time must be arranged in such a way that it remains possible to adapt to inevitable changes in government or institutional policy, educational variations, social patterns and technological advances, and which are difficult or impossible to predict.

Brief (Programme) It is important that the needs of a new, extended or reconstructed building should be clearly and unambiguously stated. This is one of the most important activities in the life of any building. It is formulated for clarity of communication. It is important here to define what is generally accepted as the brief or programme. The final brief is a

comprehensive list of all the requirements necessary to inform the design team adequately, and is gradually developed over an extended period of consultation. (This is sometimes undertaken at the outset by brief-writing specialists.) It is based on the initial brief given by a client to an architect, usually when the building is first commissioned, and can form the conditions and rules of a competition. It can be defined as a short, concise statement of the problem, its objectives, organization, operation, technical requirements and schedule of accommodation, and sets out factors affecting the design standards and qualities required; it should be comprehensible to lay committees and be used for subsequent design evaluation. Prejudices and suggested design solutions should be avoided. Examples are given in Faulkner-Brown (1993).

Fixed-function For all practical purposes, before 1940 library buildings were fixed-function buildings. Each part was designed for a specific, known and predictable function. This type of building was successful only while the function remained constant. By 1945 the function of academic libraries and others, including very large libraries with a legal deposit role, stopped being constant. Three principal items revolutionized library planning, resulting in massive changes to the building: the changing role of and expansion in education; new forms of communication and access to information; and the massive development of all forms of relevant technology. However, in larger buildings requiring the storage of considerable amounts of both book and non-book material (generally in closed access), bookstacks and specialist stores in fixed-function accommodation form a large part of the whole. The rest of the building provides space which can be adapted, enlarged and changed to rearrange functions and activities easily, without undue disruption.

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Modular The flexible modular building is now a mature building type and is the result of several decades of development and refinement. Some buildings have not managed to cope with the changes that have taken place in activities and access to information, although many have – but will they and unborn schemes continue to cope in the future when needs and activities are changing so rapidly and in such unforeseen ways? It is difficult, or virtually impossible, to predict how library buildings will change in the future: the only certainty is that they will change.

Qualitative factors In examining what exists at the moment, an enormous range of solutions to the problem presents itself. To attempt to analyse or even comment on aspects of resolution and to either review or criticize building design solutions would require a volume on its own. Major buildings, especially national libraries, are unique, and some are so unusual that they should not be studied as role models. It is therefore more appropriate to try to establish common ground, so that in making projections for the future a clear picture can emerge of what the library building of today and tomorrow should be like. To attempt to illustrate an ideal library would be to ignore the many and varied basic factors affecting the buildings, such as national culture and education, user needs, patterns of use, the influence and constraints of the site, the financial climate and national pride. There is, therefore, justification for an examination of desirable qualities rather than theoretical details. Although internal arrangements and user services vary from place to place, and from one type of library building to another, recent buildings of all sizes have several common factors, which have been crystallized into the following desirable qualities or, as some colleagues call them, ‘Faulkner-Brown’s ten commandments’.

A library building should be: Flexible, with a layout, structure and services which are easy to adapt. Compact, for ease of movement of readers, staff and books. Accessible, from the exterior into the building and from the entrance to all parts of the building, with an easy comprehensible plan needing minimum supplementary directions. Extendible, to permit future growth with minimum disruption. Varied, in its provision of book accommodation and of reader services to give wide freedom of choice. Organized, to impose appropriate confrontation between books and readers. Comfortable, to promote efficiency of use. Constant in environment, for the preservation of library materials. Secure, to control user behaviour and loss of books. Economic, to be built and maintained with minimum resources both in finance and staff. These are the broad outlines of ten important qualities. Irrespective of size, these qualities can be applied in varying degrees. It is worth examining them in more detail. Several library buildings discussed in Melot (1996) have adopted these qualities, including the National and University Library in Reykjavik, Iceland, Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and the Juma Al-Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage in Dubai. Flexible Flexibility, of course, does not mean that the structure is flexible and will bend or move under stress. A flexible library building is one which permits flexibility in the layout of its planning arrangements, with structure, heating, ventilation and lighting arranged to facilitate adaptability. By arranging columns with regular spacing, or reducing the number of columns with long span beams, and by design-

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ing the floors to carry a superimposed live load of 7.2 kN/m2 (150 lbs/ft2) for bookshelf loading, it is easy to move departments, issue and service desks, bookshelves, reader places or other library functions to any part of the building. Better flexibility is achieved when floors are level, without steps, and when the heating, ventilation and lighting are uniform and allow rearrangement without the need for any alterations and yet maintain an adequate environment. The planning arrangements are much more flexible if the internal walls are concentrated in certain areas to form ‘cores’, containing immovable features such as stairs, lifts, toilets and ducts. Other walls, where security and privacy are absolutely essential, are not structural and are designed to be demounted and erected elsewhere. The building and its components are designed to facilitate this. All other areas can be left open and, through applying the well-tried experience of offices designed on Bürolandschaft principles, visual and aural privacy are achieved very simply, with the bonus of much improved communications and supervision. The necessary visual privacy is achieved by varied furniture arrangements with bookshelves providing indigenous screening, and movable indoor planting additionally providing colour, a variety of forms and life to the interior. Aural privacy is achieved by acoustic material on both the floors and ceiling, plus the introduction of an even level of ambient noise in the ventilation system. These factors ensure that the noise levels of normal library functions and conversations are absorbed in a satisfactory manner, and are not distinguishable at distances of beyond four metres from source. In an open-planned building designed flexibly to cater for adaptations, the relocation of departments and activities is achieved without having to resort to expensive contractual alterations, and the librarian is not inhibited from making changes or

instituting experiments – they are achieved merely by moving furniture and bookshelves. If, however, the furniture is fixed or built-in, or built of brick, steel or reinforced concrete, then it does present a more difficult problem, The furniture is immovable for all time, which assumes that needs will not change. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated that the open-plan flexible library can be economical in staff resources, since overseeing and informal control are facilitated by the openness rather than by dividing up the building into rooms or halls, thereby requiring fewer staff. It can be seen, therefore, that the open plan has many advantages, that enclosed rooms disappear, or are drastically reduced in number, and that departments are in loosely defined areas, informally arranged in relationship to each other. Compact A compact building will assist the librarian in many ways. Theoretically, travel distances will be reduced to a minimum if the building is a cube and on entry users are brought to the centre of gravity. Books, staff and readers will need to move shorter distances in a cubic building than in a linear building or one extended by moving away from a deep plan. There is also a bonus in economy of consumption of fuel and energy. Accessible The quality of ‘ease of access’ to the building and to the books is one to which much attention needs to be paid. An easy and inviting route to the entrance should also be unambiguously defined. Once inside the user should be aware of the location of the principal elements of the building – inquiries, the main desk, reference, catalogue and stairs – and the routes should be strongly stated without an overproliferation of signs and directions.

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Extendible Until recently all librarians and some architects maintained that library buildings, especially academic libraries, are not finite. They should be capable of extension and land should be reserved for future expansion. A significant development in British academic libraries was the report of a working party on Capital Provision for University Libraries – the Atkinson Report. Among other things it recommended the adoption of the principle of a ‘self-renewing library of limited growth’, and established new norms. This meant that academic library buildings were to be finite with no provision for extension. It is a commonly held view that every library building should be capable of extension, that the construction of the building will facilitate extension, and that at each stage of development the building should appear to be a complete entity. Naturally the choice of exterior materials and construction will be heavily influenced by this latter factor. The exterior wall of a library building can consist of a series of simple repetitive units which can be removed from the façade and re-used in an extended building. If the library is not extended it can stand in its present state as a finite and apparently complete building. If the needs of the library change, the building can be changed reasonably easily. Some of the ten commandments can be bent, some diluted, but this one should not be abandoned. Va r i e d The variety of book and of user accommodation in a library adds interest to the interior but also provides for the many needs and preferences of the users. These will vary considerably depending on size, function and location.

are made freely available to all’, then a principal quality in a library building is that the display of its library materials can be organized so that they are accessible and easily available. Simplicity in layout, arranged in an easily understood and inviting way, is vital in both small and large libraries. Comfortable Before beginning the design of a library, the librarian and the architect together should visit a large number of libraries of all types. It is important to observe how libraries are actually used. Photographs and notes should diligently record this, and will probably include many cherished photographs of sleeping users. Almost without exception they will have occurred in large libraries with antiquated or inadequate ventilation and without air-conditioning. A fresh, constant temperature and humidity not only promote efficiency of use, but encourage use. In some climates discomfort is caused if windows in a large library are opened – heat, cold, dirt and noise are offered ‘open access’ from the external environment. In other climates, to achieve the desirable comfort conditions, it is important and economic to use the free facility nature offers from the external environment and induce it into the building with controls to regulate it according to need. Generally speaking this applies to large library buildings, especially those with a deep plan, and to those where study conditions can be offered with a secure aural environment. In all libraries a good standard of lighting is necessary – there is a lot to be said for an evenly maintained level of a minimum of 400 lux at the working plane throughout the public areas. This will be adequate for most needs, including the illumination of the book titles on the lowest shelf.

Organized Since it has been said that ‘the library is the principal means whereby the record of man’s thoughts and ideals, and the expression of his creative imagination,

Constant in environment Research into the preservation of library materials indicates that a constant environment is necessary,

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and when this requirement is linked to the former – comfort of the user – an unvarying level of illumination, heating, cooling, ventilation and acoustics will give the type of environment needed in a library. The wall should be considered to be an environmental filter or regulator. It should reduce heat loss in winter and solar gain in summer. It should keep out intrusive external noises yet provide windows for prospect. Temperature and relative humidity (RH) standards, which are generally acceptable for libraries, are 18.5˚C to 21˚C and 50%–60% RH (never to exceed 65% RH). Secure Security of the collections has always been of prime importance in libraries. The reduction of public access and egress to a single point well-controlled by electronic book detection systems or other means, and the openness of planning to assist automatic overseeing of most areas, goes some way to reduce the loss of books and to control the behaviour of users in many instances, so that vandalism is reduced. Economic The energy crisis has hit all of us. Libraries can be expensive buildings to build and they can be expensive to run; in fact running costs have become a major financial consideration to librarians. In large libraries the deep compact plan requires long hours of artificial illumination and air-conditioning to create an even and constant environment. Every acceptable method must be examined to minimize cost without impairing service. In the first instance, when designing a building economy in running costs can be effected by reducing the surface of the exterior skin of the building (walls and roof) as much as possible, so that the ratio of wall area to floor area is low. A building form with a cube shape is ideal, but may not suit the library planning needs. However, it

is important that the building shape is as close to a cube as possible. Second, windows allow heat to pass out of the building in winter and to pass into the building in summer from solar penetration. Window openings should be as small as possible and as a guide the recommended total area of window should not exceed 25% of the total wall area. Shaping the exterior of the building to provide shading for the windows can keep out solar penetration in the hottest part of the year, thereby reducing the cooling load in summer. There is no need to stress the importance of wall and roof thermal insulation. Contrary to a widely held belief, the great consumer of energy in a deep plan building in temperate climates is not the heating requirement in cold weather. Well-insulated walls of minimum area are the only substantial source of heat loss. The centre part of the deep plan is not losing heat, since it is surrounded by a cocoon of warm air in the perimeter bay. In addition to the lighting the major consumers of energy are the fans to circulate air through the building and the refrigeration equipment to reduce the temperature in warm weather. The period when maximum energy is required is in hot weather with a full library, when the air-conditioning plant has to deal with high outside temperature, and with permanent artificial lighting to a high, even standard.

Space requirements The Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) co-ordinates the results of investigations and experiences in British academic libraries. In one of its recent papers (McDonald, 1996) attention is drawn to the inadequacy of the British norms for the size of libraries and to the need for increasing the allowance. According to what have become known as the Atkinson Norms, the appropriate net size of a university’s central library should be assessed by the following formula:

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1.25 m2/student numbers FTE (full-time equivalent) + 0.2 m2/student numbers FTE in ten years’ time + assessed provision for special collections + adjustment for special circumstances

Table 1. Space requirements in the AmerikaGedenkbibliothek Areas

Public open access

The gross size of the library can be derived by adding the balance area (for toilets and staircases, etc.) to this net figure. Depending on the shape of the building, this balance area is commonly about 25%. The figure of 1.25 m2 was based on 0.40 m2 for seating and 0.62 m2 for bookstacks, with an additional 20% allowed for administration (library staff ). It was also suggested that there should be one reader place for every six students (FTE) on average, and the space required for each reader place was 2.39 m2. It was recognized that different provision was appropriate for different academic disciplines; for example, one place for every two law students was recommended. These norms have been widely adopted not only in the United Kingdom but also around the world, and have been used by many universities in planning their libraries and bidding for the necessary resources. On the other hand, some universities have never achieved the level of funding necessary even to approach these minimum standards. The existing space norm was based on a reader’s module with a table measuring 900 mm 3 600 mm. It has become increasingly clear that this was an absolute minimum even in print-based libraries; but as the use of equipment, especially computing equipment, has grown, this table size has become grossly inadequate. In order to provide space for books, computers and readers’ papers, a table size of 1,200 mm by 800 mm is necessary. As a result of increasing information technology provision, the old space norm of 2.39 m2 per reader space has therefore been found to be insufficient, and in recent projects universities have found it necessary to make a more generous space allowance of between 2.5 m2 and 4 m2 per reader space.

Staff open access Staff accommodation Closed access bookstacks Total usable net area Add 30% for circulation, toilets and services Overall gross building area

m2

8 718 600 1 660 1 550 12 528 3 758 16 286

Public and academic buildings There is a natural difference between the types of provision for academic or research libraries and for public libraries. To illustrate the differences, I have provided extracts from two of the many briefs I have written for libraries (Faulkner-Brown, 1993). The first is from the brief for the proposed extension of the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (Berlinen Zentral Bibliothek, Germany). The total areas required are summarized in Table 1. Standards In estimating the area of new buildings required, the standards as established for the AmerikaGedenkbibliothek are presented in Table 2. Table 3 shows the required floor areas in the brief and schedule of accommodation for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

Special technical requirements In large library buildings storage accommodation for books, pamphlets, maps, sheet music, slides, records, compact discs, and audio or video tapes should be available as appropriate on open access. But a large part of the collection inevitably will be housed in closed access stacks. There is merit in considering furnishing the stores with static shelving initially,

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Table 2. Standards in the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek Stock accommodation (per m2) Books on open access Children, fiction Books on closed access Catalogue trays Journals

6.66 50 200 8 (1 000 cards per tray)

Reader accommodation (m2)

Estimated average issues permanently on loan (shelving required for balance; %)

Reader places

2.5

Children’s books

Reader places for study

3.0

Fiction, German

50

carrels, micro-catalogues,

Foreign languages

20

language learning

Subject departments

30

Gramophone records

50 50

20

40

Scores

200

Compact discs

Gramophone records

200

Musical scores

5

Compact discs

400

Video cassettes

30

Video cassettes

100

Table 3. Required floor areas, Bibliotheca Alexandrina Unit

Cultural Activities Dept

Collection (vols.)

Public

Staff

Usable floor area (m2)

20 000

380

34

2 700

1 800

93

28 500

250

48

4 200

Books and Periodicals Collections Dept Books Periodicals

3 880 000 260 000

Special collections Books Periodicals Music scores Special documents Maps

150 000 40 000 20 000 1 000 000 50 000

Administrative Services Dept Technical Services Dept

5 000

Operational Support Services Dept

International School of Information Studies

52

800

142

2 000

129

8 000 (including 6 000 m2 for car park)

32

Conference centre ancillary services Total Books Periodicals

2 430 4 055 000 300 000

Music scores

20 000

Maps

50 000

Special documents

2 400 1 800

1 000 000

530

50 400

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with the physical provision to convert to compact mobile shelving when necessary. As a guide, the parameters given in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina brief (see box, p. 365) for various types of room are as follows: • Reading rooms and offices: sound reduction factor 43–45 dB (decibel); natural lighting as far as possible; artificial lighting about 500 lux at table level; finishings designed to avoid glare; temperature 21–24°C; relative humidity 55–65%; air change 2V/h (volume/hour). • Lecture rooms, classrooms in the International School of Information Science (ISIS): sound reduction factor 45–55 dB; finishings designed for acoustic absorption; natural lighting for classrooms; artificial lighting about 500 lux at table level; temperature 21–24°C; air change 10V/h. • Closed access book storerooms: artificial lighting about 300 lux; temperature 18–20°C; relative humidity 45–55%; floor load 1,300 kg/m2. • Laboratories and workshops: designs ensuring acoustic absorption; variable artificial lighting about 500 lux; temperature 18–21°C; air change 2V/h; own air extraction system; de-ionized water supply; uninterrupted power supply for computer; standby power source.

Major reconstructions of existing buildings The great difficulty encountered in conversions or alterations to buildings to make them suitable for use as up-to-date library buildings usually lies with the existing structure and services. If the structure has a floor loading capacity of 7.2 kN/m2, from a structural point of view it should be reasonably flexible since it can carry static bookstacks. A floor loading capacity of 13.5 kN/m2 will permit the use of compact mobile bookstacks. If the building is a historic or architectural national monument, then problems of interference with parts of the building fabric might

be overwhelming. A major cause of interference can be ductwork for a ventilation system. There is wide experience in this problem in most parts of the world. The new problems which are showing themselves are generally concerned with the proliferation of communications and information technology. So much cabling needed in public parts of a library building is difficult to conceal. However, new techniques could be helpful. Digital cordless communication technology is developing. This eliminates the need for horizontal wiring, has minimal space requirements, causes little disturbance to the fabric of an existing building and is quick to install. Generally it is in its infancy – it will be most interesting to see how it develops.

Ecological library buildings Library buildings protect the contents and occupants from the external environment and phenomena such as rain, wind, temperature and humidity. Indigenous design makes use of naturally occurring materials and works with the environment. Examples of man-made materials for building which work with the environment, in addition to those occurring naturally, are concrete, brick and tile. Those which do not are glass, steel and plastics. In the 1960s the style of building was in conflict with ecology. Glass boxes and lightweight structures made huge demands on energy supply (and therefore costs) and, among other disadvantages, contributed to the ‘sick building syndrome’. Fortunately there is a steady move towards reducing wasteful expenditure on energy by maximizing the use of ambient, renewable sources of energy in place of generated energy by: • Providing a thermally massive structure (which to a large extent is needed for floors substantial enough to support bookshelves) and gaining free night-time cooling. • Achieving an effective balance between the use of advanced automatic controls on building

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plant and the opportunity for users to exercise direct control of their environment. • Improving natural ventilation. • Maximizing the use of daylight and sunlight with the possible introduction of an atrium, provided it does not impair the acoustic environment. The above suggestions when applied in differing climates will produce quite different solutions. It is a complicated technology but can produce a simple energy and cost-saving solution.

Architectural options For several decades the design of large library buildings generally followed the pattern of this building type in the United States, which evolved as a deepplan squarish building, with open access bookstacks in the centre and reading spaces on the perimeter. In some instances, sometimes for good visual reasons, large windows occupied substantial areas of the façade. Technically the buildings were similar in a variety of climates since they were sealed, without opening windows. Heat gains due to solar effects on both the structure and, in many cases, unshaded windows caused problems which could only be relieved by artificial cooling. In addition, the centre bookstacks, because of their remoteness from the perimeter daylighting, needed to be artificially illuminated during opening hours. Damage to the biosphere has become an increasing concern of all those involved in construction. The energy crisis of the 1970s has made us recognize the critical effect on human and economic costs. There is an increasing realization that many of the problems can be avoided by designing for natural light and ventilation. Human response to daylight indicates that most people value the variety of daylight, enjoy its presence and at least want a view of the world outside. There is a subtle benefit in that occupants’

metabolic rhythms are synchronized properly with the time of day or night. Natural and artificial heating, lighting and ventilation of buildings are interdependent and there has been a noticeable move towards replacing the totally artificial internal environment with a more natural system. In large library buildings it is difficult to bring the benefits of daylight to all parts of the floor areas used for human occupancy. A new pattern is appearing where the introduction of an atrium allows natural daylight to reach parts that were previously inaccessible. Too much or too little glazing, of the wrong kind or in the wrong place, will produce heat losses or heat gains, which may have to be counteracted by artificial cooling or heating. This has to be balanced with the avoidance of glare, down draughts, lack of privacy, severe temperature variations or ultraviolet damage. Examples can be seen in Copenhagen, both in the extension to the Royal Library and in the University Library at Amager. The emerging style of library buildings towards the end of this century seems to indicate that the needs of the users are paramount, and that the consideration of using natural daylight, heating, cooling and ventilation is a pattern that must be followed. ■■

References FAULKNER-BROWN, H. 1993. The Initial Brief. The Hague, IFLA Section on Library Buildings and Equipment. 68 pp. (Library Building Planning Leaflet No. 4.) MCDONALD, A. 1996. Space Requirements for Academic Libraries and Learning Resource Centres. London, SCONUL. 8 pp. MELOT, M. 1996. Nouvelles Alexandries. Les grands chantiers de bibliothèques dans le monde. Paris, Cercle de la Librairie. 399 pp. METCALF, K.; LEIGHTON, P. D.; WEBER, D. C. 1986. Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings. 2nd ed. Chicago/London, American Library Association. 630 pp.

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Harry Faulkner-Brown is an architect and library planning consultant. Before retiring from his architectural practice in 1986, he was involved in the design and construction of the national and parliamentary libraries in Canada, as well as ten academic and three public libraries in the United Kingdom. Since then he has given specialist planning advice to: the Central Library, the Hague; Amerika Gedenkbibliothek, Berlin; the Beijing Agricultural University Library, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria; the Royal Library, Copenhagen; the Icelandic National and University Library, Reykjavik (for which he was recently invested with the Knight’s Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon, for his contribution to its design and development); and several college libraries in Oxford and Cambridge. He is currently extending the Cambridge University Library. He was formerly Chairman of the IFLA Section on Library Buildings and Equipment and has lectured extensively for the British Council, LIBER and IFLA. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Library Association and awarded an OBE in 1982.

Harry Faulkner-Brown Chartered Architect Anick House, Anick, Hexham Northumberland NE46 4LW United Kingdom Tel: (1434) 607764 Fax: (1434) 600186

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Part Three. Issues and trends

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Chapter 20 The information society Nick Moore Policy Studies Institute, United Kingdom

A

pproaching the end of the twentieth century, societies all over the world are changing. In countries of many different kinds information now plays an increasingly important part in economic, social, cultural and political life. This phenomenon is taking place regardless of a country’s size, state of development or political philosophy. Changes that are happening in Singapore, with a population of 2.5 million, are similar to those taking place in Japan with its population of 125 million. Developing countries like Thailand are striving to build information-intensive social and economic systems just as hard as countries like the United Kingdom or France. And the goal of creating an information society is shared by the capitalist states of North America as well as the communist states of China and Viet Nam.

The characteristics of information societies Information societies have three main characteristics. First, information is used as an economic resource. Organizations make greater use of information to increase their efficiency, to stimulate innovation and to increase their effectiveness and competitive position, often through improvements in the quality of the goods and services that they produce. There is also a trend towards the development of more information-intensive organizations that add greater amounts of value and thus benefit a country’s overall economy. Secondly, it is possible to identify greater use of information among the general public. People use information more intensively in their activities as consumers: to inform their choices between different products, to explore their entitlements to public services, and to take greater control over their own lives. They also use information as citizens to exercise their civil rights and responsibilities. In addition, information systems are being developed that will greatly extend public access to educational and cultural provision.

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The third characteristic of information societies is the development of an information sector within the economy. The function of the information sector is to satisfy the general demand for information facilities and services. A significant part of the sector is concerned with the technological infrastructure: the networks of telecommunications and computers. Increasingly, however, the necessity is also being recognized to develop the industry generating the information that flows around the networks: the information-content providers. In nearly all information societies, this information sector is growing much faster than the overall economy. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that in 1994 the global information sector grew by over 5% while the overall world economy grew by less than 3%. The creation of individual information societies is taking place within a much greater, international process of change. Partly this is because the developing information systems are global, or at least international, in their reach: satellite broadcasting systems do not recognize national boundaries; telecommunication networks provide connections between countries and continents, while the Internet is perhaps the ultimate example of a global system. Both developed and developing countries are being transformed into information societies. Most of them are concerned to use information to improve their relative competitiveness or, at least, to retain their position in an increasingly competitive global market. As part of this, countries of all kinds, from Australia to Zimbabwe, are actively developing their local information industries so that they can participate in the growing international market for information. But it goes beyond international trade. The development of information societies represents a series of attempts to achieve more general economic and social advance. Countries as diverse as Singapore, Sweden and South Africa are building economies that encourage information-intensive

companies. And they are creating information systems that will raise levels of education, strengthen community links and stimulate public participation in decision-making. There is a concern, however, that the shift towards information societies will increase the gap between the developed and the developing countries. To counter this, the World Bank has recently launched its Information for Development initiative. Origins and causes The origins and causes of information societies lie in two interrelated developments: long-term economic development and technological change. In the long term, the structure of economies changes. It begins with a reliance on the primary sector: agriculture, forestry and mining. Gradually, the secondary sector – manufacturing industry – becomes more important, contributing a larger proportion of Gross Domestic Product and usually also contributing to exports. The rise of the secondary sector is then followed by an expansion of the tertiary sector. The commercial and service sector grows and makes a greater contribution to the national income. At each stage in this progression, the productivity of labour grows, more value is added by each worker, capital investment increases and the economy expands. Just as significantly, the relative importance of the different sectors of the economy changes. The effect of this is shown quite clearly in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Human Development Report (1994). This shows that in economies as diverse as Singapore or Senegal, Hong Kong or Hungary, the service sector accounts for more than 60% of the nation’s economic activity. Even in the world’s least developed economies, the share of the service sector (43%) is higher than agriculture (37%) or industry (20%). These changes have been taking place throughout the world for the last thousand years. Over the

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last fifty years, however, as economists like Fritz Machlup, Marc Uri Porat and Daniel Bell have shown, the tertiary or service sector has become ever more concerned with processing information in different forms. Technological change is a major contributor to this process of economic development. Certainly in recent years, the rapid development of information and communication technologies has vastly increased our capacity to process information and in so doing has undoubtedly accelerated growth in the information-intensive tertiary sector. Some economists claim that in addition to relatively short-term economic cycles it is possible to identify periods of sustained economic growth that are triggered by technological change. The development of steam power, it is argued, triggered the expansion of economies in Europe and America during the Industrial Revolution. Electricity and the internal combustion engine accounted for the dramatic economic expansion during the mid-twentieth century. And now we have information and communication technologies. The impact of information technology arises from three of its characteristics. First, it is an enabling technology. It can be applied in a wide range of different circumstances and can itself contribute to further technological change. Second, the capacity of the technology has been increasing at an exponential rate for nearly twenty years and shows no sign of slowing down. Finally, and perhaps most important, the cost of the technology has fallen rapidly over the same period and, again, seems likely to continue to do so. These three factors have led economists like Chris Freeman to reason that information and communication technologies will trigger a new long wave of economic growth stimulating the development of information societies. The impact on employment The structural changes that continue to take place in

the economies of different countries have an enormous effect on the patterns of employment, bringing with them displacement, unemployment and social disruption. Throughout the world there has been a steady shift in the pattern of employment: from the primary to the secondary sector, and again from the secondary to the tertiary. In each case, however, capital investment has meant that, even though the labour input has declined, output has grown. In the primary and secondary sectors, labour was displaced by machines. It is now possible to see the same thing happening in the emerging information societies. Large numbers of clerical and administrative workers are losing their jobs as work is automated. In developed countries, for example, the introduction of electronic financial transactions is causing substantial reductions in the numbers of people employed in the banking sector. It is likely that many of these people will find other jobs in new information-intensive industries as the structure of the economy evolves, but for others there will be a very uncomfortable period of disruption. As well as structural change, there is a great deal of change in the nature of employment. Many jobs are quite simply becoming more informationintensive – that is, they require workers to spend a greater proportion of their day processing information and working with information technology. This information-intensive way of working brings both benefits and disadvantages. Working arrangements become more flexible: for many it is even possible to spend part of the time working at home. But the price of this is a considerable blurring of the boundary between work and home life. Employers also want more flexibility and greater power to hire and fire their employees as the nature of their business changes. This is introducing a much higher level of insecurity into the labour market. The technology makes it easier for staff to keep in contact with their workplace – notably through mobile communications – but many are becoming concerned

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about the level of stress that comes with never being offline. It will take a long time for us all to adjust to the changes that are taking place in the way we work. M e t h o d o l o g i c a l i s s u e s : d e fi n i n g a n d measuring the information society It is proving very difficult to define and describe in quantitative terms information societies. We have seen that it is possible to identify some common characteristics of information societies, but it is not at all easy to go beyond generalized definitions, such as: an information society is one in which information is used intensively as an aspect of economic, social, cultural and political life. This presents a major problem for statisticians who have to collect the data that governments need for economic management. The question they face is quite simple: if it is not possible to define and to measure the information sector, which we know is such an important contributor to the economy, how can we really know what is happening in our economy? The question is simple but the answer is far from obvious. It is possible to define the information sector of the economy. Broadly it consists of the organizations, in both the private and public sector, that create the information content, or intellectual property; those that provide the facilities to deliver the information to the consumers; and those that produce the hardware and software that enable us to process information. It is more difficult, however, to define and measure the information activity that takes place within organizations outside the information sector. The matter is further complicated by the intangible nature of information. It is a good that does not easily fit into the economists’ scheme of things. Its value can vary widely, particularly over time, which makes it very difficult for accountants to value it for company balance sheets. Also, the value of information, unlike most other goods, does not decrease as it is consumed; indeed, the value may increase as one piece of information is added to others. It has other

interesting economic characteristics: for example, the cost of creating information is usually very high, but the cost of reproducing an extra copy is very low – an encyclopedia or a dictionary costs a great deal to compile but an extra copy on a compact disc costs less than a meal in a Paris brasserie. The globalization of the information sector poses further problems. Someone working in Africa can use the Internet to obtain information about a firm operating in Europe that has been compiled by an American-owned information company based in Switzerland using a database that was compiled by Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Commission. Who regulates the information? Under which set of laws is it collected, compiled, delivered and consumed (see Chapter 26)? If the user has to pay for the information, where does the revenue go? Which governments are entitled to levy a sales tax on the information? To which set of national accounts should the financial transactions be credited? It is possible to arrive at answers to most of these questions, but in doing so we raise further questions about the ability of our economic and statistical systems to cope with the changes that are taking place. A major effort is needed to bring these economic and statistical systems up to date.

The emerging information industries A defining characteristic of an information society is an emerging or developing information industry. A few countries rely on external organizations to supply all the information systems and services that are required, but such cases are rare. Most countries are actively encouraging the development of an indigenous information industry to meet the country’s needs and, in many cases, to enable the country to participate in the rapidly expanding international information market. It is useful, when considering the development of the information sector, to divide it into three distinct segments: the first concerned with the creation

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of information – the content sector; the second concerned with the delivery of the information; and the third concerned with information processing. The information-content industry The information-content segment comprises the organizations in both the public and private sectors that produce and develop intellectual property. The information originates from writers, composers, artists and photographers, assisted by editors, filmmakers, television producers, animators and a host of allied occupations. These information creators sell their work to publishers, broadcasters, distributors and production companies that take the raw intellectual property and process it in different ways so that it can be distributed and sold to the information consumers. In the past, the work of creation and publication took place in quite separate organizations. Authors worked with publishers and rarely had much contact with video- or film-makers. But now that it is possible to present the different types of information in a common digital format, the boundaries are breaking down and it is possible to identify multimedia companies that bring written, audio and visual material together in the same information package (see Chapters 16 and 21). In addition to this genuinely creative information, a large part of the information-content segment is concerned not so much with the creation as with the compilation of information: the compilers of reference works, databases, statistical series and ‘realtime’ information services that supply constant flows of information about things like share and commodity prices. These information providers account for a very significant proportion of the total revenues of the information-content sector. It is here that the public sector plays a key role. Governments of all kinds are major collectors and compilers of information. They hold, use and in some cases publish large amounts of information. In recent years a

number of countries have encouraged the private sector information providers to exploit this information, partly to stimulate the dissemination of the information itself but also as a means of supporting the development of the information sector. Linking all this is an important subset of the information-content segment that is concerned with the management of and trading in intellectual property rights. This part of the information-content industry is considered in some detail in Chapter 26. The information-delivery industry The second part of the information industry is concerned with delivery, that is the creation and management of the communication and dissemination networks through which we communicate information. This includes the telecommunication companies, many of which are still state-owned enterprises; companies that provide cable television networks; and satellite broadcasters, cellular telecommunication companies, and radio and television stations. This segment of the industry is considered in greater depth in Chapters 17 and 21. Allied to these organizations is another set that is concerned with the use of these and other channels to distribute the information content. This is where we find the booksellers, libraries, broadcasting companies and the providers of what are known as valueadded network services – these are services provided through the telecommunication networks, but which offer more than basic voice telephony: anything from information about the weather to traffic news. The information-processing industry This segment of the information industry can be conveniently divided into two parts: hardware producers and software producers. The hardware producers design, develop, manufacture and market computers, telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics. They tend to be concentrated in the United States and East Asia,

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deal in very high volumes and are operating in a market where unit prices have been falling steadily for over twenty years. The software producers provide us with operating systems like UNIX, DOS or Windows, applications packages like spreadsheets and wordprocessors, and increasingly computer games. In recent years most of the software industry has been concerned with producing software for mass consumption. There is still, however, a significant element that produces custom-built software systems for use in individual organizations. Convergence and consolidation The three segments of the information industry – content, delivery and processing – are about the same size in Europe, although in the United States the information-content segment is estimated to be larger (Table 1). Table 1. The size of the information industry in Europe and the United States (all figures are for 1994 and are in US$ billions)1 Information-industry segment

European Union

United States

Information content

186

255

Information delivery

165

160

Information processing

193

151

Total

544

566

1. Size is measured in terms of sales within the European Union and the United States. Source: European Commission.

While the lack of reliable statistics makes it difficult to reach firm conclusions, it does appear that the information-content segment is growing in value and economic importance. One way to look at this is to consider the value chain, or where value is added in the process of bringing an information product to the market. Work by the European Commission suggests that the value chain for information prod-

ucts is as follows: creation, development and packaging adds 48% to value and is growing; distribution adds 38% to value and is declining, and user access adds 14% to value and is stable. The ITU, in a similar analysis, estimates the value added by the telecommunication companies at the distribution stage to be as low as 20%. The growing appreciation of the significance of the information-content segment accounts for much of the restructuring that is taking place in the information industries. The 1990s have seen a dramatic series of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures as companies try to reposition themselves along the value chain. It is likely that this flurry of activity will continue for several years until a new pattern of corporate ownership emerges. What does seem certain is that the holders of intellectual property rights will be in a stronger and stronger position. The impact on the information professions The technological changes and the wider developments in the information industries are having a big impact on the information professions: librarians, information scientists, archivists and publishers. These professions are facing two complementary pressures. First, the technology of information work is vastly extending the scope of their work. It is now possible to gain access to and process much greater quantities of information than was possible only five years ago. Second, user expectations are rising constantly, creating a demand for ever more sophisticated, high-quality information services. These pressures call for more highly qualified professionals who not only understand the underlying principles of information work but also possess the technical skills needed to exploit the full potential of the technology. The result is a demand for high-level, initial-qualification courses, usually at the Master’s level. But initial education is not enough. It needs to be supplemented throughout a professional

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career with continuing education and training that enable professionals to develop and refine their skills. In the 1960s professional education was largely provided on the job and was controlled by professional associations. Perhaps as a consequence, the education tended to focus on the development of practical skills. In the 1970s and 1980s responsibility for initial education passed to academic institutions. The link with professional associations became weaker and emphasis shifted from skills towards a theoretical understanding of information work. In the 1990s these initial academic qualifications now are being complemented by a wide range of training courses. Technical skills are once again important and much of the training takes place while people are at work. The focus is on high-level conceptual ability as a foundation for the rapid acquisition of a changing set of skills, aiming for flexible competency. The convergence of technologies and in particular the widespread use of digital information are blurring the distinctions between subgroups within the information professions. It is becoming increasingly feasible, for example, for authors to become their own publishers; indeed, many organizations now use desktop publishing facilities to produce a wide range of publications. The new technologies are also creating demands for people with new sets of skills. Very many organizations, for example, have developed a presence on the Internet by creating their own pages on the World Wide Web. This alone has generated a need for a group of information professionals who possess a combination of skills and understanding that was not previously thought necessary.

Information as an organizational resource Information is now seen as a valuable resource within organizations, a resource that if properly managed and used can stimulate innovation, speed product development, raise levels of productivity, ensure

consistent standards of quality and, through all these means, raise the relative level of competitiveness. The private sector Much of the interest in the use of information as a resource is concentrated in the private sector, where productivity and competitiveness can determine the success or failure of individual companies. It can also determine the overall health of a country’s economy. In manufacturing industry, information can make a contribution to economic success in a number of different ways. It is an important element in the process of research and innovation. For many years companies have recognized the need for their R&D departments to have access to the most up-todata information. Good products alone, however, will not ensure a company’s success. They need to be developed and designed to meet the requirements of the market. This implies a high level of market intelligence and an understanding of the ways in which consumers respond to different products. The market-research industry has grown dramatically in recent years in an attempt to meet these needs (see Chapter 22). Information also makes a significant contribution to the management of manufacturing processes. Indeed, many modern approaches to manufacturing – just-in-time production, for example – depend on the processing and communication of substantial flows of information. All this calls for a strategic approach to the management of information in manufacturing industry, and many have argued that to achieve significant productivity gains in industries like car manufacturing it is necessary first to develop a radically different approach to the management of information. The impact of information on the commercial part of the private sector is possibly even greater than in manufacturing. Commerce generates large quantities of clerical and administrative work, and it is this work that is most open to automation. The introduction of automated reservation systems

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revolutionized the airline industry, and in so doing created a set of global systems that now makes it easy and cheap to book air travel, car hire and hotel accommodation. Similarly, the electronic transfer of money is transforming retailing and the banking system. In both these cases, the introduction of automated systems has dramatically reduced costs and caused the loss of many thousands of clerical and administrative jobs. In retailing, for example, information systems are being used to improve stock control. Information is collected when goods are sold, the shop’s inventory is automatically updated and, when the level of stock becomes low, additional stocks can be ordered from suppliers. Some highly efficient retailers have developed these stock-control systems to the point where they no longer need warehouses – stock is delivered directly from the suppliers to the shops where it is sold. Information systems are also making it much easier for companies to balance supply and demand. Ticketing systems on airlines, for example, monitor the rate at which seats are sold on each flight and adjust the number of discounted tickets made available to travel agents. Similarly, many car-hire firms no longer have published hire rates: the rate is constantly adjusted to ensure that the supply of cars always balances demand. In other areas, decision-support systems are used to reduce risk. An application for a loan used to be considered by a middle manager in a bank or financial institution who would review a range of factors before deciding whether or not to lend the money. Now this is all done automatically by computers that construct what is known as a credit score. Applicants who score above a certain level receive the loan. Systems also exist to monitor credit card use, alerting the credit card company to any significant changes in the behaviour of the cardholder. By adopting these systems, financial institutions can greatly reduce the level of risk in their business.

Extensive use is made of information in marketing. Shops and supermarkets provide customers with discount cards or their own credit cards. This enables retailers to monitor the customer’s shopping habits and to build this into their marketing strategy. Some use the information to promote different products for different kinds of customers. The long-term success of many commercial organizations will be determined by their capacity to use and manage information to reduce costs, to extend their range of services, to reduce risk and to become more sensitive to customer demands. Information is even making an impact on the traditional professions like law and medicine. Lawyers now have access to sophisticated legal information systems and they make extensive use of computers to monitor their work and to account for their time. Similarly doctors are now able to keep much closer track of their patients through sophisticated records management systems. The public sector Information is having a similar impact on the public sector. Public authorities at national and local levels are beginning to find that information can change quite dramatically the way they work. At one level it enables them to improve their general efficiency in ways similar to those used in commercial organizations: through the automation of clerical and administrative tasks, through the use of decision-support systems and through the development of electronic payment systems. Some are also beginning to develop electronic transactions services so that people can access departments, filling in forms and processing claims electronically. We have yet to see the full impact on democracy and participation. There have been a number of experiments, usually at a local level, where the local authority has set up electronic voting systems and explored the scope for public participation in decision-making. The results are inconclusive. It seems

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difficult to retain sufficient levels of public interest in the issues, and politicians are understandably wary about opening the door to a form of participation that might ultimately undermine the very democratic institutions it sought originally to support. There does seem to be greater potential, however, for using cable television to generate more interest and participation in local community affairs. It is now possible to allocate broadcasting channels for use by quite small communities, and in this way it becomes possible to broadcast live events like school governors’ meetings. Where this has been done a surprisingly high level of interest has been shown by members of the public. One of the features of information societies is their emphasis on education. A recent report on the information society in Europe has emphasized the need to create a learning society. UNESCO’s report from the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (Learning: The Treasure Within) underlines the impact of the information society on education and studies some of its consequences. Certainly, technology has revolutionized our ability to deliver education in ways that were not previously possible. A wide range of training courses is already available in the form of multimedia CD-ROMs, and schools and universities are experimenting with the electronic delivery of distance learning courses. Such developments are likely to make a real impact on rural areas, very specialized courses and adult learners. Health is the other public service likely to be greatly affected by information. Indeed, advances in the provision of health information are likely to raise the level of public health considerably. They will do so in three ways. First, doctors and other medical staff will simply be better informed. They will know more about their patients and they will have ready access to much more information about diseases and their treatments. They will also be able to gain access to medical specialists in other towns or even other

countries, consulting them on unusual cases. Second, there will be much better systems for epidemiology – the science of tracking diseases – so that we shall be able to trace many of the environmental causes of disease more easily. Improved medical records will also make it much easier to track and monitor patients, alerting them, for example, to new treatments as they become available. Finally, improved consumer health information will enable us all to take better care of our own health. There is now much more information available on the causes of heart diseases and illnesses like lung cancer. This, allied to better provision of information about the content of foods, the tar levels in cigarettes and pollution levels, etc., enables us to adjust our patterns of behaviour so that we avoid many of the things that make us ill. This could be the next major breakthrough in public health care. The evolving demand for information services All these developments are generating new demands for information in organizations. In most organizations, whether in the public or private sector, the initial focus tends to be on information technology, and often this has resulted in a great deal of expenditure for only modest results. There is now a growing awareness that before investing in the technology it is first necessary to understand information flows and requirements. Many of the organizations that are successfully using information as a resource began by analysing the ways in which information could contribute to business. From this it becomes possible to develop an information strategy which sets out how the information will contribute to the achievement of business goals. It is then possible to develop an information systems strategy that specifies the ways in which information will be collected and processed and how it will flow around the organization. Only then does it become possible to define an informa-

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tion technology strategy which sets the framework for the acquisition and use of the technology. There is also a growing recognition that technology alone is seldom the answer. Effective management of information calls for people who understand information, how it can be collected, processed and used for different purposes. This is leading in many organizations to the redefinition of company libraries and information services, many of which were originally established to serve a research and development department. It is also causing a reassessment of the organization’s archives and records management functions (see Chapter 24). An interesting development is the emergence of a new category of information professional – researchers and information analysts. Their task is to work with managers and others, collecting and processing information on particular topics, analysing it and producing a synthesis that can be understood easily by someone who would otherwise be too busy to undertake the task. Such positions are now common in many organizations and reflect a general desire to make more constructive use of information as a corporate resource.

Information and citizenship As well as using information when we are at work or studying, we all use information as part of our daily lives. We use information as consumers of products and services, whether provided by the private or the public sector. We also use information in our roles as citizens. Here we use information when we are exercising our rights and responsibilities. Consumer information At a very basic level people need information so that they can choose which products and services to consume. Most of us live in market economies and those markets only function effectively if consumers are well informed. People need to know about the full range of products and services that are available so

they can allocate their resources wisely. Many governments have begun to introduce the consumer principle into the provision of public services. In the United Kingdom, for example, schools are required to publish their examination results so that parents can make an informed choice about schools for their children. As well as simple consumer choice, people need information so that they can exercise their rights and entitlements to services. This is particularly important in countries that have well-developed welfare systems. In such cases individuals are entitled to a wide range of benefits and, consequently, need to be well informed if they are to claim what is due them. Information can also help people take charge of their own lives. As was mentioned above, health information helps us all take more control over our lives. In many countries people are considered to be more than just passive consumers of goods and services produced by the public or private sector. Consumer groups have developed the notion of active consumption, where consumers hold producers and service providers to account for their products. Information plays an important part in this. Whether it is a company being forced to publish information about its pollution record, or nutritional information listed on a tub of margarine, it is all information that helps to make producers accountable to the people who consume their products. Citizens’ access to information As citizens we possess a range of rights, although the range varies from society to society. We have basic human rights: to be treated as a human being with intrinsic worth. We have civil rights: freedom of speech, assembly, religion and the right to justice. We have political rights: the right to vote. We also have a range of social rights, usually interpreted as the right to a minimum standard of life. We also play a role as members of a community and as citizens of a nation-

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state. In some parts of the world individuals are beginning to develop a further set of citizenship rights and responsibilities as members of a regional grouping of nation-states, like the European Union or the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). But there is a great deal of difference between having a right and being able to exercise it. Poorly informed people are often denied their rights because they lack the power to exercise them. Because of this, some have argued that we can define a further set of rights – the right to information and advice. If we had this additional right, then we would be in a much stronger position to exercise all the other rights. This is the rationale that underlies the concept of freedom of information. Freedom of information legislation gives citizens the right of access to information about what is happening in government so that they can make better judgements about those who govern them. This principle of freedom of information is deeply embedded in some national constitutions, notably those in France, Sweden and the United States. In other cases the principle has been adopted more recently, while in yet others it is still a matter of considerable debate. The need for citizenship information, however, extends beyond a right of access to government information. It should include access to all the information that people need to exercise their right as citizens. They should not be denied, for example, access to information about the legal system because, if they are, they cannot fully exercise their legal rights. And this right of access should not be dependent on an individual’s ability to pay, language skills, level of literacy or on any other factor that can impair an individual’s ability to obtain information. The problems of access The list of factors that can reduce an individual’s access to information is long. There is growing concern that in creating our information societies we

may be creating a further division in society: the divide between those who have access to information and the ability to use it and those who do not. More particularly, the concern is that such a division would deepen other divisions that exist in most societies: the division between rich and poor; between the educated and the inarticulate; between the majority and minority ethnic, linguistic or religious groups; and between the physically and mentally able and disabled people. All these factors place barriers in the way of gaining access to information, and slowly people are beginning to recognize the need to develop services that will overcome these barriers. In some cases we need to raise basic levels of literacy and numeracy, and this can only be tackled successfully through educational programmes. In other cases it is necessary to provide information and advice services that meet the particular needs of specific groups within the community. Public libraries have traditionally provided access to information for a wide range of people, and in many countries efforts have been made to meet the needs of particular minority groups. But general information services alone are insufficient. Disabled people, for example, have particular needs that require special provision. First, they need information on particular subjects that relate to their disability. Second, they have particular access problems that call for special provision. Third, many would argue that for the information and advice to be fully effective it should be delivered by someone who has personal experience of what it is to be disabled. These arguments could be applied to almost any minority group. We need also to recognize that information alone is not enough. Life is increasingly complex. None of us can expect to understand fully all the information we need to manage our lives in these complex societies. We need to be able to turn to specialist advisers who can interpret information and

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relate it to our individual circumstances. This is not a new idea – people who could afford it have always turned to lawyers, accountants and other advisers to help them through the intricacies of life. Many countries now recognize that they need to make access to advice accessible to everyone. The problem, of course, is one of cost. Acceptance of the arguments for a public information and advice service implies also acceptance of the principle of information being free at the point of use. And that implies public expenditure at a time when, in many countries, there is pressure to reduce government expenditures in general, including public libraries and information services. It is possible, however, to make a strong case for public information. The citizenship argument suggests that access to information is a right to which we are entitled like justice, and that in common with other public services it should be provided free. The efficiency argument reasons simply that society functions better when everyone is well informed. The equity argument is based on the fact that an effective public information and advice service is unlikely ever to be fully provided by the private sector and, because a significant majority lacks the resources to buy it, it should be provided at public cost. All these arguments point to the fact that a basic element within an information society should be the provision of a comprehensive public information and advice service.

The policy framework The last five years have seen a sudden burst of policy-making related to the creation of information societies. This is unusual. Seldom does a social development stimulate such an obvious process of policy development. The need for policy is not, however, universally acknowledged. Let us consider the examples of Singapore and Hong Kong. In Singapore developments are shaped by a strong, all-

encompassing framework of information policies, whereas in Hong Kong there are almost no formal policies; instead developments are shaped by market forces alone. Most countries fall between these two extremes. Broadly, the aim is to make use of the power of market forces but to do so within a framework of policies. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the magnitude of the changes is considerable, involving major industrial, economic, social and, possibly, political upheaval. Faced with this, few governments are prepared to hand over responsibility to market forces alone. Second, the levels of investment required are huge. In developed countries it may be possible to contemplate delegating investment to the private sector, but when it is necessary to build an infrastructure from scratch, then a government must usually be prepared to commit public funds. Third, the scale of the social impact is becoming apparent: it could strengthen social cohesion or destroy it. Again, few governments are prepared to stand aside and simply observe what happens. Finally, there are the possible consequences of failure. If a country gets it wrong it could suffer long-term damage. All these factors have led to a wave of policymaking, most of it focused on the development of the information infrastructure and, as such, covered in greater detail in Chapter 21. Here it is simply worth noting that such policies are being created in developed countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, as well as in regional groupings like the European Union, culminating in the policy adopted in 1995 by the G7 group of nations. It is also a characteristic of many newly industrialized countries, particularly those in East Asia, such as Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand. A concern for information policy can also be seen in developing countries like China, South Africa and Viet Nam. While most of these policy frameworks originate in a concern to develop the

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information infrastructure, they are becoming increasingly focused on the social implications of this infrastructure. Governments are recognizing the need for policies to shape the development of information societies. T h e i n fl u e n c e o f U N E S C O UNESCO has played an important role in laying the foundations for the development of information policies. The work of its General Information Programme was built upon the twin foundations of the NATional Information Systems (NATIS) and UNISIST, both of which in the 1970s actively encouraged the development of information policies at the national and international levels. The present concern about the social impact of the information society means that in the next ten years there will be a steadily growing demand for an organization like UNESCO to contribute to the development of policies that ensure that we all obtain the maximum benefit from the shift towards information.

Further reading The relative newness of the concept of information societies means that there are relatively few general texts available. One very good source of up-to-date information is provided by the Information Society Project Office of the European Commission. It can be found on the Internet at http://www.ispo.cec.be. A publication from the Office, Information Society Trends, provides a valuable source of up-to-date information on developments worldwide. The European Commission has established a High Level Group of Experts on the Information Society, whose interim report, Building the European Information Society for Us All: First Reflections, is an excellent review of many of the issues involved in the creation of information societies. Information about the terms of reference of the

Group and copies of its reports can be found at http://www.ispo.cec.be/hleg.html. Many countries have policy statements that describe how they intend to reconstitute themselves into information societies. An overall perspective is provided by the policy framework adopted by the G-7 countries following their Summit on the Information Society, held in Brussels in February 1995. The report of the summit and other useful documents, including the background papers leading up to it, can be found at http://www.ispo.cec.be/g7/ g7main/html. For educational issues, see International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, Learning: The Treasure Within, Paris, UNESCO, 1996, 266 pp. ■■

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Nick Moore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute in London where he established the programme of research on information policy. He has just spent two years assisting the British Council in the development of their information work in East Asia and, as part of this, monitored the development of information societies in the region. Before joining the Policy Studies Institute, Nick Moore was Professor of Information Management at Birmingham Polytechnic. He is the author of two UNESCO publications: Guidelines for Information Workforce Surveys (1986) and Measuring the Performance of Public Libraries (1990).

Nick Moore Senior Fellow Policy Studies Institute 100 Park Village East London NW1 3SR United Kingdom Tel: (171) 468 0468 Fax: (171) 388 0914 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 21 Information highways Mary Dykstra Lynch Dalhousie University, Canada

Definition and first initiatives The term ‘information highway’ gained prominence as a political vision. Credit for it must be given to Al Gore, Vice-President of the United States, who popularized it in the 1992 presidential campaign. The metaphor was a natural one for Gore, whose father, as a United States Senator thirty years earlier, initiated the legislation which established the American interstate highway system. Steps to establish the National Information Infrastructure (NII), defined as ‘a system to deliver to all Americans the information they need when they want it and where they want it – at an affordable price’, took place in Gore’s first term of office. The focus was the United States Government’s Agenda for Action on the National Information Infrastructure (NII), published in September 1993 (see http://sunsite.unc.edu/nii/NII-Executive-Summary.html;http://sunsite.unc.edu/nii/NII-Agendafor-Action.html). In the few years since the Clinton/Gore initiative, major information highway activity has taken place around the world: NII has become GII (Global Information Infrastructure). The information highway is not simply a matter of political will, however. In many ways the political will has been a bandwagon effort to tip national scales in favour of competing most successfully for the increasingly obvious and potent economic benefits of a whole range of groundbreaking, technological R&D which has taken place over several decades. Basically, the information highway may be defined as the convergence of computer and communication technologies. Not surprisingly, given its complex array of components and transformative power, perceptions of what constitutes the information highway differ, often according to vested interests. Academics, for example, tend to think of the information highway and the Internet as synonymous. Various perspectives have been described ( Johnston et al., 1995) as follows:

285

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Some use the term ‘information highway’ as a catch-all to

ceive and capitalize upon the economic benefits to be

describe the technological revolution, the transformative

gained from the development of an IT-based infrastruc-

process that is sweeping most of the globe. For others, the

ture. The incentives were strong: upon achieving self-rule

words ‘information highway’ identify the individual tech-

in 1959, Singapore was saddled with severe poverty and

nological innovations that affect our everyday life: most

chronic unemployment of its poorly educated population.

prominently, the Internet, interactive television and elec-

From 1965 Singapore switched to a development strategy

tronic banking. Yet others view it as a massive infrastruc-

of export production, first in the industrial and manufac-

ture, constituting a ‘seamless and transparent network of

turing sector and then in technological diversification, a

networks’ capable of transmitting a full range of interac-

strategy which met with exceptional success.

tive, audio, video, and data services.

No matter which component is emphasized, the phenomenon of the information highway is massive, transformative and inevitable, given the enabling power of the technologies involved. As Al Gore (1995) has stated: New technologies that enhance the ability to create and understand information have always led to dramatic changes in civilization. . . . There is no longer any doubt that [these new] machines will reshape human civilization even more quickly and more thoroughly than did the printing press.

International government action and advisory groups Although the ‘information highway’ initiative was given its name in the United States, the phenomenon was recognized simultaneously in many places in the world. Developmental stages differ, however. Furthermore, there have been differences of emphasis: the role adopted by governments in the West (the United States, Canada and the European Union) is to encourage and facilitate market forces in the private sector to build the information highway, whereas the countries of East Asia – eager to enhance their already strong levels of economic growth enjoyed as a result of well-formed public policies – envision a much more significant role for the state (see Chapter 20). As Bercuson et al. (1995) say: Singapore was one of the first countries worldwide to per-

This remarkable result of high-tech leading to information highway development can be attributed to the activist policies of the government in creating macro-economic stability (low inflation, positive real interest rates, sound fiscal management) and above all a liberal foreign trade environment. Europe, in the early stages of forming itself as a world trading block, had reasons similar to Singapore’s to seize upon the economic opportunities provided by the emerging information technologies. Seeking to bolster private sector growth, it did this particularly in terms of research and development. From the mid-1980s, the European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technology (ESPRIT) has been a remarkable source of R&D funding. Convinced that information technology would be a large factor not only in the successful formation of the European Union itself but also in its effectiveness in global trade, the European Commission established the first ESPRIT programme with the aim of strengthening an already growing information technology industry. Now in its Fourth Framework, the focus of the ESPRIT programme has moved away from the information technology industry itself (http://www.cordis.Lu/esprit/ home.html): The new focus of IT RTD under the Fourth Framework programme is the emerging information infrastructure, which will provide the basis of the global information society of the future. The programme is in consequence to

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a greater extent led by the needs of users and the market. The overall objective is to contribute to the healthy growth of the information infrastructure so as to improve the competitiveness of all industry in Europe, not just the IT industry, and to help enhance the quality of life.

Similar to the shift in emphasis in Singapore from industry to societal impact, this broader, more mature outlook is reflected in the EC’s (1993) White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment – The Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century. Outlining plans for the Common European Information Area, it provided the impetus for the establishment at the 1993 Brussels Summit of a group of prominent persons to prepare a report on the information society with concrete recommendations for action. Although this High-Level Group on the Information Society, chaired by Martin Bangemann, was not charged to advise on the information highway per se, nearly all of the recommendations (and all of the suggested applications) of the subsequent report (issued in May 1994) relate to its development. Overriding the specific recommendations of the Bangemann Report concerning competition rules, protection of intellectual property, interconnection, interoperability and other information highway issues is the urge for the European Union ‘to put its faith in market mechanisms as the motive power to carry us into the Information Age’. The report continues: ‘This means that actions must be taken at the European level and by Member States to strike down entrenched positions which put Europe at a competitive disadvantage.’ This should be done by fostering an entrepreneurial mentality and developing a common regulatory approach rather than using more public money, financial assistance, subsidies, dirigisme, or protectionism. The Group also proposed an action plan of concrete initiatives based on a partnership between the private and public sectors to carry Europe forward into the information society.

The Bangeman Report, presented at the Corfu Summit, gave way in July 1994 to a European Commission Action Plan (1994) which urged activity in the following four areas: the required regulatory and legal framework for trans-European networks; basic services and content applications; social, societal and cultural aspects; and the promotion of the Information Society. Within the European Union itself, several member countries have undertaken their own initiatives regarding national information highway development and related policies. France, in fact, can rightly be called the pre-information highway ‘pioneer’ with the development of Minitel by France Telecom in the early 1980s. Minitel, now an integral part of daily life for French people, both at home and at work, currently offers a wide range of electronic directories including the International Minitel Directory covering over 200 million telephone subscribers in Europe (Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) and the United States. In addition to its directories, popular Minitel electronic services have expanded to include banking, transport information, mail-order selling, tourist information, weather reports, classified advertisements, radio and television information, and various business services. With over fourteen years of online service experience, France Telecom made its approximately 25,000 Minitel services available on the Internet in May 1996 and is moving into multimedia applications. In February 1994 Gérard Théry, father of Minitel and former Directeur Général des Telecommunications, was appointed to analyse and report on measures for the development of information highways in France. The Théry report, completed in October 1994, recommended four major actions (Stiel, 1995): the deployment of fibre-optic networks; the launching of platforms for experimentation similar to those in the United States; the promotion of applications software and content; and the acceleration of highspeed transmissions on the network.

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Other countries in Europe which have proceeded with government policies for information highway development at the national level include Denmark, Finland, Norway and Spain. In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, SubCommittee I – Information Superhighway: Applications in Society, is reaching the final stages of its deliberations. The United States, meanwhile, was the first government to call for action and advice focused specifically on the information highway. An Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) was established by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and by the National Economic Council as part of the NII Agenda for Action initiative. Chaired by the Secretary of Commerce, the IITF was given the mandate to ‘articulate and implement the Administration’s vision for the NII’ (see the NII homepage at http://sunsite.unc.edu/nii/NII-Task-Force.html). Thus key representatives of the United States Government were to work with the private sector to develop ‘comprehensive telecommunications and information policies that best meet the needs of both the agencies and the country’. Part of the task of the IITF Chair was to appoint twenty-five members from the various ‘infrastructure stakeholder’ communities – industry, labour, academia, public interest groups, and state and local government – to a highlevel United States Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. The Council was established by Executive Order 12864 in September 1993 to advise the IITF. Major issues for the Council were: the appropriate roles of the private and public sectors in NII development; a vision for the evolution of the NII and its public and commercial applications; the impact of current and proposed regulatory regimes on the evolution of the NII; privacy, security and copyright issues; national strategies for maximizing interconnection and interoper-

ability of communications networks; and universal access (see NII homepage at http://sunsite.unc.edu/ nii/NII-Advisory-Council.html). In April 1994 the Council organized itself into three MegaProject Working Groups to explore: the vision and goals for the information superhighway; access to the superhighway; and intellectual property, privacy and security issues. The purpose of the MegaProjects was to frame discussion and draft recommendations to facilitate the full Council’s ability to reach consensus in these areas. The Council met across the United States from February 1994 to the end of 1995, receiving voluminous public comment. In March 1995 it published its emerging framework, an articulation of basic principles, the first of which addressed five areas: universal access and service, privacy and security, intellectual property, education and lifelong learning, and electronic commerce. The Council concluded that the most efficient way to develop the information highway (‘superhighway’) in the United States was through community effort. Its KickStart Initiatives document offered guidelines for achieving universal access by connecting the nation’s schools, libraries and community centres. The Final Report of the United States Advisory Council of the National Information Infrastructure (1996), with policy recommendations to the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of Commerce, was submitted in January 1996 (the Executive Summary can be found at http:// www.benton.org/KickStart/nation.home.html). In Canada, the Final Report of the Information Highway Advisory Council (IHAC), produced in September 1995, addresses many of the issues mandated to the United States Council. It also echoes to a large extent the policy stance recommended by the Bangemann Report. Established by the Minister of Industry Canada in May 1994, with McGill University Professor David Johnston as Chair, IHAC was a high-level group of twenty-nine Canadians from the private sector (telecommunication, cable television,

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computer and networking technologies), government, education, and other interested groups such as consumers, labour and libraries. IHAC was charged to advise the Canadian Government specifically on fifteen issues, including competitiveness, culture, access to learning, and research and development. The Council’s deliberations were guided by three objectives: to create jobs through innovation and investment in Canada; to reinforce Canadian sovereignty and cultural identity; and to ensure universal access at reasonable cost. The Council also established five principles: an interconnected and interoperable network of networks; collaborative publicand private-sector development; competition in facilities, products and services; privacy protection and network security; and lifelong learning as a key design element of the information highway. The IHAC members formed five Working Groups: Competitiveness and Job Creation; Canadian Content and Culture; Access and Social Impacts; Learning and Training; and R&D, Applications and Market Development. Working over fifteen months in monthly meetings which included various Cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister, IHAC brought over 300 recommendations to the Government of Canada. In late 1995 the Industry Minister reconvened IHAC for a further year, to pursue a broad mandate aimed at promoting public awareness, facilitating partnerships and innovations, and acting as a sounding board for the government. Following the release in May 1996 of the Canadian Government’s official response to the IHAC recommendations, an action plan was agreed upon by seven Cabinet ministers, and IHAC Phase II held its first meeting in June. In Asia, despite recent progress in China, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, no country compares with front-runner Singapore in information highway development. However, it is also important to note the progress of Japan. Despite its history as one of the most ‘informatized’ societies of

the world, Japan was in fact slower than the United States to progress toward formalizing its information highway development. This was due partly to the proliferation of government departments and other agencies which claimed responsibility, including the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), numerous cable television companies, telecommunication equipment suppliers and media owners. In June 1993 the Information Industry Subcommittee of MITI’s Industrial Structure Council published a report on improving the social infrastructure for the information society. Later in 1993 NTT announced its grand plan, at a cost of US$400 billion, to install optical fibre throughout Japan by the year 2015. Also in 1993 the MPT was framing new regulatory policies for infrastructure development. According to the EC (Longhorn, 1994–95): Compared to Europe, Japan should in fact have been in the communications vanguard, having privatized NTT in 1985, only two years after the AT&T break-up in the USA. Markets were liberalized to allow more competition. But Japan lost ground compared to the American model, for example, falling far behind in cable television. . . . NTT was late in introducing new telephone and data services. Monopoly control of key markets by NTT and KDD increased the cost of everything from microwave transmission to database hook-ups. . . .

In response to industry criticism, MPT proposed a policy focused on developing new services, restructuring the industry and expanding the total market size. It also drew up a plan to unite fragmented cable television operations into a nationwide network which could provide a full range of multimedia services. A new vision for an advanced information society, with Japan taking the lead in Asia in the multimedia industry, was announced in September

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1994 by Prime Minister Murayama’s Advanced Information and Telecommunications Society Promotion Headquarters. In recent years the ministerial meetings and conferences of the G-7 member countries have provided a focal point for global information highway development by the industrialized nations. Following the Bangemann Report, the central theme of the G-7 Ministerial Conference in Brussels on 24–26 February 1995 was the information society transforming the quality of life for a growing number of peoples around the world. Global interconnection was discussed, with recommendations for worldwide co-operation, especially for the less developed countries. The outcome of this conference was the designation of eleven specific projects in selected theme areas. The themes, which offer a glimpse of the already incredible sweep and breadth of the information highway phenomenon, are: creation of a global inventory of information relevant to the development of the global information society; global interoperability for broadband networks; cross-cultural training and education; electronic libraries; electronic museums and galleries; environment and natural resources management; global emergency management; global health-care application; governments online; a global market-place for small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and maritime information systems. The projects were assigned to the various G-7 countries. A progress report on the projects was delivered at the G-7 Summit in Halifax, Canada, in June 1995. Further concentrated discussion around the theme of global information highway development took place at the South Africa Information Society and Development (ISAD) Conference on 13–15 May 1996.

UNESCO The Organization’s programmes in this area are designed to assist all Member States to respond to

the new challenges of the information society. More particularly, they aim to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from the potential of information and communication technologies to support development processes. At the centre of the challenges posed by the emerging information society is the concept of universal access and how a ‘right to communicate’ will evolve in an increasingly digital world. Access in this context involves not only physical availability and cost, but also ensuring that the user can benefit from the services concerned, with a minimum level of ‘digital literacy’. In the increasingly competitive and commercial world of information and communication, the risks of excluding disadvantaged populations are substantial, both within and among societies as well as among developed and developing countries. An important facet of the ‘right to communicate’ concerns access to telematics facilities at affordable cost by the ‘intellectual’ sectors – education, science, culture, media, libraries and archives – which have a crucial role to play in the development of national information infrastructures. Another important issue is the maintenance of linguistic and cultural diversity in the information society. Technology-induced globalization is seen by many as a threat to local customs, values and beliefs, as exemplified by the fact that, today, a large majority of the data on the Internet is in English. Increased access to interconnected networks and databases raises major ethical and legal issues. These include: privacy of information and the right of individuals to check data pertaining to themselves; regulation for the content of information circulating through information highways; computer piracy and other informatics crimes; and copyright, where efforts are required to extend legitimate intellectual property protection while maintaining access to information (see Chapter 26). At the twenty-eighth session of the UNESCO

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General Conference (1995), a joint meeting of the Programme Commissions discussed the ‘educational, scientific and cultural challenges of the new communication and information technologies’. The results of this discussion formed the basis for a position paper now available for distribution under the title UNESCO and an Information Society for all (UNESCO, 1996). The General Conference also adopted 28C/ Resolution VII.15, which stressed the societal problems of information technologies and potential dangers of information highways to developing nations (see box, p. 298). UNESCO has undertaken a wide range of activities which may be described under three headings: • Overall societal impact, at the global level, of new information and communication technologies. Co-operative links have been established with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and other IGOs and NGOs; and various meetings have been or are being organized: Copyright in the Information Society (1996); Education and Informatics (1996); and Ethical, Legal and Societal Aspects of Digital Information (1997). In 1994, in the framework of their Joint Programme on Promotion of Telematics for Development, ITU and UNESCO completed a study entitled The Right to Communicate – At What Price: Economic Constraints to the Effective Use of Telecommunications in Education, Science, Culture and in the Circulation of Information. This defined a new strategy for ensuring access to modern telematics facilities at affordable cost for users in UNESCO’s fields of competence in the developing countries. • National policies and regional strategies. A series of meetings initiated by the African Regional Symposium on Telematics for Development (1995) will assist developing countries in formulating national policies and regional

•

strategies. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, a three-year joint UNESCO – European Union Project started in June 1996. In Africa, as a result of the above-mentioned symposium, the High-Level Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies in Africa was created. This group prepared a long-term framework for a regional telematics policy called ‘Africa’s Information Society Initiative’ (AISI), which was approved by the European Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers in Addis Ababa, 3–7 May 1996, and supported by the Regional African Telecommunication Development Conference (Abidjan, 6–10 May 1996). AISI deals with challenges and opportunities for Africa’s development in an information age. It specifically addresses the role of information, communication and knowledge in shaping an African information society to accelerate socio-economic development, and targets decision-makers and leaders in all sectors, including in particular those responsible for planning, information, telecommunication, economic development, laws and regulations, health, education, trade, tourism, the environment and transport. More recently, a United Nations systemwide Special Initiative on Africa was launched – ‘Harnessing Information Technology for Development’ – for which ECA, the World Bank, UNESCO, the ITU and UNCTAD are identified as the lead agencies. This project foresees a budget of at least US$11.5 million to help twenty African countries build telematics policies, networks and applications to support their development priorities. Applications and pilot projects. A large number of projects are under way, in many areas related to new information technologies and information highways. Examples are the linking of

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African countries to the Internet, improved access to telematics services in the Caribbean, the application of electronic information technologies to distance education, safeguarding Internet use by journalists and the media, and the Memory of the World Programme (see box, p. 336).

The telecommunication infrastructure The essence of the information highway revolution lies in the convergence of information processing and telecommunication technologies, examined in Chapter 17. This has eroded the traditional distinction in communication between carrier and content, resulting in several profoundly new challenges, not least of which is regulatory turmoil. Already in 1990 the outcome was described as akin to the aftermath of an earthquake in which ‘the tectonic plates of national sovereignty and power have begun to shift’ (Dunderstadt, 1990). Clearly, the technological issues related to the development of the information highway infrastructure are complex, the costs are immense, and with convergence the stakes for the major carriers are extremely high. It has already been noted that governments have taken differing stances in determining their roles. Whereas the governments of Singapore and others in East Asia have intervened strongly to ensure the benefits of a strong infrastructure for their countries, Western governments have attempted to stimulate private sector development. As Bangemann (1996) stresses, ‘government and the public authorities cannot legislate the information society into existence, nor can they simply build it out of public funds’. However, his voice is added to those who currently feel that government (Europe particularly) is not doing enough. He continues: The first countries to enter the information society will reap the greatest rewards. They will set the agenda for all

who must follow. By contrast, countries who temporize, or favour half-hearted solutions, could, in less than a decade, face disastrous declines in investment and a squeeze on jobs. . . . Governments, for example, must keep up and accelerate the momentum towards telecommunications deregulation. Otherwise we have lost the game before it has begun.

In the countries of the West, where the private sector is expected to drive information highway development, deregulation currently holds centre stage. There is widespread agreement (and consternation) that the United States has taken the lead, beginning with the break-up of the AT&T monopoly in 1984 and culminating to date in the signing by President Clinton of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In one sweep, the new Act ends United States Government regulations that have maintained barriers between local and long-distance telephone services, cable television, broadcasting and wireless services. In the age of digital communications, those regulations have become anachronistic. The microchip is placing all forms of communication – from satellite-television images and long-distance telephone calls to e-mail and World Wide Web pages – on the same footing. Europe, although not yet at this stage is moving in the same direction. Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have already at least partially opened their markets to carrier competition. Fifteen European Union countries together with Switzerland and Norway, face a deadline to do this formally on 1 January 1998. In anticipation, new players are already investing many millions of dollars in networking and building alliances; for example, Olivetti of Italy has a joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corporation, with plans to team up with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to challenge the monopoly of Telecom Italia. Meanwhile, amid fears that the 1998 liberalization agreement will be a case of ‘too little too late’, new competitors in Europe

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will be permitted as of July 1996 to lease telephone lines from cable companies, railways and utilities, bypassing the monopoly of national operators and paving the way for a billion-dollar trans-European backbone network. None of this activity, however, rivals the frenzied free-for-all unleashed in the United States. Key points in the new Telecommunications Act are that, except for limits on foreign ownership, all markets are open to everyone (that is, no restrictions on telephone or cable companies entering any market of their choice), and the relaxation of cross-ownership restrictions (paving the way for myriad mergers, partnerships, alliances, etc., between and among carriers). These set the stage for a completely realigned industry. A recent example of United States telecommunication realignment is the merger of SBC Communications and Pacific America, two big local companies (or ‘Baby Bells’), to create a new giant worth $45 billion. Some of the other five Baby Bells, Nynex and Bell Atlantic in particular, are discussing mergers. Many of the merge/alliance activities, examples of which are given in the next section, enable new content delivery. Taken together, they introduce an extremely challenging and volatile array of new opportunities for business, entertainment, health care, education, culture and consumers – in a word, the information society. Meanwhile, liberalization of trade in basic telecommunication services is currently being negotiated at the international level through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In the midst of all this activity, encouragement of standards becomes a crucial governmental role. The key to an effective and efficient global information highway, for competition as well as for society as a whole, is interoperability. Most obviously, open (as opposed to proprietary) technical standards are required for the infrastructure, but because of digitization this infrastructure increasingly includes con-

tent as well as the carriers. Accordingly, international content/carrier standards are necessary for digital compression, data transmission protocols, software, consumer equipment, etc. The development of international standards in such a fast-moving area of activity is not without risks; at best, flexibility is required to avoid the costly mistakes of going down wrong developmental paths, technical myopia and monopolistic pressures.

Focus on content: the era of multimedia Because development of content and applications on the information highway depends upon the infrastructure, this latter aspect initially captured attention. However, the question soon becomes: What is the information highway without information? Japan, as noted, has already positioned itself as the Asian leader in multimedia production. In North America and Europe, too, content and applications have come more sharply into focus – both through reoriented, newly-allied carriers and through the new multimedia players. In the United States, the most spectacular of the recent megamergers aimed at providing content on the information highway has been by the entertainment giants: Disney’s purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, and the bid by Time Warner for Turner Broadcasting. In February 1996, US West announced a $10.8 billion bid for Continental Cablevision, America’s third-largest cable operator. The giant AT&T, too, is repositioning itself to optimize multimedia opportunities. This dealmaking will produce a new crop of supercarriers – companies that either on their own or through alliances will offer a full menu of electronic communications, with everything from video phones to Internet services, using a single number that subscribers will take with them wherever they go. Such ‘number portability’ is now a key issue for the carriers as they merge for multimedia delivery. As of early 1996 the integrated multimedia

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activities of the Lagardère Group subsidiary, Grolier Interactive, had reached a frontline position in the online as well as the offline publishing markets. Begun two years earlier in anticipation of integrated multimedia growth internationally, Grolier Interactive now boasts successful joint European–United States ventures such as Hachette Filipacci Grolier (for the press), Hachette Livre Grolier (in publishing), Europe Grolier (for audiovisual creations), and for its worldwide marketing and distribution Hachette Multimedia Distribution. Within Europe, the INFO2000 initiative illustrates the push for multimedia production growth. In a Communication to the European Parliament and Council in 1995 the European Commission defines the content industry as involving the creation, development, packaging and distribution of content-based products and services, and describes the different segments of the industry as follows: • Print publishing (newspapers, books, magazines, corporate publishing). • Electronic publishing (online databases; videotex, audiotex, fax- and CD-based services; video games). • The audiovisual industry (television, video, radio, audio and cinema). The INFO2000 initiative has three action lines to facilitate the transition by the private sector to electronic publishing and interactive multimedia: stimulating demand and raising awareness; exploiting Europe’s public sector information; and triggering European multimedia potential. At 30% to 40% and 33% to 45% respectively, the first and third action lines are targeted for the highest percentages of programme expenditure. According to the Communication mentioned above, INFO2000 complements other Community programmes under the ESPRIT Fourth Framework Programme (especially IT, ACTS and TELEMATICS) and those addressing the cultural (RAPHAEL), small and medium enterprise (SMEs)

(Integrated Programme in favour of SMEs and the Craft Sector) and education and training (SOCRATES, LEONARDO) domains. The Communication states: ‘The content industry is the single most important sector, both in terms of market value and employment, within the information industry at large.’ This point is made in an earlier EC document, Information Market Observatory (1994), as follows: The content industry now has a great deal to live up to. The expectations of users have been raised. . . . ICT industries look to the information and entertainment services sectors to provide content for running on the . . . networks which are now being developed. Governments around the world are looking at the information industries as a whole to generate employment and stimulate economic growth.

Just what are consumer expectations, and in what key areas is the content industry positioning itself for such vigorous growth? One background report prepared for the Canadian Information Highway Advisory Council (Lee and Potter, 1995) elaborates: At such an early stage, it is impossible to say with precision which products and services will ultimately succeed the test of the market. . . . In general, the [information highway] will be driven by the content carried over the network

–

services,

applications

and

information.

According to consumer surveys, likely areas for success are: entertainment, including a broad variety of interactive, user-driven arts, music, video and games; information sharing, such as news groups and bulletin boards; medical databases and consultation; interpersonal communication, such as voice, video, fax and electronic mail; news gathering and research; educational applications; banking, insurance and securities trading; and monitoring services, including home security, fire protection and home environment regulation. Although many of these products are not new, to succeed, the new mode of delivery over the [information highway] must provide additional value to the consumer.

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While many carriers have targeted entertainment, video-on-demand in particular, as the top choice of consumers, recent surveys reveal different priorities. Four key areas of consumer demand for content and new services have been identified in order of priority as: education and training; health care; leisure and entertainment; and government information. Education is clearly an area where traditional structures are crumbling. To begin with, ‘facilitated by the power of information technology, classroom learning now extends beyond a single campus to distant sites across the country’ (Twigg, 1995). Beyond that, dramatic changes in student demographics, the current knowledge explosion, new tools for accessing, creating, displaying and assessing information, and many other factors, are transforming the nature of the learning process itself. Enabled by government funding initiatives like SOCRATES, LEONARDO and INFO2000 in the European Union, similar programmes in the United States (together with the KickStart initiative recommendation of the United States Advisory Council on the NII), SCHOOLNET and CANARIE in Canada, and the various Asian programmes, myriad private sector companies throughout the world are targeting the vast new education and training multimedia market. Educational software and CD-based products abound, as do videoconferencing, audiotex and other technologies for distance delivery. The drive for multimedia products extends to all ages and levels of education, from preschoolers to pensioners. Huge markets exist for courseware and other curriculum delivery products for students from primary schools to universities. In addition, there is growing demand for training packages in the workplace to increase skills, and for upgrading and retraining programmes for workers displaced by redundancies, early retirements, etc. The Information Workstation Group in the United States, for example, expects education and training applications

to generate multimedia-attributable revenues of US$3.3 billion by 1998. Closely tied to the rising need for multimedia learning products for schools and the workplace is the demand for these products at home. Indeed, as in all areas of life affected by the information highway, the ability to access these products from home has exacerbated the loss of boundaries between home and work and school (and allied institutions such as libraries), transforming the consumer’s living room into a ‘virtual’ school, office or library as required. This blurring of distinctions profoundly increases the overlaps between education and entertainment, between work and play. Much of the current market for home-based learning and training involves cable vendors and/or the Internet, causing direct competition in the United States, for example, between current online service providers, America Online and Prodigy, and new consortia, such as the linkage of Comcast with Hewlett-Packard, to lease cable modems to companies intending to start their own Internet services. Tele-communications Inc., another United States cable giant, has announced plans for a trial next year of its home online service, and Netcom, the largest American Internet access provider, has plans to meet Bell Canada’s new Sympatico Internet service headon. Meanwhile, Le Groupe Videotron, a Canadianbased cable company, already has an operational home service available by subscription in Montreal and in the United Kingdom, offering an array of services on cable television including banking, videoon-demand, and fast food ordering; the only additional equipment required is an IBM-designed modem and a card swiping device for payment. The growth of electronic payment systems is a concomitant feature of the new content services – indeed, all forms of commerce – on the information highway. The shift to electronic ‘cash’ is a further instance of the general transition from paper to electronic documentation. Sophisticated financial trans-

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action systems based on direct payment, payroll, electronic data exchange and credit card transactions are being developed (Lee and Potter, 1995). The development of payment/credit systems for electronic commerce on the information highway, secure against counterfeiting and fraud, is big business in itself. Currently Visa and MasterCard are at a standoff, Visa working with Microsoft to develop a Secure Transaction Technology Protocol and MasterCard working with Netscape and other vendors on a Secure Electronic Payment Protocol. Beyond matters of payment, however, is the development of smartcards that include a wealth of personal data that can be used in transactions ranging from user verification to insurance purchase to health care. For example, Motorola, the world’s leading supplier for smartcards, has recently announced major contracts with two new European government health and social security projects. Spain will take delivery of 7 million card chips as part of an eventual countrywide social-security-linked smartcard programme; and the Czech Republic will take 10,000 chips for a pilot scheme as part of a countrywide health project to reach 10 million people and provide vital health-care information. Health care on the information highway is an explosive development area, with services from distance diagnostics to consumer health information. Telemedicine is appearing in areas of the world where distance is a factor; in Canada, for example, a system links rural doctors in Alberta with specialists in the city of Calgary. Still in early stages of delivery, this system is estimated to have significantly decreased health-care costs, including the wear-andtear, travel and accommodation costs of patients. Soaring health-care expenditures, driving the trend to hospital closures and increased emphasis on community care, have made the potential benefits of telemedicine particularly attractive. Coupled with the smartcard phenomenon that enables patients to access their entire medical records, the possibilities

(and pitfalls) for electronic health-care delivery are still in their infancy. It is evident that, along with convergence and restructuring on a massive scale in the information technology industries, the new content industries (multimedia, imaging, etc.) are bringing about the global de-institutionalization of schools and hospitals. Sweeping changes are being brought about by the information highway revolution in other institutions, too. ‘One of the first pieces of evidence that this is a “big one”, as far as revolutions go, is that three of the oldest institutions of human civilization – schools, hospitals and libraries – are undergoing this sort of fundamental, structural change’ (Dykstra, 1995). Indeed, the concept ‘library’, difficult enough to define in the traditional sense, has become almost impossible to define today. It has been a long time since a library was merely a collection of books. For centuries libraries were essentially archives for the storage and preservation of recorded thought. Not until the early twentieth century, in fact, did libraries emerge as distinct from archives, with an emphasis upon information retrieval and use. In other words, although the revolution brought about by the invention of the printing press had a direct and profound impact upon libraries, its ramifications were slow to develop fully. In contrast, the impact of the current information revolution is happening with breathtaking speed. It has been said that, increasingly, new nurses are getting jobs not in hospitals, but as partners in health-care delivery. The same can be said for librarians who, as libraries close, are beginning to be placed more strategically as knowledge workers within organizations. There is a vast array of opportunities for librarians, who adopt new names like data analysts, information managers, information consultants and the like, in today’s knowledge-intensive organizations (for example, consulting firms, software companies and other SMEs). In the public sector, the Freenet phenomenon in North America has

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opened possibilities for the ‘wired’ public library. Some librarians, not yet grasping the speed of the transformation, still mount their catalogues on the Internet so that people will come to the library. With remote access to library catalogues, electronic publication and document delivery, that walk to the library is becoming irrelevant. The virtual library is in the consumers’ offices, classrooms and homes. Consider, for example, the mind-boggling amount of information and documentation already available on the Internet; ‘Huge Collection of Telecom-links’ is just one access point of immediate relevance (http://galaxy.einet.net.galaxy?Business-andCommerce/Industry-Sectors/Telecommunications.html). There are thousands of others. As electronic communication grows, the need for the traditional intermediary skills of librarians lessens. Long the facilitators between people and information, today’s librarians face not just the crumbling of their institutions but the more positive cognitive task of seeing themselves as information highway ‘content people’. In other words, their professional future lies within the multimedia and content provision industry as a whole. Preserving and providing access to ‘the cultural memory’ in today’s global village is at least as important as it has been in centuries past; the stakes for all content providers – librarians and archivists included – are as high as the opportunities. The race toward global interconnectivity and content delivery brings with it the important issue of cultural sovereignty. It is an aspect missing from discussions in the United States, but very much present in Canada (ever mindful of its superpower neighbour), the countries of Asia and various member countries of the European Union, who fear that increasing globalization will erode their national and cultural distinctiveness. The issue of cultural distinctiveness was addressed in the Theme Paper of the G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Brus-

sels in January 1995 (http://www.ispo.cec.be/g7/ Keydoes/themepap.html): Cultural and linguistic aspects of the information society are of particular relevance. The nature and operation of the global information infrastructure must respect cultural and linguistic diversities. The content of new networked applications, especially in the sphere of education and entertainment, is likely to become as essential as the traditional media as a vehicle for shaping cultural values.

Audiovisual programmes are a key component of content. Encouraging the circulation of diversified content is highly desirable in order to promote mutual understanding and cultural enrichment. However, it is also very important to preserve and promote cultural and linguistic specificity, whose importance as an objective is justified by the contribution diversity makes to human progress and mutual enrichment. Cultural diversity and the appropriate presence of indigenous cultural products and services will be facilitated by the impressive potential of low cost delivery of multimedia content over the information infrastructure. The Chair’s Conclusions of the Brussels G-7 Ministerial Conference include a commitment by the G-7 partners to ‘serve cultural enrichment for all citizens through diversity of content’. (See also box on page 298.) The ‘culture’ issue is complicated by the fact that, in the words of André Malraux concerning a country’s film output, ‘Le cinéma, c’est un art, mais c’est aussi une industrie’ (Mattelart, 1995). This brings the issue into the arena of trade between nations (including the thorny problem of protective subsidies), and explains why cultural products were debated so strongly in recent trade negotiations, including GATT and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to which Canada, Mexico and the United States are signatories. At the GATT negotiations in 1993, for example, France argued

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New information and communication technologies: extract from Resolution VII.15 adopted by the UNESCO General Conference at its twenty-eighth session (1995)

Recalling that the intellectual and ethical mission of UNESCO concerns all its fields of competence, [. . .] Invites the Director-General: (a)

to ensure that in the final version of the Medium-Term Strategy for 1996–2001 attention is drawn to the rapid development of the new communication technologies in such a way as to prompt interdisciplinary and intersectoral

The General Conference,

reflection on these technologies as a factor of development, and to revise

[. . .] Stressing the importance of the societal

document 28 C/5 accordingly; (b)

to initiate in parallel therewith a wide-

problems posed by these new technologies,

ranging discussion of the consequences of

which relate both to the isolation of individuals

the development of such technologies for

and to the threats to the maintenance of

UNESCO’s programmes in order to ensure

cultural and linguistic diversity and the widening

that the Organization is able to anticipate

of the gaps between the industrialized and the

and adapt to these changes for 1996–97

developing countries,

on the basis of regional consultations; (c)

to promote a deontological approach

Mindful that the report of the Communication,

which is in keeping with UNESCO’s ethical

Information and Information Sector (CII)

mission and which is aimed at achieving

Working Group on the Medium-Term Strategy of

harmonious development of these

UNESCO (1996–2001) makes very critical

technologies while ensuring respect for

observations in paragraph 9 about the potential

linguistic and cultural pluralism and for

dangers of an ‘information superhighway’ to developing nations,

the right to privacy; (d)

to take steps, beginning in the current biennium, to elaborate, together with the

Stressing further the potential inherent in such

various partners concerned, specific and

technologies for the development of educational

carefully monitored projects, in particular

methods, the flow of data and the expansion of

in the fields of distance education and

intercultural exchanges,

virtual libraries.

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forcefully for ‘exception culturelle’, that is, the continued protection in the global marketplace of its film and other cultural product industries. In May 1995, Canada’s IHAC endorsed the Convergence Report of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (1995), which, while recommending an accelerated regulatory transition to sustainable competition among the carriers, suggests new ways of maintaining strong Canadian programming. The IHAC Final Report states: . . . Canadian broadcasting policies have inspired Canadian talent to remain at home, while giving Canadian consumers the benefit of the widest possible choice of any country in the world. By any standard, the range is astonishing. Simply stated, this wide range of choice would not have occurred without the support of strong broadcasting and cultural policies and programs. Canadian cultural policy must be reaffirmed and strengthened in relation to the new information infrastructure. The challenge now is to ensure that these policies are sufficiently flexible to accommodate unforeseeable changes, yet strong enough to continue to provide Canada some stability in an unstable world.

Linguistic minorities find themselves especially vulnerable in a world increasingly connected by information in the English language. Strong public cultural policies have become extremely important in non-English-speaking or bilingual countries. Equally important are the legal and ethical aspects of electronic content control, the most vexing (and unresolved) of which have to do with intellectual property, privacy and security. In the age of digital documents, for example, how is each version, edition, part or iteration on the screen of an interactive multimedia product verified, authenticated, catalogued, indexed, accessed or preserved? Who owns the intellectual rights to software – employees who design it or employers who market it? (see Chapter 26).

‘Browsing’ is a particular thorny copyright issue: authors, on the one hand, fear loss of control over their works in an electronic environment, and on the other hand consumers, readers especially, fear loss of their traditional right to browse through a document (book, newspaper, etc.) before photocopying, borrowing or buying it. The latter has become especially critical in the light of at least one recent court decision, in the United States, that the act of browsing a work in a digital environment (that is, viewing it on a computer screen) constitutes an act of reproduction (see Chapter 26). The twin issues of privacy (confidentiality) and security (protection, authentication and verification) of data are significant enough to have spurred the growth of entire new industries. Privacy is of deep personal concern to consumers, particularly with the advancement of smartcards. Data security is crucial for today’s individuals and organizations wholly dependent upon electronic databases for accurate (often sensitive) information free from the threat of ‘computer crime’ such as tampering or ‘hacking’, fraud and unauthorized deletion. Interconnection of networks is dramatically increasing the number of electronic transactions, credit ratings, financial accounts, education records, medical and driving records, etc., that can be amassed in individual or company profiles. These masses of data cross national boundaries (an aspect of the disturbing issue of transborder data flow), and are often resold, re-used or integrated with other databases – often without knowledge, consent or remuneration. Databases of health information and credit card spending habits, two areas of most concern to individuals, are of considerable commercial value to insurance companies, etc., and ‘the incentive to sell such information is high’ (Johnston et al., 1995). With few exceptions, the current privacy laws of countries are underdeveloped, out-of-date or otherwise ineffective. Because data encryption technologies devel-

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oped by the private sector (for example, the ‘Clipper Chip’ in the United States) put global interoperability at risk, commitment by all countries to the 1992 OECD Security Guidelines is considered important. An important part of guaranteeing security on the information highway will be the development of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). It is likely that broad-based security will be achieved through several PKIs, to be built by different public and private entities. But an unfragmented ‘electronic market’ on the information highway, offering maximum consumer choice, will be possible only if PKI interoperability standards issues are fully dealt with.

Societal implications: the global village Though the ‘information highway’ metaphor works well, it breaks down at the point of fullest impact. There the two words ‘information’ and ‘highway’, descriptive as they have been for the current phenomenon, collapse as a deeper, richer meaning emerges. Canada’s IHAC captured this meaning in its Progress Report in 1994: The Information Highway, in our view, is not so much about information as it is about communication. . . . It is not a cold and barren highway with exits and entrances that carry traffic, but a series of culturally rich and dynamically intersecting communities, large and small, north and south, east and west, populated by creative thinking people who reach out and enrich one another. Rather than a highway, it is a personalized village square where people eliminate the barriers of time and distance and interact in a kaleidoscope of different ways.

Along the route to the new dynamic village square, however, there are detours, dislocations and other disruptions major enough to cause extreme stress in the lives of many people. There are some, in fact, who are unlikely to arrive. To begin with, there are new juxtapositions among nations. These go beyond current concerns

about the ‘information-poor’ developing nations of the world versus the ‘information-rich’ industrialized countries, significant though these concerns are. Thabo Mbeki, Vice-President of South Africa, brought these disparities home when he told the Brussels G-7 Summit delegates (EU Telecoms Aid, 1995): ‘Over half of humankind has never dialled a phone number. There are more telephone lines in Manhattan than in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.’ ‘Teledensity’, or number of telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, stands at forty-four in the European Union, but less than five in Africa. However, ‘The disparities are just as striking between developing countries, and between rural and urban areas in the same country. To cite two examples: the teledensity for Argentina is 11, compared with 2 in Botswana, and 90% of phone lines in India are in urban areas’ (EU Telecoms Aid . . . , 1995). There are pockets of intense catch-up activity in parts of Eastern Europe, for example, the Baltic Information Infrastructure Pilot initiated in May 1994. In the Mediterranean region, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia lag far behind their neighbours, Cyprus, Israel and Malta. Latin America is mixed, its most advanced countries (with some of the fastest growing economies in the world) surging ahead. Aiming for a strong telecommunications infrastructure, the Republic of Korea Information Industry Task Force has identified a range of public sector applications to stimulate growth and use, including electronic government services, remote medical care, distance education and electronic libraries. Malaysia has created a Multimedia Development Corporation to operate from the Prime Minister’s Department. China, like some of its Asian neighbours, is emphasizing basic infrastructure construction (there being little to upgrade). It is taking advantage, however, of an opportunity to leap-frog technologies and to install systems that make full use of the most recent technology.

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Meanwhile, there are surprising disparities in the most developed of countries. United States census data for 1990 revealed (Doctor, 1992) that of 240 million Americans, the following (overlapping) populations are potentially among the informationpoor: • The 64.8 million who live in rural areas (27%). • The 32.4 million who are below the poverty level (14%). • The 58.4 million who are in school (24%). • The 31 million who are over 65 (12.5%, or one in eight Americans). • The 27 million over 16 who are disabled (11%). The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore already exceeds that of the United Kingdom, and Malaysia and Thailand are catching up very quickly. China is set to become the world’s largest economy in the relatively near future, posing serious consequences for economic prosperity and social cohesion in Western countries. In the United Kingdom there are many signs that the country’s position vis-à-vis the Information Revolution is far different from the one it enjoyed in the Industrial Revolution, as the nineteenth-century world’s economic, political and technological leader. Industrialization, particularly electrification, helped the United States rise to its global superpower status in the twentieth century. Positioning among nations today has to do with which will rise to the top – with all the concomitant societal benefits for their citizens – in the century about to begin. Along with states, the private sector is heavily involved in global positioning. The stakes are extremely high, not only for the multinational conglomerates with more capital than any country, but also for whole information technology sectors (for example, telephone versus cable television) and for millions of SMEs worldwide that have gambled on niches in the new multimedia industries. For each Chairman of the Board who suffers stress, there are

hundreds or thousands of workers in companies worldwide who have experienced redundancies, job transfers, the need to retrain, and/or other major dislocations that have personally affected them and their families. Relentlessly and with astonishing speed, giant plants have closed or downsized, ‘company towns’ have lost their companies, employment lifestyles (such as fishing) have disappeared for whole communities. Although Western governments have pinned their hopes for job creation on information technology and the information highway, unemployment persists. In this especially volatile time ‘the traditional correlation between unemployment and economic growth has broken down’. Lee and Potter (1995) continue: In a market economy, the processes of job acquisition, creation and loss are dynamic phenomena with fundamental human implications. Jobs are generally acquired by individuals who possess the requisite skills, knowledge, and experience. In the private sector, jobs are created as new firms emerge and existing firms grow. There are innumerable factors which influence both the supply side and the demand side of the employment equation. The development and use of the [information highway] is a key factor that can have a profound effect on both sides of the equation.

Consumers, as noted, are an important force driving the development of multimedia and the new content applications. Anticipated consumer demand has shaped market strategies and, in this frenzied transitionary time, has determined niches for the new players. If anything, the role of consumers in the era of the information highway will become even more important. Several factors contribute to this empowerment, the most radical being the changed nature of the economy itself (Dykstra, 1995): When you buy a steel beam or a hat or a lawnmower from me, I no longer have that object; it is now yours. In other words, this transaction is characterized by a transfer in

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ownership. . . . When a limited amount of each product

References

was created in the first place . . . [this] introduces the element of scarcity. . . . Information as a product does not behave this way. When you buy information from me, the result is that we both have it. Information is a non-rival commodity, in that you and I don’t rival for its ownership. Here, then, is the first of the challenges for the new market environment – how to handle a fundamentally different product.

Other important factors are dramatically lower transaction costs on the information highway (time and money costs of going by car to video stores, for example, compared with video-on-demand service at home), elimination of the ‘middleperson’, increased access to pre-purchase product information, speed of customer feedback (also among consumers) and far fewer geographical limitations. All of these factors challenge the traditional market power of producers (making things even more risky for the private sector), while playing directly into the hands of consumers. Times of transition have pluses and minuses for everyone. In the current global revolution, involvement is worldwide and the scale of change for countries, industries and society is enormous. For the world’s people, on the one hand, there is now cheaplabour data input and other electronic piecework in developing countries, teleworking from home, shortterm employment contracts without benefits, and many another forms of real or potential exploitation. On the other hand, telemedicine, electronic communication systems, ‘smart’ appliances and monitoring devices for the home, and other aspects of the information highway offer new hope to those with both ordinary and special needs. Above all, those members of society, wherever they live, who possess knowledge and skills and the wherewithal to engage in lifelong learning will be the ones best positioned to survive the current transition and participate in the new global village with confidence. ■■

BANGEMANN, M. 1996. The Revolution that Needs Government to Join it at the Barricades. Telecom Brief, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 20. BERCUSON, K.; CARLING, G., et al. 1995. Singapore: A Case Study in Rapid Development. Washington, D.C., IMF. 19 pp. (International Monetary Fund Occasional Paper 119.) CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION. 1995. Competition and Culture on Canada’s Information Highway: Managing the Realities of Transition. Ottawa. 48 pp. COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES. 1993. Growth, Competitiveness, Employment: The Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century. Luxembourg, Office of Official Publications of the EC. 30 pp. ——. 1994. Europe’s Way to the Information Society: An Action Plan (COM 94). Brussels. 14 pp. DOCTOR, R. D. 1992. Social Equity and Information Technologies: Moving toward Information Democracy. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 27, pp. 43–96. DUNDERSTADT, J. J. 1990. Challenges of a Knowledge Society. Address given at the School of Information and Library Studies, University of Michigan, 4 October 1990. Ann Arbor, Mich. 12 pp. DYKSTRA, M. 1995. Hanging Together or Hanging Separately: Survival through Collaboration. Unpublished paper presented at the Canadian Association for Information Science Annual Conference, Edmonton, June 1995. EU Telecoms Aid to the ACP States: All Aboard for the Superhighway. 1995. I&T Magazine, No. 18, pp. 2–5. EUROPEAN COMMISSION. 1994. Information Market Observatory (IMO): the Main Events and Developments in the Information Market. Draft Annual Report, 1993. Luxembourg. 129 pp. GORE, A. 1995. Infrastructure for the Global Village. Scientific American (Special Issue), pp. 156–9. HIGH-LEVEL GROUP ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY. 1994. Europe and the Global Information Society:

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Recommendations to the European Council. Brussels. 35 pp. INFORMATION HIGHWAY ADVISORY COUNCIL. 1994. Canada’s Information Highway: Building Canada’s Information and Communications Infrastructure. Progress Report. Ottawa, Industry Canada. 40 pp. ——. 1995. Connection, Community, Content: The Challenge of the Information Highway. Final Report. Ottawa, Industry Canada. 227 pp. JOHNSTON, D.; JOHNSTON, D.; HANDA, S. 1995. Getting Canada Online: Understanding the Information Highway. Toronto, Stoddart. 278 pp. LEE, M.; POTTER, M. 1995. Economic Impacts of the Information Highway. Ottawa, Information Highway Advisory Council Secretariat. 31 pp. LONGHORN, R. 1994–95. The Information Society: Comparisons in the Trio of Europe, North America and Japan. I&T Magazine, No. 16, pp. 5–9. MATTELART, A. 1995. Exception ou spécificité culturelle: les enjeux du GATT. In: Universalis 1995: la politique, les connaissances, la culture en 1994, pp. 138–43. Paris, Encyclopaedia Universalis. MOORE, N. n.d. The Information Policy Agenda in East Asia. London, Policy Studies Institute. 15 pp. (Unpublished.) STIEL, N. 1995. Multimedia: la nouvelle frontière. In: Universalia 1995: les connaissances, la culture en 1994, pp. 144–9. Paris, Encyclopaedia Universalis. TWIGG, C. A. 1995. The Need for a National Learning Infrastructure. Educom Review, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 16–20. UNESCO. 1996. UNESCO and an Information Society for All. A Position Paper. Paris, UNESCO. 12 pp.

Mary Dykstra Lynch is Professor and former Director at the School of Library and Information Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Sheffield. She represents the library/information studies community and the province of Nova Scotia on the national Information Highway Advisory Council of Canada, established in 1994 and extended to 1997. She serves on the Board of Canarie, Canada’s national broadband network for research, industry and education. Recent consultancies include the Art and Architecture Thesaurus Project of the J. P. Getty Trust in the United States. Her involvement with the British Library’s PRECIS Index System in the 1980s included its publication of her Precis: A Primer. At the National Film Board of Canada, Montreal, she was responsible for the development of a bilingual information system for Canada’s film and video productions.

Mary Dykstra Lynch School of Library and Information Studies Faculty of Management Dalhousie University Halifax Nova Scotia B3H 3J5 Canada Tel: 902-494-2743 Fax: 902-494-2451 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 22 Economic intelligence Philippe Clerc Université de Paris-II, France

T

he fall of the Berlin Wall marked a radical change in the world for both governments and enterprises. The end of the Cold War bipolarity created a new kind of economic geography, with two major consequences. The first consequence has been the emergence of a plurality of chessboards, so to speak: the global trade board on which the giant multinational corporations confront one another; the three major world economic boards, that is, North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific zone; the boards of the national economies of different industrial states; and finally regional boards. Against this backdrop new forms of power and state confrontations are developing, based on control over multiple information networks, that induce the various economic players to seek alliances with their competitors. For example, worldwide alliances are being created between the Americans and the Japanese in the area of advanced technologies (information, pharmaceuticals, automobiles) despite the bitter competition between these two powers (Caduc and Polycarpe, 1994). The second consequence, affecting the developing countries, is that the end of the confrontation between the Eastern and Western blocs has led to the dislocation of their respective zones of influence in the countries of the South. As a consequence, the North–South divide is widening and the hierarchies of economic dependence are becoming more acute. The developing countries have been the major losers in the growing trend towards globalization, but a hierarchical dependency can also be discerned in the commercial, technological and financial interdependences of the economies of developed countries. All these changes are undermining previously accepted concepts of sovereignty and are limiting the choices open to both enterprises and governments. Furthermore, this system of dependence also brings with it a serious risk that national identities will be diluted. Against this background, competitiveness and

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development processes depend on the ability of both public and private economic actors to ensure their integration into industrial, financial and trade networks, thereby tilting the balance of power more effectively in their favour. They are obliged to formulate their strategies for these shifting and uncertain conditions, and to understand and interpret these new conditions accordingly. The effectiveness of these strategies rests on the deployment of economic intelligence techniques; these techniques hold the key to control over the content and flow of information. This chapter will first define economic intelligence and then examine how it is applied by enterprises and states, considering the various techniques that can be used. The organization of selected national economic intelligence systems will then be described and some comparisons drawn between them.

Economic intelligence defined Economic intelligence is not easy to define. On the one hand, it is a well-established concept drawing on the techniques and methods formalized initially by large American and British enterprises to establish their competitive strategies; on the other hand, it is gradually taking shape also as a concept implemented by states, some of which have adopted it as a national policy. In the following definition, we shall try to synthesize the different approaches that have emerged over time in the context of widely differing information cultures. The French Commissariat Général du Plan (1994) defines economic intelligence as encompassing all the co-ordinated measures of information collection, processing, distribution and protection which are of value to economic players and that are achievable by legal means. Its ultimate objective is to provide decision-makers in enterprises or government with the knowledge to understand their environment and adjust their individual or collective

strategies accordingly. Economic intelligence is therefore an extension of the various ‘watch’ techniques (scientific, technological, trading, competition-oriented, financial, legal, regulatory, etc.) and of techniques to protect key assets, taking fully into account influential actions that can be taken by governments or enterprises when formulating strategies, as well as information and disinformation campaigns. Three main features emerge from this definition. First, economic intelligence is based on the exploitation of publicly available sources. Experts maintain that 80% to 90% of all information required is available from public sources (Combs and Moorhead, 1992). It is the expert processing and analysis of this available data, therefore, that provide the value-addedness. Second, economic intelligence differs clearly from economic espionage in that it makes use of legal means to acquire information. Third, the pursuit of economic intelligence is bound up, at the enterprise or organization levels, as well as at the industry and state ones, with the collective culture for exchanging and sharing information and knowledge. This suggests that new methods of organization may be required that place emphasis on networking and synergy between people and institutions, and on the control of the know-how required to accomplish this task. At an operational level, economic intelligence can be thought of as both a product and a process. The product of economic intelligence is workable information and knowledge, and the process of economic intelligence is the systematic acquisition, evaluation and production of that usable information and knowledge. The information cycle The information process or cycle begins with a precise definition of user needs and their compatibility with strategic plans as set forth by the user. These needs and strategic factors will govern the effective-

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ness of the entire process and, in the first instance, the organization of the research process and the way in which information will be collected. There are two kinds of sources: the substantial body of published data (reviews, statistics, indexes, government documents, online databases, etc.) and human sources, that is information originating from experts, such as reports with a ‘surprise’ effect that are playing an increasingly important role. The second phase of the process involves processing and analysing the collected information. This function consists in transforming the raw data into workable information and then into knowledge; they must be given meaning through processing and analysis, that is by regrouping and correlating different key elements that might be technological, financial, biographical, etc. (Fuld, 1995). This plays a major role in the economic intelligence process at a time when uncertainty in a changing environment coincides with an overabundance of information (the volume of information is doubling every four years). The third phase of the information cycle involves the dissemination of the workable information to the client, who will employ it to make timely decisions, to formulate new needs and to decide upon new strategic plans. The intelligence system operation, therefore, is best described as a closedloop cycle. A final phase in the cycle is to ensure the security of information at every stage in the process. All searches for and dissemination of information leave tracks of the original user’s own projects and intentions, as well as revealing any financial, technological, social or organizational weaknesses. Every organization must try to protect its own assets and specific expertise. Functions and characteristics Economic intelligence has four main functions: to control (defend and promote) scientific and technological expertise in a particular activity area; to detect

threats and opportunities in domestic and external markets; to define more effectively individual or concerted collective strategies; and to help define ‘influencing’ strategies that will support actions. It therefore becomes a tool in its own right that constantly can be used to understand the environments, techniques and thought processes both of competitors and of partners, their cultures and intentions as well as their ability to implement these intentions. It is important to note that economic intelligence may take a number of forms which are both competitive and co-operative. It involves all the economic actors at the national, multinational and global levels, and is especially important for developing countries. Although the latter are excluded from the globalization process, nevertheless they do have access to markets in developed countries, in particular by using techniques for information transfer that are becoming increasingly commonplace. For example, the Mexican ‘Woman to Woman’ group used the Internet to obtain information about an American textile company that was setting up an operation in Mexico. Working with sympathizers in California, the group was able to gather sufficient data to negotiate more effectively with the American corporation (Panas, 1996). The economic intelligence process keeps a close watch on all kinds of indicators and, in particular, those that are of a cultural or social nature. It imposes a knowledge process that seeks to understand the world of economics but not merely by using in a very narrow sense only indicators concerning economic competitiveness. The economic intelligence process tries to identify, at a detailed level, any vital links which may exist between individuals, events, cultures and strategies, and it does so by interpreting all available signals and indices. The meticulous analysis of evidence concerning the national market (share acquisitions, establishment of research centres, scientific co-operation, etc.), for instance,

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enables the competitive intentions of a foreign company to be reconstructed and interpreted so that a suitable response can then be carefully planned. The value of this cognitive approach to understanding shifting and unpredictable environments is self-evident at a time when planning processes are fraught with uncertainty and require more and more current, processed information. Many experts, following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Harold Wilensky (1967), now lay stress on the cognitive skills which organizations must develop. Emphasis should be placed on the process of understanding rather than the mere accumulation of ‘knowledge’. The development of national intelligence capabilities should therefore be directed towards the skills needed to interpret information and make sense of it (Baumard, 1996). The ‘non-market’ environment requires increasingly careful attention (geopolitical data, local politics, culture, society, etc.) if we are to adapt to the new conditions under which competition is taking place. This enlargement of the operational field of economic intelligence, in particular, facilitates the development of strategies to use information as a competitive weapon or to exert political pressure: to influence, destabilize, manipulate and disinform. No methodology focusing on competition alone will enable these means of leverage to be analysed correctly and a response to them found. Economic intelligence derives its meaning and practical significance from the new world geo-economic order. It is practised by companies, banks, states, government agencies and regional bodies, and even by communities of states, such as the European Union. First, it will be considered from the viewpoint of enterprises, and then from the viewpoint of states.

Enterprises and business intelligence An analysis of economic intelligence as practised at the enterprise level will enable its different meanings

to be clarified and related practices defined, as well as illustrating its goals and usefulness. The term was first developed in large corporations in the Anglo-American world – the United Kingdom and, above all, the United States. They created marketing intelligence departments in the 1960s, influenced by the military intelligence model originating in the Second World War and early Cold War years. Competitive intelligence developed gradually, especially between 1970 and 1980 in corporations such as Motorola or IBM, and today is a discipline widely practised and taught as competitive or business intelligence. Interestingly enough, these terms gained a foothold in the United States in the context of a bitter competitive confrontation between major American corporations in their own home market. Both the concepts of marketing intelligence and competitive or business intelligence share the need to interpret the way in which market players operate, but in terms of objectives they differ. Marketing intelligence Marketing intelligence is based on market research. Its goal is to market as effectively as possible the corporate products and services. It focuses on an analysis of specific activities: product launches, creation of new distribution circuits, comparative price analyses, prospective customer needs, and even analyses of specific promotional campaigns run by industrial competitors, or the perception of competitors’ products by their customers. Competitive and economic intelligence Enterprises engage in competitive and economic intelligence with the clearly stated goals of assisting decision-making and strategic planning. They systematically monitor their competitors’ strategies (Bernhard, 1994): what are their competitor’s objectives and comparative strengths and weaknesses, how has the competitor performed to date and what is its current strategy?

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Competitive and economic intelligence is therefore characterized by the systematic monitoring of many facets of the enterprise’s external environment – economic, sociocultural, political, legal and competitive (particularly the plans, intentions and capabilities of its main competitors) – including the development of strategic supply markets, technological and other innovative change, and patent activities. Economic and competitive intelligence, then, supports marketing intelligence as well as assisting in the broader role of strategic finetuning. American corporations historically have created competitive intelligence units with independent, country by country, coverage. However, the inefficiency of this method slowly has been appreciated, leading as it does to duplication of effort and lack of data integration. The onset of globalization, and especially the creation of the single European market in 1992, accentuated the trend towards the creation of centralized competitive or business intelligence units with an effective mission to gather and process international data. Confronted with drastic competition, large American high-technology corporations have recently established marketing intelligence structures to manage their globalized markets, which are truly ‘knowledge infrastructures’. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dow Chemicals are networking their sales forces worldwide and making available to them in real time processed information about their competitors, their technologies and their customers’ behaviour. Using electronic data interchange, a HewlettPackard representative in Tokyo, for example, can describe to his client Hewlett-Packard’s worldwide dealings with the client’s company. Dow Chemicals has set up a technology centre to give its personnel worldwide access to the company’s knowledge base into which they themselves can feed data and which enables them to respond to customers’ needs: as Baumard (1996) puts it: ‘The whole

organization is transformed into a knowledge-generation node’. In support of their economic and competitive intelligence approaches, American experts have designed methods which are intended to enrich their analysis capabilities. Benchmarking, for instance, is defined as the ‘continuous, systematic process of evaluating the products, services, distribution and work processes of competing organizations that are recognized as employing best practices, this being undertaken in order to activate organizational improvements (Sulzberger and Berlage, 1995). Such a comparative approach uses both quantitative and qualitative data. Criteria for comparison are defined and enable the discrepancies between ‘best’ practice and actual practice to be identified, such an analysis then leading to strategic and organizational changes. Conceptualized in the United States in the 1960s, this method was only widely introduced in Europe in the early 1990s. Scientific and technical watch and economic intelligence The control of the relevant technologies and associated know-how is a key factor in any corporate development. It is especially important for enterprises in developing countries, which must gain access to these technologies in order to counter ever widening inequalities brought about by technical progress itself. Technology watch is therefore a critical function for all enterprises and an essential pillar of their competitive as well as co-operative strategies. A distinction can be made between two complementary approaches to science and technology watch, that is scanning and monitoring. Scanning involves an ongoing examination of a broad spectrum of information and events that facilitates the identification of technological trends and changes which have an important bearing on the enterprise. Monitoring, in contrast, involves an ongoing process of information gathering and interpretation in care-

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fully targeted technical and scientific domains. It is an ‘alert’ mode that permits key pointers to technological change to be immediately identified (Ashton and Stacy, 1995). In terms of innovation, enterprises use ‘outsourcing’, mobilizing teams to search external markets for appropriate niches for their own innovations, and also to seek out innovations made by competitors that may constitute technological breakthroughs and thus reduce the enterprise’s competitive advantage. When companies are in a co-operation-competition relationship in different segments of the international markets, technology watch and its promise of early recognition of these breakthroughs becomes essential. Technological and strategic watch is increasingly based on the use of computerized tools to gather, format and store information, although it would not be appropriate to refer to a real ‘computer-assisted watch’. Computing technology is greatly improving research possibilities, in particular through online databases, the Internet and CD-ROMs. It facilitates the essential storage of information through techniques such as remote loading and scanning. However, getting to grips with database contents and indexes, the majority in English, presents an obstacle to widespread information access, notably for a great many countries of the South (see a discussion of this topic on the World Wide Web at http://www.oneworld.org/panos). Despite these technological advances, human expertise remains essential in identifying the areas for surveillance, searching for pertinent information in networks of expertise, validating the gathered information and undertaking its interpretation and analysis. Human beings alone have the intuition needed to accomplish these tasks.

States and economic intelligence Today, governments have elevated economic intelligence to the status of a national policy: France, for

example, has created a Committee for Competitiveness and Economic Security, and the United States a National Economic Council (see below). Led by France, the community of states that constitutes the European Union also has designated economic intelligence as one of the priorities for European policy on industrial competitiveness and innovation. On the one hand, these trends confirm the competitive/confrontational roles of states at the international level and significantly qualify analyses which refer to the dilution of the state’s ability to act in global markets (Reich, 1991). On the contrary, strategies of national interest are becoming increasingly strong. Preservation of national identities is based on control of information and on technological and organizational expertise. It is a yardstick by which the collective ability to cope with change is judged. On the other hand, these trends also confirm the accuracy of vision of experts such as Steven Dedijer (1979) who, at a very early stage, formulated the concepts of an intelligence community or a national economic intelligence system. National economic intelligence system A national economic intelligence system may be defined as the set of practices and strategies for the interpretation of usable information and knowledge, developed and shared between the different organizational levels of a country: state, governmental agencies, local authorities, enterprises, educational systems, professional associations, trade unions and so forth. Three broad aims are typical of a national system of economic intelligence: • The development of interpretation and comprehension capabilities of the economic and social environments among the different economic players within the country. This only properly exists when a body of knowledge (procedures and methods) has been created that is widely shared and in particular is based upon

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specific teaching programmes, an organized profession and a recorded set of relevant practices. • The generation of a shared knowledge base oriented towards the definition of concerted actions to meet the challenges of globalization. • The implementation of influence strategies which promote in international markets the national model for economic and social development. More than ever before, Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are insufficient measures of economic performance on the world scale. It is equally necessary to take into account the influence on international decision-making that is wielded by countries and enterprises, that is, to evaluate their negotiating power within the international balance of power. The struggle for economic domination between developed countries or zones, like the struggle of the developing countries to participate in wealthgenerating global networks, follows a logic of interdependence. Each player is now obliged to form alliances with its competitors that will yield economic and technological power. In this constant search for a new balance of power, familiarity with national economic intelligence systems is becoming a priority. Comparative analysis of national economic intelligence systems reveals a link between economic efficiency and the existence of a collective information culture, that is, one guided by exchange and sharing. Such analysis has been developed by Swedish experts (Dedijer, 1979), and French expertise is improving (Harbulot, 1993). Each national system must be understood and interpreted in the light of its culture and history. Both the Japanese and German models have a long history and have been established through a process of constant adaptation to major changes in the world economy.

Japan The Japanese economic intelligence system has been progressively developed since the nineteenth century (Meiji era), when the desire to preserve economic independence in the face of pressure from the Western powers enabled the Japanese élites to be mobilized on economic issues. The Japanese model has retained two characteristics. First, information is used intensively in the service of an offensive industrial development policy. Access to knowledge produced by competitor countries has guided the organization of the Japanese system since the last century. Second, secrecy is managed as an ongoing policy and permits the clear identification of elements which must be protected because of their strategic importance to the country, and those which can be exchanged or shared. Information in Japan (designated by the term joho, which denotes all kinds of information) is more than a mere product to be bought and sold. It is associated with a form of social behaviour: exchange of information is a service rendered which testifies to confidence between partners. This results in a collective national culture of exchange and sharing, as is clearly illustrated by bonds of solidarity between major groups. On this cultural base, Japan established a system of economic intelligence at the end of the Second World War. The state gave a vital impulse here. It created for enterprises a national organization for the acquisition and dissemination of economic and technological business information, led by the Scientific Information Centre (SIC) and the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO) and financed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), as the major institution of this dynamic offensive. Today, the Japanese system is based on multiple channels for exchanges between the state, major industrial groups and banks, trading companies (sogo

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shosha), intermediate bodies and the universities. They ensure the cohesion and ongoing evaluation of national strategies. These are decided through a process of consensus-building organized around three focuses: the ministerial focus, which heads the shingikai, consultative committees including the state, industry and universities; the professional focus, which comprises the various professional associations that constitute hubs for informal information exchanges; and the scientific focus, which brings together the various learned societies within which company experts regularly present their work to technical committees (iinkai). All the actors are linked to a multitude of contacts worldwide who gather information and knowledge. Relations between the state and major groups (the kereitsu) are gradually changing, however. The big Japanese companies, backed by international trading companies, have developed their own economic intelligence network and are gradually becoming independent, in particular from MITI. Japan is the first power to have turned ‘influence’ into a primary asset in the achievement of its economic and industrial success. Competitive confrontations are managed by extolling the benefits of ‘co-operation’. The development of the ‘Human Frontiers’ programme in 1985 throws light on the remarkable Japanese control over the levers of influence. After getting the West to concede that science is a part of the human heritage, the Japanese are demonstrating to the world their willingness to cooperate, while proposing an organization of the programme which enables them to share, through progress reports, a significant body of scientific information, for example, on the brain, memory and the genome. Germany The German economic intelligence system also has a long history. In the nineteenth century, when the German state was created, Bismarck encouraged

bankers and industrialists to co-operate closely in order to establish German economic credibility against British trade supremacy. By doing so, he helped to create the core of the modern German industrial system, which works on the principle of a strategic unity between the different decision-making centres: enterprises, banks, insurance companies, regions (Länder) and the state. The network created in this way shares a collective information culture whose history dates back to the fourteenth century and the successes of the merchants in the Hanseatic League – the ancestors of modern international trading companies. The German decision-making centre has to be understood as a tight, relational network of decisionmakers, nourished by complex information flows originating from a wide variety of actors (populations of German origin all over the world, trade unions, foundations, international trading companies, etc.). The efficiency of this system is also based on a strong collective perception of the national interest. It works on the principle of ongoing coordination between social partners of economic goals to be obtained, based on an aggressive cultivation of the commercial approach and the integration of the German diaspora into the organization of market strategies. The German strategy in the Asian and Pacific rim countries exemplifies the expertise and techniques used by Germany to wield influence. For instance, following concerted discussion the government drafted in 1994 guidelines setting out German policy for this region. They explain the underlying reasons and define the main lines of action for co-operation, which are at one and the same time political, economic, cultural and technological. The players concerned are named, and therefore each one can find within the guidelines those parts that concern it. Such an analysis then provides a clear vision of the German system of influence as well as its objectives: the discreet export of the

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German model of the social market economy in order to prepare the élites of the target countries for co-operation (multiplication of cultural exchanges, especially through German foundations, creation of training institutes on the German model, university exchanges, etc.). United States Compared with these two previous models, the American system is more recent and, although powerful, until a few years ago was characterized by a lack of collective efficiency; this is illustrated by the absence of synergies between the state and the enterprises. American corporations have engaged in sharp competition in their own domestic market at the same time as they were developing methods of marketing, and later of competitive intelligence. This has had two major consequences: first, the United States has the world’s leading information market, but it is inspired by goals of short-term economic profitability; and second, there is a strategic blindness to external competition, notably from Asia (Japan and the newly industrialized countries). The national debate on the loss of competitiveness of the American economy in the late 1980s led to a major reorientation of the country’s economic intelligence system. The foundations were laid for an economic security policy, and the United States administration resolutely directed its economic policy towards the service of American enterprises. This strategy took shape when President Clinton created the National Economic Council, responsible for advising the President on all aspects of economic security, that is, American economic interests in domestic and world markets. Political will is expressed through economic diplomacy and influence networks that support American enterprises. Both the National Export Strategy and the overall orientation of technological policy establish a link between economic security and national security. The National Export Strategy

was launched in 1993. The basic principles that underpin this strategy rest on a desire for increased co-ordination between enterprise needs and the actions of national, local and international administrations, putting at their disposal a network giving permanent access to information. Ten emerging markets have been targeted and are now seen as ‘reserved economic zones’: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Turkey and South Africa. At the heart of this system, and created by the administration, lies an Advocacy Center or War Room, where experts permanently monitor the 100 biggest calls for tender worldwide and offer enterprises the necessary information and diplomatic assistance to submit competitive responses. In the field of technology, the Presidential Office of Science and Technology Policy regards the regaining of technological leadership as a major challenge for national security. The objective is to create opportunities for American companies through cooperation. Country strategies are evaluating potential markets and the kinds of co-operation that will be capable of extending market shares. Access to open foreign scientific knowledge is becoming a major goal. At the same time, the United States Government has set up national technology watch programmes, seeking to gain a better understanding of the technological level of its competitors and partners. The Japan Technical Literature Program, in particular, gives access to grey literature. This new move to serve enterprises has been reinforced by the creation of a National Information Infrastructure Program. France France would seem to be the first country to have decided on the elevation of economic intelligence to the status of a national priority, following the publication of studies by a group of experts meeting in the Commissariat Général du Plan between 1992 and

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1994 on the theme of ‘Economic Intelligence and Corporate Strategy’ (Commissariat Général du Plan, 1994). Comprising representatives of business, the administration, trade unions, universities and information professions, the working party has identified the strengths and weaknesses of the French system on the basis of a detailed analysis of the economic intelligence systems which offer the best performance. France in fact has a rich heritage in this area, and the state has always played a powerful role, at one and the same time creating economic and technical information networks (the French administrative tradition, the historical role of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, etc.) and creating supporting structures for technical progress (the foundation by Napoleon of the Society for the Promotion of National Industry). In the nineteenth century, banks and companies designed information structures suitable to support dynamic international strategies. However, this know-how was not subsequently retained, conveyed or adapted, in contrast to the situation in Germany. Despite the central role of the state and its privileged links with the major industrial groups during the Second World War, the French system remained for a long time embryonic and fragmented. The predominance of public economic, scientific and technical information networks and the limited information culture in enterprises explain the weakness of the private information market. The volumes of public information made available have proved ill-adapted to new needs that often have been inadequately formulated by companies, and in particular by small and medium-sized businesses and industries which are becoming increasingly international. At the corporate level, economic intelligence know-how resides essentially with big companies or innovative small and medium-sized enterprises in the advanced technology sectors. On a broader scale, expertise remains concentrated on ‘watch’ activities

and measures to ensure the security of existing assets. This reflects an incomplete concept of economic intelligence, in turn resulting in a failure collectively to adjust fully to the multiple facets of the world economy. This being the case, the French public authorities decided in 1995 to create by decree (Decree No. 95-350 of 1.04.95, Journal Officiel de la République Française, 4 April 1995) a Committee for Competitiveness and Economic Security that would form the heart of the French economic intelligence system. Chaired originally by the Prime Minister, who has for the present time delegated this responsibility to the Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs, this committee has seven members drawn from the worlds of industry, finance and research, and its secretariat is provided by the Secretariat General for National Defence, a government department which reports to the Prime Minister. The mission of this committee is to enlighten the Prime Minister, through its opinions, on matters of competitiveness and economic security. It advises him on the design and implementation of the policy to be pursued in this area by the public authorities. Interestingly enough, the Report to the President of the Republic, published with the decree, highlights the role of information as a ‘strategic raw material’ and the ‘determination of the state to mobilize all its energies around the great national challenge of economic intelligence.’ This movement has now been given practical content through clearly established and shared priorities: • Ongoing attention to the needs of enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, for open information and the consequent requirement to redirect public data-gathering and processing facilities. • Promotion of interaction on economic intelligence matters between public and private authorities in order to establish co-ordination and information exchange networks.

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•

Development of a community of practice through the widespread dissemination of an economic intelligence approach. In this context, educational courses are now being developed in universities and business schools. Moreover, a regional dynamic is being developed by creating a number of awareness-creation and training programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises/industries in the area of economic intelligence. The first experimental initiative on a national scale was launched in October 1995 for a one-year period in the Paris region and covered a sample of 300 companies.

European Union The European Union is the first community of states to have introduced economic intelligence as an important factor in its industrial competitiveness policy. It has drawn heavily on French experience in this area and is taking part in the thinking on the purpose of economic intelligence as a lever for the controlled readjustment of the world economic balance of power. In 1994, the European Commission published a communication entitled A Policy of Industrial Competitiveness for the European Union, in which it proposed to ‘make full use of the assets of the European Union for the exploitation of the new concept of economic intelligence, one of the major aspects of the information society’. The European Executive, under the impetus of Commissioners Edith Cresson and Martin Bangemann, went further in its Green Paper on Innovation (1995) which defines economic intelligence as a corollary of the global approach to innovation and a strategic tool for decision-making in the context of world trade. Proposed actions include recommendations for the development of technology watch and forecasting as well as economic intelligence. In this area, the authors propose the development of broad programmes of awareness-creation and training for

small and medium-sized enterprises/industries, and the networking of European innovation relay centres headed by the Technology Forecasting Institute of Seville, Spain. The creation in March 1995 of a Competitiveness Advisory Group under the President of the European Commission should ensure the necessary co-ordination of these actions at the highest level of the European Commission. China China is one of the few Asian countries where we have a description of certain facets of its national economic intelligence system, thanks to the work of Qihao Miao (1996). In the mid-1950s the field of scientific and technical information became a discipline within the Academy of Sciences. In 1956, the government created an organization to head a network of scientific and technical documentation centres: the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information of China (ISTIC). By 1958, there were thirty-three state institutes and thirty-five regional institutes in this network, and currently some 60,000 persons are working in it. The dynamism of this system can be explained by the substantial need of the state for information because of its strong commitment to an open policy and participation in the world economy. This explains the evolution of the concept of qing bao, meaning both data and open information. In 1986, the Director of the Academy of Science decided that the activity of qing bao was ‘open and above board’. Today, practices and methods have evolved to serve the goals of government policy in the areas of management and technology transfer. Chinese companies and governmental authorities are developing practices such as the consolidation of information, benchmarking, database watch and reverse engineering. The governmental system is no longer the sole source of information. Direct collection and analysis capabilities in enterprises with foreign partners and competitors are developing more widely. In particu-

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lar, a new type of information supply agency is emerging and many private information suppliers are setting up in the industrial centres. It seems reasonable to assume the gradual development and wide dissemination of these methods. In April 1995, the Society of Competitive Intelligence of China (SCIC), headed by the China Science Association, was established with the purpose of organizing university research, publishing works on economic intelligence and infusing energy into corporate practices. South-East Asia In Asia, economic intelligence is developing under the influence of American and Australian expertise in marketing and competitive intelligence, and also more informally through exposure to information management. Little information as yet is available about national economic intelligence systems in this region. In general, access to information is difficult to obtain: information gathering and processing expertise, therefore, are particularly valuable and provide important competitive advantages. An example of this can be found in Singapore, where the WYWY company gathers and processes very substantial volumes of data obtained from customers and distributors of the high-technology products which it sells, so as to determine their exact position in the markets. Taiwan has an excellent system for scientific and technical information-gathering about world markets and competition. It has well-organized sources of public or semi-public information and is able, for instance, to supply international data on technologies and management projects. Very little information is available on the Indonesian economic intelligence system. However, the creation of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Association (ICMI) in 1990 is an interesting step, its role being to bring together élites around a collective awareness of the importance of human resources as a

major factor for development. In 1993, ICMI established the Centre for Information and Development Studies (CIDES), which is a think-tank with several responsibilities: to undertake studies, to disseminate information, to create databases, to organize seminars and to monitor the promotion of a development policy, particularly in the scientific and technical fields. Partly financed by the Indonesian Government, CIDES also receives support from organizations based in Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States, to facilitate its entry into world development networks. Viet Nam, an emerging country, has designed a national development project in which access to information is defined as a priority goal. In 1993, the government fixed priorities for the development of information technologies: access to foreign technologies, training of individuals, development of ‘open systems’, and the introduction of these technologies into the sphere of socio-economic activities in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness of management. The government wishes to set up a data system suitable for use by both the state and economic players, and open to international networks. The ultimate intention is to disseminate ‘culture and information’ and join in the developing information society.

Conclusions The introduction of economic intelligence systems is clearly a matter of vital importance to developing countries. This subject was dealt with in detail by experts in the late 1970s, but did not generate any special dynamic at the time. It is true that the approach is complex because full account must be taken of development disparities between different countries, the existence or otherwise of concrete national development projects and, above all, of local information cultures. Innovation is vital in this area, but without the oversimplistic transfer of models designed in the North.

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This debate has become vital. Disparities in access to global trade are widening, and industrial and technological inequalities are aggravated by information inequalities. This twofold phenomenon emphasizes both the dependence on knowledge and the exclusion of the poorer countries. ‘Production systems based on information will increasingly marginalize developing countries and consequently exclude them from advanced manufacturing processes and world trade, so effectively increasing their poverty,’ concluded the Zambian Information Development Centre. Systems to gather and process information, if they exist at all, remain unreliable, particularly in relation to local environments. The lack of data adapted to economic and technical realities and hence to the real needs of these countries results in erroneous, and therefore costly, strategic decisions. Economic intelligence is a lever which will enable the countries of the South gradually to restore the balance of their negotiating power in the context of the overall world economic balance of power. A central theme in relations between the countries of the South and North is undoubtedly their respective understanding of their information cultures, as a way to a new form of co-operation. After all, that was one of the goals established by governments when founding UNESCO. ■■

References ASHTON, W. B.; STACY, G. S. 1995. Technological Intelligence in Business: Understanding Technology Threats and Opportunities. International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 10, No. 1. BAUMARD, P. 1996. From Informer to Knowledge Warfare: Preparing the Paradigm Shift. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Information Warfare: Defining the European Prospective, Brussels. 13 pp. BERNHARD, D. C. 1994. Tailoring Competitive Intelligence to Executives’ Needs. Long Range Planning, Vol. 27, No.1, pp 12–24.

CADUC, P.; POLYCARPE, G. 1994. Vers l’émergence de structures planétaires de domination. Technologies internationales, No. 7, pp. 3–6. COMBS, E.; MOORHEAD, J. D. 1992. The Competitive Intelligence Handbook. Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press. 197 pp. COMMISSARIAT GÉNÉRAL DU PLAN. 1994. Intelligence économique et stratégie des entreprises. Rapport du groupe de travail présidé par H. Martre. Paris, Documentation Française. 213 pp. DEDIJER, S. 1979. The I.Q. of the Underdeveloped Countries and the Jones Intelligence Doctrine. Technology in Society, Vol. 1, pp 239–53. FULD, L. M. 1995. The New Competitor Intelligence. New York, Wiley. 512 pp. HARBULOT, C. 1993. La machine de guerre économique. Paris, Economica. 225 pp. MIAO, Q. 1996. Technological and Industrial Intelligence in China. In: Global Perspectives on Competitive Intelligence, pp. 49–57. Alexandria, Va., SCIP. PANES, A. 1996. The Internet and the South. Superhighway or Dirt Track? 32 pp. (http://www. oneworld.org/panos.) REICH, R. B. 1991. The Work of Nations. New York, Knopf. 224 pp. SULZBERGER, M.; BERLAGE K. 1995. Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking (CIB) in an International Universal Bank. Paper presented at the SCIP Conference on Competitive Intelligence for Global Competitive Success, Geneva, 23 October. 17 pp. WILENSKY, H. 1967. Organization Intelligence. New York, Basic Books. 216 pp.

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Philippe Clerc is currently head of the taskforce on economic security and competitiveness at the Secrétariat Général de la Défense Nationale, an administration under the authority of the French Prime Minister. He holds degrees in political science, law and organizational science and a degree from the European College. He has worked in a private legal office and directed two firms specializing in development and international trade in Asia. As member of the French Planning Office, he was responsible for the report Intelligence économique et stratégie des entreprises [Economic Intelligence and Corporate Strategy] published in 1994, and for the Working Group whose report Politique de concurrence et politique industrielle au sein de l’Union Européenne [Competitive and Industrial Policies within the European Union] was published in 1996. He has written or edited papers on international anticounterfeiting, international trade and economic intelligence. He participates in think-tanks, expert committees and speaks in France and abroad on these topics. A member of the scientific committee of the first French specialized Master in Economic Intelligence, Mr Clerc will start teaching on this topic in 1997 at the Université de Poitiers.

Philippe Clerc Chargé d’enseignement Institut Supérieur des Affaires de Défense (ISAD) Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris II 23 bis, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs 75006 Paris France Tel: (1) 43 54 64 03 Fax: (1) 40 46 02 31

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Chapter 23 Book publishing Philip Altbach Bellagio Publishing Network, United States

B

ooks remain a primary means of communicating knowledge. They are central to providing information, entertainment, analysis and education to millions throughout the world. In 1991, UNESCO statistics – which give only a very rough impression of the real situation – indicate that 863,000 separate titles were published worldwide. There are, in addition, more than 9,000 daily newspapers and at least 50,000 periodicals that focus on science and scholarship. Despite the advent of new technologies for knowledge distribution, such as the Internet and other computer-based innovations, traditional books and newspapers are the primary source of information. Indeed, the number of titles published continues to increase steadily. This essay focuses primarily on book publishing and will discuss the nature of the publishing enterprise as well as current challenges facing publishing worldwide. Although fairly insignificant in terms of economic impact, publishing is of central importance to the cultural, intellectual and educational life of a nation. The development and dissemination of knowledge products is a matter of the utmost importance for any civilization. Technological change is having an impact on publishing that is unrivalled since the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century affected the composition and printing of books and permitted a mass market for books to emerge. Simultaneously in Europe and North America rates of literacy rose and incomes increased to create an unprecedented market for books. The strengthening of copyright, and the expansion of bookstores and public libraries, resulted from this important combination of factors. It can be argued that the end of the twentieth century is seeing a similarly profound transformation of publishing. A combination of technological factors, linked in different ways to the computer as well as to new developments in reprography, is changing the industry. Economic changes, including the multinationalization of major publishing firms

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and the linking of publishing to other knowledge and entertainment industries, are also altering the landscape of books and publishing (see Chapters 20 and 21). Books are the oldest communication technology, dating back to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of movable type in 1455 (Gutenberg is generally credited with this invention which made modern printing possible, but movable type first appeared in China around 1100 and then in Korea a half-century before it was invented in Europe, although there seems to be no relationship between these inventions). Books have many advantages: they are portable and do not require sophisticated technology for use. The technologies needed to produce books, such as printing presses and composing equipment, are widely available, not very expensive and within the reach of most countries. Similarly, paper and other raw materials needed for book production in general are readily available, although the price for the quality of paper needed for printing books tends to fluctuate greatly. New technological innovations, such as computerassisted desktop publishing and reprography, have reduced the cost of producing books in areas where these technologies are available. Books are also distributed fairly easily, and infrastructures for book distribution – through bookstores, direct mail, educational institutions and the like – exist in the industrialized world, although distribution problems remain in the developing nations. While book production requires some capital, the investment needed is relatively modest and it is possible for small publishers to get established and survive. Because of the relatively modest investment needed for book production it is possible for limited editions to be published and small audiences to be served, although publishing for limited markets inherently is not very profitable. Book publishing is feasible, although not usually very profitable, in languages used by small populations and in scripts that are not widely employed. The traditional book is a unique product

that has withstood the test of time and will remain, despite the challenge of the new technologies, a primary means of communication into the future. Our concern here is with publishing – the process of co-ordinating the various processes needed to bring a book from an idea in the mind of the author to a printed product available for distribution to the relevant audience. We do not deal in detail with printing, the paper industry, legal aspects of copyright (see Chapter 26) or the technical aspects of the new computer-based innovations in composing books. Publishing, at its heart, is the co-ordination of the multitude of activities needed to produce books. Publishers seldom own printing presses, bookshops or distribution agencies. Their expertise is in the selection and editing of manuscripts, and planning and supervising the process of transforming the manuscript into a book, and then ensuring that this product reaches its intended market. Marketing and sales are an essential part of the ‘publishing chain’. Publishing faces significant challenges at the end of the twentieth century. New technologies have transformed many of the processes of book publishing and distribution. This is true not only for composition and printing, but also for knowledge transmission itself. The Internet, for example, is being used in many different ways for publishing. Changes in the commercial underpinnings of publishing have significantly altered the traditional economics of the industry, especially through the consolidation of firms and the entry into publishing of multimedia corporations (see Chapter 21). Publishing has also become more international, not only through the export of knowledge products, but also in terms of multinational ownership of firms. We shall focus on some of the dramatic changes in publishing which are transforming the underpinnings of what was a traditional industry – a ‘profession of gentlemen’ – into the highly competitive, commercial and technological environment of the twenty-first century.

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In economic terms, publishing is of limited importance. The total turnover of the publishing industries of major industrial nations ranks below many consumer-based industries, such as, for example, breakfast cereals. Yet publishing is of immense cultural and educational importance. It is also a central element in the emerging nexus of knowledge industries that are so important to post-industrial societies. It is not surprising, therefore, that the international regulation of knowledge industries was an important and controversial part of the recently concluded negotiations that led to the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Issues relating to the piracy of knowledge products, including books, were at the heart of a highly visible trade dispute between China and the United States (see Chapter 21). The creation and ownership of knowledge products are of increasing importance because of the centrality of information and knowledge to postindustrial economies. The concept of copyright, originally intended to protect authors and publishers of books, has broadened to include other knowledge products such as computer programs and films (see Chapter 26). Copyright has emerged as one of the most important means of regulating the international flow of ideas and knowledge-based products, and will be a central instrument for the knowledge industries of the twenty-first century. Those who control copyright have a significant advantage in the emerging, knowledge-based global economy. The fact is that copyright ownership is largely in the hands of the major industrialized nations and of the major multimedia corporations placing low per capita income countries as well as smaller economies at a significant disadvantage.

Centres and peripheries in the knowledge system Books and publishing are not equally distributed throughout the world. A small number of countries

and languages dominate world publishing, creating patterns of considerable inequality in world publishing. France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States are among the top publishing countries. These nations, joined by China, Egypt, India, the Russian Federation, Spain and several others are responsible for a significant proportion of the world’s book production. A few smaller countries produce large numbers of book titles when compared to their populations. Denmark, Iceland and Israel, for example, produce more titles per capita than such major publishing nations as the United States or France. The United States, United Kingdom, France and, to some extent, Spain are especially important in world publishing, since they publish in languages used internationally, and the majority of the major multinational publishers are based in these countries. They constitute the main international centres of publishing and have considerable influence beyond their borders. A second rank of countries have active and in some cases powerful publishing industries. Germany, Italy and Japan, for example, are major publishing nations, ranking in the top ten in terms of annual title production; all three have major multinational publishers with a global reach. The largest publisher in the United States is German-owned Bertelsmann Verlag, which controls a number of major American publishers. The Italian publisher, Mondadori, is an important influence in Spanish and Latin American publishing, and such Japanese publishers as Kodansha have an international reach. The export potential for books in German, Italian and Japanese, however, is limited. These three countries have fully independent and autonomous publishing industries, although they are affected by some trends from the major world centres of publishing (for example, best-sellers from the United States often appear on the lists of these countries but rarely does this influence work in the opposite direction). A third category of publishing nations is made

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up of several large, relatively low-income producers of books. These countries tend to be more dependent on the major industrialized publishing nations, and in some cases serve as regional centres with strong ties abroad. China, India, Egypt, Mexico and Argentina fall into this category. All have strong local publishing industries and infrastructures of book production – publishers, printers, paper supplies, etc. All except China have strong markets for their books beyond their borders: Egypt, Mexico and Argentina are especially important as regional centres and have strong export markets. Egypt, for example, is the dominant publisher of books in Arabic, and the rest of the Arabic-speaking world depends on Egyptian books. Similarly, Mexico and Argentina dominate Latin American publishing in Spanish. These three countries serve as links between publishing in their respective languages and the world centres. China and India provide further variations on the theme. Their huge internal markets make them major book publishing nations. Both also have modest export markets; India, especially, exports books to other developing nations and is a major publisher of books in English (ranking third in this category after the United States and the United Kingdom) as well as in India’s fifteen indigenous languages. These countries rely to some extent on the major world centres of publishing for books to translate, and sometimes for investment capital and other resources. Much of the rest of the world is peripheral to the major centres of publishing. Most of Africa, for example, has only limited publishing capacity. Francophone Africa, especially, depends largely on France for books of all kinds, and there are only a few local publishers. With the exception of South Africa, and to a lesser extent Nigeria and Kenya, African nations produce few books and their publishing industries are largely limited to textbooks for schools. The situation is similar but not as desperate in smaller and quite low per capita income Asian and

Latin American countries such as the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Bolivia and El Salvador. For a significant part of the globe the term ‘book hunger’, coined in the early 1970s to dramatize the situation in much of the developing world, remains valid. Low literacy rates, lack of capital for investment and the absence of the basic infrastructures for publishing all inhibit the development of a successful book industry. Smaller industrialized nations also find themselves dependent in terms of publishing, since local markets are so small that many kinds of books cannot be economically published. Wealth and high literacy rates do not guarantee a successful book industry. Even countries such as Denmark and Sweden, that have a fairly strong local publishing industry, import many books from abroad. The Netherlands, which not only has a significant domestic publishing industry but is the headquarters for several successful multinational publishers, depends on foreign books to a significant extent. The publishing industry must be seen in the context of a worldwide knowledge system that is characterized by considerable inequality. Population, literacy rates, the use of a ‘world language’, income levels, the existence of publishing infrastructures and a history of active publishing all contribute to determining the strength of a publishing industry. Patterns of worldwide ownership of publishing and other knowledge-based firms, government policy and flows of international trade may also contribute to the success of the publishing enterprise in a country. Centres and peripheries exist in publishing, and these relationships help to determine the place of a nation in the world of knowledge creation, distribution and use.

Current issues Publishing faces a range of contemporary challenges that have a profound impact on the nature of the industry, and indirectly on the ways that books are

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produced and distributed. This section focuses on the most important issues affecting publishing today. The impact of new technologies Two basic technological developments are affecting publishing. The first is the reprographic revolution initiated by photo-reproduction technology. This technology has stimulated not only the ubiquitous photocopy machine, bringing challenges to copyright, but has introduced innovations in printing. Computers have profoundly affected publishing in book production, distribution and, perhaps most important in the long run, the storage and retrieval of knowledge. The reprographic revolution started several decades ago. At first, photocopying permitted individual readers easily to make copies of printed materials. This was followed by commercial enterprises making unauthorized copies of published material. The cost of photocopying machines and the cost of making copies declined and such machines became increasingly affordable. Reprographic technology was soon harnessed to printing. This permitted significant economies in printing costs, especially for limited press runs. Suddenly, it was economically feasible to print small numbers of books for specialized audiences. It became possible to print books in languages spoken by small populations. Recent reprographic advances, linked to computer composition, permit even greater economies in the production of printed materials. Presses based on advanced photocopy technology can print small numbers of books very quickly and inexpensively. It is even possible to print single copies for individual users through this technological application. This has assisted publishers in countries and regions, and in languages, which have only small markets. At first seen as a challenge to traditional publishing, the reprographic revolution was successfully exploited by publishers. Problems remain, but overall the publishing industry has accommodated to

new developments. Reprographic technology has been linked to printing to reduce costs. The challenges to the copyright system, however, were, and remain, considerable (see Chapter 26). Of greater importance to publishing than reprography is the revolution based on the computer. Traditional composition technologies have, in much of the world, been replaced entirely by computer-based composition and book design. This has revolutionized the physical design of books and led to the development of desktop publishing, a term that refers to the creation of composed text through the use of personal computers. Sophisticated software programs exist for book preparation and design. Many languages using their own unique scripts have benefited from computer-based typesetting. Computerized book design and preparation has dramatically lowered the cost of composition, and has also decentralized it. Publishers or authors now have the capacity to carry a book through from manuscript to ‘camera-ready copy’ prepared for printing. The computer has also changed business procedures relating to inventory control, billing and tracing trends in the sale of specific titles. Software programs permit publishers to reduce the cost of the business processes of publishing, allowing tasks that in earlier periods constituted a significant expense now to be performed quickly in-house. This application of computer technology has also enabled small publishers to operate efficiently in ways that in earlier times could only be done by large firms through economies of scale. Computer technology has also permitted the effective use of targeted mailing lists, specialized publicity campaigns and the like. A final and tremendously important use of computer technology is for the delivery of printed material to readers. This application of technology, linking computers via the Internet as well as other alternative means of document delivery, has profound implications for publishers. This aspect of

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computer-based technology is in a relatively early stage of use, but it will soon have widespread consequences for publishers, libraries and bookstores. It is possible to deliver documents through the Internet, and publishers are developing the technologies to supply materials this way. Some scientific journals are already distributed exclusively on the Internet, and publishers are increasingly using the World Wide Web and other electronic means to publicize books and journals (see Chapter 18). Aside from the technological challenges, a range of other problems are associated with this technology. The impact on copyright of Internet transmission remains both controversial and unclear. The means of obtaining payment are not yet fully defined. The use of library and other networks for distributing published material raises copyright and economic challenges for publishers. The problems that the new technologies create regarding copyright and financing are complex but the information industry is currently developing solutions that will permit new means of access to published material (see Chapter 26). The traditional role of the publisher in this new technological universe may change, as the definition of the book is altered and the means of distributing knowledge is linked to new technologies. Without question, the technological innovations are of profound importance to publishers and to the book industry. The control of publishing Publishing is undergoing unprecedented economic change. There is a clear trend toward consolidation in the publishing industry as large publishing firms acquire smaller ones and as media corporations move into publishing. Large publishers in the major industrialized countries have in the past two decades become giant multinational firms. Bertelsmann Verlag of Germany now owns publishers in most European nations and in the United States; Hachette

in France, Mondadori in Italy, Reed in the United Kingdom, and Elsevier and Kluwer in the Netherlands are other examples of publishers that have a worldwide presence. In the United States, for example, there were 573 mergers and acquisitions in the publishing industry between 1960 and 1989, and over half the market share is held by the top fifteen firms. Other major industrialized nations show similar trends. The multinational publishers have also moved into smaller book markets, purchasing firms and establishing branches. These firms, because of their economic and staff resources, and their global reach, can dominate publishing in many developing countries. For example, French publishers have traditionally held a powerful position in francophone Africa, and British firms are re-entering some of the anglophone African markets that they abandoned in the years following the end of colonialism. At the same time, new technologies, the development of ‘niche markets’ that had been abandoned by the large firms, and increasing specialization in the book industry have permitted small firms to survive and even prosper in a market increasingly dominated by giant multinational companies. The small publishers can make use of desktop technology, computer-based direct marketing and new printing arrangements that permit economical limited printing. This situation also has potential for publishers in small markets and in developing countries, although limited access to the new technologies hinders success in developing areas. Copyright A more detailed analysis of current copyright issues is presented in Chapter 26, but it is important to note here that copyright has special importance for book publishing at this time. While traditional copyright is more widely accepted than ever internationally, and the piracy of books is, comparatively speaking, at a lower level, technology and the multinationalization

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of publishing have created significant challenges for copyright. While books continue to be pirated in a small number of developing countries without significant publishing industries, virtually all countries have signed the main international copyright agreements, and generally observe copyright. Nations such as India, which at one time were critics of traditional copyright and engaged in some book piracy, now support copyright, in part because a local publishing industry has developed that benefits from copyright protection. Among major publishing nations, it seems that only in China is there significant book piracy, and even there compliance is increasing. Copyright, of course, protects the owners of intellectual property and sometimes makes it difficult for people in countries that have limited purchasing power and few publishing resources to obtain access to books. Copyright, in this respect, reinforces a system of knowledge inequality and creates a kind of monopoly dominated by the owners of knowledge. The copyright system works against those who have least to spend on books and other knowledge products, and those who are consumers rather than producers. We have seen a strengthening of the copyright system. Publishers in the industrialized nations are increasingly insistent on protecting their rights and their economic benefits. There is little willingness to give ‘have not’ nations special access to books, and the recent negotiations that established WTO provided special protection to knowledge products and further strengthened copyright.

The varieties of publishing It is very difficult to generalize about book publishing as it is an industry characterized by major variations. Publishers differ in size, scope, focus and orientation. However, it is worth briefly discussing several of the major types of publishing. In most countries, textbooks constitute the largest and in many

cases the dominant segment of publishing. In developing countries, textbooks form the economic basis of the entire industry, and without this market publishers would find it difficult to survive. Indeed, textbooks and other materials published for schools and other educational institutions constitute the large majority of books published. Publishers in industrialized nations are less dependent on the educational market, although textbooks are important worldwide as an economic mainstay of the publishing industry. Reference and scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing is also a major sector of publishing. Publishing in these areas is important not only because it constitutes a major segment of the market but because these books contribute to science, scholarship and knowledge. Unlike textbooks, which are in general published for use within one country, reference and STM books have a wide export market. Publishing in these areas is heavily dominated by the major industrial nations which produce most of the scientific research and which also constitute the major markets. In some countries, university presses are involved in publishing in these areas while in others private specialized publishers dominate. The publication of general books – fiction, current events, poetry, political analysis, and the like, the kinds of books sold in most bookstores, in fact – constitutes a small segment of the book market in most countries although it tends to be the most prestigious and visible. These books are important because they contribute one way or another to the cultural life of any society. There are many other segments of the book market. Publishing for children, for example, has a significant market in many countries. Here design and artwork are important, and public libraries constitute a significant source of sales. Children’s book publishing offers special characteristics from the economic, design, distribution and printing points of view. Other genres, including art books, ‘self help’ volumes and religious books,

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constitute ‘niche markets’ which have unique characteristics that require specific publishing expertise. There are many types of publishing, each facing specific conditions and all currently experiencing significant change owing to the factors discussed earlier. Patterns of ownership of publishers also vary. It has been noted that there is a trend toward consolidation in the industry, and toward the emergence of large multinational firms. There is an increasing involvement of multimedia, conglomerate corporations in publishing. Critics of this trend have pointed out that the personal element in publishing is being lost. There are also many small and specialized publishers in the industrialized countries, some of which, as we have seen earlier, are very successful in serving ‘niche’ markets. In developing countries, publishers tend to be small, undercapitalized, and less specialized since the book market is small and fewer niches are available. Many publishers were established as family firms, and in developing countries remain family-owned. The financial control of publishing firms determines the nature, direction and ethos of the firm. These patterns are in the process of significant change.

The future of the book Publishers face a future in which the traditional definition of the book is changing. They will have to adapt to the new realities if they are to survive. Books will remain an important product and a central means of imparting knowledge and entertainment. At the same time, the means of producing, distributing and even editing books are changing. Economics, technology and the increasing interweaving of the world economy are all affecting books and publishing. Publishers must inevitably be more international in their outlook. More books are being translated, although by and large books are being translated from the major metropolitan languages to languages spoken by smaller populations, and there is

relatively little translation in the other direction. The ownership of publishing firms shows similar characteristics. Major firms in the large industrialized nations expand into other parts of the world. In Africa, for example, not only are major European publishers entering the market, but better established firms with more capital from South Africa are expanding into other sub-Saharan African nations. At the same time, there is considerable scope for indigenous publishing because local publishers and entrepreneurs have the advantage of knowing national realities and are able quickly to adapt to changing circumstances. There is, without question, a rapidly changing pattern of ownership and entrepreneurship in publishing worldwide. The book is often linked to other media products, and this will have an impact on what is published and the nature of books, perhaps even changing the definition of books in the long run. Links between books and films, for example, are common, and books are often related to computer applications or CD-ROM products. Books are increasingly issued in other forms, especially CD-ROMs, adding an entirely new dimension to publishing. Publishers in the United States, Europe and Japan are occasionally bypassing the traditional book in favour of alternative high-tech formats, a trend that is likely to grow. Many feel that the extension of the concept of the book brings ‘knowledge industries’ to a new level of technological sophistication, and that this will have a positive impact on access to knowledge products of all kinds. This extension does provide a more sophisticated means of delivering knowledge and entertainment. Encyclopedias issued on CDROM, for example, have multimedia capabilities that permit the ‘reader’ to have a different experience than was possible with the traditional printed version. At the same time, the price of such electronic encyclopedias has dropped (although some of the costs in producing such multimedia products are

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higher). These innovations, however, may have negative implications for those without access to the new technologies or without the resources to produce expensive multimedia products. It is likely that we shall see diversification and differentiation as well as economic concentration in the publishing industry. The impact of the multinational multimedia corporations will continue, and there is likely to be increasing concentration of ownership internationally. Economic realities, the high cost of producing media products and the impact of WTO and other trade agreements all point in the direction of concentration. At the same time, there is scope for smaller, locally owned firms that can occupy niche markets. In this way, indigenous publishing will be able to survive in an increasingly difficult market-place. Publishers face an increasingly complex and competitive environment. They are forced to lower their costs. Editing, for example, is often done on a freelance basis, and publishers in some cases are unable to provide the editorial services once considered standard. More and more of the responsibility for book production is devolved to the author. Computer composition makes this possible, as authors are often asked to produce their books ready for printing. The book will be secure in the changing economy of knowledge production in the early twentyfirst century. Along with the traditional book, however, will be a variety of products based on the book but utilizing the new technologies for presentation as well as for production and distribution.

Conclusions Publishing, because it is absolutely essential to the cultural, scientific and educational life of nations, has an importance beyond its limited economic role. While it may be appropriate to import textiles or even computers, the production of books that directly reflect the culture, history and concerns of a

nation or people is something that cannot be left to others. Societies cannot afford to lose the ability to publish books of social and cultural importance. It is a vital part of a culture. In this respect it is different and deserves special consideration. Book publishing is a small but complex industry. It faces significant challenges from changing patterns of ownership, from changing markets and from the implications of new technologies. It is unlikely, as some have argued, that the book will become obsolete in an era dominated by computers and the Internet. Books are simply too convenient and too affordable. Books permit easy access to information. And in many parts of the world, there is little or no access to the new means of communication. The book as a cultural icon and as a knowledge product is here to stay. ■■

Further reading ALTBACH, P. G. (ed.). 1992. Publishing and Development in the Third World. London, Hans Zell. 438 pp. ——. 1993. Publishing in Africa and the Third World. Chestnut Hill, Mass., Bellagio. 212 pp. ——. 1995. Copyright and Development: Inequality in the Information Age. Chestnut Hill, Mass., Bellagio. 109 pp. ALTBACH, P. G.; CHOI, H. 1993. Bibliography on Publishing and Book Development in the Third World, 1980–1993. Norwood, N.J., Ablex. 152 pp. ALTBACH, P. G.; HOSHINO, E. S. (eds.). 1995. International Book Publishing: An Encyclopaedia. New York, Garland. 736 pp. BARKER, R.; ESCARPIT, R. (eds.). 1973. The Book Hunger. Paris, UNESCO. 155 pp. CHAKAVA, H. 1996. Publishing in Africa: One Man’s Perspective. Nairobi, East African Educational Publishers. 182 pp. DORSCH, P. E.: TECKENTRUP, K. H. (eds.). 1981. Buch und Lesen International. Gütersloh, Verlag für Buchmarkt und Medien Forschung. 737 pp. ESTIVALS, R. (ed.). 1993. Les sciences de l’écrit: encyclopédie internationale de bibliologie. Paris, Retz. 576 pp.

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GRAHAM, G. 1994. As I Was Saying: Essays on the International Book Business. London, Hans Zell. 255 pp. HOROWITZ, I. L. 1991. Communicating Ideas: The Politics of Scholarly Publishing. New Brunswick, N.J., Transaction. 311 pp. KUMAR, N.; GHAI, S. K. (eds.). 1992. Afro-Asian Publishing: Contemporary Trends. New Delhi, Institute of Book Publishing. 189 pp. PLOMAN, E. W.; HAMILTON, L. C. 1980. Copyright: Intellectual Property in the Information Age. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul. 248 pp. SMITH, D. C., Jr. 1989. A Guide to Book Publishing. Seattle, Wash., University of Washington. 268 pp. TAUBERT, S.; WEIDHAAS, P. (eds.). 1981. The Book Trade of the World. Munich, Saur. 3 vols. ZELL, H. M.; LOMER, C. 1996. Publishing and Book Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Annotated Bibliography. London, Hans Zell. 409 pp.

Philip Altbach is Professor of Higher Education and Director of the International Center for Jesuit Higher Education at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He is also responsible for the Research and Information Center of the Bellagio Publishing Network, an organization devoted to assisting publishing in developing countries. He is author of The Knowledge Context and Publishing in India: An Analysis, editor of Publishing and Development in the Third World, and author/editor of several other books on publishing and book development.

Philip Altbach Director and Professor Center for International Higher Education School of Education, Campion Hall 207 Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167-3813 United States Tel: 617-552-4236 Fax: 617-739-3638 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 24 Access to archival holdings and unique library materials Michael Cook University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

T

he period from 1988 to 1994 has been one of dramatic change and rapid but uneven development. The growth and spread of consensus on the general principles of access to archival and primary documentary materials have been remarkable. In contrast, the state of affairs in different countries and regions varies significantly, and there are enormous resource problems to be faced. Nevertheless, the outlines, or at least the principles, of a generally agreed system for access to primary documentation and the dissemination of information from it are now beginning to emerge. Technological change and the emergence of international electronic highways have begun to affect the way we see the situation, but from a worldwide point of view have not yet begun to influence seriously the way access to archival and manuscript material is provided. The potential for change here is very great, and will probably be the most obvious development during the next decade.

Appraisal of archival documents All archival and unique documents are, and always have been, subject to some kind of appraisal, and this appraisal process has, of course, been fundamental in determining what information would survive and what would be provided for use (see also Chapter 14). In the past, much appraisal has been haphazard and completely or substantially a matter of chance or, in some cases, subject to political control. From the beginning, archivists have sought to establish a general set of rules by which appraisal should be carried out. At times this has been seen as an attempt to delineate a science of appraisal. Probably few would still make the claim that selection procedures can be so objective and so exactly based on an analysis of the information world that they can be regarded as scientific in the full sense. Nevertheless, there is a consensus, expressed in most new archival legislation, that general lines of approach can be laid down. Features of this consensus are:

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•

That the total production of documentation by modern administration is so large that the great bulk of it must be destroyed – appraisal is the process whereby this destruction should be carried out in an objective way. • That a wide spectrum of human activity is worthy of being included in appraisal at the national or international levels – hence the documentation of areas such as literature and scholarship (the work of individual authors), politics (personal, central and local), government (central, regional, municipal), science and medicine (research and implementation), banking, insurance and commercial activities generally, and manufacturing industry are all to be included in appraisal and collection programmes. One result of this understanding is that the process of appraisal is no longer seen as being essentially the preserve of government agencies or of large corporate bodies. Although no longer claimed as a science, the principles on which appraisal is conducted have been developed in important new ways over the last decade or so. Traditional ways of approaching the task of appraisal were centred upon structural analysis: archivists would examine the surviving documentation and apply tests to it. These tests were to establish the value of the material in terms of its evidential or informational quality. More recently there has been a tendency to include appraisal tests based upon functional analysis. Here the archivists would be attempting to judge whether the documentation available did or did not present a true overall picture of the relevant field of activity; where it did not, they would seek to fill in the missing bits by alternative means. Another development of increasing importance has been the tendency of archivists to take into consideration the costs (both financial and in terms of informational value) of retention or disposal of the material being appraised. These changes in the principles of appraisal

have not yet been disseminated to all parts of the world, nor are they universally accepted, as yet, by the archival profession; but they are well established in the most advanced areas. Overall, it is probably true that everywhere in the world it is accepted that appraisal and collection policies should cover a very wide range of activities. The effective implementation of this perception varies greatly, of course, from country to country.

Legal framework and standards for collecting, preserving and access In 1995–96 the International Council on Archives (ICA) published the text of recent new archival legislation in two volumes of its main journal, Archivum. This reveals that in the period 1981–94, ninety-seven countries introduced new laws, or revisions of earlier laws, on the management of archives, and at least ten international, quasi-governmental institutions did so too. The weight of this legislation varied considerably, but there is no doubt that most of it incorporated generally agreed international principles of archival operation. Differences mostly concentrated upon the degree of centralization within a state structure and on the detailed control of government materials. Several features are worth reporting. New laws in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States show the application of new principles, advancing to new levels of activity and new quality standards. The most advanced of the new laws (for example those of Canada) explicitly define the right of citizens to access materials held in archival institutions, redefine the range of materials that fall within the purview of these services, and make provision for systematic appraisal. The most striking changes were in the legislation introduced by states created by the break-up of former imperial groupings. The most important of these were the republics of the former USSR. During the communist period, the archival system

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of the USSR had been extremely centralized. By 1994 the central structure (Glavarkiv) had been dismantled and replaced by new controlling authorities at the level of the constituent republics, and in some cases at lower levels as well. The reconstitution of the central archival training facility as a new University of the Humanities will doubtless have an effect on user services and on access to archives generally. The Russian Federation, under its own new legislation, is in the process of giving up the central control of archival services; the new legislation in Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine provides these countries with their own national legal framework. The states of the former Yugoslav federation show a rather similar situation. New laws in Albania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are all intended to bring their respective national systems in line with accepted international standards by allowing clearly defined rights of access not only to their own citizens but also to researchers from abroad. The new archival law in Germany reflects the union of the country after 1989, and provides for a centrally organized federal archives service, with state archives services in each of the Länder, within which a network of city and specialized archives and libraries exists. The changes that have made this possible involved an enormous upheaval in established practices and services on both sides of the former dividing line, but have been carried out with professionalism and thoroughness. The official policy of the old regimes in all the former communist countries had allowed access to archival sources for approved researchers but there had been no clear delineation of the principle on which access was based, nor on what finding aids should be open. The new legislation has sought to change this. Most countries now seem to have adopted some variant of the thirty-year rule (the delay between the storage of archival material and

its accessibility to the public), which now can be regarded as an international norm (see Chapter 12). Interesting new developments in archival regulation can also be seen in South Africa, where the regime established after the fall of the apartheid system has begun organizing the archives to support its attempt to resolve past enmities and open its society. This has led to the re-establishment, in professional terms, of the country’s leadership of the Central and Southern Africa region, a leadership that had been impossible to exercise during the apartheid years (see Chapter 11).

Bibliographic control, finding aids and descriptive standards It is clear that whatever the law may say, users cannot have access to either archival or unique library materials unless there are adequate finding aids, and unless these finding aids are openly available. It is, and always has been, a difficult and slow job to provide these aids, and it is probable that completely satisfactory finding aids will never be available for all the documentation that has to be covered. Even in countries and sites where archivists and librarians have been steadily working at the completion of catalogues, there remain substantial backlogs, and there are cases, sometimes notorious, where access cannot be given because lists are not ready or not divulged. These cases are not always confined to countries that have suffered from political control. A notable example is provided by the papers of Eamon De Valera, founding President of Ireland, which are nominally open to access but in practice are largely closed because of the lack of finding aids. As an example of the reverse situation, the papers of Dr Salazar, former President of Portugal, have been catalogued and released for research access in Portugal. Archivists and librarians continue everywhere to work at backlogs, and there are signs that eventually a substantial investment in computer equipment may improve the rate of progress.

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There is a particular problem in the countries of the former USSR, and to a lesser extent in the countries of the former Eastern bloc in Europe. Under the previous regimes finding aids were either secret or restricted to internal use. Under the liberalized regimes that have been established since 1989, these internal lists are now being progressively released for use by researchers, but their coverage and adequacy as catalogues have often been questioned. In these countries, enormous quantities of new archival materials, previously secret, have now been transferred to the archives services or have been released for consultation. It is clear that the task of drawing up adequate finding aids for all this documentation is so massive that even if there were no resourcing difficulties, the job would take a very long time. Microfilming and other external projects do little to attack the main core of the problem. An additional problem is that government bodies are tempted to sell access rights to their archive materials, or even the materials themselves, in order to obtain hard currency. This has led to a patchwork of uncoordinated releases, often through American universities. ICA, with funding from UNESCO, has begun to follow the example set many years ago by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) for the library community, in establishing description standards for the international exchange of data about archival holdings. The basic document is the International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G), adopted by the International Congress on Archives in Montreal in 1992. ISAD(G) has now been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and probably other languages. Training courses and workshops in its use have also been held in different parts of the world. The standard is minimal, but is serving as a skeleton upon which national or subject-based finding aids can be structured. For many countries and traditions this is an innovation, the first such standard that has

had any degree of penetration from the outside world. ICA is now working on the development of a standard for authority files covering the names of creators of archival holdings, whether official or corporate bodies, private individuals or families. This standard is not as yet fully accepted by the archival community – it will be debated at the International Congress on Archives in Beijing in 1996 – but it also follows in the footsteps of the library community. Another standard for the description of archives and manuscripts was developed in North America in the early 1980s: the Archives and Manuscripts Control (AMC) version of the longestablished Machine-Readable Record (MARC) bibliographic exchange format. AMC became wellestablished in the United States because it was a required format for the large public online catalogue systems, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), both of which have extensive but partial outreach capabilities in other parts of the world. It has since become more important because of its use in the project to catalogue the Vatican Secret Archives, undertaken by the University of Michigan in 1988. The opening of the Vatican Archives almost coincided with the opening of the Communist Party archives in the former USSR and its satellites. The Vatican case has a broader and more technical significance, however, because of its use of the MARC AMC standard: this standard has allowed the great mass of this historic archive to be structured and managed in a way that conforms to best modern practice. Significantly, this also marked the first international use of a previously purely American standard. A standard for the archival use of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is being developed at the University of California. If successfully completed and adopted by the archival community this standard will be of great use in under-

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pinning the use of the Internet for archival interchange (see Chapter 18). There will probably continue to be a need for international data exchange for two categories of archival and unique library materials: full text (in which the content of the documents can be displayed) and bibliographic (giving information about the existence and whereabouts of archival holdings). There have been interesting innovations in both these areas. Full-text interchange The imaging project at the Archivo de Indias in Seville, Spain, is making available the images of original documents from the Spanish discovery and administration of America from 1492 onwards. Some 10% of the holdings of this major archive are covered by the project. The images are retrieved by a separate but linked indexing system, and can be accessed remotely (although this aspect of the project still remains for the most part unexecuted). In the United Kingdom, large databases containing full abstracts of the personal papers of the first Duke of Wellington (a general in the Napoleonic wars and subsequently Prime Minister of Britain in the early nineteenth century) and the personal papers of Lord Mountbatten (Commander-in-Chief Pacific during the Second World War, and Viceroy of India) have both been made available electronically, giving access to full or almost full text. British universities also have provided bibliographic descriptions of other archives. Unfortunately, none of these have been based upon any descriptive standard or format, nor have they yet been assimilated into the new formats required by the Internet. Bibliographic interchange The wide-area bibliographic networks, OCLC and RLIN, both hold large quantities of bibliographic descriptions of archival and unique library materials.

Although based in the United States, these databases also contain materials relating to other countries and, of course, can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Since American universities and other institutions hold much important material relating to other regions, the ability of users to consult them is an important enlargement of the world’s information resources. During the late 1980s it appeared likely that these databases, or others like them, would expand to include comparable materials from other countries. This promise has not, for the most part, been realized. The failure of these projects to expand fully over the world was probably caused by a lack of resources, but also by the development of alternative, and less restrictive, media of communication, and more generally by the backlog of descriptions that could be made available.

Access to documents for research, information and private needs The idea that archives and unique documents are kept primarily so that users may have access to them spread only slowly through the world. Certain countries, such as Sweden and France, accepted early the principle of public access (subject to broad restrictions) to materials held in archival or library institutions. By the middle of the twentieth century a consensus had developed that there should be statutorily supported rights of (or at least facilities for) access. The spread of this principle received an enormous boost in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when most countries, in all parts of the world, set about revising the relevant legislation. Practical implementation of the new approach has been slower and less predictable than the acceptance of the principle. However, it is probably true that researchers now expect to be able to gain access to a wide range of documentation, and there is a growing body of literature that reports on the success or failure of such expectations. Several nations that can be regarded as being in

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the vanguard of the modern information movement have enacted Freedom of Information legislation. These laws give the public rights of access to government documents, irrespective of date or of whether they have been transferred to archival institutions. The most notable of these countries are Sweden (where the legislation has historic roots), the United States, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. The subject was discussed by the International Archive Round Table Conference held at Austin, Texas, in 1985, and one of the recommendations from that meeting was that archivists should be professionally charged with the duty of advising their governments on questions of freedom of information and of privacy. Since then, although the principle of freedom of information is still gaining ground (especially, of course, in the countries of the former communist bloc), the privacy side of the equation has come into more prominence. At the Austin meeting the areas in which privacy should be ensured were set out: personal registration details (birth, marriage, death); the health of individuals; income; criminal proceedings; professional life; political, religious or philosophical opinions; the basic documents providing statistical information (for example, census returns); questions of family honour; police matters; and information gained under promise of confidentiality. Methods used to ensure privacy include control both by regulating the transfer of relevant documents to the archives and by the operation of a phased closed period. Most countries now have data protection legislation that applies these principles to databases held on computer systems. Important principles are involved. One is that under data protection legislation it is usual to give subjects the right to insist that erroneous information about themselves should be changed. Archivists, however, must argue that there is a broader historical interest: data that are erroneous in terms of the current situation are not necessarily erroneous as a his-

torical record. In some notorious cases a conflict of interest has come to the fore, for example, where persons who have changed sex during their lifetime have demanded the right to have their birth certificates altered. Although desirable for their current rights as citizens, it is clear that to alter the certificate would be historically a falsification. It is likely that there will be further controversy on these issues in the future. Similarly, if personal information is rendered anonymous in order to promote rapid current use, this process damages its long-term historical value. There is a need to ensure that information supplied under conditions of confidentiality is preserved archivally without being rendered anonymous. In some countries, for example Australia, this question has become politically sensitive and has led to the destruction of important census material. The major event of the last decade must surely be the actual and promised release of the enormous and detailed archives previously closed because of the nature for the regimes that generated them. The release of this material has been accompanied by important upheavals in the archival administrations and library services of these countries. The attention of the world has been drawn to these events, which indeed have had considerable significance for everybody (see Chapter 12). In Germany the process of unifying the two previous republics into a federal structure included a radical reorganization of the federal archival system. The two archive administrations were brought together, with a considerable change of senior personnel. The older archival holdings had been scattered by the occupation of Germany in 1945, and these were now reassembled. The enormous archives accumulated by the apparatus of state control of the former German Democratic Republic, including secret dossiers on large numbers of individuals, were brought under archival administration and a start made on making them available for consultation.

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The full effects of research and personal access to this material have still not been realized; when the material is fully open, there may be significant effects on society. Similar results may be expected in other countries of the Eastern bloc. A particular problem in these countries was what to do with the archives of the Communist Party. Theoretically these belonged to a private organization, but in practice they contained material relating to the entire range of government activity, and reached deeply into the affairs of many citizens. For the most part, these archives have now been brought under the control of the national archives system, though the problems of creating and making available the necessary finding aids remain formidable. Interestingly, this resolution of the question of the Party archives has brought into relief the parallel problem of the archives of the Church in these countries. While the state had taken over from the churches the responsibility for civil registration, church archives still contain important demographic information, and access to them is a subject of broad interest. One particular aspect of this issue concerns the recovery of confiscated Church property, the re-establishment of monastic institutions and the specific ownership (as between different ecclesiastical groups) of buildings. There have been bilateral projects intended to assist in the preservation and accessibility of archival holdings in the former communist states. For example, the Hoover Institute at Stanford University in the United States had an agreement between 1992 and 1995 to microfilm some of the state archives in the Russian Federation. This project was very controversial and recalls similar projects in the past, such as that of Syracuse University and the archives of Kenya in the 1960s. Though they help to preserve and make accessible parts of the world’s archival heritage, it is not clear that the best way to achieve this is to remove control from the country of origin.

China, echoing its importance in world affairs, is now strengthening its impact on international archival matters, and in 1996 assumed the presidency of ICA. Despite the damage and setbacks of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, the country has made considerable new investment in the management of archives and unique documents, and has begun to attack the problems posed by a tradition of secretiveness. Archives for the period up to 1949 were opened by legislation in 1980, and there has been increasing international co-operation in archival training since then.

Human rights and rehabilitation When discussing archive collections in terms of human rights, the development of archival services in international bodies and the coming together of archival services in the countries of the European Union are both significant. The latter has been marked by a determination to recall the importance of proper archives services for democratic regimes and the rule of law, and to implement such services. An important statement made by the countries of the Council of Europe as a result of a conference in Strasbourg in 1994 included plans for the computerization of finding aids and publications, microfilming, and improving access facilities as an underpinning to the concept of a common European heritage (see Chapter 25). A particular programme was announced for the management and opening of the archives of the Comintern (the Third Communist International), and for aid to currently disadvantaged countries – a specific programme is proposed for Albania. This European statement applies principally to archives held in traditional form. Similar problems exist in connection with appraisal, preservation and access to archival material in audiovisual form. These have been the subject of international discussion and agreement in specialist forums. An example of effective co-operation is provided by Germany, where

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the national film archive is the responsibility of the Federal Archives (see Chapter 14).

Impact of new technologies The importance of computers for library cataloguing and for archive administration is clear, and several projects and events have underlined this potential in the world arena. The project for an extended international catalogue of eighteenth-century books has now been virtually completed, and is another example of the effective use of agreed formats and cataloguing standards (see above). After long delays and hesitations, the Manuscripts Division of the British Library adopted a system for computer cataloguing which has, in effect, eliminated the notorious thirtyyear backlog between the acquisition of materials and the publication of the finding aids to them. This achievement alone should give cause for optimism that in the following decades similar backlogs can be removed. The arrival of the Internet has caused a flurry of activity, and it is now possible to find on it descriptions of archive and manuscript holdings in many countries. One reason for the rush to put homepages on the World Wide Web is that, once access has been gained to the Internet by way of a provider agency (usually the archive’s parent institution), archivists and librarians are not impeded by the need to learn and adapt to detailed formats and cataloguing rules. It is a simple matter to put descriptions on the Web as free text, embellished by graphics and digital images. Comparing the structure of MARC records with pages entered using the standard Internet format, HTML, shows immediately how relatively quick and easy the latter method is, both in the technicalities of data entry and in the presentation of the material to users (see Chapter 12). The Web is itself, moreover, directly a user interface. Nevertheless, it should be added that from a worldwide point of view the computer age has hard-

ly begun for manuscripts and archives. In many of the most important regions it is not easy for archivists and librarians to get access to hardware or software, or to keep their equipment maintained to a reliable standard. When equipment is obtained, there is a shortage of relevant training. Software may have to be adapted to local conditions, and there is little or no standardization in either the developed or developing world. In some developed countries, such as Italy, Germany or the United Kingdom, archivists and related communities have attempted to develop specialized software, only to find that they do not have the resources to compete with the constantly upgraded commercial packages. In less developed areas, UNESCO’s CDS/ISIS software has been used to good effect, but here again the absence of pre-designed applications or of general standards has prevented rapid development of databases, and this despite the devoted efforts of a few trainers to extend the body of expertise. In other developed areas, for example Japan, archivists and manuscript librarians have not yet generally come into contact with computer systems. Even in the most highly developed countries there are many smaller, local, specialized or poorly supported archives and manuscript collections that have not yet seriously begun to use automated methods. ICA is now actively establishing a presence on the World Wide Web, and is supporting a project under which the national archives of key countries in the developing world will be enabled to join the Internet community. There is still no explicit standard or model for using the medium, and this remains an important training issue. Appraising, preserving and giving access to electronic records and data sets has been an increasing preoccupation in many countries. Most progress towards a technological solution to these problems has been made in North America, and from there the expertise has been disseminated. In November 1994 an important conference in Australia, ‘Playing for

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Memory of the World

the overall implementation of the programme and determines the award of the ‘Memory of the World’

Documentary heritage reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures. It is the mirror of the world and its memory. But that memory is fragile. Every day, fragments, if not entire sections, of the documentary heritage disappear for ever. To guard against collective amnesia, it must

label to the projects selected. At the national level, a committee is responsible for project selection and follow-up. A world list of endangered library and archive holdings will be a cornerstone of the programme. Preservation by means of the most appropriate

remain our aim and hope to preserve manuscripts and

techniques, ease of access and wide dissemination must

other rare and valuable archive and library material

be the hallmarks of this programme, which is to include

existing in any form, whether written, audiovisual or

not only rare manuscripts and documents from libraries

electronic, and to ensure their wider dissemination. For

and archives, but also audiovisual and computerized

this reason, UNESCO has launched a vast and ambitious

recorded material.

programme entitled ‘Memory of the World’. The twofold purpose of the UNESCO ‘Memory of

The ‘Memory of the World’ Programme has aroused great interest from the time it was launched,

the World’ Programme is to safeguard and promote the

and requests for assistance are regularly being received

endangered world documentary heritage.

by UNESCO. The task ahead is immense for this vast

The scale and structure of the programme are such that intellectual, technical and financial

world campaign to safeguard and disseminate documentary treasures in danger.

partnerships will be required. In this programme, UNESCO intends to act as a co-ordinator and catalyst. An International Advisory Committee guides

Keeps’, assembled a body of authoritative papers which is likely to serve as a structure for action in this field. These papers deal with the management of electronic archives. In the case of unique but nonarchival documents in electronic form, a body of expertise has already been developed, under the general aegis of the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST), operating through electronic data archives. One or more of these institutions can be found in most developed countries, and there is now a regular system for identifying, appraising, acquiring and making available data sets in electronic form.

For further information or comments, please contact [email protected].

In some countries, such as Sweden, this operation is strongly co-ordinated with the national archives service. In others, such as the United Kingdom, the operation is separate. Access to this material is increasingly provided remotely by way of the Internet or other networks.

Memory of the World Programme The Memory of the World Programme, initiated by UNESCO, is of central importance to the work discussed in this paper. It is aimed at preservation of and access to the documentary heritage of the world (see box). As stated in its initial document, ‘access

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facilitates protection and preservation ensures access’. The seven introductory projects include digitization of manuscripts from the cities of Prague, St Petersburg and Moscow, and from Bulgaria and the Yemen, a newspaper project in Latin America and a programme for scientific manuscripts in Turkey. A Memory of the World national committee now exists in ten countries, and it is clear that the programme will have important effects in preserving and making available specific sets of unique materials. So far these materials appear to have been chosen because they are considered particularly valuable and attractive; the real problem lies with the vast masses of undescribed and unmanageable archives, bearing intimately on the life of people, that have suddenly, in the last few years, been thrust upon the world stage. ■■

Further reading American Archivist. 1992. Special International Issue, Vol. 55, No. 1. 225 pp. DUCHEIN, M. 1983. Obstacles to the Access, Use and Transfer of Information from Archives: A RAMP Study. Paris, UNESCO. 88 pp. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES. 1987. Access to Archives and Privacy: Proceedings of the 23rd International Archive Round Table Conference, Austin, Texas, 1985. Paris, ICA. 181 pp. ——. 1995–96. Archival Legislation 1981–1994: Archivum, Vol. XL (Albania-Kenya), 348 pp.; Vol. XLI (LatviaZimbabwe, 344 pp. Munich, K. G. Saur. TYACKE, S.; VAN DEN BOECK, J.; STEENDAM, E. 1995. Archives in a Democratic State. Journal of the Society of Archivists, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 133–8.

Michael Cook trained as an archivist at Oxford University. He has served as Director of the National Archives in Tanzania (1964–66); Director of the Archival Training Institute, University of Ghana (1975–77); University Archivist, and lecturer in archival subjects, at the University of Liverpool (1968–94); and Senior Fellow in Archival Studies at the University of Liverpool since 1994. He has been a visiting lecturer in several countries, and is active in the British Society of Archivists and the International Council on Archives. He is author of Information Management from Archival Data (London, Library Association, 1993) and (with Margaret Procter) the Manual of Archival Description (2nd ed., Aldershot, Gower, 1990), as well as several other books.

Michael Cook Senior Fellow in Archival Studies Department of History The University of Liverpool 8 Abercromby Square Liverpool L69 3BX United Kingdom Tel: (151) 794 2393/2394/2396 Fax: (151) 794 2366 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 25 Preservation of archival holdings and unique library materials Hartmut Weber Baden-Württemberg Archives Directorate, Germany

The cultural heritage in archives and libraries Information, to become a part of a nation’s cultural heritage, must in some way be recorded so that it can be read, understood or further processed. As historic, artistic or literary products, archives, manuscripts and books are neither simply artefacts nor information. Like works of art or other museum artefacts, they are handed down from generation to generation. Unlike other museum artefacts, however, the basic purpose of preserving them is to ensure their instant accessibility to anyone interested in them. They are cultural materials which can be used only if handled and perused. Every age poses its own questions and constantly seeks new answers that can be found in the same sources. Writings are therefore for ever open to new questioning and interpretation and are consulted anew. The principle of preserving archives, manuscripts and print for permanent accessibility implies, however, a conflict of purpose, since the protection and immediate accessibility of cultural materials are mutually exclusive. If a cultural heritage is to be preserved under optimum conditions it cannot be accessible; if it must be accessible – and otherwise there is no point in preserving it – then the availability of unique materials for posterity cannot be ensured in the best way possible. Archives, manuscripts and incunabula must not be destroyed through use because, generally speaking, they are unique. From this stem certain obligations to protect them from wear, preserve them on a lasting basis and ensure their accessibility in the long term. The same applies to books and other forms of print produced in greater numbers; even widely distributed printed matter may become unique, and it is important not to leave its preservation to chance.

Sources of damage In general civilized nations want to preserve the written evidence of their history, literature and cul-

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tural development in the broadest sense because it promotes in their populations a sense of integration and self-identification. In a few cases, however, the cultural heritage stored in archives or libraries is deliberately jeopardized for political reasons, for example, to wipe out the traditions of ethnic or other social groups. Revolutionary movements and civil strife encourage, among other things, a complacent attitude towards the deliberate destruction of the archival heritage of one’s political opponents. Archival and library property is seriously threatened by warfare. The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which seventy-one countries are signatories, makes provision for preventive measures and the marking for safety purposes of cultural property, including archives and libraries. In most cases where the cultural heritage is threatened by political factors, however, this is less through deliberate action than by omission. The main source of risk is that conservation, as part of a political duty to posterity, is neglected and the necessary resources in the way of staff, buildings and technical equipment are not provided. Though part of the cultural heritage, archives, manuscripts and print do not survive on their own; it takes political will to safeguard and protect this cultural inheritance and to ensure that it is constantly supplemented by contemporary documents of lasting value. Like an empty house, property that is not managed and cared for by trained archivists and librarians, and not made accessible to researchers and the public at large, will deteriorate and disappear. For this reason many countries have legislation and regulations governing the protection, conservation and use of archival property. In many cases, it is also a legal requirement that at least one copy of every book or printed work be kept in an ‘archive library’. Both endogenous and exogenous factors threaten the continued existence of archives, manuscripts and print. Endogenous (mostly chemical)

sources of damage are intrinsic to the information medium itself, the way it is produced or even the material used to record the text. Exogenous sources are physical phenomena acting on the media or text from outside. Damage caused by the combined action of endogenous and exogenous factors is by no means rare. Globally, though, there is no doubt that endogenous deterioration is the worst source of damage to paper. The steep increase in paper demand since the mid-nineteenth century and the related growth in industrial paper production called for new technologies and caused a revolution in paper manufacture. Two primary factors affected the quality of paper: acid sizing with a mixture of alum (aluminium sulphate) and rosin, and the addition of cheap mechanical wood pulp to rag-based or cellulose fibre pulp. Acid paper or paper containing mechanical wood pulp ages visibly and quickly, goes yellow or brown and becomes fragile and brittle. Papers containing both acid and mechanical pulp lose their colour within a few decades, become brittle and crumble under the slightest mechanical load. In books and documents affected by endogenous deterioration the decay is gradual but unstoppable. The process can be likened to a fire, smouldering slowly and unnoticed in the storerooms, secretly destroying cultural property. Acid or mechanical pulp-based papers thus carry within them the seed of their own deterioration, as indeed do many modern information media such as nitro-cellulose film. Another endogenous source of damage stems from certain inks, including the deterioration caused by ink erosion. For example, the iron gall ink still in general use in law offices in the nineteenth century, which is wash-proof and, in particular, bleach-proof, causes corrosion aggravated by damp, even eating through strong rag paper and leaving sharply etched holes where previously there were letters or characters. The degree and rate of endogenous deteriora-

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tion are greatly affected by exogenous factors such as temperature, humidity and oxidizing or acid-forming gases. If high relative humidity and heat are both present, and the air quality is bad with a high sulphur dioxide content, destructive reactions such as the weakening of the paper are greatly accelerated. In addition, high humidity and temperatures enable fungi, micro-organisms and destructive insects to begin their damaging work. Unfortunately, paper deterioration and its consequences are not the only threat to property held in archives and libraries. Brittle and limp papers, fragile leather and parchment, splits, holes, breaks and deformations in binding are today part of the almost normal picture in the case of many old books and archives. Dirt and discoloration, marks on texts, paper turning yellow or brown and text bleaching, if they go beyond the natural effects of ageing, are alarming warning signs of the creeping decay of cultural property. The state of preservation of fragile and discoloured papyri or rice papers, inscribed birch bark from which layers are becoming detached, and palm-leaf books with their typical and increasing embrittlement and browning, give even more cause for concern. Charred documents, shrunken and hardened parchment records and wax seals, unrecognizably deformed, bear witness to war or fire damage. A large amount of serious damage, however, is of human origin. Obviously, when cultural property is picked up and handled, human incompetence and thoughtlessness are major causes of damage. The users of archives and the organizers of exhibitions, not to mention many negligent archival and library staff, need to be constantly reminded that the books and archives they deal with are not consumer goods intended to last one or two generations. In our efforts to use books, manuscripts and archives in the most comfortable and rational manner, we often fail to take the necessary care. Splits, folds, spots of fat, ballpoint pen marks, bleached ink and damaged or

deformed book spines are to be deplored, and there is no reason consciously to cause such damage. The same applies to well-meant but unprofessional repairs with adhesive tape which generally do more harm than good. Lastly the display of archives, manuscripts and printed works in exhibitions also has its dark side. Long periods under the strong lighting and severe mechanical loading required for their attractive presentation, as well as the damage often caused during transportation, leave traces on the exhibits that cannot be removed.

Assessment of the damage The damage already caused – or yet to be caused – by endogenous paper deterioration is on a global scale but, quantitatively, it can be neither calculated nor even estimated. All properties in archives and libraries since the mid-nineteenth century are susceptible to endogenous paper deterioration. Permanent paper is found to an increasing extent since the 1980s, particularly in North America, Australia and central and northern Europe, but no substantial use is yet being made of it for paperwork, books and other documents of lasting value. Surveys of European and North American archives and libraries suggest that at least 60% of the items stored in public archives are potentially subject to endogenous damage. In the case of 20%, the damage is already evident or so imminent that the items can no longer be used and conservation measures will be needed to save them from final destruction. These surveys enable certain inferences to be drawn: in countries with hot, moist climates the endogenous deterioration will advance more quickly if the archive and library storerooms are not air-conditioned; and environments with a high toxic gas content also accelerate deterioration. These inferences are supported by reports from libraries and archives all over the world. The poor state of materials is often thought to result from bad storage conditions rather than the inevitable deterioration of acid paper,

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and endogenous factors due to acid and mechanical pulp are not fully appreciated as the underlying causes of damage. It is even more difficult to reach any general conclusions regarding the amount of damage caused to archives, manuscripts or printed materials by exogenous factors. This very much depends on the way the materials have been stored over the centuries, armed hostilities and natural disasters, frequency of use and, last but not least, the resources that have been or are to be used for their protection and conservation, or even simply their cleaning. As an illustration, however, some orders of magnitude for the amount of damage can be obtained from one survey carried out in central Europe and including eleven scientific libraries and six state archives. Disregarding endogenous paper deterioration, at least 30% of manuscripts and incunabula in the libraries are damaged or seriously endangered. In the archives the figures are 7% for parchment records, 14% for seals, 18% for documents or individual writings, 54% for official books, 30% for maps and charts, and 31% for photographs and films.

Preventive measures All over the world efforts are being made to halt the creeping deterioration threatening to destroy a substantial part of our cultural heritage, the written works handed down over the last century and a half. Many national and international organizations are actively working on the conservation of the threatened property. Examples of international bodies are the International Centre for the Study of the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) set up by UNESCO, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) with its core programme for Preservation and Conservation (PAC), the International Council on Archives (ICA) with its specialist committees for preservation and image technology, and the American Commission for Preservation and Access

(CPA) with its international programme for the development and promotion of co-operation in all fields of property conservation and with the longterm aim not only of safeguarding but also of improving access to the threatened cultural heritage for research purposes. Usually a twofold strategy is adopted to overcome paper deterioration: to avoid future paper deterioration by using permanent papers for printed and written material that is to be stored in libraries or archives because of its enduring value; and to take effective measures to combat the paper deterioration that has already begun to ensure that information is not lost for ever. Today there is no difficulty in producing permanent paper that is free from the factors that have caused paper deterioration in the past, that is, free of acids or acid-generating substances and of mechanical pulp (lignin). Such papers (neutral or slightly alkaline) are made from cellulose fibre; it is also possible to obtain the latter from a non-chlorine bleach process. This kind of cellulose can be derived from lean wood, thinning or chipwood. As a protection against acid in the environment (for example, sulphur dioxide in the air) permanent papers are given a coating of at least 2% calcium carbonate. The international standards for permanent paper are laid down in ISO 9706. Incidentally, the production of such paper is advantageous both economically and environmentally, and is in tune with current paper production trends. Permanent papers should be no more costly than less durable papers of comparable quality. While the use of permanent information media and writing materials is designed to prevent future endogenous deterioration, other preventive measures serve to avoid or limit damage to objects already stored in archives and libraries and even to extend the life of documents affected by endogenous deterioration. The objective of these preventive measures is to create an environment for the objects

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under threat in which ageing processes are checked and exogenous sources of damage kept, as far as possible, at a distance. This is achieved by appropriate air-conditioning for the archive and library holdings in secure and properly equipped storerooms, the first rule of thumb being to have everything as cool and dry as possible, and the second to avoid sharp changes in temperature and humidity. Target levels for archival documents and books, for example, are 16°C to 20°C and 45% to 55% relative humidity in the storeroom. These conditions also give wide protection against mildew and other micro-organisms and pests. The air should be free from toxic and oxidizing gases and from dust. Provision should also be made for adequate frequency of air change. Lengthy exposure to light, and in particular daylight or artificial light with a high ultraviolet content, should be avoided. Keeping both the storeroom and the articles themselves clean is another effective measure. All property, excepting books with their binding intact, needs non-acid protective packing using materials meeting the criteria of ISO 9706. Details of the special packing for photographic materials are laid down in ISO 10214. The storeroom equipment and the shelves in particular should not be the source of any harmful mechanical or chemical action. Necessary precautions must be taken against risks of fire, flooding or other disasters. An international standard on the above-mentioned preventive measures is under preparation (ISO WD 11799). Under the heading of preventive measures, of course, must also come effective conservation management which ensures that proper care is taken in the removal and return of books and archives, their transport and in particular their use in reading rooms. Care is also required for items on display: technical and organizational measures must be taken to protect them against damage and wear. Timely protective filming of endangered archives or manuscripts is one of the most effective and yet most economic measures of all.

Restoration and conservation measures Restoration of materials in archives and libraries is by no means the preferred objective. The primary aim must be to prevent damage by employing the above preventive measures. But if damaged cultural property has to be repaired it needs to be done professionally. For the restoration of archive and library contents, specialists have, with the help of scientists, drawn up a number of principles designed to retain as far as possible the original substance and appearance, and to avoid clumsy renovation or reconstruction. For historians and literary specialists, and also for researchers in the fields of binding and codices, inconspicuous external and formal marks are significant. They are often the only pointers to an object’s origin, its legal validity or specific history, and should not be destroyed or disturbed by the craftsman. The principles of restoration may therefore be summed up as follows. The materials and tools used must be shown to be harmless. Only identical or similar materials to the originals should be used. The work must be reversible so that the object’s state prior to the work can be restored at any time. The object’s appearance must be retained. What is done must be recognizable and the restorer must explain fully what has been done and how it has been done. Lastly, the work must be described in writing and if necessary documented by photographic means. With the help of this documentation, future generations of restorers and scientists will be able to reconstruct what has been done with total clarity. An effective method, though hardly falling within the scope of this study, is ‘dry’ cleaning in which brushes or, in obstinate cases, eraser powder, rubbers or erasing machines are used to remove the dirt of centuries from paper and parchment. Carefully handled, a surgeon’s scalpel can be used to remove encrusted dirt or old glue traces. To deal with dirt or spots that cannot be removed in this

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way, paper should be carefully moistened to dissolve the dirt or else washed in the normal way. Restorers do not like to use bleach or other chemicals as solvents. Water is little short of miraculous for the restoration and conservation of paper. Water cleans, washes out harmful residues and can be used to introduce buffer substances to protect paper from endogenous and exogenous acid attack. Common media like black printing ink and iron gall ink survive wet cleaning without any problem. Other inks, such as Indian ink and stamping inks, have to be fixed before washing. After washing, papers are given fresh strength by sizing and then dried and pressed. Water treatment can be made particularly efficient using a programmable transport system to time the immersion in a treatment bath of large quantities of paper suffering from the same kind of damage. The moistening of water-sensitive papers such as glassine or papers printed with sensitive inks has to be done under careful control. Only moisture in the form of vapour, not liquid, can be allowed to act on the sensitive object. The wonder-material that produces this effect is the micro-fibre Gore-Tex, well-known in the weatherproof clothing industry. For books and binding, where costly breakdown into individual leaves before treatment is to be avoided, de-acidification under spray is used. In this technique the buffer substance is applied to the paper in a very fine spray. Splits in paper are made good with wheat paste, where necessary using Japanese paper, a very thin and transparent but strong handmade paper. Holes and damage to edges and elsewhere can also be patched up by hand with wheat paste and torn Japanese or stronger handmade paper, but the more elegant and at the same time more rational technique is leaf casting, in which holes and other defects are made good with fibre deposited from a suspension of pulp in water. Sophisticated equipment is available

to the restorer for this technique and gives excellent results. Another efficient method for repairing holes in paper or strengthening brittle or fragile papers is paper-splitting. With this technique, already in use in the mid-nineteenth century, damaged paper only a fraction of a millimetre thick is split in two so that back and front become two separate leaves. Next a very thin but strong paper is glued in between to form a support. Additives can be included in the adhesive in the form of alkali buffer solutions. In this way the strength of the paper is restored or even increased with no change to the original surface, back or front. The structure of the paper is also unchanged and even watermarks remain visible. Paper-splitting, therefore, has clear advantages over use of lamination or Japanese paper, which restorers, for good reason, prefer not to employ if at all possible. The treatment of parchment manuscripts, records or binding is difficult because the reaction of this intrinsically permanent animal skin to moisture and heat is more acute and unpredictable than that of paper which is more homogeneous. Smoothing and stretching distorted parchment, here too using controlled wetting, calls for much experience and patience. When repairing splits or holes in parchment, restorers prefer flexible bonding to gluing over the whole area because old and new parchments behave differently and unpredictably. In such cases sewing techniques are used in which special types of stitching ensure that the repaired parchment can stretch unequally without warping. Small defects or holes in parchment can be corrected by a method similar to leaf casting, with a parchment fibre suspension. Seals made from beeswax and additives, used to certify the validity of official records and contracts, are frequently dirty, but in many cases small or large fragments also are broken off, possibly as a result of mishandling when in use. The main treatments in seal restoration include the manual replacement of

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damaged parts with pure beeswax, the repair of damaged edges and the making good of breaks in the impression. Fragile seals are dealt with in a conservation unit where tiny cracks and channels are closed under a vacuum after careful heating. Finally, the restoration of bindings calls for demanding manual work specific to each repair. A thorough knowledge of the history of binding materials and techniques in use since the Middle Ages is necessary. If the repair is more than a matter of gluing down a loose spine or reconstructing a book clasp that has gone astray, the volume has to be patiently stripped down to its different constituent parts. The cover has to be removed from the book block and the block treated on its own. The book’s condition is carefully noted so that the assembling and binding techniques used centuries ago can be reconstituted with perfect accuracy. The covers are repaired separately. This often involves dealing with valuable old wood boards. Next the book is inserted in the cover and the ribs pinned or glued as decided by the original bookbinder several centuries earlier. The headband is not glued but where necessary it is carefully hand-stitched. This is the point at which restoration inevitably becomes reconstruction. The above brief description of a few essential methods for the restoration of archive and library property is sufficient to make it clear that such work is time-consuming and demands well-trained, qualified people, thereby making it a very costly process. Given the immeasurable quantity of damaged archives, manuscripts and books, and the high cost of repair, restoration and conservation, methods have to be efficient and, wherever possible, machinery should be used. After more than twenty years of research and development, industrial methods can now be employed to control endogenous paper deterioration. ‘Mass de-acidification’ allows books and bound volumes of official papers to be treated in large batches. The alkali-buffer process extends the remaining life of acid paper by a factor of three.

However, since mass de-acidification is not so far associated with any increase in strength worthy of the name, it is only suitable for relatively new papers whose strength has not yet suffered any serious diminution. Up to now only one mass conservation method is available for improving paper strength: a wet process that fixes inks, washes out the products of decomposition, provides an alkali buffer and adds a coating of size. Unfortunately this machine method is only suitable for treating individual pages one by one. In the restoration field, incredible though this may sound, paper splitting is the only mechanized and automated method. The German Library in Leipzig has a machine that copes with the difficult task of paper-splitting, glues in the strengthening paper, presses and dries the page and will soon, it is hoped, also automate sheet separation and trimming.

Conversion as a conservation measure Along with the preservation of originals, the conversion of damaged or endangered documents is another conservation process. The specific nature of archives, manuscripts and unique printed works calls for graphic conversion and not simply a coded transfer of the text. The graphic conversion of endangered archive or library objects to substitute media for preservation purposes and/or as a permanent replacement for decaying documents requires systems that can ensure an optimum quality of reproduction, long-term durability of the conversion medium and a high level of cost-efficiency (see Table 1). Microfilming has become the most usual method to meet all these criteria. It is a highly economic and at the same time efficient conservation method. Used at first for preservation purposes, it is a life-extending measure saving endangered books or documents from wear. The originals stay in the optimum climatic conditions of a safe storeroom while the user is provided with photographic reproductions. If this does no more than avoid damage due to

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Table 1. Future prospects for various archival information media Information medium

Parchment

Years in use

Type of storage

Life expectancy in years

Long-term compatibility

Yes

1 200

Directly readable

>1 200

Handmade paper

700

Directly readable

>1 000

Yes

Photographic film

150

Directly readable

300–1 000

Yes

Magnetic tape

50

Machine readable

30

Uncertain

Diskettes

20

Machine readable

30

Unlikely

Optical-electronic

15

Machine readable

30–50

Unlikely

use on one single occasion, the cost of microfilming, totalling considerably less than that of restoration and conservation, is already recovered. But in many cases microfilm can also fully take the place of endangered originals. Microfilm is an economic storage medium that meets not only the high demands of scientific research regarding quality of reproduction but also the strict durability requirements of a conservation strategy. With modern equipment, most of it semi-automatic, large quantities of endangered books or archives can be recorded in black and white or colour in a relatively short time. Copies of these films can be made for users in practically any number. In this way the microfilming of unique historic documents helps not only to protect the originals but also to improve accessibility for researchers or interested members of the public. Microfilming still retains its place despite the appearance of new digital media. Obviously the object of conversion must be to replace problematical information carriers such as brittle paper by more reliable media, not ones that cause yet more problems as time goes by. Compared with electronic image storage, microfilm, using a technique invented over 150 years ago, offers the advantage that the information in analogue form is continuously accessible to the human eye. In principle microfilm systems are not likely to undergo any basic technical change and are compatible with the new digital sys-

tems. Film can be scanned more efficiently than the photographed originals. So in an information world in which nothing ages as rapidly as high-tech systems, microfilm is the ideal upwardly-compatible storage medium for the long term. To that extent microfilming endangered documents is still the right answer. To interrupt microfilming projects and switch to long-term digital storage for conservation purposes would be short-sighted. Image digitizing of endangered archive material giving maximum quality of reproduction (resolution, greyscales and colour), as required in particular for scientific research, is not yet possible at acceptable cost: the necessarily high storage capacity requirements of such image systems will continue to incur relatively high costs for processing, storage and distribution (including networking). The permanent accessibility required cannot be ensured either by digital storage media with their limited life or by the long-term availability of compatible systems on which to view them. The hardware and software components of electronic image storage systems are hardly standardized and could be affected by rapid technological change. The innovation cycles of the hardware will have a shorter life than those of the optical-electronic storage media, and little heed will be taken of the archival need for long-term technological compatibility between emerging generations of systems.

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Responsible use of digitized storage must therefore make provision for continuous conversion of machine-readable data to keep abreast of hardware/software innovation cycles, and for the cost involved in so doing. These are incomparably higher than the costs of microfilm systems, which require only relatively simple long-term storage facilities and equipment. The high-quality digitization of the huge quantities of data necessary if all materials under threat of deterioration are to be included is, for cost reasons alone, inconceivable. It would also be uneconomic given documents’ relatively low frequency of consultation, because they would probably have to be converted several times (to take account of technical innovation) before there was any demand for them. Users’ acceptance of microfilm, or archive and library materials reformatted in other ways, depends mainly on quality of reproduction, readability and representation of halftones and colours, layout and the quality of the accompanying user documentation. Microfilming is highly developed. High-quality, semi-automatic microfilm cameras and automated developing equipment are available that guarantee results in conformity with the international standards (ISO 6199) which are very comprehensive in this field. Readers and reader-printers are available for rollfilm and microfiches that are very luminous and of high optical quality. The conversion of damaged or endangered archive and library materials can only be an effective conservation measure if the use of microfilm is promoted by the provision of the necessary facilities in libraries and archives. With the economic viability and guaranteed future of microfilm as a storage technique safely secured, however, archive offices and libraries should not reject the digital world. Secondary conversions in digital form can offer completely new standards of accessibility via hypertext applications or other forms of automated retrieval and thus attract new types of users. But that means additional costs.

Selection of materials and methods Archival materials and the unique works kept in libraries are already there because of the value placed on them and are, by definition, of lasting worth, meriting permanent conservation. But priorities have to be set and decisions taken on whether to keep the originals or to convert, and on what is the most effective conservation method in each case. A major consideration is cost-effectiveness. Criteria for determining priorities in the choice of materials include the nature and degree of damage, and frequency of use. Preventive measures are preferable because the prevention of damage is the most effective and at the same time most economic way of preserving materials. Effective damage prevention measures need to be taken as early as possible, and the same applies to preservation microfilming, which should be done while the graphic information is still complete. Preventive measures, however, are also an essential preliminary before taking steps to prolong the life of endangered objects or to repair damage that has actually occurred, whatever their cost. The major investment involved is only justifiable if the objects are afterwards kept in an environment contributing to their permanent conservation. The first decision, whether to keep originals or to convert, is technical. The central consideration is the intrinsic value of the objects as determined by their formal external characteristics, which cannot be retained in image form. Archives, manuscripts and printed works that are intrinsically valuable must in every case by kept in their original form. In other cases graphic conversion is generally a much less costly alternative. The low cost of conversion, particularly in view of the normal shortage of resources and the problem of numbers, argues for filming the maximum quantity possible so that as large as possible a share of resources then can be devoted to the far more costly preservation of intrinsically valuable cultural objects.

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Table 2. Conservation, restoration and conversion in relation to damage and effect.

Acid papers, relatively recent, strong and easy to use

Mass de-acidification and/or microfilming Wet combination treatment (de-acidification + strengthening) and/or microfilming

▼

Mechanical damage, ink degradation, strength affected

Treatment

▼

Rag papers, permanent papers from chemical pulp, strong, no damage

Material under threat of endogenous deterioration

▼

Permanent material

Restoration, e.g. paper-splitting and/or microfilming

Acid papers and papers containing ground wood, strength impaired but still usable

Acid papers and papers containing ground wood, strength more badly affected or damaged, not usable

▼

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The choice between the various methods available for the conservation of originals depends on what the damage is, how far it has gone and the effectiveness of the techniques available (see Table 2). In making this choice archivists and librarians need to work hand-in-hand with restorers and scientists. All life-prolonging measures have to be harmonized one with another. However, the result of this co-operative effort will be determined by the weakest link in the chain, a fact lending central importance to preservation management. Creative management must ensure that conservation is made part of existing technical responsibilities. The right thing to do and how the aims of conservation should be embodied in the daily routine need to be communicated to archivists and librarians during initial and subsequent training. The irreversible process of deterioration of cultural materials cannot be halted with money alone, particularly in economically hard times. Knowledge, creativity and purposeful action are also needed. ■■

Further reading CNC NATIONAL PRESERVATION OFFICE. 1992. Expert Meeting on Conservation of Acid Paper Material and

the Use of Permanent Paper, December 1991, The Hague, Proceedings. The Hague, CNC. 119 pp. DE PEW, J. N. 1991. A Library Media and Archival Preservation Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif., ABCCLIO. 441 pp. FORDE, H. 1991. The Education of Staff and Users for the Proper Handling and Care of Archival Materials: A RAMP Study with Guidelines. Paris, UNESCO. 39 pp. GIOVANNI, A. 1995. De tutela librorum. La conservation des livres et des documents d’archives. Genève, Les Éditions IES. 368 pp. GWINN, N. E. (ed.). 1987. Preservation Microfilming: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists. Chicago, American Library Association. 210 pp. HENDRICKS, K. B. 1991. Fundamentals of Photograph Conservation: A Study Guide. Toronto, Lugus. 560 pp. INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES. 1989. Proceedings of the International Symposium: Conservation in Archives, Ottawa 1988. Paris, International Council on Archives. 310 pp. KÖRMENDY, L. (ed.). 1989. Manual of Archival Reprography. Munich, Saur. 223 pp. MANN, M. 1994. Bestandserhaltung in wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken. [Preservation in Research Libraries]. Berlin, Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut. 266 pp.

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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. 1986. Preservation of Historical Records. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. 108 pp. SCHWARTZ, W. (ed.). 1995. Bestandserhalt durch Konversion: Mikroverfilmung und alternative Technologien. [Preservation through Conversion: Microfilming and Alternative Technologies]. Göttingen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. 208 pp. WEBER, H. (ed.). 1992. Bestandserhaltung in Archiven und Bibliotheken [Preservation in Archives and Libraries]. Stuttgart, Kohlhammer. 170 pp.

Hartmut Weber studied history and German literature and is now Chief Archives Director and Permanent Representative of the President of the Baden-Württemberg (Germany) Archives Directorate. He trained as an archivist and worked in various jobs in the State Archives and in the Land Archives Directorate, and since 1988 has been responsible for the implementation of the BadenWürttemberg special programme for the preservation of endangered library and archives properties. He is a member of the joint Federal-Land Paper Deterioration Working Party and various national and international specialist bodies including the German Research Society’s Preservation Subcommittee, the Mass De-acidification Advisory Board and the Committee on Image Technology of the International Council on Archives. Dr Weber teaches at the Marburg Archives School and in the Restorer Training Department at the State Academy for Fine Arts in Stuttgart.

Hartmut Weber Direktor Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg Eugenstrasse 7 70182 Stuttgart Germany Tel: 711-212-4272 Fax: 711-212-4283 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 26 Copyright in the electronic age Charles Oppenheim De Montfort University, United Kingdom

I

t is difficult to define intellectual property, yet this important concept underlies many of the operations of libraries, information units and archives. A useful starting-point is that ‘intellectual property’ comprises all those things that come from the human intellect, whether they are ideas, inventions, words (fact and fiction), music, theatre or art. This would include books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives, databases (whether online, CD-ROM or delivered by other mechanisms), material on the Internet, individual items in a database, computer software, and even inventive pieces of hardware that are subject to patent coverage. Lawyers view intellectual property more precisely. There are certain clearly defined types of intellectual property enshrined in different pieces of legislation, such as Patents Acts, Trade Marks Acts, Copyright Acts and Registered Design Acts. In each case, the people who drafted the laws and the lawyers who use them recognize that intellectual property, like real (physical) property, can be mortgaged, sold, rented and passed on to heirs and successors. As with other types of private property, the owner has rights to prevent others from making use of the property without permission. The owner of intellectual property has certain rights (that vary according to the type of intellectual property) preventing third parties from making use of that property without permission. If a third party does make use or copy without permission, that party has infringed the law and can be sued for the damage caused. Most intellectual property disputes, though, never reach a court. The matters are either resolved amicably (frequently by contracts), or minor infringements are ignored because (very often) the owner of the intellectual property does not feel confident enough – perhaps through lack of funds or lack of certainty about the outcome – to challenge the supposed infringement. Intellectual property revolves around games of bluff.

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Intellectual property represents the fruit of an individual’s effort or intellectual creativity. Is it right or proper that he or she should be able to prevent others from exploiting this fruit by, for example, copying? It seems reasonable for two reasons: first, the absence of such protection would discourage creativity and thereby both cultural and technical development; and, second, it seems natural that people should enjoy the economic or other fruits of their labours. However, counter-arguments can be advanced that monopolies are inherently unfair, or that humankind should have the maximum access to information and all other fruits of labour for cultural, scientific or economic benefit. Monopolies, it is argued, distort trade and one cannot make progress unless one knows everything that has been done before. Thus there is a fundamental tension in intellectual property, one which governments can (and do) influence by means of the laws they pass. It is worth noting that there is very little in the way of hard evidence to suggest that the absence of intellectual property rights damages creativity or industry. One might identify certain countries that have weak copyright legislation or ignore the laws they have, and point to their lack of original creations, but that may just as easily be attributed to their lack of educational or other infrastructure. In the nineteenth century, the Netherlands abolished temporarily its patent system, and there is little evidence that its local industry or balance of payments suffered as a result. None the less, the assertion that intellectual property helps encourage invention and ideas, and thereby economic and technical progress, seems intuitively reasonable; combine it with the moral argument that individuals and organizations deserve to have their labours protected and rewarded, and it is difficult to argue against the general principle of allowing intellectual property rights. There are many types of intellectual property, with different ‘strengths’ of protection. These differ-

ences are reflected in the penalties for infringement and the different tests and hurdles that one must overcome if one is to protect one’s intellectual property. These range from no formality at all (for example, copyright in most countries is automatic by the mere act of creation) to a long, expensive and difficult legal procedure (such as getting patents, which in most countries involves many forms, paying substantial fees and undergoing detailed evaluations of the invention. Also, in practice, the monopoly rights are hedged with safeguards. Such procedures exist because governments in free-market economies are reluctant to allow legalized monopolies without some means of preventing abuse (for example, an intellectual property owner charging outrageous prices or deliberately producing small quantities). These safeguards include a limitation on the retention time of intellectual property rights, or, more drastically, permitting or even encouraging compulsory licences. With a compulsory licence, owners of intellectual property must grant a licence to a third party, whether they like it or not, to allow third parties to use that intellectual property. A third type of safeguard is to allow a limited amount of copying under restricted circumstances – a good example is ‘fair dealing’ under British or American copyright law, or exceptions from copyright protection (as in many European countries).

Copyright Copyright is by far the most important type of intellectual property that librarians, information scientists and archivists will meet in their working lives. It protects the results of an author, artist or other creator’s intellectual labour, skill and judgement expended in the creation of an original piece of work, whether literature, music, a painting, a photograph, a television programme or whatever. Different countries apply different tests in order for copyright to be enjoyed. In a few countries with an AngloSaxon legal tradition, emphasis is on ‘the sweat of the

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brow’, in other words, sheer hard work should be rewarded even if the creation is not very intellectually profound (although it must still be new; in most countries, emphasis is on intellectual creativity, and mere hard work is not enough to justify copyright). This can lead to certain works enjoying copyright in some countries but not in others. In virtually every country, copyright is an automatic right – you do not have to register with some central authority, and indeed even the © symbol is not necessary, although for certain purposes it is convenient. Equally, remarks at the beginning of books along the lines of ‘All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, recorded or otherwise reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, etc.’ are not necessary to gain copyright protection, and indeed they have no validity in law. The local Copyright Act decides what may or may not be reproduced or photocopied, and not a statement in the book. More than one individual or organization can enjoy the copyright of the ‘same’ item if they independently created the same item without prior knowledge of the other’s efforts. In a majority of countries the author can only be an individual, but in some countries authorship can be attributed to an individual or an organization; in the latter case, an employee who creates something as part of his or her normal duties passes authorship and ownership of the copyright to the employer. This raises interesting questions in the case of freelance journalists, abstractors or photographers working for newspapers. The copyright owner has the right to prevent others from copying, selling, hiring out, performing, broadcasting, amending or deforming the work. These acts are the so-called restricted acts, a term frequently found in legal texts on copyright. The skill, intellectual labour and judgement of the author are protected irrespective of the form in which the product appears. A piece of text originally handwritten is

protected from reproduction as typescript or in a machine-readable database. International treaties Copyright law is subject to international treaties, the most important of which are the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. These allow for basic minimum laws in all countries that are party to the particular treaty, and allow for reciprocal protection for nationals from different countries, so that, for example, American citizens enjoy the same protection under United Kingdom copyright law as British citizens. The crucial factor, as established by these conventions, is not where the material was created, but where the alleged infringement took place. For example, if a foreign work was illegally used in the United Kingdom, the infringer will be sued and punished in accordance with the British Copyright Act. Similarly, if I download in the United Kingdom data held on a computer in the United States, then it is British law that applies, not American. However, applications of this principle in an internationally networked environment raise particularly awkward problems. What if I, in the United Kingdom, send instructions to a computer in the United States to copy a large body of machine-readable data to a computer in Argentina? Let us imagine that by all reasonable tests in British and American law, I have infringed, but there is no infringement in Argentinian law. Whose law applies? The data neither start nor end in the United Kingdom. Only my instructions came from there. Yet the owners of the Argentinian computer knew nothing of my instructions to add data to their computer. This may be significant because, say, the law in the United States may allow for far higher damages than British law, and, by the look of it, a copyright owner going to an Argentinian court would be foolish as there was no infringement under Argentina’s law. There is considerable debate at national and international levels, and no agreement, as to whose law would apply.

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In a networked world, there should be a single world law on copyright, and many have argued for it. Such a law is not likely to take effect – ever. What is protected, and for how long? In most countries, literary works, dramatic works, music, artistic works, sculpture, sound recordings, films, and television and radio broadcasts are protected. All are of potential interest to the information profession, but the most important are literary works, artistic works and multimedia. Details of the types of work that are protected and the protection afforded to them can be found in standard legal textbooks. However, one key characteristic is that there is no copyright over a fact. It is a fact that water boils at 100 °C; it is a fact that the capital of the United Kingdom is London; it is a fact that Steve Harries wrote an article entitled ‘The Potential of Information Networks for Library and Information Science Education’ in Online and CD-ROM Review, February 1995, pp. 13–16. Anyone is free to reproduce any or all of these facts. There is, however, a special type of literary work called a ‘compilation’, known in some jurisdictions as a ‘collection’. This is a collection of works, each of which may or may not be subject to individual copyright – a good example is a bibliography or an abstracts service. The collection or compilation has in many countries of the world its own copyright by reason of selection and arrangement of its content, or because skill and effort were expended in making the collection. Typically, copyright in literary works lasts for fifty to seventy years from the end of the calendar year when the author died. If the work is anonymous, or if a book (for example, an encyclopedia or dictionary) has been created collectively, as instructed and financed by a publisher, then the term of protection is fifty to seventy years from the end of the calendar year when the material was first published. The definition of ‘published’ employed in many jurisdictions is based on the old days of print publi-

cation, and takes no account of the realities of the networked age. Is, for example, a scientific article that is placed on a server and is available to a small number of users on a network ‘published’? Is an e-mail message sent to one person published? Is an e-mail message sent to 10,000 people published? There are no clear answers to these questions, yet the question of ‘publication’ is crucial to many aspects of copyright law. In particular, only published works may be freely used for certain purposes expressly mentioned in the law or under the fair use/fair dealing doctrines. On 29 October 1993 the European Commission passed a Directive (93/98/EEC) to extend the life of literary works within European Union countries to seventy years, and this may initiate such a trend worldwide. There is a particular problem regarding publication and the lifetime of databases that constantly change, for example, have new records added and perhaps old records deleted. What criteria of publication should apply to and what is the lifetime of such a database? Does the entire database gain a new life every time a single change is made, and therefore does its copyright last for ever? The rules should not vary from country to country. Fair dealing/fair use There are a number of important exceptions to the rule about not being able to copy, the most important one being ‘fair dealing’ in the United Kingdom (a virtually identical concept in the United States is termed ‘fair use’). This is a defence against an infringement action, and relies on the argument that an individual made a copy (or, under certain circumstances, even multiple copies) of not too substantial a part of a literary work and that the copying did not damage the legitimate interests of the copyright owner. You can only use fair dealing as a defence if the copying was for one of the purposes specified in the local legislation. Typically, national legislations

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will permit fair dealing/use for one or more of: private research; commercial research; private study; criticism and book reviewing; reporting current events; and educational purposes. Persons wanting the copy should make it themselves, or someone else, such as a friend or colleague, may be authorized to make the copy on their behalf. In many countries, librarians and information officers are also entitled to make copies on behalf of a patron. Fair dealing applies to books, journal articles and databases equally. There is a misconception that fair dealing does not apply to electronic databases, but in fact it takes no regard of the medium. Reproduction Rights Organizations (RROs) In a number of countries, RROs are a well-established part of the copyright scene. These are bodies, typically owned in all or in part by publishers’ representatives, that have the authority to issue blanket licences to organizations so that they may photocopy copyright materials in excess of the legally permitted limits – for a fee, of course. A licensing scheme is a scheme that allows you to do things normally not permitted, for example to make multiple copies or to take copies or an entire book. An RRO licence gives you permission to copy virtually all publishers’ materials. The RRO will provide a list of those publishers who refuse to be part of the scheme, and in those cases you may not copy beyond what the local Act permits. Few RROs have the authority to negotiate electronic copying rights.

The electronic age and copyright Databases Under national copyright laws, there is a tendency to consider databases, whether comprising words or numbers, as ‘compilations’. A ‘compilation’ is typically a collection of individual items that may or may not in themselves merit copyright protection.

However a national law defines ‘compilation’, the same ground rules apply: the author must have made intellectual efforts by collecting, selecting and arranging its content and, therefore, created something that is original. There is an implication in many jurisdictions that if the collection is totally comprehensive (in other words there was no skill in selecting the individual items) and if there is no skill in the arrangement (no addition of keywords or indexing terms), then such a compilation should not justify copyright protection. These factors should apply just as much to print products as to electronic products (is a printed telephone directory, in ‘obvious’ alphabetical order and where each record is a fact rather than a literary work, a compilation worthy of copyright protection?). This question was tested in the United States (in the Feist case). The Internet and copyright E-mail messages, material loaded onto ftp (file transfer protocol) sites or World Wide Web servers, and anything else put on the Internet are copyright. Just because they are widely available free of charge does not change the situation. Most authors of such materials are probably only too happy for their material to be reproduced and disseminated; none the less, the material is still copyright and should be respected as such. Therefore one should be careful about copying such material, for example forwarding it to someone else. Such copying is only a problem if the person who owns the copyright loses income as a result of the infringement. Internet URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), e-mail addresses and so on are facts, and can be copied. Compilations of URLs or e-mail addresses are protected by copyright, just as are Internet indexes such as those created by Yahoo! and FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) collections on Usenet newsgroups. A World Wide Web homepage is copyright, and to copy it for use as the basis of another homepage is clearly copyright infringement, and may

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involve infringement of trade mark rights (another form of intellectual property) if the Web page included some device or logo that is a registered trade mark.

working of images should ensure that no one is capable of amending the digitized image.

Moral rights

Electrocopying is the term for the conversion of printed materials into machine-readable form using document image processing and optical character recognition (OCR) technology. In my view, it should be considered infringement of copyright to convert, in other words to copy electronically into machine-readable form and to store on a database, items owned by third parties without prior permission, at least when it is done for further transmission or distribution of the material. Scanning of material in preparation for sending down a network is ‘adaptation’ of the work, and therefore if it is done without permission of the copyright owner it constitutes infringement. Sending the material via a telecommunication network, although virtually instantaneous, is another use of the protected material and therefore should be subject to prior authorization. The same applies to printing copies at a remote terminal. How can these issues be addressed? The obvious way forward is through site licensing, although other models may well develop. Site licence pricing is typically based on the numbers of users, although it could be simply a fixed fee. In the case of a fee based on client numbers, the subscriber must make an annual declaration of the numbers of terminals that have access. There is, in practice, no way the vendor can check the truthfulness of the declaration. Publishers’ trade associations are opposed to such an approach, and have resisted attempts by RROs to offer such blanket licences. Problems arise because the publishers’ trade associations believe electrocopying is quite different from photocopying – because of one’s ability to merge, amend and duplicate at will. The user wants a simple arrangement to avoid time-wasting individual negotiations. Unless a blanket electrocopying agency develops, users will

Moral rights, which are embodied in the law of a majority of countries, include the right to be identified as the author and the right to object, and sue for damages, if someone subjects a copyright work to derogatory treatment. This is particularly relevant in the networked environment. Use of any thirdparty material, even it is not infringement of the copyright owner’s economic right, may well infringe the author’s moral rights unless it is used in its entirety and unless the original author’s name remains attached to it. Images Images are not covered by ‘literary works’, but instead are known as ‘artistic works’. Depending on national legislation the term may include: photographs; microfilms; paintings and drawings; models of buildings; sculptures; diagrams; maps; slides, including overhead projector transparencies; engravings; etchings; the design part of any trade mark or trade name; product labels; charts; engineering drawings; and plans. Generally, the person who initially created the work owns the copyright. If a work, such as a photograph, is commissioned, the copyright is still in the hands of the person who made the work unless there is a contract making it clear that copyright is assigned to the commissioning person. The term of protection of artistic works typically lasts fifty to seventy years post-mortem. ‘Moral rights’ also apply to artistic works. The issue of derogatory treatment is particularly important; if someone crops or amends a digitized image, the perpetrator could be accused of infringing the author’s moral right. Therefore, any system for net-

Electrocopying, electronic copyright and networking

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either ignore publishers or deal directly with authors. Indeed, in many learned subject areas, the authors may prefer to deal directly with users and ignore the publishers. Certainly, the development of various pre-print archives online, such as the Los Alamos nuclear physics site, has demonstrated a clear wish by both authors, librarians and end-users to ignore publishers in a crucial and fast-moving area of scientific endeavour. If these issues can be resolved, then legal problems thrown up by further developments in technology, such as multimedia, can also be resolved, and the proposed ‘electronic’ or ‘virtual’ library can become a reality in law as well as becoming technically possible. If, however, there is no agreement, then there is an increased chance of alienation between libraries and publishers, of libraries flouting or ignoring the law, or of information users bypassing the publishers altogether and obtaining information directly from authors through bulletin boards. This will not be in the interests of publishers, nor ultimately in the interests of libraries. Publishers provide a key means of controlling the information explosion by maintaining quality. Bypassing their systems will be a serious step with implications for bibliographic control and the quality of research. There is already a delicate and tense relationship between data owners and data users. Electrocopying is an example of a new technological development that threatens to upset the relationship. Copyright law has changed over the years because of changes to technology; developments such as the video recorder, the audio cassette, the personal computer, cable television and the photocopier have led to direct changes in the law. A major difficulty arises with the development of electronic communication as a major means for the transfer of scholarly information. Copyright law cannot keep up with technical developments. Copyright attempts to satisfy, in particular, both the wish of users to have simple and

easy access to research information and the wish of the creators (or their representatives, the publishers) to protect their commercial or other interests. However, the ease with which people can copy and forward electronic data puts such traditional copyright law under strain. A networked environment gives users access to vast quantities of material, some of it unpublished but still available for inspection, downloading and re-dissemination. This creates a potential conflict between the right holders’ need to retain control and earn income and the users’ right to make use of the material. The response of publishers and other rights holders is bound to vary. There is little doubt that there will be changes to the idea of ‘publishing’, ‘journal’, ‘book’ and ‘article’. The continued existence of libraries and of publishers requires that equitable and workable solutions be developed that protect the interests of rights owners but also serve the needs of library staff and library users. The concern shown by publishers towards electrocopying is symptomatic of the issues. Publishers will want a reasonable reward for electrocopying activities, but, what is more important, they will want a degree of control over what happens to electrocopied material. Users will pay what they regard as a fair additional fee for the privilege but will want reasonable freedom to download, amend and incorporate electrocopied material into their own materials. Multimedia and copyright Historically, copyright law has been split between different media. Written text is literary-work copyright; still images are artistic-work copyright; moving images are film or television copyright; the spoken word is sound-recording copyright; and musical works have their own copyright. In multimedia, all of these different items are bundled together into a single product. This would not cause a problem if the arrangements for obtain-

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ing protection, ownership, lifetimes and rules regarding these intellectual property rights were identical, but they are not. The problem is compounded by the fact that the rules differ from one country to another, and yet multimedia, being in machine-readable form, can easily be passed from one country to another. Some rights comprised in copyright such as public rental or hire, public lending rights, moral rights, performing and broadcasting rights, recording rights and film distribution rights may also apply to multimedia and add to the complexity of the issues. In certain countries some of these rights, such as public lending rights, are well established for printed materials, but face problems when dealing with electronic data. There are four key problems associated with multimedia and copyright: 1. Copyright laws vary from country to country, and the ground rules also fundamentally differ from one country to another. In many countries computer programmes and databases are not mentioned among works protected by copyright. In some countries, for example, ‘fair dealing’ (such as free photocoping) is permitted for educational purposes, but not for others; copyright terms of protection vary generally from twenty-five to seventy years postmortem; the rules as to who owns copyright in a film vary; the rights of performers of musical works vary, etc. 2. Even within a country, the rules on machinereadable text, still images, moving images, sound and music may vary. In any multimedia work, there will be many copyrights owned by different parties (often with different priorities and needs). The terms of protection of these rights may vary significantly. Persons wishing to copy a multimedia work can never be sure they have catered for all the possible copyrights.

3.

The various industries (publishing, computer software, film, broadcasting, photographic) are very different in terms of the sorts of licences they are prepared to accept: the lifetime of licences, the royalties paid and the safeguards for the copyright owner differ hugely. Thus, if one wishes to negotiate licence rights to various components of a multimedia product, one has to negotiate with parties who hold different perceptions of the financial reward they seek. 4. It is often rather difficult to identify who owns the various rights in multimedia works anyway. Copyrights are assigned and re-assigned, companies are formed and dissolved, people move on and cannot be traced – and yet, material cannot be copied without the copyright owner’s permission, and the law requires the potential user to go to considerable lengths to identify the owner and then gain permission. Logically there should be a central rights agency that is empowered to act on behalf of all multimedia copyright owners. There are clear precedents for such agencies in the RROs that are common in North America and Europe. An alternative idea promoted by some users is the right to compulsory licences, so that multimedia creators/users can be sure they will get a licence whatever happens. This idea, however, is largely resisted by the copyright holders and by governments as it is felt that such a weakening of copyright protection would damage the motivation, and hence creativity, of authors and organizations creating new works. Compulsory licences are therefore most unlikely to come about. There has been some pressure for governments also to look at the question of adoption a single uniform law for all multimedia, that is, making the regimes for text, sound, images, etc., consistent, thereby at least simplifying the issues regarding ownership and the terms of protection. Disappoint-

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ingly, so far no government has tackled the issue. There is little chance of a world law until each country agrees upon a standardized approach to all the components of multimedia. As if that were not enough, multimedia poses another problem: moral rights. These mean that if you are copying some material for use in a multimedia work, you should do the copying in its entirety. If you copy a portion, or amend it, or add bits implying that it was created by that individual, this might be deemed derogatory treatment, and therefore infringe the creator’s moral rights. You must also acknowledge the actual author as the author. Another crucial issue is that moral rights cannot be assigned by an individual to a third party. Thus, even though you may have obtained copyright clearance to use some material in a multimedia work from the owner of the economic rights, you must separately negotiate with the original creator, who is not necessarily any longer the owner of economic rights, for permission to use the material. It is very difficult to see any way forward except by the creation and maintenance of a central register of copyright and moral rights owners of material, so that at least the first stage, that is, identifying who owns the moral rights to a particular work, can be quickly and easily reached. Electronic copyright management system (ECMS) Publishers have difficulty in agreeing to any licence for the distribution in electronic form of material for which they hold the copyright. There are two major reasons stated for their concern. The first is the worry that the material will be copied and/or redisseminated in an unauthorized manner, and therefore, by implication, the publishers will lose sales. The second concern is that material will be amended and will then be passed off as new material, and it will be difficult to demonstrate that the material had

originated from that material to which the publisher owned rights. Such copying and amendment, if carried out without the permission of the copyright owner, is potentially copyright infringement. Furthermore, the amendment, if carried out without the author’s permission, is potentially an infringement of the moral rights of the original authors. There is a clear need, therefore, for the development of robust, reliable, economic and tamperproof mechanisms to identify, or tag, copyright material and/or to control the usage of such material. The existence of such a mechanism would give publishers the reassurance they require to give permission more readily for the release of their material in machine-readable form, or for the digitization by clients of print material that they own. An ECMS can address these issues. One type comprises software that would automatically tag the document in a tamper-proof fashion. This could be read by anyone to identify the original author and/or copyright owner of the material, and to identify who had made any amendments to the document. An audit trail would thus be clearly identified. Another type of ECMS would be software used solely to govern or control distribution of the work, which may be in printed or electronic form. This could be used to limit what can be done with the original or a copy of the file containing the work. It could limit the use of the file to view only, and also limit the number of times the work could be retrieved, opened, duplicated or printed. Such systems will serve the functions of tracking and monitoring uses of copyrighted works as well as licensing rights, and indicating attribution, creation and ownership interests. No ECMS currently exists, but such systems can be expected on the market before the end of the century. No country’s law acknowledges the existence of an ECMS, but it may soon have the backing of law in the United States. A Bill is before Congress

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that could include a provision in American copyright law prohibiting the import, manufacture or distribution of any device, product or component incorporated into a device or product, or the provision of any service, the primary purpose or effect of which is to avoid, bypass, remove, de-activate or otherwise circumvent, without authority of the copyright owner or the law, any ECMS. There is also a clause to prohibit the provision, distribution or import for distribution of copyright management information known to be false, and the unauthorized removal or alteration of copyright management information. The Bill is controversial, not because of its material on the ECMS, but because of proposed changes to ‘fair use’ and the introduction of a new ‘transmission right’ for copyright owners; it is therefore unclear if it will become law. There is no question that the development of an ECMS poses many problems. For example, there is little point in developing one that is impractical to use because of too complex a password or charging mechanism, or one that is so expensive that people are tempted to bypass or ignore it. However, in my view, four major legal issues should be raised in relation to an ECMS. First, should an ECMS be protected in law? My own view is ‘yes’, but to balance users’ interests other changes to the law should be introduced at the same time. Second, should the exceptions to the protection or ‘fair dealing’ and the library provisions be amended to take account of an ECMS? If they are not amended, what requirements should be built into an ECMS to ensure these provisions are enforced? I think that the exceptions on ‘fair dealing’ are already under threat in the electronic environment. Rights owners are flexing their muscles and pressurizing governments to amend the law to introduce a ‘transmission right’ that could override ‘fair dealing’ in the networked environment. I have no doubt this pressure will increase. Some librarians and users are already arguing that in practice ‘fair dealing’ exceptions cannot last in a net-

worked future; we should make the best of the situation by accepting the loss of this right and in return getting publishers to agree that they can circulate copies to users for an agreed modest fee – a site licence in other words. My own belief is that for ethical and philosophical reasons concerning equity of information dissemination, ‘fair dealing’ should not be given up, but instead users should be arguing for legislation to ensure that no ECMS can restrict someone’s rights to a fair deal. Third, should an ECMS be obliged to include facilities to protect moral rights, for example, to ensure that an author’s name can never be deleted from a text or amended? I believe that the requirement to retain the author’s name should be a legal requirement, but can see no way that software can detect ‘derogatory treatment’. Finally, what are the implications of an ECMS for data protection legislation? A court would probably argue that someone’s reading habits are private, and so an ECMS should be unable to collect such information without the individual’s express written consent. Clearly, significant legal issues must be addressed before the ECMS becomes well-established. As has been noted, the ECMS is at the R&D stage at present. Clearly, publishers will enter into site-licensing, electrocopying and other agreements with far more enthusiasm if they can be assured that their copyright interests will be protected by a robust, widely acceptable, well-established tagging and audit system. An ECMS offers a possible solution to this desirable goal, but the legal issues do need to be addressed now.

Conclusions A number of distinguished commentators have suggested that copyright has no future in an all-electronic networked environment. On the other hand, many in the publishing industry have argued for major strengthening of the law, in particular a new ‘transmission right’, and for vigorous enforcement of

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the law. Some have argued that ‘fair dealing’ should be abolished. At the moment, the publishers appear to have the attention of some governments, but even if they win the battle and have copyright laws strengthened, they may not win the war if users choose to ignore copyright on a massive scale. Certainly, the concepts of authorship and originality will change, perhaps for the worse. Unless fully usable ECMS’s appear soon, identifying authors and gaining credit for original work will become very hard indeed. Although very few copyright infringment cases ever get heard, and despite the widespread infringement and piracy that occurs worldwide, copyright provides the legal bedrock upon which the many licences are based. Without this ultimate legal basis, and the threat in law to sue for infringement, I cannot see how such licences could be negotiated. Without such licences, and given the current and probably continuing absence of any foolproof, tamper-proof technical method of metering use, establishing ownership and establishing where the data have been, the selling of electronic information would not be possible. The people who think copyright is dead point out, rightly, that digitial materials are incredibly easy to amend, and that it is incredibly difficult to prove where you got the material from. Whilst I agree that it is difficult, and will get even harder in the future, for people to enforce their rights, I do not think this is an argument to abolish copyright. Speed limits are widely ignored or flouted on the roads, but this is not an argument for abolishing speed limits. If there is an accident and it is proven that the driver was breaking the speed limit, punishment is likely to be severe. In the same way, although your chances of being caught may be small, copyright infringement should still be an offence that incurs penalties. Everyone in the industry recognizes the need for a viable electronic information industry. Copyright, the bedrock for that industry, despite the criticism

that it is an ambiguous and out-of-date law, will continue. I believe strongly that fair dealing should be confirmed and indeed strengthened to balance any strengthening of owners’ rights. By definition, copyright law has to balance conflicting needs and is a compromise. Compromises rarely satisfy everyone. Little has been said about the interests of developing countries in this essay. There seems to be a well-established pattern that these countries generally have weak copyright laws, or laws that are strong on paper but are largely ignored, until they develop their own intellectual property industries. There is reason to believe that this pattern will continue. The existence of copyright havens with lax laws has always been a problem for publishers and rights owners in developed countries. It is by no means clear that developing countries will benefit in the short term from strong copyright laws, and they will only show an interest in them as a result of pressure from local rights owners. However things develop, I have no doubt these problems will become more acute in a networked environment, and that further pressure will be brought to bear by major powers such as the United States to get those countries into line. The role of UNESCO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) will be crucial, and it is essential that a clear demarcation between their areas of responsibility be maintained. Of one thing we can be sure: copyright will become even more of a battleground in the future. ■■

Further reading HOEREN, T. 1995. An Assessment of Long-term Solutions in the Context of Copyright and Electronic Delivery Services and Multimedia Products. Luxembourg, European Commission. 56 pp. (EUR16069.) LLOYD, I. J. 1993. Information Technology Law. London, Butterworths. 398 pp. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. 1994. Realizing the Information Future. Washington, D.C., NRC. 301 pp.

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OPPENHEIM, C. 1995. The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information. Calne, Informatics. 192 pp. VERCKEN, G. 1996. Practical Guide to Copyright for Multimdia Producers. Luxembourg, European Commission. 226 pp. (EUR16128.)

Charles Oppenheim is Professor of Electronic Library Research and CoDirector of De Montfort University’s International Institute for Electronic Library Research. He was formerly Professor of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde. A Past President of the Institute of Information Scientists, he is also a Vice-President of Aslib. He is a frequent contributor to the professional literature, is on the editorial board of a number of professional journals, and is a British representative on the European Commission’s Legal Advisory Board. His professional interests include: ethical issues of information; virtuality reality; patents; the Internet; copyright; liability for information provision; information policy; online, CD-ROM and real-time financial information; data protection; and the information industry. The second edition of his book The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information was published in 1995. Charles Oppenheim is Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry into the Information Superhighway.

Charles Oppenheim International Institute of Electronic Library Research De Montfort University Hammerwood Gate Kents Hill Milton Keynes MK7 6HP United Kingdom Tel: (1908) 695511 Fax: (1908) 834929/(1908) 695581 E-mail: [email protected]

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Chapter 27 International co-operation and assistance Arashanipalai Neelameghan Bangalore, India

Need for international co-operation and assistance International scenario As nations prepare themselves to cope with the challenges of the twenty-first century, the main sociopolitical, economic and technological events at the international and regional levels that may influence national development perceptions, policies and plans, and the direction, strategies and policies relating to international co-operation and assistance, include: 1. The attainment of political independence by a number of countries. Most of them are classed as developing or Third World countries (TWCs), and several are in the least developed category. These TWCs have been attempting industrialization and socio-economic development through planned basic infrastructure and resource development, policy and institutional changes, and administrative reforms. Human resource development, research and development (R&D), technology acquisition and adaptation, and indigenous technology development for transforming natural resources to consumable products are among their principal concerns. 2. Large investment in R&D by industrialized countries, their adoption of strategies and institutional structures for applying research results to develop know-how, innovations, and products and services, and their vigorous efforts at marketing these through international cooperation arrangements, multinational firms and joint ventures in other countries, including TWCs. Related factors are the rapid progress of the information industry, which is pushing the move toward an information society and economy that are dependent on the capacity to generate and trade in information, know-how and knowledge (see Chapters 20 and 21).

361

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3.

4.

5.

6.

The emergence of newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in Asia and Latin America offering vast market potential for goods and services, and sourcing of information technology components, skills and expertise, at competitive prices. The break-up of the Soviet Union into independent states, the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the end of the cold war had an impact on the national structures, politics, economies, interrelations and co-operation among the CIS countries and on the relations of other nations with Central and Eastern Europe (see Chapter 5). The establishment of several international organizations, such as the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) concerned with socioeconomic development, science and technology, education, communications, the environment, woman and child welfare, population growth, housing, climate, health, peace, information, etc. The formation of regional alliances between nations for co-operation and mutual benefit in the political, security, trade, economic, scientific, technological and culture domains: for example, the Non-Aligned Movement, European Union, Organization of African Unity (OAU), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Southern African Development Co-operation Conference (SADC), League of Arab States (LAS), Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), Organization of American States (OAS), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Caribbean Council of Ministers (CARICOM), Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation

7.

(SAARC), Southern Africa Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The rapid pace of developments in information technology, and more particularly the convergence and integrated application of computer, communications, electro-optics (CD-ROM family), audio and video technologies (see Chapters 15–18).

Globalization and interdependence of nations Nations are becoming increasingly interdependent, be it for raw materials, expertise and skill, finance, technology, trade, or markets for goods and services (see Chapter 22). Because of this, a national activity or programme often acquires regional or international dimensions, a process which is also facilitated by the rapid development of communications. Imbalances in development capacity Development focused on socio-economic goals has to use the products, processes, practices and knowledge based on science and technology, and guided by political, legal and administrative reforms, policies and norms. Therefore, all nations need the capacity to generate, collect, organize and use national information and to access at affordable cost appropriate scientific and technological knowledge and expertise. The TWCs are more severely handicapped in this regard and hence in providing for the basic needs of their people. They must of necessity obtain knowhow and expertise from developed countries. It has been reported that in 1965 TWCs paid about US$400 million to acquire technology from developed countries; in 1975 the amount was US$1.2 billion, in 1985 some US$6.1 billion, and by 1995 over US$10 billion. Another reason for the high cost of acquiring know-how is that information systems and expertise in TWCs have been weak and have not been effectively capturing, processing, accessing and

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exchanging information generated domestically, even though such know-how may be more relevant and adaptable and less expensive. Developments in information technology are permitting access to a wider range of information resources globally. But libraries, information centres and archives in TWCs are still lagging behind. The affordability and mastery of information technology for providing more value-added products and services to a growing and demanding user population are critical problems. Role of international/regional organizations The role of international and regional organizations and of international co-operation and assistance in bridging the gap is twofold: facilitating information flow in science, technology and related fields from developed countries to TWCs, so that the latter may obtain information at affordable cost; and enhancing national capacity and strengthening the infrastructure of TWCs, enabling them to negotiate, choose from and integrate external information with that generated internally for effective application and exchange. Responding to the need and call for information support to national development plans, their implementation and management, international intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies or the World Bank, as well as NGOs, have provided technical and financial assistance to TWCs for several decades. Some examples are given below. The United Nations and its Specialized Agencies The United Nations, and more particularly some of its Specialized Agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development

Organization (UNIDO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have been assisting, directly or indirectly, the development of libraries, information systems, archives and resource-sharing in TWCs for over four decades, as well as the development of international co-operative information systems. United Nations Regional Commissions have been similarly involved. Further, they have set up information systems to aid planning and management of their own programmers, projects, field missions, etc., mostly in TWCs. Thus, a wide range of useful information on TWCs and the relevant programmes is available in these systems. They respond to requests from member states and from personnel on technical assistance missions in the field. International and regional co-operative information networks IGOs and NGOs have established and/or are supporting co-operative information systems, global or regional, in selected disciplines and, more broadly, in socio-economic development areas (for example, FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNESCO, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the World Bank). They may generally be categorized as follows: Type 1: Decentralized input of data by designated national centres, centralized processing and generation of information products, and decentralized access to and/or production and use of information and information products (for example, International Nuclear Information System (CINIS), International Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS), International Development Information Network on Research in Progress (IDIN), Current Agricultural Research Information System – South-East Asia (IDINASIA).

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Type 2: Mainly centralized collection, processing and preparation of databases, and provision of information products and services. National and regional centres may obtain the products/ services to provide national and subregional services (for example, International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM)). Type 3: Systems and centres operating independently but with common areas of interest, and exchange of information and data (for example, International Chemical Information Network (ChIN), Pan-African Geological Information system (PANGIS)). Type 4: Programmes providing a framework for cooperation and co-ordination of information activities in and among participating countries and for supporting such activities and specialized subnetworks (for example, Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experience in Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific (ASTINFO), Programme for Co-operation in Information for Latin American and the Caribbean (INFOLAC), Asia-Pacific Information Network in Social Sciences (APINESS), International Agricultural Research Centres Network (IARCNET)). Type 5: A combination of two or more of the above types. An example of a United Nations Regional Commission effort is the Pan African Development Information System (PADIS) created in 1980. It is hosted by the Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), with support from UNDP, IDRC, UNESCO and the African Development Bank, and is centred around national, subregional and regional information systems and networks, to which all members voluntarily contribute information and share their information management experiences. PADIS has assisted several African countries

in information infrastructure development, training of personnel, provision of hardware and software, application of common standards, etc. Regional alliances A regional alliance requires information support for effective co-ordination and co-operation in various sectors of the participating countries. Areas of common interest in regional alliances and on which information is required by the co-operating entities include: market status for products and services; trade opportunities; customs, duties, taxes, etc.; technologies and innovations available; natural resources; expertise and skilled human resources available; banking and other financial services; status of infrastructural components such as energy, water, communications, transport and warehousing; demographics; public health, epidemiology and health legislation; inter-country travel rules and visas; existing bilateral and multilateral agreements and contracts; ongoing development projects and programmes; national development plans and priorities; national policies in various sectors; laws on resource-sharing, transborder data flow, patents, trade marks, intellectual property, etc.; and various kinds of political, social and cultural information. These information requirements have promoted the development of general and sectorial information systems and networks in the co-operating countries and at the secretariat of the alliance. For example, in Asia in the fields of agriculture, trade, water, health, sanitation, fisheries, environment, technology transfer, gender issues, etc., such information systems are operational.

United Nations Specialized Agencies UNESCO UNESCO has been assisting Member States to develop their library and information infrastructures since the early 1950s. Its activities have been carried

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out under several programmes and administrative units. Funds Projects and activities are financed from UNESCO’s regular budget, made up of the yearly contributions by Member States, and from extra-budgetary sources. The latter consist mainly of Funds in Trust placed with UNESCO by Member States or another organization (for example, the Arab Fund). Worldwide campaigns for a specific purpose can mobilize funds (see box). The UNESCO Participation Programme is another source. UNDP-financed projects executed by UNESCO have dramatically decreased since 1992 as a result of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 44/211 (1989), which sets a new framework for co-operation assistance among UNDP and the United Nations Specialized Agencies.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina project: a grand scheme The ancient city of Alexandria, one of the glories of antiquity was, at the beginning of the third century B.C., the birthplace of the great plan to build a library: the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It would be a vast storehouse of learning, in the lineage of the Lyceum of Aristotle, sublimating Alexander’s dreams of empire into a quest for universal knowledge. Unhappily, it was destroyed by a fire which ravaged the port of Alexandria more than 2,000 years ago. The Egyptian Government, in co-operation with UNESCO, has decided to

Implementation National projects are usually requested and implemented after approval by the respective governments and in collaboration with appropriate local organizations. Various co-operating mechanisms – including, up to 1995, subventions – have existed between UNESCO and a number of international associations concerned with libraries, archives and information systems and services, such as the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), International Council for Social Science Documentation (ICSSD), International Association of Technical University Libraries (IATUL), the Association des Universités Partiellement ou Entièrement de Langue Française (AUPELF), and with other IGOs – for example, the Arab League, International Council of Scientific Unions/Committee on Data

build a new library in Alexandria to endow this part of the world with an important focal point for culture, education and science. The cultural context is no longer what it was under the Ptolemies or the Caliphs. This project has three aims: to foster a spirit of openness, to explore the fields of knowledge and to make knowledge accessible. It is an ambitious challenge, since the project expresses powerful values which are different yet complementary: by openness is meant a broader cultural outlook and the acceptance of other cultural and scientific criteria than those of local tradition; at the same time, the desire for deeper exploration means the desire to dig down towards our roots, to rediscover in the past the reasons for the choices made today and the options for tomorrow; lastly, the

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challenge of accessibility calls for total

The transfer of knowledge and of skills is

commitment by all partners and the

the key to all sustainable development and

mobilization of the most modern techniques.

well-being. UNESCO is tireless in its efforts to

Alexandria was predestined for this role: in ancient times a meeting-place of

facilitate this transfer. Thanks to the generosity of the United

civilizations, it is today at the crossroads

Nations Development Programme (UNDP),

between the West and the Middle East.

UNESCO, in co-operation with the

The purpose of the scheme is to restore

International Union of Architects (IUA),

to Alexandria a crucial means of conducting

organized an international competition in

research into Mediterranean cultures and

which 1,300 architects took part. The project

science, and spreading knowledge of these by

to construct a building that will also house an

establishing an institution whose influence will

international school of information sciences is

extend throughout the region thanks to the

thus taking shape.

quality of its services and the importance of its

Strikingly beautiful in its architecture

collections. The intention is not to construct a

and yet altogether functional, this building will

building resembling the great library as it

be shaped like a long cylinder 160 metres wide

might have been, nor is it to try to reconstitute

with the top truncated at an angle. The angle

the ancient collections. Rather, the aim is to

of the roof will counter the harmful effects of

transpose the ancient world to a modern

sea spray and allow the upper storeys of the

setting by providing a special centre for

library to enjoy natural light (see Chapter 19

knowledge and education which makes use of

for an architectural brief of the building).

every modern technique known to us today. For example, the future library will be

Throughout the world, this project has aroused the interest and enthusiasm of all

fully computerized and its catalogue will

those in favour of development. Anxious to win

gradually become available for consultation in

support at the highest level for this ambitious

the universities of the region. Alongside its

undertaking, Mr Federico Mayor, Director-

special collections on Mediterranean

General of UNESCO, at the invitation of the

civilizations, it will house large collections on

Egyptian Government, decided to establish an

science and technology, environmental

International Commission for the Revival of the

problems and economic development.

Ancient Library of Alexandria.

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(ICSU/CODATA) and the European Union – and NGOs – for example, IDRC and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO). Several aspects of the Records and Archives Management Programme are implemented in collaboration with or through the International Council on Archives (ICA) (see box, pp. 368–9). Regional programmes requested by several countries in a region, such as ASTINFO and INFOLAC, have also been implemented. As Executing Agency, UNESCO has implemented UNDPfinanced projects requiring large, sustained funding. The École des Sciences de l’Information, Rabat, Morocco, the Postgraduate Course for Training of Science Information Specialists in South-East Asia at the University of the Philippines in Manila, and the Arab Regional Information Systems Network (ARISNET) are examples. Roberts (1988) lists these projects. UNESCO also assists by preparing and disseminating norms and standards, vocabulary tools and guidelines for information work and service. Some of these are prepared in consultation with the International Standards Organization (ISO). CDS/ ISIS software for mainframes, and Micro ISIS for microcomputers, both developed by UNESCO, are distributed together with related manuals free of cost to non-profit institutions. Similarly, the statistical software package, IDAMS, is now being made available. Books and manuals prepared by or in consultation with experts and made available to library and information science schools by UNESCO are well appreciated. International and regional seminars, short courses, and workshops supported by UNESCO and organized in collaboration with national, regional or international organizations have, among other things, enabled information professionals to exchange experience and information for co-operation. Chapter 21 describes more precisely the new

orientations provided to UNESCO by its governing bodies – the General Conference and the Executive Board – as well as the activities being implemented or planned by the Secretariat in relation to the development of information and communications technologies and information highways. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) UNIDO has set up a technology-transfer information system (BITS) to respond to queries. It has also assisted TWCs to develop a national register of technology agreements, information centres and services for small industries, as well as playing a role in training industrial information personnel. United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) FAO, besides developing AGRIS and the Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS), has assisted TWCs, for example in Africa and Latin America, to develop their agricultural information infrastructure and human resources, and provides AGRIS and CARIS databases on CD-ROM, etc. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) UNEP, through its INFOTERRA programme, has developed large databases on the environment through the co-operation of centres around the world. Databases in specialized areas such as desertification are provided free of charge to the centres concerned. Technical assistance and training are also provided. The related HABITAT programme on human settlements provides similar facilities and makes available the UNDMS (Urban Data Management) software. The Pan American Sanitary Organization, WHO’s Latin American and Caribbean office, has assisted the regional environment and sanitation net-

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Three non-governmental organizations: FID, ICA and IFLA

All FID members are encouraged to participate in the activities of any of the fifteen different committees and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that FID has established. Each committee and SIG focuses

The International Federation for Information and Documentation

on a different aspect of expertise within the

The International Federation for Information and

industry to fundamental research in information, and

Documentation (FID), founded in 1895, is the leading

education and training to environmental information.

international professional association of institutions

FID also has an extensive network of regional

and individuals who are developing, producing,

commissions.

researching and using information products,

information sector ranging from information for

The FID Website, called the FID Knowledge

information systems and methods, and are directly or

Forum, can be visited at http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000, and

indirectly involved in the management of information.

gives an extensive description of the organization.

FID promotes the idea that information is a critical resource needed by each and every one of us

The International Council on Archives

(at the international level, the regional level, the

The International Council on Archives (ICA) is a non-

national and organizational levels). It empowers us

governmental organization dedicated to promoting the

because it enables us to:

preservation, development, and use of the world’s

•

Improve competitiveness in business and

archival heritage. ICA’s mission is ‘the advancement of

industry, and within national economies.

archives through international co-operation’. Founded

•

Advance the frontiers of science and technology.

just under fifty years ago, it brings together national

•

Strengthen possibilities for development and

archive administrations, professional associations of

enhance the quality of life wherever possible.

archivists, regional and local archives, other

Improve the ability of decision-makers to make

organizations and individual archivists. It has around

appropriate decisions.

1,450 members in over 170 countries and territories

Stimulate educational strategies and lifelong

worldwide. Outside Europe and North America,

learning.

membership is grouped into ten regional branches.

Make expression possible in all of the

Members other than national archive administrations

information society, for example, in the arts and

may also belong to sections, which bring together

humanities.

institutions and individuals with common professional

• • •

FID’s membership structure is based on the philosophy

interests. ICA’s wide-ranging programme includes

of building bridges and creating networks between

publications and conferences, a range of professional

many different groups and professions in the

materials produced by its sections and committees,

information, knowledge and communication sectors.

and initiatives to promote archival development, both

To date, FID has members in ninety-three different

in the developing world and in the emerging

countries in all regions of the world.

democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. The

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organization works in close co-operation with UNESCO, the Council of Europe and other international organizations. There is a full-time

The Council, that is, general members’ meeting, is IFLA’s highest organ. The Executive Board consists of an elected

secretariat, based in Paris, but the main effort comes

President and seven elected members, with the

from ICA’s network of dedicated members and

Chairperson of the Professional Board serving as an

contacts throughout the world, who give their time

ex officio member.

and their professional expertise freely. The ICA Website can be visited at: http://www.archives.ca/ica/

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

The Professional Board is composed of the Chairperson from each of the eight divisions, plus a Chairperson elected from the outgoing Professional Board by the incoming PB members. IFLA works through two kinds of unit: the professional groups of thirty-two sections and twelve

Objectives

Round Tables grouped in eight divisions for type of

The International Federation of Library Associations

library or library activity; and the four core

and Institutions (IFLA) is a worldwide, independent

programmes, whose activities intersect the interests

organization founded in 1927 to provide librarians

and concerns of all libraries and their users, plus a

around the world with a forum for exchanging ideas

fifth core programme for ALP.

and promoting international co-operation, research

The policy matters of IFLA are conducted by the

and development in all fields of library activity. IFLA’s

Executive Board. The professional programme as

objectives are:

overseen by the Professional Board includes that of all

•

To represent librarianship in matters of

professional groups and core programmes which are:

international interest.

Advancement of Librarianship in the Third World

To promote the continuing education of library

(ALP), Universal Availability of Publications (UAP),

personnel.

Universal Bibliographic Control and International

To develop, maintain and promote guidelines for

MARC (UBCIM), Preservation and Conservation (PAC),

library services.

and Universal Dataflow and Telecommunications

• •

(UDT).

Structure

The work of IFLA headquarters in The Hague is

IFLA is a federation of 154 associations, 935

complemented by Regional Offices located in São

institutional members and affiliates, 180 personal

Paulo, Bangkok and Dakar and by Core Programme

affiliates, and 15 bodies with consultative status in 135

Offices located in Frankfurt (for UBCIM), Boston Spa

countries. IFLA has consultative status A with UNESCO,

(for UAP), Ottawa (for UDT) and Paris (for PAC), with

associate status with the International Council of

Regional Offices for PAC in Washington, D.C., Leipzig,

Scientific Unions, and observer status with the World

Caracas, Tokyo and Canberra.

Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Standards Organization (ISO).

The IFLA Website can be visited at: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/

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work (REPDISCA) (Red Panamericana de Informatión en Salud Ambiental). Also, fifty-seven medical libraries in the region are co-operating in cataloguing the national health papers from seventeen countries; the records are then collated at the BIREME centre in Brazil for the Literatura LatinoAmericana e do Caribe em Ciencias des Saude (LILACS) CD-ROM database, distributed periodically. Funded by UNDP, FAO and the World Bank, CGIAR has supported the networking of CGIAR specialized research centre information systems around the world, and training of national agricultural information personnel. Asia-Pacific Population Information Network (POPIN) Population growth and related issues are of concern to all countries, especially the TWCs. Population planning relates to the economy as well as social and cultural aspects, and hence a wide range of data and information is required at the national and international levels. The United Nations POPIN project, a global population information network, is designed to provide worldwide access to and dissemination of information upon which to base national, regional and international population policies. POPIN has introduced electronic technology and the POPIN gopher. A s i a - P a c i f i c C e n t r e f o r Te c h n o l o g y Tr a n s f e r ( A P C T T ) Initiated by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP, Bangkok) in the 1970s, with inputs from UNIDO, UNDP, etc., APCTT has assisted in training personnel in the provision of value-added services to small and medium-sized enterprises in the region, in addition to providing information to queries from its own information facilities, UNIDO, etc.

Other intergovernmental agencies T h e Wo r l d B a n k Usually the World Bank provides assistance for information system development as part of a larger project. For example, in Indonesia as part of the project for improving higher-education facilities begun in 1988, libraries in some forty-five universities and higher education centres received substantial financial support. More recently, the Bank has assisted the development of a postgraduate course in library science in Indonesia. The newly created InFodev programme, which brings together private and public funding, supports projects related to telecommunication reforms, information infrastructure and information systems. The European Commission (EC) The EC has assisted the development of selected libraries and information facilites in the least developed countries of Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean region (ACP countries) within the framework of the Lomé Agreement. In particular through the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), it has supported the development of agricultural information services through meetings and training sessions. The EC’s support for networking in Europe is mentioned below. Agence de la Francophonie (ACCT) Created in 1970 in Niamey (Niger) under the name Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT), the Agence de la Francophonie (ACCT) assumes, since 1991, the secretariat of all the political authorities of the Francophonie, namely the Conférence des Chefs d’État et de Gouvernement Ayant le Français en Partage (also known as the Francophone Summit), the Conférence Ministérielle de la Francophonie (CMF), the Conseil Permanent de la Francophonie (CPF), the Conférences Ministérielles Permanentes (Conférence des Ministres

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de l’Éducation (Confémen) and Conférence des Ministres de la Jeunesse et des sports (Conféjes) and the Assemblée Internationale des Parlementaires de Langue Française (AIPLF). ACCT is the principal operator for the Francophone Summit; the other operators include the Agence Francophone pour l’Enseignement Supérieur et la Recherche (AupelfUref), TV5, the Université Senghor d’Alexandrie and the Association Internationale des Maires et Responsables des Capitales et Métropoles Partiellement et Entièrement Francophones (AIMF). The first meeting of the heads of state and government was held in Paris in 1986 and was followed by summits every second year: Quebec (1987), Dakar (1989), Chaillot (1991), Mauritius (1993) and finally Cotonou (1995); Hanoi will be the host of the 1997 Francophone Summit. At the very first meeting, the Francophone Summit agenda identified information and documentation as a priority for the sustainable and democratic development of its member states. ACCT was, therefore, mandated to develop the necessary programmes and activities as well as the co-ordination mechanisms with the other francophone operators concerning the harmonization and the complementarity of programmes in this area. ACCT has always maintained a library and archives service aimed at providing information resources to its staff; the library, established as a service of the École Internationale de Bordeaux (EIB), extended in recent years into the Centre International Francophone de Documentation et d’Information (CIFDI). The programme known as the Centres de Lecture et d’Animation Culturelle (CLAC) was designed to foster the implementation of library services in rural areas in developing countries; as of 1996, well over 144 CLACs were operating, mostly in Africa and in the Indian Ocean region. The first Francophone Summit gave birth to a programme, the Banque Internationale d’Informa-

tion sur les États Francophones (BIEF), aimed at developing national information policies and systems and reinforcing national information institutions such as national archives, libraries and documentation centres, specialized information networks, and public and school libraries. The BIEF is a programme of the Agence de la Francophonie operating from Canada; BIEF is well implemented in the forty-nine member states and operates a wide network of national information institutions as well as a number of databases. The BIEF programme supports the implementation of information and communication technologies in developing countries and focuses its efforts on reducing the technological gap between the information-rich and the informationpoor. BIEF’s annual budget for 1995 was more than C$800,000. In the academic sector, AUPELF-UREF concentrates on higher education and research-related activities. Scientific and technical information is one of eight major programme units (grands titres de programme), grouping activities such as scientific and technical publishing (books and periodicals), support for the production of documents using new information technologies, and production and access to databases. It is worth noting that ten sites are already operational within the REFER (Réseau Électronique Francophone pour l’Éducation et la Recherche [Francophone Electronic Network for Education and Research]), and are connected via the Internet. The 1994–95 budget for the Scientific and Technical Information Major Programme Unit was more than C$12 million. The Cotonou Summit, mentioned earlier, adopted a resolution on the information society which emphasizes the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity, proposes to develop francophone content on the information highways, recommends linkages of Web sites in developing countries and encourages member states to enhance co-operation between their information institutions. As a result, the Summit adopted the programme and

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budget proposed by ACCT in these areas (see Chapter 21).

Other international agencies International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) Among the NGOs, IDRC is one that has had for a long time a separate division with budgeted programmes for the development of information systems and services. IDRC’s mission is ‘empowerment through knowledge’ for coping with the complex challenges facing TWCs. The centre is directed by an international Board of Governors and is funded by the Government of Canada. IDRC has provided direct financial and technical assistance to a number of information-related projects in many developing countries and regions of the world, and has supported, some in co-operation with IGOs, regional organizations and NGOs, international co-operative development information systems and networks. AGRIS is one of the early international cooperative information systems which received IDRC support. At the regional level, AGRIASIA, for example, received financial and technical support for its establishment and operations. In the mid-1970s, IDRC initiated DEVSIS (Development Science Information System) at the national, regional and global levels, and supported the national/regional collection, bibliogtraphic control and dissemination of development literature. IDRC began supporting, often in association with other agencies such as UNESCO, the development of information science schools. IDRC and UNESCO carried out a feasibility study, identifying host universities in western and eastern Africa, and then funded the provision of equipment, postgraduate training for several staff members, hiring of teachers from other countries, fellowships for students from African countries, etc., for the African

Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS) at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the School for Information Science Africa (SISA) at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, both started in 1990. Other agencies, such as the Swedish Agency for Research Co-operation with Developing Countries (SAREC) and the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD), both in Scandinavia, later provided student fellowships to study at these schools. IDRC conceptualized and initiated in 1993 the Consortium of African Information Science Schools, in collaboration with ARCIS, SISA, the Department of Library Science at the University of Botswana, and the École des Sciences de l’Information in Morocco. German Foundation for Development (DSE) DSE has supported short courses, workshops and seminars for training and updating library and information personnel, mainly in Africa. The meetings are organized either at an institution in Africa or one in Germany (or elsewhere in Europe) and cover a wide range of topics, including formulation of national policies. ODA and the British Council The Overseas Development Administration (ODA) is part of the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It does not normally support individual book and library projects, preferring to provide support for these when they form a part of a larger development project. The British Council is an organization independent of the British Government and administered by a board. However, its funds are in large part from government allocations. The Council has a long history of involvement with the development of library and information services and with book aid. It also operates British Council libraries in some 110 countries around the world, with its services targeted

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primarily at the academic community, postgraduate students and senior administrators. Over the past seventeen years it has suffered successive budget cuts which have made it less able from its own resources to fund library and information services development, and it has increased its work as an overseas arm of the ODA. Scandinavian agencies The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has supported Danish information specialists as advisers for library system development (for example, the improvement of the Nepal National Library jointly with UNESCO) or as resource persons in training programmes. The Swedish agencies, SAREC and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), have provided fellowships to library and information personnel in Africa, for instance, to study at SISA. SAREC has supported journal subscriptions and collection development in some African academic libraries. The Norwegian agency, NORAD, has provided similar fellowships.

Other bilateral aid and co-operation arrangements Several countries in Europe (Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) as well as the United States provide bilateral aid – some through government departments and others through NGOs – to the library and information field. Assistance may be built in as part of a larger development project in another country, or be directly for library and information services development. A large number of such aid and co-operation arrangements exist, a few of which are briefly described here. Africa From 1989, the Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID),

Washington, D.C., a major unit of the United States National Research Council, introduced a programme to bring information technology into Africa. The African situation had been studied in association with African counterparts, facilitating the planning and execution of such aid programmes. In 1987, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) launched the Journal Distribution Program (later merged with the Project for African Research Libraries), providing current subscriptions to over 200 serials for research institutions in Africa. This action is now being continued by several projects involving the use of CD-ROM and related technologies to provide information access to primary and secondary literature. The University of Zambia Computer Centre electronic mail service links 200 sites nationally, and a full Internet capability is foreseen with a leased line to South Africa. AAAS is providing assistance to the University of Zambia to facilitate online searching. Mexico An objective of the Transborder Library Forum, which brings together American and Mexican librarians annually, is to discuss common interests such as resource-sharing, collection development and literacy programmes, and to consider long-range programmes on ways to link United States and Mexican libraries electronically. Papua New Guinea A co-operation arrangement between the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Papua New Guinea and an Information Management Group of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, affords the former online access to courses on computer applications as well as related tutorials and examinations.

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United Kingdom/United States Writers and their Copyright Holders (WATCH) is a database prepared jointly by librarians from the United Kingdom and the United States using the Internet. The objective of the project is to provide information on copyright holders free of charge for use by anyone with access to the Internet. Its increasing use reflects its value to publishers, information professionals, scholars, students and literary agents.

Aid to Eastern and Central Europe In recent years several assistance and co-operation programmes, particularly from the countries of Europe, the United States, IGOs and NGOs, have been initiated with a view to modernizing libraries and information and telecommunication infrastructures in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The destruction of and/or damage to information resources resulting from the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina has also generated international assistance to recover lost resources. In the many co-operation and assistance programmes, several United States foundations and international agencies have been involved. The Soros Foundation, established by George Soros in over twenty countries of Eastern Europe, the Ford Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund, the MacArthur Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Mott Foundation are examples. Since the 1990s the East European Program Mellon Foundation (MF) has amounted to about US$8 million per year. There have been also substantial provisions by USAID, the US Information Agency, the World Bank, the European Union and several West European governments through the TEMPUS and PHARE programmes. MF, with its long-standing interest in Eastern Europe, focused on aid to Hungary, Poland, the

Czech Republic and Slovakia. The foundation supported donations of books and journals from various United States libraries, with some publishers providing low cost or free subscriptions to some journals. Support for automating library operations in Eastern Europe is another MF contribution in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. MF also assisted in improving telecommunications and overcoming United States regulations on communication with Eastern Europe. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a programme for providing medical research libraries with computers, electronic mail, CD-ROM materials and access to MEDLINE. The NLM is also funding the Central Asian part of the Journal Distribution Project of the AAAS. In the Russian Federation, the United States Library of Congress, within its programme of support to parliamentary libraries, is assisting in training staff, providing computers, the TINLIB Integrated Library System, CD-ROM towers and dial-up Internet facilities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as part of the National Science Internet (NSI) and in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, the International Science Foundation (ISF), etc., is developing a highspeed fibre-optic cable network, with a link to Moscow for connecting various academies and university institutes and departments. Libraries will be able to use this network. The ISF is already supporting an electronic network programme, based in Kiev (Ukraine), used mainly for training. The International Research and Exchange Board is creating a library/archive computer communication network for electronic mail service among selected libraries in Moscow and St Petersburg and those in the United States. Several institutions in Western countries are actively involved in modernizing the Russian State Library in Moscow. The Russian National Library in St

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Petersburg, a copyright library and the location of several special collections, is receiving international assistance, and is co-operating with British institutions in preparing a machine-readable catalogue of incunabula, etc. The Science and Technical Information Network, Karlsruhe, in Germany, is assisting in the delivery of documents from Europe and the United States through fax and mail to libraries in Eastern Europe. PUBWATCH, set up in 1990 to promote co-operation between the book industries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, on the one hand, and those of the West on the other, sponsors educational events in the former Eastern bloc, publishes guides to Western book publishing and a quarterly newsletter, PUBWATCH Update, and mobilizes support from Western agencies. PRECES (Patents from the Region of Central and East-European States) is a new CD-ROM in the ESPACE family carrying information on patents from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It uses the Jouve PATSOFT technology, and data preparation is by the Hungarian company ARCANUM Databases. It is expected that ten discs will be produced per year. The modernization and use of information technology in the larger libraries of Latvia since the early 1990s have received external assistance. Together with specialists from the Royal Library of Sweden and the University of Lund, the VTLS system has been implemented. Several training courses on CD-ROM and the Internet were organized. Funds to supplement the national budget have been provided by IREX, the United States Congress, the Soros Foundation, LIBER, NORDINFO (Nordic Council of Ministers), and the Government and Bibliotekjest of Sweden. National bibliographies on CD-ROM have been received free of charge from the United States Library of Congress, Germany, Denmark and others. Following the 1992 Law of Public Libraries of

the Republic of Estonia, public library development has been assisted through co-operation with the Nordic countries. Several projects and services were supported by the British Council in the libraries of Romania for collection development, information provision, human resource development and study scholarships in the United Kingdom. In 1991 a group of British book and paper conservators worked on a project to extend international aid in materials and training to the library conservation community in Romania. A European Art Conservation Trust was formed which collaborated with various Romanian bodies for this purpose. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was destroyed during a bombardment in 1992. UNESCO has started a technical assistance programme for revival of the library.

Co-operation among countries of Europe In Europe, co-operation among academic and national libraries and documentation centres, for example in inter-library lending, the development of common cataloguing norms and the compilation of bibliographies has been in evidence since before this century. The early associations contributed to cooperation in various fields of library, documentation and archives management, and led to the formation of IFLA and FID. Their programmes are now global in scope. The concept of a united Europe established the need for an information system that would help to realize and support such a union. Section DG XIII of the European Union continues to play a key role in the design and development of a European network. ESA/IRS, the EURONET project, the many databases that are interconnected and accessible online, the telecommunication links, the formulation and adoption of common norms and standards, R&D in information, etc., have all been important co-operative contributions.

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In 1989 a consortium of the national libraries in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom agreed to cooperate in exploring the potential of CD-ROMs as a means of distributing and using national bibliographic data. The project, divided into ten subprojects, was launched in January 1990. A specification of requirements for a common retrieval interface for bibliographic data, designed to meet the needs of four user groups (acquisition librarians, cataloguers, reference librarians and end-users) was formulated. A second result is the production of a pilot CDROM in UNIMARC, The Explorers, holding records of the national bibliographies of Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal. Other major products are MARC to UNIMARC conversion tables and a multilingual interface. SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe), set up in 1978 to improve control and access in all subjects, operates through the co-operation of national centres involved in the collection and dissemination of grey literature. In 1985, these centres formed the European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation (EAGLE). Cranfield University Library in the United Kingdom and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands are co-operating in the European Initiative in Library and Information in Aerospace (EURILIA), a full-text electronic aerospace information-retrieval and document-delivery project partly funded under the European Action Programme for Libraries. The European Union’s BIBDEL is a co-operative project for researching and demonstrating information technology-based library services to users located at a distance from the physical library. At the end of this project, developed jointly by the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, the University of the Aegean, Greece, and Dublin City University in Ireland, the partners will have a tool-kit of methods for dealing with remote

users of academic libraries. GEDI (Group on Electronic Document Interchange) was formed in October 1990. In September 1991 it defined a mutually acceptable technical framework to facilitate Electronic Document Interchange between the GEDI partners. The GEDI framework is a de facto standard for such interchange; it encompasses existing ISO open standards and related products that facilitate compatibility and interoperability between the participants’ library networks, and also offers greater functionality to end-users. The Interlending Open Systems Network (ION) project, completed in 1994, outputs various products by the three partners: SDB/SUNIST (France), Pica (Netherlands) and LASER (United Kingdom). Countries opting to integrate into the international services economy may need help in developing their service infrastructure. International economic co-operation is giving some attention to telematics and informatics. Information technology support is being envisioned within the scope of the Uruguay Round Multilateral Trade Negotiations on Services (see Chapter 21) and within the regional cooperation framework of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries vis-à-vis the European Union.

Concluding remarks Tr e n d s Given the rapid strides in information and communication technologies, assistance is increasingly directed at enabling TWCs to utilize these technologies. Under bilateral assistance we have mentioned some of the projects in Africa using CD-ROM databases. UNESCO, for instance, has been supporting the ADONIS project for the production and distribution on CD-ROM of some 450 frequently used biomedical journals in full text, with the cooperation of the publishers of the journals. Under the Universal Availability of Publications (UAP)

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programme, implemented in collaboration with other agencies such as IFLA, UNESCO has been exploring the use of CD-ROM, especially as a means of assisting developing countries in collectionbuilding and access to information and documents. Use of networks and information highways such as the Internet and computer-mediated communication (for example, electronic mail) is encouraged, and assistance is provided for the organization of workshops, short training courses, etc. Sensitization of management and government authorities to the advantages and possibilities of the emerging technologies is being pursued by IGOs and NGOs. Children in schools are being encouraged and assisted to use information technology just as they do reading, writing and arithmetic, so that future generations will cope better in the emerging information age. Impact Thanks to the efforts of IGOs and NGOs the information infrastructures in TWCs are being strengthened to enable better access at affordable cost to the vast range of information available. The overall impact on TWCs of information programmes run by international organizations, although it may vary in degree among them, in general is to strengthen national information infrastructures and enhance national capacity for information handling and services. The spread of such capacity among various segments of society is unequal, however, and is determined by several factors. Constraints With over 75% of their population barely literate and living in rural areas with poor facilities for education and communication, conventional print-based information sources cannot be expected to be used extensively by many countries. Audio and video programmes and the emerging multimedia and telecommunication technologies are alternatives to

be tested, and international aid is needed in an increasing measure for this purpose. There is a growing demand for information, and therefore for information systems and services, even in TWCs, and hence a need for more assistance. But IGOs, NGOs and others are constrained in their efforts owing to inadequacy of funds. The need to minimize duplication of effort among agencies and ensure better exchange of information and greater co-operation among them is evident, and efforts are now being made, including the formation of consortia of donors and/or beneficiaries. In an ever-widening electronic information age, TWCs need to deal with intellectual property rights, transborder data flow, affordability and accessibility to the emerging information technologies, minimizing undue dependence on external data sources and technology and the resulting national vulnerability, social and cultural problems, etc. Technical and managerial knowledge needs to be developed to deal with such issues. Appropriate international assistance and co-operation policies, together with strategies at various levels, should be formulated and applied. Sustainability of advancement in the electronic information age is another critical question for TWCs. International support for enhancing people’s capacity to use electronic information may be available only on a short-term basis in many instances. It has been noted in the past that when such support is reduced or withdrawn the system, network or training programme performs poorly or totally ceases. TWCs have not been able to market their information products and services widely (domestically or internationally). Will the information highways such as the Internet improve the situation? TWCs may have to concentrate on preparing specialized databases and value-added information products of interest at the international level. ■■

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Further reading BENDZSEL, K.; KERETKA, G.; VADASZ, A. 1994. PRECES: Patents from the Region of Central and EastEuropean States. World Patent Information, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 220–2. BERNARD, K. E. 1994. New Global Network Arrangements: Regulatory and Trade Considerations. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 18. No. 5, pp. 378–96. BEVAN, S. J.; HARRINGTON, J. 1995. Exploring the Potential of New Partnerships for Document Delivery at Cranfield University Library: Report of a Trial with Delft University of Technology. Program, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 177–81. BUCKLE, D. 1994. Group on Electronic Document Interchange (GEDI): International Co-operation for the Electronic Exchange of Documents. In: A. H. Helal and J. W. Weiss (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Essen Symposium: Resource Sharing: New Technologies as a Must for Universal Availability of Information, 18–21 October 1993, pp. 195–207. Essen, Universitatsbibliothek Essen. CARO, C. 1994. ABINIA: A Project for Co-operation between Libraries in Latin America. IFLA Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 441–8. CHEN, C. (ed.). 1995. Planning Global Information Infrastructure. (Based on NIT ’94: 7th International Conference on New Information Technologies, Alexandria, Va., 18–20 November 1994). New Jersey, Ablex Publishing Corp. (See especially papers by Kirk, Levey, Quandt and White.) CORNISH, G. P. 1994. Europe Divided or United? Networking and Document Supply, Now and in the Future. Libri, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 63–76. GOODALL, D. 1993. Parlez-vous Francis? Sprechen Sie Cookson? Public Library Journal, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 137–40, 142, 144. (Describes the SEALS project.) HAFKIN, N. J. 1994. Capacity Building for Electronic Communication in Africa: A Project of the PanAfrican Development Information System (PADIS). FID News Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 9, pp. 175–8. HASAN, A. 1994. South/South Co-operation: A Five-yearold Initiative Gathers Strength. Logos, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 130–2. (Describes the Afro-Asian Book Council, founded in 1990.)

HOFFERT, B. 1993. Crossing Borders: U.S./Mexican Forum Tackles Common Concerns. Library Journal, Vol. 118, No. 12, pp. 32–5. HOUSTON, L.; GILL, P. 1995. A Baltic Experience. Public Library Journal Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 50–2. KAUFMANN, B. 1993. Reconnecting the Book Communities of East and West: A Post-Communism Initiative. Logos, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 62–5. (Discusses activities of PUBWATCH.) LIEBEARS, H.; VERDOODT, P. 1994. Libraries and the European Idea. Logos, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 71–5. LINE, M. B. 1993–94. The Scope for Co-operation between National Libraries: Some Ideas and Observations. Newsletter of the IFLA Section of National Libraries, No. 2, 1993; No. 1, 1994, pp. 13–23. MIYASHIRO, M. 1994. Networking Environmental and Sanitation Information: REPIDISCA at the Forefront. Information Development, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 131–6. NEELAMEGHAN, A. 1993. Libraries and Information Services in Third World Countries. In: F. W. Lancaster (ed.), Libraries and the Future: Essays on the Library of the Twenty-first Century, pp. 85–106. New York, Haworth Press. O’FARRELL, J. 1995. Working towards a Library without Walls. Library Association Record, Vol. 97, No. 3, pp. 155–6. (Discusses the BIBDEL project.) ROBERTS, K. H. 1988. Review of the General Information Programme, 1977–1987. Paris, UNESCO. SALOMONSEN, A. 1993. The European National Libraries Co-operative Project on CD-ROM: Results, Experiences and Perspectives. Alexandria, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 193–200. SARGENT, A. M. 1993. Recent International Efforts to Facilitate Resource Sharing and Networking Undertaken by IFLA’S UAP and UBCIM Core Programmes. Resource Sharing and Information Networks, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 151–7. SCHUREK, A. 1993. The UNESCO Network of Associated Libraries – UNAL. Libri, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 86–8. SMITH, P. 1994. Project ION (Interlending Open Systems Network). Vine, No. 95, pp. 15–24. SUTTON, D. 1995. Writers and Their Copyright Holders: The Watch Project. Managing Information, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 36–7.

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VODOSEK, P. 1994. National and Regional Models of Collaboration between Teaching and Research Institutions within the Field of Library and Information Science: With the Fachhochschule für Bibliothekswesen Stuttgart (Fhb) as an Example. Education for Information, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 367–78. VRANCKX, A. 1993. Assessing an Interest Constellation: Informatics and Telecommunications Transfer Support in International Co-operation on Services Development. Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 15–24. WESSELS, R. H. A. 1993. The Importance of International Co-operation for Grey Literature Availability. Alexandria, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 185–92. (Describes the SIGLE project.)

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Arashanipalai Neelameghan is currently Honorary Visiting Professor at the Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC), Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, and Honorary Executive Director, Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies, Madras. He holds a B.Sc. (Physics) and PG Diploma (Library Sciences) from Madras University; an MA(LS) from George Peabody College/Vanderbilt University (Nashville); and has done post-MA studies at Columbia University (New York). He was head of library/information services in research, academic and industrial centres (1949–62); Associate Professor, Professor and Head, DRTC (in 1962–65, 1965–72, 1972–78 respectively); Visiting Professor/Lecturer, Library/Information Services Schools, University of Western Ontario, Canada; University of Pittsburgh, Rhode Island and Syracuse (United States); Minas Gerais and Brasilia (Brazil); CONACYT (Mexico); Manila (Philippines); ISTIC (China); Simon Bolivar (Venezuela); Addis Ababa (Ethiopia); and Papua New Guinea. He was with UNESCO as Project Co-ordinator, UNESCO-UNDP PostGraduate Training Course for Science Information Specialists in South-East Asia (1978–82); and at the Headquarters in Paris as Chief, Institution Building and Networking, and PGI Regional Adviser, Asia-Pacific (1982–86). He undertook technical assistance missions for UNESCO and IDRC to many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, the Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean. He was Chairman, UNISIST Advisory Committee (1974–78) and Chairman, FID/CR (1973–80). Professor Neelameghan has published over 200 research papers and technical reports, and eight books, and is Editor of Information Studies (Bangalore). He received the ASIS/SIG III award for promoting international co-operation (1983) and the FID/CR Ranganathan Award (1992).

Arashanipalai Neelameghan 216, 4th Main Road 16 Cross Road Malleswaram West Bangalore 560055 India Fax: 80-843-02-65 E-mail: [email protected]