Libraries of the World

This is a guide to the initiatives around the world that have been established to make information more accessible for global patrons. Also included are links to web accessible libraries around the world.

Initiatives

ARMA International
ARMA is an organization of information management professionals aiming to share information and expertise in order to achieve organizational success. Members include information professionals as well as archivists, hospital administrators, and legal administrators from the United States and over 30 other counties.Members have access to each other through a listserv, local chapters, an annual conference, and a quarterly newsletter.

Coalition for Networked Information

The Coalition for Networked Information was founded in 1990 to create more effective ways to share and preserve information. Members are from various disciplines and countries; from libraries to publishers to software providers from Australia, Canada, and the United States. Projects include Working Together: Promoting Collaboration Among Information Professionals and the Access to Public Information Program.

The Getty Conservation Institute

The Institute was originally founded in 1985 to ensure the preservation of world cultures through information exchange and development of preservation practices. It has a multidisciplinary collection of 25,000 volumes supported by over 500 online catalogs and 70 CD-ROM's. Libraries and Universities worldwide are able to access their holdings via the Web. Conservation and preservation materials and resources are also available for those looking to help continue the effort.

The Information Systems Co-Ordination Committee
The Committee was founded in 1993 following the discontinuation of the Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Information Systems in the United Nations. The Committee makes recommendations and gives advice concerning information technology and standards. It also provides an electronic repository on information system
developments within the United Nations system and connects Member states to collected and standardized information. Ongoing meetings and reports continuously analyze and develop the best ways to share information globally.

International Association of Research Libraries
The International Association of Research Libraries (ARL) plays an active role in shaping and promoting the status of research libraries. The Association articulates the concerns of
research libraries and their institutions, forges coalitions, influences information policy development, and supports innovation and improvement in research library operations. Members include 122 institutions in North America. Projects include the Digital Initiatives Database and the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage.

International Coalition of Library Consortia
The Coalition began in 1997 and is an informal group of 79 institutions interested in matters affecting higher education libraries. Members include libraries from United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and other countries.Links to member libraries web pages are provided.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
IFLA exists to provide "a forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research and development in all fields of library activity and information service....one of the means through which libraries, information centres and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests and find solutions for global problems." Presently IFLA has over 1600 members and is working on projects involving digital libraries, the Internet, and copyright.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO began in 1946 and currently has 188 International Member states. As a way to fulfill its main purpose of contributing to peace and security in the world, UNESCO performs studies, sets standards, provides expertise, and exchanges information among nations. The UNESCO Library , located in France, has an online bibliographic database (UNESBIB) that allows searching the collection from 1972 onwards.

The Observatory on the Information Society is the branch of UNESCO that serves to raise awareness on the constant evolution of ethical, legal and societal challenges brought about by new technologies. Included in their studies are issues of globalization of the information society, privacy and confidentiality, content regulation, access to public domain information, and multilingualism.
The Globalization of the Information Society pages offer a list of links to regions and countries and their information plans. Also included is an annotated list of links to International Organizations containing their purposes, reports, and statements.
The Memory of the World Programme is the branch of UNESCO that serves to preserve and disseminate the archival holdings of the world's libraries. Projects include collecting and preserving postcards, photographs and slave trade information. An annotated list of links provides access to other preservation and information commissions and institutes.

United Nations Information: The Spire Project

This site, created by David Novak, provides a user-friendly guide to the information contained within the United Nations. A link is provided to the UN's web site, but Novak find this too large. He provides a gateway to search UNIONS, the United Nations International Organizations Network Search. Links are also provided to the UN official web site locator and UN related web sites. Another gateway for searching is the [US] Library of Congress Experimental Search System for books published by the UN, World Health Organizations, and others. A link to an alphabetical list of UN depository libraries is also provided. In addition to these links Novak provides a useful strategy guide with 6 steps to finding UN information and a summary of what the site has offered.

Links to World Libraries and Information

IFLANET: Web Accessible National and Major Libraries
This page from IFLA lists links alphabetically by country the web accessible national and major libraries of the world. Also provided are links to an address list, general resources, organizations and companies, and policy statements of the national libraries of the world.

Most major university libraries provide links to foreign and international information through the government documents area of their library. This is a list of a few that are particularly helpful:

University of Kansas
Search by agencies, subject, countries, or regions.
University of Liverpool--Chester College
Links provided to general sites, academic libraries, national libraries, other libraries (specialized such as art, natural history, science), librarianship and information studies, academic library links, Innopac, and other resources.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Links provided to embassy information, the European Union, foreign governments, international documents, international information by subject, international statistics, list of international organizations, miscellaneous international information, the Parliamentary Documents Center for Central Europe, Union of International Associations, the United Nations, and U.S. Agencies with an International Focus.
University of Saskatchewan
Links provided to HYTELNET (automatic logins to library catalogs world-wide via Telnet), webCATS (uses World Wide Web to access library catalogs), library directories and groups by country.
University of Virginia
Links to libraries in each country with very brief annotations.
Yale University
Links to Canadian documents, European Union documents, Food and Agriculture Organization documents, United Nations documents, other International Organizations, and Foreign National governments.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jimbooth@charleston.net

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