National and international library planning: Key papers presented at the 40th session of the IFLA General Council, Washington, DC, 1974 9783111356648, 9783794044245

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L FEDERATION OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE BIBLIOTHÉCAIRES I N T E R N A T I O N A L E R VERBAND DER B I B L I O T H E K A R - V E R E I N E M E J K f l y H A P O A H A H Φ Ε Λ Ε Ρ Α Ι ί Μ Η EHEJIMOTEHHblX A C C O U M A U M f l

I FLA Publications 4

National and International Library Planning Key papers presented at the 40th Session of the IFLA General Council, Washington, DC, 1974 Edited by Robert Vosper and Leone I. Newkirk

Verlag Dokumentation, Publishers, München 1976

IFLA Publications edited by W. R. H. Koops and P. Havard-Williams

Recommended catalog entry: National and International Library Planning. Key papers presented at the 40th Session of the IFLA General Council, Washington, D.C., 1974. Edited by Robert Vosper and Leone I. Newkiik. München: Verlag Dokumentation, 1976. 162 p.; 21 cm (IFLA Publications, 4) ISBN 3-7940-4424-X

Publisher: Verlag Dokumentation Saur KG, München D-8000 München 71, POB 71 10 09, Federal Republic of Germany © 1976 by International Federation of Library Associations, The Hague, The Netherlands Printed and bound by Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg ISBN 3-7940-4424-X

CONTENTS

Preface

7

Robert Vosper National and International Library Planning

9

C. R. Zäher Unesco and National Library Planning

15

Frederick Burkhardt National Library Planning in the United States

20

Ν. M. Sikorsky Library Planning in the Soviet Union

35

H. T. Hookway National Library Planning in Britain

43

Franz Georg Kaltwasser Bibliotheksplan 73 for the Federal Republic of Germany

51

Joyce L. Robinson National Planning for Libraries in Developing Countries The Jamaican Situation

69

Hedwig Anuar TTie Planning of National Libraries in Southeast Asia

80

F. A. Ogunsheye Library Education and Manpower Planning in Africa

99

N. Ansari (Mohaghegh) National Planning and Academic Libraries in Western Asia

116

Esko Häkli National Planning of Research Libraries in Scandinavia

122

John P. McDonald National Planning and Academic Libraries in the United States

135

Appendix Unesco, National Information Systems (NATIS)

145

PREFACE The general theme of IFLA's 1974 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., "national and international library planning," was timely and represented a logical development in IFLA's long-term activities. The 1973 meeting in Grenoble had concentrated, with both enthusiasm and professional competence, on "universal bibliographic control." It is evident that the gradual design of an effective system of UBC requires a strengthening of our capabilities for large-scale library planning, concurrently at both national and international levels. In the first instance, the UBC program is based in the responsibility, and capability, of every nation to develop a current, authoritative bibliographic record of each of its new publications, and eventually a similar retrospective record, in a form which is internationally acceptable, for both manual and machine handling; this task in itself will require for almost all nations a much neater system of national library effort than is presently in effect. The next stage, now under way through IFLA's new International Office for UBC in London, requires the worldwide exchange of national records and their effective integration at the international level to form the total system. Moreover, it must be clear that libraries are not concerned solely with the development and application of standardized bibliographic records. The exchangeable records are intended to facilitate appropriate access to and use of the recorded material. More recently IFLA has established at Boston Spa, Yorkshire, again by way of the generous collaboration of the British Library, an Office for International Lending. This forthcoming effort will also require a better functioning of both national and international library practices. As the papers herewith published will remind us, there is widespread recognition of the need for better library planning at the national level. Recognition of this need has particularly been fostered by Unesco in a series of projects culminating in the September 1974 Intergovernmental Conference on that very subject. So it was indeed timely in Washington to exchange library planning experiences from a variety of nations. It is also clear that at the international level there are fewer models to follow, so careful attention to procedures and mechanisms is essential. It is heartening that each of the principal speakers, as these papers indicate, pointed out that the achievement of their national goals depends on a coordinated international effort. The papers presented at Washington, and thus the selection printed here, were not intended to produce a textbook on planning nor an extensive state-of-theart survey. Those useful tools will come from other sponsorship.* * For a recent state-of-the-art survey, see: Foster E. Mohrhardt and Carlos Victor Penna, "National Planning for Library and Information Services," pp. 61 - 1 0 6 in Advances in Librarianship, vol. 5 (New York: Academic Press, 1975). The Unesco Press, 1975, has published Planning National Infrastructures for Documentation, Libraries and Archives; Outlines of a General Policy by J. H. d'Olier and B. Delmas. As is noted later in my introductory paper, the International Institute for Educational Planning expects t o issue a handbook.

7

Rather this was an attempt to heighten awareness, to generate further reflection and enthusiasm, to suggest something of the variety of national experiences in differing cultural situations and at differing levels of library experience, and to encourage further effort. It is to be regretted especially that it was not possible to include a paper dealing with public library experience, and that such important fields as statistics, planning methodology, finance, and curricular reform are not dealt with here. But this lack will only indicate general gaps in our experience to which the profession must soon give self-conscious attention. The editors are grateful to the authors of the papers for agreeing to their publication in this volume and for accepting the modification of American idiom. A listing of all the General Council 1974 papers appears on pages 135—137 of IFLA Journal, Vol. 1 (1975), No. 2, together with indication of where original copies are deposited and of how microfiche copies may be ordered through the ERIC system. Los Angeles

8

R. Vosper

CHAPTER I

National and International Library Planning Robert Vosper Our good friend and long-time Unesco colleague Carlos Penna foresightedly provided a basic document for the theme of this conference. The introduction to his pioneering work, The Planning of Library and Documentation Services, rings the bell clearly: A number of recent developments have emphasized the need to focus more attention on the planning, at the national and international levels, of library and documentation services. In many of the less-developed countries there is the sombre challenge of growing populations still without access to the printed word. Conversely, the more developed countries are finding that the twin challenges of the growth of research and the improvement of educational standards and the equally striking growth in the number of publications to which access is required call for a more systematic and planned approach to the provision of library and documentation services. Meanwhile both developed and developing countries are constantly subject to economic pressures and have been awakened to the necessity of reaching their objectives with the minimum of fragmentation and waste. (1) These are key challenges that this 1974 IFLA General Council meeting would respond to, but other underlying factors should be kept in mind as well. The rising cost of information sources and services, as well as the increase in the numbers of publications and other information sources themselves, has had an impact on even the most affluent countries. Equally important has been the growing recognition on the part of governments that efficient access to information is an essential tool of national development — economic and industrial as well as educational and cultural development. Functions of Libraries This recognition has been coupled more recently with a broadened realization that libraries are a necessary component of any effective information-dependent system, whether it be an educational system or a science information system. The library is society's most experienced, widely accepted, and flexible agency for the delivery of information from a variety of sources and a variety of formats The author is professor in the Graduate School o f Library and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles. 1) 2nd Edition, revised and enlarged by P. H. Sewell and Herman Liebaers (Paris: U n e s c o , 1970)

9

to the eventual user — whether to an individual or a group; at various levels of need, from beginning literacy to advanced scholarship; and selectively from the whole spectrum of intellectual interest, a matter of particular importance when the disciplinary frontiers are continually shifting, fragmenting, and interacting in new patterns. It will also be kept in mind that in addition to the delivery of information, the library can serve other crucial societal functions. It records and thus helps make sense out of the cultural heritage; it provides spiritual and esthetic sustenance; it fosters the transmission of wisdom and ideas; and it encourages life-long learning. Library Collaboration with Other Institutions Librarians have long known that their libraries cannot function successfully in isolation, but only through collaboration with other libraries and with other institutions concerned with the organization and transmission of knowledge and information - the schools, publishers, and booksellers. Librarians have long since dismissed the idea of the self-sufficient, autonomous library. The directors of even the largest learned libraries have long known that without the cooperative assistance of other libraries they can neither provide the publications their readers need nor can they acquire the bibliographical data essential to efficient functioning. Over the years such interlibrary cooperation has been fostered at a variety of governmental levels — large metropolitan areas, multicounty systems, and provincial or state-level programs in the larger countries. More recently the necessity for national library planning has spread throughout the world. It is clear that the Soviet Union led the way during the 1930s and 1940s, with a sequence of five-year national library plans that were an integral part of the overall governmental concept of central economic and social planning. Then the newer countries of the world - India, Jamaica, and Ghana, for example — faced with the necessity of initiating modern library and educational services where none had existed before, and faced also with obvious shortages of trained manpower, library materials, and funds, wisely instituted overall library development programs. And most recently in the 1950s and 1960s the established, Western countries began to follow a similar path as the need for national planning for social services in general became clear and as better tools for the design of large-scale library systems became available. The style of interlibrary cooperation has also varied. Voluntary programs have served a useful function, especially those fostered by professional associations as in the United Kingdom. More recently formalized interinstitutional compacts and consortia (such as the Center for Research Libraries in the United States) have played an increasingly useful role in a pluralistic society. But the current trend has been to seek the support, participation, and even direction of national governments, as in Canada, Great Britain, and the Federal Republic of Germany, following on the somewhat earlier experience of the Soviet Union and the developing countries. 10

It has in fact been said that "In the present age, only governments have the opportunity and the resources necessary to create the conditions for the functioning of a national system for information transfer that meets the needs of the whole community."(2) One value to come from this IFLA General Council meeting is the opportunity to observe and learn from a variety of experiences, in differing governmental settings, with balancing the requirements of large-scale national planning against appropriate sensitivity to variable local needs and local initiative. Of equal importance will be the delicate balancing of governmental involvement with the capabilities of professional associations, industrial enterprise, private foundations, and other nongovernmental bodies. For the provision of social and educational services, experience and requirements will vary as between federal and unitary governments, socialist and free enterprise societies, and countries with a tradition of strong central ministries and those with a decentralized structure. The formal papers to be presented this week, from which we can all benefit, will reveal a rich variety of differing techniques. Trends to Interdependence Libraries, of course, have not been alone in following this trend from local to national planning, from autonomous to interdependent institutions. Public education has gone a similar route and at a somewhat faster pace. Even universities, traditionally the most proudly independent of social institutions, are involved today in the same process and for similar reasons. Even in countries lacking a central ministry of higher education, new coordinating bodies at the state (i.e., provincial) and national levels are playing a more insistent role in the planning, funding, and administration of universities. A recent book edited by James A. Perkins for the International Council for Educational Development, Higher Education: From Autonomy to Systems , (3) containing a review of developments in a dozen countries, provides useful comparative information for librarians as well as educators about this whole organizational process. Dr. Perkins points to an illuminating analogy when he reminds us that a distinguished scientist (who incidentally is a director of the Council on Library Resources), Caryl Haskins, "has provided a useful model for the study of organisms and organizations. . . In his book Of Societies and Men he relates how growth leads to complexity, complexity to specialization, and specialization to integration." The international concern of librarians today, one can say, is the integration of knowledge. Governmental intervention or participation at all levels is then the pattern of the day. The end value, one trusts, is more effective public service and a higher level of public responsibility. At the same time we should turn an attentive ear to the cautionary analysis of The Bureaucratization of the World (4) by an 2) Working Documenti.3.2., Intergovernmental Conference (Paris: Unesco, 1974). 3) New York: Manhattan Publishing Co., 1972. 4) Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. (Originally published as Die Bürokraft· sierung der Welt. Neuwied-Berlin: Luchterhand, 1969.)

11

eminent international official, Henry Jacoby. He is concerned that man is increasingly directed and controlled by central agencies, which do indeed afford efficiency and productivity but at a bureaucratic price of potential stultification, manipulation, and impenetrability. The trend toward large-scale interinstitutional participation and central planning has been stimulated by a variety o f powerful external forces, as has been indicated. At the same time this trend has been facilitated by the development of new technical and conceptual tools. More sophisticated devices for the organization, storage, and transmission o f information and images have facilitated a degree of interlibrary cooperation that was not feasible at an earlier stage, even though the need was recognized. In parallel, the very concepts of systems and networks, o f systems science and systems design, as theorized by scholars in engineering and management have facilitated the centralizing trend. Tools for Planning Yet we do not even now have readily available all the tools needed for wise planning and operation o f such systems. For one matter, Unesco and I F L A need to improve the quality and comparability of statistical information, including economic data, about libraries and related book activities. The need for better economic data was made clear, for example, in the report of the Mohonk Conference, ( 5 ) which made the important point that national library planning should involve not only librarians but also educators and publishers and, particularly, planners and economists concerned with both national and international development programs. But better statistics are only one aspect o f the improvement needed in our fund of knowledge about large-scale library planning. Educators have had the advantage since 1963 of the research and training support provided by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), created by Unesco and other bodies. At this stage in the history of librarianship, with national planning under way throughout the world and with the new frontier of international planning before us, librarianship very much needs similar support to that afforded by IIEP. Whether that existing agency's scope and capabilities could be expanded to include library and information needs is one question that might be explored. It is of optimistic interest that IIEP has recently contracted for a manual on library planning within the educational sphere. Not the least of our needs is the enrichment of the library training programs in order to develop rather quickly a generation o f young librarians capable of designing, criticizing, and managing large-scale library systems and their technical components. In this educational effort we should adopt and profit from the newer skills in the engineering, management, and public administration professions.

5) Francis KeppeL The Mohonk Conference: 1972).

12

A Report (New York: National Book Committee,

Programs for Multinational Cooperation These needs for new skills and tools are the more urgent now that we move forcefully onto the new frontier of international library planning where there are fewer models to observe than in the national setting. Yet even in this larger setting there is a commendable library tradition, for librarians have long viewed their profession in international terms. The Scandia Plan is an exemplary multinational cooperative program for collection development on an international scale. The American Farmington Plan had a similar global approach to library procurement, involving cooperative agreements with book dealers and national libraries in many countries. The particular importance of the Farmington Plan to this IFLA conference is that it led directly t o that more recent American enterprise, the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging, sometimes called the Library of Congress Shared Cataloging Program. And that in due course led directly to IFLA's program for Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC). The dramatic and successful story of the inception of what is now IFLA's International Office for UBC has been so recently and so well reported that it need not be repeated here.(6) But a few points should be made. First of all, we should recall that the concept of UBC is of course not new but is one of the oldest dreams of librarians, bibliographers, and scholars. From Konrad von Gesner's Biblioteca Universalis of 1545 to UNISIST in our own day, the dream of a total bibliographical record has persisted. Now by way of IFLA's plan for action we may finally have a proper mechanism. This time we have the advantage of the computer as a powerful tool for storing, manipulating, and reproducing such a record. Moreover, as a result of IFLA's long-term careful and persistent work toward international standards for cataloging, we are now able t o face up t o the computer's firm requirements for standardization. But the greatest advantage we now have, beyond obvious professional expertise and leadership, is the widespread enthusiasm on the part of librarians throughout the world for collaborating in the intricate and exacting tasks of UBC. IFLA's 1973 General Council meeting in Grenoble gave full demonstration that the time is now ripe for once again taking up Gesner's challenge. It is IFLA's UBC program, then, that has suddenly raised our sights t o the level of practical international library planning, while also making clear that the international effort must be based in sound national planning. At the same time it is clear that successful national library planning requires first of all the international linkage that a mutually agreed upon and usable universal bibliographic record can provide. That is the theme of this 1974 conference, and that interactive theme of national and international planning is made clear in the several formal papers on the agenda. The leadership and support of Unesco and the Council on Library Resources, focussed through IFLA's professional competence, have moved us to this exciting point in bibliothecal history. T o the Council goes particular credit for fostering 6) Dorothy Andersorui/mversn/ Bibliographic Control (Munich: Verlag Dokumentation,

1974).

13

the steady march toward international standards for cataloging ever since the Paris Conference of 1961 and the prior planning for that landmark meeting. To Unesco goes particular credit for persistent guidance and encouragement in national planning - by way of the four regional meeting? of experts on the national planning of library services, beginning with Quito in 1966 and proceeding to Colombo in 1967, Kampala in 1970, and Cairo in 1974, and including along the way Carlos Penna's basic textbook. That path has culminated in Unesco's recent Intergovernmental Conference, in Paris, on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures. That Intergovernmental Conference in effect sets the stage for this session of IFLA. Our first order of business, therefore, is to bring before this body of working librarians an early report of the Paris deliberations so that we can analyze them, react to them, and consider how to fit them into our practical work. Our primary hope is that the Paris deliberations will have given precise attention to the need for substantial financial support for the UBC program and for the next stages of national and international library planning. For substantial financial support will be required to move from the theory of planning to the practical operation of national and international systems. Our colleagues in the less affluent parts of the world assure us that while advice on planning is needed and welcome, it will only be frustrating if there is no hardheaded recognition of the need for stepped-up resources. Here is a powerful message for officials of development and aid agencies at both national and international levels. That message was clear also in the discussions at the Mohonk Conference. On opening this IFLA conference we should be clear that the ultimate goal of our mutual efforts in the broad field of bibliographical and bibliothecal planning is improved access to library and informational materials for all the peoples of the world. As our British colleague D. J. Urquhart has reminded us, our overall theme sould be Universal Bibliographic Access. On opening this conference we might also take heart from the fact that in a world increasingly fractionated along ideological, linguistic, political, and even religious lines, there is a demonstrable forward surge of library unity. Through our humble efforts to support the universality and integration of knowledge we may at least help to bind up the world's wounds. Perhaps the universal language of the future will be MARC! We now enter into the working conference, beginning with the umbrella report from Paris, proceeding through a select group of papers on overall national planning efforts in the general as well as the specialized sessions, and profiting from a rich variety of other technical papers on many aspects of the planning process, from statistics to manpower.

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CHAPTER II

Unesco and National Library Planning C.R. Zäher

It is a great pleasure for me to participate in this fortieth meeting of the IFLA General Council and to convey to you the greetings and warm wishes of the Director-General of Unesco for the success of your meeting. Washington is a particularly suitable place for IFLA to meet, since the United States is one of the very first countries to have a national library association, whose numerous and diverse activities are known to librarians throughout the world. On the other hand, this is an occasion for all of us here today to profit from the wide experience of American institutions in the information field and to exchange views and experiences. Intergovernmental Conference on Planning for Information Services I should like to express Unesco's appreciation to the members of the IFLA Board and other IFLA members for their cooperation in the preparation and organization of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures, convened by Unesco in cooperation with IFLA, the International Federation of Documentation (FID), and the International Council on Archives (ICA), which met in Paris from 23 to 27 September 1974. This Intergovernmental Conference brought together 254 delegates from 86 member states of Unesco and 63 observers from other organizations of the United Nations System, other intergovernmental organizations, and international nongovernmental organizations and foundations. Its successful outcome was the wholehearted and unanimous support given by developing and advanced countries alike for the concept of national information systems, known under the acronym of NATIS, and the objectives set forth for transforming this concept into action. It is particularly timely and appropriate, therefore, that this IFLA meeting should have as its theme "National and International Library Planning"; and so that your discussions can be carried on in the light of this new program, I have been asked to explain what is meant by NATIS and how Unesco proposes to relate its future activities to this new program to be carried on in collaboration with IFLA and other organizations.

The author is acting d i r e c t o r o f the D e p a r t m e n t o f D o c u m e n t a t i o n , Libraries, and Archives o f Unesco.

15

The Need for NATIS Before doing so, however, I would like to outline the framework within which NATIS can play its role in the world today. Unesco, like other United Nations specialized agencies, has been given certain tasks in implementation of the United Nations' World Plan of Action for the Application of Science and Technology to Development, prepared for the Second United Nations Development Decade, particularly as regards efforts " t o improve the facilities and arrangements for the transfer of existing knowledge and technology from developed countries to less developed ones." To achieve this goal, Unesco has carried on activities in the field of information, among which we should emphasize the successful development of the UNISIST program, directed towards the problems of scientific and technical information. Now, a new challenge is facing the UN System, and Unesco has been given a role in the common effort called for in the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, which was adopted unanimously at the Sixth Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Referring to this declaration, the Director-General of Unesco, in his address delivered on 5 July at the Fifty-seventh Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, emphasized that Unesco's contribution will bear principally on the social aspect of the problems. "The now accepted expression, 'new international economic order' should not be taken literally, otherwise, we might be seriously misled as to the scope and nature of what is being undertaken. The social aspect, however, is at least as crucial as the economic aspect, for the twofold reason that the social element is an essential element in development, and in any work of international justice." But the term "social" should be interpreted in its broadest and loftiest sense, to include and give expression to the cultural element. "The social reality of development," the Director-General stated, "is something much more than material well-being: human dignity is at least as important a part of it as happiness. The term 'the quality of life' expresses this twofold demand for happiness and dignity, a demand incomprehensible without reference to culture, which our contemporaries, and particularly the younger generation, are coming more and more to see as the criterion of genuine development." A major element in the improvement of the quality of life, however, must be the amount of knowledge each individual can acquire. Information has, therefore, become an essential basis for this improvement and a vital instrument in the progress of civilization and society. In this context, each individual should have access to the information he seeks, and this is only possible through better information services that help to achieve a society in which citizens, individually and collectively, can cope with the problems of everyday life, can improve human relationships in their own communities and between peoples of differing cultures and traditions, and thus contribute to better understanding and world cooperation. This is the basic aim of NATIS.

16

The main concerns that have led to the formulation of the concept of NATIS are the need for systematic planning of information infrastructures so as to utilize fully the information accumulated at the national level and to be able to participate in, and benefit from, existing and future world information systems in various fields of activity and the need for coordinated planning of information resources so as to achieve greater efficiency or improve indigenous capabilities and for creating new ones. These needs have clearly emerged from the meetings held by Unesco in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Arab States, as preparatory to the Intergovernmental Conference. When analyzing the many efforts that have been made in the past to provide access to the world's store of information, we find that the emphasis was placed either on special groups or on specific problems, all equally important for overcoming some of the obstacles to the free flow and exchange of information so essential for progress. However, each of these efforts made its contribution to only one particular aspect of the complex process of facilitating access to information, without achieving full impact on the problem as a whole. Similarly, the UNISIST, INIS (International Nuclear Information System), AGRIS (an international information system for the agricultural sciences and technology), and other programs for world information, all dealing with specific areas, are based on the principle of coordination and voluntary cooperation at the international level of the relevant existing national institutional components in the corresponding area. However, information infrastructures in both developing and industrialized countries are at very different stages of development, making it almost impossible for some of them that are just beginning to lay the foundations of their infrastructure to participate in, or benefit from, these highly sophisticated universal programs. NATIS Guidelines The acceptance of the concept of NATIS and its objectives, which are designed to provide a framework for concerted action at the national level, provides governments with a set of guidelines that will enable them to give a unified sense of direction and common aim to the diverse information activities being carried out in specific subject fields. By coordinating the national counterparts of the international program through overall planning, all the elements that constitute NATIS will be brought together in a balanced program that will enable each country, whatever its stage of development, not only to reap the full benefit from these world systems, but also to participate in a two-way flow of the information resources available to the world community. Thus NATIS provides an umbrella-like framework under which the activities of the international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and Unesco in the fields of information, encompassing documentation, libraries, and archives, can be brought together under a concept aimed at a coherent program of activities at national and international levels with specific goals to be achieved. 17

The NATIS concept implies that the government - national, state, or local should maximize the availability of all relevant information through documentation, library, and archives services just as in principle it takes responsibility for the basic education, at primary and secondary levels, of its citizens. It also implies that the NATIS structure will vary in different countries, but coordination of all its elements must be the main goal. The Aims of NATIS The elements that should constitute NATIS are all services involved in the provision of specific information for all sectors of the community and for all categories of user. Its task is to ensure that all who are engaged in political, economic, scientific, technological, educational, social, or cultural activities receive the necessary information enabling them to render their fullest contribution to the whole society. To achieve these aims, a national information plan will have to be developed, in accordance with an established information policy, and implemented, taking into account the priorities of national overall and sectoral planning. The plan should reflect the existing situation and possible ways of improving it, using to ' the maximum the human and physical resources available. It should provide for the creation of new capabilities and facilities backed up by a legislative framework and adequate financial provision for its effective implementation. An analysis of the performance and objectives of all types of libraries (national, public, school, university, special), documentation activities (data banks, abstracting and indexing services, national information analysis centers, etc.), and archives will show that coordination will improve their efficiency and make it possible to meet the demands of users more efficiently. The launching of this program by Unesco was approved by the General Conference at its Eighteenth Session, taking into account the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Conference, which approved and amended document COM/74/ NATIS/3, which defines the NATIS concept and objectives. A resolution unanimously accepted by the commission examining the communication program, which, I am sure, has been accepted by the plenary session of the General Conference meeting now in Paris, authorizes the Director-General of Unesco (1)

(2)

(3)

18

to promote the general concept of overall planning of national infrastructures of documentation, libraries, and archives and to invite member states to take appropriate steps to create or improve their national information systems; to assist member states, especially the developing countries, to plan and develop their national infrastructures or national information systems (NATIS) in such a way as to ensure coordination at the national level and to prepare the bases for active participation in world information systems; to draw up a long-term program of action to this end and submit it to the Nineteenth Session of the General Conference;

(4)

(5)

to take into account, in drawing up this program, the recommendations approved by the Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures, the UNISIST program, and other relevant programs developed by Unesco and other international organizations, taking the necessary measures to avoid the development of overlapping activities; to take all necessary steps to ensure the most effective implementation of actions in support of NATIS within the program and budget for 1975-76.

Since the main objectives of NATIS are to enable each country to develop its information infrastructures so as to fulfil potential and real information needs of all categories of users, it is regarded by Unesco as a complementary program to UNISIST and as a culmination of efforts made by Unesco in the last decades towards achieving a systematic approach to the problems involved in the transfer of information. Financial and Technical Support for NATIS In many countries, the launching of NATIS will require financial and technical assistance from national and international sources. Unesco, therefore, proposes to draw up a program of action with short- and longterm objectives to achieve the purposes of NATIS in its member states. In this program, support will be given to efforts to achieve Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC), which aims to achieve the universal availability in an internationally accepted interchange form of basic bibliographic data on all publications. Unesco regards this project, studied and proposed by IFLA, as a basic program for the success of NATIS development. In the next biennium, therefore, Unesco will make a contribution for the maintenance of the UBC Clearinghouse and will give assistance for carrying out a number of studies connected with UBC. A further activity will be the convening of a meeting to study, in collaboration with IFLA, actions to be carried on in the future. In developing the NATIS program, Unesco will utilize the collaboration of the appropriate international nongovernmental organizations and hopes to establish a more effective and flexible form of cooperation through a more systematic analysis of common programs in order to reinforce their coordination. IFLA, through its national members will, I hope, take concerted action to support Unesco in its efforts to create or improve the national information systems in its member states in accordance with the NATIS concept, of which one of the basic foundations is bibliographical control at the national level, so that all countries, on an equal basis, can enjoy full access to the information they need for their economic, social, and cultural development.

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CHAPTER III

National Library Planning in the United States Frederick Burkhardt I am indeed honored that the program committee for this General Council meeting has asked me, as chairman of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, to welcome you officially on behalf of the United States government. I know I represent the sentiments of all those concerned with library work in and out of government when I say how happy we are that IFLA is, for the first time in its history, holding its General Council meeting in this country. This occasion will give us the opportunity of expressing how much library developments in the United States owe to the leadership of IFLA and how important it has been to us to cooperate in its sessions, committees, and working groups. I need only refer to two of the most important national library developments in the U.S. - the international shared cataloging program, known in this country as the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging, and the MARC program. Neither of these programs could have made progress toward its objectives without the substantial international cooperation and communication fostered by IFLA. And more recently, the dramatic inauguration by IFLA of the program for Universal Bibliographic Control has inspired us all with its long-range vision and initiative. I hope that many of you will be able to take the opportunity of this meeting to travel about this country to meet with your fellow librarians and to visit our collections and schools. I can assure you of a warm reception, a deep interest in what you are doing, and a ready disposition to learn from you. And so, on behalf of your colleagues and mine in the United States, I bid you welcome and wish you a meeting so successful and enjoyable that you will not wait long before you return. The theme of IFLA's fortieth General Council meeting, National and International Library Planning, is not only an important and urgent one, it is a particularly timely one for us in the United States because we have recently begun the process of formulating a national program for library and information service. We look forward to learning from the papers and discussions at this conference and to seeing how what we are doing compares and relates to the planning of other countries. In this paper, I shall discuss the background and general outline of the U.S. national program. ν Since most of what I have to report at this time will necessarily be focussed on the national effort, let me at the outset say something about the international The author is chairman of the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and president emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies.

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aspects of our planning. We have tried to keep two fundamental points in mind throughout. First, the national plan or program must strive to be compatible with other national programs and with developing international and global programs. In practice this means that national planning must go on in the context of, and be constantly accompanied by, participation in international planning in order to achieve maximum interaction and communication. The second point is the reason this is so necessary, namely, that access to the knowledge and information resources of the entire world is essential to the development of every nation. This means that we must give active support and encouragement to all efforts to provide international linkages and access. In the United States we think of ourselves as having an abundance of information — sometimes even a superfluity — but one has only to think of the scholars and scientists and of those in government and business whose work requires use of library and data collections all over the world to realize how dependent we are on extranational resources and how important it is to support the work of international agencies, such as IFLA, that seek to bring those resources into a cooperative system. So, while the rest of what I have to say is concerned mainly with the national needs and objectives of the United States, it should be understood that this is a matter of emphasis only, for in our minds national and international planning are inseparable. Inception of the Commission Before describing the current work of the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science on a national program, it will be useful to give a brief account of the commission's origin, structures, and general authority. During and after World War II, a tremendous expansion in scientific research and in technological development, especially in computer technology and information transfer techniques, combined with a rapid expansion in postsecondary education to produce an intense concern with the country's library and information requirements. The rapid pace of development in all fields of knowledge created the problem of keeping up with the so-called knowledge explosion and raised the question of whether the traditional library and information services were adequate to the needs of the modern world, while, at the same time, the great potentialities of the new information technology became apparent — though it did not prove to be easy to bring it to bear on the problems. These were problems not only of the quantity of knowledge but also of the complexity of the kinds of knowledge and their interrelationship. In 1966, President Johnson appointed a National Advisory Commission on Libraries to investigate these and related matters. After two years of work the commission produced a number of studies and a report.(l) 1) The report is reproduced and most of the studies are summarized in Libraries at Large, Douglas M. Knight, chairman of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries, and E. Shepley Nourse, Commission's staff member, editors. (New York and London: R.R. Bowker Co., 1969) 21

A major conclusion of the advisory commission was that library and information needs and developments of the nation were such as to require continuing planning and coordination. It accordingly recommended that a National C cm mission on Libraries and Information Science be established as a permanent agency to advise the President and Congress on the needs of the nation. This recommendation was acted upon by the Ninety-first Congress, and on July 20, 1970, Public Law 9 1 - 3 4 5 was signed into law by President Nixon. The act created the National Commission as an independent agency and gave it the following comprehensive charges and powers: (1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5) (6)

advise the President and the Congress on the implementation of national policy by such statements, presentations, and reports as it deems appropriate; conduct studies, surveys, and analyses of the library and informational needs of the Nation, including the special library and informational needs of rural areas and of economically, socially or culturally deprived persons, and the means by which these needs may be met through information centers, through the libraries of elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education, and through public, research, special, and other types of libraries; appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and evaluate the effectiveness of current library and information science programs; develop overall plans for meeting national library and informational needs and for the coordination of activities at the Federal, State, and local levels, taking into consideration all of the library and informational resources of the Nation to meet those needs; be authorized to advise Federal, State, local, and private agencies regarding library and information sciences; promote research and development activities which will extend and improve the Nation's library and information-handling capability as essential links in the national communications network.

The commission consists of the Librarian of Congress ex officio and fourteen appointed members, five of whom are to be professional librarians or information specialists and at least one in addition who shall be knowledgeable with respect to the technological aspects of library and information science. As an introduction to the work of the commission, I should like to refer to a very informative document I have been reading called ifla and the role of libraries, a background document for Unesco's Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures held in Paris in September 1974. In the first of a series of chapters that condense a great deal of expert knowledge, the author, writing on "Planning of Library Development," says:

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The basic point upon which emphasis has to be laid is that the decisions taken in respect of library development are fundamentally of a political nature. The first step in the planning of library services is the identification of the objectives of the service, and this must be in the context of the overall national development.. . . Even in the most technologically advanced countries, where library services have been established for a very long time, it has come to be realised that future developments must be planned on a national basis and not in the fragmented, ad hoc way which has been characteristic of the past. (2) It is, I believe, accurate to say that in this country the librarians and the information science professionals have long since come to this realization and, more recently, the politicians have also, in that the Congress has established our National Commission and given us a broad charter to conduct studies of the library and informational needs of the nation and to develop overall plans for meeting those needs. But this is only the beginning: between the objectives and their realization come the work of data gathering and analysis, of establishing criteria and standards of appraisal, of planning procedures and strategies, and of realistic cost analysis. These processes are not only complex, involving professional talents of a high order, but expensive; and in these times of economic crisis and austerity it is becoming more and more difficult to find the level of funding needed to bridge the gap between the objectives and their attainment. At this writing, the Commission has a staff of five persons and a budget of $ 409,000. For the year beginning in July 1974, it requested four additional staff positions and $ 500,000, but this increase was denied by Congress. These figures may come as a surprise to some of you, and they are very small indeed compared with the library planning funds of other technologically advanced countries. The National Commission is not happy about this state of affairs and it is doing everything it can to convince Congress that planning for the future of library and information services is not only vitally important to the national interest, but, in the long range, a sound economic investment. At its first meeting, in September 1971, the Commission decided on its basic working philosophy, namely, that its work should be user oriented and that it should do whatever was necessary to discover the needs of all types of users and potential users and to investigate how to make available to them the library and information resources of the country. One of its first resolutions was an affirmation of the ideal of equal access to information for all, or, as the statement put it, "equality of access to information is as important as equality of education." In order to gain direct knowledge of the needs and views of the various user groups of the country as well as to acquaint them with its work, the Commission embarked on a series of regional hearings. So far, we have had five of them — in Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston and San Antonio. In each of them 2) Page 2.

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testimony has been heard from librarians, public officials, various groups with specialized needs, voluntary agencies, legislators, students, businessmen, information specialists, and others. During the same period the Commission has contracted for a number of studies concerned with problems on which we felt we needed more information. During the first two years the following studies were made for the Commission: (1) (2) (3) (4)

A Study of Funding Sources for Public Libraries, Analysis of Social, Economic, and Technical Requirements for Library and Information Services, Feasibility Study of Centralized and of Regionalized Interlibrary Loan Centers, Preliminary Investigation of Present and Potential Library and Information Service Needs.

The study of funding sources and the investigation of the feasibility of regional lending library centers were extended in the second year, and to them was added a study to provide recommendations for the continuing education of librarians. The authors of the report Library and Information Service Needs found that very little useful data on the information needs of various types of people had been collected or analyzed, and to fill this gap the Commission sponsored a conference which brought together a small group of research specialists with representatives of specific groups of users.(3) Steps Toward a National Library Service As a result of the first few regional hearings and after a year and a half of meetings with representatives of federal and state agencies concerned with library and information activities, of professional societies, and of various other private specialist enterprises, the Commission felt it was ready to take the first steps in the formulation of a comprehensive program to provide library and information services to the nation. In the spring of 1973, the Commission appointed a committee to draft a proposal for a national program. A short preliminary paper stating the general outlines of a coherent program and how it might work was submitted for comment to a number of information experts and to leaders of various professional library groups. By October a fuller draft was more widely distributed for further comment and then published in several of the national professional journals. As a result, over five hundred letters were received, some from individuals and some representing more or less formal statements by organizations in the library and information community. Meetings were held with representatives of the differ3) For fuller details on the studies, see the Annual Reports of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science for 1 9 7 1 - 7 2 and 1972-73. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.) (The report on the "Conference on User Needs" will be published separately during 1974.)

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ent kinds of library groups school, public, state, and academic research libraries; and representatives of multistate networks already in operation or in the planning stage were brought together to discuss the networking aspects of the proposed national program. It also was the main item on the agenda of two o f the regional meetings. As a result o f these very deliberate efforts to elicit suggestions and criticisms it became clear that there was a general consensus that the Commission was on the right track in seeking a program that was comprehensive and coherent and that was addressed to the needs of the nation as a whole. The comments also made clear the difficulties inherent in devising such a program for a nation as large and widely dispersed geographically as the United States, with a tradition of strong state and local autonomy, composed of diverse political and fiscal jurisdictions and a strong private enterprise sector. But the major result of this procedure was that the general, rather abstract, propositions of the first draft were subjected to the concerns and perspectives of a highly diversified set of users and producers of information. For example, one of the earliest reactions was afear that a centralized and federally administered information program might pose a danger to privacy of individuals. If the national program was to be acceptable, it was clear that safeguards against federal control or regulation in this area of civil rights would have to be provided. Other questions that were raised made it necessary for the Commission t o clarify the relationship of the national program to the states and local jurisdictions and to deal with the problem of how the uniform standards necessary for a national system would be established and implemented in a pluralistic society. The Commission's paper was also commented upon by all types of librarians and information specialists and by specific user groups — the ethnic minorities, the poor, the geographically remote, the handicapped, and others having special and often urgent needs to which the national program was asked to address itself. As a result o f these reactions, much of the document has been revised, new sections have been added, objectives that were only implicit have been made explicit. What is emerging is a more broadly structured program which addresses itself to the public at large and which concerns itself with a great variety of concrete needs and with a more clearly defined structure for dealing with them. A Proposed National Program The national program as it now stands is still an outline and is still undergoing criticism and revision, but it is nevertheless possible to provide a summary of its essential features. The program recommended by the Commission has the following major objectives: (1)

To ensure that all local communities are provided with basic, adequate library and information services. The Commission is convinced that only 25

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

when local resources - both material and human - have been strengthened can these vital links with the people be effective. To construct a system or network that will provide communication with greatly expanded resources is of little benefit to the local end-and-entry points if the training or material facilities to use the system effectively are lacking there. To provide adequate special services to special user constituencies — the blind and physically handicapped, the poor, the illiterate, the geographically remote, and the ethnic minorities, many of whom have no reading course, no library, or no information services at all. To strengthen existing statewide resources and systems. Since most states do not yet provide sufficient funding to their library and information activities the national program calls for formula-matched funds to help them attain at least minimum requirements in materials and services and to assist the states to form intrastate networks compatible with each other and with the nationwide network projected by the program. To develop the human resources required to implement a national program. The national program requires a new approach to the education of library personnel at all levels - an education that not only will train librarians to understand and make effective use of the new technologies, but will also provide the knowledge and disciplines needed by a complex and fast changing society. To coordinate existing federal library and information programs. The proposed national program will rely heavily on participation from the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and the hundreds of federal libraries already in operation. Federal agencies also now provide significant help in particular areas of need at the state and local levels. The Commission considers that these programs will continue to be needed if a coherent national program is to operate effectively. To make the private sector a more active partner in the development of a national program. The publishing industry, professional societies, and special and private libraries all have valuable resources and perform services that must be taken into account in planning a functioning system for the nation.

These six objectives are concerned with strengthening specific segments or components of a national program by providing the support necessary for effective operation of library and information services and by coordinating existing programs and services at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to realize these objectives the Commission proposes that there be established in the federal government a locus of operating responsibility to implement the national program by coordinating the programs of other federal agencies and by planning and building a national network of library and information services for the country. To this end the responsible agency would have authority to make grants and to enter into contracts for building and strengthening the network, 26

to establish and apply standards, to ensure compatibility of components and services, and to encourage cooperative efforts at all levels. The proposal for a nationwide network represents the major objective of the Commission to bring the present random, uncoordinated library and information services into a coordinated and coherent plan. Because it is the most novel aspect of the program, the Commission's document discusses it at greater length and in more detail than the other features of the program. Particular attention is paid to the role of the federal government in building and sustaining the network. What is envisioned, to quote the document, "is a single, unified system encompassing state networks, multistate networks, and the specialized networks in the public and private sectors." There already are in existence or in the planning stage many systems — some large and generalized, others restricted and specialized. It is proposed to bring these together into an interconnected network in which component systems would remain relatively independent in their functions. Two points should be stressed: First, that it is none too soon to start on such a network. At the present rate of technological progress, and with the growing pressures to create cooperative resource-sharing programs, there is a danger that in a short time a chaotic miscellany of systems and programs will be operating without the ability to communicate with one another. The second point to emphasize is that the network is seen as a participatory cooperative venture. It would not be a federally owned mechanism. Affiliation with it is expected to occur through formal agreements and contractual relationships among groups of libraries and other information facilities. We look to the federal government to provide computer and telecommunications facilities supporting the interstate portions of the network's activity. No library or information center would be compelled to join the network, but the federal government would, according to our recommendation, provide technical inducements and funding incentives to state governments and the private sector to strengthen their ability to affiliate. Above all, it is clear in our minds that the new federal agency should have no control over the content of the information that would flow over the network, though legal constraints that already exist in the use of the mails and communications media would of course be observed. To make possible a strong and flexible system, the federal government should undertake certain specific responsibilities. The Commission recognizes, for instance, that there are collections (in both the public and the private sectors) that are unique resources that would be important nodes in the national network. The new federal agency should identify these collections and provide incremental funding to sustain and develop them and to defray the costs of added services required by affiliation with the network.

A similar responsibility of the federal government should be to support the development of centralized services such as a national bibliographic control center, a national periodical bank (or regional banks, if these should be more efficient), a national audiovisual repository, and others. Certain existing national services, such as the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS and MEDLINE systems, or the several Library of Congress bibliographic services, would be incorporated in the national program; and research for and development of others that are needed would be initiated by the federal government. Perhaps the most essential function to be performed by the new federal ageny would be that of setting and applying standards. The present text of the Commission's program puts it this way: The importance of establishing standards at the national level cannot be overstated. It is the principal method for achieving economies of scale and reducing duplication among libraries and other members of the information community. Current research in computer networking clearly indicates the need for standards covering a variety of areas including software, access protocols, data communications, and data standards. Careful attention to standards problems and requirements at the design stage can significantly reduce the incompatibilities and inter-connection problems that arise when independently developed systems are integrated into a coherent operating network. In addition to setting technical standards for hardware and software, the responsible agency would also establish the use of bibliographic standards such as the MARC II format, the International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions for monographs and serials, and bibliographic standards for maps, films, pictures, computer tapes, recordings, and other new nonprint media. The agency would also concern itself with the establishment of the centralized computer installations needed by the national network. It would designate the number and location of the installations and support them with research, software, technical guidance, and funds for equipment. One of the most important services of a national network would be to enable the user to communicate rapidly, inexpensively, and effectively with the facility at which the desired material is located. A future telecommunications system used for a nationwide information network would eventually need to integrate teletype, audio, digital, and video signals into a single system. This integrated media concept is an important aspect of the design of a modem communications system for information exchange. Integrated telecommunications systems have become practical only during the past few years, and commercial and governmental efforts are under way to provide these unified facilities on a large scale. Within the next few years, domestic communication satellites will be operating in the United States, thus further enlarging the nation's capability to exchange information in all forms. The Commission believes that rapid and inexpensive telecommunications among members of the nationwide network could turn out to be a great boon to the 28

national distribution of knowledge for education and progress. For this reason, the responsible federal agency would be directed to explore all possible avenues leading to reasonable communication rates for library and information networking purposes. First, the possibility should be explored of incorporating this type of communication into the government's Federal Telecommunications System (FTS). In this case, special legislation may be necessary to authorize interstate use of the FTS free of charge or at a reduced rate. Second, approaches might be made to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for permission to use satellite communication channels, at first for experimental purposes and in the future for regular traffic. Or, alternatively, the cost of interstate communications could be borne by the institutions that use the network, either by way of direct state or federal subsidy or by way of charges levied against the individual user. Many European countries have already begun to provide communications links at lower tariff rates in order to influence and stimulate the development of national information systems. Finally, it would be a responsibility of the agency to foster cooperation with other national and international programs and to work toward a worldwide information network. Here active participation is called for with IFLA and its new International Office for Universal Bibliographic Control, FID (International Federation for Documentation), ICA (the International Council on Archives), OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), ISO (the International Standards Organization), and with Unesco and its UNISIST program. This, in barest outline, is the National Program as it is now set forth in the Commission's document. (4) The Commission has now embarked on the next phase of our planning schedule - the amplification of those parts of the second draft that require greater specificity and technical detail before action can be based upon them in a dependable, concrete way. Twenty papers have been commissioned, to be written by professional experts on such subjects as the relationship of the program to the international level (Foster Mohrhardt, who is well known to you, is writing on that topic) and protection of privacy and intellectual freedom; papers on seven different types of libraries will analyze their functional relationship to the national program. Where the federal responsibility for the network would best be located, i.e., where in the present governmental structure, is another very important question, and we have asked that some alternative answers be worked out. Several papers will deal with economic questions, including, of course, the major problem of how the national program itself can be funded. In addition to the twenty papers, we also have commissioned a study on the interaction between traditional library services and new information services.

4) For the program in its entirety, see Toward a National Program for Library and Information Services: Goals for Action (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975).

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Finally, the Commission is giving intensive consideration to the difficult problems involved in the issue of copyright and photocopying. The Commission is concerned to protect the interests of both producers and users of knowledge, and we continue to believe that it will be possible to work out a solution of the problem that is equitable. The coming months will be mainly devoted to preparing the documentation for the legislation needed to implement all aspects of the national program, including the creation of the new network and the funding of its operations. This documentation will justify the need for the national program, describe its benefits to the nation at large, provide estimates of its cost, and propose a practicable schedule for the development of a comprehensive national system of library and information service. We hope to reach the stage of draft legislation by 1976. That year, when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of this nation's independence, will be a most appropriate time to inaugurate a program designed to realize the potentialities of the information revolution which is now under way. It should perhaps be stressed that the national program has as yet no official status; it is a policy document, a set of conclusions and recommendations for action. Its realization depends upon the Congress and the President and ultimately upon the support it receives from the United States citizenry. These are the major developments to date. To these I should add the sixth regional hearing in Denver in September 1974, at which testimony on the national program and other library matters was heard from librarians and the lay public from the states of Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, and the Dakotas. The Commission considers these regional hearings a most important way of gaining grassroots response to its policies. I am pleased to report that on the whole, this response has been affirmative. There appears to be a widely shared view that the time is ripe for a coherent national plan and that the Commission is on the right track in its work so far. Funding the National Program In the hearings and other meetings held by the Commission, no problem arose more frequently than that of funding the national program. The questions raised were not so much concerned with the cost of the program as with the proportion that it was expected would come from the federal government and how much would be carried by state and local agencies. Ever since 1956 when Congress passed the Library Services Act, the federal government has undertaken substantial programs of financial assistance to libraries. The programs have been for the acquisition of materials, the provision of new services, library training and research, new building construction, aid to special groups, and so forth. They have affected public libraries, school libraries, college and university libraries. A small portion of the funds has also been available for interlibrary cooperation. At the close of 1972, the total sum in the annual federal budget of grants for library programs amounted to $ 140 million. 30

In addition, the National Science Foundation and other government agencies have funded specific projects involving libraries, indexing and abstracting services, and other organizations in the information community. The federal government supports the three major libraries (the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library) and many mission-oriented facilities in the various departments. Altogether it was estimated that federal support distributed beyond the federal establishment for the nation's public and school library needs amounted to 6 percent of the total, with the remainder coming from state and local sources. In 1972, the large question of whether the federal government should continue to play any role in financing library development was raised by the decision of the administration to eliminate so-called categorical aid. As an alternative method of support, public libraries were qualified to receive appropriations for operating expenses under the General Revenue-Sharing Act, by which the federal government returned blocks of funds to the states and municipalities to be spent on specified kinds of public services. The rationale for this policy is the double one of decentralizing federal government fiscal power and leaving decision making to local and state authorities, who presumably know best what priorities to give to such needs as police and fire protection, sewage disposal, and libraries. Both from the testimony at the Commission's hearings and from the statistics compiled by the Treasury Department, revenue sharing does not work well for libraries. Only about 1 percent of the funds dispersed go to library support, and most of that is used to offset routine operating expenses rather than, as in previous federal grant programs, to provide new materials, programs and services. In consequence, the Congress has recently restored many of the categorical aid programs, although the prevailing policy of the administration continues to favor their elimination. The Commission has given serious consideration to the problem of federal funding and has come to the conclusion that the original objectives of federal legislation have not yet been attained. The Commission accordingly stresses a continuing federal responsibility to provide funds of the categorical type needed to strengthen services at the state and local levels. The quality of library and inf ormation services in different states and localities is very uneven - excellent in some areas and in others extremely poor. If the national program is to work effectively, equalization of service and standards of performance will have to be achieved. Federal assistance would seem to be required if progress is to be made in the near future. Another compelling reason for federal support is the need of the national system to transcend local and state jurisdictions. If funding rests exclusively with local authorities confronted with insistent local needs, as is the case in revenue sharing, system building will be inhibited. Federal funding is, from a realistic and practical point of view, essential for bringing about the cooperative projects and network systems called for in the national program. The Commission will seek to work out with representatives of the public and private sectors funding policy that will establish the criteria for federal support. It is 31

already clear that building the nationwide information system will require a revision in the current philosophy of how federal and state funding should be allocated. Planning in a Democratic Society The above description of the way the Commission has gone about its work in preparing a national program is highly condensed, yet it seems to me that it reveals quite clearly the procedures and problems inherent in national planning in a democratic society. It begins and ends with the people, the users and potential users, who are also those who will pay the cost through their taxes. Planning starts with a thorough investigation of the needs of a diversified people living under a federated system of autonomous states and local jurisdictions. The planning must address itself to the needs and capabilities of both public and private institutions, both profit-making and nonprofit organizations. To gain acceptance, the plan must be inclusive in its range — geographically and socially. It cannot be a program for scientific and technical information alone, or for managers and policy makers, or academic scholars — though it must include all these and give them reasonable priorities. It must conceive of information in the broadest sense - ranging from books to data tapes and from research manuscripts to recreational material, including both print and nonprint material. It must conceive of libraries in the most sophisticated sense — as essential components of our cultural and spiritual life as well as purveyors of information and as responding to the private needs of individuals as well as to the needs of large-scale research. This is another way of saying that in such a society national planning is an inherently sociopolitical activity, rather than simply a technical problem soluble by experts. And it is an activity of a specific kind, involving critical participation by representatives of as many types of users as possible. The regional hearings held by the Commission and the wide publicity given to the drafts of the national program document were important steps in getting the political support that will be necessary for its adoption. It should also be stressed, however, that the program was improved in the course of this process, because the ideas of the planning committee were constantly tested against the concrete experience of specific types of users. Planning in this mode becomes at the same time an educational process for those involved. There is no question that planning in such a societal context is also vastly more complex, certainly more protracted in time, and subject to many more pressures and compromises than planning under a centralized authority. The plurality of interests and diversity of power make for a degree of tension and confusion in the number and variety of demands and ideas. But the extent of the chaos is mitigated by the American proclivity for voluntary organization. Educators of other countries have often been struck by the fact that although there are in the United States many different kinds of institutions of higher learning that result from different public and private educational authorities and policies, there are also many common practices and standards that have been arrived at by a 32

continuous process of communication and shared experience through the various voluntary professional organizations that make up the educational structure of the country. A similar situation exists in the library and inforn}ation sectors — where organizations such as the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Society for Information Science, and others provide for discussion and assessment of practices and policies and the exchange of ideas. In this way, though the population of users is highly diversified, common practices and procedures and generally shared conceptions of library and information service are reached. Planning conducted in the context of a society that has a political system such as ours will inevitably have unique characteristics. The question arises, how much can be learned by other countries from planning conducted in such a context and with these procedures. Societies with central ministries or central planning authorities will undoubtedly follow a very different course of action in working out a national plan. So too will those with small, concentrated, or homogeneous populations. Each country's plan will obviously reflect the assumptions and values of its society and must be geared to the particular socioeconomic conditions in which the plan is to work. Countries with similar political philosophies and practices will be able to learn more readily from one another, but even in such cases, borrowing without careful preliminary testing is hazardous. For example, the excellent periodical lending system at Boston Spa in England could not simply be imported to this country without a thorough investigation of the differences in distances, mail service, copyright regulations, user needs and expectations, volume of traffic, and social cost, to say nothing of the less easily definable values and habits of those whom the system is intended to serve. Nevertheless, in the area of technical problems and technological development a great deal has been learned from this and other planning ventures. Important solutions to many problems have been readily transferable in such areas as data processing, bibliographic controls, standardization, and distribution mechanisms. Because knowledge is global and access to global knowledge is an objective of all national systems, it is essential that those engaged in national planning be in communication with each other to the fullest extent possible. And obviously, it is even more important that they cooperate in international planning for the solution of problems which they have in common and which can only be solved by mutual agreement - such as the interconnection of national systems and the development of Universal Bibliographic Control. The most efficient and direct way of doing this is through international planning groups such as the various working groups of IFLA and Unesco. On these efforts will depend our success in attaining a global information program that will provide the greatest possible access to the world's knowledge resources. Some of these efforts, especially in the area of standardization and Univeral Bibliographic Control, have already achieved a good measure of progress and give grounds for hope that the many problems that remain will be attacked 33

and overcome in the not t o o distant future. There is indeed a growing realization that they must be solved within the next decade or it will be too late to arrive at an international network of national information systems - at any rate one that makes use of the technological resources that already are available — because the national systems that will be developed in that period will be unable to communicate or interconnect unless universal standards are arrived at. In 1971, the OECD report on Information fora Changing Society stated: "Perhaps the most important event of the next decade will be the recognition of the true value of information — the right information, reliable and relevant to our needs, available in a useful form to all those who need it." We are already well into the decade referred to and we have indeed begun to recognize the true value of information. But we have only barely begun the planning and implementation on the national and international level that will be necessary to make it accessible to all those who need it. This fortieth General Council meeting, in devoting itself to the theme of National and International Planning, provides a timely occasion to assess our progress, to consolidate our energies and initiatives, and t o rededicate ourselves to the common goal of an informed world citizenry.

C H A P T E R IV

Library Planning in the Soviet U n i o n N.M. Sikorsky

Librarianship in the Soviet Union as an important ideological, cultural, educational, and scientific information activity has attained vast proportions. In 1973 the country had a total of 360,000 libraries, 129,000 of them public, 171,000 school, over 60,000 research and other specialized libraries, and about 7,000 children's libraries. Their total stock was 3,300 million volumes. Library service extends to broad sectors of the Soviet population - to about 180 million people. Soviet librarianship did not achieve such scope overnight. It required much diverse effort in which the leading role was played by the government. Ever since the success of the Great 1917 October Socialist Revolution, library development has been viewed as an integral part of the cultural structure and a requirement of social life, science, and industry. Today we are justified in saying that Soviet libraries have played an important part in the elimination of illiteracy and in bringing the achievements of world civilization and culture within the reach of the working people. The Socialist State and Libraries In a socialist state the activity of libraries is organically bound up with the economic, political, and educational tasks facing the country. This point was made with renewed vigor in a recent decree entitled "On Enhancing the Role of Libraries in the Communist Education of the Working People and in Scientific and Technological Progress,"(1) which was adopted by the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. This proposal stresses the importance of Soviet libraries as educational centers and as ideological and scientific information institutions and outlines an extensive program for their work today. Lenin's influence on Libraries The work of Soviet libraries is based on clear-cut ideological and organizational principles that were largely developed by Lenin. The most vital of these principles is the governmental character of librarianship. The Soviet state lays down unified principles for organizing the public use of books and enacts relevant legislation for the whole country. More than 90 percent of Soviet librarThe author is director o f the Lenin S t a t e Library, Moscow.

1) Pravda, May 26, 1974

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ies are financed by the state. A special organization for guiding librarianship operates both centrally and in the republics. The state exercises constant concern for the training and retraining of library personnel. The Soviet library system forged ahead by implementing other instructions of Lenin, particularly his provisions concerning the general accessibility of libraries, centralization of library service, the planned development of a unified library network, and broad public involvement in library endeavors. Each of the above basic principles, which together form the main content of Soviet library theory, reflects the approach to librarianship as a social phenomenon, a medium of mass communication for educating the people in the spirit of communist ideals. These ideas, naturally, determine the general principles of library planning in the Soviet Union of which the underlying aims and tasks are to promote the advancement of the national economy, science, education, and culture; the allaround harmonious development of the individual; and complete satisfaction of the requirements of society for printed materials and information. The state plan for the development of librarianship in the Soviet Union determines the direction and scale of librarianship in the country as a whole, the rational development of the network of libraries, the material and technical resources libraries are to provide, and the provision of qualified personnel. Other major areas of planning are library collections and information and bibliographical work. Criteria for Library Planning Planning for the development of librarianship in the Soviet Union, like planning in other fields, must satisfy the following important criteria: First, there must be a scientific approach to planning. This criterion presupposes a valid methodological and ideological basis for planning, consideration of the latest achievements of science, the currency of the ideas, sober realism with well-reasoned validation of the plans, and finally, the practicability of the plans. Second, the purposefulness of the plans must be manifested in the identification of the main tasks to be performed and the key points of each particular plan. Third, in the preparation of plans, centralized planning guidance is to be combined with the active participation of those who will put the plan into effect. Fourth, systematic checking of the fulfillment of plans is one of the essentials for their successful realization. Background for Planning Work in the field of library planning in the USSR is reflected in different planning documents. Specialized plans view librarianship as an area of culture within 36

a republic or within the state as a whole. Regional plans perform a major function in coordinating the work of libraries of different authorities at district, city, or regional levels. Individual library plans outline programs of work for each library, or in some cases, for divisions within a library. There are longterm plans, usually worked out for five years but sometimes longer, and current plans, which are made for a year or three months. The Soviet Union has different kinds and types of libraries. However, from the viewpoint of planning, all libraries can be divided into two groups. One comprises the libraries that are independent institutions. In this category are libraries that serve the entire population of a certain area - district, city, province, republic. The other group is made up of libraries (generally technical or specialized libraries) that are divisions or departments within various institutions: industrial enterprises, public organizations, educational and research institutions, and ministries or other governing bodies. The development of libraries as independent institutions (our first group) is planned at and for all levels, ranging from the state to regional libraries. The plans for libraries of the second group are components of the plans of the parent agencies - the industrial enterprises or the educational and governmental institutions. Essentially, planning for the development of libraries in this category proceeds like the planning of, say, the auxiliary services of industrial enterprises. The library workers here are considered managerial personnel or staff of the scientific and technical information services, and the collections of such libraries form apart of the material of these enterprises and institutions. In discussing the Soviet experience in library planning it is expedient to turn to our experience with the network of public libraries, including general learned libraries, that are open to all. The entire process of library planning in the USSR can be divided somewhat conventionally into two stages: the development of the overall concept of a plan with public discussion and approval, and the development of the detailed extensive planning document. The basic reasons for the preparation of an overall plan are the long-term sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and educational tasks facing the country. Five-Year Library Plans The overall concept of a plan, which provides for the major lines of development for a definite period, usually five years, is worked out on the basis of an analysis of the state of librarianship and the fulfillment of current plans at the time, the tendencies that have been observed, a consideration of the results already achieved, the déficiences noticed, and long-term forecasts. This may be illustrated by library planning experience in the USSR for the period 1971-75. In 1970 the country's leading library - the USSR State Lenin Library jointly with the USSR Ministry of Culture worked out the principal lines of 37

library development for the next five years. This document outlined a multi-aspect program for further improvements in the field of librarianship. Its most important concepts are as follows: (1)

(2)

(3) (4)

(5)

(6)

The modern public library should be a cultural and scientific information center capable of satisfying, as fully as possible, the general educational and professional requirements of different groups of readers. The book requests of all population groups within a highly developed readership can be satisfied only where there is close cooperation and the pooling of resources within a certain region. Coordination of the work of all types of libraries with the organs of scientific and technical information is essential. In the entire work of publicizing literature and the satisfying of readers' requests, a factor of major importance is efficiency, which enables the scientific and cultural potential of each printed work to be fully exploited. Where there is a rapid growth in certain economic areas, the emergence of new towns, the expansion of rural population centers, etc., the flexibility of library systems is vastly important. It is essential to work constantly on bringing the library system into line with the social and demographic changes that are taking place in the country. It is essential to pay particular attention to improving library service to the rural population.

Early in 1971 the Plenary Session of the Soviet Library Association (the USSR Library Council) approved these principles in the statement "Main Trends of Library Development in the USSR for 1 9 7 1 - 7 5 , " which had been endorsed by the USSR Ministry of Culture. On the basis of this document all union republics and all agencies endorsed the main lines for library development in each republic and governmental unit. Planning characteristics for networks, readership, book collections, personnel, buildings, and equipment were defined. The plans for the libraries of individual agencies, drawn up on similar lines, provided for the development and perfection of a library network, the formation of standard reference and information collections in subject fields, the improvement of the information service to experts, etc. As to the second stage — the development of a detailed and extended planning document - this is done following the discussion and endorsement of the main lines of development for the coming period. In determining the principal guidelines, the target figures of the government directive are taken as the basis. The plans for library development in the union republics are drawn up with an eye t o local conditions and national peculiarities. The following table from the report gives some features of the general library development plan for 1971—75.

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Estimates for the Development of Libraries in the USSR in 1 9 7 1 - 7 5

N u m b e r of public libraries, including state libraries (in thousands) N u m b e r of state libraries only (in thousands) N u m b e r of readers in public libraries, including state libraries (in millions) N u m b e r of readers in state libraries only (in mUlions) Books in public libraries, including state libraries (in millions) Books in state libraries only (in millions) N u m b e r of b o o k s in public libraries, including state libraries, per capita N u m b e r of b o o k s in state public libraries, per capita Personnel in public libraries, including state libraries (in thousands) Personnel in state libraries only (in thousands)

1970

1975

125.8

131.0

89.2

101.0

103.3

115.8

79.1

90.5

1203.7

1480.0

1007.8

1160.0

5.35

5.83

4.13

4.59

175.2

198.4

145.1

164.2

It is essential to emphasize the importance of regional library planning, that is, of library planning in towns, regions, provinces, and autonomous republics, irrespective of the types of libraries and their official standing. The summary interdepartmental plan for book service t o the people provides for the best possible location of the library network, the use of the resources of all libraries, coordination of book acquisitions, the formation of a standard reference and.information service, etc. In one way or another, at different stages of development of Soviet librarianship, the principle of regional planning was carried out most successfully, beginning with the seventh Five-Year Plan ( 1 9 6 1 - 6 5 ) . It was in 1960 that united interdepartmental long-term plans for the development of library service in cities and districts as well as regions, and, in many cases, republics, were drawn up. These plans offer the following challenges: extend library service t o each settlement in the rural areas and each microdistrict in the cities and encourage the reading of library books by each family. Now, practically every family uses a library, and it is obvious that the regional plans for library development have played, and still are playing, a positive role. Today, Soviet libraries, which are methodological centers, and library administrators are beginning t o set forth the basic patterns for library development 39

for 1 9 7 5 - 8 0 , which will form the basis of long-term plans. Scientific, technical, and public libraries are now faced with important new tasks in disseminating the advanced achievements of science and technology as they efficiently provide scientific and technical information to the experts in the national economy and give specialized assistance to readers by helping them to choose literature that is appropriate for their general educational level, professional interest, and age. In this situation particular importance will be assumed by the interaction of libraries of different types with the organs of scientific information, which will make it possible to achieve quicker and fuller satisfaction of readers' requirements, broaden the influence o f libraries o n different sectors of the population, improve access to information of scientific and technological achievements, use library resources and library personnel rationally, improve radically Soviet book publicity, and, finally, perfect further library organization and management. In the long-term plans for 1976—80, the formation of centralized library systems will become one of the measures of library development. This process will affect all aspects of library work, including b o o k acquisition and the use of collections. It will enrich the kinds of assistance readers are given, improve the methods of publicizing books, and promote the perfection of the organization of library work as well as library management. The centralized system, which brings together libraries that previously were entirely independent, represents an entirely new type of institution. Such a system possesses a number of distinctions that clearly transform the very concept of the independent library.

Centralized Library Systems The centralized library systems that are being set up in the Soviet Union have a number of special characteristics. Above all, they have expanded their services to readers. In particular they have visibly intensified the scientific information aspect of their work. In time, such a system will possess a unified library collection and a bibliographical apparatus planned for use by the entire population of an area. Finally, the new type of library will integrate the formerly independent libraries under unified administrative, financial, and methodological guidance. It can rightly be assumed that something greater than simple mechanical integration of the individual libraries will take place; pooling of e f f o r t s will produce a new quality of librarianship and the entire function will rise t o a new level. The process of setting up centralized library systems is planned on both a departmental and inderdepartmental basis. Governmental library guidance in a developed socialist society permits the reorganization of the library network on a clear-cut, regular basis.

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Radical improvement in the control over the development of book collections, the setting up of unified regional and branch collections, fuller utilization of the book wealth of the whole country, and the establishment of interdepartmental depositories — all these are characteristics of Soviet library development for 1976—80 that will be reflected in new plans. The control over collection building, naturally, is closely related to the need to select publications for public use and to the intensified influence of libraries on the publishing policy of the country. These plans are being made jointly with the agencies that regulate the work of the publishing and printing houses and book trade.

Long-Term Plans There are plans for creating long-term programs for integrated development of the country's general and specialized libraries as important links in the state system of scientific and technical information. These programs envision many types of libraries coordinating acquisitions with other agencies and information centers; they provide for the creation of unified computerized information storage and retrieval systems that could lead to centralized computer-aided processing of the printed production of the whole country. The system of storage libraries that is to be created in the next five years will be based on the country's existing research libraries. Soviet librarians view depositories not as book storehouses but as actively operating libraries that keep complete sets of printed materials and offer them on request for the use of all libraries, whatever their official status. The expansion of the functions of libraries and the intensification of their ideological and information activity stimulate a broader requirement for certified experts. In this connection plans are being made to turn out more qualified experts in the field of librarianship, to open new departments and colleges, to promote functional and branch specialization in staff training, and to conduct countrywide programs designed to achieve a more even and rational distribution of expert librarians in all republics, regions, and areas. Many years of experience have corroborated the viability of the methodology of library planning as it has taken shape in the Soviet Union. This is confirmed by the entire practice and scope of Soviet library service, which has spread to practically all industrial enterprises and organizations, all fields of the national economy, all centers of population, and to all families. Man with a book has become, so to speak, a symbol of the Soviet state and the socialist system. But this does not mean that all problems have been solved. The present stage of development of Soviet society offers new challenges also for library development, as it does for other fields. It is essential to improve the work of all Soviet libraries, and this includes library planning. Particularly do we need to further improve the methodology of library planning and to work out scientifically the requirements of the populace in the field of libraries.

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We think that this problem should be handled not only at the national level, but also internationally. F o r this reason we welcomed the fact that library planning was chosen as the principal theme of the fortieth session of I F L A . There can be little doubt that the discussion of this problem at such a representative forum will yield theoretical and practical benefits.

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CHAPTER V National Library Planning in Britain H.T. Hookway An unprecedented degree o f interest is being shown at present in the planning of library services at the national and international level. That this should be so is not altogether surprising since most, if not all, countries still face the problem o f how best to develop an infrastructure o f libraries and information services that can satisfy their educational, recreational, scholarly, industrial, commercial, and other needs in the most effective and economical way. In Britain the speed of development o f library services of various kinds has quickened markedly over the past ten years. Thus, the Public Libraries and Museums A c t o f 1964 placed public library services under the supervision o f the Secretary of State for Education and Science and made it compulsory for all local authorities to provide a comprehensive and efficient service; then the Parry Report on university libraries, issued in 1967, and its recommendations had a significant effect on the operations o f these libraries; by 1969 the National Libraries Committee had reported; in 1971 the government issued a white paper announcing its intention to set up a new national library; the British Library A c t followed in 1972, and the new library was set up in July 1973; and further striking changes in public library organization t o o k place in April of 1974 as a result o f the reorganization of local government. I therefore think it may be helpful to those concerned with the planning of national library services if I take 1964 as the starting point for my paper because in my view it is over the past decade that the foundations of a modern national library system have been laid in Britain. In developing this theme, I propose to concentrate largely but not exclusively on two particular aspects o f recent developments in Britain - the reorganization o f the public library system and the creation of the British Library. O f course, to plan at all requires the existence o f planning machinery; and developments in Britain have moved at an accelerated pace since 1964 when appropriate arrangements were made whereby policy responsibility in relation to all libraries in the public sector, with the exception of special libraries maintained by other government departments, became concentrated in the Department of Education and Science. Thus school, public, and university libraries as well as the national libraries all fall within the field of responsibility of this one government department. However, planning and policy responsibilities are o f little avail unless there are well-defined objectives around which policy can be formulated and on the basis of which planning can proceed. Our basic objective has been, and is, to try to T h e author is deputy chairman and chief e x e c u t i v e o f the British Library B o a i d .

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ensure that, within the resources available, the libraries and information services of the country taken as a whole aim to collect and store all information likely to be needed, to provide access to it as rapidly as necessary, and to arrange its supply in the most useful form where it may be most effectively employed. To attempt to meet this objective requires that the library services satisfy a wide range of educational, recreational, scholarly, industrial, commercial, and other needs. On the assumption that library materials are not used much by people before the age of five years, we are dealing with a British population of roughly 5 0 million individuals, all of whom should require access to a library service at one time or another. While it is true that not everyone needs the same material at the same time, nevertheless, the range of interests developed as a result of the provision of enhanced educational opportunities; the stimulus o f the media, especially television; the growth of interest in environmental problems and the quality of life; increased leisure; and the increasing complexity of scientific, industrial, and commercial requirements place exceptionally heavy demands on libraries. Individual libraries or small groups of libraries no longer find it possible to meet from their own resources the increasingly sophisticated demands of their users. In Britain, as in many other countries, school libraries, public libraries, university libraries, and a host o f special libraries provide a wide range o f services designed to meet the needs o f different kinds o f users. These services have tended to grow up piecemeal, with attempts to maximize the effectiveness o f their operations being made through schemes o f voluntary cooperation of various kinds. It is tempting to try to produce a detailed, comprehensive, and systematic plan for the closely articulated development of all these services to meet national goals for social, economic, cultural, and industrial advancement. But, in Britain at any rate, such a plan would be o f very limited utility, and its implementation would face the planners with complex multidimensional problems of a kind all too familiar to social scientists where forecasting and other planning techniques are notoriously inadequate. But in any case, is a comprehensive approach o f this kind either necessary or desirable? In the United Kingdom, for instance, many activities are better regulated in response t o local needs than within the constraints imposed by the operation o f a central plan. In my view national planning should focus on a limited range o f crucial issues so that a flexible and responsive national system can evolve naturally over a reasonable period of time. These crucial issues are related mainly to the provision o f appropriate legislative, institutional, and financial structures; to the development o f standards of all kinds; and to manpower needs. I have chosen two examples to illustrate the application o f this planning philosophy, which might be said to be based on La Rochefoucauld's maxim that " I n affairs o f importance a man should concentrate not so much on making opportunities as on taking advantage of those that arise." The first o f these concerns the public library services and the course of events since 1964.

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Planning for Public Libraiy Service The Public Libraries and Museums Act of 1964 had two very important provisions: the public library service was placed on a statutory basis with the Secretary of State for Education and Science charged with the responsibility for supervising and promoting the improvement of the library service provided by local authorities in England and Wales, and a duty was placed on every local authority that was a library authority to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. In Britain, local authorities are financed by treasury grants, by loans, rents, and rates. Grants and loans are wholly controlled by the government. The rate is the only local tax; it is levied on the annual value of property other than agricultural land. At present the government contributes just over 60 percent of the total finance. Thus both central and local government have a direct concern in the financing, and therefore the development, of the public library service. It is for the local authority concerned to determine what proportion of its revenue and capital expenditures is devoted to libraries, but the statutory powers of the Secretary of State provide safeguards to ensure that the library service is not abandoned in hard times and is not overlooked in times of growth and that individual authorities, as well as the service taken as a whole, meet acceptable standards. It soon became apparent that the great range of size of library authorities — from under 30 thousand population to over a million — was resulting in uneven growth of the service. With the best will in the world, the small local authorities had not the manpower or the financial resources to provide an acceptable level of service to their users; forward projections indicated that the situation would deteriorate further in the future. Significant changes in the organization of local government were being planned, and advantage was taken of this to provide for further development of the public library service so as to increase the size of library authorities with a corresponding decrease in the number of separate authorities. The Local Government Act of 1972 was therefore drafted to provide for the creation in April 1974 outside Greater London - where the existing arrangements are unchanged - of 75 library authorities in England compared with 314 before and 8 authorities in Wales compared with 37 before. Thus, from April 1974 there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of library authorities. Scotland is following suit, though with variations from the pattern set in England and Wales; and Northern Ireland has also reduced substantially the number of library authorities. The overall effect has been to reduce by about two thirds the number of authorities with library powers in Britain. The new authorities, with a veiy few exceptions, have populations ranging from at least 100 thousand to well over a million. Before April 1974 there were only 10 authorities with populations of more than a quarter of a million outside Greater London; now there are 56. The creation of these library authorities with their much larger total resources is intended to facilitate the development of library services over wider areas than hitherto, and the new authorities will be better able to meet the needs for comprehensive facilities of the communities they serve.

They will also be able to deploy specialist staff more effectively and economically and to make full use of computers, photocopying, audiovisual equipment, telex and other library aids. I mentioned earlier the complex interrelationships between library objectives and other elements in the national infrastructure, such as education. An important feature of the new legislation is that the library authorities are coterminous with the authorities for education, health, and social services. It thus becomes much easier to develop a whole range of cost-effective support services for these sectors. For example, services for schools can include the provision of loan collections of books, centralized facilities for book ordering and processing, and multimedia collections. When the location of public library service points is under consideration, the fact that the education and library services are coterminous makes it much easier to establish dual-purpose libraries serving both the general public and pupils of a particular school. Such use can result in a significant improvement in both the staffing and the collections available to a school. The increased resources available to the new authorities also make it possible for them to provide more extensive and effective services to local industry, commercial organizations, and so forth. The authorities are also able to deploy much greater resources for the support and stimulation of local cultural activities by providing space and equipment for exhibitions, meetings, lectures, concerts, plays, films, and audiovisual presentations of various kinds. Thus, in this example, the development of the appropriate legislative structure, a shared basis for financing, and the creation of the appropriate institutional arrangements - a small number of large library authorities - have been the crucial planning issues to be settled in order to create a remodelled public library system. However, although substantial resources are devoted to sustaining these activities (about $ 2 0 0 million in 1973) and large scale though the operations may be (aside from reference and information activities, well over 6 0 0 million books were lent), the public library service is not self-sufficient. It has to rely on other services to provide at least some of the total supply of books and information it needs. For example, foreign material, advanced material for studies in depth, and much technological and scientific material will usually need to be sought elsewhere. The British National Library A variety of techniques using regional catalogs and interlibrary lending have of course been used for many years to obtain material not in stock, but their inadequacies and the confused and wasteful arrangements at the national level for reference, lending, and bibliographical services encouraged the government in 1971 to announce its decision to set up a new national library combining the functions of the British Museum Library, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology together with those of the British National Bibliography Ltd., and the Office for Scientific and Technical Information under a new statutory authority. Much detailed planning

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followed, and in 1972 the British Library Act received Royal Assent, followed by the establishment of the new statutory authority in July 1973. The resources at the disposal of the new body are, by British standards, substantial: for the current financial year, expenditure is estimated at over $ 27 million, and there is a staff of 1,700.1 have taken the creation of the British Library as m y second example of the planning process. I do not propose t o describe in detail all the activities of the British Library, but rather to identify some of the key problems the Library is intended t o resolve, t o demonstrate how the activities serve to make existing services elsewhere more efficient and to indicate how these activities are designed t o help the development of a national library system. I stressed earlier the need to create an appropriate legislative framework as a basis for further action; and in this context the British Library Act is worth studying for a variety of reasons, of which I have chosen three. First, the Act specifies that the Library is to consist of a comprehensive collection of books, manuscripts, periodicals, films, and other recorded matter, whether printed or otherwise; therefore the Library has to be concerned with the whole range of nonbook material, and the government in determining the level of resources to be made available t o the Library has to bear in mind this broad remit. Second, the Library is to be managed as a national center for reference, study, and bibliographic and other information services in relation both to scientific and technological matters and to the humanities: two important principles are therefore established — the Library's activities cover information services of all kinds, and it is to cover all subject fields. The third point is that it is within the functions of the British Library Board, so far as they think it expedient for achieving the objects of the Act and generally for contributing to the efficient management of other libraries and information services, to carry out and sponsor research and to contribute to the expenses of library authorities or others providing library facilities, whether for members of the public or otherwise. It will be seen, therefore, that not only is the British Library well equipped to provide central services for other libraries in the country, but it also has the legal powers to act as an agent of the government in promoting the growth of more efficient and cost-effective library and information systems. The new Library is the principal national depository for British copyright publications, the producer of the national bibliography, the central loan library, the main source of support for research in library and information science, and a major developer and operator of computer-based bibliographic and other information services. In other words, the Library has been planned deliberately to be at the center — the hub, as it were — rather than the apex of the nation's library services. The apex of a hierarchically structured system is often remote, difficult of access, and somewhat divorced from the operational and policy problems of those lower in the hierarchy. By contrast, the hub should be sensitive and quickly responsive to the stresses and strains elsewhere in the system. The Library functions have been grouped in three operational divisions - reference, lending, and bibliographic services — together with a central administration and 47

a research and development department. The British Library Board is the statutory authority charged with managing the Library. It has a part-time chairman; a full-time chief executive who is also deputy chairman; three other full-time members who have responsibility, as executives responsible to the chief executive, for the three operational divisions; and nine part-time members. An extensive system o f advisory committees is about to be set up to help ensure that the Library is responsive to the needs o f all its users. The Reference Division of the Library has been formed from the former library departments, including the National Reference Library of Science and Invention, o f the British Museum. In this division is concentrated one o f the most comprehensive collections of books, manuscripts, maps, music scores, and patents in the world. Its future activities are being planned so as to provide all the essential central reference services around which other libraries in the country can build up their own collections and services. Interlibrary lending in Britain is now a very large operation. Universities, public libraries, institutes of further education, and special libraries of all kinds are making increasing use of the service. The British Library's Lending Division, formed from the former National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the National Central Library, has been planned to further improve and extend this activity. At present about 3 million loan requests are made every year, o f which over 2 million are sent to the British Library. The regional library bureaus, of which there are nine, mainly servicing public libraries, account for about half a million requests; and about another half a million loans are requested direct from other libraries without going through either the national or the regional interlending networks. Demand on the British Library is currently growing at the rate of over 15 percent per year. The main factors accounting for the growth of demand on the central facilities are the acquisition program of the Lending Division, which now aims to acquire all significant serials and reports in all languages together with English language monographs, and the speed with which loan requests are met. The Library's Lending Division meets about 8 3 percent of the demands made on it by direct loan from the central collection. The main burden o f interlibrary lending has therefore been lifted from individual libraries, who are free to adapt their acquisitions and stock-holding procedures accordingly. From the national viewpoint, the interlending process is not only quicker and more efficient; it is also cheaper. Although the central lending collection is large it has to be supplemented by the resources of other libraries, and therefore it has been important to ensure that an appropriate network o f libraries is set up to meet the deficiencies in the central collection. Union catalogs provide access to the holdings o f many libraries. In addition, in the interests o f efficiency of the overall operations we have made special arrangements with a limited number o f libraries with very large or special resources to provide a back-up-service. The number o f requests made is fairly substantial, the cost of dealing with the requests is not negligible, and there is need for rapid response. We therefore make use of the provisions o f the

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British Library Act and pay these large cooperating libraries for their services so as to make certain that they deploy adequate resources to meet our requirements. The Bibliographic Services Division of the Library has been set up because we consider that an effective and economical bibliographical network is essential if libraries are to function at optimum efficiency. The high cost of providing bibliographic access to materials prompts the development of cooperative and centralized arrangements for the services required. Computer-based services are obviously attractive in this context because they enable one to process much larger quantities of information than can be done by manual means; the costs of handling these ever larger workloads are stabilized — for, unlike manual system costs, machine costs do not rise linearly with the workload; and new products and services can readily be generated. It is appropriate, therefore, that the division comprises the former functions of the British National Bibliography together with those of the Copyright Receipt Office and certain other functions of the former library departments of the British Museum. The operations are already computer based and the Copyright Receipt Office provides the listing of all legal deposit material at the library. The general approach of the British Library towards providing bibliographic services for the library community is that it should provide the route for data communication and transfer between the national bibliographic data banks, including of course the British data banks, and the British library community. In following this policy, the central services provided now by the British Library, and those to be provided in 1975 and later years, have been planned to lead to the rapid growth of computer-based networks in Britain. At present, the Library's MARC tapes service can provide, for current cataloging, a bibliographic listing, catalog cards, and machine-readable cataloging input. The machine-readable input can be processed directly by an individual library, a library authority (where the central library would presumably do the job), by a region, or by the British Library, which is prepared to offer a selective service of catalog records covering the additions to collections of individual libraries and merging its MARC records with records produced by libraries of books added to collections which are not covered by MARC tapes. The balance of advantage as between these various approaches depends on the resources of the library or library system involved. ITie terms on which the tapes or individual records are made available have been designed to ensure the maximum local utilization of the centrally generated system, while maintaining enough control to avoid the creation of many competing or quasi-national files. A further step has been to convert the British National Bibliography, retrospectively to its beginning in 1950, to machine-readable form in MARC-compatible format. This new data bank is designed to be of particular value to the new library authorities, described earlier in this paper, who face the task of building catalogs of the combined holdings of the former authorities and whose collections consist largely of items listed in the National Bibliography. 49

By the end of the year, all the regions will be operating a system first set up, with government development support, by the London and South East Region (LASER) for recording accessions in numerical form by Internationa] Standard Book Number (ISBN), with coded library locations, and sorting by computer. The ISBN-location lists are produced as computer output on microfilm and can be used for interlending in two ways: libraries apply to regional headquarters, which supplies them with a location, or they can buy the microfilm catalogs and borrow direct from one another. The system is both cheap and efficient, and the British Library does the processing centrally at no charge to the regions. It is possible therefore to integrate all the records to make a comprehensive ISBN catalog for the intake of public libraries in the country. This will be important both at the national and the local level for determining acquisitions policy, as well as increasing the efficiency of interlending. From 1975, the machine-based current cataloging activities will be extended to all British Library intake. It will be possible to provide a range of new services covering the areas of British Library intake that are not part of the MARC service provided at present. On-line access within the Library is being provided for on an experimental basis and may be available to other users, but in the immediate future the relatively high telecommunications costs in Britain may inhibit rapid growth of use outside the Library. A decision will have to be made soon on whether to convert the existing manually produced catalogs. The cost will be high, but the benefits are likely to be great for libraries throughout the world. We hope to be able to decide what to do later this year (1974) when our analyses of the problems and costs are complete. These developments are likely to be of particular value to university and other research libraries since they will be able to redeploy their own resources more effectively if they accept the new central services and adopt the same standards. National systems can no longer flourish on their own, and it is important to achieve the maximum practical level of international standardization so that records and information can be shared without difficulty. It is for this reason that the British Library supports the UBC Office of IFLA, has adopted the Anglo-American cataloging rules and, for machine-based activities, the MARC format. Indeed, we think standardization is such an important factor that we have set up a Bibliographic Standards Office in the Library t o act as a central focus for discussion on the internal and external standards to be used. It is hoped that these few examples of developments in Britain have served to demonstrate that concentration on a limited number of crucial planning issues — legislation, organization, finance, and standards — has resulted in positive progress towards the development of a national library system. Although this paper concentrates deliberately on a few examples and makes little or no mention of the university or special libraries, of research, or of information services in general, nevertheless I hope it has been shown how interdependent are the various categories of library and how library services in Britain are now starting to develop in a better articulated fashion. 50

CHAPTER VI Bibliotheksplan 73 for the Federal Republic of Germany Franz Georg Kaltwasser Plans for library cooperation and the realization of such undertakings have existed for decades both in Germany and in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is not my purpose here to relate the details of these enterprises. Rather I would like to discuss a single project: the widely known Bibliotheksplan 73 (Library Plan 73). It is the first attempt to express in one concept the interrelationships of the library system of the Federal Republic, ranging from the smallest public libraries to the great interregional research libraries. To present this plan in the larger context of similar programs for interlibrary cooperation is the aim of this paper. Bibliotheksplan /, devised by the Deutscher Büchereiverband (Association o f German Public Libraries) in 1969, was concerned mainly with public libraries. As a first attempt, the plan had its merits, but it soon became apparent that it was insufficient. Not only did it inadequately present the position and tasks of the public libraries, the plan did not take research libraries into consideration. Furthermore, the public library system at the end of the sixties was no longer seen as isolated from other libraries as had been the case in Germany up to that time. These shortcomings caused the Deutsche Bibliothekskonferenz (the umbrella organization of library associations in the Federal Republic) to establish a study group that was to work out a comprehensive library plan that would include both public and research libraries and would mold them into a sensible framework for cooperation and division of labor. This would also mean establishing new structures. This plan, which the study group had discussed with many institutions and associations, was originally named Bibliotheksplan II. It was presented to the public at the German Libraries Conference in Hamburg at Whitsuntide 1973 and was renamed "Bibliotheksplan 73." It is a plan, not a law. Devised by experts, not by legislative or financing bodies, it makes clear to the financing agencies the precise objectives of librarians. The plan is based on the fundamental understanding that educational plans can be realized only in close connection with libraries and the information system and that in modern society only a network of libraries sharing their responsibilities will be in a position to cope with the demand for services. No plan is perfect or definitive. It will produce an effect only if it is to be developed further, not only in the sense that rates of inflation will have to be considered when reviewing financial data, but that above all, unrealistic concepts will have to be eliminated and new situations will have to be taken into account. The author is director o f the Bayerische S t a a t s b i b l i o t h e k , Munich

51

Bibliotheksplan 73 The fundamental idea of the plan is that only a network of libraries (that will also be accessible to documentation centers) can give every citizen a good opportunity for education and information. The commonly accessible libraries of the Federal Republic of Germany form a basis for the development of free political opinion. According to the plan, the basic requirements for a library are competent management and staff; adequate collections, space and technical equipment; and guaranteed steady financing. Libraries should also be able t o operate independently. The plan includes libraries maintained by a great variety of organizations that are an essential part of social life in West Germany. These organizations are the federal government, the provincial (Länder) and local government, the churches, public and private law corporations, universities, etc. In addition, the plan takes into consideration the capabilities of electronic data processing and audiovisual media. In the Federal Republic of Germany there exist regional plans of the federal and provincial governments. In February 1968, the Länder prime ministers' conference on regional planning codified a functional scheme that assigned central importance to certain places in a graded hierarchy of centers that would receive, in addition to other assistance, aid for their library systems. Bibliotheksplan 73 mentions four different levels of functions for libraries supplying literature and information to the general public (this excludes university and other departmental libraries). Libraries functioning on the first level should meet the basic requirements of library users; those funtioning on the second level should satisfy more specialized needs. If the requirements cannot be met at these two levels, they should be met by libraries on a third or provincial level, and this level supplemented by libraries of the fourth level supplying literature and information on a national basis. Though it is not always consistent, the plan does not speak of libraries at a certain level, but of libraries fulfilling functions at a certain level. This may mean either, that one library can take over different functions at the same time (e.g., second and third levels) or that several libraries in combination fulfill all the functions of one level. This is possible on the third level, and it is definitely the case on the fourth level. Libraries with First-Level

Functions

It is evident that libraries that function at the first level are the normal public libraries. They should be located in central communities with more than 5,000 inhabitants and of course in all larger communities in proportional number and size. The plan requires two volumes per inhabitant with a minimum of 10,000 volumes per library. This is the plan, but not today's reality! In medium-sized central communities, these libraries are to be expanded in response to greater need. In less densely populated areas they are to be supplemented by mobile libraries, already operating at some places in West Germany. These mobile li52

braiies should provide one book per person in their designated districts and should also be able to resort to the collections of the libraries with which they are affiliated. According to the plan, school libraries should form a functional unit with first-level libraries. Libraries with Second-Level

Functions

Libraries that function at the second level are central institutions of a local (in cities) or regional library network. Acquisition and cataloging of books should be carried out centrally in contrast to a decentralized lending service. What is to be expected from these libraries? They should provide requested German publications, including current and basic literature in the sciences. This means that about 30 percent (equivalent to 12,500 titles) of all newly published books in West Germany are to be acquired annually by each central library. Supplementary literature from other countries will also be supplied, but to a lesser degree. Finally, about 1,000 periodicals should be subscribed to and, according to the plan, should also be indexed. To this, audiovisuals are added as a matter of course. Moreover, these libraries should establish information centers for their regions. Ultimately they will be important as centers of a lower-level library network, i.e., they are to act as head offices for the libraries in their region that have first-level functions. This is indicated by the centers' responsibility for establishing union catalogs. It is significant that they are assigned the task of storing older volumes for their regions unless special storage libraries exist. On this level, however, many collections have grown in the course of time throughout West Germany that do not quite fit into this range of activities. Bibliotheksplan 73 explicitly states that they should be attended to according to their importance, for which additional support will be necessary. I shall revert to this point later on. The public libraries' advisory boards will also work within the framework of the second level. They now assist public libraries by allocating state grants for new buildings to local governments and take an advisory role in founding, building up, and reorganizing public libraries. Libraries with Third-Level Functions It is evident that libraries of the first two levels are not equipped to provide the public with both commonly needed literature and more advanced specialized information. The plan therefore establishes provincial libraries with third-level functions that can supply important but rarely requested literature. The plan does not state each province should have only one library of this kind, rather it provides guidelines for library service for every five million people. This means that a province such as North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 15 million inhabitants would need three libraries of this kind or one or two of a proportionately larger size. In the case of smaller provinces like Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saar Terri53

tory, the plan states that there, too, a library providing the facilities of the third level should operate. It is also possible for a number of libraries to cooperate in providing third-level facilities. Furthermore, there are university libraries in West Germany that have taken over the additional tasks of a library with third-level functions for the general public. Guidelines for such libraries state that all the relevant German language monographs of a scholarly character should be purchased; at present that would be 14,000 titles per year in addition to 6,000 titles in foreign languages. Furthermore, 2,000 German and 1,000 foreign periodicals should be subscribed to. These figures are not only higher than those for the second level, but represent collections that duplicate only in part those of second-level libraries. Further tasks assigned to libraries with functions of the third level are publishing of regional bibliographies, collecting of literary bequests and manuscripts from leading persons of a region, looking after copyright deposits, storing of old stocks, building up information centers, providing interlibrary lending rules, etc. In addition, these libraries should develop data-processing systems for unified automation of the libraries within a province and maintain adequate data pools. The regional union catalogs in West Germany also work on this level. Seven catalogs were developed in the fifties and form a system for directing interlibrary lending. At times the system has been criticized, but on the whole it works efficiently. The interlibrary lending rules, now under revision, regulate the details. Book transport vans provide fast interlibrary lending service. The union catalogs in their present working form are integrated into the third level. The plan also calls for the introduction of Landesbibliotheksämter (provincial library boards), which so far do not exist outside Bavaria. The Landesbibliotheksämter, as organs of the provincial executive, are to stimulate the supply of literature and information on the provincial level; for this they will need special organization. In addition, they are to coordinate the work of the public library boards operating on the second level. As mentioned before, an institution of this kind exists only in Bavaria where it is called the Directorategeneral of Bavarian State Libraries and is organized into departments for research libraries, for public libraries, and for professional training (the last being identical with the Bavarian Library School). The concept for this institution originated in the Bavarian State Library and was modelled on French administrative offices. The Directorate-general is the supervising body for the state libraries and also has certain responsibilities in relation to other libraries (mainly university libraries), especially with regard to staff. It also allocates government grants to the public libraries. In short, the Directorate-general of the Bavarian State Libraries is responsible for planning and coordinating research and public libraries. It was due to the efforts of this office that regional lending between public libraries and research libraries was coordinated for the first time in West Germany. Similar library boards are required for other Länder. A corresponding board in nuce exists in North Rhine-Westphalia with its university library center, which is a planning center for the university libraries of this province and which also provides other services especially in the field of electronic data processing. 54

Libraries with Functions of the Fourth

Level

In many countries national libraries provide services and facilities for the whole country. These are of differing sizes and origins. Some have developed from an imperial library as in Austria, or a parliamentary library as in the United States. The Bibliotheque Nationale, the new British Library, and the Lenin Library in Moscow are undisputed centers in their countries. The framework of German libraries, however, is shaped by traditional federalism. Important libraries came into being on a provincial basis, and according to Bibliotheksplan 73, most of them will be classified as third-level libraries. It was not until the founding of the German Empire in 1871 that the Preussische Staatsbibliothek gradually took over responsibilities of a national library, which it later shared with the more recently founded Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig. The Bavarian State Library has always played an important role. After World War II the world looked different. I can speak here for the Federal Republic of Germany only. There are now three large libraries de facto dividing the responsibilities of a nonexistent national library among them. To these must be added a few national special libraries, interregional special collections, and the Sondersammelgebiete (special subjects program) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Association). Whereas Bibliotheksplan 73 partially sets up ideal plans for the functions of first- to third-level libraries that have not yet been realized in many respects and that even contradict reality in some ways, on the fourth level the plan reflects the situation as it is. Libraries exercising the functions of the fourth level are primarily responsible for the interregional supply of literature and information. They must make available extensive collections of literature, including highly specialized research literature of documentary materials. The three fourth-level libraries are the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main, the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz in West Berlin, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. The Deutsche Bibliothek has collected all the German language literature as well as German phonograph records and pieces of music produced since 1945. This material is supplemented by literature on Germany and German literature produced in exile from 1933 to 1945. The library was founded after the war and is financed by the Federal Republic. The existence of the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig and the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt reflects the political situation in Germany. Part of the former Preußische Staatsbibliothek became what is now the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz in West Berlin; the remaining parts continue as the Staatsbibliothek in East Berlin. The library in West Berlin is supported by the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, a foundation that in turn is financed by the federal government and the Länder, especially those that incorporate parts of former Prussia. In its acquisition policy the library concentrates on collecting 55

foreign periodicals, newspapers, official publications, and maps. In 1974 it had a collection of 2.6 million volumes; in addition it has extensive special collections of manuscripts, etc. It may come as a surprise that the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, which is located in Munich and financed by the province of Bavaria, is also in this category. This is mainly due to its well-rounded collections, making it at present the largest library in West-Germany - in 1974 it had a total of 3.7 million volumes and extensive special collections of manuscripts, etc. Its collection of works from the fifteenth to ninteenth centuries is of interregional importance. The two last named libraries carry out a comprehensive acquisitions program covering all subjects except technology and (in Munich) agriculture. These main libraries are now being assisted by a system of supplying literature that was established by the German Research Association. The system comprises Sondersammelgebietsprogramm (a special subjects program) and aid to national special libraries and special collections with interregional tasks. These special subjects have been divided among a number of university libraries and the aforementioned libraries in Munich and Berlin. Cooperative accessions ensures, insofar as possible, that beyond the holdings of the two state libraries, at least one copy of every book of scholarly merit in the world will be found in West Germany. As a result of the special subjects program, certain demands for information service and documentation, for example, are made on the centers; and occasionally further tasks, such as the acquisition of nonscholarly literature from certain countries, are assigned to them. A number of special collections with interregional functions receiving mediumterm assistance and the four national special libraries that are cofinanced by the German Research Association constitute the second pillar of this system. These central libraries also collect nonconventional literature in their fields, like reports and other official and semiofficial publications, as well as documentary material. These libraries are the Technische Informationsbibliothek (Technical Information Library) in Hanover, the Bibliothek des Instituts fur Weltwirtschaft (Library of the Institute for World Economy) in Kiel, the Zentralbibliothek für Medizin (Central Library for Medicine) in Cologne, and the Zentralbibliothek der Landbauwissenschaft (Central Library for Agriculture) at the university library, Bonn. There are also special collections of interregional importance in many German libraries that date back to an earlier time. To facilitate access to these collections, an index is now in preparation. In addition to the provision of highly specialized research literature, central bibliographic and cataloging projects must also be regarded as fourth-level functions. Some already exist, others will have to be created. Most important in this connection is the Deutsche Bibliographie published by the Deutsche Bibliothek; next are the catalogs of periodicals published by the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, like the new Gesamtverzeichnis der Zeitschriften und Serien (Union List of Periodicals and Serials), and last but not least bibliographic explorations of 56

earlier periods like the Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachgebiet erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts by the Bavarian State Library. On the federal level a number of institutions are enumerated by Bibliotheksplan 73: The Arbeitsstelle für Bibliothekstechnik (Workshop for Library Technology) has the task of serving interregional planning and coordinating electronic data processing. It should contribute to standardization in West German libraries and develop new models. The Arbeitsstelle fur das Büchereiwesen now Arbeitsstelle für das Bibliothekswesen (Workshop for Libraries) is to carry out expert investigations and prepare recommendations and rationalizations for the organizational structure for all libraries. Its scope of operations is to be extended in 1974 but as things are still in a state of flux as this is written (April 1974), it is too early to make a final comment. The Einkaufszentrale fur öffentliche Büchereien (Shopping Center for Public Libraries) supplies books suitable for library use, audiovisuals, and library equipment. Lastly, the library associations must be mentioned in this context. Of special significance is the fact that parallel to the development of the Bibliotheksplan 73, the Deutscher Büchereiverband (Association of German Public Libraries) is being expanded as the Deutscher Bibliotheksverband (Association of German Libraries), now admitting research libraries as well. Things here are also in a state of flux, and nothing definite can be said about further development at the moment (April 1974). It can be stated, however, that important changes in the West German library system are now under way as public and research libraries get closer together on a broad basis that has not been the case in Germany before. Let us hope that it will be for their mutual benefit! It is important, in this respect, to know that according to longstanding tradition the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare, an association of librarians, has, through its committees, performed much expert work that is in many ways relevant for all the libraries in the country. Its Committee for Alphabetical Cataloging, for instance, after twelve years' work and with the help of the German Research Association in cooperation with the respective committees of the German Democratic Republic and Austria, has completed the new "Rules for Alphabetical Cataloging" (RAK), based on international recommendations. Because of growing responsibilities this association of librarians is no longer in a position to carry out the necessary work for our library system. Therefore these responsibilities are to be turned over to the Deutscher Bibliotheksverband, or to a Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut (German Library Institute) which is yet to be founded. I have already mentioned the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Association) and its "library section". This institution continues to act as the generally acknowledged interregional coordinating center whose significance for research libraries can hardly be overestimated. It has sponsored or initiated many projects. 57

Finally, the plan demands an institute for librarianship and unified and improved training for librarians. Bibliothekspbn 73 also points out that international contacts are necessary and should be cultivated. Supplying Literature and Information

by Affiliated

Libraries

We turn now to affiliated libraries, a group not generally open to the public in contrast to those dealt with above. Certain reservations, however, must be made in regard to German university libraries, for they are traditionally open to those outside the university, and therefore, have taken on, in part, functions of the second and third levels. To being with, school libraries belong in the category of "affiliated libraries" and their position is being widely discussed in West Germany at the moment. It is to be hoped that Bibliotheksplan 73 will give some impetus to their development. The public libraries offer their help, but the research libraries are also interested in designing libraries for the advanced grammar school students who are preparing for university level study. University libraries form the most important group of these so-called affiliated libraries. Their situation, and that of the supply of literature at West German universities in general, is marked for radical change of great consequence. Bibliotheksplan 73 recommends the establishment of centrally controlled library systems at universities. Furthermore, it suggests that the collections of university libraries should also be accessible to the general public. This has already been practiced for a long time through local loan systems and interlibrary lending. The more universities that exist - there have been numerous universities founded during recent years — the more they are in a position to serve the public, for not only are they smaller, but the regions they serve are also. The plan suggests that the responsibilities of third-level libraries "can be delegated" to a university library "wherever this is sensible". I shall revert to this point later. There remain of course a great number of special libraries for research and for administrative and industrial purposes. In many cases they are of great importance, but as they are affiliated with organizations of various kinds they are not as a rule freely accessible. Though they cannoc be the subject of a public plan, it is suggested that their often highly specialized literature be placed at the disposal of general research. Financial and Staff Requirements for Bibliotheksplan 73 Bibliotheksplan 73 proper is supplemented by a number of appendixes describing existing conditions or specifying requirements in certain fields, e.g., spatial requirements for libraries. One of them (No. 3) we must consider in this paper for it is an attempt to calculate the financial and staff requirements proposed by the plan. Staff and book-purchasing requirements are united for first- and second-level libraries. The basic figure is derived from the standard requiring two media units 58

(this refers mainly to books but also to audiovisuals) per person in the regions served by the first- and second-level library network. This requirement of Bibliotheksplan 73 would mean that first- and second-level libraries should contain an overall of 122 million media units to serve a West German population of 61 million. Although this suggestion has been made before, it remains controversial. The Bildungsgesamtplan (1) (Overall Educational Plan), published by the Federal-State Commission for Educational Planning, calls for only one book per inhabitant and an additional media unit for every ten inhabitants. This would be equivalent to a total stock of 60 million volumes with an additional 6 million media units. In reality, only 42 million units were available in 1971—72 compared with the desired 122 million. The gap is to be narrowed by 1985. The result is that 242.8 million deutschmarks annually would be necessary for enlarging the collections and replacing worn-out or outdated literature (an annual rate of 12 percent), based on an average price of 20 deutschmarks for books of this kind in 1973. In 1971 only 30.9 million deutschmarks were spent in this field. From these figures one can imagine the changes necessary in budget policy, especially for local authorities who will have to carry at least two-thirds of the financial burden. The calculations for staff call for five employees per 10,000 inhabitants for the smaller libraries. This would result in a total staff of 30,500 whereas in 1971, 6,332 people were employed in this field in West Germany. To mention one last figure: the plan requires annual total expenditures of 1,111.5 million deutschmarks for the above-mentioned libraries, which must be contrasted with real expenditures of 238.2 million deutschmarks in 1971—72. It would be erroneous, however, to conclude from these figures that the public library system of West Germany is underdeveloped when compared internationally or that the plan is Utopian. Rather, this discrepancy is intended to give to our libraries an even more important position in public finances. No actual figures are provided for third-level libraries, for there are none in some of the provinces, while in others third-level tasks are carried out by university libraries or by several libraries in cooperation. In Bavaria third-level tasks are performed by a fourth-level library together with a number of medium-sized institutions — this can hardly be classified in the terms of the plan. Naturally this situation cannot be expressed in figures. The calculations presented by the plan proceed from the assumption that there should be a third-level library for every 5 million inhabitants. If the average price per book for this kind of library is 40 deutschmarks, in terms of the 1973 price index, the resulting book costs will amount to 14,784 million deutschmarks. For the staff, 1,632 posts are required. It is evident that these costs are a great deal smaller than for the lower levels. 1) Vols. 1 & 2. S t u t t g a r t , 1973.

59

On the fourth level, costs become even more modest. It may be because the libraries concerned had to supply their own data. In any case, these institutions arrived at their budget estimates for books and staff from the experience of past years and not without a certain degree of optimism. The book-purchasing figure given by the state libraries in Munich and Berlin for 1980 comes to about 8 million deutschmarks (excluding external funds and binding costs). The Deutsche Bibliothek has only a small budget for acquisitions as its accessions are based mainly on copyright deposits. Estimates for staff at the three large libraries are put at 1,800 posts in 1980 compared to 1,083 in 1971. In a similar way the national special libraries have calculated their figures and expect to have a budget of 5 million deutschmarks and 517 positions by 1980. According to Bibliotheksplan 73 the German Research Association expects to increase its funds for the special subjects program from 1,350,000 deutschmarks (1971) to 4,700,000 deutschmarks in 1980. These figures must be increased, for in 1974 the Association budgeted a total of 6,400,000 deutschmarks on the special subjects program, on central special libraries, and on special collections with interregional responsibilities. The plan mentions that funds are also necessary for preserving and continuing historically developed collections, though no estimates are given. Programming for universities is in a state of flux and the available figures are known not to be reliable. However, by taking the average of the various estimates, we find that by 1980 there will be a total of fifty Gesamthochschulen (integrated universities) with 18,000 students each, and plans are therefore necessary for their library support. It is beyond the scope of this paper to specify the different factors culminating in the projection of 156,000 volumes for every 18,000 students that will have to be bought annually by 1980. If one volume is reckoned at 45 deutschmarks, a total of 7.8 million volumes will have to be procured annually at a cost of 351 million deutschmarks, this is over and above costs for textbook collections, supplementing of stocks, and carrying out of third-level functions. Finally, 14,400 persons will be needed to staff these libraries by 1980. In arriving at this figure, various factors were taken into account such as the volume of acquisitions; the number of readers; and the requirements for information and control, for academic librarians, for administrative personnel, etc. It is understandable that these figures cannot be compared with the present situation as they relate to library systems responsible for the entire university program, but the situation at the older institutions is quite different. To give figures for these libraries in their present state would be deceptive as there are a great many persons on university staffs working full- and part-time for different-sized departmental libraries. It is difficult at present to record them statistically, but investigations are under way to remedy this situation. It can be assumed that the use of professional staff in this field is more effective so that the figure of 14,400 required posts may not be much higher than the present number of staff members, which cannot actually be ascertained. Is it possible that it is even lower?

60

Problem Areas of the Plan In reviewing some of the problems I do not mean to be onesided in praise or criticism of the plan. It is far too important for that. Of course, it is not appropriate to identify oneself with such a comprehensive plan that naturally is vague in some points and a bit hasty in striving for a theoretical ideal. On the other hand, the plan does not merit blame; if it were so, I would not be commenting on it. During 1972 internal discussions proceeded apace. It must be said in praise of the authors that they readily responded to any sensible suggestion. Whoever did not speak up when he had the opportunity has no right now to criticize. As I did speak up, I may be permitted to make a few comments. Quantitative

Aspects

A conspicuous feature of Bibliotheksplan 73 is the requirement for providing the necessary literature. The basic figure for first- and second-level libraries is two volumes per inhabitant. There are other figures in the text which are related to book production, for example, acquisition and indexing of 1,000 periodicals in a second-level library, etc. These data are based partly on practical experience and partly on plans from other countries. In my opinion, however, it is absolutely necessary to consider qualitative aspects in developing the plan. This may not have been possible for the first plan, but it should now be part of general and even regional plans. Bibliotheksplan 73 does not analyze the literary needs of the readers who are catered to by the various types of libraries. (It is obvious that a person can have different needs!) The plan speaks only in general terms of "more advanced needs", "specialized higher needs", etc., but these terms are never defined precisely. To be more specific, it may be advisable to introduce terms like "recreation", "vocational training", "advanced training", "undergraduate studies", "research", etc. It is only on the fourth level that the more precise expression "highly specialized research literature" is introduced. This is only a general suggestion which should be considered. Quantitative features should be derived from qualitative aspects, which in turn must be based on sociological investigations. Bibliotheksplan

73 and Present-day

Reality

Naturally, Bibliotheksplan 73 aims at a fundamental improvement of the WestGerman library system. This can be achieved in two ways: by expanding the present system (more books, more libraries) and by restructuring that which exists. The objectives of these desirable extensions have already been discussed, but does the plan aim only at expanding or does it aim also at restructuring the present system? This question cannot be answered with a definite Yes or No. With fourth-level functions and also with university libraries the plan starts by describing present circumstances and recommending improvements. Things are different with libraries of first-, second-, and third-level functions, where ideal conceptions are outlined and historical facts are touched on incidentally. The fact that the 61

large libraries in West Germany, especially those of interest to research, have grown up over the course of centuries is mentioned only in passing by Bibliotheksplan 73, that plan being nonhistorical in a certain sense. But can it afford to be that? The answer to this is both positive and negative. It can be nonhistorical if it is remembered that most people are not interested in the fact that a library in their town or area was established centuries ago by some prince for his personal pleasure or because of his love of splendor and that they can there admire beautiful bindings from earlier centuries. What they care about, in fact, is material relevant to their own professional training. On the other hand, we must not neglect the treasures in our libraries, which in many ways are unique and necessary for understanding our times in the context of history. The historical aspect of library development, then, is only occasionally mentioned by Bibliotheksplan 73. There are a great many libraries with long-standing tradition in West Germany that are coping with today's responsibilities in different ways. Some of them, like the Bavarian State-Library, see their task as two-fold - on the one hand perpetuating their tradition, and on the other being a modern active library. This is possible in a large city like Munich, but at other places, historical collections, often founded by princes, face difficulties as tensions develop with second-level libraries if the historical libraries themselves are not able to take over these second-level functions. Would it make sense to close the Herzog-August-Bibliothek at Wolfenbüttel or the state library at Bamberg? Certainly not, as these libraries, apart from their valuable, well-used, older collections fulfill a number of cultural tasks not mentioned in Bibliotheksplan 73. The plan also mentions only occasionally the regional aspects of library development. The West German library system in the different provinces is also influenced by historical developments. In North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area, many large and small towns are located close together, whereas provinces like Bavaria cover extensive areas with several large centers at great distances from each other. As a result, vans are of great advantage for interlibrary lending in North Rhine-Westphalia, but they cannot compete with the postal service in Bavaria with its long distances between universities. There are, however, other regional differences due to the fact that some of the provinces like Bavaria have a long history of their own, while others like North-Rhine Westphalia were created after World War II. As a result, Bavaria has a homogeneous library system which has yet to be realized in North Rhine-Westphalia. Finally, the library situation in the largest West German cities - Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, and Munich - is again different from a region like the Ruhr. In these cities, with their concentrations of libraries, a third-level library may exist in the vicinity of several second-level libraries, or there may be a fourth-level library and/or one or several university libraries. I do not say this in criticism of Bibliotheksplan 73, which must necessarily leave gaps to be filled by regional plans. Certainly it will stimulate the formulation of these plans in the sense that, for instance, third-level libraries will be assisted or founded where necessary. On the other hand, the situation of many an old 62

collection must be reconsidered in relation to other libraries though this cannot mean that the plan intends everything should be made equal. In my opinion both kinds of libraries must be promoted; in particular the frustrating rivalry which sometimes occurs should be replaced by useful cooperation. University Libraries Academic librarians have been preoccupied in recent years with the problem of supplying universities with the needed literature, a fact I would like to emphasize. Bibliotheksplan 73 responds to this problem with the following words only: "The library system of a university should be organized centrally." The "Recommendations of the German Research Association for Cooperation between Central and Departmental Libraries of a University" are also mentioned in this connection. These few words conceal an epoch-making development in the German library system. The new universities, founded since the sixties, offered opportunities for developing new models for meeting their literature needs. The older institutions were characterized by an uncoordinated dualism between a central library and a great number of departmental libraries, some of which were lavishly equipped. Though this system was obviously inefficient, all deliberations and complaints about it never resulted in more than mere theorizing. It was only when new foundations like Regensburg and Konstanz started their work that new models aimed at a central supply of literature for the entire university could be introduced. In the meantime, various other models were developed, such as a system with a central library dominating its departmental libraries or one with a number of smaller libraries under a central administration, in contrast to a central collection comprising nearly all the books of a university. These new developments now influence the older institutions where modern structures will gradually be introduced under the new university acts. This important process, which has preoccupied academic librarians for the last several years, is dealt with only in passing by Bibliotheksplan 73. The first draft of the plan granted "university libraries only a minor part in supplying the public with literature," as Dr. Bernhard Singowitz, director of the university library, Erlangen, put it. Indeed the impression was created that they should largely be excluded from such a task. This met with severe criticism as the great majority of German university libraries are more or less open to the public and have grown well beyond the narrow limits of their parent institutions, taking over third-level functions in the terms of Bibliotheksplan 73. This is often though not always expressed by their very name "state and university library." During the discussion of the Bibliotheksplan in 1972, it became quite clear that a great number of university libraries already fulfilling these functions wanted to continue doing so in the future. The plan was therefore amended in the following way: "Wherever it is sensible, university libraries may take over thirdlevel functions for which they must be equipped accordingly." In another place, it was stated the other way around: that third-level libraries taking over responsibilities in the university sector will also have to be equipped accordingly. 63

Though the plan has been amended in this respect tension between public and university libraries in some places will remain. It will be the responsibility of regional plans to find reasonable solutions. The only efficient library in a wide area to fulfill third-level functions will often be that of a university. On the other hand, there are places where several university and other large libraries exist side by side. It is this very situation which emphasizes the need for supplementing Bibliotheksplan 73 on a regional and communal basis. This was indeed its intention. Public and Research Libraries Bibliotheksplan 73 is the first to document the common interests of public and research libraries, the two originally separate branches of the library system in Germany (before 1945) and the German Federal Republic. These two branches are now being drawn more closely together. This was first indicated by a change in the name of the public libraries. The first book collections of this kind, founded for the public by municipal authorities, deliberately were given the German word Bücherei in contrast to the Greek-derived Bibliothek adopted by research libraries. Now all types of book collections in West Germany are called Bibliothek, but does this mean that there are no longer any differences between public and research libraries? Bibliotheksplan 73 no longer speaks of them as distinct types, indicating thereby that it no longer accepts the old division. But will the difference between them disappear if it is concealed? It continues to be of interest to us in the Federal Republic that the public library is considered a unique institution by other countries. It is not by chance that IFLA has a section devoted to public libraries and another devoted to national and university libraries. In my opinion, it cannot be denied that there is a certain polarity (not an antagonism) between public and research libraries. Perhaps Bibliotheksplan 73 should have expressed that more clearly, but in trying to overcome old antagonisms the existing natural differences were all too easily neglected What are these differences? They are connected with what I have called "qualification," which does not imply a moral judgment in terms of one being better than the other. It is what a reader expects from a book that makes the difference. In one case he may seek entertainment with a popular novel, in the other he wants to find out some detail for his scholarly work in an abstruse journal. Of course, there are many variations between these two extremes. There are types of books that attract readers and determine the character of a library and its collections that are not easily compatible with one of the four levels of functions mentioned earlier. On the one hand there is the highly specialized research literature which is used infrequently but will be of value over a long period of time and therefore must not be destroyed. On the other hand there are books for education and entertainment that are widely read but are quickly out of date. They should be available in a large number of copies for a short period, but they can be eliminated after a certain length of time (except for some copies in research libraries to serve as documents for future scholars). That different 64

kinds of books affect the collections and the use of a library is a fact it would be dangerous to neglect, though it is not elaborated further by Bibliotheksplan 73. The effect of this difference lies at the root of the contrast between public and research libraries. A first-level library, unlike a second- or even third-level library (let alone fourth-level), will usually be marked by a relatively small number of books that are in heavy demand. Like historically developed collections, secondand third-level libraries will follow different principles. In these a large collection is used by proportionately few readers. Nothing would be more erroneous than to compare these different types of libraries, but this may well happen if their peculiarities are not explained to the financing bodies by library plans. These differences still shape professional activities at public and research libraries. The public librarian is often engaged in personally advising the reader, who may have only a general idea of what he wants to read. In contrast, the research librarian is more concerned to make books accessible by cataloging them so that a scholar with specific questions will be able to find a particular title from South America, Russia, or anywhere else, and will be guided to this highly specialized subject. Certainly these activities are related, but different readers and books cannot fail to shape different libraries. That this is true is substantiated by the fact that different curricula are provided for professional training, though a greater conformity in this field could and should be achieved. In Bavaria there will be joint courses for all groups of the socalled mittlerer Bibliotheksdienst (medium-level librarians) beginning in 1974. In Bibliotheksplan 73 the marriage between the elderly genetleman called "research library" and his young wife "public library" proves so passionate that the traits in their characters that differ are less noticeable than those they have in common. In the future it will be necessary to see each in his own right without overlooking what they have in common. General Supply of Information Bibliotheksplan 73 always speaks of supplying not only literature, but also information, which, however, cannot be measured or planned for in a commonly accepted way, though the kind of information needed could be specified more precisely. Bibliotheksplan 73 has tried to do this by listing the required means and instruments of information for libraries of various levels in its Appendix 10. In my opinion this is the first step in a direction which should be pursued further by trying to investigate and define the responsibilities of various libraries in the field of information. It may well be that many of these responsibilities must be redistributed while new ones will have to be accepted in order to achieve a certain division of labor. Appendix 9 of the plan describes a teleprint system for information exchange between public libraries. However, this does not serve interlibrary lending for which a special project is under way ; the result of this will have to be analyzed thoroughly. 65

In addition to this, an extensive reader's survey is being carried out with the support of the German Research Association that, in its second stage, investigates the scope of information provided by research libraries (i.e., university libraries and the Bavarian State Library) and the kind of inquiries made by readers. The result of this and other surveys should be incorporated in a special report containing the scope of resources provided by the libraries as well as responsibility for their distribution. All this must be said in connection with the "Federal Program for the Advancement of Information and Documentation" which is aimed towards the improvement of the availability of scholarly information.

Bibliotheksplan 73 and Other Plans As I mentioned at the beginning of this paper, library planning in Germany has an ancient tradition. The earliest libraries were private enterprises of monasteries, princes, and towns. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, German libraries joined together in organizations that took over a number of joint projects such as the Deutsche Gesamtkatalog (German Union Catalog), national lists of periodicals, interlibrary lending, etc., which reflect this long tradition. After World War II the West German library system had to reorganize itself on a provincial level according to the federalist character of the country. This resulted in organizations like the Association of Libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia or the already mentioned Directorate-general of Bavarian State Libraries (embracing for the first time public and research libraries). General plans were also developed whose effects can be felt today in places like Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony. The research libraries systematically continued after the war such interregional cooperation as interregional lending based on regional union catalogs and union lists of periodicals with their long-established tradition. The most important planning authority in the library field, however, is the German Research Association, which is in the advantageous position of being able to finance its plans. I want to select and explain just one of the many plans and projects it has initiated, the previously mentioned interregional system of supplying literature (including the special subjects program, the national special libraries, and special collections of interregional importance which are all directed under a uniform policy). This system was born out of the needs of the postwar years; now its adapatation to modern times is under consideration. The results of these deliberations will be set forth in a comprehensive report that no doubt will lead to further improvement of the interregional supply of literature. Such plans of cooperation between efficient libraries will lead to controlling the flood of highly specialized scientific literature. The 1964 recommendations of the Wissenschaftsrat (Science Council) have continued their effectiveness to the present day (2). Through this council, budget models were designed, based on older models prepared by the German Research 2 ) " R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s of t h e C o u n c i l of S c i e n c e s o f t h e D e v e l o p m e n t o f S c i e n t i f i c I n s t i t u t i o n s . Part II: R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s . " B o n n . 1 9 6 4

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Association, which could be and were used as a basis for local realization. The paper also recommended the establishment of library networks and even contained some of the basic ideas for the regional supply of literature that are expressed in Bibliotheksplan 73. The federal government recently created a new incentive for regional and interregional planning and cooperation with its large-scale "Programm der Bundesregierung zur Förderung der Information und Dokumentation" (Federal Program for the Advancement of Information and Documentation), for which more than 500 million deutschmarks have been made available over the next four years. This program is an attempt at an overall plan for a scientific information and documentation system under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Since a scientific information system uses literature, libraries are to a certain extent being included in this project. The program provides for the creation of subject information systems (such as natural science, engineering, medicine, the geo-sciences, economics, law, humanities), which will be concentrated in special centers. In addition these systems are to incorporate the interregional supply of literature of certain libraries. A Gesellschaft für Information und Dokumentation (Society for Information and Documentation) should be established to act as the parent organization for research and training institutions and for the application of mechanization. In addition, the afore-mentioned federal program speaks of three permanent library projects: central indexing of German-language research journals, establishment in stages of a computerized union catalog, and a joint catalog for the libraries of the supreme authorities. The German Library Association will also receive aid through the program insofar as its activities serve the aims of the project. The Federal Program for the Advancement of Information and Documentation, the system of sponsoring the interregional supply of literature, and several plans on the provincial level are distinguished by their financial backing. This cannot be said of Bibliotheksplan 73, which is only to be expected as this plan considers the West German library system as a whole with its manifold functions and its great variety of financiers. The very structure of the Federal Republic makes overall planning and financing impossible. This affects public libraries in particular as they are supported by local and municipal authorities that have varying understandings of their libraries. Thus it is not by chance ûial Bibliotheksplan I was devised by public librarians, which they in collaboration with their academic colleagues later extended to Bibliotheksplan 73. As the individual public library is usually on its own, it relies on planning and cooperating to a very high degree. It is only by comprehensive planning that it may receive the necessary backing in its often difficult struggle for funding. In connection with Bibliotheksplan 73, an expert analysis (3) was worked out setting detailed standards for the development of public libraries. 3) Öffentliche Bibliothek. Gutachten der kommunalen Gemeinschaftsstelle für Verwaltungsvereinfachung. München, 1973.

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I have had the honor of introducing to IFLA Bibliotheksplan 73, the first major attempt to envision the library system of our country in an overall plan. I have tried to outline it in its essential features, adding my own critical comments. It is only by reflecting constantly on this plan, that we can realize its aim to supply all classes of the population with the necessary literature in a manner that will not impair the free opinion of the individual. A plan like this is built on expectations that can be fulfilled in principle if it begins with existing realities and does not try to destroy them (except in rares cases!), but develops them to the high aims it expounds. This can de done in regional plans by applying and solidifying the guidelines of Bibliotheksplan 73 in certain fields. The plan has described fourthlevel libraries, the same should be done in regional plans for second- and thirdlevel libraries. The goals are high because we are dealing with multiplication of the current book supply. In comparison with other fields, however, the demands are still rather small. It appears to me that if education and information in a highly developed country are not to diminish in quality, plans like the one outlined must be devised and continuously developed.

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CHAPTER VII

National Planning for Libraries in Developing Countries — The Jamaican Situation Joyce L. Robinson National planning for libraries in most developing countries has not yet reached a sophisticated level. There is, however, a growing consciousness and acceptance of scientific planning, and recently the government of Jamaica demonstrated its awareness by establishing the National Council on Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Services. The responsibilities of this council are to make recommendations to the government on matters as follows: (1) National plan for the development of libraries, archives, and documentation service; (2) Stimulation and development of libraries, archives, and documentation services in private organizations; (3) Establishment of a national deposit library; (4) Review of the nation's library, archives, and documentation needs; (5) Establishment of priorities; (6) Establishment of national standards, with whatever relevant legislation might be necessary, geared towards the upgrading of all types of libraries, archives, and documentation services in Jamaica. This clearly indicates that a sophisticated approach to national planning for libraries in Jamaica is just now being implemented. What is not clearly indicated, however, is that this creditable development would never have become a reality in 1974 were it not for a quarter of a century of earlier library planning based on the persistent and judicious exploitation of the historical, economic, and political realities of Jamaica. An understanding of Jamaica's past and current goals is, therefore, a prerequisite to any consideration of national library planning in that relatively new, small, and optimistic nation that reflects many of the common objectives of developing countries today. Jamaica is a self-governing country within the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is an English-speaking nation of approximately 1.8 million people occupying an area of 4,400 square miles. More than one quarter of this population is concentrated in Kingston, the capital city, which covers an area of approximately 45 square miles.

The author is director of the National Literacy Board, Jamaica.

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The historical background includes the early discovery of the island by Christopher Columbus in 1494 when the indigenous inhabitants were Arawak Indians, the occupation by the Spaniards (1509 to 1655) and the English (1655 to 1962), the slave trade (abolished in 1838), the use of indentured labor, as well as free migration from Africa, India, Syria, Israel, China, and Europe. The population, therefore, is a multiracial society with a preponderance of persons of African descent. The national m o t t o , " O u t of Many One People", fittingly captured the spirit of the country when political independence was gained in 1962. The transition period from adult suffrage (1944) to internal self-government ( 1 9 5 7 ) to final independence (1962) brought increasing national awareness, political maturity rooted in a stabilized two-party system, bold new economic policies, rapid industrial expansion, and a new emphasis on educational, social, and cultural programs. Although much has been achieved in recent years, the pace of development has been severely restricted by certain fundamental problems rooted in the earlier centuries of educational neglect. The main areas of concern are c o m m o n to most developing countries. The pioneer of library development in Jamaica has been the Board of Governors of the Institute of Jamaica (1) w h o introduced the concept of a public service as far back as 1879 and who, in 1945, recognized the need for an organized national plan of development. With the invaluable assistance of the British, the Institute obtained the service of a Canadian librarian, Miss Nora Bateson. Her published report, " A Library Plan for Jamaica," has been the blueprint for a public library development program. Subsequent plans have updated and expanded her early proposals; and it is the 1948 establishment and continuous development of a comprehensive national plan for a public library service, prepared by another British librarian, Mr. A.S.A. Bryant, the first director of the Jamaica Library Service, that has formed the dominant basis for library planning in Jamaica during the last twenty years. This original national library plan also incorporates " A Schools Library Service" for the entire island. The experience of earlier years indicates certain necessary aspects of planning, which will be examined, as follows: — The politics of change in developing countries, — Priorities in national library planning, 1) T h e I n s t i t u t e of J a m a i c a was f o u n d e d in 1879 with specific duties " t o p r o m o t e the pursuit of l i t e r a t u r e , science, and a r t . . . " It is c o n t r o l l e d by a s t a t u t o r y Board of G o v e r n o r s consisting of twelve p e r s o n s . This o r g a n i z a t i o n has p i o n e e r e d the d e v e l o p m e n t of literature, science, and art in J a m a i c a . T h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t and m a n a g e m e n t of libraries was, t h e r e f o r e , only a part of its m a j o r f u n c t i o n . T h e early library was established as a s u b s c r i p t i o n library heavily subsidized by an a n n u a l g r a n t f r o m t h e g o v e r n m e n t . More r e c e n t l y this library has been m a d e c o m p l e t e l y free to the public. T h e libraries m a i n t a i n e d by t h e I n s t i t u t e include the West India R e f e r e n c e Library, the G e n e r a l L i b r a r y , t h e Science M u s e u m L i b r a r y , and t w o j u n i o r centers. Plans are n o w being f o r m u l a t e d t o reorganize t h e West India Library t o b e c o m e the national library, n o w that the I n s t i t u t e has term i n a t e d its lending services.

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— Legislation and national library policies, — Strategies in implementing national policies, — Implementing new concepts in national planning, — Organization of a national library service, — Changes affecting planning, — Integrating library services in a national plan, — Staff — a basic tool for national library services, — The coordination of library services, — Attitudes in planning. The Politics of Change in Developing Countries The concept and methodology of national library planning have been recorded and expressed in recent years and now provide excellent guidelines. However, the best plans will flounder through lack of skilled navigation. Librarians should devote greater consideration to navigation techniques when they design national programs. The instruments used for charting progress should be highly sensitive to change. In developing countries this aspect assumes even greater proportions as long-standing national patterns, attitudes, and values may be changed overnight by sweeping politico-economic events, e.g., instant coups, economic crises, newly discovered natural resources, or new international alliances. These, separately or collectively, often become powerful motivating forces, inspiring the national confidence for independent action inconceivable thirty years ago. The resources made available for library planning are inextricably bound up with the attitudes of national leaders and economic planners. Thus, at a time of fierce competition for a fair share of the country's assessed resources the whole library program is severely handicapped unless the library planner places himself in a position to influence thought where it matters most. This is not an advocacy for librarians to embark on partisan politics in any country. Indeed, this would negate the neutrality and objectivity cherished by the profession. It is merely an appeal for a realistic awareness of and more active participation in the politics of change and a sensitive understanding of how external and internal politics may affect the projected plans for a country's development. Whether it be the government's attitude to the European Economic Community (EEC), the Organization of American States (OAS), or the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the successful library planner must be knowledgeable and sufficiently involved to assess and express views on how national decisions are likely to affect library development within a country. Developing countries, large or small, old or new, including Jamaica, have certain main areas of concern: escalating population growth, high percentage of illiteracy, insufficient educational facilities, limited economic resources, and limited skilled human resources. The librarian's analysis and understanding of these problems is a prerequisite to library planning in each country.

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Priorities in National Library Planning National library planners should design development programs that identify needs and relate closely to the national priorities of the country being served, aware that the country may emphasize different priorities over a short period. Jamaica's current national needs indicate the urgency of giving priority to upgrading, expanding and accelerating its educational development. Since 1972, after the elections and change of government, attention has been focused on implementing comprehensive programs for the development of human resources. The new government decided that all educational facilities provided by the government from primary school through university should be free and that further and higher education (to the extent of the needs and absorptive capacity of the society and its economy) should be available free on the basis of merit alone. At the same time the government launched a war on illiteracy with target dates to eradicate illiteracy from the adult population within four years. Further, reclamation plans have been embodied in programs for vocational and skill training. A compulsory National Youth Service Program is being used to train teaching assistants and stimulate the sharing of talents. The current emphasis is that education is now the number one priority and the essential feature in the transformation of the country from an underdeveloped, dependent colony to an independent egalitarian society in which manpower is a prime ingredient for growth, necessitating the development of all human resources and the restructuring of the educational system to make it relevant and adequate. Local library planners have been tuning in to this new mood — hence the establishment in 1974 of the National Council of Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Services. Legislation and National Library Policies National library planners should endeavor to conceive and develop library programs with sound scientific bases but in flexible formats to fit the national goals that are being fashioned by changing world attitudes, the growing aspirations of each nation, varying local economic opportunities, and the changing political climate at home and abroad. To guarantee continuity, the basic structure should be firmly rooted in official legislation, which should be designed with sufficient flexibility to accommodate continuous growth, ensure adequate financial support, and facilitate the use of changing technologies. The Jamaica Library Service Law of 1949 established one library service for the entire island and ensured financial support by both central and local government. It established a corporate body known as the Jamaica Library Board and required this central board to be responsible for the development, maintenance, and control of this island-wide service. Responsibility for certain areas of local library development and maintenance is delegated by the board to parish library committees. Each committee then operates within the framework of the board's policies, and thus, one central public library service is maintained for the island. 72

This legislation, which established the structure of one national public library service for Jamaica, had some excellent features, for it clearly stated objectives and responsibilities, but it left the statement fluid enough so that the school (and any other) library service could be integrated into the national service later without conflict. It ensured continuity and financial support by the central government, and in addition it skillfully attracted annual contributions from local government in an unobtrusive and acceptable manner on a proportional basis that craftily stimulated continuous growth. This law created a unique partnership between government and people, permitting the strategic use of parish, or local, rivalry in competitive development that has been invaluable in stimulating local motivation and in maintaining interest in library development programs. Nevertheless this parish participation was not allowed to fragment national programs and the unitary structure has been maintained. Strategies in Implementing National Policies Strategies or "navigation techniques" have been vital tools in the formulation of library policies in Jamaica. A country handicapped by a very high rate of illiteracy has had to educate the masses on the importance of libraries at a time when everyone was preoccupied with the provision of food for the hungry and schools for the young. The strategy was based on consultation, discussion, and agreement at the varying levels of staff, board, committees, and central and local government. From the inception of public library service the staff has played a major role in developing policy; and the first director, Mr. Bryant, and the two subsequent directors have spent considerable time in drafting outlines of library policies relevant to local situations. Such drafts are discussed, amended, and reviewed by the Jamaica Library Board and the thirteen parish committees. This is a long and sometimes frustrating process, but such local participation brings untold dividends. The major areas of agreement are then presented for discussion with the government through the Ministry of Education; thus we have the major plan — that the Jamaica Library Board be allocated the responsibility for formulating island-wide library policy with the provision that the government retain final control through budgetary provision — written into the law. Thus, once funds are allocated, the Jamaica Library Board is the major policy-making body. By law, the board makes regulations for the operation of the service, and parish committees and staff must operate within the framework of these policies. The board initiates and submits to government various proposals through its annual budget as well as through long-term ten-year, five-year, and three-year development schemes. The board has succeeded in its strategy to gain recognition for the Library Service as an integral part of the government's planning process; and consequently during the last ten years, development plans projected and published by the government have included specific public library development programs originating from proposals initiated by the Jamaica Library Board. 73

In 1971, the government's comprehensive program entitled "National Physical Plan for Jamaica, 1 9 7 0 - 1 9 9 0 " indicated that the expansion of public library facilities had been integrated into the government's plan for the economic, social, and educational development of Jamaica. This was some progress. The next significant step in library coordination was achieved with the government's establishment of the National Council on Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Services in 1974. It should be clearly appreciated, however, that this relationship in the formulation of library policy at the governmental level has been attained through the very sensitive, sympathetic, and enlightened attitudes of the Jamaica Library Board, which is in tune with national needs as well as with the aspirations of the people and the elected government. The problem is that this present relationship could be destroyed in a moment through lack of understanding, i.e., although the law provides the library board with some autonomous powers, these powers could become null and void if income were curtailed.

Implementing New Concepts in National Planning Whenever legislation compels the implementation of new programs, there should be reassuring safeguards for real advancement and commitments to the future. Legislation for libraries in Jamaica provided the legal framework for a unified service beginning in 1949, and most of the independent free libraries became integrated with the Library Service, with the exception of the Institute of Jamaica, in Kingston, which had existed from 1879. The proposal that the public library facilities of the Institute be integrated into the Jamaica Library Service met with firm resistance. It has taken twenty-six years to solve this problem. The method, though slow, is worth stating since it was successful and left no indelible scars. First, the new Jamaica Library Service established operations in the areas least served by the Institute. It was not until public confidence in the management and greater effectiveness of the island-wide service grew and until comparative statistics proved beyond doubt the uneconomical and wasteful duplication of the independent city library that the Board of Governors of the Institute voluntarily closed its public library and decided to concentrate on providing a national library for Jamaica. The identification of the problems faced by Jamaica and the removal of the anomaly of a duplicated lending service have been accomplished with the deep consciousness of similar problems being encountered by many other developing countries where older autonomous bodies refuse to relinquish their individual library responsibilities in the interest of more modern, effective, and economical national systems. Experience has shown that there is no easy way to remedy this. National legislation is certainly the first step. However, a second step of sensitively phasing in the new and fading out the old would seem more acceptable than the hatchet approach, particularly in intimate communities where success depends on goodwill. Most older authorities have served useful purposes in their time, and 74

an important consideration is not to destroy the good parts of any library heritage. Most developing countries have their early literary heritage scattered in older institutions and some valuable assets may be in private possession. Good library planning must recover these intact. The modern library must be fully equipped with trained staff and acceptable minimum facilities to maintain and develop the old material better than was done in the past. Jamaican acceptance of long delay and certain financial waste as the nation awaited the completion of one integrated free public library service for the island was justified only by the redeeming feature of the Jamaica Library Service during those years becoming better equipped to take over its full responsibilities. At the same time the Institute had been building up the most valuable collection of books, periodicals and newspapers, maps, pictures, etc., about Jamaica since 1879. These now form an invaluable basic collection for a national library. Organization of a National Library Service The organizational structure of a national library service should be planned to permit the performance of essential functions with the greatest economy of money, time, and effort, without undue delays in service to the clientele. This means the maximum centralization of functions and decentralization of service. In developing countries, good public transportation is limited (sometimes it is nonexistent); communication is slow and restricted; the distribution of the population is haphazard; reading habits are poor; and traditions of borrowing books from free libraries are in the formative stages. Consequently the greatest emphasis has to be placed on the easy access of books to readers. The organizational structure should concentrate not only on the economy of centralization, but also on the pragmatic implementation of a variety of economically viable services in order to attract potential users as they pursue other activities to which they are more committed. In these countries, one cannot always look to standard measurement, such as a three-mile radius, since very often villages within half a mile of each other are separated by a river with no spanning bridge. In such cases, service points even within a one-mile radius become essential to success. It is in this context that the Jamaica organizational structure developed. The most economical method was used to implement one all-island scheme, and all existing free libraries are now incorporated in the structure. The Library Service, organized with a headquarters in the capital city, Kingston, is responsible for the overall supervision and coordination of library work and for the central purchasing and processing of the book collections for the entire island. These books are distributed to parish libraries situated in the thirteen units of local government known as parishes. Twenty-five years ago, most of these parish libraries were begun as part-time municipal libraries in the capital towns of the parishes. Each is responsible for establishing and maintaining the rural libraries within the parish boundary. Library service is organized as follows: there 75

are thirteen parish libraries with 21,000 to 208,000 books each; thirty-seven branch libraries, open full time, with 3,000 to 20,000 books each; eighty-six branch libraries, open part time, with 1,000 to 3,000 books each, sixty-four book centers with 500 to 2,000 books; and two-hundred-forty-two bookmobile stops, with 2,000 to 4,000 books available at each stop. The headquarters of the Jamaica Library Service also maintains a union catalog; an interlibrary loan service; and a small reproduction center for the in-house printing of brochures, reading lists, and annual reports for various service points. The organization of the service is highly centralized wherever it can effect economy and greater efficiency. On the other hand, the administration is fully decentralized to facilitate maximum participation at local levels. National service to the public, organized through the parish libraries, operates within the policy framework of the Jamaica Library Board. The involvement of local community leaders as members of the parish library committees has aided the dramatic growth of parish libraries from their early beginnings as small parttime branches operated by untrained volunteers to their present status as influential institutions providing effective full-time library service to meet the specialized needs of various sectprs of the country. Included in the national plan was a building policy, and consequently all parish libraries (except one) are housed in specially designed functional buildings that have had to be extended owing to the dramatic growth of the work over the years. Separate adult and junior sections are maintained, and a very dynamic program of extracurricular activities makes most of these libraries the cultural and educational center of activities in the parish. When parish library work had advanced to the extent that there was a clear need for further expansion that could not be provided in rented premises, the local Parish Library Committee was required to take the initiative in obtaining a suitable site and in providing at least one fourth of the projected cost of the new library building. Once the parish provided this tangible proof of self-help, the Jamaica Library Board was committed to contributing the remaining three fourths of the building cost for the new library. This had the special advantage of harnessing the enthusiasm of local citizens to augment the limited building funds in the central pool, while at the same time it assisted in identifying areas with the greatest potential support for maximizing the country's limited book resources. Changes Affecting Planning Meticulously prepared plans sometimes require drastic revision because of the unexpected. Mainly because of past neglect, developing countries are prone to sudden changes, and librarians must ever be ready to utilize changes to their best advantage. One such unforeseen change occurred two years ago in Jamaica when the government made the sudden decision to make literacy a national priority. Five hundred thousand adults were to become functionally literate within four years. Thus the public library service immediately had to begin revising its devel76

opment program to accommodate not just doubling its membership over a fiveyear period, but to integrate satisfactorily the expected 50 percent new low-level readers without damage to the service offered to more sophisticated library members. The current Jamaican search for solutions to the problems of having suitable books and buildings and of working out correct staff-reader relations and new budgetary provisions to meet changing needs demonstrates some of the exciting aspects of national planning. It is possible, despite the unforeseen, to accomplish more in five years than was possible in the previous five decades. The library planner must always be flexible and sensitive to these changing needs. Integrating Library Services in a National Plan In countries with limited financial resources, successful national library planning is most dependent on the optimum use of available library resources through the clear identification of the available assets, the pooled and flexible use of professional and technical personnel, the economical exploitation of bulk buying and central book processing and distribution, and the carefully scheduled use of buildings, furniture, equipment, and vehicles to eliminate wasteful duplication of capital as well as recurring maintenance costs. To indicate just one advantage, such planning will facilitate operation of the school library service as an integral part of a public library service. The Jamaican Schools Library Service is a department within the national library structure and is administered from the Library Service headquarters in Kingston. The organization is based on the division of the island into five convenient regions that are serviced by the use of five bookmobiles based at regional public libraries at strategic points. This twenty-year-old union of the national public and school library services has reduced wastage and duplication of effort in all phases of the administration. Outstanding economical benefits have derived from bulk ordering with its improved discount rates and the centralization of accession, classification, and cataloging processes. Staffing for National Library Service Good national planning should continously assess the projected needs for qualified staff and provide for a constant supply of trained personnel at varying levels and with the relevant specialized experience. Developing countries with the common problem of limited skilled human resources must recognize the importance of this advanced planning since the recruitment of suitable staff is even more difficult in those countries. It is often necessary not only to plan training opportunities but to create the atmosphere that will encourage and attract suitable recruits and sell librarianship as a profession. Official implementation of the organization of the Jamaica Library Service included the establishment of a local library association as a tool for educating the public at large on the importance of libraries and the role of trained librarians in 77

society. Consequently, the Jamaica Library Board was committed to subsidizing and nursing the Jamaica Library Association through many lean years until the association became a viable independent body. The results have been most rewarding not only in upgrading libraries and librarians in general, but also in establishing a Department of Library Science at the University of the West Indies. Coordination of Library Services National library planning cannot be completed without a system for the formal coordination of all types of services. Such coordination allows for the assessment of library resources and planned development based on the accurate knowledge of what is available. Library planning in Jamaica has been fairly comprehensive in the areas of public and school library services. However, there are outstanding areas of neglect, particularly in the field of government and special libraries. Recent development programs are endeavoring to rectify this, and a major breakthrough has come with the establishment of a national body for coordinating library development — the National Council on Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Services. It is important to recognize, however, that the successful coordination of all types of library service is based not only on legislation but more so on the commitment of librarians and library authorities to fight insularity and work towards common goals and national objectives. Attitudes in Planning National library planning can be most effectively implemented through citizen participation at responsible levels. Librarians, however well trained, brilliant, and experienced, cannot and should not try to plan in isolation. It is true that government economic planners very often ignore the views of other professionals, including librarians, and it is not an unfamiliar occurence for prestigious national development plans to be prepared and published without the views or counsel of professional librarians being considered. It is also true that some national plans do not even include provision for library development. However ludicrous or objectionable this may be to professional librarians, it is a serious reflection on the impact that the library profession has made on the science of national planning. It is a reflection also of the fact that, even now in a period of advanced technology, we who can successfully provide a guide to the tools of ancient and modern ages have continued to be so successfully self-effacing as a service profession that others forget to consult or involve us officially in national planning. Librarians must take more time to learn the science of the other professions so that they may not only have a compelling voice with the educators in the ministries and/or with the economists who trim the library budget, but may also equip themselves to express a unique viewpoint on what priorities should be given to national needs in education. They should also have a working understanding of the problems of the nation's balance of payments that may cause restrictions affecting the importation of books and the escalation of their prices. In other words, participation in library planning is a two-way street, and the librarian must equip 78

himself to plan on equal terms with his peers. Only then will his peers respect his opinions sufficiently to seek his views. A librarian gains tremendous stimulation, a broader viewpoint, and better national perspective by direct and continuous contact with local citizens who generously share their specialized knowledge as they seek help as readers in libraries. This contact is an invaluable asset to successful planning since consciousness of attitudes and an awareness of current trends and patterns are most helpful in planning programs for ready and acceptable implementation. The influence of popular demands on limited local resources and the influence of the demand of the masses for educational and cultural reforms should not be underestimated. The participation of citizens at all levels is, therefore, a vital and important factor in library planning; and the successful utilization of this factor is the strategy most likely to bring the highest returns to library development.

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CHAPTER V i l i

The Planning of National Libraries in Southeast Asia Hedwig Anuar The term Southeast Asia includes the countries of Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, the Khmer Republic, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Portuguese Timor, Singapore, Thailand, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam - an area of some 1.2 million square miles with a population of over 220 million, characterized by great diversity of people, language, religion, and culture. These countries — apart from Thailand which never came under Western colonial rule, Brunei which is a British-protected sultanate, and Portuguese Timor - achieved political independence only after World War II. Major factors with which these countries have to contend in their struggle for economic and social betterment include uneven distribution of population, (1 ) a high rate of population growth with a very high proportion of persons in the younger age groups, predominantly agricultural and dependent economies, low per capita incomes, high unemployment and underemployment, wars, insurrections, and revolutions. Economic development, education, housing, health, and transportation are the priorities in the national development plans of these countries. The earliest libraries in the region, like early libraries in India, China, and other parts of Asia, served royalty, the nobility, or the priesthood in royal, temple, or monastery libraries. The ordinary folk depended on oral tradition and music and dance for the transfer of knowledge, information, and literature, while the written word or inscription on stone, bone, gold leaf, palm leaf, tree bark, bamboo, silk, and paper was an object of veneration and awe rather than of everyday familiarity and use. Despite the spread of education, there is still high illiteracy in the region today, which, combined with the multiplicity of languages and scripts and low purchasing power, limits the development of authorship, printing, publishing, bookselling (of locally produced as well as of imported books), a reading public, and libraries. Librarianship itself is a new and barely recognized profession. In most of the countries of the region, there were no professionally trained local librarians until the early 1950s. Some of them are still highly dependent on training abroad that may be prestigious but is often irrelevant to the actual problems they face on The a u t h o r is director of the National Library, Singapore. T h e views in this paper are the writer's and do n o t necessarily reflect the views of the Singapore g o v e r n m e n t . 1) See A p p e n d i x I at the end of this chapter.

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their return. Library associations (2) are generally young and have limited resources. Despite the many handicaps they face, they are notably active in the promotion of library and bibliographical services. The pattern of library development is generally characterized by generous provision for university and special libraries that cater to an educated minority, including university students, researchers, civil servants, economic planners, scientists, technologists, and members of the older professions such as law and medicine. Public libraries, when they do exist, are generally at a rudimentary level of development, while school libraries are usually the poorest and most neglected of all. It is against this backdrop that national libraries in Southeast Asia have been or are being established. While some trace their origins to the nineteenth century or earlier, most libraries have been formally established only within the last twenty to fifty years. The National Library of Thailand is probably the oldest, having been founded in 1905, while the National Library of Malaysia is the youngest, having been founded in 1971. It should also be noted that the Philippines, Thailand, South Vietnam, and Singapore have new national library buildings, provided within the last fifteen years. Developing Concepts of the National Library No Southeast Asian national libraries were mentioned in the July 1955 issue of Library Trends, devoted to current trends in national libraries, a further indication of the very recent development of these libraries in the region compared with long established national libraries in Western countries. This particular issue and the report on the Unesco Symposium on National Libraries in Europe, held in Vienna in September 1958, highlight the fact that the concerns of established national libraries such as those in the developed countries were vastly different from those being established in the developing countries. These well-established libraries were concerned with matters arising out of the growing complexity in the organization of large research collections, conservation, microfilming, mechanization, union catalogs, international interlibrary loans and exchanges, and the provision for training of specialist staff. The functions of a national library and its place in a national library service with reference to Asia were first discussed at the Unesco Seminar on the Development of Public Libraries in Asia held in Delhi in October 1955. The only Southeast Asian countries represented at that seminar were Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and the "Malayan-Singapore-British-Borneo group" represented by an expatriate British librarian). The seminar noted that the terms "national library" and "national library services" are often loosely used, and it defined the functions of a national library as follows:

2)

See A p p e n d i x II at t h e end of this c h a p t e r .

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It should collect all literary and related materials concerned with the nati«ftp — both current publications under copyright deposit and historical materials; be a conservatory of materials concerned with world culture and the natural main source in the country of such materials for scholars and research workers; act as the authority for the compilation of the national bibliography, this stemming naturally from its functions as a copyright deposit library; serve as the focal point and organizing agency for national and international interloan of books; and it should be the organizing centre for national and international book exchange. Though the above are the major functions, the following were also considered desirable for proper co-ordination: it should be the agency to compile and maintain the national union catalogue, again arising from its function as the copyright deposit library. It should provide bibliographical service to parliament and to government departments. In addition, it should assume general responsibility for initiating and promoting co-operation and forward planning in all matters between itself and other libraries in the performance of the above functions, especially in relation to university and special libraries.(3) In considering what should constitute a viable unit of service for public libraries, the seminar noted that in certain circumstances that concern size of the country and the lack of or limited local government, the country as a whole could be considered as a single unit. In such instances, both the public library and the national library would be serving the entire nation and could therefore be logically combined into one institution. It was thus agreed at the seminar that "in some countries, particularly smaller countries, the functions of the national library and the central library board should be integrated for better and more economical development."

(4) In February 1964, when the Unesco Regional Seminar on the Development of National Libraries in Asia and the Pacific was held in Manila, only five of the twelve countries of Southeast Asia were represented — Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, and South Vietnam. Only six of the twelve - Burma, Khmer Republic, Thailand, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Singapore - already had formally established national libraries, while in the remaining countries, other libraries not designated as national libraries were however carrying out some of the functions of national libraries. If national libraries are by definition those that serve nations or independent states, it is a moot point whether Singapore's National Library, established as both a public and a national library in 1958, could strictly be termed a national library a that date or even in 1964 when the country had reached the stage of internal self-government but was not yet a sovereign state. The basic functions of national libraries, as summarized at the Manila Seminar in 1964, are: 3) 4)

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Public Libraries for Asia: The Delhi Seminar (Paris: Unesco, 1960), pp. 2 7 - 2 8 . Ibid., p. 28.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

to to to to to to

provide leadership among a nation's libraries, serve as a permanent depository for all publications issued in the country, acquire other types of materials, provide bibliographical services, serve as a coordinating centre for cooperative activities. provide services to government.(5)

The seminar also considered it preferable that "national archives should be administered independently of but in close co-operation with the national library."(6) It also agreed "that legislative reference services are an essential adjunct to enlightened government and the pre-requisite finance and facilities must be made available whether the service is offered primarily by the national library or by an independent unit answerable directly to the legislature."(7) On the role of the national library in the fields of science and technology the seminar recommended that "where circumstances permit, the national library should assume its proper responsibilities in the fields of science and technology, since these differ in degree rather than in kind from its responsibilities in other fields. These responsibilities in no way diminish the importance and duties of specialised libraries."(8) The Meeting of Experts on the National Planning of Library Services in Latin America held in Quito in February 1966 amplified the functions of national libraries still further as follows: To collect and ensure the conservation of the national book production for which, in addition to other resources, it will receive copies of publications deposited under the copyright laws; it should furthermore ensure that copyright laws are enforced. To provide national and foreign readers and research workers with an adequate and efficient information service, for which it will assemble the necessary general collections and collections of reference works, prepare a union catalogue of all the country's libraries and compile the national bibliography and any other bibliographies necessary for the performance of its functions. To organize the national or international exchange of publications. To centralize inter-library loans with libraries abroad. To rationalize the acquisition of publications, including periodicals, among the libraries covered by the plan for the development of library services. To centralize the cataloguing and classification of publications and ensure the distribution of catalogue cards or catalogues published by certain categories of libraries.

5) 6) 7) 8)

Regional Seminar on the Development of National Libraries in Asia and Pacific Area, Manila, 1964. Draft final report. (Paris: Unesco, 1964), p. 2. Ibid., p. 3. Ibid., p. 5. Ibid., p. 6.

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To co-operate, whenever its own organization and the development of planning render it advisable, in the extension and improvement of school and public library services.(9) The Unesco Meeting of Experts on the National Planning of Library Services in Asia held in Colombo in December 1967 laid special stress on the role of the national library as . . . an active organisation with dynamic leadership geared to a triple purpose: a) preserving the national culture b) developing by all appropriate means, systems and procedures which will make available the total library resources of the nation for the benefit of the whole national community c) establishing relations with libraries of other countries.(lO) Although this seminar stressed the role of the national library in planning for library development, it is noted that only three Southeast Asian Countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines - were represented at the meeting, and these by institutions other than national libraries, although most of the Southeast Asian sovereign states had established national libraries by that time. Functions of National Libraries Now, some ten years since the Manila seminar, national libraries have been established in all sovereign Southeast Asian states except Indonesia, where plans for a national library are at an advanced stage. Given the variety of concepts or models of national libraries available, it is enlightening to determine which of these concepts have been accepted as valid in the setting up of national libraries within the Southeast Asian context. In the first place, it appears that most national libraries have had the advantage of being supported, and sometimes deliberately created, as necessary adjuncts to nationhood, along, perhaps, with other institutions or symbols such as national anthems, national museums, national art galleries, or, in a different context, national steel mills, national shipping, and national airlines. For example, the first proposal for a national library for Laos was made in 1958 by Tay Keolouangkhot and Thao Kene and states that "The establishment of a National Library for Laos will be a sign of its nationhood and a witness to its independence; and it will proclaim the respect of Laos for moral and intellectual values."(l 1) However, under prevalent conditions, where the infrastructure of library development is wholly or partly absent, the creation of a national library could well mean 9) 10) 11)

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"Meeting of Experts on National Planning of Library Services in Latin America Report, Quito, 7 - 1 4 Feb., 1966," Unesco Bulletin for Libraries 20 (6) N o v . Dec. 1966, p. 2 8 7 - 8 8 . Final Report: Meeting of Experts on the National Planning of Library Services in Asia, Colombo, 1967 (Paris: Unesco, 1968), p. 7. Russell Marcus. "Laos and Library Development," College and Research Libraries. 28 (6) November 1967, p. 398.

the creation of an isolated and artificial institution, an apex without a base. This danger has generally been avoided, for an examination of the functions (12) of the national libraries reveals that most of them have some responsibility for library service for the nation as a whole as well as provision for cooperation with other libraries at national and international levels. The functions of some of the earlier national libraries, such as the Singapore National Library, are clearly derived from the Delhi seminar of 1955 while those of more recent ones such as in Malaysia (and additional functions for the Singapore National Library provided in revised legislation enacted in 1968) emphasize the leadership role of the national library .While there is unanimous recognition of the vital function of collecting the literature of the nation, legal deposit legislation is only partially effective, particularly because of poor communications facilities, the multiplicity of languages, and the underdeveloped and disorganized state of the book industry. Where copyright exists, it may not always be linked with legal deposit. Some national libraries still have archival functions while, more commonly, national libraries and national archives come under the same ministry. Many have assumed some responsibility for public library service, particularly for the capital city. The Singapore National Library is the only one, in keeping with the concepts emphasized at the Delhi Seminar, that operates as both a national and a public library with a system of full-time and part-time branch libraries and a bookmobile service. The National Library of the Philippines has an Extension Division serving some 446 provincial, municipal, barrio, and deposit station libraries all over the country in cooperation with local government authorities. There are also great divergencies with regard to bibliographical functions, including union catalogs, current and retrospective national bibliography, indexing of periodicals and newspapers, and centralized cataloging services. Some national libraries serve as exchange centers in the larger countries but are usually not centers for interlibrary loans with libraries abroad, possibly because most libraries that operate interlibrary loans prefer to do so directly. Preservation of collections through microfilming is gradually becoming more common. The second edition of the Directory of Microfilm Facilities in Southeast Asia (13) lists microfilming facilities at the national libraries of the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand; in Indonesia such facilities are available at the Central Museum Library and the Indonesian National Scientific Documentation Center, which are expected to serve as national centers for the humanities and for science and technology respectively. In building up their collections of national literature, some national libraries have had the advantage of absorbing or inheriting the private collections of 12) 13)

See A p p e n d i x III at the end of this c h a p t e r for the f u n c t i o n s of the national libraries of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, S o u t h V i e t n a m , and Thailand. Patricia Pui Hen Lim (Singapore: I n s t i t u t e of Southeast Asian Studies, 1973).

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learned societies or individual collectors. However, because they may be younger than the university libraries of their countries, their collections may be smaller and more limited. This in turn limits the bibliographical and research functions they would normally undertake, which may already be carried out by university or other libraries. Thus the national library, though established to carry out national library functions such as these, may in reality lack the capability, the prestige, and the leadership potential required of such an institution. For example, a Unesco expert's 1968 report on the development of Burmese university and research libraries noted that the National Library of Burma did not play an important role in the library system of the country and recommended the adoption of the Scandinavian pattern, "where the functions of the National Library and University Library are combined in a single institution."(14) In discussing a proposed advisory council on libraries, the report also recommended that "as the National Library has not until now got the central position in Burma as planned . . . it might be reasonable to affiliate the Council to the Universities Central Library, Rangoon, and to make the head of this library the exofficio chairman."(15) It is also interesting to note an earlier instance in 1925 when the Philippine Library Association successfully lobbied in the House of Representatives against a bill that provided for transfer of the Philippines Library and Museum, predecessor of the National Library, to the University of the Philippines. The archives were not to be included in the proposed transfer. Something of a vicious circle can thus arise where insufficient support for the national library leads to bypassing of the institution in favor of other, sometimes already established, sometimes newer, agencies. This applies particularly to newer fields such as economic planning or scientific and technical develòpment where the lack of direct involvement by the national library leads to further weakening of the institution and the retarding of its potential growth. This danger can only be avoided if national libraries, as instruments of national policy, are closely identified with and responsive to the nation's development activities and goals. Library Manners and Hans How far has planning of national libraries succeeded in the realization of these concepts and functions? National planning of economic development has generally been accepted as an essential tool of modern government, but national planning of social and cultural development has been evident only to a limited extent, mainly in the fields of education, housing, health, and transporation; but increasing attention is now being given to family planning. Most of the countries in the Southeast Asian region have depended on outside resources for assistance in planning for their national libraries as well as for the planning of library service for the nation as a whole. The main sources of aid for such planning have been Unesco, the Ford Foundation, the Asia Foundation, the United States Agency 14) 15)

86

Palle Birkelund, Report on the Development Libraries. (Paris: Unesco, 1969), p. 20. Ibid., p. 4

of Burmese

University

and

Research

for Internationa] Development, the Colombo Plan, and similar aid agencies. Among the earliest plans were those for Indonesia, which has had the services of a large number of Unesco and other experts over the past two decades. Recommendations were made in 19S3 for the establishment of a national library service (rather than a national library), including a system of provincial public libraries. One of the earliest proposals for a National Library of Indonesia was made in 1960 by J.N. Tairas, at the time a student at the New Zealand Library School. Currently, a Unesco team is advising the Indonesian government on the setting up of a national library that is expected to be established within the next plan period, from 1971 to 1979, as part of an overall plan for library development. Another early plan was that for Burma, undertaken by Dr. Morris Gelfand on behalf of Unesco in 1958. This plan included a very comprehensive program for a National Library of Burma, covering its aims, organization, and building. In 1962, Dr. Gelfand, as a Unesco consultant, also drew up a comprehensive plan for the development of the National Library of Thailand and for library service as a whole, in which he estimated that it would require SO new staff members for the National Library and 25,000 school librarians. In March 1965, an ad hoc committee was appointed to draw up a national plan for library development as part of the government's five-year plan. Subcommittees were given responsibility for details of standards and plans for school, public, college, university, and special libraries and for the national library and library education. In 1968 this national plan for library development was completed and forwarded to the authorities concerned, but it was not accepted. The first proposal for a national library in Laos was prepared in 1958 by Tay Keoloungkhot and Thao Kene, already referred to. The second proposal, prepared by Unesco expert Georges Chartrand in 1967, on library development in Laos, included the establishment of a bureau of libraries for Laos. The third proposal, by a member of the International Voluntary Service, called for Laos government approval and sponsorship of a Library Development Team that would "help organize libraries requesting assistance, create the materials necessary to run these libraries and set standards for good library practice."(16) The most recent Unesco report of libraries in Laos, Vietnam, and Khmer was made in May 1973 on behalf of the Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia. Two Colombo plan experts from New Zealand were appointed in 1962 to make recommendations on the development of a national library, one for a period of four months, while the second expert stayed for a two-year term in order to implement the recommendations made in the report. These called for tremendous expansion of public library service and an accompanying growth in book collections and of staff as well as the setting up of a library school attached to the National Library. 16)

Marcus, op.cit., p. 399.

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As a follow-up to the Manila seminar in 1964, the National Library of the Philippines prepared its own detailed survey and development plan in 1967. Subcommittees examined such matters as the administrative organization; resources, including the general reference collection, Filipiniana collection, public documents collection and copyrighted materials; technical services, buildings and equipment, and personnel; financial administration; extension services; publications; and intellectual and cultural activities. In Malaysia, the first plans for a national system of public libraries rather than a national library were made in 1956 by the Malayan Library Group, predecessor of the library associations of both Malaysia and Singapore. Subsequently, planning for a national library began with the setting up in February 1966 of a National Library Unit attached to the Malaysian National Archives and of a National Library Committee headed by the chief secretary, who heads the Administrative Service. Beginning in November 1970, an Australian expert served as consultant to the government under the Colombo Plan for a three-month period in order to prepare the draft legislation for the establishment of the national library. The National Library Act passed in May 1972 includes the recommendations regarding the role of the National Library given in Blueprint for Public Library Development in Malaysia (17) presented to the Malaysian government in 1968 and subsequently adopted with respect to Penisular Malaysia. The nature and extent of these official plans for the development of national libraries varies from country to country. Some are more detailed and comprehensive, but it may be said that all or most of them have attempted to survey the existing library situation and to make specific proposals on such matters as library legislation, buildings, functions, finance, collections, staffing, and library education, sometimes relating not only to the national library but also to library development for the nation as a whole. Mention must also be made of the series of surveys on developmental book activities and needs in Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam that were made 1966—67 by Wolf Management Services on behalf of the United States Agency for International Development. Planning at the nongovernment level has been undertaken by library associations, such as those of Thailand and Malaysia, chiefly for public and school library services. However, some planning for bibliographical projects has also been undertaken. In Malaysia/Singapore, for example, the Joint Standing Committee on Library Cooperation and Bibliographical Services of the two library associations was the first to draw up detailed recommendations for national bibliography, union catalogs, periodicals indexing, interlibrary loans, and other such matters. More recently, however, the trend has been for the national libraries in both these countries to take over these bibliographical and other functions. While there is considerable activity in the bibliographical field by national libraries, university libraries, documentation centers, and library associations of the region, there is 17)

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Hedwig A n u a r (Kuala L u m p u r : Persatuan Perpustakoiah, 1968).

on the whole an insufficiency of planning in this field with the result that efforts are uncoordinated and duplicated to some extent and bibliographical coverage is far from complete. National book development councils, fostered by Unesco since the first Experts Meeting on Book Development in Asia held in Tokyo in May 1966, have now been formed in most countries of the region. They were conceived as agencies that would plan for integrated book development through the coordinated and cooperative efforts of all sectors, both public and private, of the book industry. National libraries are generally represented on these councils and will thus share in the planning. Planning Implementation While there has been no lack of official planning for national libraries, the melancholy fact must be recorded that practically none of these plans have been accepted by the authorities concerned or they have been accepted with considerable modifications. The planning agencies and the planning processes vary considerably, according to the legislative, administrative, and financial systems of each country. Some national libraries come under the Ministry of Culture, as in South Vietnam and Singapore; others are under the Ministry or Department of Education, as in Thailand and the Philippines; the National Library of Malaysia is under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Since most national libraries are government agencies, the programming, execution, and evaluation of their plans are carried out in accordance with prescribed practices and procedures and are subject to bureaucratic and other constraints. A hopeful sign in recent years is the inclusion, with Unesco assistance, of national libraries and library and book development as a whole in national development plans, such as those for Indonesia and Laos. Penna has pointed out that national libraries, public libraries, and school libraries derive their financial support mainly, if not entirely, from government funds, whether these be local, provincial, state or national.(18) In the developing countries of the region, universities and university libraries, and even special libraries, also derive most of their finances from government, although these may be freer to seek additional funds from individual donors as well as from local and foreign foundations, business, and industrial firms. The integrated planning of library development as a whole therefore becomes all the more necessary if functions and services of different types of libraries are to avoid wasteful duplication of efforts and ensure the most efficient use of scarce manpower and financial resources. While library plans for the nation are necessary, their very wide ranging and comprehensive character may serve as a deterrent to economic and other planners who are apt to regard them as overambitious and unrealistic unless they are tempered by detailed phasing into short-term, medium-term, and long-term periods, with definite 18)

C.V. Penna. The Planning of Library and Documentation Sewell and Herman Liebaers (Paris: Unesco, 1970).

Services, 2nd ed. rev. P.H.

89

objectives for each stage. A careful and accurate assessment and identification of priorities, including the key one of professional education that has been identified as a major concern of libraries in the region, must be made and regularly reviewed. In conclusion, the relevance or irrelevance of libraries, including and especially national libraries, in situations where the first imperative is economic development, can only be established when there is a favorable climate of opinion shared by economists, politicians, administrators, educators, scientists, and others involved in national development. National libraries must continually strive to serve such key groups as a priority in order to demonstrate their functional value and to flourish as libraries that are sensitive to the pressures and demands of national goals, eventually providing either directly or indirectly as the libraries' library, service to the nation as a whole.

Appendix I Populations of Southeast Asia Area Brunei Burma Indonesia Khmer Republic Laos Malaysia Philippines Portuguese Timor Singapore Thailand North Vietnam South Vietnam

5,765.3 677,955.7 2,027,087 181,035 236,800 332,631.38 299,402.79 19,423 584.3 514,000 158,750 173,809

Population sq sq sq sq

km km km km

sq sq sq sq sq sq sq sq

km km km km km km km km

141,500 (1972 estimate) 28,874,000 (1972 estimate) 118,400,000 (1971 census) 5,728,771 (1962 census) 6,705,000 (1971 estimate) 3,106,000 (estimate for 1 July 1972) 10,452,000 (1970 census) 37,959,000 (as of July 1, 1971) 6 1 0 , 5 0 0 ( 1 9 7 0 estimate) 2,110,400 (1972 estimate) 36,820,000 (1971 estimate) 22,038,000 (mid-1972 estimate) 18,809,000 (estimate for July 1, 1971)

Source: The Far East and Australasia, London: Europa Publications, 1973.

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Appendix II Library Associations in Southeast Asia Date Founded

Affiliations

Burma Library Association

1958

Indonesian Association of Librarians, Archivists and Documentalists (Asosiasi Perpustakaan Arsip dan Dokumentasi Indonesia, APADI)

1953

Indonesian Association of Special Librarians (Himpunan Pustakawan Chusus Indonesia)

1969

—

Indonesian Library Association (Ikatan Pustakawan Indonesia)

1973

—

Khmer

—

—

Lao Library Association (predecessor was Association des Bibliothécaires Lao)

1972

Library Association of Malaysia (Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia)

1955*

Philippine Library Association

1923

—

Association of Special Libraries of the Philippines**

1954

—

Thai Library Association

1954

North Vietnam

— IFLA, 1973

-

IFLA, 1973

IFLA, 1961

not known

Vietnamese Library Association (South Vietnam)

1958

IFLA, 1971 ALA***

Library Association of Singapore

1955*

IFLA, 1974

* founded as Malayan Library Group ** reconstituted as chapter of the Philippine Library Association 1974 *** American Library Association

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Appendix III Functions of Selected National Libraries National Library of Malaysia (1) Section 3 (a) (b)

Purpose and objectives:

to provide leadership and promote co-operation in library affairs in Malaysia to assist the Government in the promotion of the learning, use, and advancement of the National Language

(c)

to support research and inquiry on a national scale

(d)

to provide facilities for the enlightenment, enjoyment and community life of the people

(e)

to contribute to the development of cultural relations with the people of other countries

(f)

to provide or promote such other services or activities in relation to library matters as the Minister may direct.

Section 4

The functions of the Director General of the National Library are:

(a)

to advise the Minister on all matters relating to libraries and library service

(b)

to promote a nationwide system of free public libraries and library services in Malaysia

(c)

to promote and coordinate the development and use of the library resources of the nation

(d)

to develop and maintain by purchase or otherwise a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Malaysia and its people

(e)

to provide bibliographical service, including national bibliographical services and a union catalogue of library collections

(f)

to provide modern facilities for the storage, retrieval and communication and information

(g)

to promote the advancement of library science and the professional training of librarians

(h)

to act as the agency for the national and international lending and exchange of library material

(i)

to lend, sell or otherwise dispose of library material forming part of the library

(j)

to do such other things as he may deem necessary, in order to give effect to the purposes and objectives referred to in section 3.

1) National Library Act, 1 9 7 2 (Laws of Malaysia. Act 80).

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National Library of the Philippines (2) The organization and administration of the national and public library systems in the Philippines is entrusted by law to the National Library. It has the following objectives, powers, duties and functions: (1)

the preservation of all books, libraries, and library material or equipment belonging to the institution or confided to its custody;

(2)

acquisition of additional books, libraries or other materials;

(3)

supervision over the use of the facilities of the institution by the public at large;

(4)

organization, preservation, equipment and maintenance of a reference library;

(5)

preparation and publication of prints, pamphlets, bibliographic catalogues, manuscripts, or any literary scientific work deserving to be published;

(6)

procurement and collection of books, papere, documents and periodicals relating to the history of the Philippines or to the Philipino people;

(7)

installation and maintenance of a union catalogue for the purpose of cataloguing of National Government books;

(8)

management of the copyright office for registration of claims to copyright; and

(9)

organization of a system of filing, distributing and exchanging official publications with foreign countries.

In addition, the National Library is authorized by law to establish, operate and maintain one thousand municipal libraries for a period of five years under the provisions of Republic Act No. 411, with an annual outlay of Ρ 300,000. The Director is to apportion the libraries among provinces in proportion to their population and divided among the municipalities thereof also on the same basis. National Library of Singapore (3) Section 5 (a)

The functions of the National Library are —

to promote and encourage the use of library material and information therefrom by the establishment of lending and reference libraries and mobile library services;

2) Rufo Q. Buenviaje. "Government Policies Affecting the Development and Growth of Libraries in the Philippines." Paper presented at Second Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians, Diliman, Philippines, Dec. 1973. 3) National Library Act, Chapter 311. (In Singapore. Laws, Statutes, etc. The Statutes of the Republic of Singapore. Revised Edition. (Singapore: Law Revision Committee, 1970— 71.)

93

(b)

to acquire library material generally, and, in particular, to acquire a comprehensive collection of library material, both current and retrospective, relating to Singapore;

(c)

to collect and receive all books required to be deposited in the National Library under the provisions of the Printers and Publishers Act and to preserve such books;

(d)

to make library material available for reference and for loan subject to proper safeguards against loss or damage;

(e)

to provide reference, bibliographic and interlibrary loan services to Government departments and t o Parliament;

(0

to advise and to co-ordinate the resources and services of Government department libraries and other libraries with those of the National Library;

(g)

to obtain and provide central information on the resources and services of libraries in Singapore;

(h)

to participate in national planning for all types of library service in Singapore, and to conduct research to determine library needs and possibilities;

(i)

to compile a current national bibliography and retrospective national bibligraphies;

(j)

to compile and maintain a union catalogue of libraries of all kinds;

(k)

to act as the organizing agency for the national and international lending of library material;

(1)

to act as the organizing agency for the national and international exchange of library material; and

(m)

to initiate and promote co-operation between the National Library and other libraries in the discharge of the above functions.

National Library of South Vietnam (4) The Directorate of National Archives and Libraries has the following functions: 1 2 3 4 5

Organizing, directing and supervising the National Library and public libraries. Implementing copyright regulations. Preparing bibliographic aids. Conducting research pertinent to library and archival development. Training specialized personnel to manage records and libraries.

4) Nguyen-Ung-Long. "Library Activities in Vietnam." Conference of Southeast Asian Li brarians, 1st, Singapore, August 1970. Proceedings. (Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 1972.)

94

Amongst the services envisaged are: 1 The National Library intends to serve as a centre for centralized cataloguing. 2 The National Library intends to serve as an effective centre for the preparation of national bibliography and copyright enforcement. (a)

Reference services to the three branches of government

(b)

Bibliographical services and professional leadership to local public-type libraries.

(c)

Photographic reproduction services to all other types of libraries.

(d)

Professional library science leadership in preparation of manuals, classification controls, subject headings, documentation, etc.

(e)

Inter-library loan services to all other libraries.

(0

Union catalogue control of books, periodicals, documents, newspapers and specialized materials.

3. The National Library also intends to serve as a centre for stationary and mobile library branches serving the metropolitan Saigon area. National Library of Thailand (5J The chief functions of the National Library are: 1 To render library service to the public through the National Library in Bangkok and through branch units in some provinces. 2 To carry out literary exchanges with foreign countries. 3 To acquire and preserve all kinds of books needed by the public. 4 To translate, edit and publish books and inscriptions from the ancient times. 5 To help other libraries by providing photocopy service and distributing additional books which are needed.

5) Stanley A. Bainett and others. Developmental Book Activities and Needs in Thailand (New York: Wolf Management Services, 1967). (AID Contract No. AID/cad-1162).

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Bibliography General Käser, David; Stone, C. Walter; and Byrd, Cecil K. Library Development in Eight Asian Countries. Metuchen, N.J.; Scarecrow Press, 1969. Chap. 1, Philippines; Chap. 4, South Vietnam; Chap. 5, Laos; Chap. 6, Thailand; Chap. 7, Indonesia; Chap. 8, Malaysia and Singapore. Lim, Patricia Pui Hucn, compiler. Directory of Microfilm Facilities in Southeast Asia. 2nd ed. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1973. Mearns, David C„ and others. "Current Trends in National Libraries." Library Trends, July 1955, pp. 3 - 1 1 6 . Penna, C.V. The Planning of Library and Documentation Services. 2nd ed., revised and enlarged by P.H. Sewell and Herman Liebaers. Paris: Unesco, 1970. Proceedings. Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians, 1st, Singapore, 1970. Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 1973. (For Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia and Persatuan Perpustakaan Singapura.) Unesco. Public Libraries for Asia; the Delhi Seminar. Proceedings of the Seminar on Public Libraries in Asia, New Delhi, 1955. Paris: Unesco, 1956. -: National Libraries: Their Problems and Prospects. Symposium on National Libraries in Europe, Vienna, 1958. Paris: Unesco 1960. - : Papers and Draft final Report. Regional Seminar on the Development of National Libraries in Asia and the Pacific Area, Manila, 1964. The final report and three of the seminar papers are also published in Unesco bulletin for libraries, 18(4) (1964), pp. 1 5 0 - 8 3 . -: Final Report. Meeting of Experts on the National Planning of Library Services in Asia, Colombo, 1967. Paris: Unesco, 1968. National Library of Burma Birkelund, Palle. Report on the Development of Burmese University and Research Libraries. Paris: Unesco, 1969 Bixler, Paul. "Burma: Ambivalence and Conflict." Library Journal 87 (20) (1962), pp. 4 1 2 4 - 2 8 . - : "A Partial Peripatetic Report on Libraries and Librarians in Southeast Asia: Burma." Leads, 10 September 1967. Khurshid, Anis. "Library Development in Burma." Journal of Library History (USA), October 1970, pp. 3 2 3 - 4 0 . Ranjan Ray, Nihar. " A Report on the Organization of a Library, a Museum and an Art Gallery, Constituting a National Cultural Centre." Rangoon, 1955. Khmer, Laos, Vietnam Barnett, Stanley Α., and others. Developmental Book Activities and Needs in The Republic of Vietnam. New York: Wolf Management Services, 1967. (Agency for International Development. Contract No. AID/csd-1162) - : Developmental Book Activities and Needs in Laos. New York: Wolf Management Services, 1967. (Agency for International Development. Contract No. AID/csd-1162) Chartrand, Georges: Rapport sur le developement des bibliothèques au Laos. Paris: Unesco, 1967. Marcus, Russell. "Laos and Library Development." College and Research Libraries, November 1967, pp. 3 9 8 - 4 0 2 . Ministry of Education Directorate of National Archives and Libraries. Organization and Administration of the Directorate of National Archives and Libraries. Saigon, 1964. 32 pp. Van Kuyk, Robert H.J. Rapport d'une mission pour la reorganisation de la documentation educative et des bibliothèques: Laos, Viet-Nam Republique, Khmere, April 23-May 10, 1973. Bangkok: Bureau regional de l'Unesco pour l'éducation en Asie, 1973.

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Indonesia Bainett, Stanley Α., and others. Developmental Book A ctivities and Needs in Indonesia. New York: Wolf Management Services, 1967. (Agency for International Development. Contract No. AID/csd-1162) Bryan, Harrison. Report on the Development of National Documentation/Information Services in Indonesia. Djakarta, 1972. Dunningham, A.G.W. Library Development in Indonesia. Paris: Unesco. 1964. Covers period from April 1959 to October 1963. Dunningham, A.G.W., and Patah, R. Report on a Survey and Recommendation for the Establishment of a National Library Service in Indonesia. Jogjakarta, 1953. Hardjo-Prakoso, Mastini. The Need of a National Library for Indonesia. Djarkarta. 1973. - : "Government Policies Affecting the Development and Growth of Libraries in Indonesia." Paper presented at Second Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians, Manila, 1 0 - 1 4 December 1973. Shank, Russell. Science and Engineering Library and Information Services Development in Support of Research and Development in Indonesia. Djakarta, 1970. Tairas, J.N.B. Towards a National Library for Indonesia. Wellington: Library School, New Zealand National Library Service, 1960. Williamson, William L.: "University Library Development in Indonesia," A report to the Miïibtiy of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia. Djakarta. 1970. National Library of Malaysia Malaysia. Laws, statutes, etc. National Library Act, 1972. Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer 1972. (Laws of Malaysia. Act 80) Malaysia. National Archives. Annual Report, 1966-70. Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer, 1967-71. Malaysia. National Archives and Library. Annual Report, 1971 - . Kuala Lumpur, 1972. Wijasuriya, D.E.K. "Laws, Policies and Libraries: the Malaysian Experience." Paper presented at Second Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians, Manila, 1 0 - 1 4 December 1973. - : "The National Library of Malaysia: Problems and Prospects." Paper presented at Conference on National and Academic Libraries in Malaysia and Singapore, Penang, 1 - 3 March 1974. - : "Planning the National Library Building." Paper presented at Seminar on Library Buildings, Department of Library Science, MARA Institute of Technology. Shah Alam, Malaysia, 2 3 - 2 4 August 1974. National Library of the Philippines Albert, Leo N., and others. Developmental Book Activities and Needs in the Philippines. New York: Wolf Management Services, 1966 (Agency for International Development. Contract No. AID/csd-1162) Buenviaje, Rufo Q. "Government Policies Affecting the Development and Growth of Libraries in the Philippines." Paper presented at Second Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians, Manila, 1 0 - 1 4 December 1973. De Guzman, Abraham C. Focus on the National Library. Manila: National Library, 1964. Hatch, Lucile. "The National Diet Library, the National Library of the Philippines, and the Singapore National Library." Journal of Library History (USA), October 1972, pp. 329-59. National Library Development Plan Committee. The National Library Survey and Development Plan. Manila: National Library of the Philippines, 1967. National Library of Singapore Anuar, Hedwig: "The National Library of Singapore." Paper presented at Conference on National and Academic Libraries in Malaysia and Singapore, Penang, 1 - 3 March 1974.

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Byrd, Cecil Κ. Books about Singapore; a Survey of Publishing, Printing, Bookselling and Library Activity in the Republic of Singapore. Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 1970. (Published for the National Book Development Council of Singapore). Hatch, Lucile. "The National Diet Library, the National Library of the Philippines, and the Singapore National Library." Journal of Library History (USA), October 1972, pp. 3 2 9 59. Koh Thong Ngoc. "Library Conditions and Library Training in Singapore." Libri 20 (4) (1970), pp. 2 6 3 - 7 7 . Lim Hon Too. "Recent Developments in Librarianship in Singapore." In International Librarianship, edited by George Chandler. London: Library Association, 1972. National Library. Annual Report, 1963. Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1964. National Library Board. Report, 1960/63. Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1963. Waller, Jean M.: "One Linear Foot: A Partial Measurement of Professional Achievement in Singapore and Malaysia, 1952- 1971." Australian Library Journal, April 1972, pp; 110-16

National Library of Thailand Ambhanwong, Suthilak. "Library Development in Thailand: An Appraisal and a Forward Look." In International Librarianship, edited by George Chandler. London: Library Association, 1972. Barnett, Stanley Α., and others. Developmental Book Activities and Needs in Thailand. New York: Wolf Management Services, 1967. (Agency for International Development Contract No. A1D/CSD-1162.) Chandler, George: Libraries in the East: An International and Comparative Study, Chap. 8. London: Seminar Press, 1971. Gelfand, Morris A. "The National Library and Library Development and Training in Thailand: A Draft Report." Bangkok: Unesco, 1962. "New Building of the National Library of Thailand." Unesco bulletin for libraries, November-December 1966, p. 325. Spain, Frances, L. Some Ñotes on Library Development in Thailand, 1951-65. Bangkok: Chulalongkom University, 1965. - : "Library Development in Thailand, 1951-65." Unesco bulletin for libraries, May-June, 1966, pp. 117-25. Watanakul, S. "Profile of the National Library of Thailand, Its Present Situation and Future Plans." Research Paper, Kent State University, 1969.

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CHAPTER IX

Library Education and Manpower Planning in Africa F.A. Ogunsheye

National development for libraries in Africa was first championed by Unesco when it sponsored the Ibadan Seminar on Public Libraries in 1953. That meeting not only laid the foundation for the development of public libraries, but also indicated guidelines for the training of the required manpower to organize these libraries. A subsequent meeting ten years later in Enugu and specialized regional meetings were built on this initial framework and discussion. As a result of national and international efforts, various types of libraries have been established in Africa. The pattern was similar in most countries under colonial governments. Research institutions were the first to establish book collections, or libraries, to support scientific research between 1930 and 1950. From 1940 to 1960, universities were established in various parts of the continent, and strong library collections were developed to support their academic programs. In response to Unesco's effort, public library development began in the late 1950s, and school library services were often associated with their establishment. The most recent concept to emerge is that the national library is to serve as the nation's memory and preserver of its cultural heritage, stimulating and supporting educational, social, and economic development. A review of library development in Africa shows that the concept of library development to support educational, economic, scientific, industrial, and social programs in developing countries of Africa has become accepted. The problem in most African countries now is not only financial, but relevance — what types of libraries should be developed for the countries of Africa, which consists of largely nonlite· rate and nonprint oriented cultures and societies. Associated with this problem is the matter of personnel for these libraries and the type of education and training they should have. There is also the question of priority for libraries with the mass of problems in other areas - education, health, food production, and viability of the economy — that confront developing countries of Africa. They do not have the advantage of time, of centuries for conventional gradual growth, which developed countries of today enjoyed. It has been difficult for librarians to persuade governments that libraries are essential to all their programs and that they must be included on the priority list. With our low literacy rate, governments question the relevance of libraries. They question the wisdom of spending large sums of money to enable the privileged minority to read and obtain information. Librarians have been asked The a u t h o r is professor and head of the D e p a r t m e n t of Library S t u d i e s at the University of I b a d a n , Nigeria.

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t o prove that their proposals are relevant to national objectives and the national plans made to m e e t those objectives. It is, t h e r e f o r e , n o t surprising t h a t the meeting of experts in Kampala in December 1970, at the end of the first U.N. Development Decade, was concerned with the t h e m e National Planning of Doc u m e n t a t i o n and Library Services in Africa. The meeting, convened b y the Director-General of Unesco and organized with the cooperation o f the government of Uganda, had the following main objectives: to evolve principles for the national planning of d o c u m e n t a t i o n and library services in African countries in relation t o social, e c o n o m i c and educational plans; t o assess the d o c u m e n t a t i o n and library needs of African states and correlate a plan of development of these services for the region with a regional target for education, research, and b o o k d e v e l o p m e n t ; t o work out a m o d e l plan for the i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of d o c u m e n t a t i o n and library services in Uganda. ( 1 ) The meeting reviewed t h e present state of library services in Africa and discussed the role of d o c u m e n t a t i o n and library services in educational, social and economic development. With the present record of p e r f o r m a n c e and estimated school enrollment, Unesco laid d o w n principles for long-term planning and established an estimated target for library development in the eighties f o r the Second ( 1 9 7 0 1980) Development Decade. Finally, the meeting considered a plan f o r library development in Uganda as a case study. T h u s Unesco i n t r o d u c e d t o African countries for the first time the c o n c e p t of planning based o n a costing of existing operations; the assessment of adequacy in meeting national objectives, diagnosis, determination of f u t u r e requirements and their financial implications; and the selection of strategy t o i m p l e m e n t a plan and "ensure efficient execution and national use of the available h u m a n and material resources."(2) The idea that the m e t h o d s already being applied t o o t h e r areas of d e v e l o p m e n t could be applied t o library service is very welcome and augurs well for the success of librarianship in Africa. It is significant to n o t e that the report of the Kampala meeting did confess that the necessary basic data for meaningful national diagnosis and for the preparation of strategy for developing library service on the "criteria of cost, or of cost and profit analysis" do n o t exist. T h e r e f o r e , the proposals in the report can only be regarded at best as a good "guestimateT. It, however, did lay down a f r a m e w o r k for developing countries t o follow. If we accept these proposals for the sake of a r g u m e n t , what is needed in terms of m a n p o w e r , b o t h qualitatively and quantitatively, t o implement the targets? What facilities exist for training? What are

1 ) Unesco. Final Report, Expert Meeting on National Planning of Documentation and Library Services in Africa, Kampala, Uganda, 7-15 December 1970. (Paris: Unesco, 1971). 2) C.V. Penna. The Planning of Library and Documentation Services. 2nd ed. revised and enlarged by P.N. Sewell and Hermann Liebaers (Paris: Unesco, 1970), p.47.

100

the achievements of their training facilities to date? What are their projections for the future? Can they meet the required objectives? These and other questions related to manpower development will be discussed in this paper. The goals set forth in the Kampala report were silent on future manpower requirements and rather vague on existing qualified manpower. In order to collect data on existing library personnel and the training facilities available on the continent, a questionnaire was sent to the twenty library schools in Africa, including North and South Africa, listed in the World Guide to Library Schools. (3) Of the twenty, only nine returned the questionnaires. I have therefore had to rely on other sources - most important among them were Dorothy Obi's recent survey, Education for Librarianship in Sub-Saharan Africa (4), and the final report of the Unesco Seminar on the Harmonization of Librarianship Training Programmes in Africa, which was held in Dakar in February 1974. Other sources used were prospectuses of library schools and papers or reports on library schools written by their directors, as well as various Unesco reports. Data extracted from these sources have been used to delineate the structure of the library profession in Africa and the character and adequacy of the training facilities existing on the continent. The Structure of the Profession Prior to 1950 the various African countries relied on personnel from either Britain, France, or Belgium to establish and manage the few university or research institute libraries that were in existence. These librarians introduced into the colonies the professional structure of their country of origin. Many of them were scholars with university educations and full professional qualifications. They relied on the local inhabitants for their subprofessional staff, who were given training locally and became middle-range personnel. Some of them in turn were sent abroad for full professional training. The early indigenous librarians did not possess university educations and were therefore only qualified to train as nongraduate professionals. Besides, in many European countries, librarianship was not a graduate profession. The status of librarianship was low compared with other professions. Very few formal training schools for librarians were associated with institutions of higher learning. In Great Britain, the Library Association administered professional examinations for students who received instruction at polytechnics and colleges. The University of London School of Librarianship and Archives was the only school in England that provided formal training at the postgraduate level before 1963. Very few candidates from the colonies had the basic qualification — a degree from a good university. Most of the then-colonial students took the professional examinations of the Library Association while they worked at libraries and attended lectures in 3) Unesco. World Guide to Library Schools and Training Courses in Documentation Unesco, 1972), 243 pp. 4) (Enugu: The author, 1974).

(Paris:

101

the technical colleges. Some of the librarians who obtained the ALA (Associate of the Library Association) subsequently obtained the FLA (Fellow of the Library Association). A similar situation existed in France for Francophone African countries. Many libraries in these countries were manned by distinguished scholars and bookmen who had received their training on the job. Candidates from the colonies could study for the Diplome Supérieur des Bibliothécaires, if they had full license or some of the certificates forming part of the license. If they had lesser qualifications, they could only attend courses organized by the Ministry of Cooperation at the Municipal Library of Toulouse or Nieully and take the certificat d'aptitude, which was a vocational proficiency certificate.(5) Thus, the French also offered courses at two levels - for a lower and a higher qualification. The record of professional librarians shows that most of the candidates who had early training abroad could only enter the junior course, because they did not possess the higher admission requirements (6) for l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Bibliothécaires in Paris, leading to the higher qualification conservateur. Only very few senior librarians from Africa took this course. At best, most of the African students only had the baccalaureate. Many of them did not even possess this qualification. The ministry had to arrange special courses for African students. The results of these experimental courses were not favorable. They were subsequently abandoned for the regular course that demanded the same admission "qualifications from African candidates as from the French."(7) There is no record to show that the situation for Belgian colonies was different. African librarians were trained in Belgian schools with the same European tradition as those of France. During the sixties, a number of African students obtain foundation fellowships or American scholarships to study librarianship in the United States. Many of them came back with master's degrees. These graduates of American library schools intruduced higher degree certificates into the African continent. The idea of the Bachelor of Library Science (BLS) award had been judged as inadequate in the U.S. It had a rebirth in the changes that took place in Great Britain with the acceptance of the idea of a graduate profession with certification by higher institutions of learning. The creation of the Council for National Academic Awards, as a degreegranting body outside the universities, enabled the polytechnics and colleges of technology to award BA degrees. Librarianship became one of the subjects for these degrees. It also enabled those receiving the Library Association's professional certification (ALA) to become graduates and receive the BLS by taking subject area studies. 5) Expert Meeting on National Planning of Documentation and Library Services in Africa, Kampala, Uganda, 7-15 December 1970, main working document (Paris: Unesco, 1970), p. 33. 6) Dorothy Obi. Education for Librarianship in Sub-Saharan Africa (Enugu: The author, 1974), p. 114. 7) Paule Salvan. "A Library Education Policy for Developing Countries." Unesco bulletin for libraries, XXII:4 (July/August 1968), p. 178.

102

These developments in Europe and America were reflected in the establishment of library schools in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are now seven of these schools. The first directors were foreigners. They were guided and influenced in their decisions concerning types of programs by developments in their own countries. As a result, a three-tiered personnel structure evolved for the profession in Africa. This structure comprises higher professionals, professionals, and paraprofessionaJs. The six-month to one-year certificate courses are being phased out in many library schools, and the Dakar Seminar,(8) which designated them nonprofessional in its recommendation, approves of this trend. The table that follows shows more detail of the various categories of personnel in African libraries, their qualifications, and the nature of their responsibilities. The table indicates that the structure of the profession in Africa is very similar to the patterns developed in Britain and France for Anglophone and Francophone areas respectively. There is a superimposition of the American structure in the development of the postgraduate higher degree programs. What is different in Africa is the distribution of responsiblities. Because of the shortage of full professional personnel, paraprofessionals and personnel with middle-level training and certification are performing full professional functions. In some countries, they may even be potential directors of state or provincial libraries. The profession in Africa is still largely nongraduate. With the exception of Nigeria, there are not sufficient graduates for the priority areas. College graduates who are doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, and even high civil servants are more highly paid than librarians. The idea of college graduates studying for a profession like librarianship is relatively new.(9)

8) Final Report, Unesco Seminar on Harmonisation of Librarianship Africa, Dakar Seminar (Paris: Unesco, 1974). 9) Acronyms in this table stand for the following: PGDL - Postgraduate Diploma in Librarianship MLS - Master of Library Science MA - Master of Arts MEd - Master of Education FLA - Fellow of the Library Association ALA - Associate of the Library Association PhD - Doctor of Philosophy GCE - General Certificate in Education BLS - Bachelor of Library Science DAFB - Diplome d'aptitude aux fonctions de bibliothécaire CAPB - Certificat d'aptitude à la profession de bibliothécaire

Training Programs in

103

Table I

Structure of the Profession in Africa

Professional Grade

Designation

Basic Qualifications

Nature of Responsibilities

Higher Professional

Anglophone: Librarian

A good first degree post graduate professional qualification: (PGDL, MLS, MA, MEd, FLA, PhD) and relevant experience

Directors of libraries, heads of sections in large libraries, or heads of small libraries where superior knowledge of an aspect of librarianship or special subject knowledge and administration is required.

Francophone: Conservateur

Licence with Diplome Supérieur des Bibliothécaires

Anglophone

ALA after GCE Ά ' levels and 2 years experience. BLS after GCE Ά* levels or equivalent

Francophone

French Baccalaureate plus diplome d'aptitude aux fonctions de bibliothécaire (DAFB)

Anglophone: Library Officers/ Technicians

Postsecondary qualification, ALA after GCE, Diploma in Library Studies and relevant technical qualifications (2year course)

Executing library operations and technical processes with some professional functions under supervision.

Assistant Library Officers

Postsecondary qualification, GCE plus Part I of the ALA or Certificate in Library Studies (1-year course)

Tasks involving elementary procedures and library operations under supervision of library officers

Francophone:

Certificat d'aptitude a la profession de bibliothécaire (CAPB)

Library Assistants

GCE with 5 credits including English language

Professional and Middle-level professional

Professional duties involving judgment, interpretation of procedures, supervision of library personnel.

Paraprofessional Supportive

Subprofessional

104

New recruits work under the supervision of assistant library officers, preparatory to going for training

Library Education in Africa The establishment of library schools as part of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1960 and 1970 has further encouraged the development of a graduate profession. The Dakar Seminar, sponsored by Unesco in February 1973 to discuss harmonization of library training programs in Africa, after three days of deliberations made the following recommendations regarding the future for the profession: 1. while recognising that for some time various countries will continue to offer first professional courses at the undergraduate diploma level; the ultimate aim should be to offer first professional training at a postgraduate level 2. the offering of degree courses (with minor in library science) should be discouraged; except where such courses are designed for special groups such as teachers. (10) It is therefore likely that the library profession in the eighties will have evolved to a two-tiered structure — the graduate librarian and the library technician — thus bringing it in line with world trends. There is no accurate record of librarians in African countries. The Unseco Statistical Year Book, 1972 recorded 1,207 full-time librarians for Africa (see Appendix I at the end of this chapter), but not all the countries of Africa were listed. The Kampala Seminar report could not give a record of existing personnel, although it gave statistics for collections, number of libraries, and expenditures. The records from library schools, however, show the following categories of awards have been made between 1960 and 1974. (See Appendix II for details.) Table II Products of Sub-Saharan Library Schools Award

Number of Graduates

Certificate-6 months to 1 year Diploma - 2-year nongraduate BA or BLS Degree - 3-year undergraduate Postgraduate diploma Total

510 690 159 255 1614

Percentage 0 f Total 31.5 42.7 9.2 .15.7 100

Thus, more than 42 percent of librarians in Africa hold the two-year diploma award. The figure would be 45 percent if the holders of the British ALA and the French Diplome are included. More than 15 percent of the librarians in Africa are graduates with postgraduate diplomas, and this figure must rise to 18 percent if 10) Unesco Dakar Seminar. Final

Report.

105

candidates with foreign qualifications - the American MLS, the English Postgraduate Diploma, and the French Diplome Supérieur after the licence - are counted. The Certificate and the BLS are expected to become less common as these are no longer awarded by a number of library schools. According to the figures, Nigeria produces a larger postgraduate professional cadre than any other group, with 48.36 percent of the products of Nigerian library schools of this cadre. The total number of professional personnel in the country in June 1974 was 412. Table III shows the awards made between 1960 and 1974 by the two library schools in the country. Table IU Products of Nigeria's two Library Schools

Award

Certificate Diploma BLS PGDL MLS Ph.D Total

Number of Graduates

Percentage of Total

55 157 40 236

11.27 32.17 8.2 48.36

-

—

—

—

488

100

A colloquium on library education held at Ibadan University, March 1974, endorsed the Dakar Seminar's recommendation that the trend must be towards a postgraduate profession. The present trend in Nigeria is indicative of the future trend for the continent. The number of supportive staff should, however, be increased at least to the ratio of four to every graduate staff nember, instead of the present 1:1.3. Since they execute library operations and technical processes in the libraries, there should be a greater number of them to run efficient libraries. According to Withers, graduate librarians should not be fewer than 25 percent of the total library staff, which is the minimum for public libraries in Great Britain (11). The participants at the 1953 Unesco Seminar at Ibadan had recommended that library schools be established in Africa if sufficient numbers of professional personnel were to be available to man its libraries. They were also concerned with the deficiency inherent in a system whereby candidates for the profession were trained "in schools outside Africa, in countries and institutions geographically and intellectually remote from the realities of African problems . . ." (12) In West Africa, where the West African Library Association (WALA) is a strong and virile organization, considerable controversy arose between those who endorsed 11) F.N. Withers. Standards for Library Service (Paris: Unesco, 1970), p. 102 12) Ibadan Seminar. Development of Public Libraries in Africa (Paris: Unesco, 1954 (Public Library Manuals 6), p. 100.

106

the view of the Seminar and those who saw the advantages of training at a "United Kingdom school, where (the) African would have the advantage of visiting fine libraries."(13) The controversy raged not only over location, but also over the level of training. The Ibadan Seminar had opted for training at the leadership level demanding higher qualifications than were generally acceptable even in Great Britain, recommending that "library schools in Africa should require University graduation or its equivalent for admission to the programme of full scale professional training at the leadership level." (14) The antagonist to this view retorted that, with the situation in Africa, workers were needed rather than leaders! The Lancour survey, (15) sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation to review the needs for West Africa and make recommendations, resolved the controversy in favor of postgraduate training and awards for the leadership. It also recommended that the library-training institutions be attached to universities. This led to the establishment of the Institute of Librarianship in Ibadan University, Nigeria, supported by funds from the Carnegie Corporation. This was followed by the establishment of an independent library school in Accra, Ghana, which subsequently became a department of Ghana University. Unesco itself had been concerned about training facilities for librarians, and its policy on library education was well enunciated in this statement by the previous director of the Division of Documentation, Libraries and Archives: " . . . that progress in library service depends on the quality of domestic library education and that this should be given high priority. However, where relatively small adjacent countries have a common language, the establishment of regional schools of librarianship is a useful first step."(16) Following this policy, Unesco sponsored the establishment of regional schools. One was established in 1963 in Dakar for librarians, archivists, and documentalists for Francophone countries of Africa. The second regional school, the East African School of Librarianship at Kampala, was also supported by Unesco who provided directors for the school at Makerere University from 1 9 6 9 - 1 9 7 2 . Three other schools — at Addis Ababa, Zambia, and Ghana — have also enjoyed Unesco's support. Twenty-two years after the Ibadan Seminar, there are now seven library schools in Sub-Saharan Africa (i.e., excluding North and South Africa). Appendix II shows the founding dates, course offerings and awards, number of staff, number of students, and projections for the future where they are available. All the schools were founded between 1960 and 1968. All are attached to universities and operate as departments or institutes. Of the seven schools, only three offer postgraduate courses. These are the Anglophone West African Schools at Ibadan, Zaria, and Accra. Three offer under13) E.J. Carnell. "Review: Development of Public Libraries in Africa. The Ibadan Seminar." WALA News 2 (June 1955), pp. 4 6 - 7 . 14) Development of Public Libraries in Africa, p. 100. 15) Harold Lancour. Libraries in British West Africa (Urbana, 111.: University of Illinois Library School, 1958) (University of Illinois Library School Occasional Paper No.53). 16) Development of Public Libraries in Africa, p. 100.

107

graduate degree courses with librarianship as a minor or major. All of them, except Accra, offer a two-year diploma course, and only two library schools offer oneyear certificate courses, which are recommended for phasing out along with the BLS. Only the Ibadan Library School offers a PhD program. The seven library schools among them have produced the following categories of candidates for the library profession in Africa: PhD 1, MLS 1, postgraduate diploma 255, BLS (library school major) 50, BA (library school minor) 109 — a total of 416 graduate professionals; ALA or two-year diploma after GCE Ά ' level or Baccalaureate 457, two-year diploma after GCE Ό ' level 233 - a total of 690 nongraduate professionals and paraprofessionale; one-year certificates 263, six-month certificate 152 — a total of 415 subprofessionals. (See Appendix II at the end of this chapter.) With the exception of Ibadan, many of the library schools can recruit students easily only for the nongraduate diploma level. The staffing situation in the library schools needs to be improved. It seems to vary from a ratio of one staff person to twenty-eight students in Zaria to one staff person to five students in Accra. Many staff members of the library schools in Africa are foreigners. Of a total of twenty-six library staff members in Africa, only fifteen are local persons. The study shows that library schools have great difficulty recruiting local personnel that meet the stringent academic requirements of the universities to which all of them are attached. Some African library schools have had to resort to recruiting as teachers promising young candidates with good academic and professional qualifications but with no postgraduate experience. This method has been employed to train local staff so that the library schools can have a certain measure of stability, for foreign staff tend to come for rather short periods of service. The curricula in the library schools still bear close resemblance to those in Europe and America. The core courses are similar and can be grouped under the four conventional headings: the history of libraries and libraries in society; printing, history of the book, and reprography; the organization of materials; reference and bibliographic tools and readers' services. Some library schools offer special clientele courses - designed particularly for university, public, school or special libraries. Attempts have been made in the courses to reflect the needs of African libraries. There are, however, great difficulties in obtaining recorded information regarding the experiences and problems of African libraries. Some innovations that reflect African needs have been introduced. These are shown in such courses as "Sources for African Studies," "Library Development in Africa," "Oral Literature and Oral Traditions," and "Use of Audiovisual Aids." The Dakar conference recommended that Unesco support a program for writing textbooks for African library schools to meet the needs of African library education. Advanced and specialist courses are still in the planning stage in the three oldest library schools. There is a possibility that Unesco's sponsorship may enable some library schools to offer courses in information science in the near future. On the whole, the developments in each library school are encouraging. A comparison 108

with South African library schools shows similar developments in courses; the staff-student ratio is better in South Africa. What is unique is that this accomplishment for South Africa is equal to if not greater than that for the rest of the continent. (See Appendix III.) The Unesco Statistical Year Book, 1972 records 659 librarians for South Africa and a total of 1207 for the continent.

Future Developments and Implications for Library Schools Projections for the future will depend on the rate of library development in Africa and the ability of the library schools to expand and offer traning courses and facilities t o meet the needs. Projections are recorded in Appendix II for only three library schools and were based on the university rate-of-growth factor used. They are not related to the broader manpower needs of the nation. Nigeria and a few other countries have articulated their manpower needs. The question now may be asked whether the existing library schools in Africa are meeting current manpower needs and whether they are equipped to meet these needs for targets set for development by 1980 according to the specifications in the Kampala Report on national planning and library development in Africa.( 17) Unesco recorded only 1,207 libarians for the African continent in 1972. (18) The library schools have in ten years produced 1,614 librarians. At an existing growth rate of 10 percent, they can double their output by 1980. This is clearly inadequate for Africa's projected needs. More library schools will have to be established to produce enough personnel for libraries to maintain a reasonable level of development. The major constraint to expansion is staff. The existing library schools can barely maintain the present level of existing staff. Most library schools have great difficulty recruiting staff. Another problem is recruitment of qualified students for the full professional course. In Nigeria, applications for admission were three times the number of those accepted for the 1 9 7 3 - 7 4 session for the postgraduate course at Ibadan University. This must be unique and cannot be normal for Africa. It may, however, indicate a trend. Finally, the matter of finance is important. One questions whether African countries can afford to spend 2.9 percent of the total education budget, which the Kampala Report estimates for the low-target requirements, on libraries. I am not qualified to speak with authority on this. One can only assume that account has been taken of the present state of the non-oil-producing African countries. The Kampala meeting made proposals for foreign aid, but foreign aid will only be meaningful when the country is developed enough to use the services provided. In conclusion, there is need for more realistic planning for individual countries in Africa. The state of development varies, and the problems and priorities are not similar. The Kampala meeting targets can only be regarded as guidelines. Manpower planning for library personnel should be considered part of national planning. In Nigeria the projections for library personnel were included in the national plans, but librarians were grouped with archivists. These projections are not relat17) Kampala Meeting. Final Report, pp. 7 1 - 7 3 . 18) Unesco Statistical Year Book 1972 (Paris: Unesco, 1973).

109

ed to any national plan for libraries and archives. A national library commission is necessary to prepare an overall national plan from which manpower projections can be made. Unesco has given the right leadership for harmonizing training programs and for establishing regional training schools. Each nation will need to establish its own training schools if manpower needs are to be met for library development. Any program for library development should conform to international standards and international trends if African countries are to fully participate in UNISIST.

Appendix I Librarians in Africa in 1972 Countries

Full-time

Algeria Angola Botswana Burundi Cameroon Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Liberia Kenya Madagascar Malawi Mauritius Mozambique Nigeria Reunion South Africa Spanish Sahara St. Helena Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Tunisia Total

17 8 4 2 10 36 8 66 27 4 10 2 12 3 192 3 659 1 7 31 4 60 41 1,207

Part-time

4

4

Source: Unesco Statistical Year Book 1972 (Paris: Unesco, 1973). 110

Appendix II Sub-Sahara African Library Schools Courses and Number of Awards Postgraduate

Undergraduate

Date Ph.D. M.A. found- 2 yrs. 2 yrs. ed

1 yr. Dip.

B.L.S. Library major 3 yrs.

Department of Library Studies, Ibadan University, Nigeria

1960

236

-

-

Department of Library Science, ABU, Nigeria, Zaria

1968

40

-

Department of Library Studies, Accra. University of Ghana

1961

10°

-

Name 1

-

1

-

19

B.A.S. Library minor 3 yrs.

u Department of Library Studies Haile Sellassie I Univ. u Library Studies, School of Education, Univ. of Zambia, Lusaka Total

1965

Dip. Dip. Certificate 2 yrs. 2 yrs. G.C.E. G.C.E. 1 6 Ά* Ό" yrs. yrs. level level 16° ALA

1967

1

1

55°

-

48° ALA

-

30

-

277+

-

83°

-

- 1 1 6

-

65

92

r/u Ecole de Bibliothe- 1963 caires Archivistes et Documentalistes Universite de Dakar Senegal r/u East African School 1963 of Librarianship, Makerere University Kampala, Uganda

Non graduate

-

152°

-

-

102

-

72

-

-

7

-

4

255

50

109

457

233

-

95

263

247

111

Staff

Student

Projections 1975 and 1980

Staff

Staff

Staff/ 1973/74 Staff Staff Student Student Student Total 1975 1980 1975 1980 Esta- Actual Ratio no. of blishStudents ment

National Projections

11

7(5)

1.16

112 7 research

1975 500

Department of Library Science, ABU, Nigeria, Zaria

4(2)

1.28

114

Department of Library Studies, Accra. University of Ghana

3(1)

1.5

15

4(2)

1.16

67

131 Dip.

4(4)

1.22

88

106

Name Department of Library Studies, Ibadan University, Nigeria

r/u Ecole de Bibliothécaires Archivistes et Documentalistes Université de Dakar Senegal r/u East African School of Librarianship, Make re re University Kampala, Uganda Department of Library Studies Haile Sellassie I Univ.

1(1)

Library Studies, School of Education, Univ. of Zambia, Lusaka

3(-)

r u o

- regional school - Unesco sponsorship - withdrawn + - include archivist Κ - source is Kampala (1) - indigenous staff

112

16

28

164

351

300k

1977 16 graduate libraries 69 Diploma candidates

Appendix III

South African Library Schools Courses and numbers of Awards Postgraduate Date Ph.D. found- 2 yrs. ed

Undergraduate

M.A. 2 yrs.

1 yr. Dip.

B.L.S. Library major

15

25

36

Name Department of Library Studies University of South Africa Pretoria

1955

Department of Library School University of Stellenbosch

1958

Department of Library School University of Pretoria

1949

Department of Library School University of Potchefstroom

1956

15

Non graduate

B.A.S. Dip. Dip. Certificate Library 2 yrs. 2 yrs. minor G.C.E. G.C.E. 1 6 Ά' Ό' year mos. level level

30

Staff

Student

Staff Staff/ Actual Ratio

Name

Staff Establishment

1973/4 Staff Staff Student Total 1975 1980 1975 no. of Students

Department of Library Studies University of South Africa Pretoria

11

(11)

Department of Library School University of Stellenbosch

5

(5)

Department of Library School University of Pretoria

8

(8)

Department of Library School University of Potchefstroom

7

(7)

not given

Projections 1975 and 1980 Student 1980

11

15

1,200

2.000

1.21

106

15

7

112

180

1.14

116

8

10

116

148

National Projections

84 113

References Ashby, Robert F. The training of staff in the libraries of Nigeria In A report presented to the West African Library Association. February, 1962. Benge, R.C. Foundations for a library school. Nigerian Libraries, (Ibadan) 1(2): 8 1 - 8 5 . 1964. - . : The Ghana-Library School. Library World. 64(752): 2 2 1 - 2 2 3 Feb. 1963. - . : Library Education in Ghana, 1 9 6 1 - 6 7 . In The Library Association Record 69: 2 2 5 - 2 2 9 July 1967. Bousso, A. A library education policy for the developing countries. Unesco Bull, for libraries (Paris) XXII (4): 1 7 3 - 1 8 8 , Jul.-Aug. 1968. - . : University of Dakar School for Librarians, Archivists and Documentaliste. Unesco Bull. Libr. 27(2): 7 2 - 7 7 , 107. Mar.-April 1973. Carnell, E.J. Review: Development of public libraries in Africa. The Ibadan Seminar WALA News (Ibadan) 2 : 4 6 - 4 7 , June 1955. Dean, John. Training and management for library personnel: professional education in Nigeria. Nigerian Libraries, 2(2): 6 7 - 7 4 , 1966. Department of Library Studies, Ibadan University Colloquium on Library Education Recommendations. March 1974. Dzokoto, Francis. Library education in Ghana: a critical survey. In Ghana Library Journal IV(2): 4 1 - 4 5 , Dec. 1972. Evans, Evelyn J. A. A Tropical Library Service: The Story of Ghana's Libraries. London: Deutsch, 1964 - . : Training for Librarianship: an address delivered at conference on Saturday 17 December 1955. In WALA news (Ibadan) 2(3): 6 7 - 7 2 . 1 9 5 5 - 1 9 5 8 . Giorgis, Kebreab W. Library education in Ethiopia. International Library Review, 5(4): 4 5 3 - 4 6 0 October 1973. Greaves, Monica A. Training the Cataloguer in Nigeria. Journal of Librarianship (London), 3(3): 1 6 9 - 1 7 9 , July 1971. Harris, John. Memorandum on the training for librarianship in Nigeria. Report of the Training Sub-Committee of the Library Advisory Comittee. 1962. Mimeographed. - . : Training and Certification for Library Executive Grades in Nigeria. Ibadan: Institute of Librarianship, 1962. Mimeographed. Hood, Bryan. Training of library staff. Paper read at Unesco Regional Seminar on the Development of public Libraries in Africa, Enugu, Nigeria, Sept. 1962. (Mimeographed). Institute of Librarianship, University College, Ibadan. WALA News (Ibadan) 4(1): 2 0 - 2 1 , October 1961. Lancour, Harold. Libraries in British West Africa. Urbana: University of Illinois Library School 1958. (University of Illinois Library School Occasional Papers No. 53). Lwanga, T.K. A survey of librarianship training programmes in Eastern Africa. Paper read at Dakar's Conference of Library Schools in Africa Feb. 2 7 - 2 9 , 1974. Mukwato, L.E. Training of librarians in East Africa: a talk to the Zambia Library Association. Zambia Library Association Journal. 1(1): 1 1 - 1 8 , March, 1969. Nitecki, Andre. Education for librarianship in Ghana 1 9 7 3 - 7 4 . 20p. (Mimeographed). - . : Library education in Ghana. Ghana Library Journal IV (2): 3 5 - 4 0 , Dec. 1972. Ogunsheye, F. Adetowun. Library Education at Ibadan University. Paper presented at the Conference on the Harmonization of Librarianship Training Programmes in Africa, University of Dakar, 2 5 - 2 7 February, 1974. Ibadan, 1974. - . : New proposals for structure of library personnel and curricula for the various levels or ·. categories. Paper presented at the Colloquium on Education and training for librarianship inNigeria. 1 5 - 1 9 March, 1974. Ibadan, 1974. Organisation des nations unies pour l'éducation. La Science et la Culture (Unesco) Seminaire pour l'etude des problèmes communs aux ecoles des bibliothécaires d'Afrique Dakar, Senegal, 2 5 - 2 7 Fevrier 1974. Rapport Final. Peeler, H. Elizabeth. Education for librarianship in West Africa. Nigerian Libraries (Ibadan). 1(2): 6 1 - 7 3 January, 1964.

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Penna, C.V. The Planning of Library and Documentation Services. 2nd rev. ed. by P. N. Sewell and Herman Liebaers. Paris: Unesco. 1970 p.47 (Unesco manuals for libraries). Plant, Robert. The East African School of Librarianship. Library Review. 23(1/2): 3 9 - 4 2 , Spring-Summer, 1971. Report of the working party appointed by the conference on library training in East Africa. Nigerian Libraries 1(2): 8 6 - 9 0 . Saith, S.S. East A frican School of Librarianship. July 1968 - November 1972. Paris: Unesco. 1973 (Serial No. 2924). Salvan, Paule. A library education policy for developing countries. Unesco Bull, for libraries XXII: 4, July/Aug. 1968 ρ 178. Tawetc, F.K. Library education in a developing Tanzania. Someni, (3): 2 1 - 2 8 , Dec. 1968. Unesco. Consultation on the Harmonisation of Methodology and Curricula in training of D o c u m e n t a n t s , librarians and archivists held in Paris, January 1974. -.: Development of Public Libraries in Africa. The Ibadan Seminai Paris: Unesco. 1951 (Public Library Manuals 6). - . : Expert meeting on national planning documentation and library services in Africa.Kampala, Uganda 7 - 1 5 Dec. 1970. Final report. Paris 1971. 81p. - . : Seminar on the Harmonisation of librarianship training programmes in Africa. Dakar Fcbr. 2 5 - 2 7 , 1974. University of Ghana. Department of Library Studies. Education for librarianship in Ghana 1972 (Mimeographed). White, Carl M. Education and training of library personnel in Nigeria. Nigerian Libraries (Ibadan) 1(2): 7 5 - 8 0 , 1964. Withers, F . N . Standards for Library Service. Paris: Unesco. 1970. World Guide to Library Schools and Training Courses in Documentation. Paris: Unesco. 1972.

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CHAPTER Χ

National Planning and Academic Libraries in Western Asia N. Ansari (Mohaghegh) The area under consideration in this report comprises sixteen political entities in North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia, namely Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Republic, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia. Beyond the barriers of politics and distance that separate these countries from one another there are many common factors that produce similarities in their overall cultural pattern. The purpose of this introduction is to point out some of these common factors which should be kept in mind in planning library services for this area. Islamic Heritage. Islam is not only a religion but a way of life, and as such it has exerted a deep impact on the development of the social and political institutions of the communities of its followers. Although Islam originated in an arid area and among very primitive people, it soon gave rise to a magnificent civilization built upon the contributions and joint efforts of the various ethnic, linguistic, and racial groups adhering to it. Respect for learning and the written word is a prominent part of the Islamic heritage. Modernization. Awareness of economic and technological backwardness, which itself was a product of Western domination, has generated a strong urge among the people of this area to overhaul their traditional systems and to achieve modem standards of living. In the process, many valuable traditions that served specific functions for the integrity and harmony of social life have been abandoned. Enthrallment with Foreign Ideas. Since the traditional system of culture and thought is associated in the minds of many intellectuals and policy makers with underdevelopment, there has been a strong inclination to adopt foreign ideas in building the framework of social and economic development. Rural Economy. The great majority of the people of the area live in the countryside and earn their living from agriculture. Feudalism used to be the dominant system in most of these countries. A great many social and psychological characteristics of the traditional feudal system still dominate the minds of the rural inhabitants. Long distances, difficulty of communication, and the well-known resistance of these people to change make any educational impact slow and difficult to achieve. The author is chairman of the Department of Library Science, Faculty of Education, at the University of Tehran.

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Education. The wish for speedy development in all fields and fascination with modern culture have resulted in the complete disintegration of traditional methods of education. This has proved to be a healthy development in many cases, but it has also yielded some negative results: the loss of cultural identity, the disharmony between modern methods and particular local requirements, and the inability to absorb the meaning of modernity, whether in ordinary life, technical training, or self-education. Illiteracy. Illiteracy has been a major plague and one of the greatest obstacles to the development of the area. In some countries substantial efforts have been made towards the eradication of illiteracy with impressive results. Pull towards Urban Centers. The breakdown of traditional life, the oppressive conditions under the old feudal system, unemployment, and a desire to partake of the pleasures of urban life have caused a tremendous drift to the cities. In many cases the immigrants from the rural areas have not been integrated into the urban population. Their existence has been confined both physically and psychologically to the periphery of the cities. National Planning. Shortage of capital, lack of adequate technical expertise, and the need for an urgent remedy to social ills have resulted in a higfr degree of centralization for decision making and long-term planning. The concept of planning has now been generally accepted as a means toward an orderly and rational movement toward the future. As part of the general progress toward national unity, emancipation from external domination, economic development, and reduction of illiteracy, a concerted effort has been made during the past two decades to improve library service. Although it is difficult to offer a complete picture of the present state of library development, this paper aims at describing the basic common features of the library services and the salient problems facing the planners of the area with emphasis on universities and other institutions of higher education. Present State of Library Development It is not possibility to present a detailed study of the different types of library services that exist in the area. It should be noted, however, that good school and public libraries are the foundation of meaningful library service in institutions of higher education. Is is important for these western Asian countries to provide good library services to the school-going population before they enter the universities. The following section is a general picture dealing with the present situation of university libraries. The sections on special libraries and documentation centers and on national libraries are included in this paper only as they are concerned with the improvement of services at the academic institutions. Academic Libraries The importance of libraries in institutions of higher education has been generally accepted by all the countries in the area. Compared to other kinds of libraries, the academic libraries are better off. Some of these are in new buildings and have 117

sizable professional staffs and reasonable book funds. This should in no way create the impression that academic library service is dynamic and fully adequate. At the undergraduate level little or no independent study is pursued; therefore, students and teachers remain textbook bound. The large enrollments in college and universities result in large classes with little communication between teacher and students. Under these circumstances the library plays a minor educational role. At the graduate level, where research and advanced learning are involved, a different set of problems appears. Research material, whether in the form of books, journals, documents, or nonbook material, is expensive; and although some of the universities in the area have extensive collections, there is an evident lack of research journals and documents. Subject specialists and information scientists are few in number; and even if they were available, salaries are not attractive. In some places language is an obstacle to using research material. In most countries there is much duplication and waste of money and human resources due to such factors as excessive decentralization and the absence of union catalogs, union lists of serials, adequate interlibrary loan systems, and other means of facilitating the free flow of literature. In speaking of research activities, it must be pointed out that most universities exist in a theoretical world quite separate and sometimes far removed from the problems of their societies. This is not to say that research is not carried on, but it is more a hobby-shop variety than research that is related to government plans for scientific and technological development. The fact that little applied research is done in universities means that their library collections in technology are generally small and relatively unused. Cooperation among university libraries is limited, but there are indications that this situation is changing. In Iran, for example, the first all-university library conference in the country was scheduled for December 1974. Special Libraries and Documentation

Centers

Most countries in the area have responded well to the needs of science and technology, and governments have established special libraries and documentation services to meet various national and international needs. Egypt and India enjoy an extensive network of scientific and technical libraries as well as documentation centers. Algeria, Iran, and Pakistan are rapidly passing the initial stages in the planning and development of such facilities. It is very important that close collaboration and cooperation exist between special libraries and documentation centers and university libraries. No formal collaboration seems yet to exist; however, PANSDOC (Pakistan Documentation Center) and PASTIC (Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Center) view the university collections as part of the nation's resources of scientific and technical information and strive for closer collaboration with the scholars at the universities. The Iran Documentation Center, which specializes in science and the 118

social sciences, is attempting to coordinate the work of other documentation centers, including the University of Tehran Central Library and Documentation Center. This is interesting because the Central Library and Documentation Center deals only with material in the humanities. These are only examples, and no doubt Egypt and India are farther ahead in such collaboration. It should be emphasized that merely the announcement of services to the universities by the documentation centers is not enough. Experience shows that persistence and revisits to the campuses are called for. National Libraries and Archives National libraries exist in most of the countries in this area. Some were established in the latter part of the nineteenth century, others in the early twentieth century. Like national libraries in other parts of the world they vary from one country to another in organization, scope, and function. Evidence of Interest in Planned Development Macroplanning with the development of infrastructures for the planning of library services is a comparatively new concept even in the more developed countries. But since libraries are powerful instruments for education and since the countries with which we are dealing invest so much in education, there is full justification for planning library services. Several documents are available on national planning. These represent, however, only very preliminary ideas and discussions. Relatively little implementation of plans has been achieved thus far. The Plan for Development of Libraries in Pakistan was published in 1972 by the Society for the Promotion and Improvement of Libraries. What is stressed all through the document is the educational role of the library. The plan is divided into six parts: 1) Introduction, 2) Informal Education, 3) Formal Education, 4) The Special Library, 5) Library Education, and 6) Standards. There is no evidence that the plan has yet been accepted by the government of Pakistan. Besides the above document, which was issued by a private group, the government of Pakistan in its new Educational Policy of 1972 has planned for 50.000 people oriented public libraries. There is no reference to academic libraries, but the plan describes a complete network of public library service from the national library to the village libraries in the country. A book entitled Pakistan Librarianship, 1970-71, published in 1972 by the Pakistan Library Association, devotes several chapters to the improvement of university libraries and demonstrates that library development is receiving special emphasis in Pakistan's Fourth-Five-Year Plan. The report of the Expert Meeting on the National Planning of Documentation and Library Services in Arab Countries, held in Cairo in February 1974, described another effort toward planning. This meeting, convened by the DirectorGeneral of Unesco, was organized with the cooperation of the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Sixteen experts were invited from different Arab countries. This final report describes 1) national information infrastructures, 2) library development, 3) planning for national information infrastructures, 119

and 4) cooperation at regional and international levels. Apparently no plan of action has yet been initiated by the individual governments of the Arab countries in respect to the plan. In Iran, discussion of a national plan has been going on since 1969. Dr. John Harvey and a group of Iranian librarians prepared a first draft of a "Proposal for a National Library Plan for Iran" that was published in English in the July 1970 International Library Review. The Iranian Library Association published a revised version of the plan in early 1974. This document is divided into 1) aims and objectives, 2) planning stages, 3) mechanism for planning, 4) research and surveys, and 5) finance and personnel. Another development in Iran is the proposed establishment of a national library to be called the Pahlavi National Library. One of the functions of this library will be to act as the national planning authority for library services in Iran. Dr. S.R. Ranganathan prepared comprehensive plans for public library development in India. The latest version of these plans, which appeared in 1972, envisaged a nationwide network of libraries. Unfortunately, the plans have not been implemented. Regional Cooperation As was mentioned earlier, much of what has been achieved in modern library development in Western Asia has been due to external stimuli. One type of stimulus that is especially interesting and has the potential to yield good local results is the regional meeting. Generally the problems of countries within a region are similar, and solutions can often be found through discussion and the exchange of views. If one coiintry of the region moves ahead in one direction, other countries follow. The recent Expert Meeting in Cairo, to which I have already referred, is an example of such a meeting. Others are the International Institute for Documentation meeting for Developing Countries (FID/DC) which was held in Tehran in September 1973, and the Regional Documentation Center Conference, also held in Tehran, in April—May 1974. The next of these is to be held in Turkey in 1975. Whenever such conferences are held, many people from the profession take part either as delegates or observers; and both the "country reports" and the "cooperation reports" are useful in encouraging planning. The published proceedings reach even wider groups. Since information-handling agencies constitute a kind of system or network, the improvement of one component inevitably leads to the improvement of the whole system. This is especially important in the case of university libraries which should be closely linked with documentation centers. Possible Direction for the Future From the foregoing it is evident that there is an interest in planned library development in the area under consideration. But much more dynamic and decisive effort must be made before specific plans can be formulated and put into action. 120

The following is a list of suggestions for the future. Some countries may have achieved some of these, and others may yet be in the initial stages. A t the National Level Create at the decision-making level an awareness of the socioeconomic and cultural effects of planning for library services. Use the media and organize conferences and seminars to show the importance of better library services to the nation. Carry out studies to demonstrate the loss of capital investment that results from deficient library services. Create a national library planning authority. Interest social scientists, educators, economists, etc., in the value of library planning. Show the contribution that better libraries can make to the educational plans of the nation. Ensure that adequate funds for library planning are included in the general development plans of the nation. Show the close relation that exists between book production programs and adequate libraries as distributing agencies. The library profession must produce the kind of leaders whose views and arguments will be accepted by the decision makers. Librarians should be trained to look at libraries as part of a wide-spread network and not as isolated units. In addition to their professional knowledge, librarians must become more aware of the history, culture, and value systems of their own countries. Librarians must be better equipped with a knowledge of the techniques of planning. Library education should not merely imitate foreign programs but should be planned to respond to the reality of the economic and cultural needs of the nation. Librarians must carry out surveys of users' needs and information-gathering habits. There should be close collaboration among the librarians of similar types of libraries in the country. Library associations should initiate and back efforts toward the realization of better library services. At the International

Level

Unesco should organize regional intergovernmental conferences on the planning of library services. Expert advisors should be provided to help initiate national planning. Unesco should publish a newsletter reporting the efforts of member countries toward national planning. Seminars, workshops, conferences, etc., should be provided to acquaint librarians with the development of planning and planning techniques used in other parts of the world. Certain pilot projects involving library planning might be started in a region. IFLA must continue to show interest in the library development of developing countries and help more effectively in planning programs.

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CHAPTER XI

National Planning of Research Libraries in Scandinavia Esko Häkli The subject of this paper is national library planning of organizational development and policy making for research libraries in the four Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Planning at the local level is not included, nor are standardization and other developmental work of library routines, even though they would be carried out centrally. Inter-Scandinavian projects have also been omitted. The paper is divided into two main parts: introduction of the situation in the four countries, and the comparison and summing up of experiences. Denmark The earliest Scandinavian document on comprehensive planning of a national system of research libraries was developed by Denmark. In 1927, a committee set up by the Danish Ministry of Education prepared a report with proposals entirely based on the idea o f a modern network of libraries. The basis for the present system of national central libraries was created by defining the subject specialization of the existing libraries. As a result of this arrangement, the collections of the Danish research libraries are among the best in Scandinavia. Still other radical steps were taken in Denmark; for example, collections were transferred from one library to another with a view to implementing the national library system. T o promote cooperation between the different centers of the library network, a further step was taken in 1943. A special National Library Office was established headed by the national librarian. With the establishment of this office, the Royal Library and the Copenhagen University Library were combined into one unit under the national librarian. As early as the 1950s, lively discussion o f a joint administration for all libraries was launched. In 1962, the Ministry of Culture gave its permission in principle for the establishment of a high-level coordination and planning body. The existing National Library Office was actually an administrative organ of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, of the Copenhagen University Library, and of some other activities common to research libraries, e.g., the publishing o f the annual acquisition catalog (union catalog), exchange, etc., just as it had been in many ways the checkpoint for cooperation with public libraries. The implementation of the plans has, however, been delayed. T h e a u t h o r is c h a i r m a n o f the F i n n i s h C o u n c i l f o r S c i e n t i f i c i n f o r m a t i o n a n d R e s e a r c h Libraries, Helsinki.

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In the 1960s an unofficial planning and coordinating committee was established, which later (1970) gained official status as the National Advisory Council for Danish Research Libraries (Forskningsbibliotekernes Foeuesrâd). The heads of fifty of the most important research libraries were appointed members of this council. The entire council meets only a few times a year. A smaller working commission (forretningsudvalg), with eight ex officio members and three rotating members chosen by the council, deals with regular routine matters. The national librarian is ex officio chairman of the council and the executive board. The National Library Office functions as the council's secretariat. The sphere of action of the Advisory Council comprises research libraries only. A special body, the Danish Council for Technical and Scientific Documentation and Information (DANDOK), attends to documentation. These two bodies work in close cooperation, with some persons serving in both organizations. The Advisory Council has considered a great many organizational and other problems common to all research libraries, including the setting up of a model for new university libraries, standardization of cataloging rules and classification schemes, modernization of the basic goals of all research libraries, revision of the subject specialization scheme dating back to 1927, and plans for microfilming newspapers. Special emphasis has been laid upon the automation of libraries and coordination of the various operative automated library systems. The council has thus set up a special electronic data processing office headed by specialists in this field. The most important and extensive planning project is still the high-level administrative organization of the research libraries. The aim is to create a joint administrative body for all research libraries. At the moment, the large, old libraries are subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, and the majority of the other university libraries are subordinate to the Ministry of Education. Several proposals for the new arrangements have been made, primarily by the Advisory Council. The interest of the Ministry of Finance has been aroused recently, and its Department for Administrative Development has initiated an overall mapping out of research libraries on which the planning can be based. Thus, the planning is being carried out simultaneously and cooperatively on two levels. Let us mention here some of the most important ideas in the plans under consideration. The chief aim is the establishment of a strong central administration that would have decision-making authority, that is, authority to deal with the annual budget proposals of the libraries, to give its advice on the appointments of directors of the most important libraries, etc. The second important sphere of activity covers practical planning and development. The present Advisory Council should be divided into two bodies. The larger would function as the common representative organ of Danish research libraries and deal with questions of policy. The present working commission would handle more practical tasks and should have power to make decisions. Both would comprise representatives of the libraries, library 123

staff, and library users. Practical tasks would be carried out by an executive body, the directorate, which would be derived from the present National Library Office and which would be freed from its special ties with the Royal Library and the Copenhagen University Library. However, as these libraries together serve as the main library for the university (for the humanities and social sciences and for medicine and natural science respectively), they should in the future be kept together as one administrative unit. The directorate would gradually be strengthened to include several departments that, in addition to some joint operative task for the libraries, would carry out active developmental work and standardization, act as consultant to the libraries, coordinate practical work, and participate in the preparatory and investigative work required by the high-level administration of the libraries. The Danish research library plans may have been partly influenced by the fact that the public libraries have an extensive directorate of their own, which also has several library consultants and is responsible for the centralized automation plans of the public libraries. The new administrative body of Danish research libraries would include representatives of public libraries, but in other respects the bodies would remain separate. Norway The situation in Norway resembles the proposals that were made in Denmark in the 1960s but were not carried out. When the national tasks of Oslo University Library became too heavy and complicated, an attempt was made to reorganize them. In 1969, a new state institution, the Riksbibliotektjenesten (National Office for Research and Special Libraries — RBT) was established by an act of Parliament. It is directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education and is headed by a Riksbibliotekar (RB), who is recognized as the highest professional authority in the field of research and special libraries and in documentation. RBT is responsible for the national planning and coordination of all activities in which research libraries and documentation take part. Two advisory bodies function in a subordinate position to the RBT. One is the National Council for Research and Special Libraries (Riksbibliotekrâdet), which has eighteen members appointed by the Ministry of Education; the RB serves as chairman ex officio. The other is the Norwegian Committee for Information and Documentation (NORINDOK), which has five to eight members and meets eight times a year. The council deals with the broad aspects of libraries, information, and documentation, while the main task of NORINDOK is to promote planning, research, and development in the field of documentation. The plans for the national system of research libraries consists of evaluation and replanning of the central administration of libraries, on the basis of the first experiences from the RBT, and developing the network of research libraries. Under investigation is the status of the council's function in connection with the RBT. At present, it meets only twice a year. Consequently, the possibilities

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of creating a separate executive committee that could meet more frequently are being investigated. A basic agreement on the planning organization has, however, been reached in Norway. The ideas now under discussion for their organization really are only attempts at improving the system. The RBT consists of three departments. In order to avoid the development of a new bureaucracy, only about 60 percent of the staff members are permanently appointed; the rest are engaged for temporary tasks. A great many expert committees on special subject fields function under the RBT. Their task is to develop the actual library system. One such committee, for example, is concerned with cooperative acquisitions, and it has used the expert knowledge of the economists engaged by the RBT. A combination storage library and national lending library as part of a possible national solution is, at the moment, a subject of very preliminary discussions. One project of great importance is the Norwegian Documentdata. The aim of this program is to familiarize the personnel of the libraries and documentation centers with computer working methods. The Norwegian Documentdata began operations in 1973, planned and to a great extent financed by the RBT. In 1977, the budget will be based entirely upon income from contracts and research projects. The recently established RBT has proved to be a good and efficient arrangement. Oslo University Library, however, still has many national library tasks, and as a result the establishment of a separate national library has come up for discussion. This in turn brings up the relation of the RBT to a national library. Close cooperation between the RBT and a large library like the Oslo University Library is mutually beneficial. Accordingly, an agreement on the exchange of service, expertise, etc., has been established. Sweden In 1965, the Swedish Council of Research Libraries (Forskningsbiblioteksrádet) was established. Its main tasks are to act as coordinating body of research libraries and to deal with problems connected with cooperation of libraries, acquisitions, bibliographical activities, library rationalization, etc. The council is an advisory body. Its secretariat has its own premises, but it is administratively subordinate to the Royal Library, which acts as the Swedish national library. Since 1968, an investigation about organization of Swedish research libraries has been carried out by the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development (SAFAD), which is a governmental agency and subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. It has considerably larger resources at its disposal than the council. SAFAD has carried out inquiries into both organizational planning and library automation. In most cases, the council has cooperated in the planning by providing the necessary library expertise. 125

The centralized development and coordination of information and documentation are carried out by a separate body, the Swedish Council for Scientific Informa-, tion and Documentation (SINFDOK), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Industry; it was created in 1968. This body has an extensive secretariat. Every year it allocates considerable sums for the development of documentation projects. Special mention should be made of the library automation system LIBRIS, plans for a national lending library in Sweden, and organization of high-level administration of the research libraries and documentation services. The widely known LIBRIS project was developed by SAFAD. Implementation of the project has begun, and some of its most important segments are already operational. The LIBRIS system will comprise all basic library routines in all research libraries of the country. Technically, LIBRIS is a highly developed integrated on-line system and is the widest and most far-reaching object of national library planning in Sweden. Separate reports have been published on this technical plan. A cooperative acquisition plan has been under discussion in Sweden for several decades. In 1971, the Council of Research Libraries, after extensive inquiries, proposed that the cooperative acquisition plan be replaced at least partly by a central institution operating according to the same principles as a national lending library. Some administrative factors, which in the future may to an even greater extent change the university libraries into internal service institutions of the universities, favor this kind of solution. The proposal has been widely discussed, with representatives of industry participating in the discussion. In the most recent report on the administration and organization of research libraries, SAFAD has put forward the idea that national library tasks be brought together in one organizational unit. The proposal also includes the organization of a high-level administration. The national tasks comprise planning and development, bibliographic documentation (e.g., the national bibliography), and the organization needed for running the LIBRIS system. SAFAD has not made any final and specific proposals for the administrative organization but has suggested that a council for research libraries be created in conjunction with the Swedish universities' joint chancellor's office. The council would be both administrative and advisory in nature. It would be established as the administrative body of the organization. A separate institution that would execute joint tasks would be established. This would permit the uniting of the high-level organization of the library and documentation fields. In SAFAD's opinion, the matter is very intricate, and it will therefore not be possible to carry out these plans in the near future without further investigation. The proposed plan could permit the unification of the high-level organization of both research libraries and the field of documentation, which no doubt would be considered an improvement from a general point of view. On the other hand, it would shed new light on the problem of a national library, since the tasks of 126

the Royal Library would diminish when the bibliographical institute and the secretarial tasks of the Council of Research Libraries are transferred to the new institution. The proposal is now being widely discussed. The basic question is how the national administrative organization should be designed so that it would best meet both current needs and the external circumstances created by historical developments. On the basis of the proposal by SAFAD, the Council of Research Libraries has continued to work on administrative questions. Now the government has decided that higher administration problems of both research libraries and documentation shall be handled together. For this purpose, a high-level committee will be appointed. Its task will also be to define the position of SINFDOK. Finland Planning in the field of research libraries and documentation in Finland has the following main objectives: - a coordinated national library system, - a national central library network for documentation and library service in the major subject fields, - a unified joint integrated automation system for all research libraries in the country, and - a long-range development and information policy plan. Finland has no permanent institution responsible for the planning and development of research libraries. Consequently, plans have been drawn up by several different bodies, such as the Council of Research Libraries (1954—1972), the Finnish Council for Scientific and Technical Information ( 1 9 6 9 - 1 9 7 2 ) , and their successor, the Finnish Council for Scientific Information and Research Libraries, established in 1972. In addition, several ad hoc committees set up by the government or the Ministry of Education and various voluntary organizations have contributed to the development ot the libraries. Since the mid-60s, almost thirty committee reports in this field have been published in the government committee report series. Planning has been carried out primarily by the librarians. This no doubt has certain advantages. Disadvantages are due primarily to insufficient planning expertise. It is of course possible to attempt to improve and stimulate the planning carried out by the librarians. In Finland, representatives of the government, for example the Ministry of Finance, have been appointed to the planning bodies, and attempts have been made to increase the administrative knowledge of librarians. Administration is not, however, systematically taught to librarians anywhere in Finland, and some management skills can really be learned only in practice, which can be a long and arduous job. One solution is to work out appropriate methods by which planning can be executed as objectively as possible and without the burden of preconceived opinions; another is to elaborate on general planning methods that are applicable to the library community. 127

An Inquiry into a Finnish National Library

System

In conjunction with the national library system, an inquiry was carried out from 1972 to 1974 by the Finnish Council for Scientific Information and Research Libraries; most of the work was done by a subcommitee set up by the Ministry of Education. It was not possible to apply measuring methods to the inquiry into the various cover organizations of the libraries that were considered. Even cost comparisons between alternatives are not always accurate, because they cannot be tested in practice and compared empirically. It is therefore necessary to work out a simple method that is sufficiently reliable in spite of imperfect starting data yet is analytical and exact enough to serve. On the basis of the expert knowledge of the planning secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and of the members of the subcommittee (one of whom was a professor of public administration), a method applicable to the inquiry was worked out. Although the method was simple, it required a great deal of work from the members of the subcommittee for two reasons. First, the method was analytical and continuously required the making of decisions. Because measuring methods could not be used, the decisions had to be based on the decision-makers' knowledge of the problem. Second, the subcommittee did not want the decisions to be made by the finance secretariat, for example, because the problems in question were important for library policy. The subcommittee had to participate continuously in the decision making. The method employed considerably facilitated the work toward an objective result, for the problems were divided into such small areas that their connection with the direct interests of the individual libraries was lost, and evaluations were made on a functional basis. The inquiry did not start from the perhaps self-evident supposition that a national library should be established in the country. As a matter of fact, the expression "national library" was used very charily: it has no generally established content. The object of the inquiry was to organize permanently the national tasks of research libraries and scientific information centers. The provision for library and information services on a national basis has developed in a random fashion. Some tasks are managed by Helsinki University Library (archives of national book production, national bibliography, union catalog of research libraries, ISBN and ISDS agencies, etc.). There are, however, several other tasks relating to library services, administration, and planning that are not managed by any one institution. The creation and administration of national central libraries in some way also must be connected to the national library system. As the inquiry was pursued, several difficulties connected with the administrative structure and budgetary policy of the system of higher education were encountered, making it troublesome for the Helsinki University Library to make progress in the management of national library tasks. In addition to the methodological aspect, the planning organization proposed in the inquiry also deserves attention. 128

By means of a matrix constructed for the purpose of comparing the interdependence of tasks, the investigation was conducted on two levels: tasks that must be managed by one institution, and tasks that need not necessarily be managed by one institution but that require close cooperation. On the basis of the interdependence analysis, the tasks were grouped into twenty-one subgroups, called modules. One module comprised all the tasks that were found to be so dependent on each other that they had to be managed by the same institution. The entire inquiry was based on the module system. The inquiry was continued by creating three alternative organization models. The alternatives were created by fitting together modules to form reasonable entities, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. All were to some extent decentralized. The internal communication connections between the alternatives were analyzed. The alternatives were compared to determine which was functionally the best and where the performance of the individual modules was best. The comparison was carried out module by module, resulting in an extensive separate investigation. The results of the comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the various alternatives were to be used in choosing the most suitable model and in improving its structure where needed. Four main criteria, divided into subcriteria that are general functional requirements for any organization, not specifically for libraries, were used for comparison. They are: — openness of the channels for obtaining resources, — coordination with the whole network of other national tasks, — keeping up with development in the field, — administrative flexibility. The results of this comparison were presented in numerical values, which were not results of measurement; rather, they permitted a more precise and illustrative analysis than a mere verbal comparison. The second comparison of the alternatives was based on a detailed inquiry into the costs incurred by the management of the tasks. The aim of the comparison was primarily to investigate the cost changes incurred by the reorganization and not so much to determine the total costs of various alternatives. The present cost level served as a basis for the calculations. The two comparisons just described did not provide sufficient data for decision making. Most attention had been paid to the comparison of modules, and sufficient data on the alternatives as organizational entities were not available. The requirements of library and general social policy had also been ignored. Therefore, a third comparison was nessary. Contrary to the previous ones, this was to be carried out verbally. The following matters were considered in evaluating the alternatives: — improvement of regional equality, — the users' chances to take part in the development of the system and the services, 129

— impact of the system on the activity of other libraries, — the capacity of the system to adapt itself t o the growing amount of information and to the development of the various forms of activity, — the possibilities for public libraries to participate in and influence the system. The t w o first comparisons were purely functional and technocratic. The aim of the third one was to take into account both general political factors and the fact that the alternatives were not meant to apply to any organization in general but to a library organization in particular. The Selected Plan The alternative chosen as the best of the three had certain internal weak points, but before the final proposition was made, they were to be eliminated by the results of the comparison of functional benefits. In this connection, the alternative chosen was also adapted to prevailing conditions. It was proposed that the system be implemented gradually over a ten-year period. The proposal is a develo p m e n t plan rather than a proposal for radical change. In this way the goals may be attained without expensive and radical measures. Without going into details of the overall decision on creating the national library network, we shall deal briefly with the plans for the proposed system. Finland is a small country and, consequently, it will be sensible to centralize library and documentation planning in one institution. According to the inquiry, a national library system is primarily a system that supplies the services needed by other libraries, e.g., bibliographies, union catalogs, information services, interlibrary lending, etc. These services are thus transmitted indirectly to library users. One form of these indirect services is the planning and development of libraries. It was proposed that a planning center for research libraries and scientific information be established first. It would consist of the staff already engaged by the Ministry of Education: the secretariat of the Finnish Council for Scientific Information and Research Libraries, the analysts of the ADP planning organization recently established, the secretariat for standardization, etc. The center should, however, receive additional planning staff to implement the detailed plans for the national library system as well as other plans. Staff is also needed for joint matters of library administration. It is also proposed that a board be appointed that would act as a coordinating body. The administrative authority of the board would cover only the central unit of the national central library system to which, e.g., the archives of national book production and national bibliographical activities would be transferred later on. Characteristic of the proposal is that the various areas of planning and development of both libraries and information services — joint planning and administrative preparatory work of libraries and planning and practical library work - have been integrated as widely as possible. In addition, the national central libraries

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of an overall system transmit the necessary feedback from the users. The aim has been t o solidify ties with the state administration and in particular with higher education and science administration by proposing that the central unit function directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education and that representatives of this field be appointed to the board.

Comparative Analysis The plans for research libraries drawn up in the different Scandinavian countries have a most important objective in common — the building up of a high-level administration for research libraries and a permament planning organization in conjunction with it. In addition, there are other national projects based on centralization, but the main point mentioned above will suffice to note the problems of centralized national library planning. The relation between research libraries and documentation services is a current issue on both the national and inter-Scandinavian levels. Do these fields f o r m t w o totally separate administrative entities; do they form only one entity; or is the answer to be found somewhere in between? The present situation, briefly, is as follows: In Denmark, there is close connection between these fields, but each has its own coordinating body with some members and the chairman in common. In Finland, there is only one coordinating body for both fields; top-level administration is totally integrated, and the experiences gained are positive. Both fields in Norway are part of the national librarian's sphere of action and are supervised by the National Library Office. For the time being, both fields have an advisory body of their own, but the unification of these bodies has come up for discussion. In Sweden, b o t h fields have bodies of their own, subordinate to different ministries, with relatively poor official contact with each other. The organization has b o t h supporters and opponents. Among librarians, there has been discussion of the need for improvement in contact between the two bodies. The objectives of library planning are especially difficult when they concern national high-level organization. In this case, not only the needs of the libraries but also political realities, which in most countries play a prominent part, and general development objectives of the state administration have to be taken into account. Therefore, it seems most unlikely that even within one country the libraries would completely agree on how the high-level administration should be organized. As a consequence, if follows that the creation of a national policy-making body with sufficient expertise at its disposal and with contacts with the state administration is essential to bring together various viewpoints in all important matters. Further, the organizational patterns of high-level administration nationally are such that they cannot - at least in detail - be applied in other countries. Even in countries that have a similar historical background, as the Scandinavian 131

countries do, we are compelled to take into account the diversity of conditions in the administrative field. This also leads to different ways in which problems are handled. Let us take one example. In the Scandinavian countries, university libraries have been public libraries in the sense that they have served all research, regardless of whether it has been carried out within or outside the university. Because of the planned program budgeting, the libraries in Sweden fear that they may have t o eliminate services, such as national interlibrary activities, t o clients outside the university. In Finland, on the contrary, the government intends to give to university libraries national library tasks that will increase services supplied to clients outside the universities. Thus, rather small legislative differences may influence the principles of action of libraries and, consequently, the organization of top-level administration. In general, through their work in a national library, on ad hoc committees, or on national councils, librarians have been responsible for planning as a sideline to their professional duties. One advantage of this procedure is that librarians are thoroughly familiar with the problems of libraries as organizations requiring more than the general management routine. The profitability and productivity of libraries cannot be measured in the same way as those of a business enterprise. Direct feedback is possible, since committees and other bodies consisting of librarians have permanent and close connections with the everyday life of the libraries. As a result, planners are not estranged from those affected by the planning. Planning thus becomes democratic as the libraries continuously influence the progress of planning. As long as n o powerful planning bureaucracy exists, the planning will become neither detached nor "armored". Hence, the weakness of a planning organization can simultaneously be its strength. Apart from the problems that result when the planning is done as a sideline by an understaffed secretariat, etc., the weakest points in the plans drawn up by the librarians themselves include the difficulty of adapting the plans t o the general development policy of the state administration. Experience has shown that plans drawn up by librarians easily become demands made on the government. Plans that require considerable resources at once or in the near future are not generally implemented. Another weakness is the lack of political and administrative expertise on the part of librarians. Libraries must be developed according to the same principles as the state administration, since they are institutions maintained from public funds. Librarians also need political expertise in order to understand which plans can actually be carried into effect and how the plans for implementation should be drawn up. The general development policies of state administration, higher education, and research, etc., which should define the national framework of library development, do not always provide proper guidance for planning. Consequently, where planning bodies consist of librarians, planning easily changes to competition between libraries for the resources to be allocated. In order to maintain unanimity, pro132

posais are developed for resources to be increased in as many libraries as possible. But librarians are not free from the influence of Parkinson's Law, and everyone is well aware that only a few of the proposals can be carried into effect. This cannot be called planning; at worst, it is an auction. Some Scandinavian countries have also used planners outside the library profession. In Sweden, for example, the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development has, in addition to designing the LIBRIS system, carried out extensive organizational investigations. Denmark has started similar activities. Planning carried out in this way has obvious advantages, for it is carried out by skilled planning staff; management criteria which are often neglected in library planning are now taken into account; the planning is adapted to general development policies and objectives of the state administration; and the planners are able to see the overall situation and, as far as the relations among the libraries are concerned, the planning is impartial. The most serious disadvantages of using such planners are their lack of library expertise for short-term investigations (this lack assumes less importance for longterm tasks); the feedback needed for planning may be scanty; and the libraries may not have sufficient opportunities to influence the progress of the planning. Therefore, the libraries must create a strong and competent partner body to the planning organization representing the libraries' viewpoint. If the planning unit's main task is rationalization of the state administration, library activities are not always sufficiently taken into account. Saving money, for instance, is not among the primary tasks of the library. Furthermore, the planners do not accumulate the expertise necessary to serve the needs of the library if the planning staff, after having finished one task, is given a new task in another sphere of public administration. The kind of planning organization that would be best cannot be described in terms of general application. Some views gained from experience, however, can be suggested. For example: - The planning must be directed by the libraries, and the planning unit must preferably be part of the national organization of research libraries. - The planning must have close connections with the administration and policy making of research libraries. - Experiences gained in Finland show that the sphere of action of the planning unit should cover both research libraries and documentation services. - The planning organization must have solid library expertise because general organization theories and planning methods cannot be applied directly to libraries. - The planning staff must include trained administration planners. - Contacts with the libraries must be maintained. A strong planning secretariat

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may be a guarantee of good and efficient results; on the other hand, however, it easily becomes estranged from field work. Experience shows that experienced librarians are not especially delighted with plans for library activities drawn up by young planners if opportunities to influence the plans are not provided. — Good relations with the state administration and its planning systems should be maintained — library planning cannot succeed in a vacuum. Relations with the users and maintainers (research workers, local and central administration of the universities, etc.) also must be assured. The organizational status of a planning unit in the country's research library system may vary even when the most important of the views mentioned above are taken into account. The Scandinavian countries have adopted various solutions. In Norway, which has a separate planning office, close contacts with a big library are considered essential for the work of library planning. However, if the planning is connected with the national library, the impartiality of the planning is often in doubt, for it is feared that the planning will serve primarily the national library and not the entire library system impartially. Indeed, the danger does exist that too much of the planning unit's capacity will be used for the planning of the national library. The planning of a national system of libraries often proves difficult due to the fact that the objectives of the planning are difficult to define and also because research libraries in the Scandinavian countries are in general part of a wider organization, that of the university, whose decision-making authority cannot be affected by an outside planning and administrative body. Acknowledgement: The author is indebted to his Scandinavian colleagues, especially to Mr. Palle Birkelund, national librarian of Denmark; Dr. Harald L. Tveterâs, national librarian of Norway; and Mr. Thomas Tottie, secretary general of the Swedish Council for Research Libraries, for their help, without which he would not have been able to write this paper. However, he takes responsibility for any misinterpretations that are presented.

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CHAPTER XII

National Planning and Academic Libraries in the United States John P. McDonald

Dr. Herman H. Fussier, formerly director of libraries at the University of Chicago and now Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago's Graduate Library School, is surely one of this country's most thoughtful students of academic libraries. In a 1972 " R e p o r t on Some Aspects of Libraries and Technology" prepared at the request of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Dr. Fussier makes the following statement: "There is presently no satisfactory mechanism for national planning or analysis in the field of academic library service or information access."(l) It should be understood that Dr. Fussier was referring to the United States, but if his statement is true, as I believe it to be, what can then be said about today's topic "National Planning and Academic Libraries"? The answer is that despite the absence until very recently of any planning that deserves to be called "national" in scale there have been a n u m b e r of efforts throughout the years that have achieved something like a national impact. It is my intention today to remind this audience of some of the effective programs of the past, to describe briefly some of the more significant recent efforts, and finally to try to suggest what the future may hold in the way of rational planning for academic library resources and services. For the most part m y remarks will deal with the larger university libraries — those containing a million volumes or more - since to try to deal with the smaller university libraries, not to mention the thousands of college, junior college, and community college libraries, would clearly be beyond the limitations of a paper of this sort. Moreover, it seems likely that planning that has worked in the past or shows promise of working in the future to alleviate the complex problems of the largest libraries is the sort of planning that will produce benefits applicable t o academic libraries of every kind and size. In short, the group I have in mind is roughly synonymous with the membership of the Association of Research Libraries. For our present purpose this group of ninety-four libraries has the great advantage of including the major federal libraries here in Washington whose participation is crucial to the success of any national planning. It also includes the New York and Boston public libraries, the Center for Research Libraries, a few specialized research libraries and, very importantly in terms of long-range planning, it includes the National Library of Canada and the libraries of four major Canadian universities. The author is the executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, Washington. 1) P. 137 of the original report, not the printed version published by the University of Chicago Press in 1973 as Research Libraries and Technology.

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The Planning Process Having indicated the kinds of libraries with which I am concerned, let me now try to make clear what planning means in the context of this paper. Planning should be understood as a system of decision-making. Thus, the main elements of a planning system are: (1) the setting of policy goals, (2) developing programs and projects for moving toward the goals within a specified period of time, (3) designing policies for mobilizing resources (e.g. collections and services, manpower, funds, etc.) required for the programs and projects, (4) providing information about the progress made and the obstacles encountered in the execution of the programs and projects, (5) providing a mechanism for adopting policies designed to overcome obstacles and to adjust the plan to errors when they become apparent, if necessary by modifying the current plan, and (6) preparing for a subsequent plan. I think you will agree that this is a very comprehensive definition of planning and those of you who know something of the situation here in the United States will recognize that our efforts to date fall considerably short of anything so ambitious. It is not surprising that in a country as vast as this, faced with library problems of great complexity, our attempts to plan have found their focus in agencies or organizations whose interests are circumscribed either functionally or geographically. This piece-meal approach is not necessarily undesirable (indeed many feel that this is the most promising approach), but it does mean that a good deal of planning has gone forward in the name of one or another specific mission such as resource development, bibliographic control, physical access, and so forth. Where the geographical approach controls we find a variety of local, state, and regional groups assuming responsibility for planning within their appropriate areas. Other groups such as those concerned with periodicals and serials base their activities on the form of the material. Still others take the chronological approach, focussing their attention either on current or retrospective resources. And finally there are many groups at work that exhibit some characteristics of each of these types. I suppose that all of this activity bespeaks an admirable vitality in the library profession in this country, but it also must present serious problems of evaluation to those who are expected to provide funds for so many competing activities. While the pluralistic approach surely has its virtues there can be little doubt that it disperses financial support to such an extent that funds are often inadequate both in amount and duration. The bewildering assortment of cooperative library activities also confronts the writer of a descriptive report of this sort with the difficult task of trying to decide which among many possibilities are most germane to the theme of this IFLA Conference.and the subject of today's discussion. I think the best I can do is to try to select a few organizations and activities that have been unique in their impact or influence, such as the Association of Research Libraries and the Center for Research Libraries, or have proved to be important prototypes such as the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC). I shall also say a word or two about one of the newest collaborative undertakings, the recently 136

formed Research Libraries Group (RLG). Finally, I mean to say something about the need for planning and the responses to that need currently being put forward by bodies such as the ARL, the Council on Library Resources, and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Research Libraries and Collective Action The Association of Research Libraries One of the best ways to comprehend the efforts of university libraries to develop and implement rational plans is to look back over the activities of the Association of Research Libraries. No other organization has so consistently represented the interests of univerity and research libraries in the country and, until the Council on Library Resources came into being and more recently the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, little in the way of planning occurred outside the ARL. In saying this I do not mean to ignore or to depreciate the very important efforts of the Library of Congress and the other national libraries nor do I mean to overlook the contributions of many federal agencies, notably the National Science Foundation and the Office of Education. My point is simply that in activities largely or exclusively related to large university and research libraries the Association of Research Libraries has assumed a position of leadership and has achieved a solid record of accomplishment. Stephen McCarthy who has contributed so greatly to the success of the ARL, first as a representative from Cornell University from 1946 to 1967 and since then as executive director of the ARL, has described some of the Association's most noteworthy activities as follows: . . . The ARL was established to deal with the common problems of research libraries, hence much of its work has been concerned with resources for research and bibliographic access. The best known of these programs is the Farmington Plan, whose objective is to assure that at least one copy of all publications of value for research is available in the United States. The Farmington Ran began in 1949 and is still in operation. Under this program over fifty participating libraries agreed to acquire all current publications in various subject fields or from various geographic areas, to catalog them, and to make them available on interlibrary loan. The Farmington Plan is thus a decentralized cooperative acquisitions program. The PL-480 program of the Library of Congress is in some respects similar to the Farmington Plan. It is operated in developing countries in which counterpart funds are available for the purchase of multiple copies of current publications which are deposited in sets in selected research libraries. The American Council of Learned Societies and ARL cooperated with LC in initiating this program. The National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging (NPAC) began as an effort of the Shared Cataloging Committee of ARL. This committee set out 137

to eliminate duplication in cataloging by research libraries. As the effort progressed, it seemed that the objective might best be attained by centralizing and speeding up cataloging at the Library of Congress. To do this cataloging, it was necessary that LC acquire the books to be cataloged. At this time the Higher Education Act of 1965, with a section providing support for selected library activities, was under consideration by Congress. The committee recommended an amendment which authorized LC to acquire and catalog promptly foreign publications of scholarly and research value and provided special funds for this purpose. The amendment was adopted, and the program has been in operation since that time. What began as a cataloging effort has become the major foreign acquisitions and cataloging program of LC. As it has developed, this program has involved bibliographic centers in foreign countries, and thus "Shared Cataloging" has come to have a new international meaning. (2) Since the foregoing was written, important changes have been made in all three of these programs, but they still have in common a quality that Warren J. Haas, the vice president of information services and university librarian at Columbia University in New York, has characterized as "amplified impact". By this he no doubt means that by eliminating or reducing duplication of effort these programs result in significant savings for all participating libraries. Programs having this multiple cost-saving potential should feature prominently in any national plan proposed for the United States now or in the future. Among other important projects that have been initiated, supported, sponsored and/or administered by the ARL are the following: Library of Congress Catalogs, Foreign Newspaper Microfilm Project, Documents Expediting Product, Microform Technology Project, Slavic Bibliographic and Documentation Center, National Serials Data Program, and Dissertation Abstracts. Currently the ARL also operates the Office of University Library Management Studies, with support from the Council on Library Resources, and the Center for Chinese Research Materials, funded by the Ford Foundation assisted recently by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Whether all of these activities of the ARL when taken together constitute a plan is open to serious question, but their cumulative effect has certainly advanced the important causes of resource development, bibliographic control, and access to research materials. It is not now clear what activities the ARL will choose to emphasize in the future, but later in this paper I shall indicate some of the likeliest possibilities as I see them. My impression is that the views of library leaders in this country are converging and that the future thrust of the ARL will be in reasonable harmony with the main currents of professional thinking and planning. 2) Stephen A. McCarthy. "The Association of Research Libraries." In University and Research Libraries in Japan and the United States (Chicago: American Library Association, 1972), p. 252. (Proceedings of the First Japan-United States Conference on Libraries and Information Science in Higher Education, Tokyo, 1 5 - 1 9 May 1969.)

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The Center for Research Libraries Another example of effective cooperation among university libraries is the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), founded in 1949 as the Midwest Inter-Library Center to serve certain common purposes of ten universities in the central portion of the country. Directed toward achieving improvement of resources and economy of operations the Center's initial activities were as follows: (1) cooperative collection and housing of little-used material for the use of the region as a whole, (2) developing a program for filling out and enriching the resources of the region, and (3) development of cooperative bibliographic projects. So successful were its e f f o r t s and so applicable were its services to a broader constituency that in 1964 the Center dropped all geographic restrictions on membership. No longer was membership limited to institutions locajed in the ten Midwestern states, but was open to any institution that supported research and maintained a library which, as a rough guide, contained at least 500.000 volumes and spent approximately $ 200.000 per year on acquisitions and binding. Smaller libraries were eligible for associate membership. With the change in policy and the change in name to Center for Research Libraries membership rose quickly until today there are seventy-eight full members and fifty-nine associate members. Thus CRL exhibits a characteristic that has distinguished other successful library organizations in this c o u n t r y , namely the ability to evolve from an organization of limited objectives, limited clientele, or limited geographical focus into a broadly based organization capable of serving the purposes of a national constituency. The basic purpose of the Center remains much as it always was: that is t o be a library from which other libraries can borrow needed publications that they d o not have in their own collections and that they anticipate will be needed so infrequently that they cannot justify buying them for themselves. As a libraries' library, then, the C R L stands as an example of success in several things: the first is planning; second, implementation; third, operation; and fourth, growth and development. If, as many believe, library planning here should follow the highly attractive example being set for the rest of us by Great Britain, then surely the Center for Research Libraries must be a prominent candidate for inclusion in any such federation of library and bibliographical activities proposed for this country. This backward glance has perhaps provided a sufficient sampling of planning efforts that have involved university libraries. The past programs of the ARL, the several activities of the Center for Research Libraries, and similar efforts were responsive to needs and problems of earlier years. While many of these problems are still with us, there are now new means for dealing with them and there may also be new reasons for doing so. The means I have in mind are two-fold. First, there are the obvious technological advances with which we are all familiar - computers, microforms, copying devices, and so f o r t h ; second, and much more important in my view, there is the intellectual progress that has rendered the machines so useful. Call it software, essential logic, what you will, but all such labels are

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simply shorthand for invaluable advances such as MARC and RECON at the Library of Congress, MEDLARS and MEDLINE at the National Library of Medicine, and a host of other developments in and out of the federal government. Ohio College Library Center Developments of these kinds, deriving from technological change, have given rise to a number of important new agencies capable of rendering machine-based services to large numbers of libraries. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Ohio College Library Center. OCLC, as it is usually called, began as a consortium of academic libraries in Ohio whose goals were to increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost of basic library operations through the use of a central shared computer facility. The OCLC presently offers to some fifty Ohio colleges and universities and a number of out-of-state groups an on-line, interactive cataloging capability and on-line access to a large union catalog of those holdings of member institutions that have been entered into the system's data base. Ultimately five other modules - serials control, an in-process file, a name-authority index, circulation control, and subject-search capability - will be added to the system. The first three of these are well along in development. The success of OCLC has stimulated the establishment of many similar regional groups. In turn many of these groups are contracting with OCLC for services. For this and other reasons the Ohio College Library Center is a very significant library network development and another likely element in future planning for library service at the national level. The Research Libraries Group Although it is a most promising development, OCLC has by no means solved all the problems of library automation and networking. OCLC supports a number of small- to medium-sized libraries, but the problem of very large libraries are probably different and are almost certainly more difficult. One approach to the problems of the very large libraries is the newly incorporated Research Libraries Group. RLG provides a framework for joint action by four great research libraries — the Columbia, Harvard, and Yale university libraries and the New York Public Library. According to its founders, "RLG was established to improve availability of and access to recorded materials in member libraries. It contemplates the use of highly developed computer and communications technology on a concerted basis. Among the first plans of RLG is the establishment of a bibliographic data center at New Haven to provide effective access to a combined collection of approximately 26 1/2 million volumes. The consortium will also be able to help each institution cope realistically with the compounding financial concerns which each of the member libraries faces."(3) The RLG plan envisages eventual expansion, but the nature of that expansion has not been predetermined. 3) Personal communication from library directors of the Research Libraries Group.

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Elements of a National System RLG is but one attempt to respond to an ever more clearly perceived need to plan for the uncertain future of large libraries. Like OCLC it may prove to be a model for other groups yet to be formed. It has set certain tasks for itself that, in the view of many university librarians, are basic prerequisites to the participation of research libraries in a national system. As Stanley McElderry, librarian of the University of Chicago libraries, has said, "If we are to provide an effective system on a national basis, we need to adopt new approaches to building, maintaining and servicing library collections. A few of the requirements for a workable national system are: (1) a more precise definition of the resources needed for present and future scholarly endeavor; (2) systematic and comprehensive approach to acquiring such resources; (3) an organization to index these resources under uniform bibliographic authority and conventions; (4) a coordinated approach for allocation of these resources with a central record of the location of each title; (5) a communication system to transmit requests and exchange messages promptly (teletype, computer data bases, and telefacsimile networks); and (6) a faster, more dependable delivery system than that now available through our traditional interÜbrary loan operation."(4) To these requirements, which after all apply primarily to current and future publications, we should add at least two others if we are also to improve the availability of retrospective materials. The first of these is a national program for the preservation of books printed on paper that is rapidly deteriorating. The second is closely related to the first and is a program for creating a national collection of negative microfilm to serve the needs of on-demand publication or loan. Progress toward a National System With these several requirements in mind, we must now ask what progress is being made toward fulfilling them in order that academic libraries may meet the overriding objective of providing better access to recorded information? Development of Resources With respect to the development of resources, the remaining elements of the Farmington Plan, the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging(NPAC), and various projects of the Center for Research Libraries are adding significantly to the holdings of scholarly libraries in this country. Specialized activities such as the ARL's Center for Chinese Research Materials are also contributing. Bibliographic Control With respect to bibliographic control and access, the cataloging module of the National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging (NPAC) is but one of many 4) Stanley McElderry. " C o o p e r a t i v e A r r a n g e m e n t s for Access to S o u t h Asian Library Materials: Problems and P r o s p e c t s . " (A paper delivered at the C o n f e r e n c e o n S o u t h Asian Library Resources, Boston, 4 - 6 April 1974.) 141

efforts of the Library of Congress to assume the responsibilities of a true national bibliographic center. With financial support and encouragement from the Council on Library Resources, the Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) Project, the Retrospective Conversion of Catalog Records (RECON), the National Serials Data Program (NSDP), the Conversion of Serials Project (CONSER), etc., are either now contributing or have the potential for contributing to the development of a national bibliographic data base. Ways need to be found better to relate these efforts to those going on outside the Library of Congress. Access to Resources With respect to physical access to resources and systems for improving communications and delivery, considerable research has been undertaken, but decisions as to next steps are still pending. The Association of Research Libraries has conducted several studies relating to interlibrary loan activity. One study examined the relative merits of national versus regional interlibrary loan centers. Another study deals with the feasibility of employing a time-sharing computer system for monitoring loan traffic, and a third study has to do with a National Periodical Resource Center to collect and loan publications on a comprehensive basis for the support of all libraries. A pilot project of this sort is already under way at the Center for Research Libraries, In view of the high costs of interlibrary loans and serious imbalances in the present systems, rapid progress in this area is crucial. Preservation With respect to preservation activities and the pooling of retrospective materials in microform, the requirements are so staggering as to make our efforts seem insignificant. Almost from its founding the Council on Library Rescources has interested itself in preservation problems and has supported a variety of research projects directed towards these problems. The Association of Research Libraries has undertaken at least two major preservation studies, but the means for carrying out the recommendations of these studies have not been found. A few major libraries, for example the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, have established preservation offices and apparently the Research Libraries Group will make some effort to establish a preservation program; but individual libraries or even small groups of libraries cannot hope to make much headway against problems of this magnitude. Resources equal to the task can never be secured unless the federal government recognizes that the preservation of library materials is an inseparable part of the broader objective of access to recorded information. Much the same may be said about the need to establish national collections of microfilm, and this problem is further complicated by proprietary interests and some vagueness in the copyright law. The cause of access to recorded information as a public right and in the public interest is one to which librarians give virtually unanimous support. It is our hope that national planning will further this cause and that any system of access we devise will be as free as possible of restrictions, limitations, and constraints. 142

From the foregoing it should be clear that while much remains to be done much has already been accomplished. The groundwork for a national system exists. As Princeton University Librarian William Dix has said, "University libraries, and a few rather similar national and independent research libraries, constitute a major national resource, a de facto network creating a vast pool of recorded knowledge and information essential to education and to the advancement of learning without which modem society could not exist. This network has evolved unsystematically and without adequate planning and its links are at present quite imperfect, but we are beginning to see the emergence of a coherent, integrated whole. Its viability will depend upon a judicious balance between centers of local excellence, immediately accessible to users, and a variety of centralized activities, integrated through a computer-based system of bibliographic control."(5) Although we recognize the various elements that together may give us a workable system, and although we now have technology to allow those elements to work together, many complex problems remain. Some of these problems are institutional, some of them are organizational, most of them are political in the sense that they require the attention of the nation's leaders and demand a share of the nation's financial resources. All of them underscore the continuing need for planning if we are to create a more effective national system of information and literature access. The need exists. As the Congress affirmed in establishing the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, "library and information services adequate to meet the needs of the people of the United States are essential to achieve national goals and to utilize most effectively the nation's educational resources." In closing I can offer no more eloquent or persuasive statement on the need for planning than the following quotation. In his presidential address at the Annual Conference of the Library Association in May of 1970, D.T. Richnell said, "The immense growth in world literature, in the demands upon it, in new means of communication, supplementing rather than replacing the printed word; the immense growth in the numbers of libraries and information services; and in the technical innovations that can be invoked to assist or even to replace existing methods; all these have produced an equally self-evident need for planning not merely how best, or how most cheaply, bits of information can be communicated to facilitate technical and scientific advance, but also how best the library and information systems network can be planned to serve the total cultural needs locally, regionally and nationally."(6) That in a single beautiful sentence is the problem for the United States just as much as it is for Great Britain or any other

5) William S. Dix. "The Financing of the Research Library." College and Research Libraries 35 (July 1974), p. 255. (Discussion paper presented to the National Commission on the Financing of Postsecondary Education by the Association of Research Libraries, submitted August 1973.) 6) D.T. Richnell. "Central Planning and Library Service." Library Association Record 72 (June 1970), p. 224.

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country. It is also our challenge, and though this paper touches on only a few of the ways in which we are responding to the challenge, I hope I have conveyed some sense of the thought and energy that are being devoted to making academic libraries full partners in the effort to provide all the citizens of the United States with convenient access to library resources and information services.

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APPENDIX Unesco, National Information Systems (NATIS)* Objectives for national and international action as amended by the Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures

The Concept of NATIS Planning at the national level implies proposing to policy-makers and those who take the decisions the various options that can be taken, pointing out in each case the financial, social and administrative implications. It thus helps to anticipate some aspects of the future, to consider and weigh alternative courses of action, and to allocate such resources as manpower, money, machines, etc. for meeting carefully delineated priorities. So far in formulating national development plans little attention has been paid to the systematic organization and dissemination of information, which is one of the vital resources of a country. As the idea gains ground that international collaboration should be achieved, national planning of this vital resource becomes a necessity, and the need is all the more pressing as international cooperative programmes, such as UNISIST and Universal Bibliographic Control, are developed. Even in large industrialized countries with a tradition of autonomous institutions it is now becoming accepted that information networks must be planned and co-ordinated centrally if they are to exercise their function as important elements in the nation's educational, cultural and scientific progress. Typical examples of these trends are the recent creation of the British Library from the fusion of a number of related but separate services, and the unifying "Bundesförderungsprogram" which the Federal Republic of Germany is launching for its national documentation. In the United States of America, a national programme of library and information services has been drafted and will probably lead to some form of cooperation at national level. In the USSR and other socialist countries, a co-ordinated national information system has been in existence for a long time, and accepted by the State as an important element in the nation's educational, cultural and scientific progress. The need for such co-ordination has also been clearly expressed by the developing countries in the regional meetings organized by Unesco to examine this subject and at international conferences and other meetings; it has been underlined in many publications prepared by FID, IFLA and ICA, some commissioned by UNESCO. *

Reprinted with permission f r o m Final Report, I n t e r g o v e r n m e n t a l C o n f e r e n c e on the Planning of National D o c u m e n t a t i o n , Library a n d Archives I n f r a s t r u c t u r e s , Paris, 2 3 - 2 7 September 1974. (Paris: Unesco, 1 9 7 5 ) .

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The NATIS concept implies that the government — national, State or local — should maximize the availability of all relevant information through documentation, library and archives services just as in principle it takes responsibility for the basic education, at primary and secondary levels, of its citizens. As governments invest more and more money and personnel in developing national, school, public, university and special libraries as well as d o c u m e n t a t i o n and archives services, they are beginning to insist that overlap among certain types of service must be eliminated and serious gaps in the provision of information be filled by directly planned action, rather than by haphazard collaboration, and by the creation of institutions capable of acting as national counterparts in international efforts. This is likely to be easier for the new and/or developing countries than for the older ones, where vested interests (academic, associations of scientists, industrial groups) are more entrenched. Once governments become thus involved in planning the next steps are likely t o follow naturally. To begin with, the funtions, objectives, importance and potential contributions of documentation, libraries and archives in all fields of national planning and development should be defined, taking into account their specific interrelations with other professions. Comprehensive surveys of these services should be carried out and the survey data obtained should be used as the basis for forecasting future needs and the preparation of a long-term plan." The plan should cover the legislative and financial basis for the operation and all aspects of the structure and functioning of these services, including manpower provisions, technological components and cooperative arrangements. The precise form and character of the national information system (NATIS), composed of a number of sub-systems will vary in different countries, but coordination of all its elements must be the goal. The elements that should constitute NATIS are all services involved in the provision of information for all sectors of the community and for all categories of user. The task of NATIS is t o ensure that all engaged in political, economic, scientific, educational, social or cultural activities receive the necessary information enabling them to render their fullest contribution to the whole community. To achieve these aims, a national information plan will have t o be developed in accordance with an established information policy and implemented taking into account the priorities of national overall and sectoral planning. The plan should reflect the existing situation, and possible ways of improving it using to the maxim u m the h u m a n and physical resources available, and should provide for the creation of new capabilities and facilities. An analysis of the performance and objectives of all types of library (national, public, school, university, special), documentation activity (data banks, abstracting and indexing services, national information analysis centres, etc.) and archives, will show that co-ordination will improve their efficiency, and make it possible to fulfil the demands of users.

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Building up a national information system (NATIS) involves meeting basic requirements and establishing its foundation and planning the various phases of its implementation. Its action should be planned in an international context and based on principles of compatibility and standardization. The methods to be followed in the creation and development of NATIS are crystallized in 12 objectives to be attained by national governments and in 4 objectives for international action by Unesco and other international organizations. 1.

OBJECTIVES FOR NATIONAL ACTION

1.1

Requirements of NATIS

Objective 1 - A national information

policy

A national information policy, reflecting the needs of all sectors of the community, and of the national community as a whole, should be formulated to guide the establishment of a national information plan, whose elements should be fully incorporated in the national development plans. Information is an essential part of a nation's resources and access to it is one of the basic human rights. The formulation and implementation of a national information policy is the only way to ensure that all who engage in administrative, educational, scientific and cultural activities have access to the information they need. Priorities in the national planning must, therefore, be reflected in specialized information sub-systems. Information is not only a national resource vital for scientific and economic progress, but also the medium of social communication. The personal, vocational and social development of the individual depends on the amount, quality and accessibility of information to such a user. The ultimate aim of an information policy must, therefore, be an informed society. The State tasks of planning, decison-making and administration are increasingly dependent on the availability of reliable information which can only be obtained through the systematic organization of this resource. The conviction has gained ground that every State needs short-, medium- and long-term plans to achieve co-ordination and co-operation of activities and resources to strengthen the national infrastructures for the benefit of all institutions and services. Modern planning techniques of diagnosing needs, identifying objectives, allocating resources (both public and private) controlling and evaluating progress are fully applicable to documentation, libraries and archives just as they are the other means of communication of which information is an integral part. Therefore, planning for the maximum mation resources should be integrated velopment plans and interrelated with planning of the elements of a national

availability and use of the country's inforwith the overall national and sectoral decommunication planning as a whole. The information system (NATIS) thus becomes 147

one specific aspect of educational, scientific and cultural planning within the social and economic planning of a country or region, for within this context this planning can reach its maximum efficiency. An information awarences at all levels is essential for implementing this national information policy for all sectors of the community, for the planning of any infrastructure which will function satisfactorily, for assigning realistic priorities at governmental level — central or local — and for measuring progress effectively and at regular intervals. Documentalists, librarians and archivists must be fully aware of their rôle in national development plans, but planners and statesmen also need to be aware of the importance of this rôle in its relation to other sectors of national planning in order that the appropriate conditions can be created in which documentation centres, libraries and archives can provide their contribution to the full, and can participate effectively in international co-operative networks. Objective 2 - Stimulation of user awareness In order to increase user awareness, appropriate bodies, including universities and other educational institutions should include in their programmes systematic instruction in the use of the information resources available in all the elements of NATIS. In many parts of the world, even though information is available in the collection of documentation, library and archives services, the potential users of the facilities are unaware of their existence and the advantages they offer, or the information remains unused because it does not meet the special needs of specific sectors of the community. The voluntary co-operation and understanding of all members of the community is needed if NATIS is to research its optimal efficiency. Within the framework of users' education, every citizen should therefore be aware of his right to the information he seeks — and of its importance — whether it be for professional advancement, performance of his social duties, or recreational reading. Accurate information provided promptly as and when required enables the government agency, the individual or commercial enterprise to reach the right decision or take the right action. Use of libraries should therefore be a part of instruction offered from the primary school level onwards so that seeking information becomes a normal part of daily life. The content of these programmes should be expanded as the advance through the educational system progresses. At the university level courses in the use of specialized literature and sources of information should be made available as part of the regular curricula, and these courses should be set up with the full co-operation of the university libraries. Other appropriate institutions for providing this type of training are schools of documentation, librarianship and archives, national libraries and archives, or special148

ized documentation centres. Where such courses have been given, they have usually proved highly effective in improving the use made of the available resources by the faculty and students. These efforts started within the educational programmes should be continued in professional life, and research workers should be encouraged to seek and use the specialized literature which would help them in carrying out their research and development programmes. Objective 3 - Promotion of the reading habit In order to foster and maintain the reading habit the network of school and public libraries within Ν A TIS, in co-operation with the appropriate educational institutions, should develop programmes specially designed to attract and sustain the interest of a wide potential clientele. In formal schooling, as in the life-long education necessary for all participation in society, books have an essential rôle to play at all stages and the scarcity of books and faulty distribution systems in many parts of the world may frustrate many other efforts for educational development. While it is comparatively easy to teach a child or an adult to recognize letters and words, the skill can be quickly lost. School libraries can have a great impact on a child's intellectual and cultural development. It is at that stage that the individual most easily learns to use books and libraries and acquires "functional literacy", thus ensuring that when he leaves school he does not relapse into illiteracy. This is particularly important since adult semi-literacy is being recognized as a problem even in some developed countries. Far too few resources are up to now being put into the development of school libraries in many countries. Closely related are the public libraries, which, among their functions, foster continuous education and re-education so necessary in a world of innovation and rapid change. The provision of appropriate reading materials is the key to success. For the newly literate, books in easily readable type and simple language, whose content corresponds to areas of known interest in specific socio economic contexts, are required. To promote the reading habit attempts should be made to extend library services to potential readers, creating, if necessary, new forms of service to reach rural areas and respond to the varied and changing needs of readers. Objective 4 - Assessment of users' needs A detailed analysis should be made of the information needs of government for its tasks and of the various groups of users in such areas as industry, research and education to ensure that the national information system (NATIS) is planned to meet these needs. Differences in national infrastructures result not only from varying levels of development but also from administrative, historical and economic factors. Every 149

national infrastructure must meet the special needs of its own c o u n t r y , and those w h o are planning the development of national information systems (NATIS) should formulate plans emphasizing those activities which will support the priority programmes of their own government, while bearing in mind experience gained in other countries (e.g. translation services are particularly important) and at the international level. It is usual to outline a long-term plan in about 10 years and t o elaborate the medium-term implementation in the first five years. Surveys should, therefore, be promoted by the control body (cf. Objective 7) through questionnaires and other means t o determine the needs of users of information. These needs should be seen in terms of breadth of coverage (scientists and technologists have a world-wide subject approach), in the depth needed (educators, planners want a more synoptic approach and have narrower international demands), and t o determine the extent of the demand for subject services designed t o meet the precise needs of individuals for research groups. Special attention should be paid t o the need for the scientific evaluation of the literature and data and for the analysis of documentation in depth, as well as for the popularization of information. NATIS should be designed on the basis of these analyses in order t o offer the type and quality of service hoped for by users. Further surveys should be made periodically t o evaluate the extent t o which the system is fulfilling its objectives.

Objective 5 - Analysis of existing information resources Comprehensive surveys should be undertaken of existing national documentation, library and archives resources as an essential prerequisite of sound national planning for the development of Ν A TIS. The survey data on existing documentation, library and archives resources should be used by the central body as a basis for forecasting future needs and the preparation of a long-term development plan, in accordance with the national information policy formulated on the basis of priorities in the national overall and sectoral development plans. These surveys should be made at regular intervals and published as a means of evaluation and feedback in order t o provide continuous control of the progress and results of the implementation of the plan. The surveys should analyse the extent t o which new technologies are already being applied and relevant research is being conducted on specific problems at the national level. On the basis of an analysis of the data obtained, plans should be made for the systematic development of information resources within each country utilizing all available devices such as computers, audio-visual materials, teleprinters. A realistic appraisal of the level of technology suited t o the needs of the country should be made; it should be consonant with its manpower and financial resources 150

and made on the basis of careful cost analysis and evaluation of alternatives. It should be borne in mind that technology and equipment may already be in use for other purposes and may be exploited for documentation, library and archives services through co-operative arrangements. Provision must be made for the acquisition or development of the necessary specialized software, consistent with the current level of technology. Objective 6 - Analysis of manpower

resources

Comprehensive surveys should be undertaken of existing national manpower resources as a basis for the planning of manpower provision and the forecasting of future needs for Ν A TIS. Since qualified manpower is generally accepted as being a very important element in the building up of national infrastructures, the surveys promoted by the central body should analyse existing manpower resources in relation to the estimated growth of information activities to determine the availability of trained personnel at the various levels of professional and nonprofessional duties. The availability of personnel should be related in terms of number and quality to the national needs indicated in the national plan for documentation, library and archives services having regard to international and other accepted standards. Programmes for education and training should be drawn up on the basis of an evaluation of the survey data so as to supply manpower needs required for the satisfactory performance of tasks to be carried out by the system, (cf. Objective 8.) The surveys should take into account national and international resources so that assistance can be mobilized to enable at least the minimum essential facilities for basic training to be developed at national or regional level. 1.2

Planning NATIS

Objective 7 - Planning the organizational structure of NA TIS The functions of all documentation, library and archives services should be coordinated through a central body (or bodies) to form the national information system (NA TIS), so as to ensure the optimum use of available resources and the maximum contribution to the cultural, social and economic development of each nation. The fundamental function of a national information system is to provide for the effective transfer of information that meets the needs of the whole community. Governments should establish the appropriate organs for the operation of NATIS and clearly designate responsibilities and determine priorities at all levels, bearing in mind that coping with the quantities of documents and data now being produced far exeeds the resources of any single service acting on its own.

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Objective 8 - Supplying manpower for Ν A TIS National institutions and programmes of professional education for information manpower should be established as integral parts of the national educational structure at universities or equivalent institutions of higher education, and as the principal means of supply adequate numbers of professional staff to meet the demand for qualified personnel at various levels to operate the national system (NATIS). Courses for assistance in all three fields should be regarded as part of the national programme but distinct from the professional courses and should normally be organized in middle-level training institutions, or in institutions of higher education. An overall effective policy should include provision for training of manpower to perform at ali levels and in all relevant environments. The manpower structure must be balanced and integrated. Manpower planning is essential both to ensure an adequate supply of qualified staff to meet increasing national demands and to avoid overproduction. Member States should, therefore, give high priority to these educational activities in their national development programmes by providing sufficient financial and legislative support. These activities should be carried out in universities or equivalent institutions of higher learning for the following reasons: to ensure close contact for the trainee with members of other professions of equivalent status such as research workers, historians and university teachers; to use teaching staff and facilities already available so as to reduce costs and integrate these programmes with those of other academic disciplines; to provide access to documentation, library and archives resources not only because the professional intraining requires the use of these resources for the trainee's studies but also because they provide the opportunity for practical as well as academic training. The national programmes should not only include initial courses and advanced studies but also specialized courses to provide for continuing education and training. Training personnel to use applied technology (including computers, reprography, audio-visual materials and telecommunications) in the field of information should be included in the national programmes of professional education. However, where there is a lack of qualified personnel this training could be achieved through an arrangement of courses of different duration and at varying levels. The aim of these courses would be to give technical personnel an adequate grounding in systems analysis and design, computer software and new methods and techniques for information processing, storage, retrieval and interchange. Designers of information systems may be trained through existing national facilities or by study abroad and such training should equip them to use modern tools and techniques in helping to implement the required information systems and networks. 152

The national programme should also include the establishment of training centres for the preparation of technical personnel in conservation and restoration work required by documentation, library, archives and museum services. A core subject area, in harmony with equivalent programmes and objectives at national, regional and interregional levels, should be adopted as a guide for preparing basic professional curricula for information specialists, librarians and archivists at a level consistent with that of other university programmes of graduate standing. Advanced level education for senior professionals at post-graduate and doctoral levels should be undertaken where possible and may be usefully supplemented by international exchange programmes, including those for teachers from other countries. In many countries it will be necessary t o produce a good supply of trained teachers to maintain these national programmes of professional education on various levels. Qualified personnel in the information field should be accorded similar status and conditions of service as those accorded to professionals of equivalent level in other fields. Only in this way will personnel of the necessary calibre be attracted to and retained in the professions and brain drain avoided. To carry out the tasks of the documentation, library and archives infrastructure it will be necessary to recruit staff of high quality, able to accept the responsibility for making the fullest contribution to national development. There should be suitable administrative machinery for overseeing professional standards of recruitment, education, training and practice either by a professional association or by a government or similar official agency. It is therefore highly desirable that a central co-ordinating body (or bodies) be set up to advise the government on the formulation and implementation of national information programmes and in matters related to international co-operation in these fields. This central co-ordinating body (or bodies) should be composed both of representatives of all appropriate government departments, State bodies, and semiofficial institutions, and of representative specialists from the information field; its structure should conform to the existing administrative organization as well as to the general targets of national information policy. No one single model for a national information system (NATIS) with its appropriate networks and services can be designed capable of suiting the requirements of different countries in different regions. However, some important principles should be referred to in preparing plans for the system: (a) in designing its structure maximum flexibility should be allowed; (b) efforts should be made to promote effective co-operation between all types of services within the system;

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(c) resources should be utilized to the maximum; (d) greater compatibility and standarization should be aimed at; (e) the international exchange of information and materials should be facilitated. It is of highest importance therefore that documentation centres, libraries and archives should not be thought of as isolated units, nor even as a national network of such units separate from other professions and sectors of society, which are in fact closely interrelated. The professions are able to draw strength and inspiration from each other's efforts by recognizing their interrelatedness. Some countries have reached different levels of development in the various sectors, and the problem of ensuring inter-sectoral co-operation affects both developing and developed countries. The present situation is characterized in a great number of countries, especially in the industrialized ones, by a gap between documentation centres and libraries on the one hand and archives on the other. Closer co-operation between documentalists, librarians and archivists should be encouraged both at the international level where FID, IFLA and ICA have already established mutual units, and at the national level where their planning should be co-ordinated wherever possible. Within the national information systems (NATIS) interrelated networks of school and public libraries should be established and developed to incorporate media resource centres and cultural centres in support of in-school and lifelong education, literacy programmes and national plans for book development alongside specialized documentation networks geared to meet the needs of specific user groups. The archival responsibilities within the national information system (NATIS) should include the services required for preservation of records retained for permanent collections as well as a formal records management policy for the organization, preservation and appraisal of current records in administrative services at all levels. These responsibilities also include seeking solutions to the problems of how to reduce the vast quantities of records currently produced by government agencies. Effective co-operation between all these networks and services should be promoted, particularly for the production of the national bibliography, and in the following fields: co-operative acquisition of materials, centralizing processing, abstracting and indexing, establishment of union catalogues and inter-library lending systems, data processing, use of reprographic, audio-visual and other equipment, and translation and preservation facilities. Planning the development of NATIS is therefore a complex operation; prerequisites are acceptance at governmental level of its vital role, analysis of the existing physical and human resources and of user needs. The targets for this planning are: 154

(i) elaboration of development plans for each of the institutional networks composing the system; (ii) co-ordination of the network plans so as to achieve a comprehensive plan f o r the development of NATIS; (iii) incorporation of the comprehensive plan and its c o m p o n e n t s in the national overall and sectoral development plans; (iv) harmonization of the NATIS development plan, particularly in specialized fields, with international aims for world-wide information systems. Objective

9 - Planning the technological

needs for

NATIS

The national information plan should include adequate provision for the application of information technology, as appropriate, in the various components of NATIS with the aim of achieving maximum utilization of existing resources and of reaching compatibility and standardization. A nation's future capability to handle information effectively will, to a large extent, depend on how well and how rapidly it is able to integrate new technological methods and devises into the mainstream of its information activities. Advances in technology and in information practices are certain to continue, and each nation will need t o decide, at some juncture, whether or not to further its national information development in a coherent way that optimizes the use of evolving technology. National planning is essential in this area for several reasons: first, technology is costly and a long-range government commitment is required f r o m the outset t o ensure the stability of the programme. Second, technology is complex and a common sense of technical direction at the national level is imperative if all relevant agencies are to co-ordinate their activities effectively. Third, technology is specialized and the evolution of a national information programme must be synchronized with the technical education of the people w h o will operate it. And finally, because technology is by its very nature innovative, its introduction invariably alters traditional ways of doing things and necessitates national attention to the problems of user re-education. There are no rigorous formulae or criteria available to guide developing countries in introducing new technologies into NATIS. The application of m o d e m techniques to information processing should be considered at every phase of the national information plan, such as surveys of needs, user awareness, legislative and financial support leading t o the organization of the elements of NATIS. In introducing technology, special attention should be paid to compatibility, standardization and system performance and analyses. Objective 10 - Establishing

a legislative framework

for

NATIS

Legislative action should be taken at the earliest possible stage in support of the planning and implementation of the national information system (NA TIS). This legislation should cover the conceptual basis of the systems, and of its constituent elements including all specialized sub-systems. 155

Legislative action is one of the prerequisites for ensuring the development of a strong national infrastructure. Each government will naturally frame its legislation in the light of its own circumstances, but a large body of literature including several model Acts exists which may serve as guidelines. Because the benefits of information services are not easily identified, though none the less very real, individual elements of the information infrastructure which is not based on a secure legal foundation may on occasion become vulnerable targets for reductions in the budget. In such a case, a vital contribution to the national development plan will be lost. The right legislation made with full knowledge of the part that each element of the infrastructure has to play in national development will guard against this and safeguard future progress. To this end, the national information plan should provide for the drafting and adoption of any additional legislation required to reinforce the philosophical basis of the system, relations with all relevant authorities, manpower, professional status, structure and financing, internal and international relations. Within the broad framework, special attention should be paid to processing appropriate legislation: (i) to ensure the legal deposit of national publications; (ii) to strengthen and support the telecommunication network as a key element in the transfer of information; (iii) to implement existing Agreements and Conventions aimed at facilitating the exchange of all types of documentation, and remove administrative barriers to the free flow of information; (iv) to accord to qualified personnel in the information field, similar status and conditions of service to those accorded to professionals of equivalent educational level in other fields; (v) to reach agreements concerning the equivalence of examination and diplomas obtained in other countries; (vi) to safeguard the nation's archival heritage against all endangering factors; (vii) to permit the access to achives that are no longer classed as confidential. Objective 11 - Financing NATIS Adequate financial provision should be made to ensure the effective tation of the plan for the national information system (NATIS).

implemen-

The expenditure required for the operation of all the elements of the national information system pertains to an ever greater degree to the State and the national budget will therefore be the main source of funds for its financial support. Planning includes many aspects but finally it has to establish time-tables and budgetary priorities. Financial provisions are likely to vary considerably from country to country, depending on size (population and area), natural resources, state of development, etc. None the less it is important to provide some guidance, first of all for developing countries, in the light of the experience of the rest of the world. In recent years the ratio of government expenditures on information work to the total spent on R&D in a number of industrialized countries is exceeding 5 %. In some countries which have to rely to a larger extent on findings of others, an even higher figure might be considered as reasonable. To approach this target 156

without imposing a large strain on the national budget needs careful planning, particularly the co-ordination of the various sources of international aid (the United Nations agencies, the United Nations Development Programme, bilateral arrangements with donor countries and even the direct help from foundations) within the national plan. Governments, especially those of the developing countries, are realizing that economic and social advance is dependent on the rapid improvement of existing national resources and that the related science and technology policy is heavily dependent on a strong and fast flow of socio-economic information of all kinds. Some countries may need to correct an imbalance in the resources devoted to the documentation of science and technology in contrast with all other fields. In many countries the eradication of illiteracy and the improvement of education are main government targets, but the importance of school and public libraries as instruments in these fields are not yet fully recognized, since the cost-benefits derived from these services are not as obvious as in such fields as industrial information. When making budgetary provisions for the national information plan higher priority should be accorded to the development of these services. In summary, three targets for financial provisions are: (i) inclusion of the costing of all the elements of NATIS in the provisions for national development plans; (ii) harmonization of the allocation of resources for all elements of NATIS, whether from internal or international sources; (iii) development of adequate salary structures for the professions involved in information work. Similarly, the development of well-designed archival and records management systems may help to reduce significantly the general administrative expenditure and to increase the efficiency of the investments under government control. 1.3

Universal bibliographic control in relation to NATIS

Objective 12 - Universal Bibliographic Control The concept of Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC) presupposes the establishment in each country of National Bibliographic Control with its aim to ensure that a bibliographic record for each new publication is made when the publication is issued. The aim of UBC is to achieve the universal availability, in an internationally accepted interchange form, of basic bibliographic data on all publications. The procedure proposed is that in principle the comprehensive bibliographic record of each publication be made once only in the country of its origin by a national bibliographic agency in conformity with international standards which are applicable to both manual and mechanized systems. This record is then made available very promptly in physical forms which are internationally acceptable. Thus there would be a network made up of component national units, each of 157

which would cover its own publishing activities, all integrated at the international level to form the total system. This all implies the acceptance of the general principle that each national bibliographic agency is the organization responsible for creating the authoritative bibliographic record of the publications of its own country. This national bibliographic agency should normally be set up in the national library, which receives all types of published documentation material by legal deposit and hence maintains the complete national collection. To strengthen national bibliographic control, each country should examine the provisions of its existing deposit laws and consider its present requirements in relation to its national library. It should also seek ways of establishing national bibliographic control through the improvement of its publishing and book trade; through encouragement of bibliographic standards in book production (for title-pages, imprints, introduction of ISBNs, etc.) and, as a publisher, by setting examples and maintaining standards in editorial practices and book production. In the past there have been many unsuccessful schemes or world-wide bibliographic control. Today, as the output of recorded knowledge mounts and the demand for access to that knowledge soars, the promotion of UBC becomes all the more necessary. Participation in UBC implies that all the countries involved will be willing to follow and implement international standards of bibliographic description and that they will accept each other's records, which would thus require a minimum of local modification. There is growing evidence that these goals are attainable. Computer methods already hold out good prospects for alleviating the world problem of bibliographic control and information retrieval by cooperation and sharing, however, the real difficulties here lie not so much in the technical innovations but rather in the human questions of organization and standardization of input format. For recording bibliographic data on book production, the international Standard Bibliographic Description for Monographs (ISBD(M)) and serials (ISBD(S)) have already been accepted by a number of countries, and its use by other countries, for preparing their national bibliography is anticipated in order to achieve UBC. Other internationally accepted standards for facilitating the identification, ordering and processing of the national book and serial production are the International Standards Book Number (ISBN) and, as part of the UNISIST programme, the International Standards Serial Number (ISSN). At the moment, in some parts of the world, many of the component national units of the UBC system are in existence: their integration into the international communications network can be envisaged and achieved in the foreseeable future. But basically UBC is a long-term policy, and the programme of activities to pro-

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mote UBC of necessity encompasses a wide range of recommendations and projects, some of which cannot be expected to show results immediately.

2.

OBJECTIVES FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION

Many efforts have been made in the past to provide access to the world's store of information but emphasis was usually placed either on special groups (.e.g. public libraries or documentation centres in a specific field) or on specific problems (e.g. bibliography, copyright), all equally important for overcoming some of the obstacles to the free flow and exchange of information so essential for progress. However, each of these efforts has made its contribution to only one particular aspect of the complex process of facilitating access to information, without achieving its full impact on the problem as a whole. Similarly, the UNISIST, INIS, AGR1S and other programmes for world information systems all dealing with specific areas, are based on the principle of co-ordination and voluntary cooperation at the international level of the relevant existing national institutional components in the corresponding area. However, information infrastructures in both developing and industrialized countries are at very different stages of development, making it almost impossible for some of them, which are just beginning to lay the foundations of their infrastructure, to participate in or benefit from these highly sophisticated universal programmes. The acceptance of the concept of NATIS and its objectives, which are designed to provide a framework for concerted action at the national level, will provide governments with a set of guidelines which will enable them to give a unified sense of direction and common aim to the diverse information activities being carried out in specific subject fields. By co-ordinating the national counterparts of the international programmes through overall planning, all the elements which constitute NATIS will be brought together in a balanced programme which will enable each country, whatever its stage of development, not only to reap the full benefit from these world systems but also to participate in a two-way flow of the information resources available to the world's community. In many countries, the launching of NATIS will require financial and technical assistance from national and international sources. Unesco, therefore, proposes to draw up a programme of action with short- and long-term objectives to achieve NATIS in its Member States. In doing so, Unesco will utilize to a greater extent the cooperation of the international non-governmental organizations specialized in documentation, library, archives and related fields which carry out many useful activities, world-wide in scope, and will establish a more effective and flexible basis of co-operation and assistance in support of the efforts of these organizations. To this end, a more systematic evaluation of the programme proposals of these organizations will be carried out with a view to their co-ordinate planning and financial support where this is needed and seems appropriate. 159

The objective of the Unesco programme of action will be: Objective 13 - Assistance to Member States for the planning and development of NATIS The planning and development of a national information system (Ν A TIS) and its elements in Member States will be promoted to achieve co-ordination at national level and as a basis for active participation in world information systems. Unesco will include in the relevant part of its programme, projects and activities designed to assist Member States in carrying out their national programmes for achieving NATIS and Member States are invited to co-operate fully towards the realization of these targets. Priority will be given to the following. (i)

Methodologies will be elaborated as basic tools to guide Member States in the various phases of planning and developing NATIS

The elaboration of a national information system in which existing elements are co-ordinated, missing elements identified, and created where necessary, raises many questions of policy, methodology, organization, finance, etc., as outlined in the NATIS objectives (cf. Objectives 1 - 6 , 1 0 , 11). Unesco will promote research and studies to analyse existing methodologies and to establish others, where necessary, to be used as basic tools, to guide Member States in assessing their needs, analysing their present human and physical resources and using to the best advantage all existing methodologies, norms and standards in the different phases of planning and implementing NATIS. (ii)

The application of information technology to documentation, library and archives services will be encouraged and promoted in accordance with the NATIS concept.

Since introducing new information technology into the various components of NATIS (cf. Objective 9) requires a careful analysis of various aspects ranging from selection of suitable equipment and cost to problems of compatibility and standardization at national and international level, Unesco will place greater emphasis on these questions in its programme so as to be able to advise and assist Member States which intend to apply such technology in their national information systems. The Unesco Computerized Documentation Service will be increasingly used as a demonstration and training centre in automated processing for developing countries, including helping them participate in and benefit from the International Information System on Research in Documentation (ISORID) through their National Information Transfer Centres. To assist its Member States in the utilization of software, Unseco will study the possibility of maintaining a file recording existing off-the-shelf information software that could be made available on request and would systematically disseminate this information to potential users in Member States.

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(iii)

The programme for professional education and training of information manpower will be revised and extended in the light of the needs of Member States in developing and implementing Ν A TIS

A systematic approach will be adopted in outlining a general framework for this programme of assistance so as to give opportunities to all Member States to build up their national capabilities and to ensure at least a minimum supply of suitably qualified manpower for NATIS (cf. Objective 8). This programme will be prepared on the basis of studies already carried out, and with a realistic view of the problems to be solved in countries without adequate facilities for training manpower. Closer co-ordination of programmes directed to education and training of information manpower carried on by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, will be the main goal. Basic elements of this programme will be: (i) the harmonization of curricula for documentalists, librarians and archivists; (ii) the education of teachers in the relevant fields of study; (iii) the education of qualified personnel; (iv) the training of technicians. In fulfilling this objective Unesco will explore all possible resources for assistance in providing fellowships as well as for contributions to the organization of special courses for this purpose, including regional centres.

Objective 14 - Promotion of Universal Bibliographic Control Universal Bibliographic Control will be promoted by Unesco, in cooperation with IFLA, as a major policy objective to create a world-wide system for the control and exchange of information The success of the programme for Universal Bibliographic Control depends on efficient National Bibliographic Control (cf. Objective 12). Unesco will, therefore organize meetings and promote studies on problems connected with Universal Bibliographic Control, and as a first step will evaluate existing national bibliographic services to establish a basis for future action. IFLA, with the support of a great many governmental and non-governmental agencies, has set up a world International Centre for UBC in London, to co-ordinate national and international activities within the framework of the programme to achieve Universal Bibliographic Control. It is estimated than an amount of $ 300.000 will be necessary to operate the Centre during the period 1975— 1976. Unesco will make every effort to support the Centre on a regular basis in order to maintain this essential service. Much of the strength of the Centre lies in its ability to provide technical information of a high order dealing with problems of national and international bibliographic control. It could serve as a training centre for Member States of Unesco, and play an important rôle in the development of the bibliographic aspects of libraries and documentation services in developing countries.

161

Objective 15 — A long-term programme of action A long-term programme of action for Unseco will be elaborated to assist Member States in the planning and establishment of coherent national information systems (NA TIS), which can participate as full partners in the transfer of the rapidly growing volume and sources of documentation and information. The priorities for launching NATIS outlined in Objectives 13 and 14 cover a wide spectrum and comprise studies and research of basic problems, the application of these studies to the improvement of indigenous capabilities, the building up of manpower resources, and the introduction of new technologies. As a further step in the implementation of NATIS, a long-term programme of co-'operation with, and assistance to Member States will be designed with a maximum of flexibility, taking into account the total needs of documentation, library and archives services and emphasizing those projects which have greater utility and contribute effectively to national development plans in Member States. Flexible means of co-operating with national library, documentation and archives services will be used to meet the emerging needs, particularly of developing countries, with projects and activities that are closely geared to their problems and concerns. The services of specialists familiar with the specific conditions and problems of the region to which they are assigned will be provided. These specialists will be able to advise and assist Unesco in developing the most appropriate forms of regional and local assistance in cooperation with the governments of Member States. Their work will supplement activities already carried on by Unesco and ensure effective followup in each country to achieve maximum results in the development of NATIS. This long-term programme for the promotion and development of NATIS will be published and disseminated as widely as possible. Objective 16 - Convening of an intergovernmental

conference

An intergovernmental conference will be convened in 1978 to review the progress achieved within the framework of NATIS, UNISIST and UBC programmes. The present intergovernmental conference forms part of a series of international meetings of both governmental and non-governmental bodies, which have been sponsored by Unesco over the past 20 years in order to achieve more effective international co-operation in the fields of documentation, libraries and archives. It comes several years after the intergovernmental conference of 1971, which was convened in order to launch the UNISIST programme. Therefore, any recommendations for national and international action it may make and their implementation will be reviewed by Unesco in 1978, at which date a review of the UNISIST programme has already been proposed. Such a conference will make it possible for both governmental and non-governmental bodies to evaluate the multifaceted programmes of NATIS, UNISIST and UBC and lay plans for the future. 162

I F L A Annuals Proceedings of the General Council Meetings. Annual Reports I F L A Annual 1976 (42nd Meeting, Lausanne) I S B N 3-7940-4302-2. T o appear 1977 I F L A Annual 1975 (41st Meeting, Oslo: The Future of International Library Cooperation). Ed. by W . R . H . Koops, P. Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops 1976. 232 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4301-4. Approx. D M 58.00 I F L A Annual 1974 (40th Meeting, Washington: National and International Library Planning). Ed. by W . R . H . Koops, P. Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops 1975. 314 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4300-6. D M 58.00 I F L A Annual 1973 ( 39th Meeting, Grenoble: Universal Bibliographic Control). Ed. by W . R . H . Koops, P. Havard-Williams, W.E.S. Coops 1974. 256 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4299-9. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1972 (38th Meeting, Budapest: Reading in a Changing World). Ed. by W. R. H. Koops, P. Havard-Williams, W. E.S. Coops 1973. 252 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4298-0. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1971 (37th Meeting, Liverpool: Organisation of the Library Profession). Ed. by P. Havard-Williams, W. R.H. Koops, H.J. Heaney 1972. 239 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4297-2. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1970 (36th Meeting, Moscow: Libraries as a Force in Education). Ed. by Anthony Thompson 1971. 336 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4296-4. D M 48.00 I F L A Annual 1969 (35th Meeting, Copenhagen: Library Education and Research in Librarianship). Ed. by Anthony Thompson and S. Randall 1970. 289 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4295-6. D M 48.00 I F L A Directory 1976 1976. 133 pages. I S B N 3-7940-4413-4. D M 16.80 The Directory gives addresses with telephone and telex numbers of all I F L A offices, bodies, members, etc.

Other IFLA-Publications The International Exchange of Publications Proceedings of the European Conference held in Vienna from 2 4 - 2 9 April 1972. Edited by Maria J. Schiltmann 1973. 134 pages. D M 28.00, I F L A members D M 21.00. I S B N 3-7940-4311-1 Standards for Public Libraries 1973. 51 pages. D M 12.80, I F L A members D M 9.80. I S B N 3.7940-4310-3 Special rates for large quantities Dorothy Anderson Universal Bibliographic Control A long term policy, a plan for action 1974. 87 pages. D M 16.80, I F L A members D M 12.80. Special rates for large quantities. I S B N 3-7940-4420-7

VERLAG DOKUMENTATION, PUBLISHERS P.O.Box 7110 09, D-8000 München 71, Fed. Rep. of Germany

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS Serial I F L A Publications Edited by W. R. H. Koops and P. Havard-Williams 1 Special Libraries - Worldwide A collection of papers prepared for the Section of Special Libraries. Edited by Günther Reichardt 1974. 360 pages. DM 68.00, I FLA members DM 51.00. ISBN 3-7940-4421-5 2 National Library Buildings Proceedings of a colloquium held in Rome, 3—6 September 1973. Edited by Anthony Thompson

1975. 144 pages. DM 28.00, IF LA members DM 21.00. ISBN 3-7940-4422-3 3 Le contrôle bibliographique universel dans les pays en développement Table ronde sur le contrôle bibliographique universel dans les pays en développement, Grenoble, 2 2 - 2 5 août 1973. Edité par Marie-Louise Bossuat, Geneviève Feuillebois, Monique Pelletier 1975. 165 pages. DM 38.00, I F L A members DM 29.00. ISBN 3-7940-4423-1 4 National and International Library Planning Key papers presented at the 40th Session of the I F L A General Council, Washington, DC, 1974. Edited by Robert Vosper and Leone I. Newkirk 1976. 162 pages. DM 36.00, I F L A members DM 27.00. ISBN 3-7940-4424-X 5

Reading in a Changing World Papers presented at the 38th Session of the IFLA General Council, Budapest, 1972. Edited by Foster E. Mohrhardt 1976. 134 pages. DM 28.00, I F L A members DM 21.00. ISBN 3-7940-4425-8

6 The Organization of the Library Profession A Symposium based on contributions to the 37th Session of the IFLA General Council, Liverpool 1971. Edited by A. H. Chaplin 1976. 2nd edition. 132 pages. DM 28.00, IFLA members DM 21.00. ISBN 3-7940-4300-X 7 World Directory of Administrative Libraries A guide of libraries serving national, state, provincial, and Länder-bodies, prepared for the Sub-Section of Administrative Libraries. Edited by Otto Simmler 1976. 474 pages. DM 60.00, IFLA members DM 45.00. ISBN 3-7940-4427-4 8 World Directory of Map Collections Compiled by the Geography and Map Libraries Sub-Section. Edited by Walter M. Ristow 1976. 326 pages. DM 48.00, I F L A members DM 36.00. ISBN 3-7940-4428-2 VERLAG DOKUMENTATION. PUBLISHERS P.O.Box 7 1 1 0 0 9 , D-8000 München 71, Fed. Rep. of Germany