Chapter 2 - International Library and Information Associations

Abstract

This chapter focuses on international library and information associations. Whereas intergovernmental organizations have made an important contribution to the development of universal access to information and library services by pressing the need for member governments to formulate and implement national information policies, international library and information associations have made a significant contribution by encouraging cooperation between libraries and information services throughout the world. The melancholy experience with the international library and information programs developed by intergovernmental associations illustrates the need to develop within each country a strong and credible national library to make representations to governments on behalf of national libraries. Nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of strong and effective national libraries, other organizations with their own vitally important role have assumed some of the responsibilities that national libraries are uniquely fitted to discharge. International library associations should act as a bridge between various types of library and information agencies, and should encourage each type of library or information agency to play a national leadership role. In all, there are over 40 international library and information organizations, each of which is rightly concerned with its own particular specialism. The functions of many of these international organizations overlap, but all of them perform or try to perform a key core function that justifies their separate existence, but they should all be affiliated to and participate in the broader international organizations representative of a range of libraries and information services. Libraries and information organizations serving specific types of institutions must, in the interest of their members and those of the profession as a whole, endeavor to make their policies as compatible as possible with the policies of other types of libraries and information agencies.