Exploiting the UK information resource—The international challenge

Abstract

For some years it has been recognised that British library and information professionals have played a significant role in overseas projects, although international activities have been a minority interest for the UK profession as a whole. At the same time, there has been awareness that the potential for British professional involvement overseas has only been partially realised and, meanwhile, the problems and opportunities are increasing as the environment grows ever more competitive. During the 1980s several attempts to co-ordinate the resource failed, for a variety of reasons, and in October 1989, Sylvia Martin, of the booksellers Burchell and Martin and a member of the Library and Information Services Council (England) (LISC), co-ordinated a presentation to LISC entitled Britain in the international arena: are libraries in Britain losing out? The aim was to increase LISC’s awareness ofthe international dimension. It was agreed that because development agencies, for example the World Bank, were investing substantially in book and information programmes (the library element often “buried” within a larger project), there was an urgent need to harness the presently uncoordinated UK library and information services (LIS) consultancy resource, to ensure that opportunities were not lost. It was suggested at the LISC meeting that there needed to be a “rigorous assessment of the UK library resource to handle these opportunities . . .“. The matter was raised at LISC once more in 1990.