National Information Policies and Networks in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan

Abstract

The main functions of the National Documentation Centre of Morocco include supervision and coordination of the different components of the information network, through a decentralized system of regional and specialized sectoral networks. Its role is backed up by legislation, and it has financial and administrative autonomy. Egypt's National Documentation and Information Centre is affiliated to the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology. However, the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network is an autonomous body. Two of its main functions are to organize the Egyptian scientific and technical literature by developing and maintaining national and sectoral databases, and to facilitate access to recorded knowledge in electronic as well as traditional forms whether in Egypt or abroad. In Tunisia in 1977 the National Committee for Documentation proposed a national information system based on thirteen sectors. Seven of these are now in existence, of which the National Documentation Centre, the Agricultural Documentation Centre and the National University Centre for Scientific and Technical Documentation are the three main ones. These have however been allowed to grow independently of one another, as integration is only planned for in the second phase. The National Documentation Centre of Sudan started as a unit in the National Council for Research, whose needs and interests it reflects. Coordination of libraries, documentation centres and other information services is assigned to the National Committee for Information, but this has not yet taken off; thus libraries and documentation centres are isolated and their growth is haphazard.