UNESCO Guidelines for Establishing Digitization Programmes
in Libraries and Archives |  |
Background
The values and methods of the Information Society place UNESCO in a position to play a unique role in ensuring "free exchange of ideas and knowledge" as the Organization is mandated by its Constitution. The main goals of UNESCO in this area consist in redefining universal access to information and the minimum level of service to be provided to information users by the public sector, as well as in promoting the fair allocation of public resources to public information providers.
The implementation of these goals are based on a twofold strategy:
- Focus on the "content" aspects of the Information Society, including information access, training and ethical issues.
- Focus on "infostructure" (policies, networking and applications) rather than on basic telecommunication and informatics facilities.
The project "UNESCO Guidelines for Establishing Digitization Programmes in Libraries and Archives" is part of this strategy.
Objectives
The Guidelines shall serve decision-makers as well as library and archives managers, particularly in developing countries, as a guide for planning digitization projects.
The Guidelines will cover the following aspects:
- Selection policy
- Conversion policy and techniques
- Metadata
- Legal aspects
- Quality control
- Budgeting
- Human resource planning
- Technical needs analysis
- Development and maintenance of interfaces (websites)
- Preservation of digital contents
- Project management
The Guidelines shall include an analytical list of completed and on-going digitization projects of information in the public domain.
Implementation
For the implementation of the project, UNESCO has established a contract with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
Project team
The team entrusted with the preparation of the Guidelines is composed of the following six members:
- Borje Justrell, National Archives, Stockholm, Sweden
- Jean-Marc Comment, Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland
- Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University, Ithaka, USA
- Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff, IFLA/PAC, Paris, France
- John McIlwaine, University College, London, UK
- Clemens de Wolf, Royal Library, The Hague, Netherlands
- Date Peters, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa
Timeline
The Guidelines will be published in 2002. It will be made available online on UNESCO’s website. A mechanism to regularly up-date the on-line version of the Guidelines will be established. A short version of the Guidelines will be published by UNESCO on paper.
Contact
Axel Plathe
UNESCO/Information Society Division
1, rue Miollis
75015 Paris
France
tel.: 33.1.45.68.44.67
fax : 33.1.45.68.55.83
e-mail a.plathe@unesco.org
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