UNESCO mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
30 January to 7 February 1996
The mission, carried out by Mr Axel Plathe, Division of the General Information Programme, was intended to plan future activities within the framework of UNESCO’s assistance programme for the Library in Sarajevo and to prepare the assessment of the situation of national information infrastructures, particularly of libraries and archives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between UNESCO and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The administrative structures to be implemented after the signature of the political decisions reflected in the Dayton Agreement will be defined after the elections to be held in summer 1996. This will also affect library and archives infrastructures in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. New legal texts concerning archival services will be prepared after elections. So far, archival laws established before the signing of the Dayton Agreement are in force. This applies mutatis mutandis to the National and University Library in Sarajevo which is called upon to play the role of the main library institution of the country.A general assessment of the situation of archival and library institutions in the country is foreseen to be carried out by UNESCO in the first half of 1996. This activity will be an important contribution to the restructuring of the country's information services after elections.
A major problem in both the library and the archival field is the staff situation. The country has not only to face an important “brain-drain” of specialists in the archival and library field trough exile and departure in the last four years. The establishment of new political structures also requires the creation of national training institutions and programmes
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21 January 1997