The Memory of mankind: libraries and archives
The Memory of mankind: libraries and archives
Over the past twenty years a quiet but profound revolution has taken place in the world of libraries and archives. The first eddies of the wind of change were felt among the bookshelves with the irruption of the computer on the world scene. Its seemingly unlimited powers encouraged a flurry of wild speculation. Its arrival, it was said, heralded the era of the "paperless office", and there were those who did not hesitate to announce the imminent demise of the book.
Today the computer has come of age. The menacing mystery has turned out to be a friendly servant whose ministrations affect every aspect of our daily lives. Far from killing off the book, it offers the possibility of easy access for all to the world's libraries and archives and has itself become the subject matter of thousands of new books and periodicals.
Other audio-visual technologies are playing their part too. In particular, the simple cassette recorder is at this moment filling a key role in saving for posterity that other source of distilled wisdom, the oral tradition of many cultures of the Third World.
In our enthusiasm for these new technologies and the immense possibilities they open up, we should not forget that behind the sleek machines lies the dedicated intellectual and planning effort both of brilliant individual men and women and of many non-governmental, national and international organizations.
Among the latter Unesco can claim to play an irreplaceable role. Under its Major Programme VII, Information Systems andAccess to Knowledge, it has been steadfastly pursuing four objectives which merit being quoted here extensively:
(I) to develop standards, rules, methods, guiding principles and other normative tools for the processing and transfer of specialized information and the creation of compatible information systems;
(II) to enable developing countries, individually or on a regional basis, to set up their own data bases and to have access to those now in existence throughout the world;
(III) to promote the development ofspecialized regional information networks in co-operation with the appropriate international regional organizations;
(IV) to contribute to the harmonious development ofcompatible international information services and systems among the organizations of the United Nations system.
This issue of the Unesco Courier presents a far from exhaustive account of some of the problems facing archives and libraries today. These problems are summed up in the words of American educator Ernest L. Boyer: "Television extends human sight, computers extend memory and ability for calculation. Books extend wisdom. It is now our task to fit together these tools, the new ones with the old." This is a task to which Unesco is firmly committed.
Editor-in-chief: Edouard Glissant