1988 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 49-59
In this paper, the author deals with Unesco's basic posture, relations between Unesco's program and the one of the United Nations, details of the pilot projects and seminars, and lastly, gives an overall evaluation.
Findings in this paper, though being fairly limited in area and depth, could be summarized as follows.
· Within the total Unesco work, its contribution towards development of public libraries was rather small.
· During this period, Unesco's activities regarding libraries were concentrated within the Western part of Africa.
· Unesco's program for public libraries was local—government oriented which stemmed from the Anglo— American tradition, rather than centrally controlled.
· The role of Unesco was like a catalyst and/or tigger meant to encourage autonomous activities in the respective countries.
· In the developing countries especially, there was a certain understanding among leading personel (c.f. Dr. Ranganathan in India) who had strong views or opinions about drawing a model for public libraries from their own situations, instead of simply adapting the UK and US model.
· The public library in developing countries was closely related to fundamental and adult education.
· As time passed, the limitations of pilot project become apparent. Library development planning began to be included within national development planning, which embodied other fields as well.
Finally, we should note that Unesco's activity was not free from the limitations of general economic assistance. In other words, Unesco's library assistance activity was based upon negotiation on the govern mental level. Though a definitive effort to take views and opinions of the local personel and experts could be seen in the planning stage, it seems that there was little ground to reflect the opinions of actual clients. When it comes to evaluating the assistance activities, the degree of actualization of the clients' opinions must be counted as a major factor. Therefore, the reactions of and/or evaluation by the clients of the Unesco program in their respective countries will be left for further study.
