Abstract — Inglés
Carlos Victor Penna, pioneer and expert in library planning, presents his assessment of the present situation and future prospects for developing coordinated library and information services in Latin America. Penna recalls how the idea of library planning for Latin America first arose in the 1960s when UNESCO workers, engaged in a project to improve and develop primary schools there, saw that library services—inextricably linked to the educational process—could also benefit greatly from systematic planning. The author’s seminal UNESCO report of 1960, later published as Planning Library Services (1967), was the catalyst for many early planning projects, including the organization of regional conferences and technical seminars; the creation of library research centers at the Universities of Buenos Aires and Dakar; and the development of an audiovisual training program to prepare librarians in areas where there were no library schools.
Generally speaking, however, national governments, which support most libraries in Latin America, are often besieged with social and economic problems, and—with the exception of Venezuela—do not make the systematic planning and financing of library services a priority. As a result, Penna points out, Latin American librarianship had developed in a fragmented, horizontal manner—through the creation of isolated libraries whose functioning remains uncoordinated.
One of our author’s key points has always been the need for a national information policy to design and carry out library development. The planning of library and information services must take place vertically within those political and economic spheres of power capable of formulating and executing national policy. The author urges professional associations of librarians and information specialists to improve training of librarians; to work with government officials in the formulation of policies on library development; to cooperate with schools and research centers in establishing a critical dialogue on national planning for libraries; and to create an awareness of the importance of libraries in a nation’s socioeconomic growth. In addition, Penna feels it is essential to precisely and unequivocally define a proper role for the new technology in library services, in order to ultimately reduce Latin America’s dependence on foreign information sources.
Penna concludes emphatically that without the commitment and efforts of national governments, international organizations like OAS and UNESCO, and professional associations throughout Latin America, library planning there will not—and cannot—become a reality.
Abstract — Español
El planeamiento nacional de bibliotecas y servicios de información: ¿realidad o utopía?
Carlos Victor Penna, pionero y experto en planeamiento bibliotecario, presenta su eveluación de la situación actual y los prospectos futuros para el desarrollo de planes coordinados de bibliotecas y servicios de información en América Latina. Penna recuerda como la idea de planeación bibliotecaria para Américe Latina se presentó por primera vez en los 1960s cuando los funcionarios de la UNESCO se comprometieron en un proyecto para mejorar el desarrollo de escuelas primarias allá y vieron que los servicios bibliotecarios—intrínsecamente ligados al proceso educativo—podían beneficiar grandemente de la planeación sistemática. Penna, autor del informe de la UNESCO de 1960, que se publicó más tarde con el título de Planeación de servicios bibliotecarios (1967), fué el catalista para muchos de los proyectos iniciales, incluyendo la organización regional de conferencias y seminarios técnicos; la creación de centros de investigación bibliotecaria en las Universidades de Buenos Aires y de Dakar; y el desarrollo de un programa de capacitación audiovisual para preparar bibliotecarios en las áreas donde no había escuelas de bibliotecología.
Hablando en términos generales, sin embargo, los gobiernos nacionales, que apoyan la mayoría de las bibliotecas en América Latina, son frecuentemente acosados con problemas sociales y económicos, y—con la excepción de Venezuela—no dan a la planeación sistemática y los servicios bibliotecarios una prioridad. Como resultado, señala Penna, la bibliotecología latinoamericana se ha desarrollado en forma fragmentada, de manera horitontal—a través de la creación de bibliotecas aisladas cuyo funcionamiento permanece incoordinado.
Uno de los puntos claves del autor ha sido siempre la necesidad de una política nacional de información para diseñar y llevar a cabo el desarrollo bibliotecario. La planeación de los servicios bibliotecarios y de información debe realizarse verticalmente dentro de aquellas esferas de podor económicas y políticas capaces de formular y ejecutar una política nacional. El autor llama a las asociaciones profesionales de bibliotecarios y especialistas de la información a mejorar la capacitación de los bibliotecarios; trabajar con funcionarios del gobierno en la elaboración de políticas de desarrollo bibliotecario; cooperar con escuelas y centros de información para establecer un diálogo crítico sobre políticas nacionales de bibliotecas; y para crear una conciencia de la importancia de las bibliotecas en el desarrollo socioeconómico de las naciones. Además, Penna piensa que es esencial precisa e inequivocamente definir el papel adecuado de la nueva tecnología en los servicios bibliotecarios, de manera que se reduzcan la dependencia latinoamericana en las fuentes extranjeras de información.
Penna concluye enfáticamente que sin el compromiso y los esfuerzos de los gobiernos nacionales, de los organismos internacionales como la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) y la UNESCO, y de las asociaciones profesionales a lo largo de América Latina, el planeamiento bibliotecario no podrá volverse realidad.
In 1974 Josefa Emilia Sabor expressed the following in relation to planning of library and information service: “a new idea, in order to evolve and grow, needs support from a reality being built. If this situation is not corrected, library planning ... might end up being ‘the impossible dream’ of Latin American librarianship.” [1] Today, 17 years later, we may ask ourselves about the present condition of library planning in this part of the world. To answer this question it seems appropriate to recount the origin and development of these ideas and to review the factors that influenced their implementation in Latin America.
Origin and Development of the Idea of Planning
During the 1960s and 1970s UNESCO conducted, in collaboration with its member states in Latin America, a principal project for education; it was intended to improve and expand education in this part of the world. The project helped several countries to define clearly their educational policies. Based on the content of such policies, and on others that some states had already designed before the beginning of the project, planning was conducted on different levels and forms of the educational system, with emphasis on primary education. Directives for financing in relation to gross national products were established; analysis were made through seminars and other types of technical meetings of everything related to the administration of educational systems, of the improvement of education of staff, of courses of study and techniques for apprentice programs, of school supervision, of statistics, etc.
The philosophical concept of the project ant its implementation by prominent national and international educators yielded very satisfactory results, not only in the improvement of the region’s educational systems but also in the strengthening of public awareness of the importance of education in the process of socioeconomic development.
Those responsible for the Proyecto Principal de Educación (Principal Project for Education) felt that library and information service offered important elements of support and strength for the educational endeavor. They believed that library and information service should be planned like educational services, so that available resources would be used in a rational and reasonable way and would play a crucial role in each country’s efforts to accelerate socio–economic development.
As a consequence of this favorable situation, in 1960 an article entitled “Planning of Library Services and Educational Planning” was published. [2] Later, drawing on experiences collected from technical meetings, Planning Library Services was published; [3] a second edition under the title The Planning of Library and Documentation Services was prepared by P.H. Sewell and H. Liebaers. [4]
Building on the ideas expressed in the above works, UNESCO implemented certain complementary programs, so that member states could apply them to administering library and information service. Four UNESCO–sponsored regional seminars on planning library service were held (in Quito, Kampala, Colombo, and Cairo) with the participation of experts and professionals from each of the regions. [5] In preparing the basic documents for these meetings, UNESCO relied on collaboration from the International Institute for Educational Planning, which later incorporated into its programs for the training of educational planners a unit dedicated specifically to the planning of library and information service.
To supplement those regional conferences, UNESCO collaborated with the Ibero–American Education Office (OEI) and the Organization of American States (OAS) in arranging three important technical meetings which provided further elements for defining the principles of planning more clearly. The first of these meetings was held in Caracas in 1971 under the name of The First Working Meeting of Andrés Bello Agreement; [6] the second, The Second Working Meeting of Andrés Bello Agreement, took place in Colombia; [7] and the third, The Interamerican Seminar on Integration of the Services of Archives, Libraries and Documentation Centers in Latin America and the Caribbean (SI/ABCD) met in Washington in 1972. [8]
UNESCO considered that all planning operations of library and information service demanded systematic study of all aspects of the question by highly–qualified individuals, competent to do this type of research. In collaboration with the Universities of Buenos Aires and Dakar, UNESCO established library research centers in the hope that other universities would follow this pattern and would arrange for the research facilities that high–level librarianship requires. Another of UNESCO’s concerns was the preparation of librarians in areas lacking library schools but in need of competent personnel to manage the libraries established as a consequence of adequate planning. To deal with the serious shortage of trained personnel to serve in semi–urban and rural areas UNESCO asked the University of Buenos Aires to prepare an audio–visual course in library science; [9] it had great acceptance in the majority of Latin American countries. Up to this time, the technical meetings on library and information service carried out by UNESCO, the OAS and the Ibero–American Education Office were mainly intended to advise these organizations and their member states on planning such services, but the respective governments were in no way committed to implementing the proposals made in these meetings.
With the purpose of instituting the development of the library services at the administrative level where the policy decisions related to the national development plans are taken, UNESCO convened an inter–governmental conference, composed not of the experts and specialists convened by UNESCO or other organizations, but of official representatives of all member states. This meetings, known as the Inter–Governmental Conference on Planning National Infrastructures of Documentation, Libraries and Archives, was held in Paris in 1974, and the Final Report appeared in 1975. [10]
It was imperative for UNESCO to encourage its member states to implement the recommendations that their official representatives had approved. Those countries that had not yet organized their national structures of library and information service were urged to do so as soon as possible.
Planning Library and Information Service in the Latin American Countries
The development of library and information service in Latin America is a task of each government, with the exception of those libraries belonging to non–governmental institutions. With rare exceptions, the governments have not distinguished themselves suitable in planning and financing this service. Venezuela is the exception to the rule and, as a consequence of the planning ideas developed in the meetings and publications covered above, it established and put into operation a National System of Library and Information Service. Other countries, without establishing the national structures recommended by the Inter–Governmental Conference, have organized networks of special libraries and, in some cases, of school libraries; but this does not constitute an integrated system of libraries and other information units.
In the face of these unfavorable circumstances, exacerbated by repeated economic crises and the burden of huge public debt that has halted socio–economic development in Latin America, the action on international organizations, mainly UNESCO, to stimulate development was not carried out with the intensity required, if the situation were to be turned around. Therefore, there were changes in UNESCO programs for promoting the development of all kinds of libraries within the concept of planning, as established by the Inter–Governmental Conference. There was a silent struggle between the concept of the programs oriented to boost the organization and operation of diverse kinds of libraries—as dynamic and active institutions in the selection, storage, and diffusion of all kinds of information—and those oriented to technical and scientific documentation centers (later called information centers). As a result, UNESCO’s Division of Documentation, Libraries and Archives was replaced by the General Information Program (PGI).
Under the PGI there were several changes. The UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries (the organization’s oldest periodical publication) was terminated. Several programs were eliminated: collaboration with the International Institute of Educational Planning, implementation of the recommendations of the Inter–Governmental Conference known as NATIS (National Information System), the Audiovisual Course in Library Science, the creation of library research centers, etc. PGI (along with its component UNISIST) contains a series of very valuable and sensible activities, but by establishing an imbalance between all types of libraries and scientific information units, it devitalized the concept of integrating all information and library service and relegated to a secondary level the national infrastructures implicitly included in NATIS and which required the help of planning. While the Inter–Governmental Conference recommendation known as NATIS, complemented by other recommendations from the same meeting, gave clear directives for creating national infrastructures, UNISIST could not define with clarity its philosophical approach to this matter. An anecdote, attributed to a high official of PGI, illustrates this: when asked what was the real substance of UNISIST, he replied “Nobody asks what is in Coca–Cola; people just drink it. Let us continue promoting UNISIST.”
From all of the above it can be seen that the governments of most Latin American countries have not shown a disposition to endow their countries with efficient library and information service, as recommended and approved by them in the already mentioned Inter–Governmental Conference. The international organizations concerned with the development of such systems neither completed programs nor made adequate efforts to encourage governments to implement the recommendations.
It seems appropriate to analyze here the role played by librarians and documentalists, individually or through their associations, in founding and planning national systems of library and information service. As we have indicated at various conferences of the Association of Graduate Librarians of Argentina, Latin American librarians—in spite of the governmental apathy already mentioned—have persistently struggled to develop libraries and other information units. Thanks to their meritorious efforts, many good Latin American libraries exist. However, from the viewpoint of establishing and planning national structures for library and information service, the contribution of librarians and library associations seems to have been very limited, with the exception of what happened in Venezuela and some exploratory activities in a few other countries. Latin American librarianship has been characterized by dynamic horizontal development: by the creation and operation of libraries isolated from one another and without the coordination and collaboration that allow the intelligent use of the limited economic resources available. This has resulted in the existence of poorly–stocked libraries; their resources are insufficient for efficient information service. As an undeserved consequence, libraries are not viewed favorably by citizens. To plan library and information service it is absolutely necessary to have a national policy, stating with clarity the objectives that these services should attain to insure their active participation in the implementation of national socio–economic development. Without the existence of such policy, all planning work will be only an academic exercise.
From what has already been said, one may conclude that, prior to planning, the job is to get a commitment from high levels of government—the level of national planning or similar or higher entities—to implement such a policy. In other words, the government must declare clearly its intent to provide to all citizens of the country—without regard to geography, academic level, profession, religious or political beliefs, and without any censorship or discrimination of any type—an information infrastructure, suitably financed, that will guarantee to them their legitimate right of access to information sources adequate for their needs.
For a government to establish and implement a national policy for library and information service, it is necessary to establish a “vertical librarianship” that expands and supports the “horizontal librarianship” mentioned above. Vertical librarianship consists of all actions that address the different problems in library development—from the political and administrative areas, where the decisions related to national development plans are taken, to the economic sphere, where financing such plans is addressed. One may ask whether the library associations in Latin American countries have made serious and continuous efforts to obtain such policies from their national governments. The answers to this question are varied, and leaders of the profession in Latin America have begun to work toward this.
Library associations in Latin America have a responsibility that cannot be evaded, or they will allow library and information service to remain in its current unfavorable condition. That responsibility essentially consists of stimulating the profession to prepare what could be called “the Latin American librarian,” by taking actions and initiatives such as the following:
The idea of planning library and information service was considered as early as 1960; in the following 32 years the general idea was elaborated through publications and meetings sponsored by UNESCO and the Pan American Union. Within the context of these ideas, Venezuela is carrying out the development of library service on the national level; the results, even considering the difficulties encountered, are highly satisfactory.
As a corollary to these activities, UNESCO, through the Inter–Governmental Conference mentioned above, [10] committed to its member states, once they had approved recommendations through their official representatives, the responsibility for developing appropriate national structures for library and information service.
Analyzing the present situation, it can be stated that planning library and information service will remain utopian, merely a dream, unless governments show interest in assuring the entire populace access to information, because they are convinced that the existence of a national infrastructure of those services is essential to achieving the goals mentioned for socio–economic planning. It will remain utopian unless international organizations such as UNESCO and the Organization of American States (OAS) develop new and dynamic programs to encourage governments to put into practice the recommendations of the Inter–Governmental Conference and unless library associations assume, through “vertical librarianship,” their specific responsibilities. National policies will become realities if governments, international organizations, library associations, and associations of other information professionals take positive action on the issues discussed.
It is important to state that at the outset Latin American librarians neither analyzed sufficiently the idea of planning library and information service nor debated the proposals in such a way as to enrich and modify them. If Latin American librarians, professional associations, library schools and library research centers do not take steps to reverse the situation, if they do not accept responsibility to stimulate the study of the problems affecting library development, and if they do not create the conditions for analysis and criticism, the profession will lack the philosophical and intellectual foundations necessary to avoid and “impossible dream” for the people of Latin America. Under those circumstances, access to library and information service equal or superior to that found in the developed countries will remain utopian. Let us hope that such will not be the case.
1. Josefa Emilia Sabor, “Desarrollo del planeamiento bibliotecario en América Latina,” Revista de biblioteconomia de Brasilia 5 (January 1977): 45–90.
2. Carlos Victor Penna, “Planifacación de los servicios bibliotecarios; los servicios bibliotecarios y el planeamiento de la Educación,” Boletín del Proyecto principal de Educación (La Habana, Santiago de Chile) 2–6 (1960): 47–65.
3. Carlos Victor Penna, “Planning Library Services,” UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 21–2 (March–April 1967): 60–92. Published also as Planning Library Services (Paris: UNESCO, 1967).
4. Carlos Victor Penna, The Planning of Library and Documentation Services, 2nd ed. of Planning Library Services, revised by Philip H. Sewell and Herman Liebaers (Paris: UNESCO, 1970).
5. Reunión de expertos sobre planeamiento nacional de servicios bibliotecarios en América Latina, Quito, Ecuador, 1966, Informe final (Paris: UNESCO, 1966);
Reunión de expertos sobre planeamiento nacional de servicios bibliotecarios en Asia, Colombo, Ceylon, 1967, Informe final (Paris: UNESCO, 1966);
Reunión de expertos sobre planeamiento nacional de servicios de documentación y bibliotecas en Africa, Kampala, Uganda, 1970, Informe final (Paris: UNESCO, 1971);
Expert Meeting on the National Planning on Documentation and Library Services in Arab Countries, Cairo, Egypt, 1974, Informe final (Paris: UNESCO, 1974)
6. [Primera] Reunión del Grupo de trabajo para el desarrollo de los serviciosbibliotecarios y de información científica y técnica en los países signatarios del Convenio Andrés, Bello, Caracas, Venezuela, 1971, Informe final (Madrid: Oficina de Educación Iberoamericana, 1971)
7. [Segunda] Reunión del Grupo de trabajo para el desarrollo de los serviciosbibliotecarios y de información científica y técnica en los países signatarios del Convenio Andrés, Bello, Bogotá, Rio Negro, Medellín, 1972, Informe final (Madrid: Oficina de Educación Iberoamericana, 1973)
8. Seminario interamericano sobre la integración de los servicos de información de archivos, bibliotecas y centros de documentación en América Latina y el Caribe, Washington, D.C., 1972, Informe final (Washington: OEA, 1973)
9. Roberto Juarroz, El curso audiovisual de bibliotecología para América Latina (Tucumán: Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, 1971).
10. Conferencia intergubernamental sobre el planeamiento de las infrastructuras nacionales de documentación, bibliotecas y archivos, Paris, 1974, Informe final (Paris: UNESCO, 1975)
Carlos Victor Penna is former Director of the Division of Libraries and Archives, UNESCO, and former advisor to the government of Venezuela.
© 1992 Dominican University
Citation
Penna, Carlos Victor, “National Planning for Library and Information Service: Reality or Utopia?” Third World Libraries, Volume 3, Number 1 (Fall 1992).