LIBRARY OF COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARY
Press Release
PI/923
LIBRARY OF COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARY
19951201 The Library of the College of the Bahamas in Nassau, the Bahamas, has been designated a United Nations depository library, the first in the country, making it part of an international network of 352 libraries in 141 countries that brings United Nations documents and publications to users around the world.The College of the Bahamas Library was established in 1974. It has a collection of about 75,000 volumes of books and bound periodicals, 700 dissertations or theses, 400 government documents, 1,500 microfilms, 950 16 mm/35 mm films and 75 sound recordings. It subscribes to 56 periodicals. There are currently five librarians on its staff and it has about 1,000 registered users.
The United Nations collection will be treated as a special collection, housed at a satellite location, near the main campus library, and managed by a part-time professional librarian and a full-time library assistant. Approximately 2,000 users from among the College of the Bahamas community, as well as the general public, will have access to the collection.
Since 1946, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at United Nations Headquarters in New York, which is part of the Department of Public Information (DPI), has arranged for the distribution of United Nations documents and publications to users around the world through its depository library system.
At present, 50 depository libraries in Africa, 95 in Asia and the Pacific, 28 in eastern Europe, 82 in western Europe, 45 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 52 in North America receive those materials, with the understanding that their collections will be maintained in good working order and be available to the public free of charge.
United Nations Member States, as well as non-members, are entitled to one "free depository", usually the national library in the capital city. In addition the national parliamentary library, if open to the public, is also entitled to receive material free of charge. Other depository libraries pay a token annual contribution to receive United Nations documentation. Developing countries pay a significantly smaller amount.
- 2 - Press Release PI/923 1 December 1995
The designation of depositories is carried out by the United Nations Publications Board. The degree of development of the requesting libraries and the overall geographic distribution of depository libraries in the countries concerned are among the criteria considered.
United Nations librarians and information officers make periodic visits to the depository libraries to provide assistance and training in the management of the United Nations collection. In addition, special training seminars for depository librarians are periodically organized by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Department of Public Information, New York, and by the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
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