COLIMA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARY
Press Release
PI/990
COLIMA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARY
19970203 The Colima University Library, in Colima, Mexico, has been designated depository library, making it part of an international network of 355 libraries in 142 countries that brings United Nations documents and publications to users around the world. The Colima University Library becomes the third depository library in Mexico.In 1991, the World Bank identified the University of Colima as one of 10 universities in Mexico destined to become true centres of regional excellence by the turn of the century. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently acknowledged the University as the Regional Centre for Excellence in the Production of Compact Disks and New Information Technologies in recognition of its work in the development of library sources and the systematization of information in general. The University of Colima was founded in 1940 as a public institution of higher education.
The Library has a collection of over 120,000 books (including 75 titles on CD-ROM) and subscribes to approximately 600 serial titles. It is equipped with the latest technology, including computers with Internet access and CD- ROM servers. It is expected that about 5,000 of the 300,000 annual readers will use the United Nations collection.
Since 1946, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at United Nations Headquarters, 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, 51 depository libraries in Africa, 97 in Asia and the Pacific, 29 in Eastern Europe, 82 in Western Europe, 45 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 51 in North America receive these 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/990 3 February 1997
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 used.
United Nations professional 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, DPI, New York, and by the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
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