LIBRARIES IN EGYPT AND UNITED STATES DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES
Press Release
PI/1040
LIBRARIES IN EGYPT AND UNITED STATES DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES
19971117 Three libraries, located in Egypt and the United States, have been designated United Nations depository libraries, becoming part of an international network of 362 libraries in 141 countries and territories that brings United Nations documents and publications to users around the world. They are the Ain Shams University Faculty of Law Library in Cairo, and -- the first American libraries to join the United Nations depository library system since 1977 -- the Rittenberg Law Library of St. John's University in Jamaica, New York, and the Walsh Library of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.Ain Shams University was founded in 1950 and has nine faculties, as well as a number of specialized institutes and research centres. The Library of the Faculty of Law has a collection of approximately 40,000 monographs and receives close to 100 current periodicals in Arabic and English. Its facilities include video equipment, photocopy machines, electronic access to commercial databases, CD-ROM equipment and several reading rooms. The Library has a staff of eight professional librarians and 90,000 registered students, many of whom will conduct research in the United Nations collection.
Founded in 1925, St. John's University School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association and currently has more than 1,200 students enrolled in full and part-time programmes. The Rittenberg Law Library opened in 1994 and is a modern facility which houses the Library's collection of more than 420,000 volumes. The Library has state-of-the-art technology, an online public access catalogue and ample reading areas. In addition, many of the Library's 600 carrels are wired. The Library presently employs six full-time professional librarians, 33 library assistants, clerks and student workers. More than 700 faculty members teach the approximately 19,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 12 colleges and divisions, most of whom would be interested in the United Nations collection.
Seton Hall University was founded in 1856. The University is the largest and oldest diocesan university in the United States. The Walsh Library opened in 1994 and has state-of-the-art electronic access to external databases, OPAC terminals on each floor, and CD-ROM equipment. Its reading rooms and study facilities seat over 1,100 students and house most of the half-million books and periodicals on the main University campus, as well as 3,300 current serials, 300,000 New Jersey and United States Government documents, and one-half million microforms.
- 2 - Press Release PI/1040 17 November 1997
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, there are 362 United Nations depository libraries: 53 are located in Africa, 99 in Asia and the Pacific, 29 in Eastern Europe, 82 in Western Europe, 45 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 54 in North America. These libraries receive United Nations 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.
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 in New York and by the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
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