LIBRARIES IN BRAZIL, EGYPT AND UNITED STATES DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES
Press Release
PI/1116
LIBRARIES IN BRAZIL, EGYPT AND UNITED STATES DESIGNATED UNITED NATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES
19990212 Three libraries, located in Brazil, Egypt and the United States, have been designated United Nations depository libraries, becoming part of an international network of 370 libraries in 141 countries and territories that brings United Nations documents and publications to users around the world. They are the Central Library of the Federal University of Viçosa (Minas Gerais, Brazil), the Library of the Faculty of Law, Zagazig University (Zagazig, Egypt) and the Hillman Library of the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).The Central Library of the Federal University of Viçosa was established in 1926. It has a collection of more than 150,000 volumes of books, subscribes to 5,512 journals and provides access to 30 CD-ROMs and other electronic resources. The Central Library also maintains interlibrary loan facilities, offers photocopying services and on-line bibliographic searches and participates in national union catalogues. The Library serves the academic community as well as citizens.
Zagazig University was founded in 1974 (incorporating the existing faculties of Ain-Shams University) and currently has a faculty of more than 5,000 professors and a matriculation of more than 111,000 students. The Library of the Faculty of Law serves all 29 faculties and institutes attached to the University and is accessible to 2 million students in the Nile Delta area. The Library of the Faculty of Law maintains a collection of monographs, periodicals and newspapers in the areas of law, economy, finance and international law. It is equipped with photocopying machines and computers with Internet access. Four librarians will be in charge of the United Nations documents and publications collection.
The University of Pittsburgh Libraries system was founded in 1873. The system comprises 23 libraries containing a collection of approximately 4 million volumes of books, 26,080 journal subscriptions, 1,000 CD-ROMs and over 1,000 electronic journals and provides access to 150 commercial databases. The United Nations deposit collection will be located in the Hillman Library, the principal library in the system. The library has more than 350 staff members, including 101 professional librarians. Besides serving the academic community, as the primary research library system in the region, it serves a major urban centre whose immediate population is
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approximately 2.5 million people. In addition, as a member of the local and regional consortiums, it serves the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with interlibrary loan facilities, photocopying services, on-site borrowing and remote access to its electronic resources.
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 370 United Nations depository libraries: 54 are located in Africa, 99 in Asia and the Pacific, 33 in Eastern Europe, 84 in Western Europe, 47 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 54 in North America. Those 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 than developed countries.
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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