Preface

For many years, the General Information Programme of Unesco has been issuing a large number of guidelines and studies to facilitate the development of national information systems in Member States -including libraries, information services and archives.

It is generally acknowledged that the best long-term investment for the development of adequate information systems is the education and training of specialists. Many developed and developing countries are making tremendous efforts to provide suitable facilities for this purpose. However, while the provision of training facilities and teaching staff is the responsibility of national authorities, international assistance is often requested for the production of teaching materials. The need for teaching materials has been voiced repeatedly in many areas for some time now and many documents in the field of education and training are available in several languages from Unesco (see the list at the end of this document).

Among the activities of the General Information Programme related to education and training, the promotion of the harmonization of education and training programmes in library, information and archives services has received particular attention. Many activities have been implemented in this direction, e.g. organization of meetings and training seminars, publication of promotional or teaching materials, various conferences and communications etc... As a result, it can be said that harmonization has not only received support from many quarters, but is also an approach which is now widely used in education and training both in developed and developing countries.

Very early, management has been identified as an area which could form one of the key elements, together with technology and user studies, in the context of harmonized teaching and this area has been studied for instance during the Unesco International Symposium on the Harmonization of Education and Training Programmes in Information Science, Librarianship and Archival Studies (1984) and at seminars held in Vienna (1983) and Varna (1985), organized jointly by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Fration internationale pour l'information et la documentation (FID) and the International Council on Archives (ICA).

These meetings helped to identify the main objectives and elements of a harmonized curriculum on management. Participants at the Unesco International Symposium also recommended the preparation of a Reader on Management, on the ground that a set of papers reflecting a wide variety of situations and contexts would be the best way to help teachers and students to understand concerns and find solutions to the management problems of libraries, information services and archives. The present Reader has been designed with this purpose in mind.

It must be underlined that this document has been prepared in close cooperation not only with FID, ICA and IFLA, but also with experts in information science, archives and librarianship throughout the world. It is hoped that readers will find the result worth all the efforts put into it.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this Reader do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Unesco.

Any comments or suggestions for improvement or any report on the experience gained by other countries in using this Reader are welcome. Correspondence should be sent to the Division of the General Information Programme, Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 PARIS, France.