Jan-Dec 2008 - Organization of American States

Headed by the Library of Congress in collaboration with UNESCO and other institutions, the World
Digital Library will make available on the internet, free of charge and in multilingual format,
important primary source materials of the cultures of the world. They will include manuscripts,
maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, photographs, architectural drawings, and other
important cultural materials.
Preservation and Digitization Project
The Preservation and Digitization Project continued. It creates digital images of a select group of
resolutions and declarations of the Permanent Council and the Proceedings and Documents of the
General Assembly. Fifty thousand images have been selected for digitization. This project provides
on-line access, via the Web, to the full text of OAS documents, which means converting the
document to digital format, and a machine-readable text.
Automated Integrated Library System
The Columbus Memorial Library uses the “Library Solution” software to expedite its work as an
Automated Integrated Library System. The system allows the Library to provide services that will
automate all its functions, to include procurements, the series, circulation, OAS documents, and
cataloguing. The rich collection that the Library has on the inter-American system will thus be made
accessible. The staff of the Library placed 8,300 bar codes on materials already in the database of the
library’s On Line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
Procurements
In 2008 the Library received donations of 646 publications, valued at an estimated $49,450. The
Procurements Unit processed 1,823 books and periodicals and prepared 17 purchase orders from
requisitions received from other departments of the OAS to purchase books and other materials. The
unit also prepared updates for the online database and a list of donations and bequests.
Cataloguing
The Cataloguing Unit continues to provide new electronically accessible materials. Using the
Cataloguing Module of the Automated Integrated Library System, it has increased user access to the
Library’s materials. Once the material has been catalogued, it is entered into the database of the
library’s On Line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). Similarly, the Library continues to assign the
International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 69 were supplied and 20 were prepared using data
from the “Cataloging-in-Publication” for new OAS publications and documents.
Reference Services
As part of the Alert Service, profiles were compiled for staff; 11,977 work-related articles were sent
electronically to the staff of the General Secretariat. The Reference Unit circulated 1,193 books;
1,868 OAS documents were sent, and 546 periodicals were circulated. The Unit answered 4,002
requests for information and 171 cubic meters of historic photographs were used to answer those
requests. A total of 221 inter-library loan requests were processed; 633 library materials were
moved; 945 new materials were added to the vertical files and 6,268 volumes of bulletins and 945
periodicals, documents and books were discarded and retired from the collection. Some 7,726
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