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UNESCO’s post-war mandate

UNESCO’s vision for open digital libraries in North Africa Workshop on Digital Libraries & Archives for the Maghreb 24-25 January 2011, Washington Misako Ito, Advisor for Communication and Information UNESCO Office for the Maghreb.

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UNESCO’s post-war mandate

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  1. UNESCO’s vision for open digital libraries in North AfricaWorkshop on Digital Libraries & Archives for the Maghreb24-25 January 2011, WashingtonMisako Ito, Advisor for Communication and InformationUNESCO Office for the Maghreb

  2. “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed” Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO, 1945

  3. UNESCO’s post-war mandate • Promote the free flow of ideas by word and image • Maintain, increase and spread knowledge

  4. Re-interpretation in today’s context • Information age • World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005) • The basic premise of UNESCO’s vision is that “Knowledge is the driving force of social and economic development”

  5. Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Societies Societies Societies Universal access to information Freedom of expression Cultural and linguistic diversity Quality education for all Pluralism and Inclusion Pluralism Pluralism Human Human Human Needs Needs Needs and and and Rights Rights Rights Building knowledge societies 5

  6. UNESCO and libraries • Long standing partnership with IFLA • Library development has always been part of UNESCO’s action • Manifesto on Public Library, 1949 • UNESCO-IFLA joint Manifesto on School Libraries, 1999 • Multicultural Library Manifesto, October 2009

  7. UNESCO and digital libraries • Opportunities • Bridging distance and enabling universal access to information and knowledge • Opportunity for education, science and culture • Celebrating cutural and linguistic diversity • Advancing cooperation • Challenges • Sustainable development of local digital library infrastructure, capacity building and availability of local content • Multilingualism and accessibility • Transparent and inclusive approach based on the principle of “openness” as to the ownership and governance of any international digital library initiative • Regulatory challenges (intellectual property regimes) • Architectural options (usability, metadata, interoperability) • Long-term preservation

  8. Digital libraries in the Maghreb • UNESCO’s Digital Library of classical arabic literature – Majaliss • Geographical scope: Arab region • Local content in Arabic • Public domain information • Open Digital Space for the Mediterranean – e-Omed • Geographical scope: Mediterranean region • Principle of openness: Open Educational Resources, Open governance, Open Archive Initiave technologgy • University owned initiative • Framework for capacity building

  9. Free access to 200 books of classical Arabic literature in the public domain • Target: 1000 books • Online and offline versions in several volumes: • Volume I – 64 digitized books • Volume II – 50 digitized books + audio files for visually impaired/illiterate persons • Volume III – 30 digitized books for students and teachers of primary and secondary schools + interactive exercises for learning • Volume IV – 40 books + ‘karaoke’ application

  10. Majaliss - http://rabat.unesco.org/majaliss

  11. Majaliss - http://rabat.unesco.org/majaliss 11

  12. Majaliss - http://rabat.unesco.org/majaliss 12

  13. Open Digital Space for the Mediterranean (e-Omed) • Project started in March 2009 • Result of cooperation between the Online Universities and Virtual Campuses in the North and South of the Mediterranean sea • Idea - gradually building a digital library open to all accross all ountries of the Mediterranean sea to serve universities of the Mediterranean region

  14. E-Omed – Basic principles • Two key principles: openness & preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity • Partnership Charter among universities to: • Provide free access to their digital educational resources under creative commons or equivalent licenses • Mutualize, share and reuse existing education resources • Facilitate co-production, sharing and localization of educational content and pedagigical practices

  15. E-Omed – The model • Multidisciplinary: around 20 thematic communities organized in networks • Transdisciplinary: common services for • Deployment of the ORI-OAI network to publish resources, a network of communication gateways based on the Open Archive Initiative technology (www.ori-oai.org) • Training courses, development of tools (eg. open editorial chain SCENARI/OPALE www.scenari-platform.org), research on pedagogical practices in the area of ICT4E, sharing of best pratices, communication

  16. Network of the ORI-OAI portals

  17. E-Omed - Today • Governance – international association chaired by the President of the Virtual Campus in Morocco created this month • 60 participating universities representing 13 countries in the Mediterranean region • Comprehensive framework for democratizing access to educational resources and improving the quality of higher education

  18. E-Omed – The way forward • To encourage more universities to participate in project (website: www.eomed.org, email: association@eomed.org) • To democratize massively access to education, in particular in the area of vocational training and to respond to the needs of professionally qualified human resources • To develop cross-country training and certification • To publish and diffuse the results of other projects taking place in the Mediterranean region

  19. Extending the goegraphic scope of digital libraries’ project beyond the Maghreb • Interesting synergy for collaboration to explore between the North and the South of the Mediterranean sea, and complementarity between the West and the East of the Arab region in terms of history, society and culture • Extending the focus on digital libraries to the whole process • Assessment and collection of existing resources, openness of the content, dissemination, training, usage and pedagogy development, co-production of resources, etc.

  20. Thank you! m.ito@unesco.org

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