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Elisa Liberatori Prati Chief Archivist, The World Bank Group Information Management & Technology Network, IMT. OPENING GOVERNMENT: FROM DATA TO INFORMATION. SDN Forum March 1, 2012. If you drive with me 6 hours NW of Washington, DC, you get to a place that is difficult to believe it
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Elisa LiberatoriPrati Chief Archivist, The World Bank Group Information Management & Technology Network, IMT OPENING GOVERNMENT: FROM DATA TO INFORMATION • SDN Forum • March 1, 2012
If you drive with me 6 hours NW of Washington, DC, you get to a place that is difficult to believe it exists in the digital age….
Data mining? The Mine • 463million pages of paper records (193,000 linear ft.) dating back to 1946 • Stacked, the boxes would reach 7timesas high as Mt. Everest • 200 oral history interviews • 524 linear ft. photographic material • 100 linear ft. film reels • 30 linear ft. audio & video tapes • 110,000 digitized Bank documents & reports …and growing!
The Mine x 7 …and growing!
WHY do we keep archives? To preserve evidence in Bank’s operations for transparency, accountability, effectiveness in decision making
WHY? To preserve the Bank’s institutional memory
WHY? For you to be able to write a history of development based on primary sources
Policy and operational files, Courtesy of International Records Management Trust Photo Archive, London. This picture is an example of public sector record keeping before a records management improvement program is undertaken.
Policy and operational files, Courtesy of International Records Management Trust Photo Archive, London. This picture is an example of public sector record keeping before a records management improvement program is undertaken.
The World Bank’s Open Agenda Bob Zoellick “Today the Bank remains the largest single source of development knowledge. But knowledge must be opened to all… This is democratizing development economics. This will forever change how we conduct development research.” From Hubris to Humility, Speech given at Georgetown University, Sept 29, 2010
? (Paper world equivalent…)
Access to Information Continued strong momentum since its launch in July 2010 BIC: “The World Bank’s Access to Information Policy is the gold standard for financial institutions” • 28,000 documents disclosed on ext web (total = 100,000+) • 4 million pages viewed • 100,000 unique users/month • 1,076 folders of records studied in • Archives • 98 %of staff completed mandatory online training module AMS 10.11 Management of Records - revised
The Electronic Mine Documents & Reports • 122,000+ documents available to the public • More than 100,000 unique users per month • Available in multiple languages • 800,000 documents downloaded during FY11
Our Fonds www.worldbank.org/archives
Greatest Hits!Our Popular Research Topics • Aswan Dam. Source: Fonds 1 Country Operational Files, 1946-1998, Egypt • Bell Report and Bernard Bell. Source: Fonds 43 Records of Individual Staff Members, Sub-fonds 2 Bernard Bell • Columbia early project loans. Source: Fonds 1 Country Operational Files, 1946-1998, Colombia • Development Committee. Source: Fonds 47 Records of the Development Committee • Indus Basin. Source: Fonds 1 Country Operational Files, 1946-1998, Indus Basin • McNamara, Robert S. Source: Fonds 3 Records of the Office of the President, sub-fonds 4 McNamara, Fonds 59 Photo Service Records • Onchocerciasis / Riverblindness. Source: Fonds 1 Country Operational Files, 1946-1998, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) and others, , Fonds 59 Photo Service Records
Indus Basin Water Agreement between India and Pakistan Fonds 1, Country Operational Files, 1946-1998, India-Pakistan I.B.D. [Indus Basin Dispute], General Negotiations 1953 (III). Hector Prud’homme notes of Eugene Black meetings with B.K. Nehru, March 9, 10 and 27, 1953.
Indonesia Transmigration Projects “Way Abung I – From the Project Director” ca. 1978. Fonds 84-05, Personal papers of Gloria Davis, Indonesia transmigration program subject file, Way Abung (1). Map “SketPetaKab. Lampung Utara,” ca. 1980.Fonds 84-05, Personal papers of Gloria Davis, Indonesia transmigration program subject file.
Why History? Bob Zoellick “ History suggests questions rather than supplied answers.” Beyond Aid, Speech given at George Washington University, Sept 14, 2011
Why History? William Diamond “…it [my training in history] may have helped me in the use of evidence,… in insisting on evidence before I wrote and spoke, and before I believed what I read or heard…” “…history study helped give me a time outlook. Everything has a background, which background led to where we are today and today is the beginning of tomorrow.” Bank tenure 1947-1978; Oral History interview, 1991
History Matters! • WB Research Department • Open and sustain a constructive dialogue between history— understood as both “the past” and “the discipline”– and development policy • understanding causal mechanisms, contexts, and complex process of institutional change • providing examples of historical research that support, qualify, or challenge the most influential research (by economists and economic historians) in contemporary development policy • offering some general principles and specific implications that historians, on the basis of the distinctive content and method of their research, bring to development policy debates. How and Why Does History Matter for Development Policy, Michael Woolcock, Simon Szreter (Univ of Cambridge), VijayendraRao. WB Policy Research Working paper 5425, Development Research Group, Poverty and Inequality Team, Sept 2010
FRUITS • poverty alleviation • sustainable development Sustainable Poverty Alleviation Strategies • FOLIAGE • effective • decision-making • enforceable • civil rights • TRUNK • information • infrastructure • NUTRIENTS IN SOIL • information in records Information, Records, Archives • ROOTS • information systems • record keeping systems • for preserving evidence INFORMATION lies at the roots of development! © The World Bank Library & Archives of Development, 2003
Elisa LiberatoriPrati Chief Archivist, The World Bank Group Manager, The World Bank Group Library & Archives of Development IMT Program Manager, Access to Information Information Management & Technology Network, IMT eliberatoriprati@worldbank.org