Central America consists of Guatemala, El Salva- dor, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama; the total population is more than 136 million, of whom some 101 million are in Mexico. These seven countries constitute a com- plex and multicultural society. Costa Rica has the lowest illiteracy levels, and Guatemala the high- est. Countries of various sizes have faced contin- uous economic, political and social crises that have caused different and unfair development levels. This uneven situation is also evident in the information services sector. Some of them handle many documentary resources, and use the most advanced technology for their library ser- vices, while others are lacking them. However, significant changes have been experienced since the late 1990s, due to greater support from the governments, as well as to a greater awareness of the need to use information, and a change of attitude towards co-operation in sharing re- sources especially within Central America.
Academic libraries
The academic libraries are those that have reached the highest levels of development, in response to the demand for higher education across the region. A great number of these libraries, in both public and private institutions, have been able to automate their services, to hold important collections recorded according to in- ternational standards such as the anglo-amer- ican cataloguing rules(AACR) andmarc, to offeronlinepublic-access catalogues (opacs), to access the most advanced information systems, have websites and, in some cases, publish elec- tronic documents. The Universidad de Colima, Mexico, has produced a great number of CD- ROMs for regional libraries. Some libraries have started with the digitization process of their holdings, such as the COLMEX (El Colegio de Me´xico) and the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Auto´noma de Me´xico) libraries.
The increase in the co-operative work to ensure access to information resources has been outstanding; such is the case of the libraries of CSUCA (Consejo de Universidades Centro- americanas), which has led to the establishment of online co-operative catalogues and services, as with the one for the Instituto Interamericano de Administracio´n de Empresas (www.incae.ac.cr) serving Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and the efforts of the Comite de Cooperacion de Biblio- tecas Universitarias de Guatemala. The online catalogue of the UNAM library system, LIBRU- NAM, integrated by 140 libraries, has had great influence on the academic libraries of Mexico and other countries (www.dgbiblio.unam.mx). In Mexico, the Amigos group, whose head is the COLMEX library (www.colmex.mx), has been working with US libraries in order to improve interlibrary lending.
Library associations
In all the countries there are one or more library associations, whose aim is the im- provement and development of information ser- vices, the training of library staff and to achieve greater recognition for the profession. According to theDirectorio de Asociaciones de Bibliotecar- ios y Profesiones Afines de America Latina y el Caribe, published by IFLA in 1998, the six Central American countries (other than Mexico) have only one association or college, while Mexico has eleven associations and one college.
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The AMBAC(Asociacio´n Mexicana de Bibliote- carios, AC, www.ambac.org), the one with the highest membership in the region, has been responsible in the last forty-five years for the organization of the Jornadas, the most impor- tant national discussion forum, and their Mem- orias constitute an important source of information on the development of the library profession. Mexico also has the Colegio de Bibliotecarios, representing librarians with uni- versity degrees. The outstanding Colegio de Bibliotecarios de Costa Rica has attained a high degree of recognition from government and academic authorities, and has established that professional librarians should be in charge of publicly financed libraries. Also in this country AIBDA (Asociacio´n Interamericana de Bibliote- carios y Documentalistas Agrı´colas) has wide influence onspecial librariesin Latin America (www.iicanet.org/aibda/). The Asociacio´n Pana- men˜a de Bibliotecarios has also earned the recognition of academic and governmental authorities.
These associations have worked out a code of professional ethics, and published the proceed- ings of their congresses, serials and bulletins, although sometimes at irregular intervals.
The II Seminario Latinoamericano de asocia- ciones de Bibliotecarios was held in Mexico City in 1999, sponsored by IFLA, UNAM and AM- BAC, in which sixteen countries participated and analysed the professional problems, the present status of the associations and the future actions that were needed to address international issues.
Library education
All Central American countries, with the excep- tion of Honduras, have one or more library schools, generally as a part of a university, where professional librarians are educated at technician, bachelor and master levels. Although a signifi- cant number of professional librarians have been educated in these institutions, this is not enough considering the potential demand of existing libraries and information centres in the region.
Also, there is a low recognition of the library profession, evidenced by the poor wages offered to these professionals.
Costa Rica has three schools: one of them linked to the Universidad Nacional, another as a part of the Universidad de Costa Rica and the third established in the Universidad Estatal a
Distancia in which they offer distance library education. In Guatemala, the library school of the Universidad de San Carlos was established in 1948. Panama also offers library science studies in three university schools. El Salvador and Nicaragua have one school each. The CABCE (Centro de Actualizacio´n Bibliotecologica de Centro America), located in Costa Rica, orga- nizes a diversity of continuous education pro- grammes, and is sponsored by the Mellon Foundation.
In Mexico there are six schools offering under- graduate studies in librarianship. In Mexico City there is the Colegio de Bibliotecologı´a of UNAM and the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Biblioteco- nomia y Archivonomia), and both have four-year programmes, although their curricula are differ- ent; ENBA also has a distance education pro- gramme for librarians. Postgraduate studies are only provided by UNAM; there has been a Master’s degree since 1970. UNAM’s doctorate in Library Science and Information Studies, which began in 2000, is the first in the Spanish- speaking Latin American countries.
It is worth mentioning that library science studies have been strongly influenced by the USA.
Library research and publications
In the UNAM, the CUIB (Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas) was established in 1981, as a forward-looking institution to encourage library science research. It has had a wide influence in Latin America. Its twenty-six research members are working in areas related to theoretical and practical problems faced by the organization and transmission of information and the provision of library services, in the country as well as in the Latin American region.
Thus, a number of seminars, courses and pub- lications on reading promotion, training of librarians, collection development, library services to the indigenous communities, universal bibliographic control, bibliographic and docu- mentary heritage, information policy, pro- blems of the information society and others have been organized. CUIB has an outstanding role in the academic advancement of librarians due to its courses, seminars and diplomas, in which national and foreign specialists take part.
CUIB has the most important professional pub- lishing programme in the region. Its periodical, CENTRAL AMERICA 65
Investigacio´n bibliotecolo´gica. Archivos, biblio- tecas, documentacio´n, is published in printed and electronic formats.
The library schools, academic libraries and the associations also publish important documents, but still the scarcity of professional literature in Spanish to support library education is a serious problem.
National libraries
The Central American national libraries are supported by the cultural or the education governmental authorities of each country, except in the case of the National Library of Mexico, which since 1929 has been a part of the UNAM.
In the 1990s these libraries, together with those of all Latin America, Spain and Portugal, joined together to form the ABINIA (Asociacio´n de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de los Paı´ses de Ibero- ame´rica), which has promoted a better knowl- edge of the development achieved by these libraries. It has also carried out joint research into their common problems, including co-opera- tive projects related to preservation, digital libraries (seedigital library) andunion cata- logues. The Central American national libraries have joined together to obtain foreign financial support to encourage the improvement of their services. Nicaragua and Guatemala have received special support from Sweden to enhance their collections, to conclude their national bibliogra- phies and to microfilm historic documents, and from Spain to improve their services for visually impaired people.
The national libraries of Costa Rica and Panama are in a better situation. The latter has the support of the Fundacio´n Biblioteca Nacional de Panama´ as a provider of financial resources for its institution (www.binal.ac.pa).
All national libraries benefit from legal de- posit to develop their collections, and to ensure the preservation and diffusion of their biblio- graphic and documentary heritage. The Biblio- teca Nacional de Me´xico has an outstanding position, holding the more important biblio- graphic and documentary heritage in the region, being the American country in which the first printing house was established in the sixteenth century (http://biblional.bibliog.unam.mx).
Mexican and Nicaraguan representatives are part of the regional committee for the Memory of the World programme ofunesco.
Public and school libraries
In Central America in general,public libraries also act as school libraries, because most of the educational institutions have not developed effective library services; this is true even in Mexico. Public libraries in Guatemala and Nicar- agua have received special support from Sweden, Spain and the USA for the improvement of their services, especially for children. El Salvador’s libraries have had a rather peculiar development because of the continuous earthquakes suffered in this country.
In some countries, public libraries have had significant improvements to their services, in some cases supported by the national libraries.
This is the case in Panama with its sixty-nine public libraries, and in Costa Rica, with sixty libraries.
In Mexico, the Direccio´n General de Bibliote- cas (Pu´blicas) has achieved a significant increase in library services all over the country, in which 6,000 public libraries of various sizes have been established, although most of them have holdings and are intended to support basic school stu- dents. Some libraries have begun to offer services through the Internet. Mexican and Central Amer- ican public libraries face the serious problem of unqualified personnel and extremely low wages.
In spite of the fact that the greatest part of Central American countries and the central and southern regions of Mexico have a high percen- tage of indigenous population, they have not developed special collection policies or library services for these communities.
Special libraries
Among the special librariesin the region, the agricultural and medical libraries and information centres have had the most notable development.
The Instituto Interamericano de Cooperacio´n para la Agricultura has its headquarters in Costa Rica; its library has a great influence all over the region (www.iicanet.org). In the same field, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre library, established in Mexico, is famed for its information services all over the world (www.cimmyt.mx).
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The libraries of hospitals and health centres have established a valuable information system in Mexico, whose head is Centro Nacional de Informacio´n y Documentacio´n sobre Salud (http://cenids.insp.mx/cenids/).
In these countries, especially in Mexico, there are also important special libraries and informa- tion centres on art, literature, history and energy resources using all electronic resources and inter- national databanks to give support to their users.
The private Biblioteca Gallardo, with a collection of ancient and valuable books, the most impor- tant in El Salvador, was practically destroyed during the January 2001 earthquake.
Central American countries were represented at the Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano de Bibliotecas Parlamentarias, which took place in Mexico City in 1994, supported by IFLA, where they learned about the information services required by the parliamentary bodies.
Further reading
Fernandez de Zamora, R.M. and Budnik, C. (2001)
‘Bibliographic Heritage of Latin America’,Alexan- dria13: 27–34.
Memoria (2001) Encuentro Latinoamericano sobre Atencio´n Bibliotecaria a Comunidades Indı´genas, Me´xico: UNAM.
Memoria (2001) II Seminario Latinoamericano de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Profesionales Afines, Me´xico: IFLA, UNAM.
Polo Sifontes, F. (2001)The Development of National Libraries in Central America, Boston: IFLA-CDNL.
ROSA MARIA FERNANDEZ DE ZAMORA