'DHL': [Dag Hammarskjold Library] rising to the challenge.

• Author: Aarons, John A.
• Position: System Watch

The assumption can be made that the late Dag Hammarskjold would have agreed with the clause in the Millennium resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 8 September 2000 [Millennium Summit Declaration, A/RES/55/2] which pledged the United Nations to "ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies ... are available to all". This resolution is important as it has now been generally accepted that information and communications technologies (ICTs) have important roles to play in improving the level of living and the quality of life of people, especially those in the developing countries of the world where the challenge of using ICTs effectively is greatest.

This task has now become urgent as the advent of the information superhighway and the subsequent rapid increase in the availability of information has resulted in further division between rich and poor countries. As noted by the United Nations Development Programme's Sustainable Development Networking Programme for Jamaica: "The fast growth of the Internet has given a crucial alarm signal to developing countries: the existing information gap will grow even more unless they launch the process that will give affordable access to all key sectors of society to the World Wide Web". Reducing the "digital divide" has therefore become a crucial item on the agenda of national governments and international organizations.

Libraries should be seen as central to digital divide solutions because, as the American Library Association has said, the "digital divide is not just about access to a computer. Libraries have worked to bridge the divide between the information 'haves' and 'have nots' for more than a hundred years". Libraries are therefore ideally placed to harness the new technology to provide faster and more effective access to information. "Our time has come", asserted Ross Shimmon, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Library and Institutions (IFLA), " but only if we grasp the challenge."

The Dag Hammarskjold Library (DHL) has certainly risen to the challenge, and as the lead library in the United Nations system it is using modern tools of information and communications technology in order to connect the public to sources of information in the entire UN system. In May 2000, Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, supporting Nigeria's statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, noted with satisfaction, in a meeting of the...