Session Number
07
Description
The growth of the so called knowledge industries in the industrialized countries is a trend that has no visible traits in the Third World. The insight about the role of knowledge and information as important components in policy making has not come to surface. Also other components for the decision making process, such as skilled manpower , equipment, energy and dynamism may be lacking. However, together these components form a complex that can help to improve the quality of the decision making process.
Few of the less developed countries - the LDCs - realize that knowledge and information could transpire out of libraries, information services, specialist groups, research teams or consultants. All these could give information support to decision makers in government and local administration. They could also act as promotors of the use of the new information technology in the decision making process. Instead, it seems as the needs for information prior to decision of ten are supplied by any source whatsoever, except by libraries and information services. Libraries in the LDCs are supposed to support the educational system, and librarians' potentials as part of the nation's intelligence system are impeded by the ruler's reliance on other advisers who give him emotional or moral support during his difficult decision making.
Librarians and information specialists of ten have low status in the LDCs. The same status label also sticks to the international experts on mission. Their reports and recommendations, endorsed by Unesco, do not sensitize the policy makers in the same way as, for instance, the advice by vendors of hardware or equipment.
There seems to be a great communication gap to fill here. That information activities are regarded as a lower type of work calls for reviewing the means of communicating the significance of information services for development. The traditional talk about libraries as providers of scientific and technical information - STI - does not ring a bell in the ruler's mind. A better concept to use may be to talk about the need for a "social intelligence function", i.e. a capability to tap and analyze the world's knowledge stores for policy making, and help to establish a function that can improve the quality of policy making, and lead to social development and evolution.
The paper deals with the conceptual and organizational aspects of such a new approach by taking into account e.g. scenario writing, new vocabulary, organizational problems and ministerial networks.
Information Services - An Overlooked Component in the Third World Decision Making Process - Experiences from UNESCO Missions
The growth of the so called knowledge industries in the industrialized countries is a trend that has no visible traits in the Third World. The insight about the role of knowledge and information as important components in policy making has not come to surface. Also other components for the decision making process, such as skilled manpower , equipment, energy and dynamism may be lacking. However, together these components form a complex that can help to improve the quality of the decision making process.
Few of the less developed countries - the LDCs - realize that knowledge and information could transpire out of libraries, information services, specialist groups, research teams or consultants. All these could give information support to decision makers in government and local administration. They could also act as promotors of the use of the new information technology in the decision making process. Instead, it seems as the needs for information prior to decision of ten are supplied by any source whatsoever, except by libraries and information services. Libraries in the LDCs are supposed to support the educational system, and librarians' potentials as part of the nation's intelligence system are impeded by the ruler's reliance on other advisers who give him emotional or moral support during his difficult decision making.
Librarians and information specialists of ten have low status in the LDCs. The same status label also sticks to the international experts on mission. Their reports and recommendations, endorsed by Unesco, do not sensitize the policy makers in the same way as, for instance, the advice by vendors of hardware or equipment.
There seems to be a great communication gap to fill here. That information activities are regarded as a lower type of work calls for reviewing the means of communicating the significance of information services for development. The traditional talk about libraries as providers of scientific and technical information - STI - does not ring a bell in the ruler's mind. A better concept to use may be to talk about the need for a "social intelligence function", i.e. a capability to tap and analyze the world's knowledge stores for policy making, and help to establish a function that can improve the quality of policy making, and lead to social development and evolution.
The paper deals with the conceptual and organizational aspects of such a new approach by taking into account e.g. scenario writing, new vocabulary, organizational problems and ministerial networks.