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Russian Committee's contribution to the IFAP Activity Report 2006-2007

 

2007-29-12 (Paris)

 

UNESCO Communication and Information Sector published Activity Report of the UNESCO Information for All Programme for the period 2006-2007. One of the Report's articles was prepared by the Russian IFAP Committee.
 
 
Below is an extract from the Activity Report of the UNESCO Information for All Programme, done by the Russian IFAP Committee.
 
 
Russian cooperation with UNESCO on its Information for All Program is resonating widely in Russia and in many other countries. The Russian IFAP Committee’s productive activity has repeatedly earned very high assessment from Russian authorities and UNESCO leaders. This activity informs the Russian public and cultural, educational and research establishments about the formative processes and challenges of the global information society and relevant international partnership. The Committee promotes UNESCO to great effect in Russia.
 
The years 2006-2007 gave a new impetus to the main fields of activity of the Russian IFAP Committee and its partners, including:
  • Assistance to the establishment of a national network of public legal information centers. More than 2,000 such centers have now opened in Russia, in the form of public libraries. They offer the population free access to all laws and bylaws of the Russian Federation, the USSR and the Russian Empire in digital format. The period under review saw approximately a hundred public centers of access to Russian legal information opened in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
  • Information literacy. An international conference on “Personal Information Culture: Information Society Challenges” was held in Moscow in November 2006 with support from UNESCO and the Russian Government. The conference gathered the leading experts from Russia and the other CIS countries. Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, attended and gave a speech. The Russian IFAP Committee timed to the conference the publication of the monograph The Formation of Personal Information Culture: Theoretical Background and the Modeling of the Academic Discipline, prepared by professors of the Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts – Russia’s leading  research center on information literacy.
  • The Russian Committee launched activity in a new area in 2007, related to the development of multilingualism in cyberspace. This is especially topical as the United Nations has announced 2008 the International Year of Languages. The Committee drafted the national report of the Russian Federation on Measures Taken to Implement the Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace. The Committee also translated into Russian and published topical UNESCO editions on the themes “Comment assurer la présence d'une langue dans le cyberespace?” and “Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet”. Having studied the situation in Russia, the Committee compiled and put out the collection of analytical materials “Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace: Russian and Foreign Experience”. It also organized the roundtable “Introducing the Languages of Russia and Other CIS Countries in the Russian Internet Segment” at the international conference EVA Moscow 2007.
 
The Committee carries on its publishing work. Deserving special mention among Russian-language publications of 2006-2007:
  • Information for All Programme (IFAP): report 2004/2005
  • Information for All Programme, IFAP: living information
  • Ethical implications of emerging technologies: a survey
  • Politics in the information society: the bordering and restraining of global data flows
  • Quality principles for Cultural websites: a handbook (European Cultural Website Quality Principles)
  • The Formation of Information Society in the 21st Century.The book is a detailed digest of all brochures in the UNESCO WSIS publication series. All these brochures were translated into Russian, published and disseminated to the most important libraries in Russia in 2006.
  • UNESCO Information for All Program in Russia: Current and Future-Oriented Projects.The book comprises the remarks made by members of the Russian IFAP Committee at a special Committee seminar within the international conference Crimea 2007.
 
The Committee paid major attention to the explanation and promotion of WSIS documents, the position and role of UNESCO in the formation of the global information society, and the UNESCO’s concept of building knowledge societies. In particular, a cycle of special seminars was held at the largest and most significant international conferences for library and information experts, such as Crimea 2007, Through Libraries to the Future, Electronic Culture Age, LIBCOM 2007, and the Eurasian Library and Information Congress.
 
The Committee was extremely active in the drawing and implementation of the National Programme of Promotion and Development of Reading in Russia, thanks to which the basic conceptual ideas of the Programme are closely connected with the ideas of the UNESCO IFAP and the UNESCO’s concept of building knowledge societies. The Committee took part in the preparation and publication of Recommendations on Organizing the Socio-Cultural Environment of Implementing the National Program of Promotion and Development of Reading at the Local Level: Library Manager’s Manual and Recommendations on the Drawing and Implementation of the Regional Program of Promotion and Development of Reading.
 
The Committee’s basic activities are conducted in partnership with the Specsvyaz of the FSO of Russia, a national agency that collects and circulates all laws and bylaws of the Russian Federation; the Russian National Library; the Russian State Library; the PIK Center; the Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts; and other agencies and government bodies in culture, research and education in the Russian Federation and other CIS countries, with support from the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, the Federal Agency for Print and Mass Media, the UNESCO Office in Moscow, and UNESCO Headquarters.
 
On a resolution of the Russian IFAP Committee, the NGO Interregional Library Cooperation Center assumed the duties of the Committee working body in 2007. It grants the Committee free access to premises, material and technical resources. The Committee has established its new website at http://www.ifapcom.ru with assistance from the Center. The site is developing successfully. The Committee intends soon to start translating its basic materials into English.