Claude Akpabie Programme Specialist UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal

1. Claude Akpabie Programme Specialist UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal Initial results of the UIS/IFLA/ISO pilot survey on library statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean countries Montreal, August 2008

2. Outline • Introduction of UIS role • Context and rationale of the pilot survey in the LAC • Overview on the survey results • Preliminary conclusions • Prospects: initial thoughts for partners consideration UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

3. The mandate of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) The main United Nations entity responsible for: • Collecting cross-nationally comparable statistics on ALL countries to monitor progress towards international goals in Education, Science and technology, Culture and Communication; • Developing appropriate methodologies for new indicators and improvement of existing indicators; • Building capacities of countries for data collection, use and analysis through training and advisory services; • Dissemination of cross-national data, indicators and analytical reports to inform international policy development and monitoring. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

4. Context and rationale of the pilot survey in the LAC Libraries in global policy frameworks as key agents in the knowledge creation, dissemination/sharing/usage and preservation chain and as promoters of information literacy and culture in general: • Public Library Manifesto (1994): public libraries as a living force for education, culture and information, and for building peace and welfare • The School Library Manifesto (1999): school libraries and resource centres as key enablers for education and lifelong learning • UNESCO/IFAP, EFA, UN/MDGs, WSIS goals… Previous initiatives and lessons learnt • More developed countries reflective returns while education and information literacy gaps are rather acute or challenging in the developing world • Coverage issues (missing or unvailable data, incomplete sector coverage, etc) • Comparability issues (national definitions not always ISO compliant) • Leading to weak data quality or policy irrelevant data due mainly to fragmented national statistical infrastructure The choice for LAC countries • An opportunity to test the newly revised ISO 2789 • A hope for an improved developing world status on libraries statistics culture which could trigger a potential resumption of UNESCO World Survey on Libraries UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

5. Overview on the survey results: response rates • Overall response rate of 63% (26 out of 4) countries surveyed (nil response from Bolivia) • Few data on number of higher education institutions libraries (14 countries) compared to public libraries (25 countries) • Data largely unavailable on items such as: e-resources, visits, events, opening hours, full-time-equivalent of employees and libraries expenditure UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

6. Overview on the survey results: response rates (cont’d) UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

7. Overview on the survey results: response rates (cont’d) UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

8. Overview on the survey results: major highlights • Except Mexico, small islands countries tend to have relatively higher number libraries per every 100,000 people. Caution: effect of population size and geographical spread of libraries locations??? • Same indicator with potential ‘skilled readership” reflect higher potential for users ‘access’ UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

9. Overview on the survey results: major highlights (cont’d) • Bahamas, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mexico seem to have higher number of volumes per 1000 inhabitants or adult literates • All libraries in Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and Antigua and Barbuda offer internet access to users UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

10. Overview on the survey results: major highlights (cont’d) • No clear (or very disparate) pattern relating the size respondents countries’ population, their libraries registered users to the level of loans => different or ‘inconsistent’ national policies ??? UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

11. Overview on the survey results: major highlights (cont’d) • Employability of female seems to be predominant than that of male in a majority of countries in the library sector => is this reflective of a deliberate policy in LAC countries or is library job less attractive salary wise or are basic requirements for recruitment more suitable for women? UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

12. Preliminary conclusions Persistent coverage issues of libraries statistics • Although some countries have clearly stated (e.g. Argentina, Chile, etc) that data are partial, it is still suspected in many cases that data reported are incomplete Methodological issues • Not all countries surveyed seemed to have national statistics compatible with concepts and definitions of the new ISO 2789 Operational issues • Coordinated and exhaustive collection of libraries statistics still remain a challenge for a majority of countries • Still uncertain if adequate national resources are yet devoted to comprehensive library statistics UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

13. Prospects: initial thoughts for partners consideration Key premise • UIS priorities are geared toward making ‘Global Impact’ in the collection of internationally standardized data in UNESCO areas of competence Are lessons learnt from the LAC pilot survey fully conclusive to allow a global scaling-up? • Very ‘balanced’! Food for thoughts as potential ways for forward: we still need to make a case for an international work on libraries statistics • Concentrate on developing capacity-building modules to train national specialists and build sustainable national statistical institutions on libraries • Sample survey of libraries rather than administrative records based survey on few ‘capable countries’ (major challenge with establishment of viable national sample frames) • Change the focus of international surveys from ‘infostructure’ to an Information literacy skills assessment of libraries users or adult literates for candidate countries (major challenge: very resource-driven) UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada

14. THANK YOU UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada