Transcript The COLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIBRARY at THE ORGANIZATION OF

The
COLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIBRARY
at THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN
STATES
A CORNERSTONE OF THE
INTER-AMERICAN
SYSTEM
By Beverly Wharton-Lake
Acting Director of the
Columbus Memorial Library
Columbus Memorial Library
Purpose
Responsibilities
Collections
History
Future
Patrons of the Columbus
Memorial Library include...
OAS Secretariat
Permanent Missions
Permanent Observer Missions
Embassies
Researchers from the General
Public World Wide
The OAS and the
Inter-American System
Documenting the History, Preserving the Archives
Traditional Library Depository
Libraries
Documents Program
OAS Documents sent
to 133 libraries in
this hemisphere and
world wide
Archives
Records
Management
Publications
Program
Indexes
Bibliographies
Former Responsibilities of
Columbus Memorial Library
Official Historical Research
Library and Archives Development
Program throughout Hemisphere
Seminar on the Acquisition
of Latin American Library Materials
(SALALM)
Ambassador Carlos Martinez Silva
from Colombia
“…the memorial to be erected ought to be something at
once useful and made up of elements, to which each
government might contribute independently, (and) it
occurred to me that the only plan which would satisfy
all these requirements was the establishment in
Washington of a memorial Library, to which each
government could send, on its own account, the most
complete collection possible of historical, literary and
geographical works, laws, official reports, maps, etc., so
that the results of intellectual and scientific labor in all
America might be collected together under a single
roof… That would be a monument more lasting and
noble than any in bronze or marble.”
Columbus Memorial Library
Reading Room, 1910
Pan American Union
50th Anniversary of Name Change
to OAS
1948-1998
Alliance for Progress
The General Collection
HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
Caribbean
DEVELOPMENT
North America
Portugal
ART & MUSIC
DRUG
TRAFFICKING
Spain
HUMAN RIGHTS
TECHNOLOGY
DEMOCRACY
LAW
France
WOMEN’S ISSUES
Latin America
POLITICAL SCIENCE
ECONOMICS
EDUCATION
OAS Documents Collection
&
Documents of the Inter-American
Specialized Organizations Collection
The Archives
Official Gazette Collection
United Nations Collection
and
League of Nations Collection
Rare Book Collection
Maps and Atlas Collection
Photograph Collection
Leo Stanton Rowe
Manuscript Collection
Personal and official
papers of
Dr. Leo S. Rowe
Director of the
Pan American Union
1920-1946
Increase in Reference
Requests in CML
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Connect online to the
Columbus Memorial Library
http://www.oas.org/columbus
1889 - 2002
Celebrating the
Columbus Memorial Library’s 113th Anniversary
Future Challenges
Automation
Preservation
Columbus Memorial Library
Corner-stone of the
Inter-American System