UNESCO and human resource development for the ‘Information Society’

The emergence of the 'Information Society' appears to present a unique opportunity for libraries and information services to assert a new and more significant position for themselves in society. However, to be well equipped to seize these opportunities, the information profession needs to re-examine the range of its knowledge, skills and attitudes.i This has been the topic of much debate in the industrialised countries, not least because the patter development in the different kinds of library and information services has quite evidently been uneven as a consequence of their financial circumstances and the perception of their distinct missions. In the developing countries these differences are exaggerated by the prevailing circumstances: not only less money for investment, but also in many cases a shortage of manpower with any professional education. Nonetheless UNESCO has continually attempted to ensure that colleagues in these countries do not remain unaware of the developments in professional practice which lay ahead of them, and to motivate them to prepare the necessary educational response. n of