Information Centres Working Group

CIDOC NEWSLETTER

Volume 9, August 1998

Information Centres Working Group

Rhoda S. Ratner

When we left the meeting in Nuremburg last September, it was with the understanding that members of this group would work on two goals:

Creation of an up-to-date list of museum information centres for distribution at the Melbourne meeting.
The collection and dissemination of mission statements from museum libraries and information centres.

Of these two goals, it seems to me that the more important one is the establishment of written mission statements. Once we have a group of sample statements, they can then be made available to those libraries/information centres who are trying to develop their own.

I am sorry to report that neither goal has been accomplished in the intervening months. This is not to say that we have abandoned either project, they simply have not been completed. If the updated list of informationcentres is ready before October, we will find a way forcopies to be made available to participants at the meetings.

I have polled the few members of the group that I have been able to reach and to date have not identified anyone who will be travelling to Melbourne. I respectfully request that this working group be continued within CIDOC as we have every expectation of gathering at future meetings and finding ways to be active within the organization. I do apologize for the delay in responding to this call for information. If interested in this WG please contact:

Rhoda S. Ratner, Head Librarian
History, Technology and Art Department
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
tel.: +1 (202) 357 2414
fax: +1 (202) 357 4256
rratner@sil.si.edu