Appeal to the Parliaments and Governments of Armenia Azerbaijan and Georgia

We, the participants in the Multilateral Seminar on Libraries Strategies in South Caucasus organised in the framework of the STAGE project of the Council of Europe and in cooperation with the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sport (Tbilisi, Georgia, 18-20 November 2004),

Taking into account that access to information and culture, as well as the right to education is:

• one of the basic human rights,
• one of the motors of economy, poverty reduction and development;

Having regard to:

IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, 1994

IFLA Internet Manifesto, 2003

“Library Legislation and Policy in Europe. Guidelines”. Council of Europe. 1999

“Declaration of Principles” and “Action Plan” of World Summit on Information Society, 2003

as well as to the

Evaluations of situation in library and book sectors by each country and recommendations by the experts of the Council of Europe within the framework of STAGE project

Underlined the crucial importance of libraries in the development of the Information Society for:

• lifelong learning,
• access to information in a free and systematical way,
• access to culture
• enlarged literacy teaching.

Recommended the inclusion of libraries into the national information society policies and strategies following the international documents and provisions.

Took note of the examples of best practices existing even in the present difficult situation in South Caucasus libraries which not only continue to maintain and provide access to the cultural heritage in book form, but also offer access to thousands of electronic journals and databases.

Strongly recommended to their Parliaments, Governments and people to take active actions in following essential directions where concrete and urgent development is needed:

• Elaboration, up-dating and implementation of adequate library legislation,
• Elaboration and up-dating guidelines & standards to run libraries, like acquisition, preservation, library buildings and information technology policies,
• Initiation of the state support programs for remote areas to fill in gap between rural and city libraries,
• Provision of up-dated education and professional development of librarians, management training for directors and administrators,
• Development of international programs to enable exchanges of best practices on South Caucasus and in global level,
• Provision of adequate level of remuneration and salaries for library professionals for decent living.

Only by realising these suggestions libraries and librarians in these countries can offer modern and covering services to citizens, all levels of administration, education system and others in need of knowledge and culture.

We suppose that in this appeal we express the vital interests of our peoples.

Signed by the participants of the seminar

In Tbilisi, Georgia, 20 November 2004