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THE UNITED NATIONS IS CREATING A LIBRARY WITHOUT WALLS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Imagine a library that fulfills the most difficult mandate in the profession. First, the library must serve more than 180 diverse countries, all of them with many languages and cultures. Some of these nations are filthy rich and on the cutting edge of technology; others, dirt poor and undeveloped.
Second, one of its most important users, who likes to call himself Uncle Sam, refuses to pay the $1.3 billion in subscription dues he owes to the library's parent body-a decision that causes con tinuing hardship for the library. Indeed, the library has been restructured eight times since 1986, largely because of the ongoing financial crisis. This has led to the loss of one-third of the library's staff and compelled the library to revise its five-year short-term and 10-year long-term plans every year.
But when a crisis flares in some trouble spot of the world, the library must respond overnight with information and service. Meanwhile, despite the lack of money and staff, the library is required to index every document in its possession, regardless of format.
This embattled library is the Dag Hammarskjold Library (DHL), which serves the United Nations and is headquartered on American soil in New York City. Yet, despite the formidable financial and administrative challenges DHL faces, Head Librarian Tahani El-Erian remains upbeat about her job and the ability of the library to fulfill its difficult mission. "We just have to do more with less," EI-Erian explained. "It means we have to be creative and visionary in how we deliver products and services to our clientele, and we have to do it more economically."
EI-Erian, a native of Cairo, Egypt, who holds master's and Ph.D. degrees in library science from Columbia University, has worked at DHL since 1975 and served as its head librarian from 1992. Budget cuts and belt-tightening may be the order of the day at the UN, but in terms of staff and resources, she still heads one of the world's largest libraries-one with a staff of 112 (52 professionals and 60 support staff), a collection that includes more than 5 million books and 15,000 periodical subscriptions, and a budget for the current fiscal year of...