Calls for New Nominations for Memory of the World International Register 22-10-2009 (Paris) UNESCO is inviting new nomination proposals for inscription on its Memory of the World International Register, a list of library collections and archive holdings of world significance, which was established in 1997 to promote documentary heritage of universal value. Nominations should ideally be submitted through the National Commission for UNESCO or the Memory of the World National Committee in the country where it is located. Proposals should be based on the selection criteria listed in the General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage, which stipulates that the most important criterion for inscription on the register is the universal significance of the documentary heritage. The deadline for the submission of nominations is 31 March 2010 and no late submissions will be accepted. They should be submitted to UNESCO's Memory of the World Secretariat: # by mail accompanied by an electronic version on diskette, CD-Rom or USB key (addressed to Joie Springer, Memory of the World Programme, Information Society Division, 1, rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France); # by email to j.springer[at]unesco.org. Nominations are posted on the Programme's Website and illustrations such as photographs or slides (TIFF, GIF, JPEG formats), and sound recordings (real-media) can be included to help describe the proposal. As the images submitted may often be used by the Memory of the World Secretariat in publicity material, an authorization for their reuse for non-profit purposes should also be included. A copy of this form can be downloaded here. At present, a total of 193 collections submitted by 76 different countries, 3 international organization and one private foundation are inscribed on the International Register of the Memory of the World Programme. Regional registers have been created for the MOWCAP and MOWLAC committees and an increasing number of countries have now established national registers. Assessment for inscription on the Register is determined by a panel of experts, the Register Sub-committee and the International Advisory Committee (IAC) whose recommendations are forwarded to the Director-General for final decision. The announcement on the next round of inscription will be made in 2011. UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme to guard against collective amnesia calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world ensuring their wide dissemination. The Programme is intended to protect documentary heritage, and helps networks of experts to exchange information and raise resources for preservation of and access to documentary material. Source: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29240&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anup Kumar Das New Delhi, India http://anupkumardas.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.