Page 64 - DLIS101_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SOCIETY

Unit 5: Types of Library and their Function in Indian Context

of the emerging professionalisation of FID as an international organisation. A major step along Notes
these lines had to be taken when Donker Duyvis retired in 1959 (he died in 1961). Like Otlet before
him, he had become the memory, the personal hub of communication, the history, the anchor of the
organisation. He also largely determined the ways in which the organisation’s meagre resources
would be deployed during his tenure of office. Not surprisingly the UDC remained a primary
concern. He had no obvious successor and the organisation was confronted with all the usual issues
of how to provide arrangements that in a leadership succession would ensure both organisational
stability and flexibility.
The “modern” history of the FID will require a study of its formal structure as reflected in the
periodic revision of its Statutes, beginning with those adopted in 1948. It has had to struggle, as all
organisations must, with questions of changing purpose and function. These have received
occasionally ambitious expression in long term plans and other formal planning documents. Its
broad objectives have also found expression in an evolving committee structure and its changing
relationship to, and use of, its national members, many of which at various times have assumed
administrative responsibility for the work of particular committees and their publications. The
creation of the regional commissions (for Latin America and Oceania) and the achievements possible
through them will be of particular interest.
The historian will have to examine the personnel of the organisation and how they have put their
stamp on it. The post-war presidents number some powerful and influential personalities. Most
were in office for a period of years and undertook planning and other exercises that in some way
reflected their sense of what FID was and ought to become. The critical post of Secretary-General
has been filled on a number of occasions since the time of Donker Duyvis in a way that can only be
described as problematical. When we have a proper perspective on these times, a study of such
administrative matters will illuminate the fiscal and organisational dilemmas of the contemporary
FID, and the inevitable problems that arise in such an organisation between President, Council
(whose members are spread over the globe) and a permanent official.
It will of course be necessary to assess the various achievements of FID. Here the problems of changing
attitudes towards the UDC will be central. The historian of FID will have to determine to what
extent the UDC has been negatively identified with the FID and how this may have interfered with
its ability to achieve its more general goals. He or she equally will have to determine the extent to
which this long-lived, massive, widely translated but imperfect tool of information management
and control has provided FID with an important product that has helped retain interest and
commitment in the organisation.

Briefly explain about the International Federation of Library Associations.

Also of necessary to any historical understanding of the development and achievements of the
modern FID is FID’s relationship to other international organisations. It has gradually been accredited
to a great many inter-governmental organisations, the earliest and most important of which is
UNESCO, and has obtained observer status or formal membership in a number of non-governmental
organisations. Some of these, especially the International Federation of International Associations,
act in fields closely related to those of the FID. This presents interesting questions of how FID’s
mission and its international support have been negotiated both internally and externally. It is one
of the longest lived nongovernmental organisations and as such presents important historical
challenges.

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