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Libraries: Global Reach-Local Touch. Edited by Kathleen de la Pena McCook, Barbara J. Ford, and Kate Lippincott. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998. v, 256 pp. $42.00. ISBN 0-8389-0738-5.
"Global Reach-Local Touch" was Barbara J. Ford's motto during her 1997-- 98 presidency of the American Library Association. The business world began using the same syntagm after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, an event that facilitated the opening of Central and Eastern European markets to a free economy and free access to information. Both the economy and access to information had been kept under tight centralized control during the Communist period, which lasted almost half a century in this part of the world. Libraries-as a component of the social, cultural, and educational phenomenon of a country-- become a reflection of the societal changes that occur in a certain place at a certain time. Small local changes can have a major impact not only at a local, regional, or national level but also on a global scale.
Generally speaking, libraries and librarians share similar challenges regardless of geographical location. However, there are variations if not discrepancies in the extent to which libraries in different regions of the world cope with similar issues. For instance, one of the main missions of African libraries is to support literacy (150-56), while North American and Western European libraries are engaged in computer literacy programs. The introduction of new technologies in developing countries continues while reaching extremely advanced levels in developed nations (195-201).