Local information services: technology to the aid of the community (disponible en español)

Author : Adriana Betancur
Date added : 1999-12-22

Brief Project Background

la versión en español
Before.

A user arrives to the Local Information Service asking what to do in order to obtain his passport.

To get this information could take him up to forty five ( 45 ) minutes.

Results

Most efforts made by men and women when seeking for progress, are for his or her own personal and social improvement, information technology is one of them.

Communicating data allows people from every end of the planet to get closer: Poor, rich, black and white, some or others.

It is in this claim that the history of the Local Information Service database from the Familiar Compensation Bureau in Medellín, Colombia is inscribed.

THE BEGINING.


When someone enters a public library generally does it to satisfy needs of either studies or academic origins. We should not forget that libraries were created to that purpose and that the everyday needs of a community, to shape individuals as citizens of their surroundings, with identity, sense of belonging, and fondness for their birthplace, in other words well informed and participants in the developing process of their community constitute a fact that just now is gaining relevance among the Latin-American governments.



In 1991 the Culture and Library Department from Comfenalco, a Family Compensation Bureau, created the Local Information Service using as reference the existing services, at that time, in The Instituto Autónomo Biblioteca Nacional de Caracas, Venezuela with the support from The UNESCO, model as well for some similar others in the Latin-American countries.

Later the Departament of Culture and Libraries from Comfenalco, Antioquia created their own lines of action according to the specific conditions of Medellín, capital of Departamento de Antioquia in Colombia, on the northeastern corner of South America.

The Local Information Service has helped to make true the social chores of public libraries helping to strengthen the cultural identity
and the community participation, becoming a tool for social development from the local information usage. It is, for this reasons, that its functions are centered on the gathering, organization and output of the information generated by the community.

Comfenalco started the service collecting information about civilian affairs paperwork, and access to public and private services which are still the user's more demanding subjects.

Later on data about Institutions, auditoriums, meeting places from Medellín, the events, denouncements about human rights violations was compiled, as well as other matters and themes concerning the community in its communal, social, and political participating duties.

The data gathered kept on growing and the program "Microisis" developed with the UNESCO support was used proving unsuccessful for the storage and retrieval of data due to the absence of the source program negating the possibility of making changes and accomplishing new developments.

Back we went to manual organization and data retrieval which made the handling, collecting, organizing, and updating of data, critical to deliver an optimal service, slow and costly.

The search of software complying with the requirements for the service continued. The data base " Comuna " developed by an Institution in Bogotá was evaluated, as well as one of the modules of the OLIB integrated system for libraries, and other similar software from different countries, none of them satisfying the expectation of the service.

SOFT TECHNOLOGY.


The creation process of a library differs to The Local Information Service one.

The former focus on the different formats of the editorial market for which the librarians have standardized the processes for their storage and retrieval. The latter one requires of an effective accompaniment to the community according to their information needs in order to identify the developmental thematic focal points, register, organize, systemize, and render the information gathered to the community that generated it, as well as to other users interested in this type of information, called in Librarianship jargon " gray literature" .

Returning to the community the information for it generated, requires of a concurring methodology, according with the objectives of The Local Information Service. Facilitating the gathering, organizing, and outputting of data, which because of its specific characteristics demands the support of the Public Library as a social institution, guaranteeing local, regional, national and international data access.

The criteria for the content, format of information, methodology, among others, makes part of the soft technology that allows participation of Public Libraries in information to the community, which in most cases is not affair of National and International Institutions nor they handle the required tools that demand the dynamics and rhythms of the community and the constant coexistence for its development.

CREATION OF A RELATIONAL SOFTWARE.


After a long search The Department of Culture and Libraries from Comfenalco takes the decision to start the development of not only a bibliographical but also a relational data base; to do this the following was taken into account : The volume of data gathered, the increase in the demand for the service in the process of the National Constitution reform during 1989-1991, and the existence and availability of new technological alternatives complying with requirements of the intended service.

It is how the decision of hiring a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer is taken and a working plan involving all personnel from The Local Information Service is established given the task of checking out the stored up data of the service rendered and systemize the experience in the development of such software.

The initial step was of defining a hierarchical structure of categories and subcategories to be the basis for the data recovery. This document was taken to specialists in different disciplines who acted as external valuators. Finally the components of the different worksheets: Institutions, official norms, events, personalities, and stimulus to the cultural creation, were defined.

The process of developing and creating the database was a participant and interdisciplinary one among professional librarians and information systems individuals, and implied a rigorous process of planning and control, as well as establishing conceptual and technical criteria that demanded redesigning and normalizing the processes and procedures of gathering and analyzing the existing data up to that moment in the service.

In this way in one year period was officially presented to the community the first phase of The Local Information Service database published on Internet and for the second phase the project components of the city and history of Medellín, foreseeing other geo-referral trials enabling the spatial placement of an inhabitant from Medellín, Tokio or Rio de Janeiro. This way everyday survival first level data is superseded with developmental data which is essential requisite for the collective construction of projects for the city.

These technological advancements enables not only, a smooth data storage and retrieval, but also, a data base from Medellín to the planet which allows us to be interlocutors of the world to communicate what we Antioquians do in a universal language.

Offering information to the community from a Public Library helps in permitting the people to abandon their role as spectators becoming actors, performers in the development of their community contributing

in this way to the improvement of a well informed and participating society that transforms the individual into a citizen. For this technology is of good assistance.


THE PRESENT.


Today a user enters The local Information service asking for information on how to obtain his passport. The consultation takes only a few minutes. Accordingly from any other place in the world this may also be accomplished.

Lessons

You ought to try it too :
http://www.comfenalco antioquia.com/sil

Project Information

Total budget in US$ : -
Country of activity: Colombia [CO] | Venezuela [VE]

Contact Information

Adriana Betancur

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