Memory of the world

“ Mémoire of the world ” is a program created in 1992, under the aegis of UNESCO, aiming sensitizing the international community with the richness of the documentary inheritance, the need for ensuring its conservation for the future generations and at making it available to many people.

The documentary inheritance deposited in the libraries and the files represents an essential shutter of the collective memory; it reflects the diversity of the languages, the people and the cultures. But this memory is fragile and part of this inheritance disappears regularly by accident or ageing from the supports.

Recognizing that an urgent action is necessary to fight against the disappearance of vast parts of the world documentary memory, UNESCO launched the Program Mémoire of the world intended to safeguard and promote this inheritance, “ in order to avoid collective amnesia and to promote the conservation of the collections of files and library everywhere in the world and to ensure the broadest diffusion of it”.

The idea which prevailed at the time of the implementation of the program “ Mémoire of the world ” is the solemn assertion that the documentary inheritance of the world belongs to all and that it is necessary to support its safeguarding and its accessibility. It is advisable, initially, to identify the documentary elements of universal interest, to sensitize with the importance of this inheritance, then to facilitate the conservation and the access of them for the benefit of the current and future human populations. The means implemented by UNESCO to reach that point are varied: they go from the assistance-council for the conservation of the collections to the encouragements to digitalization and the publication.

Four objectives were defined:

  • to ensure the safeguarding of the documentary inheritance of interest universal and to encourage that of national interest and regional;

  • to make the it available to greatest number, by calling upon the most suitable technologies;
  • to make more take conscience with the Member States of UNESCO of their documentary inheritance and, in particular, of those of its aspects which have an interest from the point of view of the world collective memory;
  • to work out derivative products based on this documentary inheritance and to distribute them to the international scales, while taking care that the originals profit from the best possible conditions of conservation and safety.

A international Advisory committee (CCI), whose members are designated by the Managing director of UNESCO, guides the design and the implementation of the program as a whole and makes recommendations concerning the mobilization of the funds, the attribution of the appropriations and the granting of the label “ Mémoire of the World ” to the adopted projects.

The promotion of the selected documentary collections is ensured, inter alia, by the publication of the register “ Mémoire of the world ”.

The program indeed obtained a world Registre , list of the elements of the documentary inheritance identified by the Advisory committee International and approved by the Managing director of UNESCO. This list is to some extent the “little sister” of prestigious the Liste of the cultural world heritage and naturalness of UNESCO which gathers to date more than 800 sites, distributed in 137 countries.

The Managing director of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura approved the inscription with the Register of 29 new elements of the documentary inheritance on recommendation of the international Advisory committee, joined together 13 with the June 16th 2005 with Lijiang (China).

After these inscriptions, the List of the world heritage “ Mémoire of the world ” includes/understands 120 elements of the documentary inheritance, pertaining to 56 countries.

UNESCO launches each year a new call for offer of inscription with the Register (for the year 2006 - 2007, this one is open until the May 31st 2006), and the candidatures are examined by the international Advisory committee, which meets every two years.

The international register Memory of the world of UNESCO

The international Register “ Liste Memory of the world ” is the list of all the collections of the documentary inheritance which were identified by the international Advisory committee at its meetings with Tachkent (September 1997), with Vienna (June 1999), with Cheongju (June 2001), with Gdańsk (August 2003), and with Lijiang (June 2005) and approved by the Managing director of UNESCO like answering the selection criteria of universal interest.

See too

  • List Memory of the world

External bonds

  • the site of the program “'' Mémoire of the World ''” of UNESCO

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