The United States Information Agency, known overseas as the United States Information Service, supports 160 libraries and reading rooms in approximately 80 countries around the world, that offer books, periodicals, and other materials to help foreign audiences learn about the United States--its people, history, culture, and current political/governmental policies. These overseas libraries contain over 800,000 books and 128,000 periodical subscriptions and are used by more than three million visitors annually. The Agency employs 29 professional North American librarians to carry out plans and programs for these libraries.

As one of these librarians, I am responsible for the Regional Library Office based in the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin in Mexico City. This office supports development of collections and services in USIS and Binational Center libraries in Central America, Colombia, and Ecuador. Two USIS libraries in Panama City, Panama, and Quito, Ecuador are housed in American Embassies; and 18 binational center libraries in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, and Ecuador are located in cultural centers that are jointly funded bu USIS and local boards of directors. These libraries differ in scope, collections, and services provided, but the basic function is to provide reference and documentation services that support American Studies topics. Binational Center libraries generally have larger circulating collections of fiction, literature, and other American Studies topics. They also provide materials and reference services on U.S. policies and culture to their community.

These USIS and BNC libraries are dedicated to the development of mutual understanding between the United States and the host country. Collections vary in size from the smallest library in Managua, Nicaragua with a basic reference collection of about 2,000 titles to that of Mexico City's Benjamin Franklin Library which is the oldest, established in 1942, and largest in the hemisphere with a rich collection of 30,000 volumes and state of the art technology and services. It was in the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City that USIS began support for automation and technology in the region. In 1984, the Franklin Library purchased automation equipment, began training and installed Sistemas Lógico's Logicat library automation software. In 1987, the binational center library in San José, Costa Rica installed Logicat also. In 1989, the Agency supported installation of Datatrek Integrated library software in the USIS Buenos Aires library. More modest software for MS/DOS, Apple and Unix environments has regularly been purchased and distributed since 1985.

Online reference database searching has been a common part of services provided in our libraries in Mexico, Panama, and Buenos Aires, but telecommunications services are expensive, and telecommunication connections problematical. When database access charges are added, the cost to most libraries are a viable and less expensive alternative to online databases. There is a wide variety of information in this format that allows us to give up-to-date reference information on all aspects of American - both North and South - current events and policies. The latest CD-ROMS in Print lists over 600 databases, and this does not include the large number of Latin American CD databases that are available. With the enrichment of the Latin American databases in CD format, interlibrary loan and bibliographic identification are facilitated between North and South American libraries.

In 1988, with the advent of CD-ROM technology, USIA developed a pilot project to place CD-ROM readers in ten libraries around the world. For Latin America, Washington provided CD readers and discounted optical disc subscriptions to USIS libraries in Mexico and Buenos Aires. In 1989, my office acquired readers and as many demonstration discs as possible for our libraries in Bogotá, San José, and Quito. Also in 1989, with funding from the State Department's anti-narcotics program, the Agency acquired 61 CD readers, personal computers, and other equipment necessary to provide CD-based reference serviced throughout the world, In addition, funds from this project provided for purchase of the National Institute of Justice's Drugs and Crime database, and another drug database to contain basic documentary materials pertinent to anti-drug efforts of the U.S. government. Each library with CD systems also receives an optical disc index to United States Information Agency materials, the Public Query (PDQ) database, which includes many full text articles on U.S. policies and international news.

There are now CD systems in place throughout Central America, Colombia, and Ecuador in USIS/BNC libraries, as well as in Mexico, Buenos Aires, and a dozen other Latin American USIS supported libraries. CD subscription prices vary widely, but the CDs are generally easy to acquire, sturdy, and readily updated. In addition to databases provided from Washington, in my area we chose to start with Bowker's Books in Print Plus and Ebsco's Magazine Article Summaries because of the price and coverage provided. We publish an up-to-date list of magazine holdings in the region, and, with widespread use of fax, can request articles from one another as well as from the United States Information Agency Library in Washington.

Training in use of systems is the first step in any automation effort, and, in March 1989, a workshop was held in Bogota, Colombia for 24 USIS/BNC librarians to introduce optical disc technology and demonstrate basic CD reference databases. In October 1989, in Quito, Ecuador, another week-long workshop was held for 25 librarians from throughout Latin America to again introduce the technology and allow for hands-on practice. This year, my office is sponsoring this New Information Technology Conference to increase understanding in the region of CD-ROM and other emerging technologies. Next year, the office will sponsor a workshop for USIS/BNC librarians in San José, Costa Rica which will include strong support for CD-ROM and other library automation projects.

As more and more local libraries are acquiring readers and CD databases, and as librarians and librarians and library administrators begin to understand the possibilities inherent in optical technology, our libraries aim to showcase and demonstrate the best of North and South America library technology. Not only are more and more Latin America libraries acquiring CD readers and CD databases, but they are publishing their databases in CD. For North American libraries that work with reference and research and interlibrary loan purposes; for Latin American libraries these disks are primary reference resources.

Although training in CD-ROM technology has been the focus of programs sponsored by my office and USIA/USIS in Latin America, other projects include using the expertise of leading North American librarians with experience in the Latin American environment to give lectures and workshops to professional library communities. Automation topics have recently been addressed by North American library specialists in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Salvador. American Fulbright library lecturers have worked with local institutions in Nicaragua, Honduras and Ecuador this year and have covered automation topics. A network expert offered an interactive teleconference for audiences in Bogotá, San José, San Salvador, Tegucigalpa, and Mexico City.

USIA also sponsors Fulbright foreign student scholarships for advanced work in North American universities in library science and other fields, which, of course, include study in library automation topics. A new program opened to librarians last year is the Fulbright Scholar grant for internships at the Library of Congress. The National Archivist from El Salvador is finishing up a six month program under this grant, and, next year, we plan to sponsor a Colombian librarian to work on a project to automate the Spanish edition of Dewey Decimal Classification, so that regular revisions can be published. Other programs include the Binational Center Library Fellows who work through our binational center libraries to provide training such as that recently completed in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The ALA Library Fellow grants this year include online searching and retrieval instruction at the Simon Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela, as well as programs in automation practices in Haiti, Barbados, Jamaica, as well as seven other countries. Argentina, Brazil, and Chile have also hosted visits of ALA Library Fellows.

There is much diversity of library automation software. If librarians can make familiarization trips to view systems in operation, it is useful in mapping future automation activities. USIS and the American Embassy sponsor a variety of visitor programs to the United States under the Interna-tional Visitor and Voluntary Visitor programs which can be utilized for these ends. In addition, my office sponsors visits to Mexico City for automation familiarization programs. A new exchange grant proposal to USIA would sponsor internships in North American libraries for Latin American professionals under SALALM auspices and partly funded by USIA.

USIA and the Regional Library Office seek to support projects that foster experimentation and exchange of information with local institutions. We encourage global thinking and local actions. There are challenges and opportunities in our hemisphere to support diversity and standardization that will facilitate exchange of bibliographic information and documents between North and South America. We have all come to understand that in order to compete in the New World Information Marketplace we must cooperate to support the free flow of information and transfer of technology. This is our goal.