The workshop arranged jointly with the Republican Library of Navoi, the World Bank’s regional depository library, was held in Bukhara on 18-19 May and involved over 30 professional librarians and information specialists.

How to develop a positive image of the resource center? How attract different groups of population in taking decisions related to acquisition of library stock, expansion of services, fundraising and other activities? How to build partnerships with other libraries and develop inter-library cooperation? These and many other questions were discussed during the panel and group discussions.

Information resource centres and the libraries under universities are key partners of the World Bank’s Public Information Centre (PIC Uzbekistan). There are over 60 higher educational establishments in Uzbekistan, which serve as the main source of information for the country professionals. In accordance with the Presidential Decree of 2006, information resource centers were established under all the institutes and universities of Uzbekistan.

Most of them are still working like a traditional library making no difference between a library and information center. The World Bank’s PIC concentrated its efforts at building capacities among librarians and information specialists in information management and related skills so as to better organize knowledge and information not only for university students - clients of the library, but also for researchers, policy makers, and others interested. Last year a workshop was held for the librarians of about 30 universities located in the capital city of Tashkent.

All the participants were unanimous in evaluating the workshop as an event which contributed greatly in enabling them to become more sustainable and create more impact in managing the available resources and delivering high quality services.