UK appointed to UNESCO documentary heritage body
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has appointed Michael Heaney, a member of the UK National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC), to the governing body of the UNESCO Memory of the World programme.
UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme promotes preservation of and access to the world’s archive holdings and library collections. The programme’s governing International Advisory Committee (IAC) is responsible for advising UNESCO on the planning and implementation of the programme as a whole. It comprises 14 members serving in a personal capacity, chosen for their authority in the field of the safeguarding of documentary heritage. Other countries represented on the committee currently include Ghana, Chile, Morocco, Sweden, Australia and Republic of Korea.
Mike is currently a member of the UKNC’s Communication and Information Committee and Deputy Chair of the Memory of the World Working Group. He is also Executive Secretary of the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford and a Governing Board member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). He will serve on the IAC for a four-year term from 2011 to 2014.
The IAC also maintains an overview of the policy and strategy of the whole Memory of the World programme. It monitors the global progress of the programme and revises and updates the General Guidelines of Memory of the World and it is responsible for approving additions to, or deletions from, the International Memory of the World Register.
The visibility of the Memory of the World programme in the UK has grown substantially in recent years, with the UK Memory of the World Register being established in 2010.
Written: 04/02/2011 , last modified: 04/02/2011
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Michael Heaney