The University of El Salvador (Universidad de El Salvador, UES) is the only national university. There are also 35 private universities in El Salvador. At UES we house half of the University student population: 35,000 out of 70,000. UES is located in three regional institutions and the main campus in the city of San Salvador.
You have probably heard about the university's involvement in the political and social course of our country. This involvement has hurt the university, especialy the library services. In the last decade we suffered several breakins and the loss of valuable book collections. To these problems, we add a political movement that leads to economic strangling. To this day, we only have enough financial resources for staff salaries.
In the last few years the international community has been helping El Salvador, especially after the peace accords. The university has had financial help for some projects, including the library modernization project. [Table of Content]
In March [1994], everything should be ready for the opening of the new library building. The old building was destroyed by the 1986 earthquake. In 1990 we started planning for automated library services. We think this process will be a little easier, since we have the experiences and expertise of librarians from the region.
We have moved forward, taking an old project of centralization of libraries. There are 9 libraries on campus at different colleges. In addition, every regional center has its own library. We hope to connect only three libraries into one network. The Central System Unit will be our pilot plan. In time, we will be implementing the other two units so we can integrate what will be the library system. [Table of Content]
We have started our own database project, including personnel training. We also have a reorganization project of the library in accordance with the same automation project. I estimate that we have overcome a difficult milestone, but we have some more important issues to take care of: entering the data into the database, and the offering of these services to the public. Even though we started the project in 1990, the users are still waiting for the benefits of the database.
We have some experience in relation with CD-ROMs. The College of Medicine is entering into BIREME usage phase, and we have some experience in the processing of information through OPS (Organización Panamericana de la Salud, the Panamerican Health Organization.) We also have some reference titles already published (in CD-ROM) by some faculty members. [Table of Content]
[List of Papers in English]