Nuclear Libraries Networking: Sharing of resources and expertise

The development of information and communication networks, especially in specialized fields , is a necessity for many reasons: To bridge the digital divide gap, thus, allowing ail societies to participate in the vast amount of information available and to acquire the knowledge extracted from this information allowing to close the social and scientific gap more easily; To make better use of the economic resources available while endeavoring to channel and distribute information on a more equal and relevant basis; To collect, protect and preserve valuable resources of information and knowledge as a foundation and heritage of human efforts in science, culture and technology for future generations and to further development for ail. The idea of forming a consortium of nuclear libraries to encompass ail the above-mentioned goals is a common sense one in view of the complex and sensitive area of nuclear energy and its applications. Action should to be taken by all members of the nuclear community to facilitate the networking of their respective libraries and information centres to further information and knowledge exchange and to have a reliable collection of resources to offer those, who want to join the nuclear community. The IAEA Library, as part of the IAEA Consortium of Nuclear Libraries, and JNJS could play together an active role in building such a platform, which would fonn the foundation for a worldwide Nuclear Knowledge Portal.