The situation of the Arabic countries in lnformation and Documentation subjects

Abstract

Conscious of the importance of scientific and technical information in the economic, social and cultural development, the Arabic countries have been accomplishing tremendous efforts in order to avoid the gap on lnformation and Documentation subjects between them and the Western countries. This paper shows the emergency of these countries in information international exchange, after analysing gap causes and obstacles. Previous requirements for information development are exposed: a planified national information policy that uses own information resources and the establishement of national and international networks to favour the information transfer. On thc other hand, the lack of standardization is evident. specially in automated documentation, in spite of different Arabization projects realized by some organizations trying to overcome problems of language compatibility in automated systems. Finally, the main current information sources in the Arab World are enumerated.