UNESCO and Minister of Science of Brazil Launch Virtual Library of Portuguese Language Books
13-05-2004 (Paris)
More than 20,000 Portuguese-language book titles will be made available in Portuguese-speaking countries, thanks to an initiative announced by Brazil’s Science and Technology Minister, Eduardo Campos. It was announced at UNESCO on May 11 in the presence of UNESCO Deputy Director-General Marcio Barbosa and the permanent delegates of the countries concerned.
Thousands of computers in libraries, schools and universities in Portuguese-speaking Africa (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe) and Timor-Leste will have access to some 20,000 titles of Portuguese-language books and periodicals from all over the world, as well as periodicals in English and Spanish, published by more than 150 publishers, including UNESCO, according to an agreement concluded by the Brazilian government and the Ebrary / E-libro web portal. A list of clients who will be provided with access free of charge is being drawn.
The virtual library will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and quality information. In the field of science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil will provide much of the web portal’s content as it produces most of the country’s scientific publishing with its many research institutes.
The agreement - supported by UNESCO’s Office in Brasilia - was born of contacts taken during the third session of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in December 2003, in parallel to the meeting of Ministers of Science and Technology of the Portuguese-Speaking Community (CPLP).
Axel Plathe, UNESCO, Information Society Division
The virtual library will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge and quality information. In the field of science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil will provide much of the web portal’s content as it produces most of the country’s scientific publishing with its many research institutes.
The agreement - supported by UNESCO’s Office in Brasilia - was born of contacts taken during the third session of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in December 2003, in parallel to the meeting of Ministers of Science and Technology of the Portuguese-Speaking Community (CPLP).
Axel Plathe, UNESCO, Information Society Division
Related themes/countries
· Guinea-Bissau
· Sao Tome and Principe
· Timor-Leste
· Mozambique: News Archives 2004
· Brazil: News Archive 2004
· Cape Verde: News Archives
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Contact information
- UNESCO Media Advisory No 2004-37
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