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2004-2005 Archived Historical Events
Remarks by U.S. Ambassador George M. Staples at the first annual conference of the Association for the Promotion of Library Information Ressources (ASPID)
June 18, 2004 – Yaounde
Your Excellency the Minister of State in Charge of Culture,
My Colleagues from the Diplomatic Corps,
Members of the Association for the Promotion of Library Information Resources,
Distinguished Guests,
I would first of all like to thank the Association for the Promotion of Library Information Resources (ASPID) for the invitation extended to me to attend their first annual conference. Some in the audience might be wondering why I have been invited, as Ambassador of the United States of America, to address this first Conference.
Well, the answer is simple: the small seed that is today growing into a healthy plant, and that will very likely grow into a large tree tomorrow, was sown a little more than a year ago in the Information Resource Center of the American Cultural Center.
I wish to highly commend the librarians of Yaounde and its suburbs who have taken upon themselves to create such an association. It is my understanding that the association sets itself the global goal of striving for the promotion of reading and the dissemination of knowledge to as many people as possible in Yaounde and its suburbs. This is undoubtedly a praiseworthy aspiration. There is no individual and collective fulfillment without actions to provide the people in a community with knowledge as a gateway to freedom.
Andrew Carnegie astutely wrote:
“There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.”
The Embassy of the United States recognizes the need for an association like yours, and we are proud we have played a modest role in supporting you over the past year.
As an indication of our invariable interest in your association, we have provided a modest grant and some computer equipment to help you start on your own. The Embassy is also pleased to be supporting Mr. Michel Guechoun’s upcoming trip to the United States to attend the 2004 conference of the America Library Association. I have great confidence that while there, Michel will have opportunities to meet librarians from all over the world, exchange with them, and perhaps find some Partner institutions.
Information is a key ingredient to a functioning democracy, libraries have a vital role to play in Cameroon’s future and I promise the United States Embassy will continue to do whatever it can to help you.
Congratulations on what I believe is already a successful initiative and let me close by saying I hope your effort will take root in the Provinces as well.