| - other information - |
2004-2005 Archived Historical Events
Remarks by U.S. Ambassador George M. Staples at the Dedication of the Cameroon National Assembly American Corner -June 30, 2004 – Yaounde
Honorable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Honorable Deputies,
Mister Secretary General,
Distinguished Guests,
I am particularly delighted to be here today at the National Assembly for this modest donation of books and other information resources.
The United States Embassy enjoys excellent relations with the National Assembly and for many years now our Information Resource Center has provided your library with numerous resources, including books, periodicals and electronic journals.
However, over the past year we have increasingly received requests from members of the Assembly wishing to have better access to our IRC, which I do understand is a challenge at times to enter with the long waiting lines and cumbersome security checks. Taking this into account and realizing it was important to have such resources readily available to the leaders of Cameroon, we decided to bring what we could to you.
It is impossible nowadays for the leaders of a nation to work without appropriate access to resource information, including the Internet, which has become a major tool for collecting and disseminating knowledge. Our Library of Congress serves this function well.
For those of you who have been to Washington and visited Capitol Hill, you know the Library of Congress is perfectly positioned between the Capitol, Senate and House office building, at walking distance for any of our elected representatives. It is America’s oldest federal cultural institution and a vital resource to American leaders. It is also the largest library in the world, with nearly 128 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves.
The library is always filled with staffers and Congressional interns (internships perhaps being an interesting idea for members of the National Assembly to consider), who sift through information on most any issue of concern or consideration for the American Congress. I would also note that the Library of Congress is open to the general public and scholars from all over the world.
I mention our Library of Congress because I am extremely impressed with the new library you have built across the parking lot and hope it won’t be too long before it is completed. It seems like there will be sufficient space available for a magnificent repository of information and documentation. When the building is ready I hope will encourage those in the diplomatic community to do what they can as well.
In the framework of our ongoing collaboration, I have asked our IRC to seek out US-generated resources that you and the Honorable Deputies of the National Assembly may need.
Thank you.
Let me now ask my Information Resource Center Director, Jean-Pierre Ghonda, to provide you with an overview of the documents and resources we are providing you today.