Sent from YPDR members, this is an excellent initiative:
UN/ISDR Prevention Web Announces the "Golden Library":
The Global Online Library for Disaster Risk Reduction Education
MAY 15th, 2007
We are proud to announce the beginning of The "Golden" Global Online
Library for Disaster Risk Reduction Education. This new initiative of
the Global Platform ISDR Thematic Platform on Knowledge andEducation,
and UN/ISDR Prevention Web is designed to allow for global sharing and
assessment of educational materials for disaster risk reduction, in
furtherance of Priority 3 of the Hyogo Framework for Action. The
project addresses the need expressed by national actors to have access
to available material related to education and disaster risk reduction
that could be used as a reference to facilitate the inclusion of
disaster risk reduction in school curricula and public education, as
prioritized by the Education Campaign launched by ISDR in 2006.
The project is in its initial collection and design phase. The
collection began with a call for materials for public, children,
vocational and instructor education in disaster risk reduction to be
exhibited at the International Disaster Reduction Conference in Davos
in August, 2006. The response was enthusiastic. Hundreds of items;
brochures, handbooks, text books, posters, toys, games, models, DVDs,
videos, CDs in many languages were collected from 47 countries. These
materials are housed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and are now being
catalogued with extensive "metadata" describing the materials, scanned
cover and table of contents, and bibliographies. This will be
supplemented by additional materials already collected by the ISDR
thematic Platform on Knowledge and Education.
Sadly, the existence of these materials in an exhibition or a library,
does not mean that they have been put into the hands of the people
that need them, nor does it mean that they will be understood, or
effectively impact knowledge and action.
The Knowledge and Education Platform is charged with a key element of
the Hyogo Framework for Action; namely getting from dispersed
scientific / technical and indigenous knowledge, to local action at
the household, family, community, village, tribe, district, city,
regional and national levels. Everything depends on the quality of
educational materials used to communicate our messages about exactly
what measures everyone must engage in for disaster risk reduction.
The "Golden Library" is now being designed for full interactive online
access, so that users may submit new materials, and review and comment
upon any item in the collection. As far as possible, full digital
documents will be shared online. This is the first step to supporting
the many countries, projects, and communities that have nothing of
this kind. It will encourage us to build upon good practices, test our
materials, and continuously improve upon and share them.
The "Golden Library" can only be as good, and as comprehensive as YOU
make it by sharing the materials that you have and can find. Please
take the initiative to make this link!
PLEASE send your digital copy submissions (esp. PDF files) to:
riskreductioneducation@gmail.com
PLEASE your hard copy (including CD and DVD) submissions to:
Marie-Lou Darricau, Library Coordinator
United Nations, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR)
International Environment House 2, 7-9 chemin de Balexert,
1219-Chatelaine / Geneva, Switzerland
For questions, suggestions, comments, and to contribute to the
discussion of strategies guiding educational materials development and
use, meta-data variables for cataloguing, evaluation processes and
criteria, and voluntary assistance in cataloguing and reviewing
documents please contact:
Marla Petal, Risk RED mpetal@riskred.org
Special Note: Due to an unfortunate small-scale disaster, the Spanish
language materials collected in Madrid in August 2006 are not
available and must be reassembled. The collection from Africa and the
Middle East is barely begun. Your support is much appreciated.
