Flavio Machicado Viscarra Foundation (BOL-83)

Type: Office Work: Administration - Country: Bolivia

Brief description and main aims

In Bolivia there is a limitated access to information resources for research and development in all fields. The main reasons for this are: first, most of bibliographic resources are in private collections and inaccessible libraries. Second, the Library System of the city of La Paz is inefficient, poorly funded and inaccessible for people interested in developing research. The system is divided into isolated units without information exchange protocols, policies interlibrary exchange or other services.

This has a direct impact on the field of higher education and research for development. In our direct field of interest, Music and the Arts, the effect of the lack of resources has identified a number of educational programs of low quality.

The purpose of the Flavio Machicado Viscarra Foundation (FFMV) is to implement an Information Centre for Research in the Arts, Music and Social and Human Sciences. The Center seeks to be an institution dedicated to provide and improve access to information resources, to promote scientific research and creativity. The project aims to serve as a source of support in the development of the library system of the city of La Paz.

Main Activities

• Cataloguing and enhancing the collections: the library historical archives, the newspaper archives and the sound archives
• Dissemination activities and access to  cataloged resources
• Activities that promote reading
• Cultural activities: concerts, poetry reading, etc.

Volunteer tasks

• Support communication, dissemination and cultural activities
• Cataloging-classification
• Circulation: support the Library

Volunteer requirements / Skills

The volunteer should:

• be able to work in a multicultural environment
• be at least 24 years old
• like reading

Location

The project is locate in La Paz.