THE INFORMATION SEARCH IN LATIN-AMERICA - AN ANALYSIS OF LATIN-AMERICAN DATABASES

Some years ago, representatives of a Central American government were in Washington negotiating a substantial loan from A.I.D. The economic consultants on the negotiating team lacked essential data on their country's national debt. After fruitless and expensive phone calls to the offices in their capital, one enterprising consultant produced the required data by consulting a U.S.-based database containing up-to-date statistics on his own country. As this incident illustrates, even when experts from the Third World countries need information on their own country the chances are that they will find it easier by consulting the databases available in the developed countries about the Third World. In contrast this paper will have a different focus: we will explore three related areas: (1) the generation, organization, and dissemination of information in the developed world; (2) a look at similar efforts carried out in the developing countries of Latin America; and (3) attempts to bridge the gap in information technology between the developed and developing countries. The analysis will look at three basic media: the printed word, the online databases and CD-ROM. As part of this analysis, barriers will be identified which make it more difficult in the Third World to utilize the new technologies. Some recommendations will be presented as to how to surmount these barriers. The paper will conclude with an annotated list of databases being compiled and used in Latin American.