Title: THE 2007 INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY SURVEY IN LATINAMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Abstract: This paper summarises the results of the 2007 UNESCO Institute for Statistics/ IFLA/ISO library survey which was conducted across Latin America and the Caribbean.UIS is a founder member of the Partnership for the Measurement of ICTs for Development the official international body responsible for the statistical aspects of the follow up to the World Summit on the Information Society.The priority for the culture team at the Institute is the revision of the 1986 UNESCO framework for cultural statistics, while in communications the team is working on international statistics for the use of ICTs in Education, and information literacy.The 2007 library survey has collected statistics on libraries in each of the Latin American subregions; Central America, Caribbean, South America.The questionnaire covered both public libraries and higher education libraries but most responses concerned public libraries only.A mixed response was obtained to 'new topics' such as; internet connections, e-books, and database access.The papers discusses the lessons learnt from the survey, including where response rates or definitions might be improved as well as areas where there is simply a lack of data.The potential for an international survey of library statistics will be revisited, as well as consideration of the minimum statistical reporting requirement for a functioning national library system.