Creating bridges to prosperity in the Asia and Pacific Region: the ADB Library Experience

Forty seven years ago, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was established to provide loans, grants and technical assistance to spur economic development in Asia and the Pacific region. The ADB Library was established in the same year, with a core collection of about 300 books on economics and finance, donated by governments of its member countries, financial institutions and international organizations. Soon enough, the ADB library had a huge collection of print resources on the economies and cultures of the region, making it a premier source of information in the region, at that time. The world has gone through tremendous changes since then. In particular, the Internet has brought about an information revolution that could have equalled or surpassed the impact of Gutenberg’s invention of the movable printing press. Electronic publishing has become so pervasive that the monolithic libraries are threatened to extinction and have to adapt to the certainty of changes in order to stay relevant. The structure of ADB has also changed with the establishment of field offices in addition to its Headquarters in the Philippines with corresponding expansion of staff who are very mobile. The needs of ADB’s developing member countries have also changed from mainly infrastructure finance to technology transfer, policy advice, and actionable knowledge. The ADB library has to be in synch with these changes to be able to support ADB’s operations. Therefore, this paper will cover the following: background and nature of ADB; increased operational focus and enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing within the organization and among the stakeholders; the role and initiatives of the ADB Library in knowledge management and dissemination; promoting open access to information through ADB publications; and lessons learned that might be useful to other libraries.