IGLOO Library

Thanks to Melissa Fraser, Content Services Specialist at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, for writing this article.

CIGI is a Canadian-based international research institution founded to address some of the world's most pressing governance challenges. CIGI strives to find and develop ideas for global change by studying, advising and networking with scholars, practitioners and governments on the character and desired reforms of multilateral governance. Through conferences, publications, public events and technology CIGI aims to raise the Canadian domestic capacity to effect change in public policy in Canada and around the world.

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I would like to introduce you to an exciting new free resource on global governance issues: The IGLOO Library. The IGLOO library is a completely digital, entirely open access online repository consisting of several unique collections on global governance issues. These collections were created to serve the needs of practitioners, researchers, academics, and students.

Collections

The Web Resources collection consists of an index of over 3 million websites on economics, international institutions, energy, international law, environment, peace & security, health, science & technology, humanitarian issues, and social & political development.

The Electronic Documents collection consists of over 5,000 PDF and word documents from our content partners. These content partners include research centres, universities, and non-governmental organizations such as the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS), the Brookings Institutions, International Crisis Group, Overseas Development Group (ODI), and the Parliamentary Centre. Electronic copies of these documents are stored within the library to ensure continued access and are protected by a creative commons license which allows for their distribution for non-commercial purposes provided that attribution is given to their authors and that no derivative works are created. In addition, metatags are applied to all of our electronic documents which allows for them to be retrieved in both simple and advanced library searches.

The News collection provides access to headlines from over 300 international news sources. The Country Profiles collection encyclopedic country overviews as well as links to relevant IGLOO library documents pertaining to the latest research on geographic coverage areas. In addition, we will be releasing several special collections over the next two years including the John Holmes library.

The IGLOO Library and You

You are welcome to access and use all of our electronic collections free of charge, twenty-four hours per day. We welcome you to add a link to the IGLOO library in your own catalogue or on your library website.

You may also wish to take advantage of some of the other tools available free of charge to members of the IGLOO network. IGLOO members receive access to citation and bookmarking tools. The Citation tool allows you to create citations and bibliographies with the click of a button using our automated citation tool. The Bookmarking Tool allows you to generate a list of your favorite IGLOO documents in your own private online space.

The IGLOO library could also serve as a platform for you to preserve and share your documents. You can submit publications and links to the library for public access to gain exposure for your host organization’s work. We are a young library and have been developing our collection through the generous document sharing of content partners. We are always searching for new partners who can provide us with new materials for our collections and ideas for information dissemination and preservation.

We bring a powerful set of networking tools to the table and invite other librarians to join us in finding ways to harness the power of electronic social networks to meet our joint information management needs. We are in the process of developing new tools and improving our collections and resources. We welcome your ideas for improving our library and facilitating information exchange within the IGLOO network.