International Forum For Democratic Studies
In 1994, the International Forum for Democratic Studies established the Democracy Resource Center (DRC) to collect, organize, and disseminate information and analysis produced by and about the wide range of groups and organizations working to strengthen democracy around the world. The DRC also seeks to facilitate a genuinely multidirectional flow of information and ideas between developed and developing democracies, grant providers and recipients, and scholars and practitioners.
The DRC has three components:
Library and Archives: The library and archives house a collection of books, journals, grantee reports, audio and video cassettes, and other publications on democracy; a unique collection of materials produced by pro-democracy groups; documentation on the history of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and programs it has funded; and information on the activities of other democracy-building groups and organizations. These resources have been entered into an electronic catalog that currently contains 2,500 of the 4,000 titles in the library's holdings.
Democracy Promotion Grants Database: A database containing information on democracy-promotion grants has been created that permits users to search for information by various fields, including grantee, country, region, year, subject, project abstract, and grantee publications. The database contains information on over 1,700 grants made by NED from 1990 to the present, and information on grants by other organizations will soon be added.
Internet Access: The DRC has established an Internet World Wide Web site called DemocracyNet which can be accessed at http://www.ned.org. DemocracyNet gives users access to the full text of NED publications, including the International Forum's conference reports; the tables of contents of all issues and other material from the Forum's Joumal of Democracy; a catalog of Internet resources on democracy; information on the Forum's Visiting Fellows Program; selected grantee publications in full text; the DRC's electronic library catalog; and the DRC's democracy promotion grants database. In the future, electronic "discussion groups" on topics related to democracy will also be available.
For more information, please contact Allen Overland at (202) 293-0300 or by e-mail at allen@ned.org.
9 Nov 1995
Dear Colleague:
I am writing to announce that the Democracy Resource Center (DRC), part of the NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, has recently launched several new services that should be of interest to grantees. At the NED Fifth World Conference on Democracy held in Washington in May, 1995, many grantees expressed interest in receiving more information about democracy-promotion literature and activities. In addition, several grantees expressed the desire to network with one another via the computer. The DRC's new services, outlined below, will help meet both of those needs.
First, grantees with access to the Internet's World-Wide Web should visit the NED 's Web site, called DemocracyNet, located at http://www.ned.org. DemocracyNet now includes a database of NED grants from 1990 to the present. DemocracyNet also features several selected full-text grantee publications, a listing of all books and periodicals located in the DRC library in Washington, and links to other democracyrelated information on the Internet. For more information on the Democracy Resource Center, please refer to Annex I (attached). For those of you with e-mail capabilities only, you win soon receive information on the FTP archive and mailer. Thzs tool will enable those who do not have an Internet connection to access information on DemocracyNet with e-mail.
Second, the DRC has created an electronic mailing list (or a listserv) called Democracy News. An electronic mailing list is a way for individuals and groups vvith a common interest to exchange information via e-mail. Democracy News has been created by the DRC for sharing news and announcements among democracy activists, scholars and others working to promote democracy around the world. Like other mailing lists, Democracy News requires only e-mail capabilities to participate (a connection to the World-Wide Web is not required). To subscribe to Democracy News, simply send an e-mail message to majordomo@freedom.ned.org. On the first line in the body of the message, beginning at the left-hand margin, type subscribe Democracy News. You will receive a reply e-mail message explaining how you can post messages to Democracy News. More information on Democracy News can be found in Annex II (attached).
Finally, for your information, I have enclosed a resource manual on the Internet prepared for NED grantees (Annex III). It describes how the Internet works and how you can connect to it.
For our information, please complete and send back the enclosed information form. Also, do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail at allen@ned.org, by phone at (202) 293-0300, or by fax at (202) 293-0258 should you have any questions, comments or suggestions.
Yours sincerely,
Allen Overland
Librarian
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