1994 Highlights

Sabre Project Director Tania Vitvitsky (center) at launch of new program in Kyrgyz Republic, with (at left) Richard Piet, Assistant Dean, Kyrgyz-American School at Kyrgyz State University and interpreter; at right, Mira Jangaracheva, Deputy Mayor of Bishkek, and Kubanychbek Jakypbaev, Chief of Staff

• During 1994, Sabre received for distribution to the country programs 360,148 volumes, with a total fair market value of $10.3 million. Sabre's program is distinguished by the large proportion of advanced texts, with a high average value per book.

• New programs were set up during the year in two Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union--Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic--making a total of fifteen countries with established Sabre programs. The others are: Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. In addition, smaller special shipments of new books were sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Nepal and Turkmenistan, while a special collection of 5,000 volumes went to Leipzig in the former East Germany.

• The Reduced-Cost Journals Program, in its first year of full operation, received orders for over 400 three-year subscriptions from six countries. Estimated savings to libraries over the life of the subscriptions were more than $600,000. With libraries contributing a substantial amount of their own funds, this program is an example of Sabre's facilitating the transition from donations to market development.

• The Internet-based Technical Assistance Project (as it is now called), which was started in 1993, continued to grow. The newest component of the project involves the development of repositories, or archives, of full-text electronic documents in selected topic areas.