Libraries in Times of War, Revolution, and Social Change

2007

The pillage and burning of Iraq's National Library and its National Museum in the spring of 2003 sent cultural shock waves around the world. "Stuff happens," Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary for Defense, declared offhandedly, dismissing these events. 1 But such events, and the variety of responses that they evoke, raise a number of urgent historical questions to which the articles in this volume represent tentative answers. The collections and services of libraries and related agencies, such as museums and archives, are important components of social and institutional memory. They are both physical places of intellectual work and highly symbolic places. They represent national and cultural identity and aspirations. They are venues for individualized access to educational and cultural resources. They are also part of an infrastructural continuum for disseminating information, forming opinion, and providing literate recreation. At one end of the infrastructural continuum lie telecommunications, mass media, and more recently the Internet and the World Wide Web. Libraries have traditionally been situated at the other end of this continuum as places of access to the historical diversity of opinion represented in cumulating collections of printed materials, though in the digital era they are clearly moving to a more central position on this continuum.

What do we lose when we lose a library, A conference about the future challenges of libraries. 9 - 10 - 11 September, 2015

On August 25, 1914, the German army deliberately burned the university's library of Leuven along with 300,000 medieval books and manuscripts. On January 28, 2013, Islamist rebels set the library of Timbuktu with thousands ancient manuscripts on fire. Many books of this library were about Islam. On January 9, 2015, the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris shocked the world. It was seen as an assault on free speech. Thousands of people marched in Paris to defend democracy and freedom of expression. Meanwhile the Flemish Government discharges the municipalities of the obligation to organize libraries. In all the discussions during the last weeks, nearly no one established clearly the relation between the democratic right of free expression and the importance of libraries, both the large and the small, as sources of knowledge and opinions. One of the characteristics of totalitarian ideologies and regimes is the destruction of problematic information and limiting free speech through control of the written culture. In our changing world, we are convinced that we have full access to all information thanks to the Internet. But we often forget that this information is particularly superficial and at the same time easy to manipulate. Within this context, the meaning of a library, especially a national heritage library such as the Royal Library of Belgium, as a repository for intellectual and cultural heritage remains of exceptional importance. The aim of my contribution is to develop this idea by means of the rich collection of newspapers preserved in the Royal Library of Belgium. These newspapers are not meant to be kept and their future is threatened by acidification. To preserve them, they are systematically digitized. The importance of newspapers lies in the richness of information: political, ideological, economic, social, cultural, and so on. Newspapers not only provide information, but also offer a contemporaneous interpretation and comment upon events. And because of this they also outline the history of (or the absence of) freedom of speech. So, our archive of newspaper helps critical citizens to inform themselves about the contemporary history, just like literature, philosophical or historical books, and so on. What do we lose when we lose our libraries? We lose an instrument of democracy! A democracy needs cultural and intellectual education. Cultural education is focused on personal and social development, on raising awareness, on acquiring the competence and willingness to participate in social life. From a social point of view the importance of cultural education cannot be underestimated. Cultural education shapes our identity and makes us democratic beings. This being said, we must define libraries, as well as archives, as repositories of heritage and knowledge, as institutions which form the basis for a healthy democracy. So, I am convinced that in addition to scientific research one of the most important tasks for the educational activities of the KBR is in particular the enhancement of cultural competence that everyone needs to be able to participate as a critical citizen in public life.

IFLA Journal, 2019

2020

Libraries, archives and museums have traditionally been a part of the public sphere's infrastructure. They have been so by providing public access to culture and knowledge, by being agents for enlightenment and by being public meeting places in their communities. Digitization and globalization poses new challenges in relation to upholding a sustainable public sphere. Can libraries, archives and museums contribute in meeting these challenges?

Insights: The UKSG Journal, 2022

The article considers the work of libraries and archives in a broad historical and contemporary context of conflict and war. Destroying libraries has been part of warfare for millennia, and so has the looting of great written treasures. The article looks at the impact of current conflicts on people's access to books and reading, and efforts to protect and restore libraries and create opportunities to read, from Afghanistan to Cameroon, Mali to Serbia and Ukraine to Iraq.

Alexandria, 2011

Drawing on the experience of the Iraq National Library and Archive (INLA) since 2003, the paper argues that at a time of national crisis cultural and educational institutions must play a cultural and social role in order to strengthen national unity and the social fabric of society. It examines how the former Ba'ath regime controlled INLA with the aim of imposing cultural uniformity and ideological submission. The paper goes on to shed light on the difficulties and challenges that INLA has been confronting since the downfall of the former regime. The new policies of INLA are discussed, emphasizing their receptiveness and flexibility. In the final section, the paper examines how INLA reacted to the outbreak of the civil war in Baghdad during the period 2006–2007 and the vital role played by its librarians and archivists in combating internal divisions, political extremism and religious fanaticism.

Vjesnik bibliotekara Hrvatske, 2020

The research on which the contributions in this anthology is based would not have been possible to undertake without the generous research grant our project received from the KULMEDIA program of The Research Council of Norway. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the council for their support. We would also like to express our gratitude to colleagues from the international LIS community who volunteered to peer review the chapters in this volume, thereby contributing in important ways to the quality of the papers presented in this book. Our gratitude also goes to the respondents who took the time to fill in questionnaires and take part in qualitative interviews, all the LAM-organizations who opened their doors to us and the users who accepted our presence when doing our observations.

2005

Portal: Libraries and The Academy, 2001

As an increasingly virtual society anticipates the decline of print, it looks to the keepers of the written record to maintain continuity with its past. Libraries cannot formulate intelligent collection and preservation policies without taking into account current perceptions of the fragility of historical memory. Understanding the symbolic role they play in the cultural imaginary will help libraries to map a future that addresses public concerns about the preservation of the historical record.

Libri, 2000

Collective memory is an important feature of group identity. The collective memory, or common history of a group, is in many cases represented by its cultural institutions, including libraries. During the twentieth century, many instances of genocide, or attacks on groups, occurred. This continues today. These attacks often include aggression against the cultural institutions which, as evidence of a separate cultural identity, are seen to give political legitimacy to the group under attack. This article sees the many instances of premeditated attacks on libraries as integral parts of genocidal campaigns. Examples from the Second World War are explored,