Libraries in War Zones: a Very Swift Overview

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Libraries in War Zones a Very Swift Overview

• presented by Anne Britton
• Serials Electronic Resources Cataloger,
• Baker Library, Harvard Business School
• email abritton_at_hbs.edu

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• 1. Libraries are a target
• 2. Some library disasters are preventable
• 3. We can do much to aid libraries in
  international conflict zones

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• 4. When helping, seek to do no harm
• 5. Beware distortions in the news media
• 6. Think broadly

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• National University Library of Bosnia and
  Herzegovina
• Sarajevo
• destroyed in 1992
• Source Andras Riedlmayer. Killing Memory
  Bosnia's Cultural Heritage and Its Destruction

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• Dar al Kutub wa al Wathaiq
• Maktabat al Awqaf,
• Iraq
• destroyed in 2003
• Source MELA Committee on Iraqi Libraries

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• "damnatio memoriae"
• the eradication of all records of existence.

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• Mekhitarist Library,
• San Lazzaro,
• Venice,
• Italy
• est. in 1717
• Source digilander.libero.it/ venexian/ita/monaste
  ri.htm

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• E. Gene Smith,
• Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center,
• New York,
• New York
• began ca.1968
• Source Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center

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• Linen Hall Library,
• Belfast,
• Northern Ireland
• began collecting political ephemera in 1968
• Source CAIN, University of Ulster

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• John Dean
• Cornell University Library, Conservation
  Department
• Conservation Stabilization of Palm Leaf
  Parabaik Manuscripts
• 1997
• Source Cornell University Library, Department of
  Preservation and Collection Maintenance

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• Afghanistan Digital Library
• New York University
• afghanistandl.nyu.edu
• est. 2002

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• International Committee of the Blue Shield
• www.ifla.org/blueshield.htm1
• est. 1996

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• IFLA Core Activity on Preservation and
  Conservation
• Safeguarding our Documentary Heritage
• 2000

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• 1919
• Treaty of Versailles

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• Dar al Kutub wa al Wathaiq
• Maktabat al Awqaf,
• Iraq
• 2003

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• Society of American Archivists
• Iraqi Archives Links
• www.archivists.org/news/iraqi_archives.asp
• 2003

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Arenas of action

• a. Collecting
• b. Preservation
• c. Planning
• d. Lobbying
• e. Education
• f. Developing the profession
• g. Restoration

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• Anne Morgan,
• American Committee for Devastated France
• est. 1917
• Source Schlesinger Library on the History of
  Women in America, Radcliffe Institute

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• Libraries are a target
• 2. Some library disasters are preventable
• 3. We can do much to aid libraries in
  international conflict zones
• 4. When helping, seek to do no harm
• 5. Beware distortions in the news media
• 6. Think broadly

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• Bibliotheca Alexandrina,
• Alexandria,
• Egypt
• inaugurated in 2002
• Source Bibliotheca Alexandrina

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• Leuven City Library,
• Belgium
• rebuilt 1921-1928
• University Library,
• Louvain la Neuve,
• Belgium
• est. 1968
• Source Stad Leuven

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Additional resources

• www.people.hbs.edu/abritton/war.html

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the end