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20 January 1992
Doc. 6545
1403-15/1/92-4-E
Report
on the preservation of libraries and scientific archives
in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe
(Rapporteur: Ms SZELÉNYI, Hungary, Alliance of Young Democrats)
Summary
Libraries and archives in Central and Eastern Europe are in a situation where they risk a serious lack of continuity if not irreplaceable loss.
The problem of how to deal with political archives should be rapidly solved by appropriate legislation that would protect both the right to privacy and the right to information.
Most other problems are of a financial nature and the countries in Central and Eastern Europe must adopt policies to ensure that libraries and archives are kept up-to-date in the present period of economic reorganisation. International
co-operation can play an important role by assisting these countries in the definition and implementation of such policies.
I. DRAFT RECOMMENDATION
1. The democratic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe affects all society. The political opening offers a wide scope to free thought and exchange of opinion and the acceleration of scientific work. In spite of this, scientific research and development is struggling for survival, together with the scientific public collections which serve as their basis.
2. The current lack of financing in Central and Eastern Europe does not only mean that a smaller stock will be purchased at present but leads to gaps that cannot be compensated in the future. In the long run this situation would endanger the quality of scientific and educational work, and therefore affect the education of future generations and their supply of information.
3. Scientific research and development is a long-term investment, indispensable for all societies, and cannot function without a wide range of libraries, archives, museums and other centres to collect and provide information.
4. Central and East European countries have inherited public collections that are both economically and politically different. Nowadays this is compounded by differing economic potential.
5. From the beginning of the changes a positive development has been observed, started by library workers, to save and to reorganise the collections.
6. The first and most serious problem is that the measures taken by the new régimes to fight economic recession have reduced central support for public libraries and archives.
7. With the reorganisation and decentralisation of the network of libraries and archives, control has passed to the newly-formed local authorities which do not yet have the resources necessary even for their own maintenance expenses.
8. Due to the lack of money, the libraries and archives have reduced their activity of developing their stocks, which can only be preserved by facing serious difficulties. In the economically under developed countries the most basic technical facilities are not available.
9. Only those libraries and archives which have broad international connections have a chance of maintaining their standards and certain of them have had to close.
10. The integration, into the present structures, of the libraries, archives and collections of the institutions of the former communist party régimes is giving rise to professional and political problems.
11. The situation is especially difficult in East German areas, where the previous personnel and material stock is seriously reduced, but it is rapidly deteriorating also in the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
12. Privatisation and reprivatisation affects the buildings of several libraries and scientific archives, so that many institutions are threatened with eviction. Due to the compensation laws, the archive workers have to face huge burdens when the available resources are lessened.
13. The contradictions arising from the change of régime are not of a political character. Due to the general economic recession and the rearrangement of the network, the fate of libraries and scientific archives is unsafe. The network of libraries which serves as the background to educational and scientific activity might be treated as economically marginal, and this might develop irreplaceable defects which endanger the quality of scientific and educational work.
14. The deterioration of the scientific archives represents also a serious loss for the European cultural heritage as the creation of archives of the documents of this unique political transformation will later be impossible.
15. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. call upon governments of the democratising Central and
East European countries
a. to act responsibly in the case of every investment affecting the future of high level educational and research work and the network of libraries and archives serving the relevant institutes,
b. to pass legislation concerning museums and archives as soon as possible and with a view to facilitating research while protecting the personal rights of victims;
ii. call upon its committees and the professional organisations
in member states to organise expert conferences, seminars and exchanges to contribute to the professional training of their Central and East European colleagues and to the application of the latest technology;
iii. call upon the Council of Europe member states:
a. to make possible the development of the necessary infrastructure for libraries and archives;
b. to draw the attention of their national scientific and
university institutions to contact their East European partner organisations and to encourage exchanges with them;
c. to put pressure on the publishers and foundations
sending aid to institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, so that they ask the opinion of these institutions on their needs and give assistance accordingly.
16. The Assembly calls on the International Federation of Libraries and Archives (IFLA), the League of European Research Libraries (LIBER) the Council of National Archives (CNA), the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI) and other similar institutions to encourage actively their connections with other organisations which are not yet members.
17. It also calls on the European Conference of Rectors (CRE) and other European university institutions to include the preservation of libraries and archives in their programmes of co-operation with Central and Eastern Europe.
18. The Assembly emphasises:
i. that the treasures of the Central and East European countries'
libraries and archives are organic parts of the European cultural heritage, the responsibility for which is shared by all member states;
ii. that the mechanism of European integration can be effective and successful only if collective action and collaboration develop among the partners from the outset;
iii. that the availability of libraries and archives to the general public and to journalists and researchers in particular is essential for the free flow of information and will be indispensable for writing the recent history of Europe.
II. EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
by Ms Szelényi
Introduction
The political and economic transformation going on throughout Central and Eastern Europe will probably be long and full of difficulties as its goal is to transform unworkable systems based on centralised control into effective and prosperous economies and politically crippling systems in an environment suitable for free and creative human life.
We might think that the political opening offers a wide scope for free thought, exchange of opinion, and the acceleration of scientific work. However scientists today have to face several new difficulties in Central and Eastern Europe where research and development struggles for life in most areas.
Scientific research and development is a long term investment which is indispensable for all societies, and it cannot function without a wide range of libraries, archives, museums and other centres to collect and provide information. Passing over to a market economy has led to levels of economic recession in the countries of Eastern Europe which have forced institutions for collecting and archiving information, as well as those for scientific research, to overcome the serious lack of money. In addition, the process of reorganisation of institutional and constitutional structures is being affected by several conflict - producing factors, which are preventing it from going smoothly.
The preservation and development of the stocks of libraries, archives and museums is indispensable for future scientists and scholars because losses could be irreplaceable. The effort required will be enormous.
The situation in the past
The Central and East European countries have inherited institutions with varying standards and policies. In certain countries, where a stiffer version of the communist dictatorship was working, libraries,document archives and museums were deeply politicised institutions working as the depositories of socialist ideology, and in the meantime serving human research and education. This was not so significant in other countries (for example, Poland and Hungary). The archives in the stiffer dictatorships were under the control of a police-ministry-like institution, the Ministry of the Interior, while in Hungary they were under the Ministry of Education. Due to this, the stock of libraries and other collections, and the opportunities for conducting research were rather different. In the libraries of stiffer dictatorships, long "forbidden lists" blocked the acquirement of a great deal of scientific and literary works, which were therefore inaccessible for scientists and ordinary citizens. Enormous gaps developed in the stock of collections. In Poland and Hungary, on the other hand, the restricted materials were gradually opened first to scientists, then for the general public, and even the writings of exiles and local samizdat literature became more or less accessible in libraries in the last decade. Work in the archives was quite free in Hungary except for the party archives and only the taboo subjects were excluded from scientific research (for example, the Soviet-Hungarian connection.)
The destructive effects of the system have appeared not only in the stock of libraries, but also in the quality of research. The professional association of librarians - except for the latter two countries - was allowed to be renewed only in 1989. Before that, their working had been forbidden, or impossible for other reasons. In Romania even the librarian training at the universities started only in 1990 after 15 years. The lack of professional and in-service training, and the neglect of scientists' interests have been harmful to those working to maintain libraries and public records. Considering this, the enthusiasm of the people taking care of the archives is impressive.
The relatively underdeveloped economy has left its mark on the condition of public collections and especially on the standard of their services. The infrastructure of these institutes relies on techniques which are far below the standards of those in the West, and development in this area has varied in different countries according to the economic situation. While in Czechoslovakia and Hungary computer systems got under way, in other countries the library services often went on without the help of such basic items as copiers, electronic typewriters and microfilm readers. Even the technical possibilities available were limited by political considerations. The photocopier, and in Romania even the typewriter, were considered to be a dangerous instrument in the hands of the enemies of the system. In many places it was very difficult to preserve the physical condition of collections.
These problems were made even more difficult by problems such as the location of the collections. Professional values were neglected in several cases when these institutes were placed in buildings unsuited for the purpose. Part of the archive of Budapest was kept in the cellar of the Basilica for decades. The Czech National Library is still in a Jesuit monastery in the Klementium, and the Romanian National Library of Bucharest is in the Exchange Palace.
It is clear that the nations of Central and Eastern Europe inherited public collections of both politically and economically different quality after the changing of the system. This difference is compounded by differing economic potential.
The problems of the present
Since the beginning of the changes a positive development has been observed, started by library workers, with the assistance of other interested professions, to save, reorganise and develop the collections. However its success so far has been limited by an increasingly acute lack of resources.
The first and most serious problem is that the measures taken by the new régimes to fight economic recession have, as with culture and science, reduced support for public collections. While the state and the local governments no longer finance the collections, the market is not strong enough to sponsor research and information acquisition, and new forms of patronage have not yet developed, since the private sector is quite small.
With the reorganisation and decentralisation of the network of collections, control has passed to the newly formed local governments, which do not yet have the resources even for their own maintenance expenses.
Worst affected are the small local libraries and museums, and the libraries of trade unions or bankrupt companies. In countries like Czechoslovakia and Hungary, which are in a better economic situation, the bigger libraries and the collections in universities, research institutes and parliament can keep going somehow, although even they have to manage from a smaller amount of money and they have to find alternative sources in order to maintain their quality standards. In countries which are in a worse situation,where even the national institutes are going bankrupt, publications cannot be issued, (in Romania, Bulgaria and even in Poland!), and they have no opportunities, or very few, to extend their stocks. Sometimes they get new material through their crumbling international exchange network, but in most cases these exchanges are one-sided: after changing over to foreign currency, the exchange of several former publications has become impossible. In the economically underdeveloped countries there are a number of very serious cases. Paper is in very short supply in Bulgaria and newspapers are produced on such poor quality material that they may not be capable of being preserved. Albania has not published a scientific periodical for years. Scientific collections must be reconstructed in Romania, since they are full of the Ceausescu family's worthless so-called scientific works, and there is no money for acquisition.
Only those libraries which have broad international connections have a chance of maintaining their standards and widening their stock to any extent. This is possible only in those countries where there has been a chance for a more or less open network of contacts. University and research institute libraries and collections are in a better position.
Another new set of problems arise from the restructuring of public collections. All the ex-socialist countries have specialised archives and museums of the modern era for the history of the so-called labour movement which is, in fact , the history of the communist party. These institutes, which had previously plenty of money on their own right,have since 1989 been gradually closed down or amalgamated with the archives of modern history. These changes have not always gone smoothly, because the institutes mentioned above had not only collected material only for their declared purpose, but had often penetrated into personal spheres. They were neither solely party institutes, nor state ones. Due to the speed of the changes, the selection of the materials was not adequate, and it cannot be excluded that some of the compromising documents of the recent past have been destroyed for political reasons. Generally, the curators and archivists try to select the material gathered using professional criteria. They were less influenced by political motives. The main problem was rather that new, politically uncompromised persons were put into leading positions, for which they were professionally less prepared. This process was even stronger in countries that had formerly been more centralised. Nevertheless there has recently been a kind of rearrangement to give preference to those with professional knowledge. The problem is that due to the narrowness of their source material, the collections can hardly , if at all, adapt themselves to the new demands. After the changing of the régime the archives must overcome requests arising from claims for compensation and tending towards revealing former proprietorship. They may also have to reveal political offenders of the past. A campaign which carries the danger of repoliticising the institutes, and demanding much extra work , is rapidly spreading. Legislation on museums and archives should therefore be passed as soon as possible and with a view to facilitating research while protecting the personal rights of victims. We must look specifically at the East German situation, which in many respects is different from that in other East European countries. The structure of the scientific institutes, libraries and archives of the eastern and the western part of Germany is very different, and this huge task of harmonisation began in 1990. West German politicians suspected that scientific research in the eastern part was strongly politicised. Though this was not quite unfounded, it has been exaggerated as all generalisations. The Ministry of Education has established so-called evaluation committees which evaluate the museums and libraries of the eastern part, and let work only those which were found fit to be maintained. At least half of the people working in the cultural sphere were dismissed. The financing of the scientific institutes which are being maintained is far less than that of similar institutions in the western part. Since they do not get enough money to issue their publications, they often waste away. A lot of workers of the merged institutes are often dismissed too, their publications are drawn out from the Eastern-European exchange mechanism, and this hitherto fruitful system is ruined. It often happens that the Germans ask for currency for the books which had hitherto been sent through the book-exchange system. In another case an ex-East-German institute is in need of assistance: since the publications of the Scientific Academy of Berlin were stopped,it is fighting for survival, and in order to be able to develop its stock, it requires books from its former East-European partners. Most libraries have been put under the control of the reorganised federal states instead of their earlier centralised arrangement, and they are facing the same difficulties as other decentralised institutions entrusted to the maintenance of the new local governments in other East European countries.
The privatisation of state companies and the changing of ownership seems to be a big difficulty. The former proprietors' rights of ownership are being upheld in many countries, and so churches and other associations are getting back their former buildings, some of which are libraries and archives. Several institutions are threatened with eviction because in most cases the national and local governments are unable to provide proper buildings for them. As well as the compensation of former proprietors, privatisation is in progress which endangers collections where it is conducted without proper safeguards. The new Hungarian Central Archive, which occupies a much frequented part of Buda Castle, in Budapest, is threatened with eviction because the building will probably be sold to establish a new entertainment centre, and there is no other suitable building.
Conclusion
To sum up, the contradictions arising from the changing of the régime are not, with some exceptions, basically of a political character. Those working in the libraries in all of the countries concerned are making efforts to ensure that the reorganisation of libraries is established on a strictly professional basis. The ever - worsening problems of the present are primarily economic in character.
It is an inescapable fact that the fate of the public archives largely depends on the research workers' determination, on the spirit of enterprise of local governments, on the international contacts of the institutions, on the ingenuity of the workers and on the economic potential of the responsible organisations or governments. This dependence arises from the fact that the new régimes are not in possession of a mature policy regarding scientific research and the maintenance of archives. It has not been properly realised that the network of libraries which serve as the background of educational and scientific activity must not be treated as economically marginal if their stocks are not to develop irreplaceable defects which might endanger educational and scientific work in the long term, and the training and information resources of future generations.
The deterioration of scientific archives would represent an irreplaceable loss not only for Central and East European countries but also for West European countries if the documents of this unique period of history were not preserved. In addition, it would not be possible to produce works of reference on the development of the countries concerned.
Proposals
The Council of Europe can play a great part in stimulating the processes of preserving and expanding the libraries of Central and East European countries, either directly through the work of its own committees or indirectly by stimulating co-operation within international institutions such as the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the League of European Research Libraries (LIBER), which was created with the help of the Council of Europe and has began to show concern for the situation in Central and Eastern Europe, the Council of National Archives (CNA), the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI) and other professional organisations. Member states can also be urged to promote and encourage direct bilateral contacts between, East and West scientific, literary and university institutions.
The Assembly emphasises that the treasure of the Central and East European countries' libraries are organic parts of the European cultural heritage, responsibility for which is shared by all member states and that the mechanism of European integration can be effective and successful only if collective action and collaboration develop among the partners right at the beginning.
Reporting committee: Committee on Culture and Education.
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: None.
Reference to committee: Doc. 6330, Reference No. 1707 of 22 November 1990.
Draft recommendation: Unanimously adopted by the committee on
9 January 1992.
Members of the committee: Mr Tummers (Chairman), Mrs Fischer, Mr de Puig, (Vice-Chairmen), MM. Arnalds, Berg, Berger, Berti, Cem, Conceiçăo, Dhaille (Alternate: Beix), Mrs Err, MM. Esteves, Faulds (Alternate: Parry), Fillon, Ghalanos, Mrs Grendelmeier,
Mr Lars Gustafsson, Mrs Haglund, Mrs Hawlicek, Mr. Hunault,
Sir Russell Johnston, Mrs Just, MM Karhan, Liapis, Lopez Henares, Mrs Merkouri, MM. Mezzapesa, Monfils (Alternate: Noerens), Müller, O'Keeffe, Mrs Parkanovŕ, MM. Pawkowicz, Pécriaux, Rauti, Mrs Ryynanen, MM. Schädler, Scovacricchi, Soell, Speed, Ms Szelényi, Mrs Ugrin, MM. Verbeek, Zammit Dimech
NB: The names of those members who took part in the vote are underlined.
Secretaries to the committee: MM. Grayson and Ary