English Corner
The Italian State Archives, together with the Sopraintendenze Archivistiche Regionali (the regionally-based advisory and inspection service for the country's entire network of archives), are facing deep cuts in funding from the national government, ranging from 40 to 60 percent of their budgets. Luciano Violante, an opposition leader in the lower house of parliament, denounced the cuts during a parliamentary debate last week, saying that they would prevent the State Archives and the Sopraintendenze from paying even their power and phone bills, thus placing their valuable collections in danger. Within months or even weeks, he said, most of Italy's State Archives could be forced to close their doors to researchers. Similar concerns had been voiced earlier by a group of archive directors, who on 9 April organized a protest in Florence demanding talks with Giuliano Urbani, the national minister for Cultural Heritage, to discuss the proposed cuts. [...] In a statement released early in May, the Section of Professional Associations of the International Council on Archives (ICA/SPA), representing 70 professional associations and over 70,000 archival and records management professionals worldwide, pointed out that without sufficient funding for Italian archives, "government will lose its operational memory and will be less effective; Italian citizens will lose their fundamental right of access to personal and administrative information; researchers worldwide will lose access to Italy's archival heritage; and Italy's pre-eminent place in world culture and thought will be endangered."
Andante.com via Librarian.net
The supporting statement of the Society of Hellenic Archives can be found on it's website.
Andante.com via Librarian.net
The supporting statement of the Society of Hellenic Archives can be found on it's website.
KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 29. Mai 2003, 00:11 - Rubrik: English Corner
Yesterday launched: The Einstein Archives Online Website provides the first online access to Albert Einstein?s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts held by the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and to an extensive Archival Database, constituting the material record of one of the most influential intellects in the modern era.
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 20. Mai 2003, 23:26 - Rubrik: English Corner
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A number of valuable historic documents stolen from some of Israel's leading research institutions, including the Weizmann and
Jabotinsky institutes, are being offered for sale in the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Antiquities expert John Reznikoff, who owns and operates University Archives, an antiquities dealership in Westport,
Connecticut, told the Post on Monday that "all the major archives in Israel are being looted, and the items are ending up here in
the US. Jewish culture is being sold for pennies on the dollar, and there's a general malaise at the institutions in Israel about the
situation.
Read more: Museum Security Reports
Jabotinsky institutes, are being offered for sale in the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Antiquities expert John Reznikoff, who owns and operates University Archives, an antiquities dealership in Westport,
Connecticut, told the Post on Monday that "all the major archives in Israel are being looted, and the items are ending up here in
the US. Jewish culture is being sold for pennies on the dollar, and there's a general malaise at the institutions in Israel about the
situation.
Read more: Museum Security Reports
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 13. Mai 2003, 22:44 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Graham Shaw, Director of the British Library Oriental & India Office Collections, has posted on IFLANet an
"assessment of damage to Libraries and Archives in Iraq", which gives a useful concise summary of what is known (and not known) so far about the fate of printed books, MSS & archival collections in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and elsewhere. It can be found at
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/admin/iraq0205.htm
[Iraqcrisis List]
Excerpts:
National Archives of Iraq (which shared the same building as the National Library): containing documents from the Ottoman period onwards - size of contents unknown (no published catalogue
traced) – likewise looted and burnt, but again some material at least (e.g. Ottoman cadastral registers) reported to have been evacuated beforehand and to be safe [...]
[Basra] Archives of the Court of Justice: contain the Ottoman period documents on the Basra region - nothing known [...]
[Conclusion] Most serious 'irreplaceable' loss = National Archives - probably some documents from the Ottoman period will be duplicated in archives in Turkey - some documents from the British period will also be found in BL (India Office Records) - but by no means all.
See also the French "APERCU SUR L}ETAT DES BIBLIOTHEQUES ET DEPOTS D}ARCHIVES IRAKIENS AU TERME DE LA GUERRE D}AVRIL 2003" in the same Mailing List.
"assessment of damage to Libraries and Archives in Iraq", which gives a useful concise summary of what is known (and not known) so far about the fate of printed books, MSS & archival collections in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and elsewhere. It can be found at
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/admin/iraq0205.htm
[Iraqcrisis List]
Excerpts:
National Archives of Iraq (which shared the same building as the National Library): containing documents from the Ottoman period onwards - size of contents unknown (no published catalogue
traced) – likewise looted and burnt, but again some material at least (e.g. Ottoman cadastral registers) reported to have been evacuated beforehand and to be safe [...]
[Basra] Archives of the Court of Justice: contain the Ottoman period documents on the Basra region - nothing known [...]
[Conclusion] Most serious 'irreplaceable' loss = National Archives - probably some documents from the Ottoman period will be duplicated in archives in Turkey - some documents from the British period will also be found in BL (India Office Records) - but by no means all.
See also the French "APERCU SUR L}ETAT DES BIBLIOTHEQUES ET DEPOTS D}ARCHIVES IRAKIENS AU TERME DE LA GUERRE D}AVRIL 2003" in the same Mailing List.
KlausGraf - am Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2003, 23:35 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Notlong.com lists free websites which can take a long URL and give you back a shorter URL without requiring registration or showing ad banners.
KlausGraf - am Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2003, 21:41 - Rubrik: English Corner
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We now have confirmation that the largest Iraqi MSS collection, in what was known as the Saddam Manuscripts Library in Baghdad, is safe. It contains more than 40,000 Arabic, Turkish, Persian & Kurdish MSS, including the collections formerly in the Iraq Museum as well as many other private and mosque collections. [...] At the same time, there have been press reports that significant
parts of the collections in the National Library and archives were
also saved from the fire and looting.
Geoffrey Roper in H-TURK
More messages on this topic see in the Iraqcrisis Mailinglist Archives.
parts of the collections in the National Library and archives were
also saved from the fire and looting.
Geoffrey Roper in H-TURK
More messages on this topic see in the Iraqcrisis Mailinglist Archives.
KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 1. Mai 2003, 15:52 - Rubrik: English Corner
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SEPIA Workshop on management of photographic collections
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 16-22 October 2003
Librarians, archivists and curators in charge of photographic materials need to know about the role of new technology in collection management. Digital imaging offers unprecedented
opportunities for access to historical materials. But how can it be combined with established preservation methods in an integrated strategy, to ensure optimal access today as well as in the future?
More information here.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 16-22 October 2003
Librarians, archivists and curators in charge of photographic materials need to know about the role of new technology in collection management. Digital imaging offers unprecedented
opportunities for access to historical materials. But how can it be combined with established preservation methods in an integrated strategy, to ensure optimal access today as well as in the future?
More information here.
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 29. April 2003, 22:36 - Rubrik: English Corner
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The Library of Congress stands today as the embodiment of our national memory. Imagine a horde of vandals
burning it and the National Archives while an alien army guarded the FBI headquarters and the Treasury
Department, and you may have some notion of how Iraqis felt when American troops erected a protective
cordon around the ministries of oil and of the interior while permitting looters to demolish the National
Library and ransack the National Museum. [...]
Few people appreciate the fragility of civilizations and the fragmentary character of our knowledge about
them. Most students believe that what they read in history books corresponds to what humanity lived
through in the past, as if we have recovered all the facts and assembled them in the correct order, as if we
have it under control, got it down in black on white, and packaged it securely between a textbook's covers.
That illusion quickly dissipates for anyone who has worked in libraries and archives. You pick up a scent in
a published source, find a reference in a catalogue, follow a paper trail through boxes of manuscripts -- but
what do you discover in the end? Only a few fragments that somehow survived as evidence of what other
human beings experienced in other times and places. How much has disappeared under char and rubble?
We do not even know the extent of our ignorance.
Imperfect as they are, therefore, libraries and archives, museums and excavations, scraps of paper and
shards of pottery provide all we can consult in order to reconstruct the worlds we have lost. The loss of a
library or a museum can mean the loss of contact with a vital strain of humanity. That is what has happened
in Baghdad.
Princeton historian Robert Darnton in the Washington Post - worth to read in full!
burning it and the National Archives while an alien army guarded the FBI headquarters and the Treasury
Department, and you may have some notion of how Iraqis felt when American troops erected a protective
cordon around the ministries of oil and of the interior while permitting looters to demolish the National
Library and ransack the National Museum. [...]
Few people appreciate the fragility of civilizations and the fragmentary character of our knowledge about
them. Most students believe that what they read in history books corresponds to what humanity lived
through in the past, as if we have recovered all the facts and assembled them in the correct order, as if we
have it under control, got it down in black on white, and packaged it securely between a textbook's covers.
That illusion quickly dissipates for anyone who has worked in libraries and archives. You pick up a scent in
a published source, find a reference in a catalogue, follow a paper trail through boxes of manuscripts -- but
what do you discover in the end? Only a few fragments that somehow survived as evidence of what other
human beings experienced in other times and places. How much has disappeared under char and rubble?
We do not even know the extent of our ignorance.
Imperfect as they are, therefore, libraries and archives, museums and excavations, scraps of paper and
shards of pottery provide all we can consult in order to reconstruct the worlds we have lost. The loss of a
library or a museum can mean the loss of contact with a vital strain of humanity. That is what has happened
in Baghdad.
Princeton historian Robert Darnton in the Washington Post - worth to read in full!
KlausGraf - am Mittwoch, 23. April 2003, 01:01 - Rubrik: English Corner
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H-Oralhist, a member of the H-Net, Humanities & Social Sciences On-Line initiative, is a network for scholars and professionals active in studies related to oral history. It is affiliated with the Oral History Association.
KlausGraf - am Sonntag, 20. April 2003, 23:54 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Although the question of the ransacking of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad has now
been quite well covered, writes Alastair Northedge in H-ISLAMART on Friday, there has been relatively little interest in the burning of the National Library and Archives. I was at the UNESCO meeting in
Paris on Thursday, and it was evident that the only real information available
is Robert Fisk's article of the 15th. It seems to me that the media need to be informed about what was in the Library and archives, so that they can focus on what the potential loss is, and how important they were.
As far as I understand it, the burnt buildings in Baghdad are:
1. The National Library, largely printed works and newspapers.
2. The National Archives, including Ottoman and 20th century documents.
3. The Ministry of Awqaf.
Can anyone say what the main points of the collections are, so that I can pass
on information to my contacts in the press?
been quite well covered, writes Alastair Northedge in H-ISLAMART on Friday, there has been relatively little interest in the burning of the National Library and Archives. I was at the UNESCO meeting in
Paris on Thursday, and it was evident that the only real information available
is Robert Fisk's article of the 15th. It seems to me that the media need to be informed about what was in the Library and archives, so that they can focus on what the potential loss is, and how important they were.
As far as I understand it, the burnt buildings in Baghdad are:
1. The National Library, largely printed works and newspapers.
2. The National Archives, including Ottoman and 20th century documents.
3. The Ministry of Awqaf.
Can anyone say what the main points of the collections are, so that I can pass
on information to my contacts in the press?
KlausGraf - am Sonntag, 20. April 2003, 23:41 - Rubrik: English Corner
noch kein Kommentar - Kommentar verfassen
