The Estrel Congress Centre, left, and right and below, the Reading Room of the German Historical Museum, with a fold out scroll from a late 17th century book by Samuel von Pufendorf and a collection of banned books that librarians in the former East German Democratic Republic used to hide in cupboards which they called Giftschrӓnke (poison cupboards), which only high ranking party officials could access.
ANorwegian speaker explained how Norwegian public libraries are seen as key places for integration and that patrons have a right to access materials in their native tongue.
Issues – similar and different The issues European public libraries deal with contrast with those facing their British counterparts although there are also similarities, for exam- ple there are discussions on the use of volunteers and the negative effects such as deprofessionalisation. Librarians in Russia encounter different problems: the case study of one particular Russian library showed how the government ex- erts strong control over the acquisition of library materials, for example materi- als relating to Stalin or in non-Russian languages aren’t allowed to be acquired. There is no exchange with other librar- ies and English versions of academic library journals are only accessible to selected groups of people.
Provenance and restitution Having researched and written about the provenance of various early printed and rare books held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for online and print publication, including an article for CILIP Update (June 2017, pp. 29-31,
https://bit.ly/2KiT1xb), I had some famili- arity with provenance research but not with tracing the provenance of stolen books that formerly belonged to groups of people persecuted by the fascist regime during the 1930s and 1940s and whose books were added to Ger- man library holdings. I was surprised to discover that so much provenance research still needs to be done. One speaker said that it would take another 20 years until all books with suspicious provenances have been identified, re- searched and returned to the previous owners’ descendants. I learned about many cases of successful restitution; however not all cases are solved and
September 2018
sometimes the descendants don’t wish to be contacted.
These sessions raised my awareness of the moral and ethical issues facing librarians when dealing with stolen books in their collections. The foundation of the German Centre for Provenance Research in 2008 and the granting of state project funding gave new impetus to the investi- gation into and restitution of looted books and art works. Practical guidelines such as the database Looted Cultural Assets and a handbook on tracing works confiscated during the Nazi regime assist with the process of identifying and documenting the ownership status of books. The Ger- man Lost Art Foundation, which replaced The Centre for Provenance Research in 2015, hosts the database Lost Art, which contains details of works that were plun- dered.
Poison cupboards
I attended tours of public, university and special libraries, including one at the Ger- man Historical Museum, where a high- light was seeing a collection of banned books that librarians in the former East
German Democratic Republic used to hide in cupboards which they referred to as Giftschränke (poison cupboards) and which only high ranking party officials could access.
I enjoyed the mix of practical work- shops, tours and lectures but it was making contact with librarians from all over the world that was the greatest highlight. Many of the people I met at last year’s conference contributed to the Translating Shakespeare blog, sending me filmed readings of Hamlet’s most famous speech in modern European languages, resulting in a video featuring the first line from Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy in 23 languages.
The next Bibliothekartag will be at the Congress Centre in Leipzig from 18-21 March 2019. It would be great to see you there! IP
Further information
Bibliothek & Information International:
www.bi-international.de/english/about_us/
Translating Shakespeare blog:
https://bit.ly/2MP4PwN
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 45
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