Cuba’s National Library and its Nefarious Membership Policy

Cuba's National Library and its Nefarious Membership Policy
August 2, 2013
Daisy Valera

HAVANA TIMES — Surrealist Cuban writer Juan Brea's collection of essays
"La verdad contemporanea" (Contemporary Truth) ends with a series of
reflections we could describe as intuitive or extravagant.

"Man is the only animal capable of dying because of drunkenness or a
kind gesture. This is what makes him different, not virtuous."

I transcribed Brea's book page by page. Published in 1941, it is far
better known across the Atlantic than in Cuba, where it has never been
reprinted.

This happy ending – having been able to transcribe this work – was made
possible by my degree in Radiochemistry.

Havana's Jose Marti National Library (BNJM) is, in a few words, an
imposingly large building which houses around 4 million books,
uncomfortable chairs, insipid paintings by Cuban painter Kcho, vigilant
old women and a god-awful membership mechanism.

The library reopened its doors to the public in October of last year
with a great song and dance. This was hailed (heaven knows why) as a
cultural event of the first order which was even acknowledged as such by
Cuba's Minister of the Interior.

Though the institution underwent repairs and restructuring for over 45
months, its membership policy, established in 2000, hasn't become the
slightest bit more flexible.

In order to access the books, you first need to obtain a Library Card –
a totally comprehensible requirement.

The catch is that you're only entitled to this card if you can be
included under any of the following categories: researcher, professional
or university or specialized art instruction student.

This translates into denying the immense majority of the population
access to Cuba's literary holdings and its historical documents and
recordings. An act of exclusion which the BNJM's flimsy argument doesn't
manage to explain: that the categorization of library users is a common
practice in libraries around the world.

The library's thirst for categorizing and limiting public access to
information isn't quenched by simply proving that you belong to one of
the aforementioned privileged minorities (by showing them your ID,
providing them with photos and a copy of your degree), no.

There is a regulation which stipulates that users must limit their
search to such books and documents required strictly for their work,
research or teaching activity. On the basis of this, the library
reserves the right to deny a user access to information that bears no
thematic relationship to the area of studies registered in their file.
For instance, a biologist may be denied access to documents related to
architecture.

There's more. To access information contained in the valuable historical
documents housed by the BNJM, the user must preset a letter of
endorsement from his place of work or study. This regulation means that
practically no professional in Cuba can access historical documents at
the library to do research work if such work hasn't first been verified
by a State institution.

What should we make, then, of that inclusive slogan that called for the
creation of a cultured population of avid readers?

Efforts undertaken in Cuba in the 1960s, which resulted in the creation
of the National Public Library Network, the School of Library Sciences,
the Popular Reading Campaign and the Recovered Libraries Movement, did,
in effect, manage to promote the habit of reading among Cubans.

The interest in conserving library materials (something which could be
achieved in many different ways) is not a strong enough argument to
justify these 13 years in which the BNJM's information has been held
hostage.

The critical state public education is in at all levels and the
noticeable drop in university enrolment are facts that call for the
elimination of the library's current restrictions.

Granting everyone access to the country's libraries is not an
exaggerated anachronism belonging to the early days of the revolution,
as they would have us believe in these times of reform.

Source: "Getting in to Cuba's National Library" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=97376