Hello!
I am pasting below two emails forwarded to me concerning Haitian libraries and archives, which I think may be
of interest to the members of this list. There is a link near the bottom for volunteers in the effort to save some
of the materials at damaged sites.
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Hermina G.B. Anghelescu, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Library & Information Science
Wayne State University
106 Kresge Library
Detroit, MI 48202
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MESSAGE 2
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:35:30 -0500
From: 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion
Subject: Libraries in Haiti
Here is a brief note on the situation in Haïti.
We have a contact with Patrick Tardieu who is an archivist in the oldest library in Port au Prince, Bibliothèque
des Pères du Saint Esprit. Fortunately, he's alive and flighted yesterday to Canada. The first information we
have are:
- Saint Martial College in which there is the Bibliothèque Haïtienne des pères du saint esprit collapsed
- The St Louis de Gonzague library building would be ok but very weakened
- The national Library collapsed, at least a part of it
- Most of the university libraries collapsed too
Those libraries gathered very old collections (from the 16th century). Several manuscripts were brought by the
missionaries who came from Europe. Other have been collected in the Caraibs (notably, publications on the
haitian revolutions, transcriptions of vaudou oral traditions, personal documents from the 18th centuries).
We think it's urgent to run an international campaign for saving these collections, at least in France, the US and
Canada. We have to create dedicated funds to launch the campaign and raise money. On our side, we are
already in contact with the French IFLA comittee (International Federation of Library Association), the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through its agency CulturesFrance) and the culture ministry. In the US we will
work with professor Laurent Dubois, Duke University, who has a good knowledge of these collections and is
ready to rally the archivists and the historians community. Patrick Tardieu, who is in Canada now will help us
too, to have a better knowledge of the situation.
We have to prepare, for next week to :
1/ Open a dedicated fundraising account at least in the US and France for the operation (not only focused on the
emergency of saving these collections but also on the effort of rebuilding in the next monthes)
2. Work with organizations such as IFLA, UNESCO and the FOKAL Foundation (its director, Elizabeth Pierre
Louis, who we well know is still missing for the moment) in order to avoid the redundancies.
3/ Prepare to form a team of curator, archivists, historians and logistics coordinators who would be ready to go
there in the next weeks or months.
For the moment we have good contacts in Guadeloupe. We might need to find places in Canada and in the US.
People are mobilizing there and could prepare rapidly to host the collections for a while. Patrick Tardieu told
me
that we maybe could host them in other places in haiti if the roads are ok. We'll check up on this point next
week. Our principal ennemy will be the rain from now. The collections could be destroyed forever. Most of
these pieces are unique.
We'll have more info hopefully next week on the collections and the situation there. Don't hesitate to share the
news you'd have.
Thank you for your mobilization. BSF sent a first communiqué today in memory of Mamadou Bah, a good
friend of us, who worked at the UN in Port au Prince.
You'll find it at this adress: http://mim.io/15f12?fe=1
We have no news from Nixon Calixte who was coordinating the UNiversity Libraries network in Haiti
Best
Jérémy Lachal
Directeur - BSF
jeremy.lachal@bibliosansfrontieres.org
+33.(0)6.58.43.85.56 - +33.(0)1.43.25.75.61
----------------------------------------------------Bibliothèques Sans Frontières
69 rue Armand Carrel, 75019 Paris
www.bibliosansfrontieres.org
Rejoignez la cause BSF sur facebook: www.causes.com/bibliosansfrontieres
Vous aussi, soutenez Bibliothèques Sans Frontières gratuitement à chacun de
vos achats sur Internet: www.doneo.org
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MESSAGE 1
From: Danielle Mincio [mailto:danielle.mincio@bcu.unil.ch]
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 7:51 AM
Subject: [IFLA-L] News about Haitian Libraries
Dear Colleagues,
The National library has not collapsed but is badly damaged. Patrimonial architects are going to examine the
state of the building to know it will be possible to intervene. The state of cultural buildings will be analysed
after those absolutely essential (hospital, etc.)
St Gonzague's patrimonial Library is completely destroyed.
The St Martial Library, possessing manuscripts from the 17th to 19th centuries, is badly damaged in its
structure and will also require an intervention of rescue.
The Library of the University Quisqueya is also very damaged.
While waiting, the international Committee of the Blue Shield launched the on-line registration of the
volunteers in English or in French.
Attention to use only small letters in your address http://haiti2010.blueshield-international.org/node/3
Join us !
The president of Bibliothèques Sans Frontières has given me the bibliographical list of the needs of the Haitian
university libraries. I cannot attach a list of titles to this message, so please contact me separately if you are able
to donate works. The list concerns especially books in French in letters, agronomy, linguistics, odontology,
health, psychology, history, geography, sociology, philosophy, physics, mathematics, computing.
For an update on the situation you can listen to the podcast of an interview (in French) of one of our former
colleagues Jean-Euphèle Milcé, recorded in Haiti on Thursday by RSR
http://info.rsr.ch/fr/pointsforts/Jeudi_journee_speciale_Ha_ti_sur_La_1ere.html?siteSect=2011&sid=11731737&cKey=1263891716000
Thanks for your support
Kind regards
-Danielle Mincio
Conservateur des manuscrits
Responsable PAC
Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire
Unithèque
CH 1015 Lausanne Dorigny
Tél +41 21 692 47 83