Message originally circulated on lala-l.


>Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 09:57:35 -0400
>Reply-To: Latin Americanist Librarians' Announcements List
<[log in to unmask]>
>Sender: Latin Americanist Librarians' Announcements List
<[log in to unmask]>
>From: Gayle Williams <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Fw: Robert Kent and Friends of Cuban Libraries
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rhonda L. Neugebauer <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Latin Americanist Librarians' Announcements List
><[log in to unmask]>
>Date: 11 April, 2000 9:35 AM
>Subject: Fw: Robert Kent and Friends of Cuban Libraries

>>From: Larry Oberg (by way of "Rhonda L. Neugebauer"
>><[log in to unmask]>) <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>Sent: Monday, April 10, 2000 9:36 PM
>>Subject: Robert Kent and Friends of Cuban Libraries
>>
>>
>>Dear LALAlista Friends: I just received this letter from Larry Oberg,
>>University Librarian, Willamette University (Salem, Oregon). It is a
>>wonderful summary of our trip to Cuba and it provides very frank answers to
>>Mr. Kent, in case you should ever receive any more mail from the fellow.
>>This letter may be forwarded to any list you think needs to receive the
>>truth about
>>Cuban libraries. Thanks to Larry for his assessment. Regards, Rhonda
>>Neugebauer
>>
>> ***********************************************************************
>>> To: Charles Harmon, chair, and members of the ALA Committee on
>>> Professional Ethics.
>>>
>>> From: Larry R. Oberg, University Librarian, Willamette University, Salem,
>>> Oregon
>>>
>>> Re: Robert Kent and Friends of Cuban Libraries.
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Charles and Committee members:
>>>
>>> On Monday, 3 April of this year, I returned from a two-week research trip
>>> to Cuba. The trip was organized and conducted by Rhonda Neugebauer of
>>> Witchita State and included some fourteen other librarians from around
>the
>>> country. During our stay, we visited many libraries and spoke with
>>> countless librarians and support staff. Our stay included visits to the
>>> Biblioteca National "Jose Marti;" the Biblioteca Publica Ruben Martinez
>>> Villena in Havana; the Biblioteca Provincial "Elvira Cape" in Santiago de
>>> Cuba; the Biblioteca Central "Ruben Martinez Villena" of the University
>of
>>> Havana; and public libraries in Matanzas, Cardinas and Varadero. We also
>>> visited the Instituto de Historia de Cuba; The Archivo General de la Isla
>>> de Cuba; the Escuela Nacional de Tecnicos de Bibliotecas in Havana;
>>> several elementary and secondary school libraries; and the Latin America
>>> literary incubator and publishing house, Casa de las Americas.
>>>
>>> In Santiago de Cuba, a few of our group also visited two of what Mr.
>>> Robert Kent of the Friends of Cuban Libraries calls "independent"
>>> libraries. We spoke at length with the people who are responsible for
>>> these "libraries." Please allow me to summarize a few of the conclusions
>I
>>> have reached about Cuban libraries in general and about the "independent"
>>> libraries that Mr. Kent has championed in innumerable postings on
>>> innumerable library listservs. Please understand that these are my
>>> personal conclusions and are not intended to represent the perceptions of
>>> other members of the group.
>>>
>>> 1. CUBAN LIBRARIES
>>>
>>> - The materials budgets of Cuban libraries are dramatically
>>> underfunded. But, libraries are not alone in this regard. The financial
>>> crisis that this island nation has undergone since the collapse of the
>>> Soviet bloc (something the Cubans refer to as the "special period") has
>>> had a severe impact on book publishing, industry, construction and many
>>> other areas of the economy, including of course, living standards.
>>>
>>> - The Cuban librarians that I met were, with a few exceptions,
>>> highly professional, talented and capable. They are committed to
>>> professional excellence and are clearly abreast of current trends in
>>> North American and European librarianship.
>>>
>>> - The Jose Marti National Library and the major provincial and
>>> city libraries are busily preparing for automation. The National
>Library's
>>> systems staff has developed a plan for a national union catalog and
>>> network that only awaits funding for implementation. (A nationwide
>science
>>> and research network is also being created by the National Institute of
>>> Science and Technology (Havana), which we also visited.)
>>>
>>> - Most of the libraries that we visited have clear collection
>>> development policies and standards. The national library collects
>>> materials on all topics and does not limit its collections to materials
>>> that support the ideology of the Cuban government. They actively solicit,
>>> for example, copies of materials published by dissident Cuban authors who
>>> reside abroad. At the same time, they do not necessarily add all of the
>>> vehemently anti-Fidel materials published by dissident Cubans who reside
>>> in Miami, just as North American libraries do not actively seek out and
>>> buy all of the anti-gay and lesbian tracts published in Colorado Springs
>>> and other centers of right-wing Christian publishing.
>>>
>>> - Cuban librarians take their outreach obligations seriously and
>>> have invested heavily in bookmobiles and branch libraries in isolated
>>> rural locations. They are particularly committed to making libraries
>>> services available to rural Cuban children.
>>>
>>> - School libraries are ubiquitous in Cuba. Almost all elementary
>>> and secondary schools have libraries and librarians. (We might compare
>>> this to the situation in the United States.) We spoke at length with a
>>> group of second graders in a Matanzas elementary school who asked bright
>>> and intelligent questions of us. They were reading Jose Marti's The Red
>>> Slippers.
>>>
>>>
>>> THE "INDEPENDENT" CUBAN LIBRARIES
>>>
>>> Some of our group visited two "independent" libraries. Both of these were
>>> listed, with addresses, in one of Robert Kent's numerous postings on
>>> library listservs. The following bulleted items represent my personal
>>> understanding of what we found:
>>>
>>> - The first "independent" library we visited was in Santiago de
>>> Cuba. It was located in private home and consisted of two bookcases
>filled
>>> with books, one in the living room, another in a back bedroom. I would
>>> estimate that this collection might have included 200 volumes. The woman
>>> who tended the collection spoke freely and openly with us about herself
>>> and her "library." She insisted that the main objective of the library
>was
>>> to make materials available to children, but could produce no children's
>>> books. Many of the books in the "collection" were published in Cuba,
>>> although perhaps the bulk were published in the United States, Mexico,
>>> Spain and other countries. She showed us a copy of a single issue of the
>>> Cuban periodical Educacion as an example of how she wishes to make books
>>> available to students. She told us that she was considering removing the
>>> back cover of the issue, however, because it includes a quote from Fidel
>>> Castro. She told us that most of her relatives live in Havana and that
>she
>>> regularly records and broadcasts anti-Cuban government statements on
>Radio
>>> Marti and Radio Mambi, both of which beam anti-Cuban government
>>> programming to Cuba from the United States.
>>>
>>> - The second "independent" library that we visited was also in
>>> Santiago de Cuba. This "library" had no books or materials at all. The
>>> family that lived in the apartment said that they had distributed all of
>>> the materials they had to other sympathetic individuals in preparation
>for
>>> leaving for Miami. They have received exit visas from the U. S.
>government
>>> and expect to depart Cuba in May. They explained that they had never
>>> collected books per se, but rather had relied upon deliveries of
>>> pamphlets, reprints of articles and other materials directly from the U.
>>> S. Interest Section in Havana. These materials, they noted, were
>>> hand-delivered by Americans who came to their home in an automobile. They
>>> thought that these materials were better than books because they not only
>>> supported their political beliefs and also could be used to enlighten
>>> others. They agreed that these materials were useful in their efforts to
>>> bring others to their anti-government position and to recruit others to
>>> the anti-Castro movement.
>>>
>>> MY CONCLUSIONS:
>>>
>>> - Marta Terry, the president of the Cuban Library Association, and
>>> other Cuban librarians pointed out to us that they have tried many times
>>> to contact and work with these "librarians." The independent "librarians"
>>> with whom we spoke have never approached the established libraries
>because
>>> the vaguely feel that they would be rebuffed.
>>>
>>> - Mr. Kent continually insists that the "independent librarians"
>>> of Cuba are our peers and colleagues. In neither of the two cases that I
>>> cite above do the principals have degrees or training in librarianship,
>>> nor do they even appear to be what we might call "book-oriented" people.
>>> They are not librarians by any definition that we would understand.
>>>
>>> - Neither of the two "independent" libraries that I visited are
>>> marked or signed in any way as libraries. One had no collection
>whatsoever
>>> and the other had a modest collection of materials of a size that one
>>> might expect to find in any Cuban home. The one collection that I saw was
>>> not cataloged or even organized by subject. There was no circulation
>>> apparatus and this collection had no materials to support its primary
>>> collecting goal, children's literature.
>>>
>>> - The independent "librarians" that I met are all self-professed
>>> political dissidents, dedicated to the overthrow of the Cuban government.
>>> (They spoke with us openly and apparently without fear of reprisal about
>>> their anti-government activities.) They are closely allied with the U. S.
>>> government, the U. S. Interest Section in Cuba and with Cuban dissidents
>>> in Miami and Mexico. Several had been arrested by the Cuban authorities,
>>> but they emphasized that these arrests had nothing to do with their
>>> "independent" library activities. The arrests, in all cases, were for
>>> subversive and clandestine activities carried out to undermine the Cuban
>>> government. It is my distinct impression that these libraries are, on the
>>> one hand, a public face and a recruiting tool for a dissident movement
>>> within Cuba and, on the other, a means of "jumping the queue" to get an
>>> immigration visa to the United States.
>>>
>>> MR. ROBERT KENT
>>>
>>> Upon my return I found that I had received a copy of a letter, dated 15
>>> March, from Mr. Robert Kent to Charles Harmon and the members of the ALA
>>> Committee on Professional Ethics. In his letter to you, Mr. Kent presents
>>> censorship of Cuban library collections and suppression of the
>>> "independent" libraries as an established fact. With this firmly
>>> established, he anticipates duplicity on the part of Ms. Neugebauer and,
>>> by extension, those who accompanied her. He cites the stated objective of
>>> the group, "to hold discussions between U. S. and Cuban librarians on key
>>> aspects of librarianship such as philosophy, values, ethics and
>>> professional practices," as evidence that she "apparently has no
>intention
>>> of supporting intellectual freedom during the library program she will be
>>> conducting in Cuba." He concludes by suggesting that her activities in
>>> this area "may be subject to an inquiry by the ALA Committee on
>>> Professional Ethics."
>>>
>>> I accompanied Ms. Neugebauer on all of the visits that the group made in
>>> Cuba and I wish to make the following comments:
>>>
>>> - In all encounters with Cuban librarians, and indeed with Cuban
>>> citizens, Ms. Neugebauer and the other members of the group conducted
>>> themselves at the highest professional level; a level that does honor to
>>> our profession and the American Library Association.
>>>
>>> - In all of our meetings with Cuban librarians, Ms. Neugebauer and
>>> other members of the group asked penetrating questions about government
>>> interference in collection development, the independence of Cuban
>>> librarians, and other questions that probed their philosophy, values,
>>> ethics and professional practices.
>>>
>>> - I know that Ms. Neugebauer and the other members of our research
>>> group are deeply committed to intellectual freedom and oppose censorship
>>> in all its forms.
>>>
>>> It is therefore deeply disturbing to me to be accused, in advance of the
>>> fact, of dissimilation and derelection of professional standards. For
>>> myself, I believe that many of you know that my name, my publications,
>and
>>> my professional activities have always strongly supported intellectual
>>> freedom and the autonomy of librarians in the development of their
>>> collections. My record in this area will withstand the deepest scrutiny.
>>>
>>> It seems to me that Mr. Kent's charges against Ms. Neugebauer should be
>>> dismissed out of hand. His activities and his charges against Cuban
>>> librarians are unproven and, certainly, conflict with what I found in
>long
>>> and probing conversations with these very librarians. Mr. Kent's rhetoric
>>> is inflamed and his charges reflect more accurately his politics than
>they
>>> do the practice of Cuban librarians.
>>>
>>> Finally, I want to state that I know Ms. Neugebauer to be a honorable and
>>> principled librarian, someone who is committed not only to high
>>> professional standards but who is also dedicated to the truth wherever it
>>> may lead. Mr. Kent's charges are outrageous and unfounded and I request
>>> that you and the members of the committee dismiss them out-of-hand.
>>>
>>> Larry R. Oberg
>>> University Librarian
>>> Mark O. Hatfield Library
>>> Willamette University
>>> Salem, Oregon
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
************************************
 Pat Noble
 University of London Library
 Senate House
 Malet St
 London WC1E 7HU
 Tel.: 0171-862-8449
 Fax: 0171-862-8480
 E-mail: [log in to unmask]
************************************


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%