Dear colleagues
One of the best
libraries on history of science, technology and medicine in Spain is
now being divided
in two parts due to unfortunate decisions of small time politicians. It
is an
unnecessary collateral damage following the closing of the Institute
for the
History of Science and Medicine “López Piñero” in Valencia. The library
gathers
around 12,000 books and half a hundred journals – including the most
famous
journals on history of medicine and science. A recent agreement between
two
institutions includes the split of the journal collection in two parts:
the
first part, the oldest one, will remain in Valencia, while the issues
published
after 2000 will be transported to Madrid. It is true that the role of
paper
copies in the age of electronic reproduction is limited – but the
division of
the collection transforms the two parts in incomplete collections with
no value
at all. Being the two divorced institutions public libraries, you can
imagine what
a non-sense is the transport of paper volumes from one place to another
when
digital versions are available online. For instance, in the case of
journal Ambix,
the numbers from 1937 to 1999 will remain in Valencia, the issues
published
between 2000 and 2010 will be moved to Madrid, and the issues published
after
2010 (which I am donating to the library) will remain in Valencia.
Similar
crazy situations can be found in other journals.
We can
still revert this situation. We have received the support of many
colleagues,
institutions and academic societies during the last two weeks. A
website in
change.org is now available (texts in Spanish and English) and the
number of
signatures is growing up:
Against the division of the library of the López Piñero
Institute
You can
also send your views to me ([log in to unmask]) or to the people who decided the
split: ([log in to unmask]
– Pilar Campins, she is a chemist, now vice-chancellor
of the University of Valencia; Emilio Lora-Tamayo
<[log in to unmask]>,
he is a physicist, now president of Spanish Research Council) Please
send me a
copy of the emails to me, just to keep record.
Thanks in
advance for your collaboration against this irrational and unnecessary
damage
of public goods concerning history of science.
Best wishes
José R.
Bertomeu
PD: You can
get more information (in Spanish) in this newspaper: http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2015/03/06/valencia/1425666062_622752.html
José
Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez
Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència
"López Piñero"
Universitat de
València-CSIC
Plaça
Cisneros, 4
46003 VALENCIA (Spain)
email:
[log in to unmask]
TF: +
00 34 963926241
/ 963864164
http://www.uoa.gr/step : STEP -
Science and
Technology in the European Periphery.