Abstract — Inglés
Elisabeth Simon stresses the important role of librarians in foreign cultural activities by describing the exchange programs, study tours, and seminars carried out under the auspices of the German Library Institute’s Foreign Relations Bureau. Although the Bureau has traditionally collaborated with library associations in the United States, France, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe, it has also established important links with Latin American countries within the last five years. The author notes the pervasive influence of Anglo–Saxon traditions on the development of librarianship worldwide, but goes on to point out that between the Latin American and North American concepts of librarianship there are at least as many differences as similarities. In fact, Simon sees a greater compatibility between Germany and Latin America, based on similar early book traditions as well as the existence of large German populations in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Uruguay.
Since 1987 the bureau has sponsored Latin American study tours of German libraries, facilitated the exchange of library school materials and curriculum information, and organized seminars on the new information environment. Simon believes the need for cooperation with Latin America is even greater now, as radical changes in the European political and economic arenas create corresponding problems in librarianship—problems similar to the ones that Latin American countries also must face.
Abstract — Español
El Bureau de Relaciones Extranjeras del Instituto Bibliotecológico Alemán y sus relaciones con América Latina
Elisabeth Simon señala el importante papel de los bibliotecarios en las actividades culturales extranjeras al describir los programas de intercambio, los viajes de estudio y los seminarios que se llevan a cabo bajo los auspicios del Bureau de Relaciones Extranjeras del Instituto Bibliotecológico Alemán. Aunque la oficina ha colaborado tradicionalmente con las asociaciones bibliotecarias de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, Francia, Gran Bretaña y otras partes de Europa, ha establecido lazos importantes con los países latinoamericanos dentro de los últimos conco años. La autora nota la influencia penetrante de las tradiciones anglo sajonas en el desarrollo bibliotecario mundial, pero va al punto de que entre los conceptos latino americanos y estadounidenses de bibliotecología hay por lo menos tantas similitudes como diferencias. De hecho, Simon ve mayor compatibilidad entre Alemania y Latino América dadas sus raíces europeas y sus parecidas tradiciones libreras tanto como por la existencia de grandes poblaciones alemanas en el Brasil, Venezuela, Chile y el Uruguay.
Desde 1987, la oficina ha apoyado viajjes de estudio de latinoamericanos a bibliotecas alemanas, facilitado el intercambio de materiales e información curricular con escuelas de bibliotecología y ha organizado seminarios sobre el nuevo ambiente de la información. Simon cree que la necesidad de la cooperación con Latino América es aún mayor ahora, dados los cambios radicales en las áreas económicas y políticas en Europa que crean los problemas correspondientes en la bibliotecología—que en Alemania son problemas similares a los que enfrentan los países latinoamericanos.
The Foreign Relations Bureau—Aims and Objectives
The Foreign Relations Bureau comprises representatives of six German Library Associations which are members of the Federation of German Library Associations (Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Bibliotheksverbände). The Bureau itself is administered by the German Library Institute (Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut) which coordinates and executes the programs. However, the Foreign Relations Bureau is not free to choose projects, but has to attract resources for planned projects in the form of annual grants. Its work concentrates on the exchange of personnel and the international exchange of professional experiences in order to stress the important part which librarians can play in foreign cultural activities.
Although the role of librarians in the framework of cultural exchange is very often not appreciated, international cooperation is facilitated with liaison and programs which allow the international encounter of information professionals. Over the past 15 years the Bureau’s cooperative program, particularly with France, Great Britain and the U.S., has included such activities as study tours for foreign librarians and professional visits on an exchange basis with Britain and France.
Attendance at international conferences and symposia is also supported and partly funded by the Bureau. During recent years international conferences, seminars and workshops (representing a very intensive form of international exchange) have become part of the Bureau’s programs—always organized jointly with other national or international institutions and professionals active in the international field. The entire range of the Foreign Relations Bureau’s activities involves cooperation with other institutions. There is not only a very close collaboration with libraries in Germany, but also with the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Goethe Institute, the DSE (German Foundation for International Development), the Institute for Foreign Relations in Stuttgart, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and others. There are also close and well–established links to the British Council, the Office of Foreign Relations of DPDU, Paris (Direction de la Programmation et du Développement Universitaire, Sous Direction des Bibliothèques), USIA (United States Information Agency), and international groups such as IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) and FID (International Federation for Information and Documentation).
During the last two years, after political changes in Europe opened the former Eastern bloc countries, cooperation has been developing with the Czech national library, the Matica Slovenska library in Martin, the Academy of Science in Prague, the Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg, the Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow, the library associations and the national libraries in Hungary, and the national and university libraries in Poland. Liaison with the newly–founded library associations in the Baltic lands is beginning. This brief survey gives the impression that the work of the Bureau is concentrated on Europe. While this is true, the role of the Bureau as a bridge between East and West, between Europe and several non–European countries, is growing.
The Bureau’s program has not included extensive cooperation with countries in the Third World, but during the past five years it has established links with Latin American countries. (The German Foundation for International Development (DSE) carries out programs in Africa.)
Cooperation with Latin American Countries
Although cooperation between the American Library Association (ALA) and other American agencies and the Latin American countries has been developing since 1940 and cannot be compared with the more recent links developing between Germany and Latin America, there are mutual interests. In Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay, and other Latin American countries, a considerable portion of the population is of German descent.
In Latin American countries the church and its hierarchical structure have deeply influenced the framework of administration and policies. Soon after the European conquest a soundly–based hierarchical structure of political and social life was shaped in accordance with the Spanish heritage. As a result of this close affiliation to Spain and therefore to Europe, the historical roots of social and political structure do not differ so much from those in Germany. In “Librarianship and Culture: the Contextual Reality” Rosario Gassol de Horowitz argues that the structures of librarianship, especially in the international federations, are deeply influenced by Anglo–Saxon culture:
Most of the library development that has taken place in recent times has stemmed from what may be termed the Anglo–Saxon tradition; the patterns that have resulted have been propagated, consciously or unconsciously, by Western librarians traveling abroad on consultant missions and through library literature, much of which has been produced in the United States. The major lines of development that have characterized the growth of North American librarianship reveal it as part of the particular process of institutionalization that characterizes American culture and the American psyche. Among the cultural elements that have determined the socialization of librarianship in the United States two are of particular importance for our present concern: the tradition of local government and the principle of participatory democracy.
In contrast to Latin American countries, where development of libraries is centrally planned and governmentally supported, the establishment and support of libraries in the United States has been mostly a local undertaking, originally through support by private groups, and, in the case of public libraries, by local government. On the other hand, because the political structure of the United States aims at participatory democracy, the social function of the library rests on the notion that information and democracy, even participatory democracy, are independent ideas. Indeed, the concept of a library directly linked to democratic ideals of equal opportunity and freedom of expression is an article of faith with American librarians....
The world view of developing countries is embodied in the ideas and values which underlie their concept of development, and those ideas and values stress social justice and independence. Too often, however, the struggle for independence has been outside the direct experience of the masses. Independence has been good news, and true participatory democracy is an ideal to be striven for, but most people in the Third World have been spectators rather than participants in the process of social change. [1]
The phrase “the concept of a library directly linked to the democratic ideals of equal opportunity and freedom...” expresses the deep difference not only between Western countries and those of the Third World, especially in Latin America, but also of those in Europe between a more liberal democratic background and those which were in the past governed by a long–lasting absolute rule.
In contrast to the countries of Africa, the Latin American countries resemble European countries in having a long book tradition and an early development of church and academic libraries. The early foundation of national libraries (e.g., in Colombia as early as 1777 with a beautiful and rich collection) suggests that a culturally–minded and generally affluent intelligentsia was keenly interested in building up libraries—a parallel to the tradition which led to the foundation of national and academic libraries in Germany.
Study Tours and Seminars with Latin American Countries
These brief introductory remarks show that it was appropriate in 1987 to invite librarians from Latin American countries for a study tour through Germany following the general conference of the IFLA at Brighton. The tour consisted of visits to different libraries in Germany, thus serving as an introduction to German library systems. Although the types of libraries shaped by German’s history and federal structure seemed strange to librarians from Latin America, there were many fields of mutual understanding: education, the history of books, preservation, cataloging, the approach to bibliographic tools and the difficult role of public librarianship. The majority of the touring librarians were members of FEBAB (Federation of Brazilian Library Associations), and they impressed on their German colleagues the importance of the role which library associations play in the development of library and information service in Latin America. The second largest number of participants came from the Caribbean area, including Colombia and Venezuela. It proved to be a good meeting, bringing together German librarians and those from countries which had seemed quite distant.
The visit was followed up by further attempts by the Bureau to establish and develop links to Latin American countries. A description in Spanish of the work of the Foreign Relations Bureau was sent to the library schools listed in the International Guide to Library and Information Science Education (ed. J. Riss–Fang and Paul Nauta, 1985) and they were asked to send back curricula and information about library and information science in their own country. [2] The excellent response enabled the Bureau not only to gain a view of the situation in Latin America but also to collect and disseminate this information to German professionals so that they could keep pace with discussions and new developments in those countries. They learned, for example, that Mexico had developed a new national information system with a strong local base and very well–structured means of supraregional cooperation; Uruguay had organized a seminar to formulate a national information policy.
This exchange of information was so successful that it was decided to organize a seminar and subsequent study tour following the IFLA Conference in Moscow and to invite information professionals from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The seminar and study tour dealt with “Old Services—New Media” in order to create links between the new forms of information services and document supply in a new information environment. [3] The first week was spent in Cologne, where the topics for discussion centered around the themes “Literature and information supply,” “Library associations and their part in the development of a library system,” “Political framework,” and “Conditions and different ways of cooperation between Spain, Germany and the Latin American countries.” In her description of the subsequent study tour Albertina Jefferson says:
A different concept for the Latin American mind was displayed at the Library and Information System of the University of Oldenburg in which Media Center Library, Archives, Printing Unit, University Press and Department of Reports on Research are all centrally administered. [4]
This concept is new not only for her Latin American colleagues but also for her German ones. In the “battle for the information user,” as we may call it, the position of information units in the Latin American countries is not so different from that in Germany. [5]
Mutual Cooperation and Exchange of Experience
Klaus–Dieter Lehmann, director general of the National Library (Deutsche Bibliothek/Deutsche Bücherei) at Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, mentions problems which German libraries will face with the formation of the European market: a great fragmentation of librarianship, a slow or non–existent adaptation of libraries to the information market, lack of educated personnel, isolated development without regard to international standards, and lack of international or even European cooperation. [6] These problems also dominate the discussion in the Latin American countries. Edwin Gleaves said as early as 1978 that the great problem which Latin American countries face when developing information systems is rooted in the history of libraries: regarding them as book depositories and museums for the cultural heritage. [7] The concept of libraries as centers for disseminating information is new to Latin American librarianship.
In conclusion, one may say that the ALA and the various institutions, personnel and libraries in the United States which are engaged in helping to build up library and information systems in the Latin American countries have a completely different role to play than Germany does in that region. Developments in recent years have shown that no foreign aid and no consultancy will reach its goal without the involvement of the local base, be it a nation, a municipality, a university or a community. The “local base” of Latin American countries has a closely–knit and deeply–rooted European heritage. In this context mutual cooperation with Germany may be not only helpful but necessary for all countries involved. To close with two examples: it might be worthwhile for librarians from Latin American countries to study the sound organization of libraries in Germany; whereas education of professionals and the sometimes happy mixture of Anglo–Saxon approach and European heritage might be interesting for German library schools, which face great difficulties in years to come. [8]
1. Rosario Gassol de Horowitz, Librarianship; A Third World Perspective (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 97–99.
2. Bibliothekarische Auslandsstelle, “El servicio bibliotecario exterior; resumen del trabajo y programas” (Berlin, 1987).
3. Graham Cornish, “Document Supply in a New Information Environment,” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 233–3 (September 1991): 125–134.
4. Albertina Jefferson, “Information Scientists from Latin American on International Seminar and Study Tour in Germany,” Carta informativa / Newsletter, Asociación de Bibliotecas Universitarias y de Investigación del Caribe 19–46 (1991): 34–35.
5. Renate Mackay, “The Battle for the Information User,” Information World Review, November 1991: 14. Concludes that “After almost 17 years of investments in hosts and online databases (with mostly public money) Germany is said to be in a similar situation as the developing countries.”
6. Klaus–Dieter Lehmann, “Bibliotheken auf Europa vorbereiten” in Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 37–4 (1990): 291.
7. Edwin Gleaves, “Los territorios academicos; la educación de profesionales de las ciencias de la Información,” Revista interamericna de bibliotecología [Medellín] 1–3 (September–December 1978): 17. “La necesidad de crear adecuados sistemas de información en los paises latinoamericanos está basada en la necesidad de contar con personal preparado en el campo de bibliotecología y las ciencias de la información. En Latinoamérica las bibliotecas tienen una historia larga como depósitos de libros y museos del patrimonio cultural: como centros cuyo propósito central es la diseminación de información, la biblioteca latinamericana es relativamente joven.”
8. Heinz Marloth, “BID—Ausbildung und Fortbildung, eine europäische Aufgabe,” Bibliotheksdienst 26 (1992): 7 ff.
Elisabeth Simon is Head of the Foreign Relations Bureau, German Library Institute (Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut), Berlin
© 1992 Dominican University
Citation
Simon, Elisabeth, “The Foreign Relations Bureau of the German Library Institute and its Relationship to Latin American Countries” Third World Libraries, Volume 3, Number 1 (Fall 1992).