The Development of Libraries in Cambodia: The Post–Khmer Rouge Years
Abstract
This article describes several current developments in The Royal Kingdom of Cambodia’s formal libraries after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
The Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, as it is now officially known, has a long and rich history of dedication to the arts, religion, and philosophy, dating back to the ninth and tenth centuries. This Cambodian (or Khmer) tradition is illustrated in the twentieth century by the remains of over two hundred temples, most notably the famous ruins at Angkor Wat. Included in several of the ruins are the remains of what once were temple libraries, structures now dilapidated but once a symbol of the grandeur of the Khmer people.
Cambodia, a small Southeast Asian nation bordered by Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, has a contemporary history of conflict and unrest. For roughly 100 years the Cambodian (or Khmer) people, along with the Vietnamese and the Laotians, were dominated by the French in what was known as Indochina. After winning its independence in the 1950s, Cambodia experienced relative peace until the war in Vietnam escalated, and U.S. bombing along the Cambodian–Vietnam border contributed to the civil unrest and turmoil in Cambodia. As a result of this turmoil, in 1975 a leftist nationalist group, the Khmer Rouge, with ties to Communist China, successfully routed the corrupt Lon Nol regime and replaced it with their own terrorist rule. The Khmer Rouge dominated Cambodia’s political and social scene until the early 1980s, when Vietnamese soldiers crossed the border and ejected the Cambodian government. National elections held in Cambodia in 1993 resulted in a coalition government of democrats and communists. National elections will be held again in 1998.
Cambodia is now trying to rebuild its infrastructure after years of Khmer Rouge rule which destroyed Cambodia’s educational system, including its libraries. It is ironic that a nation which maintained temple libraries as long ago as the 9th and 10th centuries today has few real libraries, and those with very limited collections.
Today a great effort is being made in Cambodia to restore libraries or — in many cases — to open new ones, not only for the public but also to support government ministries in the capital. Several of the ministries have established their own libraries with small collections and limited staff, while others are just beginning to collect material relative to their charge. Several of the newly restored universities and colleges are also attempting to re–open their libraries and are encouraging faculty and students to make greater use of the campus libraries.
In the fall of 1996 the author had the opportunity to visit libraries and government information centers in Phnom Penh, giving particular attention to these eight details: focus of the library; staffing; collections; classification and catalog; users; budget; library layout; and computers. A brief description of several of the libraries visited is included here.
One of the few libraries remaining after the terrible period of the Khmer Rouge is the National Library of Cambodia, originally opened in the 1920s by Cambodia’s French rulers. It has a large reading room which provides ample space for patrons to read and study. There is no specific reference desk, but there is a service counter where reference and circulation functions are conducted. The collection consists of both reference and circulating material. Reference holdings include the new Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Larousse Encyclopédie, thesauri, dictionaries, and a number of other useful reference sources.
The circulating collection is somewhat dated and is kept behind a service desk where books are paged by library personnel. This is clearly a result of the European influence of closed stacks. There are no public computer stations available, but there is a card catalog arranged by subject (in French, English, and Khmer), author, and title. Also of interest is the policy of signing in at the library. All patrons must “register” each time they visit the library, indicate where they are from (school, government office, etc.), and tell why they are using the library. Reasons they give range from leisure reading to studying about democracy. Several of the library’s users are students of all ages and levels of education. Reference service at the library is weak, but efforts are being made to improve it. As is the case in most of Cambodia’s libraries, the staff maintain a safe distance from patrons, and do not approach visitors to the library. If a patron needs help he is supposed to approach a library staff member and ask an appropriate question. This raises an important issue regarding reference service and culture. Typically in Cambodia — and throughout Asia, in fact — an educated or trained staff member like a library employee would consider it beneath his station to approach a patron and offer help. There is also a concept of privacy here which does not exist in most Western cultures. Ironically, typical Asian behavior dictates respecting an educated or trained person (e.g., the library employee), and so one would not feel comfortable approaching the staff member for help. This conflict was addressed in a workshop given by the author (in cooperation with Margaret Bywater, Library Resources Advisor to the Asia Foundation) to library personnel in Phnom Penh in the fall of 1996. Other problems which persist in the National Library include the lack of material written in the Khmer language. This makes it increasingly difficult for those without a reading knowledge of French or English to enjoy the library.
Considering that most national libraries typically house government documents and other unique items reflecting the history and culture of the nation, it is unfortunate that such depositories are not available in Cambodia. Some of the government information centers maintain small collections of internal documents, but they are not cataloged, nor are they necessarily available to the public. The National Library would be an appropriate place to house such a collection.
A second library which serves a large group of users is the one at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (UPP). In January of 1997, UPP opened this new Hun Sen Library. It is perhaps the most modern and frequently–visited of all libraries in Cambodia. The interior has a strikingly functional two–story design with ample room for computer hookups and a large reading room area. Also included in this brand–new building are a large reference area, circulation desk, and staff area. Near the front entrance to the library is an area with lockers for students to leave their personal belongings when they enter the library. This last feature seems to be prominent in many Asian libraries. In an apparent effort to discourage theft, backpacks and the like are left in the lockers to prevent patrons from carrying out library material.
The second floor of the library houses the stacks, which are open, unlike those in the National Library of Cambodia. The UPP library also has a significant number of serial subscriptions to support student and faculty research. The collection includes material in French, English, and Khmer. Most of the titles reflect the subjects taught at UPP, including the social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and humanities. There is a strong reference collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and assorted other titles, e.g., Whitaker’s Books in Print, Europa, and Peterson’s Guide to Graduate Programs. The Hun Sen Library also has the advantage of being staffed by one of Cambodia’s few librarians with formal education in library science. In addition there is a paid staff of up to six library assistants who work at various tasks in the library including reference, circulation, and processing.
The Faculty of Agriculture Library is located several miles outside Phnom Penh. Included among its several buildings is the library, which occupies a single room. It supports students and faculty in agricultural (including environmental) studies. The staff consists of a native Khmer and an Australian volunteer with a substantial background in library work. Approximately 1,000 books are shelved along the perimeter of the room in subject order. Currently these books are divided according to language, English or Khmer. There is neither a catalog nor computers for the staff or users. There are several tables for reading and studying.
Many of the other libraries visited included government–sponsored information centers such as the Ministry of the Environment Library, the National Library of Education, and the Parliamentary Library at the National Assembly. The Environment Library supports these two groups: staff at the ministry whose main focus is environmental issues; and college students with an interest in the environment and related issues. Roughly 1,400 of the 2,000 books here are cataloged and classified according to the Dewey system. Titles are in French, Khmer, or English. Subjects include environment, agriculture, and biochemistry. Many of the monographs are quite old, or are textbooks published in the U.S. There is a printed catalog of the English and Khmer holdings. Among the incomplete serials holdings are a few National Geographics. There is one PC which the staff (a manager and one assistant) use for e–mail and Microsoft Word. The reference collection includes specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, an atlas, and also a world map of Southeast Asia. The library is housed in a small room with tables toward the back of the room and shelving around the center and perimeter. It is funded by the ministry with book donations from the Books for Asia project, and also donations from the U.S. Embassy.
The library at the Ministry of Education (or the National Library of Education) supports ministry staff, as well as researchers in education and teachers of K-12. In addition, some NGO (non–government organizations) staff also use the library. The library was originally funded by UNICEF, but is now supported solely by the Cambodian government. It opened in 1990 with its major focus at that time on elementary education. It now covers elementary, secondary, and higher education.
Since the first librarian was French, many of the signs are in French. That librarian adopted her own specialized classification system, putting the library out of sync with the rest of the libraries in Phnom Penh. Currently there are three staff members. The approximately 7,000 titles in the collection cover such subjects as educational psychology, pedagogy, distance education, education of the handicapped, educational philosophy, language and literature, science, mathematics, and physical education. Titles are in French or English. There are a few random serials (no subscriptions), and some videos which are locked in a cabinet. There is no card catalog and no government documents. A list of holdings exists, but unfortunately it doesn't include call numbers.
The Parliamentary or National Assembly Library supports the national legislature of Cambodia and the Ministry of Justice. Like most of Phnom Penh’s libraries, this one is also housed in a small room. Its collection of about 2,000 books includes titles in French, English, or Khmer. The focus is on the social sciences, especially political science and government. Titles include World Book Encyclopedia, Countries of the World, Dictionary of Modern Politics of South–East Asia, and the Third World Atlas. There are also holdings related to law, rhetoric, and literature. Like other libraries I visited in Phnom Penh, the Parliamentary library needs a clearly defined, well written collection policy. Many of the books in the collection (e.g., English literature) have nothing to do with the library’s mission. In all likelihood they were donated and simply added to the collection.
Among the many special libraries I visited was the Buddhist Institute Library, which supports scholars at the Buddhist Institute and elsewhere who are interested in Buddhist religion and philosophy. According to several guide books, this was once an important institute in Southeast Asia. Before the dark days of the 1970s, people interested in Buddhism from all over the world would visit the Institute and its library. Much of what was here prior to the Khmer Rouge regime has been destroyed, and the Institute has relocated. The library, housed in a separate building on the Institute grounds, is really a small room, but pleasant and very user–friendly. The collection numbers approximately 2,000 titles in French, Khmer, or English. Claris File Master is used to keep track of acquisitions. Entries are in Khmer for Khmer titles; English for English titles; and French for French titles. The library has a Macintosh and printer for the staff, who are very helpful and appear eager to assist visitors. There are several tables with lots of good space for study. Books are shelved in glass–covered cases, but this is really not desirable, because it may cause heavy condensation, resulting in damage to the books. Nevertheless, the library is used frequently by visitors from all over the world and its holdings are clearly of value to researchers.
The scope and the diversity of Cambodia’s libraries are evidence that the government is interested in once again developing libraries of the kind required for Cambodia to move into the twenty–first century. The information centers and special libraries currently in Phnom Penh show clearly that the potential is there to have an excellent library network. It is also clear that each of the government ministry libraries mentioned above plays an important role in supporting the mission of its ministry. Nonetheless, the libraries are still lacking in many areas. Only the National Library of Cambodia and the Hun Sen Library at UPP have qualified librarians with a master’s level education in library science. Few of the libraries have written policies which cover collection development, weeding, reference services, etc. Photocopiers, computers, and even telephones are few and far between. When I visited the library at the Ministry of the Environment, the electricity would wane every few minutes, causing the lights to dim; often data not yet saved in computer files would be lost. Although each of the government ministries prints its own documents, no depositories for these items exist. Except for the National Library, public libraries are practically non–existent. It seems that only a small educated part of the middle and upper classes takes advantage of the libraries. Reading for leisure is nearly non–existent.
On the other hand, real efforts are being made on the part of the United Nations and international service groups like the Asia Foundation to support Cambodia’s libraries. The Asia Foundation currently provides thousands of books donated by western nations to Cambodia’s libraries and information centers. Margaret Bywater, Library Resources Advisor for the Asia Foundation, gives much of her time to training library staff in Phnom Penh and providing services such as cataloging and processing materials. She also regularly conducts seminars and workshops on reference skills for the local library staffs in Phnom Penh. The American Library Association sent a library fellow, Mr. George Smith, Alaska’s Deputy Director of the Division of State Libraries, to Cambodia in 1995 to work in the National Library. In addition, UNESCO’s Division of Information and Informatics has twice evaluated the status of Cambodia’s libraries with recommendations for their improvement.
Also of significance is the absence of a connection to the Internet in any of Cambodia’s libraries. The importance of the Net and the World–Wide Web in developing nations cannot be overestimated. The potential for exchange of information through the Web is staggering, yet efforts to introduce this resource have been met with government interference and bureaucracy. It appears that at least some people in the government are concerned about too much information and the ease of accessing it!
All of the libraries in Phnom Penh are significant, because they can truly play a role in rebuilding this nation. In a country whose educated and intellectual citizens are all but gone as a result of the “killing fields” and the diaspora which followed, libraries can make a significant contribution to the future of Cambodia’s democracy.
Selected Bibliography
Abdullah, Szarina. “Scientific and Technical Information: Impetus for Development in Southeast Asia.” Asian Libraries 4 (September 1995): 13–25.
Foote, Jody Bales. “Libraries and Librarianship in Bangladesh.” Third World Libraries 5–1 (Spring 1995): 59–66.
URL: http://ojsserv.dom.edu/ojs/index.php/worldlib/article/view/305/261
Heywood, Denise. “Turning over a New Page.” COMLA Newsletter 84–85 (June–September 1994): 15–16.
Hooper, Beverly. “Third National Roundtable on Libraries and Asia.” Asian Studies Review 19 (July 1995): 91–100.
Horton, Weldon J. “Computer Literacy in Information Studies: A First World/Third World Perspective” Computers in Libraries 10 (June 1990): 40–41.
Jarvis, Helen. “Libraries in Cambodia.” Asian Libraries 1 (March 1991): 15–18.
Smith, George. “Remembering Angkor.” International Leads 9 (Winter 1995): 1–5.
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About the author
John D’Amicantonio is Associate Librarian, University Library and Learning Resources, California State University, Long Beach, California.