LoC European Reading Room

[David Borgmeyer]

Dear Seelangers,

A colleague forwarded this to me.  Does anyone have information on how Slavists are organizing as the below indicates, and how we can help?

David Borgmeyer

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: H-France <h-france at lists.uakron.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 10:32 AM
Subject: Closure of LoC European Reading Room
To: h-france at lists.uakron.edu
 
 
Dear H-France Colleagues,
 
 I have just been informed that the Library of Congress has decided to close the
 European Reading Room. This is expected to happen quite soon - perhaps within a
 month, so that an exhibition on Abe Lincoln can be set up. They have made vague
 promises to reopen in the future, but this would be in a smaller space, and
 only after extensive renovations that may in fact not happen due to budget and
 logistical issues. So it is quite likely that the closure will be permanent,
 and even if it is not, it will only be after a long time that a new, reduced
 European Reading Room would be opened. The current space is set to be converted
 to another exhibition hall, which would bring in more visitors and revenue, but
 would continue to move the Library's institutional emphasis from assisting
 scholarly research to serving as a tourist destination.
 
 As someone who has done extensive research in the European Reading Room, and
 who has benefited from the excellent assistance of their dedicated staff (who
 fear that their jobs may also be cut), I consider this to be a very sad
 decision. Even if you haven't conducted research in the European Reading Room,
 I hope that you would agree that it is vitally important that our national
 repository of knowledge maintain a Reading Room dedicated to European Studies.
 The Library of Congress has more foreign-language materials than English ones,
 and the European Reading Room serves as an example for foreign visitors (who
 come through the room frequently on special tours, etc.) of the continuing
 interest that Americans have in learning about European culture and history.
 The French holdings at the Library are enormous, and include many titles
 difficult or impossible to find anywhere else in the United States. While they
 will still be accessible to readers in the Main Reading Room, the
 country-specific reference materials, databases, and, of course, the European
 specialist librarians will be less readily accessible.
 
 I would encourage members of the list to protest this decision to your
 congressperson, and also to James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
 Previous efforts to close the African and Middle Eastern reading Room, which
 has fewer scholarly visitors, have been thwarted by protests from the scholarly
 community. The Slavic studies folks (the most extensive users of the European
 Reading Room) are already organizing to express their displeasure. I urge
 French scholars to do the same!
 
 Dr. Michael Sizer
 Maryland Institute College of Art
 Dept. of Language, Literature and Culture
 sizer001 at umn.edu

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