Mar 21
Alex WatkinsFrom Our Guest Bloggers art history, art librarianship, digital libraries, visual literacy
What is the relationship between Art & Technology, specifically what does art and art history offer technology? I was recently posed this question and asked to present on my answer. At first I was a bit stumped… what do they even mean!? When I started working, I was mostly talking about all the things that technology was offering to Art History: digital libraries, digital humanities, digital other things! When I realized this, I knew I had to retrench. It was then that I hit on a skill that art history teaches and is absolutely vital to technology, visual literacy.
At this point you are probably saying either “yeah duh” or “visual what now?” For those in the latter category, do not worry, you’re certainly not alone. Go to ACRL’s visual literacy standards to get up to speed. It is essentially the ability to find, understand, and use images. Which is harder than it sounds.
First is the finding, or more often than not, the not finding, and worst of all, the not even attempting to find. We’ve all sat through power-points that were unending bullets of unreadable words, our eyes glazing over as we slump deeper into a stupor. Or we tried to read blogs that were essentially walls of text smashing into our faces, sapping us of our will to go on. The hard truth of the matter is that the web and most forms of digital communication are visual media. If you aren’t using images, you’re doing it wrong.
So you know you need an image, but that lolcat you found with google images isn’t cutting it? We all know someone who thinks it’s acceptable to use clip-art (“only sometimes!”, they might say), when it is 100% fact that it should never be used for anything, ever. Ever. Friends don’t let friends use stock photos. Libraries spend a good deal of time and money building better resources for people, we even call them digital libraries. But libraries cannot take a Field of Dreams approach to our image resources, because build it, and they very well might not come. We have to promote, persuade, educate, cajole, mock, and otherwise convince people to use these resources.
Don't use this!
But of course even when we get people to select a great looking image there are still challenges. A stellar image when paired with the content, might makes everyone go, “and that’s relevant how?” Which is generally to be avoided. With the preponderance of great images available out there, as well as the ever increasing number of tools for information visualization this problem can be prevented, but like forest fires, only you can do it.
This is very relevant to my post
Quite a bit more problematic is understanding the images one uses. This is where being an art historian comes in handy, or at least having an undergraduate minor. Evaluating images’ style, content, composition, meaning, and historical context is like second nature to us. When pretty much every website, Powerpoint, blog, digital humanities project requires us to use images, this is a danged useful skill. You don’t want to use an image that turns out to have some nasty connections, or that you simply don’t understand. But you studied something practical in college you say? Well too bad, you have to give us humanities people something. All that stuff about learning to think critically and analyze the represented world, well wasn’t all bullshit. But we’re more than happy to share our skills.
Time is money, which is why you don't waste people's time with images like this one
So you’ve successfully navigated these hurdles and produced a beautiful piece of well illustrated work. Too bad you may have broke the law, right? If you’re still using Google images, then probably yes. Hopefully you know where your image came from, you know if it’s in the public domain, or you found something licensed under creative commons and you’ve given attribution. Or if not, you understand your rights under fair use and have created a transformative work. Perhaps you’re pushing the boundaries of fair use, you brave and noble creature, and have set an example for us all.
Presto! You've created a work of art
That’s visual literacy! Simple right? But oh so lacking, and oh so vital for libraries’ digital projects. While this article may make light of the current situation (oh, it’s far worse than I’ve made out), it is a serious challenge for librarians of all stripes, one that will only get more vital as the internet increasingly takes over our lives.
Mar 21
Lydia WilloughbyFrom Our Guest Bloggers, On the Prowl Career Advice, Job Hunting
I recently relocated to Burlington, Vermont, from Brooklyn, New York. The decision to move was a difficult one, but after weighing the positives for my wife’s (have I mentioned yet that I got married in September?! <3!) new job and the opportunities for her career against our ever-increasing rent and quality of life, we came to the conclusion that we could have more space and cleaner air (my allergies are nonexistent in Vermont) while she gets to work her dream job. I miss my Desk Set friends, but for me, having just finishing library school, I felt that as an early career librarian, my job search was fairly flexible and ripe for relocation. And hey, I’m always open to working outside of libraries!
On The Prowl is a column about my job search. This job search is unlike any other I’ve ever embarked on before—for one, I’ve finally got the degree for the job that I want. And as I ready myself for the job search journey, I’m doing the usual things like revamping my resume, updating my online presence on things like LinkedIn, making peace with my online presence on things like Twitter, accepting the fact that yes, you do in fact have to write original cover letters for every job you apply to, and also I’ve been reaching out to my network of librarians and colleagues for inspiration and support.
Along the way, I’ve noticed a definite meme: everyone wants to dispense sage advice. But you already know this; you’ve heard it all before. And more than that, the “job search advice” I’ve been noticing is strikingly similar to other types of advice for situations that have to do with routine rejection and irrational optimism. Yes, I’m talking about dating advice. Before getting married, I’m not going to lie; I have dated people. I may have even dated you. But as a married person, I can reflect back on what worked and what was a waste of time.
Each month in On the Prowl, I’ll be translating the job search advice from one source to dating advice that I can actually use in my job search. The major takeaway from most job search advice is: “dress nice, be on time, don’t lie, and don’t be creepy.” I cannot emphasize that last point enough. Don’t be creepy, people! This means making and sustaining eye contact! This means having a confident handshake! This means not making people feel uncomfortable with irrelevant stories or inappropriate remarks!
Mar 14
Alex WatkinsFrom Our Guest Bloggers art and architecture collection, art libraries, nypl, picture collectin
Why are there art libraries? The question had never occurred to me before a year ago, it just seems natural, we couldn’t possibly have our precious art books mixing with the regular books! It turns out there are reasons and most of them have to do with the “special” properties of art books. They are heavy as a brick (probably heavier). They fall apart. They cost bucket-loads of money. Us specialists are the only ones who can protect this annoying, precious commodity. Beyond that there are the rare and special collections and the beautiful and valuable (and easy to steal) image plates. There are the enormous folios that seem to suggest that you accidentally took some Alice-in-Wonder land pills. There are book arts and artist files, picture collections, and ephemera, often in yet to be organized piles.
Studying at desk #914 at NYPL's Art & Architecture Collection
But budget crunches the world-over have proven that proper care of these materials can be a luxury few can afford. Museums decide that they “don’t need” a library (the fools!), Universities decide that art doesn’t need a branch and folds the collection into the main library. So what’s up, will this trend continue until there are precious few enclaves left for us art libraries, the last stand against the inevitable? Well, hopefully not, I think art will continue to be a specialized field that will require specialized tools and the professionals to wield them.
Right now I want to talk about Art Libraries that exist in public libraries. Most public libraries don’t have such an area, beyond perhaps the 700’s. But I am always happy when I stumble upon such departments in a large public library, often combined with music (but hey nobody’s perfect). I’m lucky enough to live by a system with two such libraries, even across the street from one another!
I’m talking about the Art and Architecture Department at NYPL’s main research library and the Art & Picture Collection at the Mid-Manhattan library. They are very differently places. The Mid-Manhattan collection is very similar to many other public art libraries, only a bit dirtier.
Shelving at the NYPL's Art & Architecture Collection
But the Art and Architecture Collection is a place to behold. It is gorgeous, full of books, two tiers of them in fact. But that is just scraping the surface, the real gold mine of research material is located in closed stacks. And they have just about everything, you just have to ask. After you request your books, they bring them over to you and serve you up, like you are at a fancy research restaurant. The tables are big and sturdy solid wood, the lamps are old time-y. The librarians yell at anyone who even looks at their cellphone.
To me nothing else conjures up the same image of the gentlemen (and gentlewomen) scholars digging into some serious research. The rogue academic with no university affiliation working on something esoteric. You see your fellow students, your professors, everyone comes here to work. Basically this is probably one of the greatest places in the world to do art history research. It only needs a fire place to complete its Harry Potter vibe, but then perhaps I would sleep rather than work.
But it all may be coming to an end. I’m gonna guess most people have heard about the plans abrewin’ at NYPL, the one where Norman Foster builds a circulating public library in the middle of the 42nd street research library, read all about it here and here. I have more opinions on this idea in a sister post on my blog. But here I want to focus on the repercussions on one of my favorite places.
Last I heard the two departments will be merging. Disclaimer: this is just what I’ve heard and as such is subject to change/not existing in the first place. Also, I’ve got no idea what may be the plan for bringing these two together. But this is more about what I’d like not to happen, so it doesn’t really matter what’s real. First off all, despite claims that the Foster addition will be the best thing since sliced bread, I would like to keep my cozy art lair in the original building, thank you very much. But of course that can’t house a circulating collection, and it certainly can’t fit the 1 million images in the picture collection (which by the way is an amazing and underused resource).
So then this department needs a new space, which then means giving up the old room… and we’re back at square one. Perhaps the new space will be modern and amazing and I’ll eat my words, stranger things have happened. Maybe they’ll stay separate but now in the same building (slightly more convenient to go get circulating art books, graphic novels, and the newest in teen fiction after studying). I’m not sure, but if this is the end of the line, I’ll just say good bye, we’ll miss you.
Mar 07
Alex WatkinsFrom Our Guest Bloggers art libraries, catalog raisonne, digtal books
Hi, I’ll be your blogger for the month of March. I’m an aspiring art librarian, which sometimes feels like it can describe most of the unemployed people I know in New York City. I have some degrees, some experience, and some common sense, but beyond that I make no promises about my expertise. Someday I’m sure I’ll look back at these posts and laugh about my naiveté at the precipice of my (hopeful) career. I welcome gentle nudges in the right direction by those who have been in the trenches. Find out more than you ever wanted to know about me on my blog.
I want to write about the future of the field, where technology might be taking us (kicking and screaming). I hope to be at least thought provoking to those who think about these things for a living and interesting to those who don’t. But everyone at least pretends to like art, so I guarantee it will be relevant to your interests. So without further ado, I’ll start with the future of art books
Whither the Art Book?
The future of the book?
I often read dire proclamations about the death of the book. But in my field, art history, the art book and the scholarly monograph tower over all other forms of communication looking none the weaker from this supposed war on physical books. In the near future, no computer monitor and certainly no kindle will match the sheet of kaolin coated paper as a technology for reproducing images. No digital project, no webpage will soon replace the art history monograph as the preeminent scholarly achievement in the field. Art history has been a slow moving field and you can pry the slides and paper books from our proverbial cold dead hands. But of course we know who wins in the long run, for a case in point see slides vs. powerpoint.
But instead of popping the champagne corks and toasting our short victory over this e-book menace, as an aspiring art librarian I want to give my field a strong shove into the abyss of technology. Most librarians I know agree, many art historians do not. The mere thought of digitized journals, e-books, and online exhibition catalogs is enough to give the scholar of art history heart palpitations. There is a side to me that shares their fears. This is the side of me that loves art books, the huge books, the glossy color pages, the well designed covers; the side of me that loves researching at art libraries in all their inefficient glory, their propensity for shelves that go up to the ceiling, their arcane classification that makes no sense, their closed stacks.
We won't let go of places like the Cini Art Library in Venice
The problem is we see these new technologies coming to take away our most prized possessions: our back issues of the Burlington Magazine, our lavishly illustrated books, our multi-volume catalogs raisonné. I believe the key is to see them as companions not competitors to our analog friends, a different tool for a different job. I want to take one example of an innovation in digital art communication, and see how it can peacefully co-exist, as well as what art librarians can do to nurture this harmony.
The online catalog raisonné is an interesting case, the regular version is usually a multi-volume work documenting all the known works of a particular artist, it traces each work’s history, exhibition, and scholarship. It sets the canon for the works that are truly by an artist. The main flaw in the print version, they are almost immediately out of date. Art Scholarship is constantly anointing new works by an artist and is de-authenticating others, even for artists who have been dead for hundreds of years, I recently wrote about this phenomena here. A print version cannot and will not keep up. This is where digital versions come into play, an online catalog raisonné can be updated to reflect the latest scholarship, opinions on authenticity, sales of artworks, and exhibitions. In this everyone must admit that virtual is more virtuous.
However, an online version cannot match the image fidelity that you get on a page, the colors on our monitors are all slightly different. If you are trying to confirm that you have an authentic work of art, you better be damn sure you’ve got your colors right. The next is stability, I’m pretty sure our paper books will far outlast most digital projects, what happens when funding runs out to host this online project? As I said the paper version is much harder to update, and in some cases this can be a positive. As this recent case of art forgery shows fakes do appear, and get convincingly passed off as the real thing, to the tune of 17 million dollars. The first clue that these works were suspect came from the catalog raisonné, which stood as a bulwark against too hasty updating. Can we trust online sources to this extent? Perhaps we can, but I wouldn’t bet 17 million on it.
Feb 29
Hannah MermelsteinFrom Our Guest Bloggers
I’ve spent the past four weeks blogging about the research I did on Palestinian books considered “Abandoned Property” by Israel. My research was for an academic degree, yes, but it was primarily for practical and activist purposes. I am far more of an activist than an academic. Today I’ll leave you with resources for education and activism. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but just a few things in each category that I find helpful.
For more about the case of the AP books in particular:
Overdue Books: Returning Palestine’s “Abandoned Property” of 1948 by me (article)
Ownerless Objects: The story of the books Palestinians left behind in 1948 by Gish Amit (article)
The Great Book Robbery by Benny Brunner (website, film trailer, soon to be film)
Websites with more of this type of archival information dating back to 1948 and before:
Palestine Land Society
PalestineRemembered.com
Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
Books to read (there are so many more – these are just a very few that I feel like highlighting today):
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe (good for history of 1948 in particular, destruction of Palestinian villages, etc. Also check out his A History of Modern Palestine for a slightly broader timeline.)
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti (poetic and poignant, reflections on returning to Palestine 30 years after the war in 1967)
This Side of Peace by Hanan Ashrawi (memoir and political history about negotiations in the Oslo era – early 1990s – from one of the most well-known Palestinian women)
Sharon and My Mother-In-Law by Suad Amiry (memoir about the Second Intifada – early 2000s – full of both humor and poignancy)
Palestine by Joe Sacco (if you’re into the comic form, this one’s for you!)
Zaatar Diva by Suheir Hammad (poetry from a fabulous Palestinian American spoken word artist – born and raised in Brooklyn!)
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti (from a leading Palestinian activist, the case for BDS – Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – against Israel, written with clarity and hope)
A movie and a couple short videos:
Slingshot Hip Hop (best movie ever, in my opinion) J
On the Day Yafa’s Refugees Return (7 minute video from Israeli organization Zochrot, exploring the right of return for Palestinian refugees)
Targeted Citizen (15 minute film about Palestinian citizens of Israel, put out by Adalah, a Palestinian legal rights organization in Haifa)
News and analysis:
Jadaliyya
Electronic Intifada
Mondoweiss
Activism:
Ok, before giving a few links here, I just want to say a few words about the BDS movement, since it is currently the biggest (and growing!) organized global movement against Israeli occupation, colonialism, and apartheid. In July 2005, 171 Palestinian civil society organizations put out a call to the world to impose boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and basic human rights. The movement has 3 demands, corresponding to the 3 different groups of Palestinian people:
1. An end to the occupation of the Arab lands and a dismantling of the Wall
2. Equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel
3. Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as reaffirmed in UN Resolution 194
For me, this movement is particularly significant for a number of reasons. First, it brings together different Palestinian populations that Israel has done its best to divide, and its demands are a unifying force for Palestinians who don’t necessarily all agree on political solutions. Next, it is modeled on and connected to a number of other movements, including the boycott movement against South African apartheid, and at the same time it is a continuation of a long history of Palestinian nonviolent civil protest that has mostly been ignored in Western discourse. Finally, it gives all of us around the world a framework and a tactic that is both principled and effective (I don’t have time to go into all the BDS successes so far, but there have been many and the movement is still young!). I used to speak to groups about Palestine and when they would ask, “What can I do?” I would say things like, “Read more, learn more, talk to your Congresspeople…” Of course, these are all important, but I don’t particularly have faith that any of them, at this moment, will bring about the change that is so urgently needed. BDS is full of hope and vision. It is deeply rooted in Palestinian leadership, yet flexible and context-specific in a way that inspires local organizing and creativity, and includes all people (Palestinians, Israelis, people around the globe). Are you sold yet? If not, see Omar Barghouti’s book in the list above. And check out some of these websites:
BDS National Committee (BNC) (includes the BDS call)
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) (I didn’t talk about the cultural boycott, but I’m deeply involved in that work – number one thing to know here is that it’s not a boycott of art or artists, but of institutions complicit in occupation.)
Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) (Amazing group of activists responding to pinkwashing and other forms of Islamophobia and/or whitewashing of Israel’s crimes)
Local organizing:
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (the group I work with in NY)
Jewish Voice for Peace (nationally campaigning to get TIAA-CREF to divest from occupation)
Students for Justice in Palestine (I can’t link this because there are dozens of them, but if you’re a student, google SJP and your school and see if something comes up.)
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (national group, good resource to find local organizing)
Finally, if you’re ever interested in going to Palestine, I lead human rights delegations in the region and know of several others as well. E-mail me (my full name at gmail) for more on that or anything else.
Again, thanks for having me as your guest blogger for the month! I’ll leave you with a few words from Howard Zinn: “The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface.”
Feb 22
Hannah MermelsteinFrom Our Guest Bloggers
Last week I explained the process by which I examined just a few dozen AP books, and I wrote a bit about my results. In short, we found many books with clearly identifying information, including Palestinian owners’ names. This means if we were to continue to go through the 6,000-ish books marked AP, we’d probably come up with hundreds, if not a couple thousand, with owners’ names. Does this mean I should move to Jerusalem and spend hours in the library each day doing this work? Perhaps. But I’m not 100% convinced this is the next step, or that I’m the person to do this. For one, my Arabic and Hebrew, while existent, are nowhere close to fluent. And perhaps even more important, I’m not Palestinian. It’s crucial that Palestinian people, and particularly the refugees who have been most affected by the looting of books and other cultural property, make the decision about where to go from here.
A systematic examination of the books is certainly one option. We could also try to track down the handful of owners (or their families) of the books that we have already looked at. We could try to find an insider – someone who works at the library – who is sympathetic and might be able to find out more about the still emerging story of the books. We could wait until May, when Benny Brunner’s film The Great Book Robbery is scheduled to be released, and see what further light is shed and what ideas it sparks.
We could do all this, but amidst it all, most important is to reassert that whether or not owners are identified, the AP books – as well as tens of thousands of other books that are embedded in the library’s general collection and thus harder to identify – are Palestinian books. They are individuals’ books, yes, but they are also Palestinian books in a collective sense.
After World War II, the workers at Offenbach Archival Depot in Germany did an incredible job of returning millions of books to their owners, but they also faced the question of what to do with the 500,000 or so unidentifiable books. Normally they would return them to the country or community that they were taken from, but when the Jewish population had been murdered or dispersed throughout the world, it seemed offensive to “return” the books to their countries of origin. So they embarked on a process of discussion in which they tried to be as accountable as possible to affected Jewish communities. The books ended up in libraries and Jewish cultural centers around the world, including some at the National Library in Jerusalem – the same place that now houses the AP books.
So when we consider the case of Palestine – which is uncannily similar at least in the sense of a population scattered throughout the world – we must ask ourselves the same questions. How can the books be “returned” to a Palestinian population with millions in exile? Who represents the Palestinian people? Should the books be housed in a governmental institution, a cultural NGO, a new library to be set up for this purpose? Should they be as close to Jerusalem as possible, or as far away from occupation as possible?
These are all issues I am eager to discuss with Palestinians. If you know folks whose families may have more insight into this, let me know. Next week (yes, February has 5 Wednesdays this year!) I’ll suggest resources for further education and activism about this issue and Palestine in general. And if you want to get a head start on the education and activism, check out all the events coming up for Israeli Apartheid Week. See you there!
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the last part of my article:
In some ways, the importance of this story lies simply in its telling, and the AP books as a collection take on new meaning with each examination. Not only do they represent a more or less unintentional reminder of Israel’s theft of Palestinian cultural and intellectual property, but they are also a living archive with meaning in the relationship between and among the books and their owners. For example, while AP book owner Mohammad Nimer Al-Khatib was part of a number of groups specifically aligned with the famous Husseini clan, Dr. Yusuf Haikel, another AP book owner, “was considered to be an enemy of the traditional supporters of Haj Amin Al-Husseini, and a supporter of King Abdullah.” One might wonder how the books’ or the men’s relationship to each other changes within the context of a captive collection of looted books from six decades ago.
…
In July 1948, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion famously wrote in his diary about the Palestinian people, “The old will die and the young will forget.” The old may be dying, but the young are not forgetting. Under the surface of any interaction in or about Palestine lie the ghosts of the past, powerfully resurrected in a multitude of cultural heritage projects with one eye on the present and another looking towards the future. It is my hope that this study of the “Abandoned Property” books will contribute to an ongoing process of decolonization through memory and return.
Feb 08
Hannah MermelsteinFrom Our Guest Bloggers
[This is Part 2 – That means you might want to read Part 1 first for context!]
While researching the Palestinian books now in Israeli custody, I looked at past examples of cultural property stolen during times of war and occupation. I was planning to use case studies from different times and places, but as I began to research Jewish property stolen by Nazis, I realized that there was a wealth of examples simply within that context.
The Nazi Holocaust, which happened only a few years before the Palestinian Nakba (and is not entirely unrelated), is one of the most studied cases of physical and cultural destruction of a people. I did not have to look far for stories of looted cultural property, and even books in particular, from Austria to Belarus, from the Czech Republic to Germany. The governments and museums of Austria and Germany, perhaps because they can be seen as the most culpable, have undergone incredible efforts in recent years to research the provenance (former ownership) of cultural property, and to return as much of it as possible. Belarus, on the other hand, has taken the stance that what is won in war is legitimately taken, and only recently has begun to distinguish a small fraction of the half million looted books in its national library as “rare books.”
For me, perhaps the most relevant parallel to the AP books that can be found in the cases of Nazi looting is the question of collective return to a community dispersed throughout the globe. The standards that existed before the Nazi Holocaust – that books and other property should be returned to their country of origin after a war – no longer made sense in places where the community of the former owners (in this case, mostly Jews) was decimated. Similarly, one must ask how to return books in which individuals’ names are not found to a Palestinian collective body with no clear representative or central location. More on this in a couple weeks, but for now, I’d like to tell a story I find particularly moving that I first came across in an article by Miriam Intrator. Like last week, I’ll quote from my article, and you can read the whole article here:
In 1941, the Nazis established Theresienstadt concentration camp in a town called Terezin on the outskirts of Prague. This camp housed wealthy and prominent Jews from various countries and served as a “model camp” to show the world that the Nazis’ treatment of Jews was humane. Therefore, those in the camp were, at least at the beginning, permitted many of the amenities not usually provided to concentration camp inhabitants.16 One such amenity was a community library and bookmobile.
Many people arriving in Theresienstadt brought books with them, and thus a collection was established. Nazi authorities soon supplemented this collection with libraries stolen from Jewish institutions throughout Europe. The books had no common language or subject, and were cataloged by professionals in the library. Eventually, the Nazis’ motivation for the operations in the library became much more insidious: Jews were to catalog materials for future inclusion in the “Museum of the Extinct Race.”17
Eventually, the vast majority of Theresienstadt residents were deported and killed. The head librarian and one other staff member survived, and voluntarily remained in the camp for three months after liberation until they could fully organize and catalog the 100,000 volumes in the library. The books then found their new home in the Jewish Museum in Prague.18
In the years immediately following World War II, the Jewish Museum in Prague underwent a massive process of restoring materials to their prior owners. Of more than 190,000 volumes that the museum acquired during and immediately after the war, 158,000 were returned.19 In 2000, the Czech Republic passed a restitution act that required all state institutions to return art obtained illegally between 1938 and 1945. Although not a state institution, the Jewish Museum committed itself to the spirit of the act and began provenance research on many of the items in its collection. Additionally, the museum has a section on its website called “Terms for the filing of claims for the restitution of books from the library collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague which were unlawfully seized from natural persons during the period of Nazi occupation.” Explaining that all books “shall be transferred free of charge to the natural person who owned them prior to the seizure,”20 the website lists specific instructions on how to file claims, which descendants and relatives may do so, and the documents required.
Thinking about this story both haunts and inspires me. I am amazed that the few surviving librarians stayed in the camp after they could have left in order to catalog the collection. In this act, as in the act of building the library and providing services to camp inhabitants, the librarians danced the fine line between submission and resistance. On the one hand, the librarians had been ordered to perform their job, both to make the camp look good and to begin work on the insidiously named “Museum of the Extinct Race.” On the other hand, the collection and maintenance of a library comprised of people’s most prized possessions, the operation of a bookmobile and encouragement to read for pleasure, the insistence on life in the midst of death – these are strongest kinds of resistance I know. I am reminded now of Palestinian spoken word artist Rafeef Ziadeh who, in response to people who ask her why Palestinians teach hate, declares, “We teach life, sir. We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.”
Feb 01
Hannah MermelsteinFrom Our Guest Bloggers
Welcome to February, all, and thanks for having me as your guest blogger! Today I’ll tell you a bit about myself and give you an introduction to the topic I’ll be writing about for the month. It’s a long story with a lot of context that I’m doing my darnedest to make concise, so I totally welcome any and all questions and comments to further flesh it out.
A little about me: I’m a Saint Ann’s school librarian by day, a Palestine solidarity activist by night, and a leader of educational and activist delegations by summer (both day and night). So when I read this article and saw this film trailer, I thought, “I have to look into this more.” I decided to construct my Queens College MLIS thesis project around this story of thousands of Palestinian-owned books that ended up under Israeli control. Call it preservation or call it looting, but these books represent one of many examples of the appropriation of Palestinian cultural heritage into Israel’s conception of itself. In order to continue to deny Palestinian rights, most notably the internationally recognized right of refugees to return, Zionist institutions must take a Newt Gingrich-esque stance, desperately trying to deny the history of the Palestinian people and their claims to land and property.
I’ll let my thesis (or the article that came from it) tell the story of the books themselves:
In 1948, much of the wealthy and formally educated Palestinian population was concentrated in Jerusalem and other urban centers. When Zionist militias swept through these neighborhoods, they physically pushed thousands of people from their homes and caused tens of thousands more to flee in fear. Many Palestinians left in haste, grabbing only what they could carry as they ran. Others thought they would return a few weeks later, once the fighting died down. In many cases, members of the educated class left behind some of their most prized possessions: books.
The soldiers raiding these West Jerusalem neighborhoods were closely followed by teams of librarians from the Jewish National and University Library at Hebrew University (later referred to as National Jewish Library or simply the National Library). They gathered approximately 30,000 books from private Palestinian libraries and, according to testimonies from those involved in the project, began to catalog books by subject and often by owners’ names. In the early 1960s, however, close to 6,000 of the books were revisited and labeled with the letters “AP” for “abandoned property”. The library catalog shows no information on provenance, or former ownership. If that information had formerly been recorded, it seems to have been erased or at least carefully concealed.
To this day, the books’ call numbers begin with the letters “AP.” The National Library has thus maintained a likely unintentional collection of looted Palestinian books, easily identifiable to those who understand what “AP” means. It remains unclear why certain books were labeled “AP” and others were not. Indeed, the remainder of the 30,000 plundered books, which were embedded into the library’s general catalog and are also still housed there, are much more difficult to identify.
As you can tell, we are only just cracking the surface of this episode, and there are a lot of questions. But for the purpose of my research, I focused on just a handful of books from the 6,000 labeled “AP.” I wanted to see if there was a way to trace specific books to specific owners by looking for names, stamps, and other identifying information inside the books themselves. Like with everything I do, my goal was not simply to contribute to scholarly research, but to be a part of a larger movement for justice. To that end, it is important to me to emphasize that whether or not we can connect individual books to their owners, there should be a collective return of this cultural property to the Palestinian people. How is that to be done? Well, that’s for another time.
A sneak preview of the weeks to come: Next week, I will look at examples of Jewish cultural property looted by Nazis, and the ways in which that property has or hasn’t been returned. The following week, I’ll talk more about the details of my own research and what I found in the books in Jerusalem. The final week, I’ll discuss recommendations for follow-up and further activism. If you just can’t wait, you can read it all in a slightly more official form here. And if your comments steer us in a different direction, well then, off we will go.
Jan 29
KatyFrom Our Guest Bloggers
I don’t know if you guys get this as well, but in my encounters with non-librarians, there are one of two reactions to my occupation: reallly excited, or confusion/looks of pity. The former group of people are awesome and understand the importance of libraries. The latter group, whom I encounter on a weekly basis, picture libraries in the same way that the movie It’s a Wonderful Life does – as sad, lonely places where otherwise normal people are transformed into lifeless, husband-less freaks.
Just two weeks ago, after my dentist asked me what I do for a living, I got this reaction, which is now one of my favorites: “Really? You don’t look boring enough to be a librarian!” And then he grinned, as if this were a compliment.
He’s still a good dentist so I have decided to overlook it. Oral health is very important. But my point is, why do librarians get so little respect? Our budgets are constantly being cut, branches closed, and no one outside our profession thinks of it as a profession at all, or realizes a master’s degree in library science even exists.
I suspect that most of this problem is an issue of marketing. We librarians do not tout our own accomplishments enough. We don’t toot our own horns, as it were. But I wonder if another factor here stems from library school. Is it strenuous enough? For people going into the academic arena – does library school do enough to prepare us for high-level scholarship? I’m personally not sure. Library school programs seem to place little emphasis on publishing, library instruction, or the business of managing a library and staff – some of the most important aspects of our actual jobs. If anyone has any thoughts/gripes about this, please leave them in the comments – I’m very curious to hear about people’s experiences!
Jan 21
KatyFrom Our Guest Bloggers
Thinking more about libraries and design – graphic designer Michael Bierut gave a presentation a while back about the Library Initiative, a project to build new school libraries in elementary schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City, and I think this presentation is one that a lot of librarians will appreciate. So far the initiative has built more than 60 new school libraries in NYC, all of which look absolutely beautiful, and incorporate Bierut’s logo for the project:
He’s kind of disparaging about the logo in his presentation, but I just love it! L!brary. Anywho, it’s a very funny talk and also underscores some of the important aspects of library design and who it’s for (bit of a spoiler: it’s for us!).
Older Entries Newer Entries
RSS
Recent Comments