Radio România Internațional

Tag: library

The Public Library in Constanța

1878, when northern Dobrudja became part of the Romanian Kingdom, also marked the beginning of a process of westernisation of this Black Sea region, so as to catch up with the rest of the country. This also involved the establishment of modern cultural institutions, alongside political ones. The public library in Constanța was one such an institution, its foundation being linked to one of the most influential journalists and cultural figures from this Black Sea port city, namely Petru Vulcan, who was born in 1866 and died in 1922. With the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Constanța Public Library in 2021, a tribute was paid to Petru Vulcan, the librarys founder. Librarian Corina Apostoleanu tells us more about the biography of Petru Vulcan:

“Petru Vulcan ended up in Dobrudja after an interesting, even adventurous, journey. He has Aromanian origins and was not born on the territory of present-day Romania, but he became very attached to Constanța and the whole Dobrudja region. He became employed as a public servant in Constanța at a time when the city was just beginning to modernise and was nothing like the city we see today. It is in this capacity as a public employee that Vulcan embarked on an ambitious project to establish a literary and cultural magazine in the Romanian language, the first of its kind in Dobrudja, which he called Ovidiu, after the Latin poet, thus emphasising the Latin connections of these parts and the links with Ovid, who was banished here from Rome. Another project initiated by Vulcan was the creation of a literary circle, a daring endeavour in a city with a small Romanian population and with no formal education system and very few intellectual elites. He did not stop here, but embarked on a third project, namely the foundation of a public library.”

Petru Vulcan did manage to establish a public library in Constanța, but the project was short-lived, as books were still considered luxuries and modern cultural life was in its early days, librarian Corina Apostoleanu explains:

“The library opened with a lavish ceremony in Independence Square, todays Ovid Square. Unfortunately, the library didnt last long. The magazine, however, survived until 1910, both with and without Petru Vulcan. Towards the end of the 19th century and in the 1930s, when the modern concept of the public library was truly born, a series of fresh attempts were made in the form of reading circles for different professional groups, from public servants to port workers, lawyers and teachers, etc. School libraries were also set up in the more important education institutions. All this gave new impetus to Petru Vulcans older project to establish a public library in the city. Teachers had an important role to play, putting pressure on the local authorities and the city hall, insisting that the city needs a public library.”

It wasnt, however, until July 1931 that the local authorities signed the decree for the establishment of the county library in Constanța. The librarian Corina Apostoleanu tells us why the library is today named after Ioan N. Roman:

“Ioan N. Roman was one of the citys leading intellectual figures at the time. He was a lawyer, but also wrote poetry under the pen made Rozmarin and his name appears in many periodicals from Dobrudja. He died in 1931 and one his houses would be loaned by his family to the citys library to be used as its headquarters. Carol Blum, another leading intellectual figure from Constanța, was the first librarian, although he wasnt paid for the job. In the 1950s, he moved to Israel, where he gained recognition for his academic research and where he became a member of the Israeli Academy. Back to Constanța, the public library slowly began to build a collection thanks to large donations and its own purchases. A regulation was published and the opening hours were established, so a modern library was created.”

When the communist regime came to power in 1947, the county library in Constanța entered a new stage, one marked by censorship, with a large section of its collection becoming unavailable to the public. All that changed in 1990, following the collapse of the communist regime. The venue hosting the library at this time was given back to the Archbishopric of Constanța, and a new, modern building was erected for the purpose of hosting the library, the first, in fact, in Romania to be designed with this aim in mind.

21 August 2022
Education for the grassroots in modern Romania

Romania’s rural community centers are associated with the communist propaganda according to the Romanian collective imaginary, which also associates such establishments with the village’s off-the-record disco parties, improvised occasionally and somehow going against the law. Yet the history of such cultural establishments goes back in time, before the communist regime. Initially, the rural community centers were part of a wide-scope effort which also included propaganda as well as education, in the broader sense of the word. To put it briefly, we shall soon be marking a hundred years since the rural community centers have been established in Romania in 1923, under the aegis of then the Royal Foundations, at that time a leading public cultural institution. Our guest today is historian Razvan Andrei Voinea. Here he is, speaking about the eventual aim of the community centers in the inter-war years.

It was also a propagandistic aim. We found it very interesting to analyze that nationalistic-monarchic discourse, mainly after King Carol II came to power and after the implementation of that kind of royal dictatorship after 1938. Back in the day the propaganda was made with the purpose of awakening the national consciousness. By all means, there were indeed a lot of measures implemented to increase the role of religion, to enhance the image of the monarchy in the traditional imaginary, and that was obvious especially after 1934. No more than 100-150 community centers had been set up until then, but as soon as sociologist Dimitrie Gusti became the head of the Royal Foundations, almost 2,000 community centers were established between 1934 and 1938. It’s fascinating, I mean, having so very many community centers that were operational all those years. And it was also then that Gusti came up with a great number of measures taken to improve the quality of life in the rural areas. There was a lot more to it than that: there was the economic aspect through scores of programmes implemented so that villagers could find out how they could get richer, then there was the cultural dimension, there also was a healthcare aspect, a very important one, the reformers were trying to implement.

With no dedicated buildings, the interwar years’ community centers were more like village associations. Here is historian Razvan Andrei Voinea once again, this time speaking about some of the activities carried by such centers.

The construction of premises was an attempt that was partially accomplished: cattle shelters, public monuments, fountains, lampposts for public lighting. One such example is the public bath (…) ditches were dug, sick people were taken care of, for instance. Speaking about healthcare, they made much of cleanliness and the public baths. Public paths were built, for instance (…) And, during World War Two, funds were raised, as well as stuff for the soldiers on the frontline. (…) An important role was played by the setting up of the libraries. Each community center had its own library. Again, that is important as well. We also need to say that, at that time, the community centers did not have the image they have today, which is fueled by the communist constructions. Usually, in the inter-war years their premises were the school or the town hall. That is why quite a few of them were a hundred percent linked to the village school, or were managed by the priest or the principal. They were the main animators of the cultural activity in the rural areas.

This first part in the history of the community centers lasted until the instatement of the communist regime and ended with the dismantling of the Royal Foundations, in the same period of time. And it was also back then that the cultural and education activity had seen a new stage.

Razvan Andrei Voinea:

First of all, major investments were made in the community centers.(…) A new building could be seen in each and every village across Romania: the community center built after 1948. On the spur of the moment, many of them were placed in the boyars’ residential buildings which were forcibly turned into state property, but afterwards, buildings were erected, based on a series of projects made by the design institutes in the big cities. The activities carried in the new buildings were very diverse, obviously based on the same type of propaganda. Get-togethers were organized, exhibitions were mounted, focusing on the collective farming in the USSR or in other regions across Romania. Peasants were brought to see that exhibition. Then again, a very interesting direction was that of the propaganda through film, which began in 1960. (…) Furthermore, rural theatre troupes were set up. There were hundreds of such troupes all across Romania, and they had a rather rich repertoire (…) As a rule, scripts were written in Bucharest only to be dispatched to various community centers. The troupes there practically acted following those scripts. (…) On Sundays at 11 am, those who went to the community center could see a play. It was the same all around the country, it was based on that script which had the purpose of unifying the cultural discourse.

Since 1990, community centers in the rural regions have been of no interest for the political decision-makers or the cultural managers of the public institutions, At the moment, of the existing 7,100 village community centers, a mere 125 of them stage specific activities.

(EN)

6 August 2022
The estate of Bratianu family in Florica

The Florica estate is located around 100 kilometers north-west
of Bucharest. It is one of the best-known such estates across the country.
Proof of that stands the personality of those who created the estate and lived
there afterwards. We’re speaking about the Bratianu family. It is a most
distinguished family, which for two generations had been actively taking part
in the making of modern Romania. Ion C. Brătianu and his
brother, Dumitru, were members of the generation of the 1848 Revolution, also
contributing to Moldavia’s Union with Wallachia in 1859. Their sons, Ion I. C. Bratianu,
Dinu Bratianu and Vintila Bratianu were leading representatives of the 1918
generation, which among other things, had an important contribution to the
emergence of Greater Romania.

There
is a story behind the origins of the Florica estate. Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion documented that story. The
foundation of the estate was laid by Dinca Bratianu, the father of the future
great politician Ion I.C Bratianu. Ion I.C Bratianu inherited the Florica and Samburesti estates. Back in the day
Ion I.C Bratianu also bought the adjoining vineyard, known as Floreasca. The
vineyard would be Ion I. C Bratianu’s concern until he died, vineyard he would
tend to and exploit.

Historian Narcis Dorin Ion gives us the details.

Ion C. Brătianu would build a
first house in Florica in 1858, and here is how his nephew, the poet Ion
Pillat, reminisced about it, in 1943: ‘where the old cellar and wine-cellar of the
Brancoveanu vineyard once stood, a plot of land that later was the property of
Dinca Bratianu, his son, Ion C. Bratianu, would build a simple,
two-storey winegrower’s house, which also had an open terrace, back then. The gazebo remained in a primitive state until the old
man’s death. That house in Florica, an old one, where I also spent part of my
childhood, there was something quiet and traditional about it, something that
never vanished form my soul.’

Initially,
the house was a modest lodging placed in the middle of the vineyard. From a
three-room house and a wine cellar, in time, Ion I.C. Bratianu built a storied
mansion and an open terrace. In August 1865, the house in Florica had ten
rooms, but Bratianu was well aware of the fact that the lodgings still failed
to provide the amenities he would have liked for his family, which had many
children, all of them living in Bucharest. In 1877 the Florica railway station
was inaugurated, so travelling form the capital city Bucharest became a lot
easier.

Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion:

In a letter he sent to his wife,
Pia, in 1871, Bratianu described the home in Florica as follows: ‘then I calmed
down and I got myself seated in the smaller parlor. The room seemed big to me.
From the little parlor, when I looked at the great parlor, I felt as if I were
somewhere in the palaces in Germany which, being deserted, seemed to me the
most spacious I had ever seen.’.

Whenever
he had his short holidays in Florica, Bratianu liked to be there all by
himself, with his thoughts and with the passion he had for the vineyard and the
livestock. In 1869, Bratianu confessed to his wife about what that place meant
for him, it is the sheer sweetness of a home, since it is only here
that I feel I am at home, with us. In Bucharest, despite all the amenities we
have there, I feel like I am in a high-standard hotel, but nothing more than
that .

As
long as he lived, the house had an austere style, imposed by his
simple taste. Towards the end of his life, his son, Ionel, found it really hard
to persuade him to make some changes, since Ionel was so passionate about
constructions.

Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion:

The great changes occurred in 1905-1912 and 1924-1925,
following architect Petre Antonescu’s plans. To this day, thanks to their
lavish interior decoration, the bookcases can still impress visitors. The early
days of the library in Florica are also linked to Ion I. C Bratianu, the one
who had the first bookcase built on the premises. The first books in the
library were purchased by Bratianu, from Paris. It was also the old man who
compiled the first catalogue of that rich library, which proudly included
bibliophile copies coming from the libraries of his friends in politics, C. A.
Rosetti, Cezar Bolliac, Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian, as well as his brother, Dumitru
Brătianu.

Ion C.
Brătianu also had a park built, which he names Semiramis’ Gardens, since the
planting of trees was also one of his hobbies. Apart from the house, the
vineyard and the park, on the estate, Ion C Bratianu has also set up a farm and
had a church built there. It was in the church that he would be buried,
alongside his first child, a girl, Florica, who died at the tender age of 3. Four
of the Bratianu’s eight children got married on the Bratianu estate. They were
Sabina, Maria, Vintila and Tatiana. The
place was visited by many personalities of that time, among them King Carol I,
his wife Elisabeth and prince heir, the future King Ferdinand I.

Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion:

Quite telling for the modesty in which the late 19th
century’s most prominent politician lived are his and his wife’s room, kept in
mint condition, also as a result of the mansion’s thoroughgoing refurbishment
and extension works initiated by Ionel Bratianu. For the family’s elder son, so
passionate about the study of history, those rooms already had a historic
value, being presented to the high-brow guests of the mansion as some sort of
family museum, something the contemporaries held in high esteem. ‘Daddy’s room
had remained intact as a historical monument, in the cupboard the clothes he
wore for the last time had been neatly arranged, as well as his Junker’s
uniform and ma’s engagement dress. His bathroom, simple as it was, had remained
intact. Ionel’s cult for daddy had been so very uncompromising’, recalled the
daughter, Sabina Cantacuzino.

To this day, the Florica estate is a Romanian heritage
in its own right. It is a tourist asset that also facilitates a trip down the
memory lane.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)

27 June 2021
Romanian inter-war politics and its heritage

The Florica estate is located around 100 kilometers north-west
of Bucharest. It is one of the best-known such estates across the country.
Proof of that stands the personality of those who created the estate and lived
there afterwards. We’re speaking about the Bratianu family. It is a most
distinguished family, which for two generations had been actively taking part
in the making of modern Romania. Ion C. Brătianu and his
brother, Dumitru, were members of the generation of the 1848 Revolution, also
contributing to Moldavia’s Union with Wallachia in 1859. Their sons, Ion I. C. Bratianu,
Dinu Bratianu and Vintila Bratianu, were leading representatives of the 1918
generation, which among other things, had an important contribution to the
emergence of Greater Romania.

The
origin of the Florica estate has a story behind it. Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion documented that story. The
foundation of the estate was laid by Dinca Bratianu, the father of the future
great politician Ion
I.C Bratianu. Ion I.C Bratianu inherited the Florica and Samburesti estates. Back in the day
Ion I.C Bratianu also bought the adjoining vineyard, known as Floreasca. The
vineyard would be Ion I. C Bratianu’s concern until he died, it was the vineyard he would
tend to and exploit.

Historian Narcis Dorin Ion:

Ion C.
Brătianu would build a first house in Florica in 1858, and here is how his
nephew, the poet Ion Pillat, reminisced about it, in 1943:’ on the old cellar
and wine-cellar of the Brancoveanu vineyard, later the property of Dinca Bratianu, his son, Ion C Bratianu,
would build a simple, two-storey winegrower’s house, which also had an open
terrace, back then. The gazebo remained in
a primitive state until the old man’s death. That house in Florica, an old one,
where I also spent part of my childhood, there was something quiet and
traditional about it, something that never vanished form my soul.’

Initially,
the house was a modest lodging placed in the middle of the vineyard. From a
three-room house and a wine cellar, in time, Ion I.C. Bratianu built a storied
mansion and an open terrace. In August 1865, the house in Florica had ten
rooms, but Bratianu was well aware of the fact that the lodgings still failed
to provide the amenities he would have liked for his family, which had many
children, all of them living in Bucharest. In 1877 the Florica railway station
was inaugurated, so travelling form the capital city Bucharest became a lot
easier.

Historian Narcis-Dorin Ion describes the house that
was substantially refurbished by Pia and her husband, Ion I. C. Bratianu:

In a letter he sent to his wife,
Pia, in 1871, Bratianu describes the home in Florica as follows: ‘then I calmed
down and I got myself seated in the smaller parlor. The room seemed big to me.
From the little parlor, when I look at the great parlor, I felt as if I were
somewhere in the palaces in Germany which, being deserted, seemed to me the
most spacious I had ever seen.’.

Whenever
he had his short holidays in Florica, Bratianu liked to be there all by
himself, with his thoughts and with the passion he had for the vineyard and the animals. In 1869, Bratianu confessed to his wife about what that place meant
for him, ‘it is the sheer sweetness of a home, since it is only here
that I feel I am at home, with us. In Bucharest, despite all the amenities we
have there, I feel like I am in a high-standard hotel, but nothing more than
that.’

As
long as he was still alive, the house had an austere style, imposed by his
simple taste. Towards the end of his life, his son, Ionel, found it really hard
to persuade him to make some changes, since Ionel was so passionate about
constructions.

Narcis-Dorin Ion:

The great changes would occur in 1905-1912 and 1924-1925,
following architect Petre Antonescu’s plans. To this day, thanks to their
lavish interior decoration, the bookcases can still impress visitors. The early
days of the library in Florica are also linked to Ion I. C Bratianu, the one
who had the first bookcase built on the premises. The first books in the
library were purchased by Bratianu, from Paris. It was also the old man who
compiled the first catalogue of that rich library, which proudly included
bibliophile copies coming from the libraries of his friends in politics, C.
A. Rosetti, Cezar Bolliac, Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian, as well as his brother, Dumitru
Brătianu.

Ion
C. Brătianu also had a park built, which he names Semiramis’ Gardens, since the
planting of trees was also one of his hobbies. Apart from the house, the
vineyard and the park, on the estate, Ion C Bratianu had also set up a farm and
had a church built there. It was in the church that he was buried,
alongside his first child, a girl, Florica, who died at the tender age of 3. Four
of Bratianu’s eight children got married on the Bratianu estate. They were
Sabina, Maria, Vintila and Tatiana. The place
was visited by many personalities of that time, among them King Carol I, his
wife Elisabeth and prince heir, the future King Ferdinand I.

Historian Narcis-Dorin
Ion:

Quite telling for the modesty in which the late 19th
century’s most prominent politician lived are his and his wife’s room, kept in
mint condition, also as a result of the mansion’s thoroughgoing refurbishment
and extension works initiated by Ionel Bratianu. For the family’s elder son, so
passionate about the study of history, those rooms already had a historic
value, being presented to the high-brow guests of the mansion as some sort of
family museum, something the contemporaries held in high esteem. ‘Daddy’s room
had remained intact as a historical monument, in the cupboard the clothes he
wore for the last time had been neatly arranged, as well as his Junker’s
uniform and ma’s engagement dress. His bathroom, simple as it was, had remained
intact. Ionel’s cult for daddy had been so very uncompromising’, recalled the
daughter, Sabina Cantacuzino.

To this day, Florica estate has remained a Romanian heritage element in its own right. It is a tourist asset, also facilitating a trip down the
memory lane.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)

20 June 2021
A library for the Roma children in Bucharest

An underprivileged ethnic minority in economic, social and other respects, the Roma can overcome this condition, and one of the ways to do this is through culture and education. This is the idea behind the Roma Childrens Library, a project that started 3 years ago with the collaboration between the Swedish writer Gunilla Lundren, the Romanian-born Swedish book illustrator and publisher Arina Stoenescu, Thomas Acton, a Romani studies professor from the UK, and a Swedish journalist and ethnic Roma, Fred Taikon.

The library is hosted by a building which is also home to another, broader social and cultural project, called the Museum of Roma Culture, located in Giulesti, a neighbourhood in the Romanian capital city Bucharest where a lot of Roma people live. Originally, the library consisted in books, furniture and toys donated by various contributors.

It is there, on the neglected outskirts of Bucharest, where urban space merges into an underprivileged rural atmosphere, that we met writer Gunilla Lundgren. Known mostly as an author of childrens books, Gunilla set up a PEN Club, a creative writing club, for the Roma children in her home country. Based on the experiences, readings and talks within the club, she wrote 3 books and created a radio series together with the children she is working with. Given her relations with the Roma minority in Sweden, the writer found it easy to connect with the Roma children in Eastern Europe, in spite of the differences between the 2 communities.

Gunilla Lundgren: “Its many different groups in Sweden. We have what we call the Swedish Roma, who lived there for many, many years, and we have also newcomers now. We have Roma from former Yugoslavia, when the war was up they came there. We have many other groups of Roma, we have Russian Roma, and Finnish Roma, who have different religions and different languages. We have now in Sweden many people from Romania and Bulgaria, who beg on the streets in Sweden, and the Swedish Roma children found that very sad. They are not beggars, the Swedish Roma children. They live in apartments and their parents are working, and they feel lucky, they cant identify with the people who are begging. And then we discussed this a lot and we asked, ‘what is happening with the children whose mothers sit and beg in the streets? The Swedish Roma children said, ‘we must help the children, the children are in Romania. And they should not become beggars. We should give them books.‘ So the income from the books we write now in Pen Club goes into making these books that Arina helps us release, to give to the children here, because they should not become beggars.

Pioneer Press, the publishing house founded by book illustrator and translator Arina Stoenescu, marked the 3 years of life of the Roma Childrens Library with the release of a bilingual, Romanian and Romani book entitled “Happy Easter! This is the 3rd bilingual book launched by this publisher and intended for Roma children. Their author, Gunilla Lundgren, told us about the involvement and support needed for the Roma Childrens Library:

Gunilla Lundgren: “What I see is that the library is here and I think its hard work here as well, we work hard on both sides. We call this library ‘our friend library. And Arina comes here, she writes letters to our children and we write letters to the children here. So, they really feel that we are friends, they write to each other. We make exhibitions, in our library, with the letters that the children here in Giulesti write. Also, now, our children are here in photos, there are photos of the Swedish Roma children here in your library, and this makes them feel this friendship.

Luminita Ancuta, from the Museum of Roma Culture in Giulesti, sees this library as a sort of club of the children in the neighbourhood:

Luminita Ancuta: “This initiative has been beneficial, because many of the children here have parents who, for various reasons, do not have time to spend with their kids, to read to them and to help them develop this kind of skills. Since we opened the Roma Childrens Library, we have focused especially on reading activities. We simply read stories to them or together with them. The most important thing was that weve brought them here, because in this neighbourhood there is no playground or bigger park. We only have a small park next to one of the 2 schools in our neighbourhood.

Reading helps children, irrespective of their social or cultural background, to develop in several respects. It helps them concentrate, ask questions, give answers and communicate.

Luminita Ancuta: “We have been reading stories related to the history of the Roma people. When the library opened, Gunilla Lundgren also launched one of her books, entitled Sophia, which tells the story of a Roma Holocaust survivor. The book is actually designed as a bilingual, Romanian and Romani cartoon. And when we read this story with the children, we noticed that they know very little about Roma history. They were very moved by the story of the little girl who lived in a concentration camp and went through dramatic experiences. Children are very curious by nature. When they see the books on the shelves, they take them out, browse them and ask all sorts of questions. Many of them have problems reading and ask us to read for them. Sometimes they bring along their younger siblings who, even though they cannot read, copy our moves and attitudes. What we want to do here is whet their appetite for reading, because only through reading can they discover who they are.

Children discover themselves, but they discover the others as well, because the Roma Childrens Library is also open to the children who do not belong to this ethnic group and who lived in this overlooked part of Bucharest.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

16 May 2019
The G.T.Kirileanu Book Collection in Piatra Neamt

This is hardly surprising given that the region used to host the Moldavian Princely Court for centuries and later on, it was the birthplace of writer Ion Creanga. The history and culture of this region are illustrated in the old collection of books and documents on which todays County Library in Piatra Neamt is founded. This collection was donated by lawyer and scholar Gheorghe Teodorescu-Kirileanu, who had a significant contribution to Romanias modernisation process in the late 19th and early 20th century.

His efforts were also praised by the Royal House. Invited to coordinate the publication of a series of monographs on royal estates, to mark 40 years since King Carol (1866-1906) I ascended the throne, Kirileanu also received the proposal to work for the Royal House in Bucharest. Consequently, between 1909 and 1930, he served as the librarian of the Royal Palace until he was replaced by Carol II. At this point, Kirileanu also withdrew from Bucharests public life and spent the rest of his life in Piatra Neamt, where he died in 1960.

But more on Kirileanus contribution to the citys cultural life from writer Adrian Alui Gheorghe, the director of the G.T.Kirileanu County Library in Piatra Neamţ: “The library was founded by Gheorghe Teodorescu Kirileanu, a prominent scholar and former librarian of the king, who retreated to Piatra Neamt in the wake of the war, bringing over a collection of books, periodicals and extremely rare documents. He donated his collection to the Neamt community in 1955. It is around this collection that the first public library in Piatra Neamt was founded around 1960-1962. Then, in 1972, the first post-war library in Romania was built in Piatra Neamt. It was a modern, large building, which was added a new wing in 1997. Meanwhile, the book collection was enlarged, the number of users has increased over the years and a recent ranking of libraries in Romania based on statistical figures put us on the 4th position in Romania in terms of number of visitors. “

Today, a large part of the G.T.Kirileanu collection can be accessed online. Adrian Alui Gheorghe has further details: “The G.T.Kirileanu collection of books and periodicals initially comprised over 36,000 items. It included rare books, old books and periodicals of great value. Let me give you some examples. We have over 300 titles in our heritage collection, which includes books published before 1830. We also have extremely rare periodicals, such as all the issues of the Timpul newspaper at the time when Mihai Eminescu was a contributor. What weve done in recent years, with the help and effort made by our colleagues from the relevant department, was to transpose into digital format many of the periodicals included in the G.T.Kirileanu collection. If you access the website of our library, you can find every single issue of the Timpul newspaper published between 1878 and 1885. We have also transposed on a digital format all publications issued in Neamt County in the inter-war period and even long before. Popular publications like Albina românească and others are also available online. We also started to digitise all newspapers issued in our area after 1948, such as Ceahlaul and Flacara. You can also access online many newspapers issued in 1948 and 1950, which offer you the possibility to find detailed information on the social and political life from those times.

As was natural, the public library in Piatra Neamt also has a collection of books written or owned by Ion Creanga, whose work was very much appreciated by G.T.Kirileanu, as Adrian Alui Gheorghe has told us: “He managed to recover some of the books that belonged to Ion Creanga and were part of the writers personal library. There are books of all types, from textbooks to religious books. It is interesting to note that Creanga made annotations on the books wherever he found an empty space. Some of them are very important, as they provide interesting biographical details. There are also annotations made on the spur of the moment, and even two or three line sketches, which he would later develop into stories. All these annotations are of great value, because they are all in Creangas handwriting.

The digitisation of the collections belonging to the G.T.Kirileanu Library in Piatra Neamt will undoubtedly continue in the following years.

7 October 2016
Public Libraries in the Countryside

According to the latest Cultural Barometer, 47% of the Romanians read only one book per month, either purchased in a bookshop or borrowed from a library. As such, it is well understood that the book market in Romania is not much of a moneymaker and has limited issues.

In 2013, for instance, the book market was worth 60 million Euros, in terms of total book sales, including online, while in other countries it amounts to hundreds of millions. In fact, the sale and production of e-books is the only area growing in the last few years; if people bought in bookstores one book a year on an average, they buy ten books online.

As many people invoke prohibitive prices as the reason they don’t buy books, public libraries could be the perfect alternative. Unfortunately, that is not exactly true. A lot of those have closed down, especially in the countryside. Over the last few years, their number has dropped from 3,300 to 3,000. The question arises, what should be done to bring back people to libraries, especially in full digital revolution? Romania’s National Library is trying to do something about it with its new program, Biblionet. Claudia Serbanuta is general manager of this institution.

Claudia Serbanuta: “Biblionet is a project we started in Romania 7 years ago, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, managed in Romania by IREX, an NGO. This project provides 2,200 rural libraries with computer equipment. The local administration simply had to apply for this program and to set aside a dedicated area within the library, appropriate for this kind of activity. They also had to provide the Internet connection. Surprisingly, not all local administrations hurried to take part in the program, but 2,200 libraries out of 2,800 is a good percentage. The Biblionet project also trained librarians in handling the equipment and help others use it.”

Even though it originated in the NGO sphere, the Biblionet program was taken over by the National Library, which manages it with good results to this day, as

Claudia Serbanuta: “The number of visitors this year went up, and more than that, services have diversified. Before the implementation of Biblionet, some libraries could barely provide a reading room and some old books. Once computers came in, the number of visitors increased considerably, visitors who didn’t necessarily come for reading, as much as for training. From 2011 to 2014, in as few as 400 of these libraries, 116,000 farmers have submitted their online applications for farming subsidies.”

The over 2,000 rural libraries in the Biblionet program have become ‘true community labs’, as EuroMP Renate Weber put it after visiting them, invited by the National Library in collaboration with the Biblionet Program and the initiative titled ‘Public Libraries 2020’, run by the Dutch Reading & Writing Foundation. Renate Weber went to Marpod and Avrig, towns in Sibiu County, and was impressed by what she found there.

Renate Weber: “These libraries have become effective labs for all sorts of community projects. In Avrig, for instance, I’ve seen a self-organized group of kids who download theater plays, adapt them and stage them. They do all that by themselves. They have 12 short plays already in their repertoire. At the same time, they have the senior group who want to preserve local traditions and gather at the library to teach the kids how to weave and spin. They also set up here the Animal Husbandry Association, which meets in the library and can have access to information. The library is also the venue for local council meetings, because both in Marpod and in Avrig the local authorities have been very open. Here you can have foreign language courses, at no additional cost, because people from the community come and teach others a foreign language they know, with the limitations that that implies. The libraries have become a sort of community engine.”

These community engines still need money to run. Some can come straight from EU institutions, if accessed properly.

Renate Weber: “Even if matters of culture and education in the EU are not regulated at the level of the union itself, and run under the principle of subsidiarity, in reality the EU can target funds at these areas. My wish is to make sure, when the European Parliament debates the annual budget, that funds are available for Romania to access for public library refurbishing.”

The National Library and the local authorities, to the extent they wish to, could be involved in preparing librarians for the new roles they play in community labs.

Claudia Serbanuta: “80% of public libraries in Romania are in the countryside, a very large percentage. Most librarians work in small communities, with specific needs. The National Library will support them to this end, as much as it can. The ball in is in the court of local administrations in terms of finding funds for vocational training projects, but they are not the alone in this process. When we invited Ms. Weber to Sibiu, it was very difficult for us to find the specific place, because we have so many successful projects all over the country. In Medgidia, for instance, we have new services, such as a support group for breast cancer survivors. It is an initiative of the local library, with no financial support. The people of the community have answered accordingly. They need more information, and don’t know where to get it. That is why the libraries have to stay within the community and turn from book depositories to institutions holding relevance for the community.”

The hope is that once people set foot in a library for whatever other purpose, they may find themselves tempted to open a book and read once again.

18 March 2015
Gh. Asachi University Library in Iasi

Even though it emerged much later than in western European states, Romanian higher education caught up quickly and made up for the lost time in education. It also made an investment in the buildings housing the institutions, and one such example is the University Palace in Iasi. It was inaugurated in 1860, and was the first headquarters of Iasi University. It housed the schools of law, letters and sciences, the mineralogy lab, the fine arts school, the Aula and the offices. It soon became too cramped, as the number of students grew, along with the number of specialties. It was decided it was time for new headquarters to be built on Copou hill. Here is Neculai Seghedin, vice-rector of the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University in Iasi, telling us about the Copou University Palace:

Neculai Seghedin: “This palace was inaugurated in 1897, and building was started in 1893. Petru Poni, a great chemist and professor back then, was in charge of the structure of this palace. He was involved in the project because Iasi needed new university headquarters, as the old one was getting cramped. Petru Poni studied various similar edifices in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, made some sketches, and petitioned the minister in charge back then to get a loan of 3 million lei, then proceeded to the design of the building proper. The design was made by the Swiss architect Louis Blanc, who was living in Romania. He designed several famous buildings in Bucharest, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, the Medical University, Lahovary House and the Take Ionescu House.”

For the University Palace in Iasi, Louis Blanc picked the eclectic style that was dominant in Europe at that time. At the same time, the Swiss architect designed the library building of the university, which today is one of the most beautiful in the country, and its fame has crossed the country’s borders.

Neculai Seghedin: “There was a bit of a dispute between Petru Poni and Louis Blanc regarding the library. Petru Poni believed that the library had to have a central body, a reading hall, while on the sides it had to have depositories, to be expanded as the collection grew. Louis Blanc picked a different solution: a single room to act as reading hall and depository. It is an impressive first-storey hall with windows opening to the street. This solution was not one that Petru Poni agreed with, but now we are able to enjoy this absolutely impressive library.”

The hall is spacious, with large windows, and all around there is a balcony with bookshelves. The ceiling is also impressive, with painted and sculpted wood decorations. In time the palace has undergone transformations, but the library stayed the same. The most important expansion was between the wars, in 1929 to 1933. The initial eclectic style was preserved. 1937 was the year when the Gh. Asachi Polytechnic School was set up, named in memory of the man who, in 1813, had set up the first class of engineers in Moldavia. Neculai Seghedin tells us about what the library had to go through along the years:

Neculai Seghedin: “The library was moved during WWII. In the meantime it had become the Polytechnic School Library, which moved to Cernauti/Chernowitz in 1940. In 1944, the book collection was moved to Turnu Severin, then, at the end of the year, it was moved back to Iasi. During this time, the library building had been damaged by bombs. In August 1944, the ceiling was all but destroyed. There was a fire in the library, but it was rebuilt in the 1950s.”

Today, the Gh. Asachi University Library of Iasi is appreciated by students and teachers, but also by the public at large all over the world. This was revealed when the website boredpanda.com made a ranking of the most appreciated library buildings in the world. The library in Iasi came in first out of 25 buildings listed.

28 February 2015