Lebanon Archives and Libraries: Difference between revisions

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{{Block indent|The Lebanese National Library throughout the stages of its short history, has been confronted with a variety of difficulties, born not only out of the violence of men but also from their negligence; and from the absence of a responsible administrative structure....The effects of war|2}}

{{Block indent|In 1975, the Lebanese differences become a tear, and the line of fire almost crosses the National Library (a red line that is nevertheless called "green", a fine euphemism but also a reference to the papyri, precisely, which, in the absence of printed books , multiply there near the gutted pipes…).|2}}

{{Block indent|The team that takes care of the library is dispersed according to the forced displacements that an entire population undergoes. When they can, some, moved by a love of books contracted in their daily business, return to the scene to see the damage and are sorry for their helplessness and the absence of directives to save what is not yet burned. stolen or ransacked.|2}}

{{Block indent|In 1979, i.e. four years after the start of the war, four years during which militiamen of all persuasions had plenty of time to "hone their culture" there, the National Library was declared "suspended from activity" and the government Lebanese entrusts the National Archives with the manuscripts (or what remains of them), the old documents and the portraits of the Lebanese intellectuals which adorned the reading room. Between 1982 and 1983, the modern collection was crated and deposited in a room, located in an area which would in turn be bombarded. Broken panes let rainwater and dust through, boxes are infested with insects, molds find ideal conditions to grow there.|2}}

{{Block indent|Emerging from the war, Lebanon is rebuilding: roads, airports, major projects... For the National Museum, society is mobilizing, and the site is very quickly launched.|2}}

{{Block indent|The National Library seems less prestigious. Information professionals and members of the Association of Librarians of Lebanon develop projects, which find little echo among officials. Finally, it was an expert mission by the National Library of France, in 1994, which alerted to the urgency of saving the documents and drew up an initial rehabilitation plan 1 . The boxes are stored in a drier warehouse, and a temporary room is assigned to the National Library, too narrow to envisage large-scale rescue operations. A few dozen cases are opened, inventoried, the books cleaned, but very quickly the scale of the task exceeds the means made available. The library risks being forgotten in the mysteries of a bureaucracy that does not concern itself with planning its action.<ref>"History of the LNL", Lebanese National Library, http://bnl.gov.lb/english/history.html, accessed 8 December 2022.</ref>|2}}