European integration: are Romanian libraries ready?

Romania is scheduled to join the European Union in January 2007. This paper examines Romanian libraries' readiness for integration into the Western European library network from various perspectives: collections, services, library science education, infrastructure, staffing, and professional engagement. Since the demise of the Communist regime in December 1989 Romanian libraries have been striving to overcome the Communist legacy, which consists of poor infrastructure, dated collections, restricted access to information, lack of modern equipment, and inadequate information and communication technologies. During the fifteen-year post-Communist period some progress has been made. However, Romanian libraries and their services, along with Romanian library and information science education, are lagging behind their counterparts in Western Europe. More commitment on behalf of the bodies that oversee libraries and adequate budgets from the funding agencies would lead to improvements on the library scene in Romania and would contribute to the attenuation of the East-West divide, preparing libraries in this country to operate according to Western European standards.

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Romania submitted its application for admission to the European Union (EU) on 22 June 1995. In October 1999 the EU Commission recommended starting accession negotiations with Romania. These negotiations began on 15 February 2000. The EU Thessaloniki Summit in 2003 recommended the enlargement of the EU by the admission of two Eastern European countries, Romania and Bulgaria, scheduled for 2007. This recommendation was confirmed a year later in Brussels, on 18 June 2004. The country Report of October 2004 confirmed the 1 January 2007 date of accession for both countries. (1) This paper examines Romanian libraries' readiness for integration into the Western European library network from various perspectives: collections, services, library science education, infrastructure, staffing, and professional engagement. In addition, suggestions are made for improvement and modernization of all of the activities under discussion.

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General Background

The development of the first libraries in Romania was in conjunction with the development of the public school system in the country, dating back to the early 1830s, when the constitution stipulated the establishment of public schools and libraries throughout the country, funded by the government. During the 1860s and 1870s the academic library network was established. (2) The mission of the library institution in Romania was no different from this institution's mission elsewhere in the world: to support the cultural and educational advancement of the nation and to collect and preserve the national treasures printed in the country's territory. Although similarly formulated after the Communist takeover in 1945, this mission radically changed library activities and operations for almost half a century, until 1989, when the Communist regime was overthrown in Romania. During this period libraries became propaganda tools that supported the dissemination of Communist Party doctrine. Their collections abounded in works authored by the fathers of Marxism-Leninism and national political leaders, and severe restrictions were placed on various works deemed to contradict the communist philosophy and the country's status of satellite of the Soviet Union.

Rigid censorship rules were implemented, thus restricting the free flow of information. Beginning in 1945 several lists of forbidden publications were issued containing some 8,000 titles. (3) Most large libraries throughout the country had what was known as "secret fonds," that is, collections of banned books withdrawn from circulation due to their content, which was mainly anti-Communist. (4) After the collapse of Communism these collections were integrated in the general library holdings throughout the country. The 1990s, although ideologically uncensored, witnessed a weakening of the library system, primarily in rural areas and in school libraries due to the lack of funding. Many of these libraries were not able to add a single new volume to their collections. This financial censorship affected to various degrees the other libraries as well, and it is reflected in the decrease of acquisitions of books and periodicals. The lack of funding for collection development is corroborated with the skyrocketing inflation Romania has experienced during the post-Communist period coupled with a significant increase of book prices. If during the Communist period the quality of Romanian library collections was affected by ideological norms imposed from the top down, today the quality of the collections is a reflection of their scarce funding despite the variety of publications available on the Romanian market. Since the 1990s the novelty in library activities in Romania has consisted of the introduction of computers in library activities in some but not all libraries in the country.

The Romanian Library System

Today the public library network in Romania amounts to a total of 2,815 libraries, consisting of the National Library of Romania (NLR, known as the Central State Library during the Communist regime), 40 county libraries, the Bucharest Metropolitan Library, 208 city libraries, and 2,565 rural libraries. (5) A total of 155 localities in Romania (12 towns and 143 villages) have no public library at all, although the Library Law 334 of 31 May 2002 stipulates that each administrative unit must have a public library. A brief overview with statistical data on the Romanian public library system for 2001 was prepared within the LibEcon project Telematics for Libraries. Comparing the data for 1999 and 2000, the study reports a decrease in the number of public libraries in Romania by seventy: "This has been a phenomenon often seen in the rural environment, where because of the lack of funding for staff salaries, many village libraries have been either temporarily or permanently closed." (6) Prior to 1990 public libraries received their funding from the government through the Ministry of Culture. After 1990 they were placed under the supervision of the local authorities, except for the NLR, which has remained subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and continues to receive its budget directly from the government.

Depending on the local authority's inclination to support the library institution, libraries receive different amounts for their operations. Some counties are more generous than others with their libraries. However, all libraries in Romania are underfunded, and they have been confronted with ever lower annual budgets. Emil Vasilescu, the editor in chief of the journal Biblioteca, in his editorial for the first issue for 2004 comments: "At the beginning of the year [funding for public libraries] proves to be threatened by excessive austerity, which tends to turn [public] libraries into museums of used books." (7)

In the editorial of the February 2004 issue of Biblioteca, suggestively titled "On the (Well-)Being of Libraries," the same author deplores the library situation in Romania, stating that libraries represent "a domain almost forgotten during the latest decades by the public decision makers." Vasilescu also mentions a decrease of the number of library holdings, which illustrates the absence of funding for collection development, and a decrease by 2.03 percent of the budget for staff salaries in the context of an inflation rate of 15.3 percent. Vasilescu explains the "continuous decline of the public library system" by the insufficient budget from the funding agencies. (8)

There are libraries that in the past few years have added no new book to their collections, although the Library Law requires the local authorities to support book acquisitions. (9) In 1994 Romania placed last in Europe for book acquisitions…