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OCLC helping to rebuild
National Library of Bosnia
by George Promenschenkel
Published in:
OCLC Newsletter 220 Mart/April 1996
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Mirror from |
OCLC helping to rebuild by George Promenschenkel |
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Published in: |
OCLC Newsletter 220 Mart/April 1996 |
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The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina now stands as a burned-out shell of its former self. Years of war in the region did not spare the Sarajevo structure, which was shelled and burned in 1992. The roof is gone, as are most of the windows, the shelves, and nearly all of the holdings--an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million volumes. The catalog is also gone. The only record of what once comprised the National Library collection now resides only in the memories of those who worked and studied there. But efforts are under way to correct this. |
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The National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was housed in the former town hall of Sarajevo. Built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The now burned-out Moorish Revival building marks the 100th anniversary of its inauguration this year. |
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OCLC is participating in an international effort led by libraries that have large Slavic collections, such as Yale University Libraries, to re-create a bibliography of Bosnian publications and research destroyed in the war. Research scientists in the OCLC Office of Research will use Bosniaca records found in the OCLC Online Union Catalog (OLUC) and records from appropriate special collections in various libraries to re-create a national catalog for the war-torn country. OCLC will merge records from the sources, eliminate duplicates, and create a virtual bibliography of Bosniaca. |
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The Interior of the Library was destroyed |
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"The immediate need is not to physically rebuild the library," said Edward T. O'Neill, consulting research scientist, OCLC Office of Research. "What is needed is a catalog of what the holdings of this library should be. With that the library can be rebuilt in the future with original materials or, if that is not possible, digital or microfilm reproductions of works. The catalog will give scholars a place to locate needed materials, and they can then gain access to them through interlibrary loan, for example, even before the first book is placed on a shelf in the new library." |
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The rubble on the floor ia a mix of collapsed structure and the ashes of the collection, once numbering in an estmated 1.5 million to 2 million volumes. |
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The first step in the process is to define the criteria for the inclusion of records. Selection will likely be based on place of publication, subject, geographic coverage, and Library of Congress and Dewey classifications. Hampering the effort is the fact that materials from the region may be in any of some 40 languages.
Once the criteria are set, OCLC will identify and compile records of Bosnian resources from the OLUC. Then, OCLC will add Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) files containing Bosniaca, contributed from the special collections of U.S. and European libraries, that may contain records not found in the OLUC. Duplication detection software will eliminate redundant records.
"We are talking about a project that will be several years in the making," said Dr. O'Neill. "We will be able to compile the MARC files fairly easily, but catalogs that are still on card files will either have to be retrospectively converted or added by hand at a later date."
OCLC will provide the resulting catalog to the Bosnian library and may eventually make it available online as a resource file or distribute it in CD form.
"OCLC is well suited to a project like this," said Phyllis B. Spies, vice president, member services, sales and international, OCLC. "As a nonprofit organization, we are committed to our membership, and our membership is very sympathetic to the plight of libraries in Bosnia. With the OLUC and duplicate detection programs to call on, we are able to take on a project like this which would be cost prohibitive if done by hand."
George Promenschenkel is public relations writer, OCLC.
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