IFLA Volume 45 Number 1 March 2019 IFLA Contents Special Issue: Libraries in Times of Crisis Guest Editors: Steven Witt and Kerry Smith Editorial Libraries in times of crisis 3 Steve Witt and Kerry Smith Articles Libraries and their role in transitional justice in the Philippines 5 Iyra S. Buenrostro and Johann Frederick A. Cabbab African oral tradition, cultural retentions and the transmission of knowledge in the West Indies 16 Cherry-Ann Smart The American Library Association and the post-World War II rebuilding of Eastern European libraries 26 Marek Sroka A public library cannot live on books alone: A lesson from history 34 Claudia S¸erba˘nut¸a˘ Croatian public libraries in time of crisis 48 Dijana Sabolovic´-Krajina Abstracts 57 Aims and Scope IFLA Journal is an international journal publishing peer reviewed articles on library and information services and the social, political and economic issues that impact access to information through libraries. The Journal publishes research, case studies and essays that reflect the broad spectrum of the profession internationally. To submit an article to IFLA Journal please visit: journals.sagepub.com/home/ifl IFLA Journal Official Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions ISSN 0340-0352 [print] 1745-2651 [online] Published 4 times a year in March, June, October and December Editor Steve Witt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 321 Main Library, MC – 522 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL, USA. Email: [email protected] Editorial Committee Milena Dobreva-McPherson, University College London Qatar, Qatar. Email: [email protected] Anne Goulding, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Email: [email protected] Perla Innocenti, Northumbria University, UK. Email: [email protected] Mahmood Khosrowjerdi, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. Email: [email protected]/[email protected] Anne Okerson, (Governing Board Liaison) Center for Research Libraries, USA. Email: [email protected] Lindsay Ozburn, (Editorial Assistant) Utah State University, USA. Email: [email protected] Debbie Rabina, Pratt Institute, USA. Email: [email protected] Seamus Ross, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Email: [email protected] Shali Zhang, (Chair) University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, United States. Email: [email protected] Lihong Zhou, Wuhan University, China. Email: [email protected] Publisher SAGE, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. Copyright © 2019 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. 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IFLA Editorial International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 2019, Vol. 45(1) 3–4 Libraries in times of crisis ª The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0340035219830549 journals.sagepub.com/home/ifl Steve Witt Editor, IFLA Journal Kerry Smith Convener, IFLA Library History SIG As 2019 begins, the International Federation of more evidently transformative. Crisis may add value Library Associations (IFLA) is working to implement to access to collections once thought secure. Alterna- a bold program to provide a vision for librarianship tively, collections, libraries, and cultural institutions and information professions globally through an may become sites of contention as cultures negotiate ongoing series of workshops, meetings, and research the meaning, value, and utility of certain types of activities aimed at helping to articulate future aspira- knowledge and ideas. Social crisis often exposes areas tions and challenges. Concurrently, IFLA is fully of contention, providing both opportunity and peril to engaged in supporting the UN2030 Goals to ensure libraries as they seek to support the people and soci- that the information access, educational structures, eties they serve. As Rayward notes, both “social con- and social role of libraries is both integrated into solu- tinuity and social change are dependent on and tions for the world’s pressing problems and available supported by” the information infrastructure provided to the people, societies, and cultures served by the by organizations such as libraries (Rayward and collections, services, and leadership of the library Jenkins, 2007, p. 362). This special issue seeks to community. As IFLA seeks to boldly secure the future examine historically the manner by which the infor- of libraries in society, IFLA Journal is taking an his- mation infrastructure of libraries has contributed to torical view of the symbolic, practical, and wider social change in the past. As the profession looks to social role of libraries in periods of crisis. Working the future, the historic role of information and infor- with the IFLA Library History Special Interest Group, mation organizations as agents during challenging this issue builds upon past scholarship, meetings, and times needs to be considered as future crises and prob- fora dedicated to important pursuit of library and lems are imagined and addressed. information history as a means to understand both the The five articles in this special issue represent the past and the future of libraries as they evolve to serve contemporary and longer term impacts of social crisis contemporary and future society. Specifically, papers to reflect on the role of information, cultural transmis- in this issue build upon the Library History SIG’s sion, and the institution of libraries within periods of 2017 program in Wroclaw, Poland. Participants in social and political upheaval. Buenrostro and Cab- this program were invited to expand upon their scho- bab’s work on transitional justice in the Philippines larship to further pursue the theme of: Libraries in documents the role libraries play as “memory Times of Crisis. activists” as a nation heals in the wave of years of The library has always been an institution that martial law (Buenrostro and Cabbab, 2019). Smart reflects societal trends and cultural practices. During provides another view of memory and justice in a times of crisis, the collections, services, and cultural work that asserts the role of oral transmission of cul- activities facilitated by libraries and librarians often ture and knowledge amidst the transatlantic slave take on new meaning as people re-negotiate national, trade (Smart, 2019). Both of these works speak to the cultural, and personal identity amidst disruptive forces that range from war, revolution, displacement, Corresponding author: natural disaster, and economic turmoil. Social tumult Steve Witt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, causes books and reading culture, public spaces for Champaign, IL 61820, USA. discourse, cultural heritage, and memory to become Email: [email protected] 4 IFLA Journal 45(1) need for memory institutions such as libraries to con- with circumstances that challenge the ability to tribute to seeking justice and providing mechanisms maintain collections, preserve cultural heritage, and for reconciliation. make information accessible. The 20th Century history of Eastern Europe plays a prominent role in three articles that situate libraries in Declaration of Conflicting Interests three periods of social change and crisis: the after- The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest math of World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of the Soviet Union. Each of these papers documents of this article. the work of librarians and libraries in periods of great Funding social change and political experimentation. Sroka The author(s) received no financial support for the shows the power