Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Lux Info Press
HAVANA, June - The imposition of a Users' Classification System for Cuba's
National Library contradicts one of the fundamental tenets of Cuban political
culture in that it limits free access to reading materials.
The controversial system, imposed against the will of hundreds of students,
workers and other popular sectors of society, limits access to the General and
Special Halls of the library to professionals, researchers, foreigners, and art
school and university students.
This decision, taken in spite of the worn-out slogans, civic and patriotic
rallies where the right of the people to read freely as sole owners of the
nation's cultural institutions is repeatedly proclaimed, is another measure of
the minimal importance accorded citizens' wishes when they conflict with the
interests of the authorities.
This controlling mania of settling each group in its proper place and of
deciding who is and who isn't worthy of some revolutionary gift, is a practice
that in this instance establishes castes based on presumed cultural lineages.
Among dozens of letters to the director of the National Library, Mr. Elíades
Acosta Matos, there is one that points out that in every other country access to
the information in libraries is free and without limitations. Why, then, the
writer asks, is it not the same way in Cuba?
Writing in Juventud Rebelde, the newspaper of the Communist Youth
organization, Acosta Matos pointed out that the classification system was not
meant to lighten the work load, but rather to bring the public quality service
in light of the lack of order and discipline in the various halls and the need
to moderate the use of the library collection.
In the same vein, Acosta wrote that many users don't need the library
because they only take up a chair to study or read a book.
While allowing that the classification system favored some at the expense of
others, he asked those excluded to demand that their local governments provide
libraries for their use.
On June 25, there were only nine users in the General Hall of the library
and three others who tried to get in were turned back because they didn't have
the proper credentials.
One, a secondary student, felt humiliated at having as an only option a
novel from Club Minerva. After reading the story "Requiem for Mozart,"
she had wanted to read the letters between the author, Tristán de Jesús
Medina, and the priest José Zalamero, dating back to the middle of the
Nineteenth Century.
Another of those who was turned back, who said his name was Miguel Antonio,
cursed the impossibility of looking up in Bohemia magazine stories about boxing
stars of his time. Since he doesn't fit any of the authorized categories, he
doesn't have access to the General Hall, where the periodicals are stored.
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