The American Library Association and the post-World War II rebuilding of Eastern European libraries

The topic of the destruction of libraries during World War II has been well publicized. However, the American Library Association’s assistance with postwar cultural rehabilitation of Eastern European libraries remains relatively unknown. The paper examines the “Aid to Libraries in War Areas” program...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIFLA journal Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 26 - 33
Main Author Sroka, Marek
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2019
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Libraries
Library associations
Library collections
Periodicals
Post World War II period
Postwar reconstruction
World War II
Asia
Eastern Europe
United States > US
post-war reconstruction
library collections
Eastern Europe
American Library Association
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Summary:The topic of the destruction of libraries during World War II has been well publicized. However, the American Library Association’s assistance with postwar cultural rehabilitation of Eastern European libraries remains relatively unknown. The paper examines the “Aid to Libraries in War Areas” program, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and administered by the ALA, with respect to Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia (Soviet Union), and Yugoslavia. The program consisted of two parts: the first, which ran from 1941 to 1947, dealt with periodicals; the other, in operation from 1944 to 1947, focused on books. Its goal was to replenish, though on a limited scale, devastated collections with American publications unavailable to most European and Asian libraries during Axis occupation.
ISSN:0340-0352
1745-2651
DOI:10.1177/0340035218793920