“Are you interested in putting your library science education and experience to work in one of today’s most challenging, interesting and rewarding environments? Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is recruiting for a Chief Librarian to manage the Detainee Library, under the direction of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” (via MetaFilter)
- JH (Note: I originally posted this as a FFL but that didn’t feel right. Also, I’ve never been happier to use the “Cuban Libraries” tag.)
On April 29th, Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela signed the Agreement for the Application of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America and the Peoples’ Trade Agreements in Havana. Check this out:
Article 4: The countries shall work together, in coordination with other Latin American countries, to eradicate illiteracy in these nations, using efficient, tried and tested methods of mass application, which have been successfully used in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Article “4″ must mean they’re going to take it pretty seriously. More story from the BBC. And more on the mass education program.
I wonder if that’ll do anything for freedom in Cuban libraries… who’ll rub off on whom? I like that they totally gave the boot to the FTAA and took such a different approach to trade agreements. Imagine: global trade consisting of massive interlibrary loan programs!
S.
With the upcoming ALA conference, the Friends of Cuban Libraries are stepping up their pressure on the president to support the “independent libarians” in Cuba. The group has sent a letter to the ALA president asking her to take a stand on the “persecution of Cuba’s independent library movement”, and denouncing the extremists in ALA that have denied and covered up Cuba’s repression of independent librarians. The letter goes on to state:
We will do all in our power to ensure that the history of the ALA extremists’ complicity with the bookburning and librarian-persecuting Castro regime, naively approved by the well-meaning but negligent majority on the ALA Council, will receive the public recognition it deserves.
The Washington Examiner has already published a scathing opinion piece: Castro’s helpers: American librarians. Thankfully, Counterpunch has published an article that sheds some light on the Friends of Cuban Libraries and Cuba’s independent libraries.