Iasi Librarians: “County Library Deserves a Home"

Iasi county librarians understand that desperate times call for desperate measures. After hearing that the county council was planning to strip the community of its library building in the local Palace of Culture, Iasi librarians started an advocacy campaign to ensure officials provide their citizens with a proper library home.

For the last 55 years, the library has been located in the Iasi Palace of Culture, a neo-gothic building nationally prized for its architecture, where library staff served Iasi’s residents with access to information and community space. In need of repairs, the county council recently began discussing a renovation project for the aging building. The library and staff were assured that the council would find sufficient space for the library during the interim while the renovations were completed.

However, when the council met to make its final decision, plans to relocate the library were tabled. Instead, the council president abruptly announced that the library and its 600,000 holdings would be divided and put in storage across the city. Staff would likewise be split into multiple locations. Effectively, the library’s community space and services would disappear for Iasi’s 320,000 residents.

Responding to the announcement, Iasi librarians Bogdan Ghiurco and Mihail Grinea stepped up to create an advocacy campaign that would ensure the library found a proper home.

So Ghiurco and Grinea set out to inform the people of Iasi about what was going to happen to the library and why it was important for residents to have a strong central library with public space. They began to get the news out by contacting local media to describe what was happening, starting a blog (http://biblioteciiesene.wordpress.com), and using Facebook to inform their community.

The campaign has managed to get front-page news articles and coverage from local TV stations. Citizens are also responding online to the effort with pictures and video clips showing their support for the library asking that an adequate location be found. One local daily newspaper has even started an ancillary campaign supporting the library. They also requested help from the ANBPR, who responded with open letters to the county council President and the county council’s union.

And while the council hasn’t yet responded with a suitable solution , Ghiurco and Grinea are hopeful that their actions will have an impact. Because, in their words, “Iasi County library deserves a home.”