July 1 - July 10, 2004

From July 2 to Jul 9, 2004, four librarians, a library school student, and a person from a university library's human resources department, visited Cuba on a tour organized by Global Exchange with a view to learning more about the Island's libraries -- both formal and informal -- as well as their staff and patrons.

The subject of intellectual freedom in Cuba has become a passionately debated issue -- especially in the USA and Canada -- and has involved librarians in sometimes stormy disputes. The participants on this trip drew, as one member put it, "opposing conclusions from the same reality," but nonetheless came away with a good sense of how Cuba's libraries function and their role in the country's national reading campaign. In spite of the differences expressed by participants, they unanimously recognized the "professional and world-class" level of Cuba's librarians. Among the places visited by the delegation were the José Martí National Library, the Rubén Martínez Villena Library in Havana, the University of Havana Library, the National Medical Library, the National Library of Scientific and Technological Information, the UNESCO Library, public libraries in the towns and cities of Bauta, Matanzas and Varadero, and two library schools.

The Literacy Campaign

The Global Exchange group began its tour with a visit to the National Literacy Museum situated in the Marianao neighborhood of Havana. It is situated in what was a military stronghold under the Batista regime and now includes a school for the autistic in its extensive grounds. The museum commemorates the remarkable literacy campaign that was undertaken in the weeks following the success of the Revolution on January 1st 1959, and which was to produce one of the most literate societies on the planet. The entrance to the museum displays a photograph of Fidel Castro addressing the United Nations on September 16, 1960, announcing that in the months ahead not a single illiterate person would be found in Cuba.

School classes were suspended for the year and some 268,000 mostly high school children were sent out across the country to teach people living in remote areas to read and write. Their maxim was: "Si sabes, enseña; si no sabes, aprende" (If you know, teach; if you don't know, learn). The young teachers were all volunteers, receiving their parent's permission to go, and given a week's training before setting out. Ten of them were never to return, murdered by counter-revolutionaries operating in the mountains.

The program, which was designed to bring students to a functional reading level, comprised fifteen lessons in all, which had themes and illustrations relating to the realities of life in rural areas. A modified version is used to this day in eradicating illiteracy across Latin America -- especially in rural areas of Venezuela.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Cuban literacy campaign, the participants noted, were the auxiliary supports such as the provision of eyeglasses for those who had difficulty reading, the fact that elementary mathematics was also included in the program, a storm lamp to ensure each teacher could give classes at any hour, the continuation of night classes after the campaign had ended, the fact that the young teachers worked in the fields beside the rural farming community, and the creation of a magazine New Weapon designed to appeal to the new readers with articles on anything that would help them put their new skills to use: geography, history, science and general culture. Some of the more moving exhibits in the Literacy Museum are thank-you letters addressed to Fidel Castro by Cubans as old as 106, writing for the first time in their lives.

In a ceremony on December 22, 1961, the island was declared free of illiteracy -- over 700,000 Cubans had learned to read and write -- and a flag with the words "Territorio libre de analfabetismo" (Territory Free of Illiteracy) upon it was raised. The day is still celebrated as Teachers Day in Cuba.

Post Revolution Libraries

On June 7, 1962, the National School of Library Technicians was founded to provide personnel for the creation of libraries across the nation of which very few existed before the Revolution. There are now 401 public libraries on the Island, with bookmobiles serving remote areas.

The José Martí National Library is Cuba's main library, located on the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. Aside from coordinating the function of the nation's public libraries and developing, maintaining and preserving its national heritage, it also promotes the National Reading Program, which was begun in 1998 as more books were being printed after a period in which the country's economic downturn created a severe shortage of paper.

The National Library is the legal depository for all printed material published in Cuba. A statute requires that Cuban publishers must provide the National Library with three copies of all titles published. A second library in Santiago de Cuba, on the eastern end of the island, also receives additional copies. Nowadays, digital back-ups are created of all published work.

Cuba's libraries function under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture which provides the nation's library budget that focuses first and foremost on the maintenance of the library buildings, the National Reading Program and the provision of books. A budget in dollars is provided to enable the National Library to purchase books from abroad, but the funding is very limited and so priority is given to Cuban writers -- whether or not they are critical of the Revolution. The director of the National Library was very pleased to see, among the books donated by the group, a copy in Spanish of Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos, saying that they had it in English but not in Spanish.

The National Library maintains a website which also provides information in English, although participants noted that extensive improvements to the translation are needed. Other criticism centered on the tedious paperwork needed to join the library or to access documents and research material.

The National Library is attempting to digitalize its collections using a sophisticated digitalization laboratory. It is currently digitalizing its entire poster collection which numbers over 11,000 glass slides, old negatives and Cuban press cuttings going back to the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Due to the fact that the Library cannot afford to purchase a $40,000 machine to digitalize its microfilm records, technicians have been very innovative in putting together a method to do this by setting up a scanner with a transparency adaptor and attaching it to a system that allows spools of microfilm to be scanned, page by page, into the database. All books published since 1984 are now digitalized.

Online publications by the National Library may be found at: www.bnjm.cu/bnjm/english/publications/publicaciones_frame.htm.

Cuban librarians, technical staff and volunteers "are resourceful and do excellent work in promoting Cuban culture," noted the most critical participant in the group. She further praised the librarians for promoting literacy, reading and children's programming, and providing services for people with special needs.

The island's mobile libraries can be found in remote communities where librarians pedal bicycles with books in milk crates tied to the front. In rural Bauta outside Havana, for example, the librarians at the Antonio Maceo Library (after the name of one of Cuba's independence heroes - who was Black) operate a mobile service cycling books to a full twenty-six neighborhoods twice a week. One success story associated with this outreach program was in the community of Rosa Marina, which eventually put up a small desk to service the increasing numbers of people seeking books from the bicycling librarian. The demand grew and the Ministry of Culture eventually donated space to build a library. Local carpenters and masons volunteered and Rosa Marina now has its own library and librarian to go with it.

However, noted the participant, herself a librarian student, she found that in all the libraries visited there were only books "supportive of communism, Marxism and the Cuban Revolution." She also noted the absence of books on "aliens and supernatural topics" and when she approached a library worker in the Varadero library about this she was told that such books cannot be found in Cuban libraries because they are "fictive in nature and do not represent reality." However, it appears that many supposedly "banned" books can indeed be found in Cuban libraries, but are apparently not easy to access unless for research reasons.

Another participant reports that she decided to check on US accusations that anti-Cuba sites are blocked by the Cuban authorities by attempting to access such sites from the public access computers in the National Library. She was able to connect to the self-styled Friends of Cuban Libraries run by Robert Kent, a vociferous critic of Cuba who incorrectly maintains that his and other such sites supportive of opposition individuals in Cuba are blocked. The group participant was also able to access every single site linked by FCL.

One aspect of all the libraries visited by the group was the fact that they also served as academic centers to support local university programs -- especially for distance learners, non-traditional courses, and the new "Universalization of Education" campaign which seeks to bring high-school and university drop-outs back into the academic fold. The libraries are supplied with coursework material by the Ministry of Education which is also involved in providing some 2,000 computers to libraries across the nation. As one participant noted: "throughout our visit, we saw the public library network seeking to serve university students rather than defining their function in a more limited way."

Libraries on the island are open, on average, far more hours than their US counterparts: Monday to Friday from 08:00-21:00, Saturdays from 08:00-18:00 and Sundays 08:00-13:00 -- a total of 80 hours a week.

In 2002 official statistics reported a total of more than eight million visits to the nation's libraries.

Children's Services

As anywhere in the world, one of the main focuses of the libraries in Cuba is on children. In a society that dedicates so many of its resources to children, the island's libraries offer children's rooms complete with toys and regular activities -- especially during the summer holiday months.

The Rubén Martínez Villena Public Library in Havana has a dedicated children's librarian who publishes an electronic bulletin for children. She was very pleased to see that the Global Exchange group brought a Spanish edition of the Newberry Medal winner The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Among other services, the library offers special workshops to train sight-impaired children how to read using Braille.

In the library at Bauta very young children up to seven years old have books read to them and are encouraged to dramatize the stories they hear (such as José Martí's The Golden Age). One program has the children write a story and then dramatize it. Visual art from the town is linked with these programs for children and prizes are awarded.

The National Library and others have special areas devoted to early literacy programs which are freely available for families with young children, and its children's area is called the "Bebeteca" -- a combination of the Spanish words for baby and library. The library's children section has its own membership card.

Libraries as a Social Service

Social services are often carried out by libraries that will operate programs to visit senior citizen centers to give conferences and talks as well as offer "quality of life" discussions on problems of physical and mental health. Senior citizen association clubs are often created by local libraries. At the National Library, classrooms exist with audio-visual equipment especially designed to serve senior citizen programs. A film is shown twice a month, with a film critic discussing the film.

Librarians will also go to work centers to read books to workers doing manual labor. This is a tradition in many of the country's cigar factories with a reader going over the day's newspapers as well as reading literature out loud from a podium overlooking the workers.

Mini libraries can also be found in Cuban work centers impressing the Global Exchange group in that they were found to house materials designed to improve employees' general knowledge rather than, as is often the case in the United States, simply supply information related to the job.

Even the smallest libraries in Cuba have special services for the visually-impaired with Braille rooms, books, typewriters and computers, as well as books on tape. New technologies to assist the hearing-impaired are also used and an awareness is common of the need to ensure easy access to the premises for people with motor challenges. Home service is also offered to readers with special needs.

In Bauta, the library even offers a program called "Dream Repairers" for adopted children.

The director of the city of Matanzas library, Odalys Schery Guedes, elaborated on services provided to a local prison where the library provides educational programs and carries out mini-debates. Writers are invited to jails and prisons, video material is shown, and informative sessions held on illegal drug consumption and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Matanzas library also extends its outreach program into hospitals and sanatoriums, which, along with jails and senior citizen centers amount to a total of 32 branches.

Cuban libraries also serve as public awareness centers providing important educational material on sexually transmitted diseases. One such library in Havana, the Rubén Martínez Villena Library, offers a helpline service with information on AIDS, as well as general family and health, that is partially staffed by HIV-positive volunteers.

Libraries as Instruments of Culture

All Cuban libraries coordinate their cultural programs through advisory boards made up of local artists, historians, lawyers and architects.

The Global Exchange group found that the libraries utilize exhibits in much the same way as in the United States. However, their efforts are "much more extensive" commented one participant, who was impressed by the widespread use of library wall space or actual library galleries to exhibit art by local Cubans, and integrate this with books and reading. The National Library has four such galleries, showing not only national heritage pieces but also other art objects. Its status guarantees prestige to any Cuban artist who manages to show their work in one of its galleries.

Every library, according to its resources and space, displays the works of contemporary artists. In Bauta, the community has a strong link with the nation's cultural movement with many artists, writers and musicians coming from the town. A group was formed by artists and writers in the 1940s named "Origins" and the library in Bauta has for the last six years celebrated the town's cultural heritage with an annual workshop and festival of music and art called "Origins and the Present". Famous writers and visual artists attend the many activities of what has become one of Bauta's main cultural functions.

One participant noted that Cuban publishers are as artistically innovative as their library counterparts. Ediciones Vigia in Matanzas "uses a combination of mimeography and hand embellishment to produce small-press art books that are numbered and limited to runs of 200 copies of a title". The publisher has innovatively used refuse from a nearby cigar factory to produce its trademark manila paper and tied editions to national cultural events "demonstrating how the literary, the artistic and the cultural meld in Cuba".

Booksellers in Cuba

With the return of printing of new books, bookshops have multiplied in Cuba in the last few years. The worst of the Special Period in which paper was so scarce that even newspapers were regulated, now seems to be over. A wide range of books on sale are for children, including translations of a number of classics in English and other European languages such as Treasure Island, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Voyage to the Center of the Earth etc.

A very popular annual book fair -- which always has a theme, such as French or Italian literature - introduces many new titles to Cubans. The book fair is first held in Havana and then moves on across the island. It incorporates a special area for children and sales of books in both pesos and dollars exceed the million mark every year. Aside from the tourist areas, most of the book stores sell in pesos with the average cost of a book within easy reach of most Cubans.

The National Book Institute on the Plaza de Armas in Havana has a wide range of books published in Cuba that cover every subject. It sells in both pesos and dollars. Outside on the Plaza -- a beautiful square in Old Havana -- can be found the famous street booksellers who sell used books that date back five years and beyond so as not to compete with the nearby Institute.

The delegation took the time to interview a number of these vendors and found that a business license to sell books on the square costs $24.00 a month with an additional daily rent of $2.80 for the space to set up a stand. Part of this charge goes to the local child care center.

The Plaza de Armas booksellers price their merchandise in dollars with most of their clients consequently being tourists, although they report that some Cubans do buy books from them. They explained that they sell what titles they choose -- critical of the government or otherwise -- except for pornography. This was borne out by the fact that participants did not see any censorship of the materials on display.

Many of the books available for sale by these vendors -- who are by no means restricted to just the Plaza de Armas, but can be found in many other areas of Havana -- come from individuals selling their personal collections for financial, space or travel considerations. A great many of the books are on Che and Fidel and aspects of the Revolution. There are many books of photographs which the booksellers said especially interests Italians. Tourists from English-speaking countries tend to buy books on old cars, movies and baseball.

Cuba is very careful of the flow of its cultural heritage from the country and with titles older than 50 years requires a stamp from the nation's cultural heritage authorities to be placed on the back to authorize its eventual removal to foreign lands.

Internet Access and Computer Youth Clubs

Access to computers and the Internet is another aspect of the freedom of information debate surrounding Cuba. The common perception among those critical of the government is that access is deliberately restricted to ensure control of all information given to the population. While this may have been the case in the first days of the Internet revolution, it doesn't appear to be so any longer.

The Island is still in the infant stage as far as access to information is concerned. Aside from the National Library, the UNESCO Library, and the National Library of Scientific and Technological Information, no public libraries visited by the group offered Internet access for patrons, although one of the libraries (the National Medical Library) had computers and Internet for the use of the staff and professionals.

The director of the National Library, Eliades Acosta, explained to the Global Exchange participants that the library has 48 computers with Internet access of which 8 are available to the public. While this number is derisory, Acosta said that the high cost of computerization, the US blockade (Washington prevents Cuba from linking up by fiber-optic cable to the Web, so that it is obliged to use an expensive satellite connection), and, above all, the poor communications infrastructure in the country, were all barriers to providing Internet access to the Island's 401 public libraries. He explained, however, that the National Library has a six-step plan in place to provide computers and Internet access to all of the country's public libraries.

The National Medical Library has three terminals dedicated to an online medical catalogue, three dedicated to e-mail and fifteen with Internet access. The library maintains an excellent website called InfoMed which provides health workers across the country with information and links including Medline from the United States' National Library of Medicine. Information is available on both traditional and natural medicine and online courses are offered. InfoMed provides statistics, a directory of public health institutions, a searchable collection of articles on health care and a pharmaceutical database.

As mentioned, all terminals at the National Medical Library were restricted for use by library and health-related personnel. The library is working toward a goal of having all of the country's 815 medical libraries computerized with full Internet access. To date, 444 of these are already automated, but one of the main obstacles is the fact that so many of the medical schools are located in rural areas where telephone connection is very limited. One participant in the group pointed out that the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) had issued a statement earlier in 2004 expressing concern over Cuban legislation "that further restricted Cubans' Internet access" and that Cuba had already "blocked various Internet sites and restricted general access to the Web". She added that "the new legislation further limited access by only allowing Internet access from phone accounts paid in US dollars" and that the "state-run phone company" was urged by the government "to enforce the law and to detect and impede Internet access".

The Cuban government responds to the charge of limiting access by explaining that the unfortunate reality is that the nation has extremely limited phone lines and a tottering communications infrastructure with many Cubans not even enjoying basic phone service let alone Internet access. As to enforcing the law, Cuban authorities have been going after individuals fraudulently using other people's accounts, sometimes after a telephone company worker has sold them a password.

One participant commented that even in the US there are still libraries that don't offer Internet access. She said that she used to work at a library in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles and that it "was only years after the larger systems and universities offered Internet access that we were able to get the reference desk connected to the Internet". She added that getting the funding to provide computers for public use came from private and not public sources. Even the Los Angeles Public Central Library has a 15 minute connection time limit for patrons.

Any Cuban can obtain an e-mail account and stay in communication with friends and relatives abroad using the numerous post office computer centers across the nation designed for that purpose. While the charge of $4.50 for 3 hours of usage is expensive for most Cubans, it is not prohibitive and does not require ownership of a computer or telephone line. For the time being, Internet access is not available with this service.

A few years ago computer clubs called Joven Club were set up across the country granting access to computer technology to the nation's youth. Most secondary schools also house computers and one would be hard put to find a 7th grader with no computer experience in Cuba today. The clubs offer night classes in common-use computer programs and a place for the Island's youth to go who have no computers at home. Although Internet usage is taught, there is no regular Internet access in these clubs for the time being. Cuban authorities say that this will change with an improved telephone infrastructure.

Finally, most Cubans who seek Internet access find it one way or another. Some hotels offer access to the public -- albeit expensively, many journalists have Internet connection at home, and most professionals have access at work. One participant noted, however, that costs are not "nearly as exorbitant as those I have encountered in US hotel rooms, airports, Kinko's copy centers and even some Internet cafes found in suburban Los Angeles." Noting that many Cubans have Yahoo and Hotmail accounts and routinely use them -- the Global Exchange participant commented that Cubans are renowned for managing the impossible under difficult circumstances and, with perseverance, will always find a way to connect to the Internet.

The "Independent" Libraries

Much criticism has been directed at Cuba for its jailing of "independent" library owners. The italics are inserted because it has not been established that these libraries are, indeed, independent. The owners are people who purport to offer the Cuban population access to "banned" books or other reading material from collections set up in their homes. A number of them were arrested over a year ago and jailed for accepting money from a foreign power with the intention of subverting the Cuban government. In spite of the fact that they were all untrained librarians running unlicensed operations, Cuban authorities insist that they were not arrested for running their own libraries.

Robert Kent, who founded the informal US-based Friends of Cuban Libraries mentioned earlier, is vocal in his support of the "independent" libraries in Cuba, saying that his organization is "dedicated to promoting intellectual freedom in Cuba". His website provides numerous links to articles, documents and organizations from around the world about the "jailed independent librarians in Cuba".

The Friends of Cuban Libraries, however, is accused by the England-based Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group of receiving money and support from US agencies seeking to undermine the Cuban government. It notes that FCL has no membership fees and asks where it gets the money to buy the literature it sends to Cuba to stock these "independent" libraries.

The Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group says that its mission is to support "Cuban libraries, librarians, library and information workers and the ASCUBI (Cuban Library Association); to support Cuba's free and comprehensive education system and high literacy levels; and to support the Cuban people's right to self-determination and to choose the social, political and economic systems which support their library service".

The American Library Association in a 2001 report on the issue of "independent" librarians commented that "while the civil oppression of individuals associated with these collections appears to be documented by Amnesty International and other observers, it is not conclusive whether these conditions result from the denial of intellectual freedom or from anti-government activities by the persons involved."

The International Federation of Library Associations has encouraged the ASCUBI to develop a code of ethics for Cuban libraries. Group participants noted that ASCUBI representatives told them that the code of ethics had indeed been drafted but no subsequent search of the Web has located the code.

Conclusion

Without exception, all members of the Global Exchange group heaped praise on Cuba's librarians, with even the most critical member of the delegation commenting that "their activities are still recognizable as those of professional and world-class librarians." She added that the work of Cuban librarians "not only supports the goals and interests of their communities and society, but serves to preserve the rich Cuban national heritage. Cuban librarians and technical staff are resourceful and do excellent work in promoting Cuban culture; in promoting literacy, reading and children's programming; in providing services for people with special needs; and in preserving deteriorating collections in a harsh tropical climate."

"Throughout Cuba," added another participant, "the librarian and libraries demonstrated surprise at the lack of attention North Americans pay to methodology; and it is inspirational that in a nation functioning with so much privation, the theoretical remains more important than the mundane. Similarly, North American librarians can learn from their Cuban counterparts' choice to promote high culture rather than playing to the lowest common denominator".

*****