UC/Berkeley and Cuban National Library
to Share Books, Posters
The University of California/Berkeley Library and the José Martí National Library of Cuba are on the verge of signing a historic agreement to exchange materials, allowing scholars greater access to literature and art restricted under a 40-year-old trade embargo. The U.S. Treasury Department agreed in May to exempt the exchange, though materials must still be shipped through Canada as a practical consideration.
Under the proposed three-year agreement, the Martí Library would provide Berkeley with duplicate copies of books, sheet music, and journals. In return, UCB would catalog the materials and make them available to U.S. researchers through interlibrary loan. A post-revolutionary Cuban poster collection would also be acquired, digitized, and made available on a Web site for research purposes. Berkeley will also establish a fund to purchase research materials to send to Cuba.
The agreement is the brainchild of Carlos Delgado, UCB librarian for Latin American collections, who has been pursuing it for over a year. “We have already received almost 2,000 titles from the National Library,” he told American Libraries. “I did the selection myself last December in Havana. And we also have around 250 of the 1,000 posters we expect to receive.”
UCB librarians are joining with Cuban librarians to sign a letter of intent at Berkeley’s Doe Library September 13 and open a public exhibit of Cuban materials. Delgado said Cuban lawyers need more time to study copyright-related issues before the agreement is formalized.
Posted September 11, 2000.
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