Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-231).
Summary:
Every major socio-political change starts with some discarding. Suffice it to think about the heaps of rubbish consisting of old furniture, cars, busts of famous communist leaders, badges, and books on the streets of Eastern Europe in the fall/winter of 1989/1990. Among the institutions which have the greatest amount of experience with discarding are libraries: Counterintuitive as it may seem, libraries (but also museums and archives) regularly discard books as part of their job. In the wake of the collapse of communism in Europe, stock revision was needed in libraries, but did it unfold in a "business as usual" fashion or was it a bibliocide? (as it was labelled by some media in Croatia) or even the biggest destruction of books in the post-war period? (as it was characterized by a German journalist)? When does a standard library practice start attracting public attention? What makes the Croatian case stand out?
Series:
Literature and culture in Central and Eastern Europe ; volume 24
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.