Moldova’s book fund is renewed once in 57 years
- 31.08.2012 10:05
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The Moldovan book fund is renewed once in 57 years and only 7 of the 16 million books in public libraries are written with Latin alphabet, Info-Prim Neo reports.
“Last year, 295,800 books were bought. Of them, 229,600 are in Romanian language. The average renewal rate recommended by IFLA-UNESCO is 250 books per 1000 inhabitants. In Moldova, the rate is 80 books per 1000 inhabitants. An example to follow is Finland, where yearly they buy 411 books per 1000 inhabitants”, declared Vera Osoianu, deputy director of the National Library.
According to IFLA-UNESCO recommendations, the book fund must be renewed once in 7-10 years. In Moldova it happens once in 57 years, considering both the funds allotted by state and donations or book exchanges with other libraries. “The book fund renewal index, which is once in 57 years, shows that the situation is really bad. We should renew the book fund at least once in 10 years. Books come and go. It’s a thing that wears. Specialists recommend that the number of worn books should be replaced by a similar number of new books”, said Vera Osoianu.
In 2009, according to the last available data, only 23.3% of the books of the fund (16.8 million units), were in Latin writing. The others were books in Russian or other foreign languages and books in the national official language, but in Cyrillic writing. Only 51.5% of the Romanian/Moldovan language books (7.1 million) are in Latin script, while the others are in Cyrillic.
The deputy head of the National Library said there weren’t any initiatives or projects regarding the disposal of Cyrillic script books and their replacement with books in Latin writing. This isn’t done because there are many who read Cyrillic and these books. Nevertheless, the book fund must be renewed at a pace with the wearing of books or the dwindling of their readers.
