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Does the librarian say something special and unique when there is a war? Is the librarian’s mind different from the rest of us? Or does a little librarian live in each of us? Hunters and warriors we all are, but are we not also collectors and caretakers?

By Mikael Böök

In December 1936, the British writer Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pseudonym George Orwell, travelled from his homeland to Spain with the intention of enlisting as a soldier on the Republican side in the ongoing civil war. On the way, he stopped off in Paris. There he dined with the famous author of the novel The Tropic of Cancer and the  novella Quiet Days in Clichy. The meeting with fellow writer Henry Miller made a strong impression on Orwell. He returned to it later, for example in his essay ‘Inside the Whale’, about what it would be like to live like the prophet Jonah inside the belly of the whale. This was, in fact, something that Henry Miller suggested George Orwell would rather do. Miller told Orwell that his plan to fight in the Spanish civil war was idiotic. And Orwell had to grudgingly agree with him. 

«For the fact is that being inside a whale is a very comfortable, cosy, homelike thought. The historical Jonah, if he can be so called, was glad enough to escape, but in imagination, in day- dream, countless people have envied him. It is, of course, quite obvious why. The whale’s belly is simply a womb big enough for an adult. There you are, in the dark, cushioned space that exactly fits you, with yards of blubber between yourself and reality, able to keep up an attitude of the completest indifference, no mattermwhat happens»,  

Orwell later mused in his above mentioned essay. Orwell also thought a lot about the common man who, in his view, was decent and did not want to make war. But he himself went to war.

I don’t blame Orwell for that. On the contrary, I want to praise him for continuing to admire Miller as a writer and for his courage to examine his own contradictions.

The professional librarian, on the other hand,  is destined to oppose war. In short, the librarian is a pacifist. Erasmus of Rotterdam would certainly have agreed with this statement. As would Tolstoy. The librarian does not even have to be a Christian …

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STØTT ARBEIDET NÅ

Det svenske Biblioteksbladet har i dag vore i kontakt med leiinga i bibliotekforeininga i Ukraina. Styreleiar Oksana Brui sa først at «i krigstid opererar styrelsen och huvudkontoret online och att beslut om driften av biblioteken runt om i Ukraina tas av lokala förvaltningar och institutioners ledningsgrupper. Hon fortsätter med att förklara att biblioteken i Kiev är stängda men att de tillhandahåller onlineservice till sina användare».

I 16-tida i dag skreiv daglegleiar Yaroslava Soshynska: «Här i Kiev hörs det flyglarm. Om vi överlever kommer vi att svara dig. Var snäll och sprid informationen i ditt land och i EU».