Biblioteca Gallardo

The following appeared in LALA-L and is reproduced here without the
knowledge or consent of the author.

  Date: 23 Jan 2001
  Sender: "Latin Americanist Librarians' Announcements List"
    <LALA-L [at] LISTSERV__UGA__EDU>
  From: Gayle Williams <gwilliam [at] arches__uga__edu>

      Date: 21 Jan 2001
      From: Hlindo [at] aol__com
      To: Academic Community
      Re: Help us rescue the Biblioteca Gallardo in El Salvador

      A week after the earthquake in El Salvador you must be
      familiar with the dimensions of this latest tragedy suffered
      by the Salvadoran people.  As members of the academic
      community of Central Americans and Central Americanists we
      write to request your help to rescue the Biblioteca allardo
      whose structure has suffered serious damage.

      As you may know, the library's collection includes volumes
      published as far back as the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries,
      miniature books, autographs, ex-libris, and manuscripts.  The
      collection has no less than 80,000  volumes, and is
      significantly more important in size and quality than that of
      the National Library of El Salvador.  The Biblioteca Gallardo,
      a private institution unique in its kind in El Salvador, is
      one of the key centers that protect the historical documents
      of El Salvador and, therefore, of Central America.   Its
      destruction would be a loss to the heritage of all Central
      Americans and structural damage has put its collection in
      serious danger. This is an emergency, the aftershocks could
      bring the building down which would represent the end of many
      irreplaceable books and documents.

      The first priority is to stabilize the structure so that the
      staff can safely enter the building to put the books in boxes
      for their removal.  A suitable storage place has already been
      identified to keep the books safe during the building's
      reconstruction.  It is urgent to raise funds to begin the
      stabilization work which is scheduled to begin in a few days.
      The next steps will be to repair the books damaged by roof
      debris and fallen walls, and the development and
      implementation of a reconstruction plan.

      When confronted with misfortunes like this earthquake, it is
      difficult to find a balance between human needs and cultural
      heritage, but we beg you to keep in mind that there are very
      few institutions in El Salvador that pay attention to these
      kinds of problems.   If people in academic life do not take
      action, no one will do so.  The support of people like
      yourselves will be crucial to take the steps necessary to
      repair the facilities of the library.

      We suggest a contribution of $50.00 per person, but any amount
      will be welcome.  In addition, we would also be grateful if
      you could forward this message to at least five people in your
      electronic address book.  To this end we are sending Spanish
      and English versions.

      At the request of the Gallardo Foundation, whose staff is
      dedicated full time to the emergency, the Centro de
      Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamirica (CIRMA) will help
      with accounting and raising funds (CIRMA's accounts are
      audited yearly).  It will not charge overhead.

      Please make checks payable to: CIRMA--Fondo Gallardo Mail
      checks to:

        CIRMA -- Fondo Gallardo
        CIRMA A-0022
        Box 669004
        Miami FL 33266-9004

      ...

Amparo R. de Torres
Special Projects Officer
Conservation Division
LM G 38
202-707-1120/1026
Fax: 202-707-1525


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:40
                 Distributed: Friday, January 26, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-40-004
                                  ***