State and prospects of the university libraries of Romania

Abstract

The history of the university libraries of Romania correlates with the history of university structures to which they belong. During almost 50 years of totalitarianism, the Romanian libraries suffered a long period of international isolation and a continuous diminution of their collections from an informative point of view. The negative effects of this half century also exercised a bad influence over some other activities of the libraries (the quality of services and personnel, and on the other hand the quality of equipment and even the buildings), and finally decreased the level of their involvement in university life. Although the financial possibilities offered to libraries after the Revolution from December 1989 have grown considerably, no significant changes have been made from the structural point of view and no modernization policies have been established. To integrate the university libraries among the other goals of higher education, suggests that a proper strategy must be established, e.g. the promotion of a law for Romanian libraries; the adoption of a statute for Romanian librarians and documentalists; the setting up of a National Council of libraries; the planning of education to be closely correlated with the planning of libraries; the adoption of a national programme for the building of university libraries; the adoption of a national automation programme for the university libraries; the setting up of an evaluation system for university libraries.