«In the minds of men»: the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto of 1949

Abstract

The first UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, entitled The public library, a living force for popular education, dates back to 1949. In its thematic composition, the Manifesto reflects the co-presence of different librarianship traditions (far beyond the Anglo-American vision) and a synthesis of the humanism of knowledge and education which is UNESCO’s distinctive trait. The foundations of this new humanism consist above all in the connection among world citizenship, cosmopolitanism and the search for educational and cultural cooperation beyond national boundaries. It is an original charter of values, which consists in the globalization of the idea of public library, in a perspective whose stakeholders are above all librarians, educators and citizens. At the beginning of the 1950s – in the context of the Cold War and of the Decolonization processes – a transition took place from a cultural and participatory approach, inspired by cultural and professional multilateralism, to a more markedly institutional vision. The values ​​of the Manifesto were reinterpreted by the French intellectual André Maurois in Public libraries and their mission (UNESCO, 1961). Every public library «is a center for international understanding», they are the institutions best suited for this role precisely because they are «free from propaganda and prejudice». Library rights guarantee rights, freedom and democracy for readers: they contribute to founding that dual membership, both local and global, which is one of the main features of the 1949 Manifesto. Community service is a non-local perspective. Public libraries are destined to evolving in the context of the new States resulting from the decolonization process: culture and knowledge build a bridge between past and future.