240 employees laid off at the national library

When staffs and workers of the Biblioteca Nacional, once run by Jorge Luis Borges, were informed of their lay off some of them fainted and had nervous breakdowns.

The cuts were blamed by ministry of culture on the “disproportionate growth” in the number of employees at the library under its last director Horacio González, said La Nacion.

According to a statement, in 2005 there were 306 workers at the library, compared to 1,048 now. Guardian UK reported.

Samantha Schnee, chair of English PEN’s writers in translation committee, called for the cuts to be reassessed. "Libraries are the repositories of humankind’s knowledge. Therefore it is both alarming and disturbing that many of the custodians of this knowledge at Argentina’s National Library in Buenos Aires have been summarily dismissed,” she said.

“The Argentine authorities should reconsider their decision.”

The Buenos Aires Herald reported that writers and intellectuals including Beatriz Sarlo, Luisa Valenzuela, Ricardo Piglia, Andrea Giunta and Néstor García Canclini signed a paid advertisement demanding that the library be preserved “as a space of pluralism and freedom of expression”, and that the executive proceed “with due precaution”.

María Pia López, ex-director of the Museum of Books and Language at the National Library, said a group of library workers are planning negotiations to try to reinstate the dismissed employees.

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