Books locked in University library cabinet collection ‘for safekeeping’

The University of Malta’s library is insisting that books are locked in the cabinet collection to ensure they are kept safe from theft and over-handling adding their limited access has nothing to do with censorship.

The 2,000 books in the cabinet collection range from travel guides and religious scripts to plays and history books, according to a list of the books seen by The Times.

A group of 25 University senior lecturers and professors last week wrote a joint letter in which they objected to the “hidden books” at the library.

They claimed the fact that academic and literary texts dealing with subjects like sexuality in art and performance, photography and religion were kept under lock and key within an academic institution was disturbing.

The University yesterday clarified that any books kept in the cabinet collection where there for safekeeping.

“Censorship goes against the library’s principle of archiving for posterity and of providing unhindered access to information... It has traditionally been the library’s policy of treating a number of collections under closed access arrangement,” a spokesman said.

The books in the cabinet collection included all the Melitensia (Maltese publications), the majority of the fine arts books and all the rare, particularly out-of-print, books and manuscript holdings.

All these books were identifiable through the library’s electronic catalogues and could be consulted by registered University students and academics, the spokesman said.

“Never, throughout the past 60 years, has the University library been restrained from purchasing or acquiring any particular publication on censorship considerations,” she said.

The University Students’ Council said it agreed the library was keeping certain books under lock and key due to their intrinsic value.

However, the Front Against Censorship accused the University of lying to the student’s council. It produced a list of books in the cabinet area and pointed out that most were either of a sexual nature, criticised the Church or were somehow “unpalatable to the present social order”.

The Front added that some books were neither hard to find nor were they of any intrinsic value.

“For example, the book 101 Myths Of The Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History is available from Amazon.com for $13.49,” it said, adding some books at the library were not at all damaged and did not need to be safeguarded.

However, a University spokesman pointed out that the selection of 32 titles listed by the Front formed part of a much more extensive collection of about 2,000 books. They were there due to their rarity, risk of theft or mishandling. “The relatively good condition of such works in fact attests to the success of this practice,” the University said.

A sample of the books in the cabinet area, sent to The Times, listed religious books like Violence, Utopia And The Kingdom of God. There were sexual titles such as Sexual Abuse In The Catholic Church and other varied subjects like The Story Of A Hundred Operas and The Rough Guide To Italy.