ON TWO LITTLE KNOWN ARTICLES OF THE AUTHOR BRANKO MERXHANIT

Loreta LOLI

Abstract

“A country without a library is like a man without his mind: he doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't know where he’s going!”- With these words concludes Branko Merxhani his article on the National Library of Albania on the first day of the new year 1928. For real intellectuals of a country, those who are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, those who know how to lead the society, who influence and give help in the development of their nation's destinies, the role that educational and cultural institutions have is enormous, irreplaceable. Libraries, as a type of these institutions, and further, the National Libraries, as a separate specificity, take primary importance for the function they have. Especially for that cases when the discourse is contextualized in the creation of new states (but only states and not nations), as was Albania in 1912. Here, the National Libraries become missionaries of archiving the memory and national identity. Albania and the National Library of Albania, as an example of this, became the object of interest, social debate, analysis and concrete and systemic action for some Albanian intellectuals during the 20s and 30s of the last century. In this paperwork, we will focus on Branko Merxhani's view on the role that should have the National Library of Albania as the main national cultural institution. Also we will see the change that this Library has made in our time, from the Traditional Library to the Digital Library, as a necessity to adapt the requests of information society and new technologies.

Pages: 314 - 321