Minister of Cultural Affairs

Address by Mrs Åse Kleveland, Minister of Culture, at the opening of the 1st International Memory of the World Conference

Oslo 3 June, 1996

Distinguished participants,

As human beings, one of our most characteristic features is our ability of developing and using a language. With our language as a tool, we can communicate with other human beings. We can also collect contemporary and past knowledge and bring this with us into the future. Based on language, and in particular on the written language, we have been able to increase the amount of human knowledge and wisdom through the centuries and millenias.

Through the ages the type of information-carriers used have changed.

From clay tablets in ancient Assyria and Babylonia, to bones and turtle shells in China, through pottery, various types of metal, papyrus, parchment and paper. Until we today at the end of the century and at the beginning of a new millenium, have developed a new communications devise. More powerful than the world has ever seen is the computer and the electronic networks. Although the forms of the information carriers have changed considerably, the basic process of bringing information from one generation to the next, still remains.

The Western civilization has for the last 500 years been dominated by Johan Gutenberg's invention of the movable types and the enormous increase of print on paper as a consequence of this. But, as this conference will show us, man has been collecting knowledge long before the print on paper era, and at the end of the 20th century, we have developed a wide variety of new media, like films, videograms, sound recordings, radio and television broadcasting. And the most powerful instrument of all - the computer, and the possibility of digital storage and dissemination of information through a global net, also named "the information super highway".

Together, these collections of human knowledge and expressions represent the collective memory of the peoples of the world. They are of vital importance in order to preserve cultural identities and build bridges between the past and the present as well as in shaping the future. The documentary heritage, as we find it in libraries, archives and museums all over the world, is a major part of this collective memory, and it reflects the diversity of peoples, languages and cultures. But, as this conference will clearly show, these memories are very fragile. The reasons are many and varied. A substantial portion of the world's documentary heritage is constantly under attack from enemies such as acid paper that slowly burns itself to destruction, and attacks from light, heat, humidity or pollution on leather bindings, parchment, film and magnetic tape.

But what is worse, is that aggression and wars to an increasing degree are based on cultural conflicts. Thus destruction of cultural heritage becomes a terrible weapon which is used without considering that he who destroys the cultural manifestations of a people in fact reduces the common cultural heritage of mankind.

It is deeply depressing to consider the fact that behind the destructions we find human minds and human beings. How many treasures known and unknown, have vanished in Alexandria, Bucharest, Irak and, of late in Sarajevo? Whole sections of the memory of the world have been effaced. But, ironically, the fires of war also preserved the clay tablets from the temple library in Assyria so that the scriptures on clay have survived through 5000 years until today. The words of Akiba ben Joseph come to my mind, his last words at the stake when the Torah was being burned: "The paper burns, but the words fly away." We may safely say that war, intolerance and the suppression of the free word have by far caused the most serious damages to the memory of mankind. But nature has also taken its toll - through floods in Venice and Florence, earthquakes in California and South-East Asia, the catastrophe that covered Pompei in ashes, as well as temperature, climate, bugs and worms in tropical areas. And last, but not least, the human beings themselves, not paying enough attention and not taking enough care when using valuable and unique collections, and in doing so, destroying the originals for later preservation and use.

This was the challenge that made UNESCO launch the "Memory of the World" Programme in 1992 which has four specific objectives:

• to encourage the preservation of the world's documentary heritage by the most appropriate techniques
• to facilitate access to it for all kinds of users
• to increase worldwide awareness of its existence and significance
• to promote the Programme and its products to the widest possible public.

The Unesco programme is primarily concerned with documentary heritage of world wide significance, but the guidelines for the programme and the framework for the practical and technical development are also well suited for the encouragement of this kind of work on the national and regional levels.

Norwegian authorities are highly concerned about safeguarding collections in museums, archives and libraries. Our endeavours in this respect must be co-ordinated with a view to achieving the best basis for collecting, organizing, preserving and ensuring access to this particular knowledge for coming generations. Our approach in this connection must be userfriendly as well as economically viable.

To Norway with its strongly desentralised cultural infrastructure the information technology is a blessing indeed. Finally our national cultural institutions will be institutions for the whole nation.

Archives, libraries, and museums look after bodies of material which both overlap and complement each other. In developing new information technology, it will be important to strengthen the cooperation between these institutions. Jointly they represent the collective memory of the nation.

In the light of this, there are grounds for questioning the tendency to specialise, with institutions appearing which cover ever narrowing themes. We need institutions that regard it as their duty to point out inter-relationships in time and space, that can show that change and continuity are built into all forms of cultural development Libraries should play an important role here, and be able to renew and develop the positive aspects of the encyclopaedic tradition.

In his latest book "The good society - the humane agenda", the well known economist and author, John Kenneth Galbraith, presents what he calls a "blueprint for a society that is compassionate to the less fortunate and economically feasible for all". Here he strongly underlines that "No single country can act effectively and alone. The good society must be committed to international coordination, for it is not only the best, but the only answer." And here, at this conference, we are talking about problems where the memory of mankind is at stake.

What could be more appropriate for coordinated, international action than the preservation and access of this memory? This memory carries in it the elements of culture and education so important for the enlargement and the enjoyment of life. These are the forces that open the window for the individual to enjoy the pleasures of language, literature, art music as well as the diversities and idiosyncrasies of the world scene. UNESCO's "Memory of the World" programme has been created to fight and remedy the attacks from all the destructive elements that could lead to a collective amnesia.

The efforts of UNESCO are being assisted worldwide by thousands of specialists in the fields of libraries, archives and museums, organized in NGOs (non-governmental organizations) like IFLA, ICA and ICOM. The new digital world is bringing these fields closer together in the tremendous task as is the "Memory of the World" programme.

"My task, which I am trying to achieve, is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel, it is, before all, to make you see." Thus wrote Joseph Conrad a hundred years ago, and in the same spirit, authors, scientists and others have been writing through the centuries to contribute to the human knowledge and understanding. All this we find in the collections that we are now joining in a world effort to preserve and also to make more accessible. This is also what UNESCO is trying to do in launching its ambitious "Memory of the World" programme.

On behalf of the Norwegian government I would like to say how pleased I am to see so many representatives from the developing countries here in Oslo. You represent nations with strong ancient cultures, but in your daily work you often face a serious lack of practical and financial means that make our challenges seem like luxury problems. Cultural diversity plays a decisive role in a sustainable global development. We are all responsible for the preservation of our own culture, not because it is more valuable than that of others, but because it is our own. Acknowledging this, the industralized countries should take on the responsibility of contributing by economic as well as practical means, to the cultural efforts of developing countries.

As a small nation, Norway has traditions as well as ambitions as far as international cooperation is concerned. We need you, your competence and your friendship, and that is why we are so happy to see you all here in Oslo.

I hope that this conference will prove to be a suitable forum for the exchange of knowledge and opinions, a forum for establishing contacts and networks for cooperation across national and continental boundaries.

Good luck!