LIBRARY & HISTORY WHAT A FASCINATING JOB!

MARIA DWEGGAH AND EVELINA RIOUKHINA

UNSpecial: Can you explain to the readers a little bit about your work here? What kind of service do you provide to the public? What have been some of your interesting projects?
B. Pejovic: The League of Nations archives, together with the UNOG archives, form a unit of the UNOG Library.
The main service that I have provided since 2000 is to make the League of Nations Archival Collections accessible for researches in the Reading Room. This includes explaining the archival and library rules; introducing the various users to the different indexes and research aids; the different types of documentation: manuscripts, printed material, multimedia, caricatures, drawings, posters, photos, maps, interior designs and art objects, the connection between them in relation to their research.
From February 1997 until the end of 1999 I was given the opportunity to work half time in the League of Nations Archives Unit. During this period, I assisted the Chief Archivist in compiling the Peace Museum’s Guide, 2nd version. I finalized the indexing of the Austrian Peacemaker’s Bertha von Suttners archival collection and assisted in composing the finding aid of League Conventions and Treaties.

I looked into the different methods of filing of the various collections belonging to the League of Nations heritage which includes private papers, museum items and much more. Readers requests had to be answered. From 1997 to 2000, most of the correspondences came by post or fax.
Since February 2000 I have been in charge of the Reading Room. Statistics show that the number of users in the Room has tripled, the variety of user services as well. The Library’s communication strategy in setting up exhibitions in the League of Nations Museum like: “Locarno”, “Aristide Briand” and “From the League to the UN” increased awareness about the League’s existing archives here into the Palais and brought more visitors to the Reading Room. The first large research project started in March 2000 for a travel exhibition called “Genève un lieu pour la Paix”. Events such a concert and seminars in several historical places in Geneva followed by end of November 2001.
For over a year I provided research assistance to Romanian and Spanish delegations for exhibitions on “Titulescu” in March 2002 and “Spain and the League” in May 2002, which allowed me to assist with providing pertinent historical documentation and to set up thematic lists.

What kind of requests for information do you receive? In what ways can you help? What has been your most unusual request?
Besides the announcement of visits to the Reading Room, I receive all sorts of mail and requests for documentation on historical information. The future visitors communicate to me their research subjects and I inform them about the extension of the material that are available.
One of the most unusual requests was not the request itself but the outcome. A visitor from Belgium came about five years ago. He presented himself as the son of an ex-League staff member, a medical health expert. He was supposed to find some material about his father but he had no specific criteria in mind. He only knew that his father died in 1939 on a mission in China. The visitor discovered in one archival box of the so called “Miscellaneous printed material and museum items” the photos and original decorations, silk banderoles with Chinese inscriptions, of the funeral of his father which took place in China in 1939

What have been the most interesting challenges for you?
The UNOG protocol arranges official visits to the Palais with the Chief Librarian. These include political or royal personalities who visit the League of Nations Museum and the Archives Reading Room. Delegations from various countries visiting the Library often stop by the historical Reading Room and I set up small exhibitions for them on such topics as Refugees”, the “League’s Social Section” etc. It has become customary to provide the Head of the Delegation with the reproduction of an important document as a gift.
What motivates me is the growing institutional interest in the League of Nations archives. I have been involved in a number of exhibitions and other interesting projects. I will list only a few to give you an idea of the kind of work we do here that most persons are not aware of, and that includes the UN staff.
A very important exhibition shown in the Crown Prince palace in Berlin in 2006 was “Exodus in the 20th Century”, where reproductions of historical documents from the League were shown to more than 55000 visitors.
For an exhibition December 2007 to January 2008 I provided documentary material to the Alfred Nobel Museum in San Remo, Italy, The Italian state museum celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the Italian Peacemaker, journalist and economist, Alberto Moneta, whose correspondences are part of the private collections of the International Peace Bureau, which we conserve, in addition to the League of Nations collections.
We also collaborate with film makers. They are really surprised at the amount of historical documentation the archives provide. Often, the film crews arrive without much warning and at times only one day in advance. This is partly due to the fact that they do not know what they will discover and they also have to visit other places while they are in Geneva.
For example, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK, who visited the Reading Room this summer, focused on the “League of Nations Advisory Opium Committee and the role of Japan” in 1938. During three days they filmed the documentation in the Reading Room and we provided them with about one hundred boxes of archival documentation.

You said many come here to research their thesis or for research projects. Can you give us examples of who these persons are, what kinds of research they do?
Contrary to the Library users and the UNOG current archives, the Reading Room of the historical archives receives ninety five percent of its users from outside the Palais des Nations.
Annual statistics show that during the last six years, researchers in Switzerland make up the largest part of the users; followed by French, German, British and American users; Italian, Greek, Spanish and Japanese send at least five researchers during the year followed by other countries. Historians, journalists, lawyers and students fascinated by the Interwar time period or the Peace Movement frequently use this Reading Room. Students make up the majority of the users.
A recent example is that of a Swiss-Iraqi student from the Geneva University, Faculty of Letters who is preparing his masters degree in history focusing on the “League of Nations Mandate on Iraq and its Petitions”. He has been using the Reading Room for the past eight months.

You informed us that after 60 years, there is the right to access information in your archives. What kind of information for example could be had today that the public would have been refused five years ago, for instance?
After the opening of the historical archives in the late sixties, the general access rules stipulated that the public could consult those files which had been closed for at least 40 years. For especially sensitive items, meaning those which could cause prejudice of particular persons or events, and for personnel files, a sixty year rule was instated.
Now, in 2008, almost all files are open to the public. Some exceptions still can be found in the League’s personnel files, where some appointments of staff members continued to be filed until the end of the 40s due to a missing filing system at the successor organizations.

In your view, why should this service be maintained?
The services are indispensable for the preservation of the institutional memory. The activities of the League of Nations paved the way for the United Nations and its specialized organizations. I observed the fact that research on historical documentation from the League is modern as many subjects started in the Interwar period or even before with the Peace Movement, such as disarmament, cancer and other health issues, child welfare and slavery.

Your filing system is a bit antiquated, dated back to the 20’s and it is all either written by hand or typed. What are the plans to modernize and to improve access to this treasure of information. Where are the archives stored and what is the quantity?
The filing system which we inherited from the League’s Registry, the League’s administration’s index, is the most elaborated and extended filing system of the League of Nations documents. At the League’s time, this was the work of the Registry. The Registry was a very essential part of the Secretariat receiving all incoming and outgoing correspondence. Until it becomes obsolete, it is essential in this Reading Room for consultation. This old subject and name’s index is (besides being the most comprehensive tool of all League documents) rather to be considered as a part of the furniture, surrounding the walls of the Reading Room, being frequently used during the day.
Three hundred twenty two (322) drawers built up after the three period system of the League of Nations’ existence: 1919 to 1927, 1928 to 1932, 1933 to 1947 are chronologically arranging 161 000 index cards providing lists on each card referring to about four million League of Nations documents ( manuscripts here are also called documents). The inscription of documentation as well comments from section chiefs, interoffice memoranda never published are part of this treasure.
A great help in providing more comprehensive information on League documents is our electronic archival catalogue. Since 2002 implemented in our Unit, the electronic catalogue is a substantial tool providing access to the archival collections to the public. The private papers of the last League’s Secretary-General, Sean Lester, is entirely digitalized and the full text documents are available on line. The archives collection of Bertha von Suttner are entirely described and the digitalized documents will be available on line by next year

A resource guide on the League of Nations on primary and secondary sources as well as a key-web resource is available on the Library’s intranet site...

Thank you for this interview!