Brothers of Christian Instruction ‘s

Haitian Library

Christian Instruction Brothers’ Haitian Library

History

Collection of documetns (newspapers, fiction, non-fiction,

valuable + pics)

Budget + Help from other institutions

Number of visits

Equipment and Services

New things since 2012

Digitized documents

Training (Florida and National Archives)

Goals

HISTORYThe Christian Instruction Brother’s Haitian library, is the second oldest in the country. It was founded in Port-au-Prince in 1912 for major students of the Brothers of Christian Instruction. From 1920, it opened its doors to the public.

By lack of resources - financial, human resources, ... - the BHFIC works in a limited way. We work from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m and 3h pm. We are five people including the Director: an Executive Director, a Secreteray, a Technician in Digitization and an office clerk.

Ernest Dion, the founder, by choice and for financial reasons, accentuate this documentation on Haiti and its history of people, their culture and legislation, geography, flora, rich religious history, education and medicine in Haiti.

Numerous collections of newspapers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries can be consulted.

Collection of documents (1)

The BHFIC has about 10,000 documents. (this number doesn’t include the newspapers that are more than two hundred titles). The documents are about the pre-Columbian period, the Spanish occupation of Haiti (1492-1697), relations with Santo Domingo, the heroic struggles, the general revolt with heroes like Dessalines, Christophe, Petion, the official reports on the American occupation (1915 - 1934), complete collections writers like Coriolan Ardouin, Thomas Madiou, Georges Corvington, Roger Gaillard, Leslie Manigat, ...

For Haitian literature, the library has more than 1,200 works of fiction, La Ronde, Haiti Littéraire et Sociale.

Collection of documents(2)

It is important to note “Le Temps”, a magazine of years 1932 – 1940 printed in 15 strong volumes, real mines of literary texts, biographies of writers and various analyzes.

Our volumes of Haitian legislation, including 63 codes and 200 volumes of the “Moniteur” attract particularly students, professional or private individual looking for a law, decree or notice of divorce.

Newpapers (1)

1) Haïti-Journal :1930 – 1970 (41 years) 2) L’Action Nationale :1936 – 1937 (2 ‘’)3) L’Elan : 1935 (1 ‘’)4) L’Essor : 1917 – 1927 (11 ‘’)5) L’Humour : 1897 (1 ‘’)6) L’Informateur haïtien : 1919 (1 ‘’)7) L’Information : 1934 – 1935 (2 ‘’)8) L’Opinion : 1935 – 1936 (2 ‘’)9) L’Opinion nationale : 1861 – 1865; 1891 –

1893 (8 ‘’)10)La Poste : 1922 – 1926 (5 ‘’)11)La Presse : 1929 – 1931 (3 ‘’)

Newspapers (2) 12) La Vérité : 1886 – 1889 ( 4 years)13) Le Courrier du Soir : 1919 – 1921 (3 ‘’)14) Le Courrier haïtien : 1920 – 1922 (3 ‘’)15) Le Lien : 1928 – 1931 (3 ‘’)16) Le Matin : 1907 – 1984, 2004 – 2013 (87 ’’)17) Le Mouvement : 1935 – 1941 (7 ‘’)18) Le Nouvelliste : 1899 until now (exc.1914) ( 115 ‘’)

19) Le Papyrus : 1933 – 1936 (4 ‘’)20) Le Soir : 1899 – 1908 ( 10 ‘’)21) Le Télégraphe, gazette officielle: 1821 – 1839 (19 ‘’)22) Le Temps : 1922 – 1932 (11 ‘’)

ValuablesMoney: a lot of bank notes and coins (about two thousand) are packed in boxes. Sometimes they don’t have any documentation.

Pictures: also pictures of former presidents and other personnalities of the haitian history.

Collection of stamps: more than a thousand stamps are also packed in boxes.

Other: we also have things like swords, arms, macaroon of former presidents. They can make a beautiful collection for a museum.

Budget

Between painting, boxes of paper, cartridges for printers and copier, water, telephone and internet subscription, antivirus for computers, equipment for cleaning, and unexpected (light bulbs or toilet repair , grilled fan to replace ...), staff salaries, purchase of new books, the Library FIC has a budget of 1,000,000 (one million) gourdes per year. ( about $20.000 us)

But, because of the very trestricted incomes, the library can’t cover the costs.

Help from other institutions•Unibank: Since 1997, Unibank provides us with a monthly grant of 2,500 G. ($55 us). After the earthquake in 2010, the suvention increased to 4,000 gourdes. ($ 90 us).•Fokal: In 1998, Fokal provided assistance of 60,000 G ($1.300 us) and after the earthquake of 2010, $ 10,000 to repair the library. In summer 2013, they paid the training in Florida for one of our employees.•National Archives: In summer 2013, the National Archives has agreed to pay for training for one of our employees.•C3 Editions: Since 2013, “Editions C3 regularly” send us their new published titles.•Others: Authors and researchers bring us new titles that expand our holdings.

Number of visits

Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June0

50

100

150

200

Sept 2012 – June 2013

Total: 960

Number of visits

Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May0

50

100

150

200

Sept 2013 – May 2014

Total: 1.227

Equipment and Services

Equipment•3 desktops•1 laptop•1 small scanner (8.5’’ x 11’’)•1 photocopier• 1 scanner for newspaper / big format (from dLOC)

Services•Consultation on site•Photocopy•Scan

New things since Sept 20121. Mail address : bhfic1912@gmail.com 2. BHFIC logo3. Facebook page : BHFIC 4. Piece of furniture for the new books5. New stands for books and newspapers6. Register of grievances ( to know about researchers feelings)7. Plasticized members cards8. Water for employees9. Flower pots10. New employee (Jan 2013)11. Phone number (+509 3770 9642)12. Office identified with the name of the library13. Air conditioning in the Executive Director’s office14. Security cameras15. Fire extinguisher 16. New room for digitization

Digitized documents Small documents : 197 GB

BooksLes Bigailles :1901Haïti Littéraire et scientifique : 1912Haïti Littéraire et sociale : 1905La Ronde :1898Zobope :1944

Newpapers : 500 GBHaïti Journal: 5 years – from 1940 to 1945.

Employers’ trainingFlorida summer 2011:

Training on digitization in partnership with dLOC.

Florida summer 2013: Training on Advanced topics, large

format materials, still with dLOC.

National Archives (Haïti) november 2013:

In partership with dLOC, in the National Archives, we participate in a training based on digitization of big format.

Goals1. Digitization

Camera + Lamps Computer New employee Salary

2. New room for meeting or conference Chairs (50) Table Projector White board Air conditioning Conference stand

3. Access to the database Ncomputing Separate computers

4. Fair that lasts one year

5. BHFIC on line

Equipment for digitization

Reading room

Pre-columbian stones

Money

Swords

Stamps

Written byMarie-France GUILLAUMEExecutive Director+50936025420duffrance@gmail.

180, Rue du Centre

Port-au-Prince / Haïti

Tel.: +509 3770 9642

P.B.: 1758Facebook:

BHFIC

BHFIC’s address