However, the Center is experiencing its last weeks. At the end of December, it will be closed. In the eyes of the board of directors of the non-profit organization which manages it, the mission of “Cerfaux-Lefort” has been successfully accomplished. “The Center was founded, after the split of the unitary university and the division of its libraries, with the aim of collecting, sorting and redistributing, for the benefit of UCLouvain, an immense quantity [d’ouvrages]. The donations managed by the Center have thus largely made up for the deficits of the libraries and research centers on campus”, notes Lambert Isebaert, president of the CA. However, in recent years, “the number of works taken up by the libraries of the “UCLouvain has decreased considerably, to become completely anecdotal”, he adds. Ditto with regard to development cooperation. “It appears that the shipment of used scientific books to the libraries of these countries is no longer of primary use, given the greater need for recent publications (including access to paid electronic sources).” In other words, this mission of aid to foreign libraries has also arrived “at its term”, underlines Lambert Isebaert. As a result, the profitability of the Center is no longer assured.
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“The symbol of resistance”
However, these reasons do not convince either the Louvain Student Assembly (AGL) or the collective supporting the Center which was created to fight against the closure. In their eyes, Cerfaux-Lefort defends the values held by UCLouvain: development cooperation, sustainable development, ecological transition, social and democratic access to culture (and to scientific books that are difficult to find).
“We therefore do not understand why UCLouvain does not move to save this place, regret Pascal Warnier and Raphaële Buxant who lead the collective. They note that if the university is not directly linked to the Center, it is located “We are also convinced that it contains enormous potential and that it still meets its statutes which aim to safeguard cultural heritage and help students and researchers. This fall, for example, five cubic meters of books were sent to the University of Lviv in Ukraine. Furthermore, at the Belgian level, the second-hand book market is growing strongly. We could take advantage of it, broaden the social purpose of the Center, give it greater visibility, which it has lacked. For students, for the inhabitants of Louvain-la-Neuve, for foreign universities, it is a tool that cannot be sold off”, they emphasize in tune with Sara Javadian, general secretary of the AGL. ” We want to make the Center the symbol of resistance. From resistance to ‘all digital’, to ‘extractive capitalism’, to the loss of our freedom which results from our digital consumption”, Pascal Warnier continues.
This fall, the Collective launched a petition which collected 1,600 signatures. From now on, he is pleading for “a moratorium on the closure of the center which would make it possible to find a lasting solution”. Its objective is that the non-profit association is not dissolved, so that the subsidies from the Walloon Region which make it possible to finance three jobs in the Center are not lost.
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The closure should take place
Contacted by La Libre, UCLouvain kicks in and sends it back to the board of directors of the ASBL. He remains firm in his position. He also recalls having obtained several extensions of the framework agreement with UCLouvain which had already expired in 2020. He also notes that “the hypothesis of a resumption of the fund and the activities of the Cerfaux-Lefort Center by the UCLouvain Libraries was studied in depth, but was not considered feasible. Finally, he mentions that the Center was never intended to be a second-hand book store. If the public was able to acquire works there, “it is as a contribution to the management and administrative costs” of the non-profit organization. If some therefore intend to launch a large bookstore on campus, they will have to create a new structure, concludes Lambert Isebaert.
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