American Corner Bucharest

Events

Remarks by Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman on the occasion of the Opening of American Corner Bucharest,
March 9, 2007

Director Anca,
Mrs. Secretary General Pasztor,
Mrs. Irina Petrescu,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It's an honor and a pleasure to be here today in this beautiful historical building, home of the I.C. Petrescu National Pedagogical Library.

We are here today to mark an important event: the opening of our new American Corner in Bucharest.

This occasion marks the beginning of an important partnership between the U.S. Embassy in Romania and the National Pedagogical Library.

I would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Director Anca for agreeing to enter into this important partnership with us.

Under our agreement, the Pedagogical Library has set aside one of its beautiful rooms to house a collection of books, videos, CDs and DVDs and other materials about the United States donated by our Embassy. We have also donated furniture, computers and other audiovisual equipment.

This collection will be managed by a professional librarian provided by the Library, and will be accessible to the public during regular business hours.

We have sought to include a wide variety of materials here, from basic reference collections to great works of American literature, from books about baseball to documentaries about American jazz. There is, we hope, something here for every interest.

I understand that the Library is quite active in the area of cultural programming. Now that our American Corner is open, we hope to work together to organize American cultural events of interest to the community, such as lectures, film screenings and other programs.

In fact, we are also opening a small exhibit today here in the library of a series of New York drawings by our Romanian-American friend and graphic artist Dan Cioca (CHO-cah). More of Mr. Cioca’s drawings are on exhibit this month at the Home Art Gallery in Bucharest.

I should mention that this exhibit marks the beginning of several cultural events we are organizing this month to celebrate the City of New York. For instance, on March 20, we will open a large exhibit of photos of New York landmarks at the Bucharest City Museum. I hope you can join me for that event.

We are pleased to establish this partnership with the Pedagogical Library, as we see it as an important way for America to invest in Romania’s future and in strong and enduring Romanian-American ties.

During the last two years, we have embarked on an important new library program. Starting in 2005, we began establishing partnerships with libraries around Romania to set aside rooms for American Corners collections of American materials and audiovisual equipment.

Since then, we have opened Corners in Bacau, Baia Mare, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Craiova, Iasi and Timisoara. Each of these Corners have become important centers for American culture, hosting programs and providing information to interested Romanians of all ages.

Today, here in Bucharest, we are opening the eighth Corner, completing our plan to make American library resources available throughout the country.

Why are we investing American resources in Romanian libraries? First of all, because we believe public libraries play an important role in any democracy by providing information and resources to all on a free and open basis.

We share Romania’s belief that free and universal access to education and information is an important component of democracy. And of course public libraries have a key role to play in this regard.

Romania has made the right choice to secure its future by joining NATO and the EU, fully embracing the core values that all major democracies share.

We recognize, of course, that much remains to be done in Romania to overcome the damage done by 50 years of communist rule.

Romania has made progress towards establishing rule of law, reforming the judicial system and fighting corruption, for example, but there is still more work to be done. Romania must continue to pursue justice reform and to fight corruption in order to build on that progress.

In fact, Romania cannot reach its full potential within the EU, whether economic, political or social, if it does not continue and complete the judicial reform it has begun.

America stands ready to continue to help Romania, one of our closest friends and partners. This is why we are here today. We are here to help invest in Romania’s future, by investing in its people through one of its most democratic institutions, the public library.

Thank you for your attention.

back to top ^