A unique institution in Sarajevo, the Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired has existed for more than 50 years, but in the last two decades it has been going through a difficult period – the reason is funding.
At the beginning of the seventies of the last century, the Lending Library of the Association of the Blind of Yugoslavia was decentralised, and the existing book fund was distributed to republican and provincial associations of the blind.
Thus, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) received a certain number of books and audio books in Braille. Since then, the Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired has expanded its fund, the number of users has increased, and the institution has gained respect and expanded its influence beyond the borders of the country.
In February 1995, by a special law, the Assembly of the Republic of BiH (RBiH) established the Library for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons in the RBiH as an independent public institution in the field of culture. Financing of the Library until 1997 was provided through the state budget based on the annual work program. From 1997 to 2001, the salaries of the employees and part of the material costs were provided from the Canton Sarajevo (CS) Budget.
Since 2002, the status has been questionable, the funding is unresolved, sporadic, insufficient, without clear indications and solutions, but these are not the only problems faced by the Library’s employees, of whom there are seven, not including the director.
The library is not a budget user
The daily survival of the library is questionable, but director Sakib Pleh points out that shutting down is not an option and that it will not happen under any circumstances.
“When it comes to shutting down, it is out of the question, and regarding the state of library since 2002, when Gradimir Gojer was the Minister of Culture and Sports and removed seven cultural institutions from the CS budget, they are no longer financed from the budget but they are exclusively co-financed through public calls for projects,” Pleh told.
He explains that the library is not a budget user, but is financed through applications and public calls that are published in the field of librarianship and cultural activities and has been operating in this way for the past 20 years.
The problem is that no one in BiH takes over the founding rights, even though according to the Constitution of BiH, the state would be obliged, because the founder was the RBiH. The library does not have a board of directors, no one can finance it because there is no founder, and that is the problem of this institution and the reason why the library is having difficulties in work,” adds the director.
The library provides its services without any monetary compensation
Apart from the fact that the library is at the service of vulnerable categories of society and provides services for currently 1358 users – not only from BiH but from the whole world – there is no membership fee in this institution and the library thus does not generate any income.
“At the moment, the library has 1,358 users, not only from BiH, and the users all over the world are those who understand our speech area where we record in our two sound studios, they can use our conditions without any compensation. We are the only library in to the world that has neither membership fees nor late fees, we provide all our services without any compensation, the income of this library is zero BAM because the library is a non-profit organization, books may not be sold because they are protected by copyright,” Pleh noted.
The library currently has a book collection of 33.500 books, which were recorded thanks to, as Pleh explained, volunteers, among whom are BiH actors. He claims that there is no one from the acting profession in Sarajevo who has not come to read a book as a volunteer.
Library funding is not the only problem
The Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Sarajevo has a total of seven employees, not including the director. However, they have not received their salary for the last two months, applications on public calls for co-financing were rejected, and the reason is allegedly the final verdict of the Sarajevo Municipal Court on the fake diploma of Sakib Pleh.
Namely, the Anti-corruption Office of the CS sent a letter about the questionable validity of Pleh’s diploma, which was then discussed by the Sarajevo Municipal Court. The first-instance verdict from July 4th marked the diploma as falsified, and the verdict was then marked as final on October 30th, 2022.
Since then, no one wants to finance an institution headed by a director with a fake diploma, and Pleh expressly denies the accusations and rejects the option of resigning as director.
All this has gained even more importance because it is an institution that works with users who belong to a sensitive category of society.
