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A new building for the National Library of Israel (NLI), scheduled for completion in 2021, is the culmination of a two-decade process of institutional transformation. Formerly known as the Jewish National and University Library, the NLI has historically served simultaneously as Israel's official state repository, as the Hebrew University's central library, and as a “library of the Jewish people.” Like other national libraries around the world, including elsewhere in the Middle East, the National Library of Israel has had to grapple with accelerated changes in management of library collections due to the proliferation of digital media. More fundamental, however, have been changes in the cultural expectations about how libraries should function. Since 1998, the NLI has sought to expand its mission to promote not only scholarship but also cultural “discourse” among Israel's diverse constituencies. The architectural design of NLI's new edifice was intended, therefore, to do more than house the functional requirements of a modern library. It was commissioned to express through its design the significance of the transformed institution for the Israeli public. Towards that goal, a highly publicized competition for the NLI's design was held in 2012. The original two-stage competition ended in controversy after the architect endorsed by the jurors was dismissed. Yet a review of designs submitted by four Israeli architects in that first competition shows how public spaces, affiliated with public institutions, are expected to foster public discourse in Israel. Whether that discourse is cultural or political, contentious or contradictory, these alternative designs for the NLI illustrate common themes based upon specific environmental tropes, familiar across a broad spectrum of Israeli society.
A new building for the National Library of Israel (NLI), scheduled for completion in 2021, is the culmination of a two-decade process of institutional transformation. Formerly known as the Jewish National and University Library, the NLI has historically served simultaneously as Israel's official state repository, as the Hebrew University's central library, and as a “library of the Jewish people.” Like other national libraries around the world, including elsewhere in the Middle East, the National Library of Israel has had to grapple with accelerated changes in management of library collections due to the proliferation of digital media. More fundamental, however, have been changes in the cultural expectations about how libraries should function. Since 1998, the NLI has sought to expand its mission to promote not only scholarship but also cultural “discourse” among Israel's diverse constituencies. The architectural design of NLI's new edifice was intended, therefore, to do more than house the functional requirements of a modern library. It was commissioned to express through its design the significance of the transformed institution for the Israeli public. Towards that goal, a highly publicized competition for the NLI's design was held in 2012. The original two-stage competition ended in controversy after the architect endorsed by the jurors was dismissed. Yet a review of designs submitted by four Israeli architects in that first competition shows how public spaces, affiliated with public institutions, are expected to foster public discourse in Israel. Whether that discourse is cultural or political, contentious or contradictory, these alternative designs for the NLI illustrate common themes based upon specific environmental tropes, familiar across a broad spectrum of Israeli society.
This article explores the impact of the Nobel Prize in Literature on the acquisition policies of literary archives. Focusing on laureates and the twenty-first-century fate of their manuscripts, it argues that the international reach of the prize is mirrored by a contemporary archival landscape that is at once global and unequal. Although many archives concentrate on collecting material from the linguistic and cultural context of which they themselves form part, the past two decades have also seen the emergence of a competitive international market for the papers of authors whose writings are marked – through high-profile distinctions such as the Nobel Prize – as belonging to the world literary canon. Illustrating its larger argument with the help of three case studies (Harold Pinter, J.M. Coetzee, Gabriel García Márquez), the article suggests that archivization consecrates laureates’ papers as global heritage at the same time that it reinforces the logic of literary nativism.
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