BORA NAUMOVIĆ: A POET FORGOTTEN IN AN ARCHIVE

Abstract

Intending to prompt reflection on the mutual relations of library workers in unevenly developed environments and with various levels and types of qualifications, the paper provides an overview of two documents preserved in the archive of the Serbian Library Association. These documents are related to the portrayal of the awarded rural librarian Bora Naumović, a poet and agricultural worker, in the journal Bibliotekar (Librarian) in 1970. Bora’s original responses to the questions of the Bibliotekar editorial team–which were so linguistically and stylistically altered for publication that Bora’s distinctive ‘voice’ was entirely lost–along with a later letter and accompanying poems, could and should illustrate the attitude of the cultural and professional elite towards lower-qualified, even self-taught, unrepresentative colleagues and library workers, as well as towards the desired model of deserving professionals, constructed with normative language. This attitude continues to influence a contemporary reevaluation of individual and collective contributions to the profession. At the same time, this paper reminds the professional public of one among many forgotten or entirely marginalized librarians who, in rural and other small library branches closed and deemed unnecessary long ago, worked diligently and enthusiastically to popularize books and reading among the predominantly newly
literate population of Serbia.