Norbert Cobabus Archives

Period 1968-1982
Total size  1.5 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

German librarian; trotskyist; employed by the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main; concerned with various forms of censorship in West-German libraries in the 1970s; critical of the use of computerized data files for the screening of persons on political preferences; a conflict with his trade union at the end of the 1970s led to his expulsion; published `Zensur Kritiker und Zensoren im Bibliotheksbereich' 1979 and `Bibliographie zur Informations- und Kommunikationsökologie' 1990.

Content

Correspondence, manuscripts, press clippings and other documents on censorship, on self-censorship, on privacy protection, on official inquiries after personal political preferences and on other forms of repression 1968-1982; on the national congress of German librarians in Stuttgart 1978; on the Frankfurter Gegenbuchmesse 1979; on the second session of the third Russell Tribunal in Cologne 1978-1979; on the conflict of the Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr (ÖTV)with the ÖTV-Betriebsgruppe Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main and the ÖTV-Betriebsgruppe Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek in Berlin and on the expulsion of Cobabus and other trade union representatives at the Deutsche Bibliothek from the ÖTV 1978-1980. NB. Audio tapes of broadcasts and congresses at the Audiovisual Department.

Processing information

List made in 1999