The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Belgium has eliminated all funding for acquisitions, subscriptions, and interlibrary loan access for the Institute’s staff—effectively cutting off essential resources for their research. This has happened without consultation and without convening the Scientific Council of the Institute.

A library that no longer grows and is not up to date is a closed library.  We need your support to safeguard scientific research and its essential tools—like KIK-IRPA’s library—during this period of profound uncertainty for the scientific sector. Libraries and archives are the backbone of cultural heritage—help us defend their vital role.

The Institute has taken this measure because it aims to be reoriented toward income generation, disregarding the library as part of this vision. 

We believe these cuts raises serious questions, including:

•  How can the library continue to support researchers in fulfilling their mission, as established by the Royal Decree of June 1948 (last amended by the Royal Decree of March 4, 2012, published in the Moniteur belge/ Belgisch Staatsblad on March 16, 2012)?
• How can the Institute maintain research excellence if its collaborators are denied access to the latest scientific literature?

A decision with such far-reaching consequences for researchers’ work was never announced or discussed. 

We urge you to sign this petition to demonstrate to the Institute's Direction, BELSPO, and the Belgian federal government that scientists, cultural heritage professionals, information specialists, students, art enthusiasts and library users all agree: this decision is short-sighted, poorly considered, and must be reversed.

By signing, you will protect the work of the Institute’s scientists.

However, we are pleased that the Institute will not close the Library to the public, as confirmed in the official statement released by KIK-IRPA in response to our petition: https://www.kikirpa.be/fr/nouvelles/acces-bibliotheque

At the same time, we are concerned that, since April 5th, the entire library page—including contact details, collection information, and access guidelines—has been removed from the website:  https://www.kikirpa.be/en/search-results?cx=748c4384fc158b437&ie=UTF-8&q=library

Further, on the page for the Information centre (Infothèque/Infotheek) we can read, at the bottom of the page : "The library is not accessible to external visitors": https://www.kikirpa.be/en/information-centre  We draw attention to the fact that, since April 5th, this sentence is the only reference to the library on the entire website (apart from the new statement posted in response to our petition). The situation therefore remains unclear.

Another petition in French has also been launched by Myriam Serck, Honorary Director of KIK-IRPA, and is currently circulating:  https://www.leslignesbougent.org/petitions/reouverture-de-la-bibliotheque-de-linstitut-royal-du-patrimoine-artistique-23427/

Who We Are
We are a group of academics, scientists, students, library and archive professionals, and concerned citizens united in opposition to this closure. We stand together because we understand the transformative power of science and the vital importance of public access to archives and libraries.