A shaming betrayal of cultural heritage

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/may/01/betrayal-cultural-heritage-womens-library

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The threat to the Women's Library – a unique collection on women's struggle for equality – is, as Caroline Davies has so eloquently outlined (Women's archive hunts for a saviour, 1 May), an act of cultural vandalism. The library has a national and international reputation, attracting thousands of visitors a year. In 2011 it was awarded Unesco Memory of the World status for the documents and artefacts held on the campaign for women's enfranchisement in Britain. To its credit, London Metropolitan University has supported and financed the library for many years. But to now cast it to the winds is a betrayal of our cultural heritage. The government should step in to secure the future of this irreplaceable archive. June Purvis University of Portsmouth

• The report that London Metropolitan University is considering closure of the Women's Library and the breakup of the collections is indicative of the inability of the university's vice-chancellor, Malcolm Gillies, to recognise what he holds in trust. The university also houses the TUC collection and the handwritten manuscript of Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, the true story of conditions of building workers 100 years ago in Hastings, still relevant today.

When Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, Tressell's book became a training manual for the ANC. The chapter on "the great money trick", with its echoes of the mess we are in today, shows why. I feel ashamed that the university where I studied architecture when it was the plain North London Polytechnic can even contemplate such a philistine move. Sam Webb Member, Riba council