In Memory of Anne Cecilie Kjelling (1941–2021)

For 40 years from 1971 to 2011, Anne Cecilie Kjelling and the Library of the Norwegian Nobel Institute were as one. Probably every single peace, conflict, security or international relations researcher based in Oslo, or visiting the Nobel Institute during that period, will have benefitted from her kind and diligent help to identify the best possible literature or published sources for the topic they wanted to explore. She was not just interested in the books and journals as such, or in keeping them in good order, but was fascinated by our research topics. This led her to become an active participant in the Peace History section of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA).

Many a PRIOite has discussed their research projects with her and benefitted greatly from her advice. From her vantage point in the open office next to the whispering quiet she maintained in the Nobel Institute's reading room, she keenly followed PRIO's exploits through the years. She was a frequent source of help and advice for Odvar Leine, PRIO's head librarian during 2007–2017, and our current head librarian, Olga Baeva, for some years worked part time under Anne Kjelling's direction at the Nobel Institute. Anne Kjelling served as book review editor for PRIO's journal Security Dialogue from 1995–2005. Until recently, we saw her coming regularly to our seminars. And after she retired from the Nobel Institute, she took up a position at the Oslo Jewish Museum, in the immediate vicinity of PRIO.