Posted April 28, 2003.

NYU Library to Archive Afghan Books

The New York University Library has announced it is raising money to digitize all books printed in Afghanistan between 1871 and 1930 as part of a plan to save the nation’s literary heritage. Carol A. Mandel, dean of NYU’s Division of Libraries, hopes to raise $1.5 million to scan books, journals, newspapers, documents, and manuscripts in the Persian and Pashto languages and make them available to the public on the Web and in CD-ROM format.

Printing was generally unknown in Afghanistan prior to 1871, and books printed after 1930 are more commonly found in libraries and private collections, Mandel said in an April 25 United Press International report.

Thousands of books in the National Library of Afghanistan and the Kabul University Library were lost during the Taliban rule in the 1990s.

NYU Middle Eastern Studies Professor Robert D. McChesney is serving as editor for the project. “There has been all this material residing in bits and pieces all over the world,” McChesney told UPI. “By bringing it all together in one place where it can be preserved and can be accessible, scholars as well as people in Afghanistan don’t have to rely on someone coming in to tell them that part of their history.”

Posted April 28, 2003.