Several press reports indicated that the school library had been reinforced against assault by the piling of books against its windows and that two female suicide bombers blew themselves up there. Chechen separatists reportedly had stored ammunition and explosives beneath a section of the floor in the library, perhaps building the stockpile over several months during summer renovation work on the school.
The ministry is sending furniture and equipment for more than 30 classrooms, including computers and other supplies, which will go to other schools in the region that are admitting Beslan children. According to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, seven complete sets for all subjects, teacher editions, and the 100-volume library of national classics were sent September 6.
Michael McGrorty, a student in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University in California, urged in his Library Dust weblog September 15 that “the library community should devise some way of contributing to the healing of Beslan. We as much or more than any others, understand the goodness, the restorative power of books and reading. I think we need to build a library in Beslan, for its children and for our own, for an answer when they ask what all the dying meant.”
Several international organizations have contributed to the relief effort, among them the American Red Cross. To help, call 1-800-HELP-NOW or mail a contribution by check to P.O. Box 37295, Washington, D.C. 20013.
Posted September 24, 2004.