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Interview: Iraq National Library Director Saad Eskander

American Libraries: Describe the situation when you returned to Iraq to take the job at the National Library in 2003.

Saad Eskander: Before returning to Baghdad I knew that a number of cultural institutions were burned and looted by different groups for different motives, but I didn’t expect that the Iraq National Library and Archives was the most damaged institution in the whole of the country. The Iraqi Museum lost some of its collections, whereas the National Library lost a huge portion of its library and archival collections. The building itself sustained considerable structural damage as it was burned twice within the space of two or three days. The library was in total ruins—in a ruinous state—and I was really surprised by the extent of damage. But when I was appointed I was surprised by all the damage that affected all Iraqi cultural institutions and educational institutions. I knew I had very difficult times because the infrastructure of the institution was not there. It was destroyed totally, there was no power, no water. There was no money even to start with.

Even the staff of the Iraqi Library was totally demoralized by the looting and the destruction of their institution. So my first effort was to restore their self-confidence and make them believe that they could rebuild the National Library step-by-step. It took us over seven months to reopen the National Library main reading room for the university students and the scholars. I started to reorganize and we reopened most of the departments one by one. At that time we didn’t have an annual budget to start with, and we relied on some financial support we get from the Ministry of Culture and from some friends who went abroad. About six months later we opened the main reading room in the National Archive.

The problem too was at that time that culture is not a priority for the CPA, which is the Coalition Provisional Authority, and not by its Iraqi successor. The Iraqi Cabinet did not pay attention to the importance of culture to the new Iraq. They think culture is something that’s just not as important as education or the economic well-being of the country. So we need now to persuade the politicians that culture is extremely important for the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

American Libraries: Can you tell us why it is important to rebuild the National Library even though at this point the war is still raging?

Saad Eskander: I think that the sudden collapse of the Saddam regime created several vacuums, and one of them is a cultural vacuum. This cultural vacuum created a lot of problems for us. More traditional institutions like the mosques have begun to fill that vacuum. Secular institutions like us and the Iraqi Museum at the moment are not able to compete with the mosques because these traditional institutions have the money, they have backing, and they have the support they get from different parties, including neighboring countries. So it is extremely important for us in this particular situation to work very hard to fill that vacuum and not to allow extreme values and extreme jealousies to dominate our cultural life here in Baghdad and the rest of the country.

American Libraries: What are the most culturally valuable things that the library is holding and is safeguarding?

Saad Eskander: We have a number of Ottoman records. They go back to the16th century. We lost about 95% of these Ottoman records. They are very valuable for legal and historical reasons. And we were able to restore only about 2% of these valuable records.

American Libraries: Does your visibility in the West—you personally—with your diary on the British Library website and your willingness to speak out to the press pose a threat to you and your family and your staff?

Saad Eskander: This is true, but fortunately nobody knows about this inside Iraq. So I didn’t tell anybody about my diary on the British Library website.

American Libraries: Five library staff members have been killed and others have been kidnapped. How did that happen and was it because of their work, or were they simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Saad Eskander: I think these people were killed for sectarian motives. Some of them were Sunni and some others were Shiite. I think some of the killing was politically motivated. Some of the killing was because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

American Libraries: Can you describe what a day at work is like and tell us some of the dangers that you have to live with?

Saad Eskander: Yes, I face a lot of danger just from car bombs, bomb attacks, suicide attacks, kidnappings, and assassinations on a daily basis. Even because of the shelling from time to time the building itself was hit twice, but fortunately nobody was hurt. But every day we have death threats. Violence has become an unfortunate part of our daily life.

American Libraries: Who is using the library and how does that compare to what it was like before the war?

Saad Eskander: Most of the readers are university students and private scholars. The number of readers is much less than before the war for obvious security reasons. People are afraid to come to the National Library because of its location. It’s located in a very dangerous area between several hot spots in Baghdad, such as the infamous Al-Fadhel district, Haifa Street, and Shurjah.

American Libraries: Are you able to obtain books and other materials for the library? How do you accomplish that?

Saad Eskander: We have special committees who purchase publications from outside Iraq. It’s not that difficult. The book market is flourishing now because there is no censorship. Unlike the situation before you can buy any book you like—liberal, left-wing books, religious books. So we have now more freedom to buy books. And all types of books: sociology, politics, philosophy, other cultures.

American Libraries: So there is a thriving book-publishing industry in Iraq going on right now?

Saad Eskander: No, most of the books are imported from outside Iraq. We publish here in Iraq but the number of our publications is very limited for a lot of reasons. Some of it is related to the shortage of electricity and the security situation and the expense of publishing books in Iraq. It’s highly expensive to publish a book right now in Iraq.

American Libraries: Do women library staff have the same kind of jobs as men, or do they serve in different positions?

Saad Eskander: At the National Library there is social equality. Most of the heads of departments are women. So we changed the cultural institution around. Now there are equal opportunities for promotions and for getting responsibilities.

American Libraries: What are your biggest problems on a day-to-day basis—problems such as electricity, plumbing, building maintenance?

Saad Eskander: Every day we have problems from power cuts—everybody knows that in Iraq have the problem of frequent power failure—and we need electricity to work properly in the restoration department, and the other departments need power to achieve their daily tasks. The main problem is electricity, then security, in my opinion.

American Libraries: Are you free to travel professionally anywhere outside of Iraq at this point? I know you’ve traveled to the Library of Congress, but where else have you been able to go?

Saad Eskander: I’m quite able to go abroad because I have a British passport. I can even go to Europe. So it’s not difficult for me to travel abroad.

American Libraries: In an interview with Now on the News from the Public Broadcasting Corporation you mentioned that you had to find a new house to live in at least once a year, meaning that you’ve now lived probably in at least five different places since you returned to Iraq. Why is this necessary and how does this affect your family?

Saad Eskander: For security reasons we are forced to change houses from time to time. It doesn’t have a negative effect on my family because my wife knows it’s very important for security reasons.

American Libraries: What is your vision for the future of the library? What do you want to happen next?

Saad Eskander: We need to modernize the National Library and Archives in terms of its services, in terms of its national role in Iraq. We don’t want to be just storage for books and documents, records, and maps. We want to play a leading role in the cultural revival of the country; you know, to be more active culturally at the Iraq-wide level.

American Libraries: How hopeful are you that that is going to happen?

Saad Eskander: I was very optimistic in the past but now not so.

American Libraries: Because?

Saad Eskander: Because of the inability of our political leaders to compromise on very difficult issues, such as distribution of power, division of wares. I think Iraq has a lot of difficult times ahead.

American Libraries: How did your diary on the British Library website come about and what has that meant for you?

Saad Eskander: The diary was not my idea. My friend Patricia Sleeman, a British archivist, asked me to write a diary about my work so that she could put it on a U.K. website. She thought that was important. In the beginning, I was not very happy about the idea, as I did not have enough time. After two or three weeks, when two of my staff were killed, I decided I would try to do it. So I started to send parts of my diary. But I did not expect the reaction that it created outside Iraq. I was very stunned. People outside Iraq interpreted it the wrong way, as some people see it as a political statement against the Iraqi government or against the U.S. or the British. I did not want it to be political, just cultural; that is all.

American Libraries: In 2005, the American Library Association’s governing council passed a resolution calling for “the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces and the return of full sovereignty to the people of Iraq.” Is such a statement from the world’s oldest and largest library association helpful to you, your staff, or other librarians and professionals in cultural institutions in Iraq?

Saad Eskander: In Iraq only the extremists will benefit from the withdrawal of foreign forces. The people who want the coalition forces to stay longer are liberals and other secular elements. This is because we believe that the withdrawal will create a very big vacuum in Iraq from which only the extremists will benefit. The situation will go from bad to worse. So, on paper the withdrawal is, yes, very nice, but in reality it will create more problems for your country and us. No one likes to see his country to be under occupation; even me, I do not like to see it in Iraq. But to me foreign forces are important for the security of the people. The withdrawal cannot be implemented overnight. Withdrawal would create more problems than now.

American Libraries: Before that resolution, in 2003 the American Library Association’s council passed a resolution that called for the U.S. government to provide funding for the reconstruction and rebuilding of libraries and other cultural institutions in Iraq. Have you ever received any funding from the U.S. government for recovery efforts?

Saad Eskander: So far, no, we didn’t receive anything from the U.S. government. But there are signals that maybe in the future we’ll get some funds from the U.S.

American Libraries: One final question: What can your library colleagues in the United States do to help you?

Saad Eskander: I don’t really know how to answer that. Their moral support right now is very important. The distance particularly between Iraq and the U.S. is too deep and I really hope that they will support their colleagues in Iraq by e-mails and by letters. These are important to keep our morale up.

American Libraries: Thank you very much, Dr. Eskander, for taking the time to talk to us today. On behalf of your library colleagues in the United States, I wish you continued strength and endurance in this struggle.

Saad Eskander: Thank you very much.

Note: Saad Eskander is keeping a diary of his life in war-torn Baghdad, and it is being published as a blog by the British Library in London. A background piece on this interview is available on the American Libraries CentenniAL blog.

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