Assistance to Iraqi libraries

Thanks to the assistance of member David Hirsch, Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies at UCLA’s Charles Young Research Library, ALA was able to again connect with the staff at the Basra Central Library in the fall of 2012 to transfer $13,000 in donations from members and library supporters to help the library expand their collection with over 600 new titles. This is ALA’s second and final donation from its Iraq Fund to help the Library.

The first donation was made in 2006, spurred by a $20,000 grant ALA received from the Working Assets Grant making Fund of the Tides Foundation to provide children's books to public libraries in Iraq. The Near East and South Asia Subcommittee of the ALA International Relations Committee (IRC) will oversaw the project, connecting with Iraqi librarians to select children's books in Arabic, Kurdish and other languages.

Projects

Cultural Emergency Response (CER) helps refurbish the Reading Room of the Central Library of the University in Baghdad

Simmons and Harvard University team to help devastated Iraqi libraries

The USAID-Iraq HEAD-Stony Brook University Program in Archaeology and Environmental Health Libraries Assessment

The Library of Congress and the Cultural Property Office of the U.S. Department of State Mission to Baghdad Report on the National Library and the House of Manuscript

ALA Resolutions on Iraq

Resolution for an Exemption from Sanctions From the U.S. Department

Resolution on Libraries and Cultural Resources in Iraq

Resolution on the Connection Between the Iraq War and Libraries   (a Word document opens in a new window)

Other sites

Middle East Librarians Association Committee on Iraqi Libraries

Iraq Crisis Discussion List

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