[CPProt.net] Rebuilding of Baghdad library speaks volumes on tenacity

[MSN CPPnet]

Rebuilding of Baghdad library speaks volumes on tenacity 

July 15, 2005

BAGHDAD - They're trickling back.
 
  Alya Abdul Hussein used her husband's gun to guard Khadamiya Library from
looters. Still, around 10,000 books were stolen.  
By Mona Mahmoud, USA TODAY 

Driven away by bombs, dispirited by shelves emptied by looters, visitors to
the public library in Baghdad's Khadamiya district are now starting to
return.

There's still work to be done. Stolen books and looted furniture must be
replaced. But seeing the return of readers is inspiring enough for Alya
Abdul Hussein, a librarian here for 20 years. 

"This library, like any public facility in Iraq, suffered," Hussein says.

The Khadamiya Library is one of eight public libraries open in Baghdad, down
from 19 operating before the start of the war more than two years ago.
Fighting, looters and neglect closed most of the others. 

Muhammed Qassim, a Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works official,
says the government is trying to reopen more libraries with grant money from
the United States and other countries.

   Baghdad books by the numbers   
 
Number of libraries:
Prewar: 19
Current: 8

Librarians' monthly salary range:
Prewar: $1 to $4
Current: $126 to $284

Average yearly visits to Baghdad's Khadamiya Library:
Prewar: 1,500 to 2,000
Current: 300 to 500

Volumes at Khadamiya Library:
Prewar: 15,000
Current: 5,000 to 8,000

Sources: Iraqi Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works; Khadamiya
Library 
 
 
 
Some libraries, such as the one in Khadamiya, fend for themselves. Opened in
1947, it's one of the oldest operating libraries in the city. It's a plain,
two-story structure, small and dusty, with books resting on bare metal
shelves. The ground floor is used by women and children; men visit the
second floor. The ground floor opens onto a garden, with a view of the
nearby Al-Ama bridge, that is often used by students.

In April 2003, in the chaotic days following the fall of Baghdad, looters
broke into the library, Hussein says.

Her husband brought his gun from home and the two stood sentinel over the
building, but not before looters made away with about 10,000 books and
magazines, leaving about 5,000 volumes behind.

One day around that time, a U.S. tank pushed into the property and punched a
hole in the wall, Hussein says. Military interpreters told her they were
looking for Iraq's former leader, she says. Hussein says she used her first
paycheck from the city to patch up the hole and mend the fence outside.

Soon after, she visited area mosques and posted signs asking residents to
return her books.

"Some people came by themselves and brought them back. Others started to
leave them behind the wall of the library (because) they didn't want to be
known," she says. "Other people began volunteering their own books."

Hussein says the library was to receive a boost last year from A Bridge to
Baghdad, an Italian humanitarian group operating in Baghdad. But when two of
the group's workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were kidnapped from
their Baghdad offices in September, the group moved out of Iraq and the deal
dissolved, she says. The women were later released.

Today, two librarians and a gardener watch over the library. Hussein says
she's happy to receive the few visitors she gets each day. One day, she
might get a computer to keep a record of her books.

For now, just having books is enough.

Contributing: By Mona Mahmoud, USA TODAY