Post 6: Public Libraries

Before the civil wars there were six libraries in the capital city of Kabul and six provincial libraries. Three of the six libraries in Kabul were completely destroyed and their collections dispersed. All six provincial libraries were damaged. In recent years the Department of Libraries has not only re-established its modest pre-war network but has also succeeded in opening many other new libraries, both in Kabul and around the country. There are now 10 branch libraries in Kabul (including Afghanistan's only prison library at Pul-e-Charkhi Prison) and a further 50 provincial library branches.  Kabul Public library also has a mobile library van which services 12 outlying districts of Kabul.

 

Kabul Public Library

Kabul Public Library has a total of approximately 200,000 books, with around 50 per cent in Dari, 30 per cent in Pashtu and 20 per cent in English, plus smaller numbers of books in Russian, French and other languages.

The Lending Library contains a small collection of books which may be borrowed for up to three days at a time. 

The small Children’s Library houses over 2,500 books donated by the Goethe-Institute, mainly in German but with some Dari and Pashtu translations of German books and a few English publications.  The Goethe-Institute has also donated children’s tapes and videos but the library currently lacks the equipment to watch them.

The Library uses the Dewey decimal system. A few years ago Dutch consultants introduced a computer cataloguing system and trained the staff in how to use it. Apparently some 80 per cent of the Library’s holdings were successfully computerised but then the funding ran out and the system was abandoned in favour of the old manual catalogue card system.

Kabul Public Library

An Internet cafe was set up at the Library in 2003 with UNESCO funding but six months later The Ministry of Information and Culture changed the law and it was entrusted to a private operator, subsequently ceased operations and has since been shut. The Library’s management is currently looking for a way to restore it. In the meantime the Director is planning to open a small coffee shop in the Library garden.

The Library’s main problem is lack of funds to improve its operations. The collection has already grown far too big for the building and many works are stacked in piles on the floor due to lack of storage space. The building itself is in need of repair and with no climate control the condition of many of the books and other documents is deteriorating. There is particular concern for the fate of the valuable historic newspaper collection which is urgently in need of a more secure and controlled environment.

Since there are currently no librarianship training courses on offer in Afghanistan, most employees are trained in-house, although some staff members have taken short training courses in Iran.

I had noticed the website ‘Afghanistan Cultural Profiles’ before and dismissed it.  The navigational links around the site are not obvious, there are no subject tabs, and its only when you search specifically via the site’s search box or click on the links within the text that the amount of relevant information becomes obvious.  I only realised the value of this site for my purposes after conducting a search using the term ‘Kabul library’.  Dates on the pages are dated March 2011 and it is therefore offers some of the most current information to answer my initial question of ‘what progress?’

The website itself is interesting - originally created in 2003 as a pilot for the Cultural Profiles hosted by Visiting Arts, financial support from the British Council Afghanistan in 2009 brought the Afghanistan Cultural Profile back online. It was updated, expanded and relaunched in 2011 in a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), Afghanistan and Visiting Arts funded by the Government of Norway.

Targeted at cultural professionals, the Afghanistan Cultural Profile offers a sector-by-sector guide to the arts, media, libraries, archives and tourism sectors in Afghanistan.  Each sectoral overview is combined with a database of the relevant organisations, making it possible to learn about what’s happening in a particular cultural sector, and make direct contact with the people working in it.

References:

Visiting Arts 2011, Libraries, Afghanistan Cultural Profiles, viewed 18 October 2011, <http://www.afghanistan.culturalprofiles.net/?id=-1053 >.

Visiting Arts 2011, Kabul Public Library, Afghanistan Cultural Profiles, viewed 18 October 2011, <http://www.afghanistan.culturalprofiles.net/?id=35>.

Mitchell, C 2008, ‘Kabul Public Library’ [image] in Carol Mitchell’s photostream, Flickr, viewed 18 October 2011, < http://www.flickr.com/photos/webethere/2538639884/>. New York Public Library 2009, 'Librarian Sarah Ziebell on location in Afghanistan' 22 December, viewed 17 September 2011, <http://youtu.be/h0FfBd0d9Aw>.

Post 5: Further Collaboration

American Academic Libraries in Afghanistan and Qatar

In 2006, supported by USAID, the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) was established in Kabul.

In 2009 the library had five staff members – only one a professionally trained librarian. The library had implemented KOHA, an open source integrated library system on a server hosted by LibLime which made access to the OPAC, circulation, cataloguing and other modules possible.  Resources in the library consist of a mix of donated, downloaded and purchased books, serials and reports in print and electronic formats.     Much required original cataloguing and the main impediments were the lack of trained staff with no library training opportunities in Afghanistan. 

Collaboration between AUAF and the Texas A &M University at Qatar to train staff consisted initially of emails, conference calls and Skype.  When it became clear that hands on training was required and with little or no budget unique solutions were devised between the participating libraries and ‘Reach out to Asia’ to enable a training visit to Qatar.  Further ongoing collaboration continues and the heightened awareness of the achievements and benefits resulted in the administration agreeing to ultimately fund a full-time experienced systems/cataloguing librarian.          

ARoLP and the INLTC Law Library

The Afghanistan Rule of Law Project (ARoLP) is funded by USAID and aims to develop the justice sector, increase access to justice and public demand for rule of law.

ARoLP Library

In 2008 they opened a new law library at the Independent National Legal Training Center (INLTC).  For the first time this meant that Afghanistan’s legal community had access to a comprehensive collection of Afghan, foreign, and international laws.  Eventually, the library will house more than 5,000 legal volumes and will become Afghanistan’s first depository library where future laws and legal materials will be available and preserved in one place.  Ideally the web-based INTLC Law Librarycatalogue will be online to facilitate national inter-library loan.

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AERU)

AERU in Kabul

Since 2002 AERU, an independent research organization has maintained a library of Afghanistan-specific materials to support its own research. In 2003 the Society of South Asian Studies, formerly the British Institute of Afghan Studies (BIAS), agreed to donate an estimated 3,000 library books and off-prints pertaining to Afghanistan and the region to the AREU Library. A condition of the donation was that the collection should remain in Afghanistan and be available for all researchers to use. The BIAS, established in Kabul in 1972, had undertaken a number of archaeological projects and supported British scholars conducting anthropological and ethnological fieldwork. In 1981 the Institute was closed down and the collection put into storage in the British Embassy. 

It was due to the efforts of several people including Carla Grissmann that this donation was made to the AERU.  The late Carla Grissmann was a central figure in the study and protection of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and is also acknowledged on the ACKU’s website.

With financial support from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) AREU
has re-housed the collection, provided staff to catalogue it with funds to expand the holdings.

The growing collection now includes Afghan government publications from all periods as well as donor and NGO materials published about Afghanistan, relevant publications from UN agencies, periodicals, maps, CDs and DVDs.

AERU Library in Kabul

The AREU library’s main aim is not to compete with international collections, but rather to gather and preserve relevant materials available both within Afghanistan and abroad for use by national and international researchers.

AREU's library has over 13,000 titles, and is fully searchable online. 

At the beginning of my blog whilst searching google images I came across the photostream of stepnout.  This has provided me with many relevant photos and the names of both AROLP and AERU which I’ve now researched further both via the Swinburne catalogue and using metacrawler.com which I’ve found a more succinct tool than google when searching general terms. 

Using metacrawler I’ve also found a UNESCO report titled Library Development dated 1977 that is a detailed report of some 58 pages on the condition of libraries in Afghanistan at this time. 

I’ve also searched the references listed within the articles I’ve cited in previous posts and searched the AERU library catalogue to ensure that there was nothing relevant and available that I hadn’t yet discovered.  The AERU has links to online information two I wanted weren’t working.  I tried accessing the articles they had catalogued but the periodicals weren’t ones included in the Swinburne host databases.  The American University of Afghanistan website has been under maintenance and at present and I’ll continue trying to get onto that just to see what they have available.

What I did find is a website that seems to provide me much of the information I was looking for regarding the current state of libraries.  This will provide the subject matter for my next post.

References:

USAID/Afghanistan 2008, Afghanistan’s first full-service law library opened, USAID, viewed 16 September 2011, <http://afghanistan.usaid.gov/en/USAID/Article/386/Afghanistans_First_FullService_Law_Library_Opened>.

USAID/Afghanistan 2008, Independent National Legal Training Center law library membership surpasses 200 in first month, USAID, viewed 16 September 2011, <http://afghanistan.usaid.gov/en/USAID/Article/420/Independent_National_Legal_Training_Center_Law_Library_Membership_Surpasses_200_In_First_Month>.

Checchi and Company Consulting, Inc 2008, Sixteenth Quarter Performance Monitoring Report 2008, USAID, viewed 16 September 2011, <http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACM740.pdf.>.

Thompson, C , Frouzen, Z, Malone, J, Esfahani, B & Hanson, M 2010, ‘Assistance across Borders: American Academic Libraries in Afghanistan and Qatar’, Collaborative Librarianship 2010, vol. 2 no. 2, pp. 86-95, viewed 7 September 2011, <http://collaborativelibrarianship.org/index.php/jocl/article/view/74/52>.

Leslie, J 2011, Carla Grissman 1928-2011, ACKU, viewed 17 September 2011, <http://www.acku.edu.af/?p=News>.  

Eyre, J 1977, Republic of Afghanistan: library development (NATIS), report prepared for the Government of the Republic of Afghanistan by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), viewed16 October 2011, < http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000243/024341eo.pdf>.

 2008, 'ARoLP Library' [image] in stepnout's photostream, Flickr, viewed 17 September 2011, <http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepnout/2987355140/in/photostream/>.
2008, 'AERU Library in Kabul' [image] in stepnout's photostream, Flickr, viewed 17 September 2011, <http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepnout/2981246365/in/photostream/>.
2008, 'AERU in Kabul' [image] in stepnout's photosteam, Flickr, viewed 17 September 2011, <http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepnout/2981246355/in/photostream/>.
BowersMediaGroup 2011, AUAF: Oasis in Kabul, 29 April, viewed 19 October 2011, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEUIe9fxhg&feature=related>.