Nancy Hatch Dupree, writer, historian and internationally recognized expert on the country, first traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960’s. After several decades of living there with her late husband anthropologist and archaeologist Louis Dupree the couple fled to Peshawar after the Soviet invasion of 1979. Here the Duprees’ established a resource centre for aid workers and Afghan experts; archiving not only their own material but information from a wide variety of sources on every aspect of this period. Nancy also founded the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage, buying back some of the items pillaged from the National Museum in Kabul.
This archive is now housed in a purpose built library on Kabul University’s campus known as the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University(ACKU).
ACKU is the central depository for information on Afghanistan and contains a large and unique collection of books, documents and films relating to Afghanistan’s history, culture and development.
The Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation for the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University was established in 2007 to help raise awareness and funds for ACKU.
Their motto ‘Rebuilding Afghanistan, One Book at a Time’ is enabled through the ACKU Boxed Library Extension (ABLE) whereby the Foundation is encouraging literacy for both children and adults – 'one reader, one family, one community at a time.'
ABLE mobile libraries are carried by various means - car, donkeys, trucks and the backs of volunteers, across Afghanistan. To date 196 high school and community libraries have been established.
Selected by the community, the library may be housed in locations such as clinics, schools, mosques and shops. The libraries are managed by local custodians and monitored by ABLE staff by regular visits and updates.
The ABLE project was recognized by the American Library Association in 2010 when awarded the ALA's Presidential Citation for International Innovation:
- For strengthening literacy efforts by publishing books written in the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto aimed at the country's many new readers;
- For its leadership in creating and supplying educational materials that use local authors and illustrators and that reflect the information needs of the country;
- For preserving Afghan culture and history;
- For helping to re-establish libraries as cultural and educational resources in a country whose library collections have been decimated by war and poverty.
I started my search via Google using the term 'Nancy Hatch Dupree' which bought up the Foundation with its information on ACKU and ABLE. The Foundation also has a Facebook presence which is regularly updated and is an easy way to catch up on their newsletters and recent happenings. Nancy Hatch Dupree has proved to be an inspiration to many and there are several pages of Google results for this remarkable woman.
Searching the Swinburne library bought up several articles published in American Libraries and bought up names to research further in order to find out more regarding tertiary libraries.
Surprisingly my search on Google Images yielded not only a great photostream but the captions have revealed the names of other libraries in Kabul that I’ll investigate. The link from within the Louis and Nancy Dupree Foundation to the ACKU website gives me access to their catalogue and I will explore this further.
Overall I’ve been surprised by the amount of information available – this in itself presents a challenge.
References:
250mercer 2011, Nancy Hatch Dupree on why she has devoted her life to the Afghan people, 29 April, viewed 14 September 2011, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktFjzSLFSzo&feature=related>.
250mercer 2011, Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University: building a school library, 8 January, viewed 14 September 2011, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_nid3D0rw>.
250mercer 2011, Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University: building a school library, 8 January, viewed 14 September 2011, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_nid3D0rw>.
Boone, J 2009, ‘A librarian’s labour of love for Afghanistan’, The Financial Times, 14 February, viewed 7 September 2011, <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/45a7ebca-f712-11dd-8a1f-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz1VI3lenVe>.
ABLE (ACKU boxed library extension) 2011, Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation, viewed 7 September 2011, < http://www.dupreefoundation.org/able.htm>.
Erickson, CA 2010, ‘Able in Afghanistan’, American Libraries, vol. 41, no. 1/2, pp. 44-47, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, EBSCOhost, viewed 7 September 2011.
Garner, A 2007, 'Rebuilding Afghanistan ... one book at a time', American Libraries, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 52-54, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 September 2011.
