Books Building Bridges
In News
Books Building Bridges is a community based project examining the impact of war on libraries, literacy and education in the US and in Iraq. In partnership with Books to Baghdad, Books Building Bridges is actively seeking donations of academic textbooks published within the last five years in the following subjects: engineering, math, science, computer science, medicine, technology. Books Building Bridges is working with colleges and universities in the Valley to support book donation drives on various campuses. Holyoke Community College student Raul Matta says that “People don’t usually understand the smaller and more insidious destruction of war, but our own experience as students helps us to understand the impact war has on education. Without books, we as students would be entirely handicapped, and because we can relate to the need for books and resources at our colleges, we understand the need to help the students of Baghdad University.” The donated books will be shipped to faculty and students at Baghdad University in July 2006 through Books for Baghdad, an effort organized by Jacksonville State University Professor Safaa Al-Hamdani.
Books Building Bridges is a community-building project developed in order to acknowledge and foster a common human desire for learning, authentic connection and a healthy society while transcending political divisions in the United States and the geographic and social distance between the United States and Iraq. The Western Massachusetts campus book drives aim to bridge these divisions by connecting Western Massachusetts students with Iraqi students. Kasia Paprocki, 3rd-year student at Hampshire, says “The legacy of war is so huge and sometimes hard to comprehend. But as students we can understand the immediacy of the need for books and tools for the classroom, and how important it is to help provide the necessary resources for education in Iraq.” In order to further bridge the gaps between students, Books Building Bridges will also be working to establish a pen-pal program between students in Iraq and Massachusetts, in addition to collecting textbooks.
Books Building Bridges was inspired by Jeanette Winter’s book, The Librarian of Basra, which chronicles the work of Basra librarian Alia Muhammed Baker who, with her community, saved 30,000 volumes from being destroyed during the current war with Iraq. In 2004, Dr. Safaa Al-Hamdani spearheaded the efforts to collect books for the war-torn Baghdad University library. Dr. Al-Hamdani stresses the importance of the book drives, “We should do what we can to help and I can not emphasize the tremendous need for the books and computers in Iraq.” Dr. Al-Hamdani has already sent over 11,000 textbooks, but says that the University continues to struggle beyond measure.
Students in Western Massachusetts are working hard to bring these book drives to their campuses. Smith senior Kjerstin Rossi says, “The problem of war is so huge and unmanageable, what can we possibly do to change things? This is something so tangible that we can do to make very concrete improvements in the lives of Iraqi students. How can we not take this opportunity?”
Help is needed on every campus to help organize collection efforts. Organizers need as much help as possible with collecting books to make this campaign as successful as possible. For more information about Books Building Bridges and campus efforts, contact afsc@crocker.com.
For more information: www.booksbuildingbridges.org or 413.584.8975.