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“Haitians and their institutions — not us — requested that books and access to knowledge and culture be made priorities for reconstruction and they were right. Books not only restore a sense of normality for disaster victims, but they also inspire communities to heal and grow. Books connect people to people. They stimulate individuals’ intellect and capacity to look forward. Of course, books are not a comprehensive solution — they are simply an important vehicle for rebuilding Haiti. At the end of the day, the strength and resolve required to put Haiti on the path to robust reconstruction and sustainable development lies with the drivers of that vehicle: its own citizens. Now, more than ever, the international community must continue supporting Haitians and accompany them in the fight for their country’s future.”

Press Release

10 January 2013

Three years after the Haiti earthquake: no to skepticism and pessimism as the country rebuilds

Three years after the devastating earthquake ravaged Port-Au-Prince, many commentators have expressed pessimism about the disparity between Haiti’s slow reconstruction and the billions of dollars spent in and promised to the country. Libraries Without Borders (LWB), which has worked in Haiti since 2009, rejects this skewed outlook and calls for the recognition of Haitians’ considerable rebuilding efforts – and successes – since the earthquake.  

Immediately following the earthquake, LWB was able to rapidly expand its efforts in the country thanks to its close and ongoing partnership with local actors. In coordination with these institutions, LWB established libraries in internally displaced persons camps, a project which benefited over 500,000 Haitians, in addition to supporting the reopening of cultural centers affected by the disaster such as Haiti’s National Library.

In 2010, LWB joined forces with the State University of Haiti to open small reference libraries, which helped numerous university departments to resume their courses. The following year, LWB also established Haiti’s first University Digital Library, a structure consisting of 60 computer terminals with high-speed Internet access; this project aimed to provide Haitian students, researchers and professors with access to millions of high quality scholarly resources.

In 2012, as most other NGOs began to leave the country due to the depletion of emergency funds, LWB instead increased the number of its programs to promote Haitians’ access to books and educational materials, establishing the first two Haitian mobile libraries, called BiblioTaptaps, in collaboration with its local partners (the National Library, Fokal, and the Ministry of Culture). These 4X4 libraries on wheels, which aim to reach the most remote populations, provide a unique space for reading, playing and discussion, and offer their resources to over 15,000 Haitians every month.

Finally, last year LWB partnered with the University of Haiti to work toward establishing ‘the Ruche,’ the country’s first university central library reserve. The Ruche will consist of a large book warehouse on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that will hold over 500,000 items made accessible to over 20,000 students, researchers, and professors through a distance lending service. Considering that Haitian universities had little Internet access and could collectively only access 10,000 books a day before the earthquake, the Ruche will represent an enormous milestone and undoubtedly energize Haiti’s university reconstruction process. It will also play an instrumental role in facilitating research, innovation and quality education for Haiti’s brightest individuals who will help put Haiti on the path to sustainable development. (For more information, please visit www.ruche-haiti.org.)

In light of these successes and worthwhile projects, LWB calls on the international community to continue supporting Haiti and Haitians. It is more necessary than ever to continue working alongside them as they move forward and rebuild their country. LWB will continue in this direction for the years the come.

Press Contacts

Amy Hong • France • amy.hong@librarieswithoutborders.org • +33 (0)1 43 25 75 61

Anthony Chase • United States • achase@librarieswithoutborders.org • +1 (269) 870-6127                                                                                                                                                             

“Books and ‘nourishment for the mind’ should be an essential part of the emergency relief effort when disasters such as the Haitian earthquake occur, according to a call for action signed by four Nobel laureates,Libraries Without Borders and dozens of authors. Stressing that ‘absolute priority’ during a catastrophe should be given to the “basic needs” of food, water, shelter and health, the signatories to the appeal, led by Libraries Without Borders, believe that “more attention should be given to nourishing the mind as a second measure to help victims cope with catastrophe and move forward”. The Nobel literature laureates JM Coetzee, Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison have all put their names to the call for action, alongside Nobel peace laureate FW de Klerk and authors including Jeffrey Eugenides, Junot Díaz, Michael Cunningham, Joyce Carol Oates and the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat.”

Read more here!

“New Astrology” in 5 different colors

Libraries Without Borders is proud to announce a new and unique partnership with Hermès. An international icon in fashion, Hermès has unveiled a new scarf to benefit LWB.

Created by Françoise Faconnet and reinterpreted by Cyrille Diatkine, this scarf is inspired by an astrological chart from the Renaissance, an ingenious system showing the paths of the sun and the moon. An image of passing time, changing times…

Revisited, the design gains strength, energy and a modern style.

Wearing this scarf means discovering the story of Amira, a little girl from the Ourika Valley in Morocco. Amira had never held a book in her own hands until LWB opened a library in her village. Today, she borrows books not only for herself, but also for her entire family. It also means discovering the story of Xavier, a Haitian student who lost everything in the devastating January 2010 earthquake. Despite his difficult circumstances, Xavier was able to resume his studies just one year after the earthquake with the support of LWB’s construction of the first digital university library in Haiti.

In a larger sense, wearing this scarf means understanding how important the 100,000 books LWB sends around the world each year are. It means supporting the training of 300 librarians around the world annually.  And it means helping change the lives of the over 500, 000 readers LWB has touched since 2007.

Libraries Without Borders is extremely proud to partner with Hermès as the NGO continues to expand access to knowledge for all, enrich communities and change lives. In 5 years, LWB has become one of the leading international organizations working on book- and knowledge-based development in the world.

Through this partnership, “New Astrology”  tells the stories of the 500,000 children, adolescents, and adults whom LWB has reached. A beautiful scarf for a wonderful cause.

The scarf is available in several different colors in Hermès stores. (Price: 310 €)

The conference speakers (from left): Tahar Bekri, Lucien X. Polastron, Radhia Nasraoui,and Nasraoui’s daughter

On June 14, Libraries Without Borders France held a conference on literature and the Arab Spring in Paris. Entitled “To Read and to Write is to Be Already Free,” the conference featured a panel of three writers and activists, Radhia Nasraoui, Tahar Bekri, and Lucien X. Polastron.

The three panelists discussed the challenging question of what role literature plays during political transition. Other topics explored included the involvement of writers in revolutions, libraries as levers for the promotion of democracy and human rights, and democratic inclusiveness and censorship of information.

The conference was moderated by Omar Berrada, a Moroccan writer, critic, and translator, and drew a crowd of 200 to the gorgeous rooftop gallery of the Institute of the Arab World.

Jérémy Lachal and Patrick Weil speaking on LWB’s efforts in Tunisia

Nasraoui is a lawyer and human rights activist. During Ben Ali’s regime, Nasraoui spoke prominently against state-practiced torture and founded the Association Against Torture in Tunisia. Bekri is a Tunisian poet and lecturer at the University of Paris 10 Nanterre. Polastron is a French writer and historian. His many publications range topics as wide as library history, writing, and Chinese and Arab studies.

Libraries Without Borders President Patrick Weil and Director Jérémy Lachal spoke on LWB’s work reopening libraries in Tunisia that were damaged during the revolution. More than 50 libraries were burned during the revolution. LWB’s has so far reopened, restocked and trained librarians for four of these libraries.

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For press inquiries, contact Maha Sekkat (maha.sekkat@bibliosansfrontieres.org)

LWB and State University of Haiti Sign Memorandum to Build the Central Library Reserve

Library Without Borders / Bibliothèques Sans Frontières signed a memorandum with the Rector of the State University of Haiti to formally launch the RUCHe Central Library Reserve, the first of its kind in Haiti. The structure will be built on the site of the future UEH campus at Damiens, north of Port-au-Prince, and will accommodate all the library collections of UEH’s 18 departmental divisions. The new building will provide storage capacity for more than 300,000 books, more than ever possible before, as well as state-of-the-art conservation facilities. Today, the libraries of UEH have a collection of 75,000 books, but according to LWB President Patrick Weil only 10,000 of these books are up-to-date, usable, and appropriate for university-level studies. LWB and UEH aim to increase the number of usable, new books to 300,000 within three years.

LWB is now in the process of identifying partners and donors for the project, whose total cost is estimated at 5 million Euros.

The Damiens Campus will be the source of much activity in the future. In addition to housing the new Central Reserve Library, UEH plans to move many of its facilities there, and the University has already begun implementing plans to build a Graduate School there.

LWB and UEH staff members are designing the RUCHe Central Library Reserve to be modeled on major university library reserves in Europe and the United States, such as Yale University’s off-site library reserve.

The project is locally known as La RUCHe in Port-au-Prince. “Ruche” is French for beehive, and the acronym stands for Réserve Universitaire Centrale Haïtienne. UEH and LWB are committed to ensuring that the RUCHe becomes a hive of information and development in Haiti.

Library users at the Digital University Library in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

June 2012

A conversation with LWB Director Jérémy Lachal on LWB’s post-earthquake efforts in Haiti

How do you plan the future in the midst of a humanitarian emergency? This question has haunted aid organizations and governmental agencies throughout contemporary history, but perhaps never as strongly as when the January 12, 2010 earthquake struck Haiti.

“We were facing a situation where a million people were suddenly homeless and hundreds of thousands had died,” recalls Jérémy Lachal, Director of Libraries Without Borders / Bibliothèques Sans Frontières, who just returned from a trip to Haiti. “The physical infrastructure, including schools, universities and libraries, across Port-au-Prince was completely ravaged.”

With a team dispatched to Haiti, Libraries Without Borders (LWB) faced the question of how to provide immediate relief from the trauma of the earthquake through books and story-times in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps while also preparing for the future and longterm development. The Rector and Executive Council of the State University of Haiti (UEH), the largest and only public university in the country, called a meeting with LWB and asked for immediate support. Council members were concerned that “the students who would return after the earthquake would not be able to access books,” Lachal remembers. Nine of UEH’s 11 departments were severely damaged or completely destroyed in the earthquake.

From here, the LWB team began to develop a plan to ensure that key educational services would be available to students as soon as possible after the catastrophe. LWB quickly began creating new reference libraries in each department of the State University of Haiti. “We stocked them with text books and reference books in each major major or discipline. [We stocked them] with the most practical books to help ensure that education would continue after the earthquake,” Lachal says. By the end of the year, LWB had established 11 new reference libraries in each of the UEH departments. The organization added 7 more reference libraries in the spring of 2011.

“Our second big idea was digital libraries.” Why high-tech, digital libraries in a country of limited infrastructure? LWB chose to develop a digital library in Port-au-Prince because it would have an immediate impact. Their digital library only needed to be 100 m², which was only 10 percent the size of a traditional library with the same services. “We installed 60 computers and negotiated with international publishers to have free access to online databases.”

“In the particular context of Haiti and when facing a major catastrophe, the Digital University Library housed at UEH ultimately allowed us to respond quickly to the lack of resources available,” he says. It was a fast method of providing students with the resources they needed to move on from the disaster and continue their studies.

But the Digital University Library in Port-au-Prince did not only allow for a quick response to catastrophe; it also prepared the university system for the future. “In the long term, having a digital library prepares students and helps to teach them to use digital resources, new media, and technological tools. This wasn’t common in Haiti and ours was the country’s first digital library.”

Lachal and his team’s efforts continue in Haiti. With staff stationed in Port-au-Prince and project oversight from the organization’s Paris office, Libraries Without Borders continues to develop plans to further aid individuals and communities in Haiti. IDP camps remain crowded, a half-million remain homeless, and though aided by reference libraries and a digital library, the university system remains in disorder.

LWB has divided its efforts across three main initiatives: humanitarian relief in IDP camps, the development of public libraries, and the construction of new libraries for Haiti’s system of higher education. In the first category, LWB’s projects and partnerships for 30 mini-libraries and storytelling activities in IDP camps have provided relief (and distraction) from the trauma of disaster for children and adults. On the initiative for public libraries, LWB supported the reopening of the National Library of Haiti and established the Library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. LWB has supported 28 public libraries and reading spaces in total with book donations, librarian training for professionalization.

Looking to the future, Libraries Without Borders has focused a great of attention on supporting higher education in Haiti by redeveloping academic library systems. LWB is launching a campaign to build a central library reserve at UEH to serve all Haitian universities. Called “the RUCHe,” meaning beehive in French and an acronym for Réserve Universitaire Centrale Haïtienne, the central reserve will use digital and physical resources in tandem with an integral book shuttle system for distant libraries.  More information on the RUCHe Central Library Reserve can be found on its website http://ruche-haiti.org/?lang=en

In total, LWB has opened or supported 163 libraries in Haiti.

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For press inquiries, contact Badis Boussouar (badis.boussouar@bibliosansfrontieres.org)

An internally displaced persons (IDP) camp outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

In the coming weeks, Libraries Without Borders / Bibliothèques Sans Frontières will engage international organizations and governmental agencies to reevaluate the role that books, expression, education, and culture play in humanitarian emergencies.

When a humanitarian catastrophe occurs, aid workers, organizations, and governments focus on providing food, shelter, and clothing to victims. They set up medical outposts in conflict zones, drop emergency food supplies from helicopters, and hand out shoes and shirts in disaster areas. Absolute priority is given to what we call ‘basic needs’: food, water, shelter, and health. But while organizations and governments care for the physical wellbeing of disaster victims, little attention is given to human individuality as a way to cope with catastrophe and to move forward.

When, at the request of Haitian institutions, Libraries Without Borders sent an emergency mission to Haiti following the devastating January 2010 earthquake, we were struck by some of the reactions we received in the United States and Europe. Individuals asked us if giving Haitians the opportunity to read and write was really a priority like food and shelter.

In our work in Haiti and beyond, we have drawn inspiration from several initiatives in history. After the First World War, the American Committee for Devastated Regions intervened in France to establish libraries for children as a way of helping them to overcome trauma. The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) carried out similar initiatives after the Second World War and after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Founded by Jella Lepman in Munich in 1953, IBBY remains an incredibly important organization working to bring books to children all over the world.

The provision of access to books, culture and knowledge for victims of natural and manmade disasters is important because these allow individuals to reconnect with the rest of humanity and provide them the strength to look toward the future. UNESCO found in 2011 that only 2% of all international aid goes toward education. We agree with UNESCO that education must be available in emergency situations because it allows them to recover “a sense of normality.” We believe also that education efforts beyond formal schools, such as mini-libraries in disaster zones and story-time programs in IDP camps, must be made a priority because they cultivate the human spirit and provide distractions to help disaster victims cope with trauma.

From implementing projects in Haiti after the earthquake and Tunisia after the revolution, we have learned that books and stories have the ability to improve living conditions in the worst situations. We witnessed how stories about mighty lions or funny frogs were able to transport children from dire post-earthquake conditions. They provided escape from the trauma. Ultimately books and and expression  sustain human dignity and provide a source of self-worth and identity. In reestablishing culture amid the rubble of disaster, books provide sources of resilience and hope by instilling the conviction that there will be life after the camp.

Believing strongly that dignity through books, writing, and learning should not be denied to victims of humanitarian disasters, Libraries Without Borders is calling on international organizations and governments to better take into consideration the role these play in emergency situations. Reading and expressing  must take place among food, water, shelter and health as basic needs and priorities in humanitarian emergencies.

Patrick Weil
Chairman, Libraries Without Borders / Bibliothèques Sans Frontières
Research Director, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France

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For press inquiries, please contact Anthony Chase (achase [at] librarieswithoutborders.org)

Libraries Without Borders presented on the 42nd Annual Congress of the Association of University, Research, and Institutional Libraries of the Caribbean (ACURIL) in Port-au-Prince. Taking place between June 4 and 8, Jérémy Lachal, Director of LWB, presented on the economic, cultural, social, and political effects of opening access to information.

On this occasion, Lachal spoke with library professionals from across Haiti regarding LWB’s projects for academic libraries. They discussed the creation of the Digital Library of Port-au-Prince, which was the result of a major partnership between LWB and the State University of Haiti (UEH). The RUCHe Central Library Reserve at UEH, another project between the two partners, was also discussed. Once built, RUCHe will function as the main book and document depository and distribution center for universities in Haiti. LWB and UEH are moving quickly on this project, having signed an agreement together in April 2012.

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For press inquiries, please contact Anthony Chase (achase [at] librarieswithoutborders.org)