Historians document Iraqi library devastation

A preliminary glimpse at the condition of the Iraq's libraries paints a rather grim situation after the war to remove Saddam Hussein.

According to LeMoyne College (Syracuse, NY) Professor Keith Watenpaugh, one of a group of historians who recently traveled to Iraq to assess the conditions of libraries, Iraq's national library building "has been rendered unusable by two successive fires" and some "30 to 60 percent" of the library's once formidable collection is presumed safe.

Watenpaugh, who specializes in the Middle East, organized the trip out of concern for Iraq's cultural and historical resources and artifacts and the future of scholarship there. "From the perspective of a historian, it is going to be very difficult to write a contemporary history of Iraq at a time when a new contemporary history is very important," Watenpaugh told the LJ Academic Newswire. "Without the raw materials, it will be difficult for Iraqis to reclaim their past." Although the mission was not sponsored by any governmental body, Watenpaugh said it received support from the Middle East Library Association, as well as some money from foundations and institutions, including LeMoyne College and the University of Toronto. "We wanted to remain as independent as possible," he noted.

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