House of Books in Baghdad and International Literature Festival

HOUSE OF BOOKS IN BAGHDAD AND INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE FESTIVAL - Reconstructing Iraq's cultural identity through the development of writers and local literature

Partners: Regional governments of Lombardy and Tuscany, Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, Czech Gema Art Group, British Library, National Library of Florence, UK National Archives, British Embassy in Baghdad, Simmons College (Boston ), Harvard and UCLA, UNESCO in Baghdad 

// Ministry of Culture, Regional Government of Kurdistan, University of Salahaddin, National Library of Iraq, Iraq Writers Union and Kurdistan Writers Union

Funded by: European Commission (Investing in People programme) and British Council

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// Context 

The Iraq War in 2003 seriously damaged the country’s important historical and archaeological heritage. Museums, libraries and archaeological sites were plundered and burned. Iraq’s cultural heritage forms one of the most important collections of pre-Islamic and Islamic culture in Mesopotamia. The National Library in Baghdad has played a central role in protecting rare manuscripts and books (including those of Avicenne and the first geographical maps of the world).

After more than 30 years of conflict, the time had come to restore Iraq’s rich literary heritage to its rightful place and support the publishing industry. Both projects presented below respond to these challenges.

// House of Books

Since April 2004, the Association “Un ponte per …” has been helping the National Library in Baghdad through the House of Books project. The aim of this project is to protect Iraq’s literary heritage and the collection in the National Library, which was severely damaged by fire and plundering in April 2003. Iraq’s National Library has a central role in the development of Iraqi culture as it has collected and catalogued all kinds of local publications (books, magazines, newspapers and maps), official dossiers and private documents. It is the main source of information and data on Iraq’s political, social, economic, administrative and cultural life, which the population and university students use for their own research. 

//International Literature Festival

The International Literature Festival in Iraq (organised by the British Council) took place on 7-9 May 2011. It provided a platform for the various communities to exchange works of prose and poetry in different languages (Arabic, English, Kurdish and Syriac). Writers presented and discussed their works during public lectures, shows, seminars and events in universities and public institutions.

// Project objectives

The House of Books project is designed to help protect Iraq’s cultural heritage by safeguarding and restoring the works in the National Library in Baghdad. It aims to improve the ability of Iraqi libraries to manage their cultural heritage and encourages access by academics and the general public to their resources.

The actions within this project include training for library staff, the purchase of equipment needed to continue the work of scanning the literary heritage and management of the libraries’ websites. The people trained will then pass on their skills and experience to other libraries in the various Iraqi provinces.

In this context, the International Literature Festival was designed to show the local public the contemporary literature of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan and the United Kingdom, to give British writers the opportunity to develop their knowledge and experience of the Middle Eastern literary world and to offer publishing opportunities to new writers.

// Action and Impact

The House of Books project has already played a tangible role in reconstructing the Iraqi cultural heritage and creating a free and open society. In particular, this project has helped to reinvigorate the library’s work, through:

• staff training courses
• restoration and binding workshops
• creation and management of the library’s first website (in English and Arabic).

This project has resulted in:

• the training of 100 Iraqi librarians and the equipment of new conference and training rooms within Iraq’s National Library
• the restoration and cataloguing of those books and documents requiring this and the acquisition of new books
• the organisation of four international seminars/workshops involving Iraqi, Arab and European libraries, in Amman (Jordan), Erbil (Iraq) and Florence (Italy). These meetings have helped train 55 librarians, allowed best practices to be exchanged between librarians, raised community awareness of the protection of Iraqi heritage and created a collaboration network based around the National Library in Baghdad.

The International Literature Festival brought together, for the first time on the same platform, Iraqi writers from different communities. For the first time, women writers read their works in the famous Chaikhana Muchko Tea House and students from the University of Salahaddin met with contemporary writers.

The authors themselves highlighted the importance of rebuilding national and international ties with the literary community.

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