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Sent: 06 March 2004 02:23
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Subject: SIMMONS, HARVARD TEAM TO HELP DEVASTATED IRAQI LIBRARIES


SIMMONS, HARVARD TEAM TO HELP DEVASTATED IRAQI LIBRARIES
NEH Grant Seeks to Modernize War-Torn Libraries, Halt
Serious Librarian Shortage

BOSTON (March 4, 2004)-Responding to the devastating effects
of war on Iraqi libraries, the Simmons Graduate School of Library and
Information Science (GSLIS) and the Harvard University library system
are launching a joint program to provide training for Iraqi librarians
and archivists, to help modernize Irqai libraries and address the
country's serious shortage of librarians.

The program links the Simmons GSLIS--one of the premier
library and information science schools in the nation--with
the library and information science professionals of Harvard University,
which is home to the world's largest academic library.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Simmons and
Harvard $100,000 for the two-year project. The grant is part of the NEH
program "Recovering Iraq's Past," which funds projects to help rebuild
Iraq's cultural heritage.

The program will begin in May, when a team of Simmons
faculty and Harvard librarians meet with Iraqi librarians in Amman,
Jordan, for a curriculum planning retreat. The Iraqis will identify
their needs for training to rebuild collections and to modernize their
library systems. Training areas may include preservation, cataloging,
collection development and management, and automation and online
information systems. Subsequently, Simmons faculty will teach graduate
library courses for Iraqi librarians. In collaboration with Harvard
librarians, they will oversee a series of special projects and serve as
long-term mentors via the Internet.

Michele Cloonan, dean of the Simmons GSLIS and principal investigator
for the NEH grant, noted that more than two decades of war and economic
sanctions, as well as the chaos of the recent regime change, have left
the centuries-old Iraqi book and manuscript collections with a "vast
array of problems," and few librarians with contemporary professional
training and expertise.

"For years, resources were withheld from cultural
institutions in Iraq," Cloonan said, "and the recent war has resulted in
widespread destruction. Librarians were cut off from technological and
professional development. The United States has some of the best library
and information science programs in the world, and we're pleased to be
able to bring our training to the Iraqis. So much has changed in library
and information science since the Iran/Iraq war two decades ago. The
Internet wasn't even in use."

According to political scientist Sidney Verba, Harvard's
Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University
Library, librarians from Harvard will play a critical role in the Iraqi
program. "The Harvard library is pleased to have this opportunity to
join with Simmons to work with our Iraqi library colleagues," said
Verba, "and to help rebuild the intellectual base of higher education in
Iraq."

In addition to taking library and archival courses, the
Iraqis will work with Simmons and Harvard library
specialists on special projects that the Iraqis identify as most needed
to rebuild their contemporary and historic collections and to modernize
their library systems.

The Simmons and Harvard organizers also hope to have some
Iraqi librarians attend the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions World Library and Information 
Congeress in Oslo, Norway, in
2005, to rejoin their international colleagues.

The Simmons GSLIS directed a similar library-rebuilding
program (begun in association with the Harvard?Yenching
Institute) in Vietnam, through which Vietnamese students
earn their master's degrees in library and information
science at Simmons. Today, the Vietnamese graduates of the Simmons
program are library leaders in Vietnam. Additionally, the ongoing Bosnia
Library Project, based at and supported by Harvard University, has
assisted in the rebuilding of destroyed and damaged Bosnian library
collections since early 1996.

More information:
Diane Millikan, Simmons public relations
director, 617-521-2364.  (For Harvard comments, go thru
Peter Kosewski at 617-495-7793).  Here's the release:

For further information about the Simmons Graduate School of Library and
Information Sciences, go to http://www.simmons.edu/gslis. For
information about the Harvard library system, go to
http://lib.harvard.edu.

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