Un Ponte Per. (UPP) is a volunteer association established since
1991. Its aim is to promote humanitarian aid for the Iraqi population
affected by the war and the embargo. The main goal is to support the
Iraqi population through awareness raising campaign and the
enhancement of culture exchanges, foreign relations and developmental
cooperation. Since 1992, the association has been carrying on many
projects in Iraq in health, water and sanitation, education and
culture.
Immediately after the last war in 2003, UPP begin to work for the
renovation of the National Library (NL) in Baghdad with a project
called "La casa dei libri di Baghdad" ("The House of Books of
Baghdad") funded by Italian Municipality. The plan of intervention,
such as the identification of the priorities and the needs, has been
discussed and realised in close collaboration with the Director of
the National Library, Dr. Saad Al Askander. Basically, we are in this
phase of the intervention, strongly supporting the process of
Inventorying and Cataloguing through the increasing of cataloguing
work-stations. For this purpose, we already purchased an amount of
equipments (25 computers, various scanners, printers, photocopy
machine) and other instruments.
Also we are at present finalising another part of the project, which
consist in to connect the National Library to the Internet. The proposal
was very harmly received by the librarians, who see, in the connection to
internet, a chance to communicate with the outside world (above with all
other libraries). Moreover is was also decided appropriate to take on the
expense for the purchasing of a subscription for one year and a maintenance
contract, likewise for one year, in order to meet the initial needs also
regarding ordinary expenses.
A part of this, we are even focusing for the future in the preservation of
the archival heritage of the National Library (training personnel and
manual document preservation). The implementation of the project is
realised with the help of Italian experts and in coordination with UNESCO.
Website:
http://www.unponteper.it
