BOOKS FOR IRAQ – BRITISH COUNCIL DELIVERS

Upon hearing that we were to reopen our office in Baghdad many UK academics, publishers and businesses contacted us asking for help to deliver books and journals to Iraqi universities.  This directly supported our work to reconnect Iraqi academics with the wider academic and scientific community from whom they had been completely isolated for more than a decade. As one Iraqi academic put it " It is like we have been put in a room and locked away from the rest of the world for the last 12 years". Widespread looting in the months following the war had added to the isolation, leaving many departments and faculties with literally no texts.

We agreed to collect and consolidate materials, which were published since 1990 or remained standard texts in their field. The scale of the response was massive.  We have shipped in the region of 55 tonnes of books and journals donated by more than 30 organisations and individuals. We like to offer our thanks to these people for their kind donations for this project. We would also like to thank Carl John and Amanda Keenan at DHL for all their hard work and specialised attention that this programme received. Without their help, this would not have been possible.

These materials were sent to:

			The University of Baghdad
			Baghdad University of Technology
			Al-Nahrain University
			Al-Mustansiriya University
			Baghdad Business School
			University of Basra
			University of Mosul
			Sulaimani University
			Mansour University
			Al-Anbar University

In Iraq, contacts in Iraqi universities and the Coalition Provisional Authority have managed the logistical challenge of sorting and distributing the books in a post-war environment. We would like to thank those individuals for their hard work in helping these books reach students and lecturers.

Although this programme came to end on the 31st March, we feel that the year long programme has had a real impact on the universities we have been able to reach. A medical professor in Mosul, Dr Al-Attar,  wrote after receiving the books, “It is so great to see how good people around the world are so supportive and willing to help! “Thank you” suddenly sounds too weak a word to express my feelings! Please convey my deep appreciation to all those who donated books and journals to our colleges. All of the people who helped or contributed to these acts of kindness should feel very proud".