Three projects, one goal: to protect Iraq's millenary cultural heritage. With our programme 'Knowledge that endures' we have been working for over 12 years.
The House of Books
Back in 2004, we met Saad Eskander, the current director of the National Library and Archives in Baghdad. Together we conceived the 'House of Books' project, thanks to which this ancient institution managed to survive and rise again from the ashes of a terrible fire and the horrors of the civil war that was devastating the country at the time.
With the collaboration of another symbolic place of world culture, the National Library of Florence, which had experienced a similar tragedy with the flood of 1966, we were able to restore, preserve and digitise thousands of texts, some of them very old, protecting them from future destruction.
With Italian espertə we also ensured that the skills transferred to Iraqi librecarə became the heritage of the whole country, expanding the training to all public libraries in Iraq. Today we are happy that the Baghdad Library website boasts thousands of visits each month from scholarsə and enthusiastsə.
Books of reconciliation
In 2013, we launched a new project dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the archives of the country's thousand-year-old minorities. 'Books of Reconciliation' involved the Turkmen, Christian, Chaldean, Armenian, Sabaean and Mandean, Shabak, Kaka'i and many other communities. Experts from Baghdad trained within the framework of the 'House of Books' project helped the librarians of each community to preserve and restore their book and archive heritage. In a process that lasted two years, training courses, technical studies and a census of the literary history of each community were carried out.
All activities were conducted by creating common moments of dialogue and study between all minorities involved, fostering dialogue.
The work culminated in the production of the book'Books and Documents, Heritage of Iraqi Minorities', published in English, Arabic and Sorbian Kurdish, which collects for the first time detailed information on the history of book collections and cultural traditions of Iraqi minorities.
Sounds from Iraq
At the same time, with Sounds from Iraq, Khyam Allami, a young and passionate Iraqi musician, helped to create the first national sound archive at the Baghdad Library, where original recordings that survived the war are stored, with the aim of recovering and disseminating the country's many musical genres.
