The libraries of Haiti

I recently spent some time with the Director General of Bibliothéque National in Haiti, Françoise Beaulieu Thybulle.  She was welcoming the current president and president-elect of IFLA, an international society of libraries and cultural organizations.  IFLA has pledged at least 1 million euros to help the libraries and archives of Haiti recover.  (The Smithsonian Institute also has a major restoration and preservation project underway).

Thybulle is a force to be reckoned with.  There are currently just 20 municipal (government-run) libraries in Haiti, along with several other privately-run cultural and literacy organizations, but Thybulle envisions over 100 libraries in Haiti someday.

Françoise Beaulieu-Thybulle remembers exactly how long the earthquake was (38 seconds) and how many aftershocks there were the first night (30). Thybulle, Director General of the National Library of Haiti, was on her way to a conference at FOKAL, the cultural organization, and was stuck downtown the entire night when the earthquake struck.

“All the dust– it was like 9/11,” she said referring to the attacks on America. “It was only in the morning that I saw how many bodies I had to cross.”

Thybulle knows she was lucky – the National Library, located in the heart of downtown Port-au-Prince where some of the worst damage occurred, is still standing and none of her staff was hurt because the library happened to close early on January 12.

Still, inevitably, the librarian and her colleagues are dealing with the aftermath of the disaster nearly six months later…

Read more here: Haitian Times – Fighting to Protect Literacy in Haiti

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~ by ellzhk on 9 July 2010.