Library Stuff

“The Library of Congress is using a $2 million gift to digitize cultural treasures and records from Afghanistan to give to that country’s libraries and universities. The gift was announced Friday at the U.S. State Department in a ceremony with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York will fund the project.”

via Associated Press

AP – ” A military official says Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. A military official with knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it appeared the Qurans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees apparently were leaving notes for one another inside them.”

csmonitor.com – “About 45 million books – a total value of $15.4 million, paid for by the United Nations and the aid agencies of the US and Danish governments – were scheduled to arrive before classes started in Afghanistan last March. But according to the AP, millions of those books have still not been delivered.”