By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 28 July:
A mobile book library has been launched by an NGO, the Libyan Society of Industrial Engineers (LSIE) . . .[restrict]in Benghazi earlier this month.
- The Benghazi mobile library..
The mobile Library was the idea of the LSIE members with funding from the United States MEPI and CREATIVE organizations, funded by the US State Department.
The travelling library, named the ‘Benghazi Mobile Library’, is a small tent that is erected in various locations from day-to-day around the city of Benghazi.
A banner on one of the posters advertising the library declares ‘the return of the mobile library to the streets of Benghazi after an absence of more than 50 years’.
The mobile library has published a schedule of the areas where it will be in Benghazi. It will be visiting areas such as Al-Keesh, Al-Hadaeq, Al-Lithy, Al-Fewaihat, Gar Younis and Hay al-Salam.
The schedule informs readers in which area of Benghazi the library will be.
Library books are available to read in the library for free and are loaned out for offsite reading for very small symbolic amounts.
It will be interesting to see how this experiment unfolds. Libyans have been denied libraries and the right to freely read uncensored materials for decades. As a consequence, the culture of reading, of borrowing books, looking after them and returning them in time will be completely new to the majority of the young generation.
It will also be interesting to see if the experiment inspires other cities to follow the lead taken by Benghazi.
Photos: The Benghazi Mobile Library/LSIE
For further information contact: [email protected] Or www.facebook.com/LISE.first [/restrict]
