This paper describes how Lebanese librarian coped with the impact of the civil war (1975–1991), and their post–war efforts to rebuild the library infrastructure. Despite damage from bombing, triple–digit inflation, and staff shortages, many libraries functioned throughout the conflict. The American University of Beirut opened for business every day, although badly damaged, and is now moving vigorously to rebuild and renew services. Some new staff have been hired, and an archives department has been established. Automation is underway. Beirut University College, not severely damaged in the war, has taken up new projects, such as indexing of special collections and continuing education for librarians. At the Lebanese University, open only intermittently during the war, there is now a systematic approach to collection processing in the education faculty library. New initiatives are being taken also in the national archives, and by the Lebanese Library Association. Despite the serious impact of the war, the library community in Lebanon is focused on regeneration and progress.
Nineteen–seventy–five was a year of promise for librarianship in Lebanon. The Lebanese University was in the process of building a central library on its new integrated campus; a program in library science was created at the Faculty of Information and Documentation of the Lebanese University, which was upgraded from the Institute of Information and Journalism; and the Lebanese Libraries Association (LLA) began publishing its Newsletter. It was also the year of the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. The tragic events of the decade and a half that followed severely disrupted the country’s institutional life, and libraries were not spared. Bombardments damaged and destroyed library buildings and collections; triple–digit inflation effectively cut library budgets; widespread emigration led to a shortage of trained librarians. Despite these many difficulties, the Lebanese library community managed to sustain itself through the years of war, and now that peace has come to Lebanon, it is looking not only to rebuild what was lost, but also to move forward with new initiatives.
While the general conditions of the war were shared, each institution lived the war in its own way. It is instructive to see how they coped with war conditions, and what their plans are now in the postwar period. As an example of a university library one may look to the American University of Beirut (AUB). AUB was established in 1866. Its primary language of instruction is English, and it has a student body of approximately 5,000. It has four libraries: main (Jafet Library), medical (Saab Library), Science and Agriculture, and Engineering and Architecture. With approximately half a million volumes, AUB is the largest library collection in the country.
According to Nawal Naamani, chief of circulation, the highest priority throughout the war was to keep all library functions operating at some level, even if at times very much reduced. The AUB libraries opened every day, regardless of conditions. Ms. Naamani recalls at times entering the stacks with a flashlight in order to retrieve books for students when the electricity did not work. She said also that in order to support the educational program of the University (both coursework and research), maintaining acquisitions was a particularly high priority, especially in the sciences where it is vital for materials to be up to date. With mail service to Lebanon often cut for long periods, this was at times very difficult, but she feels that they were successful in their acquisitions program and that there are now no serious gaps in the collections. Nevertheless, Ms. Naamani commented that it was often advantageous to receive offers of books or serials on exchange from foreign libraries making orders for microfilms of AUB theses or serials, as this enabled them to obtain books that they might have been unable to obtain in the past and which went out of print. Further complicating matters, the AUB libraries lost much of their staff during the war. According to Helen Bikhazi, university librarian, the staff of the AUB libraries now numbers 10 professional librarians and 52 support staff (excluding the medical school library), less than 60 percent of pre–1975 staffing levels.
In addition to serving its student body and faculty, the AUB libraries have also taken on a wider responsibility to the community at large. Already before the war AUB libraries were open to all those affiliated with an academic institution, whether Lebanese or foreign. This policy was maintained throughout the war, although it was necessary to discontinue borrowing privileges for non–AUB affiliates. (It was, however, sometimes difficult for non–AUB affiliates to gain entry to the AUB campus due to tight security.) This open–door library policy was particularly important in light of the fact that the bulk of the collections of the National Library were stolen in 1975.
This policy of maintaining full library services received a difficult test with the November 8, 1991, bomb that destroyed College Hall and seriously damaged Jafet Library, which was located directly behind it. Though none of the collections in the stacks were harmed, the reading room and other public services areas were destroyed, as well as many offices. Today the library operates in the middle of reconstruction, the noise a constant surrounding refrain. Reading rooms were set up in two nearby buildings, with a small reading room set up in Jafet Library for periodicals and non–circulating monographs. Circulation records had to be retrieved from the rubble and reconstructed, a time–consuming process. It is anticipated that the building will be completely finished within a year.
The characteristics of these collections make preservation a high priority. The manuscript collection is being microfilmed in its entirety, to avoid unnecessary handling by researchers, and to avoid any possibility of loss of these unique items. The microfilm lab at AUB is the only one in a library in Lebanon at the present, although commercial microfilming facilities exist. AUB has for that reason at times microfilmed materials for other libraries, in exchange for a copy of the microfilm. This practice has had to be curtailed, as some of the microfilming equipment was damaged in the 1991 bombing, making it necessary to concentrate on AUB needs. Beyond these microfilming projects, efforts are being made to see that materials are housed and stored under the proper conditions to ensure their long life.
Another AUB project in the planning stages is automation; an automation librarian has been hired for the purpose. The AUB libraries were planning for automation in 1988, but had to drop it from consideration due to the resumption of fighting during the constitutional crisis. Only the medical library underwent automation, as this was necessary for the AUB medical school to keep its accreditation. A major consideration in automation planning is the fact that the AUB libraries have considerable holdings in non–Roman script languages, with Arabic naturally being a particular priority.
Beirut University College (BUC) provides an example of a college library. BUC, formerly known as Beirut College for Women, was founded in 1924. Its language of instruction is English and it has a student body of approximately 4,000. BUC is primarily an undergraduate institution, but it does have several master’s programs. The programs in education, business, and arts are particular areas of strength for BUC. BUC also has a library science program administered by library staff. BUC is served by the Stoltzfus Library, whose collections are primarily in English. Stoltzfus Library contains two special collections of note: its Documentation Center of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, and its Children’s Library. The former contains books and serials in women’s studies, as well as clippings files. The Children’s Library serves both as a forum for projects of BUC’s education students and as a public library for children. During the summer, the library is used in conjunction with a summer camp program for children sponsored by BUC.
While the Stoltzfus Library did suffer a hit in 1983, there was only minor damage to the building and collections. BUC’s major problem during the war was budget freezes. There was therefore a very careful attempt to work with faculty to assure that the book budget was allocated as wisely as possible. Department chairs give approval to book selections, while the library director, Aida Naaman, stays abreast of the literature in order to advise the faculty of available titles. Gifts have unfortunately not been a very important component in the library’s collection building. While gifts of books relevant to the BUC academic program and published in the past decade are very much welcomed, gifts have tended to be of older books. Gifts not retained are passed to the BUC branch in Saida, as its library is still in the early stages of collection building. Aida Hajjar, the acquisitions assistant, pointed out that computer books, to support BUC’s new master's program in computer science, are particularly costly and must be acquired by purchase. Art books represent another expensive acquisitions area.
With a small staff of seven, of which two are professional librarians, allocating staff resources is also an important consideration. The UC library has made judicious use of student talent to provide additional services. Student projects in the library science program, for example, are oriented to be not only instructive, but also of benefit to the library, and thereby the BUC community. For example, library students have created comprehensive catalogs of the library’s periodicals and audiovisual materials. A library student prepared an index to the collection’s theatre periodicals, of use to BUC’s active theater program. Non–library students have enriched the library as well, for example by creating clippings files for the Women’s Studies Documentation Center.
Despite the constraints on their time, the staff of the BUC library have devoted efforts to the promotion of librarianship in Lebanon. Aida Naaman explained that BUC has a strong tradition of service to the community, and that the library has a commitment to contributing to these activities. For example, library staff periodically conduct short courses in library education. This past summer, they conducted a cataloging workshop for children’s librarians under the auspices of the Red Cross. The previous summer, two workshops were held with open admission, one on general library services, and one on record–keeping for archives.
The case of the library of the School of Education of the Lebanese University is an example of a university faculty library. The Lebanese University was founded in 1953 by the Lebanese government; its language of instruction is Arabic. The University has no central library; each faculty (department) has its own facility. The library of the School of Education was formerly the largest of these faculty libraries, with approximately 40,000 volumes. In 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the library was destroyed by fire and its entire collection was lost. As soon as was possible, two professors were sent to Egypt and France to buy books for a core collection, and in 1984 the Library was re–established in another building. The library now occupies two rooms, one for monographs and one for periodicals. There are two more rooms available for the library when there is a need to expand. The librarian, Maha Shehade, explained that the library unfortunately was only able to open intermittently during the war, making it difficult to proceed with collection processing. Now that the library is open on a regular basis, it is possible to approach collection processing in a systematic manner. The library’s collections now number approximately 10,000 volumes. These books are supplied to the library by the administration of the Faculty of Education, either purchased by the administration on the request of faculty or received as gifts; library staff are not involved in acquisitions activities. It is hoped that now that the faculty has resumed its publications program, the library will receive more publications on exchange.Books are registered by staff on arrival, and are shelved by accession number. There are subject listings, but as these are out of date, students require the assistance of library staff to locate the books they need. A cataloging and automation project is now underway, using a personal computer supplied by the faculty and CDS/ISIS software provided by the Arab League. Descriptive cataloging is done in Arabic or Roman script, depending on the language of the work, with subject access provided via keyword descriptors in French taken from UNESCO’s Education Thesaurus and the French index of the Arab League’s trilingual thesaurus, JAMIA. Hala Zein El–Abidin, the library’s cataloger, explained that initially it had been intended to classify according to the Dewey system. It was later decided to retain the accessions number as the call number, at least for the time being, as she was the only staff member trained in classification and that doing classification would slow down the work flow. As the collection was completely uncataloged, it was felt that it was more important to proceed with cataloging as quickly as possible. It is anticipated that the cataloging project will be completed in two to three years. As the cataloging project proceeds, paper indexes will periodically be generated from the database. Eventually it is hoped that it will be possible to provide online access to the database by students.
Libraries in educational institutions are not the only ones where new initiatives are being taken. A case in point is the Lebanese National Archives Center. The archives were created in 1978 to serve as a repository for the documents of all Lebanese government institutions. According to Riad Tabbarah, head of the archives’ board of directors (and dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at AUB), the collection of government documents was systematic until 1982. At that time, the war conditions brought a halt to all regular operations. What began then was the second stage of the center’s life, with the salvage by archives staff of materials from government buildings. This included 40 paintings of the 19th–century formerly hung in the National Library, as well as the remaining manuscripts from the National Library’s collections. The archives also received gifts, such as the 5,000 slides of the historic Lebanese postcard collection compiled by Fouad Debbas, deposited as insurance against the possible destruction of the collection of postcards. The archives now house such items as a collection of 16mm Pathe–Gaumont newsreels of Lebanon, and a collection of first issues of the world Arabic press, among other materials.
The archives are now entering into a third stage of their existence. Early in 1993, a board of directors was created to oversee the future of the archives. Their focus has been on the preservation of the collections. The first step, now underway, is to catalog and rehouse the materials. Some restoration work was done right away; for example, a Lebanese artist undertook the repairs of paintings that had been slashed. In the main, however, the work so far has been to assure the short–term security of the collections. As that is well in hand, the next step is to address the long–term preservation issues. Of particular concern are the audiovisual materials, which pose special long–term preservation problems. The regular government documents collections of the archives also need attention. Segments of the collection have already been microfilmed, but some of this microfilm is not legible and needs to be redone.
Possible cooperation with institutions outside of Lebanon to preserve the archives collection is being explored. Dr. Tabbarah pointed out that cooperation is being sought both in the area of technical assistance and of funding. At the same time, an effort is being made to raise public awareness in Lebanon of these collections; an exhibition containing a selection of the archives’ collections was therefore planned for November 1993 to bring attention to the archives’ materials.
The Lebanese Library Association (LLA), which had been dormant for a long period during the war, is also undergoing a revival. Its main project at present is a survey of Lebanese libraries, documentation centers, and archives, which will be published. According to Linda Sadaka, secretary of the LLA and head of the gifts and exchange section of AUB’s Jafet Library, the goal is to get a picture of the state of Lebanese libraries, as a base for planning. The original impetus for the survey was a request by UNESCO to LLA for information on the Lebanese library situation in order to evaluate requests for grants by certain libraries in Lebanon. The data collection has been carried out largely by students of the Faculty of Information and Documentation of the Lebanese University, and the project has been financed by UNESCO.
While clearly the war has had a serious negative impact on librarianship in Lebanon, the focus in the library community is on regeneration and progress. It is to be hoped that the situation in Lebanon will remain stable to allow long–term planning to be done.
Elizabeth Vernon is a technical services librarian in the Judaica Division, Area Studies Department, Harvard College Library. She has an M.A. in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University, and an M.L.S. from Simmons College. She is author of Jewish Studies Courses at American and Canadian Universities, and several articles related to Judaica and Middle Eastern librarianship. Ms. Vernon has lectured on preservation issues before the Lebanese Librarians’ Association and at the Tunisian Institute for Documentation.
© 1994, Elizabeth Vernon.