From November 5 to 9, 2012, fifteen librarians from various areas of Niger were trained in the art and techniques of bookbinding at the Arlit municipal library.
The training was organized by the French association Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries Without Borders) with financial support from AREVA. It introduced all of the librarians in Niger’s public reading network to bookbinding know-how. Two representatives of the Nigerien Ministry of Culture also attended.
With books in scarce supply and weather conditions not very conducive to their conservation, bookbinding and book preservation are fundamental issues.
The difficulty of going to libraries and gaining access to books is a major stumbling block to the emergence of an educated, open-minded younger generation. It was to meet this challenge that AREVA Foundation and the Urban Community of Arlit opened a municipal library in 2008.
In the librarians’ words…
Fatima Inoussa, Director of the National Public Reading Network: “In most libraries, the book collection is aging and there’s no policy for acquiring books to replace them. This training will allow us to recover a large number of books that are no longer available on the shelves today.”
Magagi Hassane, Manager of the Public Reading Library in Agadez: “I thank the Arlit municipal library for this initiation in bookbinding. Now we’ll be able to help the school libraries strengthen their collections.”