1 The Need

The new Government of the Republic of Somaliland is operating in an intellectual vacuum.  Approximately 70% of all buildings were destroyed during the recent civil war (over 90% in the capital of Hargeisa).  All capabilities for generating and distributing electricity were either removed or destroyed and all telecommunications capabilities were destroyed.  Nearly all of the official documents were destroyed and a very large fraction of privately-owned books and other documentation were also destroyed.  There are no telecommunications or postal services internally or with the outside world.

As one of the urgent first steps, it is necessary to create a new National Library in the capital of Hargeisa.  This library will quickly collect reference books, reports, periodicals, etc. that the Government as well as private citizens urgently require for the reconstruction of their country and reflation of their economy.  Examples of the kinds of documents that are needed include:

• text books and reference books on economics, business administration, project management, finance, accounting, agriculture, fishing, transportation, communications, electronics, medicine, education, etc.
• official documents and reports from the period of the former dictatorship,
• a systematic collection of all official documents that the new Government creates, and
• current information about current events around the world.

Government officials and private individuals should be able to go to this library in order to obtain the modern information that they need for planning and self-education.

2 Staff

It will be necessary to have at least one employee with at least some prior experience working in a library -- preferably with at least some formal training in library management.  If it is not possible to find such individuals locally, it may be appropriate to arrange a loan of such professionals to the National Library from other libraries outside of the Republic.  This individual will be responsible for developing and implementing the operational concepts for the library, as well as supervising and training the other employees.

Mr. Jusuf Haji Adam Gabille was the initiator and former director of the Hargeisa National Library and Cultural Center -- until the outbreak of the civil war.  He is also looked upon as the “Father of Education” in our new Republic.  He is currently living as a refugee near Köln, Federal Republic of Germany.  He is available to assist in creating and managing this new library and should be considered seriously as a candidate for this task.

Other employees can be hired and trained as needed.  It will be appropriate to acquire employees with a broad base of language skills, such as in Amharic, Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, and Russian languages -- in addition to the Somali language.  Each of these employees should be able to read and write well in several of these languages.  Typing skills would also be useful.  Experience in studying at a large foreign university and using its library could also be relevant.  Training in special disciplines could also be useful, such as economics, history, politics, and natural sciences.

3 Facilities required in the Republic

Fortunately, a building in Hargeisa, that was formerly used for the Hargeisa National Library, is already available for this purpose.  Some repairs need to be done on the roof.  A more complete assessment is necessary to identify any other repairs that will be necessary.  All furniture and furnishings have been removed or destroyed.

As “furniture and equipment”, the library will initially require

• approximately 200 running meters of book shelves in the stack area,
• approximately 50 running meters of book shelves in other areas, not accessible to the public,
• several cabinets for storing documents, that can not be stacked,
• several shelves for displaying periodicals,
• one card-file cabinet for storing indexed cards for each book, document, or periodical available in the library,
• one smaller card-file cabinet for storing cards of books that have been lent to users of the library,
• tables and chairs for the reading area,
• office desks and chairs for the personnel,
• one mechanical typewriter,
• one diesel-driven electric-power generator, until electricity is generated and distributed in Hargeisa again,
• one photocopy machine,
• one personal computer with printer,
• air-conditioning equipment to maintain reasonable working temperatures and reasonably constant humidity,
• artificial lighting for night-time use, and
• a telephone and telefax machine when telecommunications become available.

4 Acquiring the First Set of Books

It should be possible to obtain a first set of books primarily as donations, including transportation to Djibouti.  The library would have to provide local transportation from Djibouti to Hargeisa.

Following is a representative list of sources to which requests should be made for donations, including shipping to Djibouti, of relevant books and periodicals:

• United Nations -- for all books and periodicals that are relevant for the Republic of Somalia, particularly reports on this region, handbooks for project management in developing countries, statistical reports, etc.,
• OECD -- similar as for the United Nations,
• the EC -- similar as for the United Nations,
• the World Bank -- similar as for the United Nations,
• US Government Printing Office -- similar as for the United Nations, but also including special topic areas, such as agriculture, telecommunications, etc.,
• GPM (Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement) in Germany -- for books on project management in German, as well as for announcements on seminars and conferences on project management,
• private publishing companies -- for books on economics, business administration, politics and government, history, culture, architecture, natural sciences, etc. that are relevant to the needs of the government and public in Hargeisa.

A special project could consist of obtaining a representative sampling of daily newspapers, weekly journals, and monthly magazines in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian languages in Djibouti and transporting them frequently enough to Hargeisa that relatively current information will be available in different languages from different sources about world events.

As another special project, a systematic effort will be required to identify specific books and documents that are relevant to the Republic and are available at various locations around the world.  In particular, the various studies, reports, and proposals that were made under the former dictatorship should be at least identified and classified.  As only one example, many studies of the national resources of Somalia were financed by the United Nations and should be available somewhere within the United Nations.  An inventory should be made of the official documents that are still available in the Republic itself, as well as in Mogadishu.  Initially, this project will consist of identifying these documents and classifying them, so that officials of the new government will know what has been done in the past and where the reports are available.  Later, an effort will be required to obtain copies of the most important documents for the National Library.  This could include a subproject with a photocopy machine in Mogadishu, under cooperation with the provisional government there, to make photocopies of relevant documents there for which there are no extra copies available for the National Library.

As another special project, the National Library should organize procedures to ascertain that the Government will provide it with copies of all important documents that it generates, for future reference as well as for cross reference between ministries.

As another special project, the National Library could systematically collect documentation of the local culture and history.  This could include a subproject of systematically transcribing the oral history and literature from elder citizens in written form, for future reference, in the Somali language.  The library could also provide an initial nucleus of support for local art, such as by arranging art shows shows and allowing local artists to decorate its own buildings.

Due to the temporary breakdown of the educational system, the National Library might consider offering reading courses in order to allow both children and adults to become literate.  This service could include both basic reading courses to achieve literacy as well as special courses in fast reading for government employees.  There should be an adequate number of qualified and unemployed teachers available, if the National Library can organize the rest.

The National Library might consider the possibility of offering desk-top publishing services to the rest of the Government.  This would enable the rest of the Government to generate professional- quality documents for both internal and external use.  It would also assure that the National Library retains copies of all such documents.  It could also include the sale of such documents to other governments and private parties as appropriate.  (The US Printing Office might be used as a model, even though the scale of operations will be quite different.)  This capability would require additional qualified personnel, additional floor space, special personal computers and laser printers, and a budget for supplies (paper and printer cartridges).

5 Operations

Due to the lack of postal services and telecommunications within the Republic of Somaliland today, the National Library will initially need a post-office box in Djibouti for mail and receiving shipments of books and periodicals.  It should also have a telephone number and a telefax number of its own in a shared office in Djibouti in order to assure the efficient flow of communications with partners around the world.

At the library itself, a simple manual system should be used initially to index all items available in card files.  Some books and reports will be classified as reference works, that can only be used in the library and other books and reports will be classified for lending for a few days to a few weeks.  There should be convenient tables and chairs, both inside and outside, for users to read the books.  Users should be able to make photocopies within reasonable limits for a reasonable fee.  Particularly if users are allowed to use the photocopy machine for documents that they bring with them, such a photocopy service may quickly require the installation of more than just one photocopy machine.

As the first set of books becomes available, the staff should develop a concept for identifying the additional books, journals, magazines, newspapers, reports, etc. that they will need to acquire and how to acquire them.

It may be appropriate to develop a cooperative agreement with other larger public libraries outside of the Republic.  When users of the National Library request books or documents that are not available within the National Library, it should then be possible for the National Library to request loans of these books from the other libraries with which it cooperates.

6 The Next Steps

As the first steps, the Government of the Republic of Somaliland should officially authorize the creation of a National Library.  The Government should attempt to find at least one qualified person to start working locally on this project and appoint a manager or director or the library.  The Government should also officially allocate the building mentioned above for use as this library.

The Government could then seek a small grant from foreign donors to finance the start up and initial operations of the National Library.  As soon as safe facilities are available for storing books (protection from rain, theft, insects, etc.), the personnel of the library could start to request donations of books, as outlined in section 4 above.  (Books that arrive before the building is ready in Hargeisa could be temporarily stored and even used in Djibouti.)

© Abdulkarim Ahmed Guleid 1991

[Editor's Note: Abdulkarim Ahmed Guleid later requested Davies Consulting GmbH to develop his proposal above as a more-detailed formal proposal, which they did, with the title of "Project Proposal for creating a National Library in the Republic of Somaliland", dated 27 January 1992. This project proposal by DACO was later included in the first annual budget of the Republic of Somaliland, by its Minister of Finance, Dr. Ismael Mohamed Hurreh. Upon the recommendations of the United Nations, he increased and converted the cost estimates to US dollars and changed the name in his budget for this line item to "Sub-Project 4: National Data-Collection Center (NDCC)". However, his budget was not funded and therefore this project was never implemented. Still, Prof. David Holmes at the Munich Campus of the Univ. of Maryland organized donations of several thousand university-level textbooks and other resource materials for this project and, because the National Library was never funded, these books were later donated to the library of the new Amoud University in Borama, Somaliland. Therefore, this project was not completely in vain and did bring some real benefits for the Somalilanders, even if not in the form and extent as originally intended.]