This blog was written by Dr. Sidney Berger, professor at Simmons College and husband of GSLIS Dean Michele Cloonan. (Harvey Varnet putting it up on the blog.)
An outsider’s view of the UAE experience
I was not on the official teaching team for the project to train Iraqi
librarians and library educators, but I did give a 2-hour lecture in
the Preservation class on paper, so I feel like an ex officio participant. Hence my contribution to the official blogs.
All of the students I met–and that was most of them–seemed eager for
knowledge, grateful for the experience, and happy to have the
opportunity to be with one another in what was a combination of an academic and a “vacation” setting. Most of them enjoyed the field trips and the classes, and they all loved the shopping.
For me the most poignant moment came in the lecture I gave. I was
asked to talk about the manufacture and composition of paper and how this knowledge impacted the duties and responsibilities of librarians in terms of housing, preserving, and conserving paper-based materials. The students had many good questions, which led from one thing to another, getting onto important tangents, topics that they would have heard about later in the class from Michele–but they anticipated these important things and wanted to know NOW.
They wanted, for instance, to know about environmental controls and I
told them about HVAC systems; humidity, temperature, and air filtration; monitoring of light levels; and so forth. Then one of them asked me what she should do when her library had no electricity.
We operate in such a privileged environment that we never even consider
such a level of privation. It was startling and sobering to have heard such a question. And it just reinforces how important this program is for the Iraqis, some of whom are working at a truly primitive level in their institutions.
Two nights ago we had a splendid banquet to mark the conclusion of the
formal program of classes and field trips. Everyone ate a modestly sumptuous banquet at the top of a hill overlooking Al Ain. And almost everyone sang happily on the bus back to our residences.
Then yesterday (July 19) we had the ceremony to hand out certificates,
say all of our thank-you’s, enjoy a couple of meals together, and say good bye to each other. A few of us–instructors and Iraqis–commented on how sad we were that it was coming to an end. One Iraqi woman said to me, when they were gathering to get onto the bus to take them for the last time to their dorms, “I hate this moment. I just don’t want to say good bye.” I’ll let my readers speculate about what was on her mind.
I can’t stop writing without saying something about what was (for me)
two of the most prominent phenomena of the trip: shopping and the weather.
Michele and I were in Istanbul for a few days before we got to Al Ain.
We saw markets and shopping areas and bazaars and shops all over the place, selling all kinds of local or craft items. It was overwhelming. No such experience here in the Emirates. The only local “craft” we saw was date-picking. There are dates everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. You’d think they grew on trees! David and I went to a place last night to ship out a couple of boxes of his books and the men in the business office gave us dates. The hotel had dates, in abundance, in their restaurants. In fact, about 90% of the trees in Al Ain are date palms.
Will and I did go on one mad carpet-shopping foray and wound up in an
Irani carpet market in a suburb of Al Ain. It was primitive and hot, but really fun.
But the lack of local products doesn’t mean that the Emerati don’t have
anything to shop for. Nearing midnight last night we were in the Al Ain Mall, which was still filled with shoppers and others, probably just trying to escape the weather.
The weather. It was hot. Then it got hotter. When the temperature
went down, it was still hot. At midnight we got out of a cab and were hit in the face with a hot blast of wind. When we got up in the mornings, it was hot. (Am I making my point? It is hot here.) I was either too hot or too cold, since all the buildings are air conditioned to about 40 degrees F.
Will and I shopped for luggage (we hade done some serious
shopping!? especially in the Irani carpet market), and we decided to walk from the Al Ain Mall to the LuLu Center (where we were told we could find a luggage shop). It was only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, but it was hot. Did I say “hot”? The walk was worse (better?) than a sauna. We were soaked in the first three minutes. But it was so close, it seemed ridiculous to take a taxi. We commented that the
walk wasn’t so bad for the first three or four yards. But then . . . .
Anyway, this trip is almost history. It was fun and educational, but I
can hardly wait to get back to Boston, which is having a killer of a heat wave.
I’m ready for it.
Sid Berger