Libraries the world over need friends, now more than ever. Free, public libraries embody the ideal of equal opportunity, offering every adult and child the chance to learn, grow, dream and imagine. In our digital age, the access provided in public libraries is invaluable.

“More than ever, libraries are community hubs,” said Maureen Sullivan, president of the American Library Association, in State of America’s Libraries 2013, “and it is the librarian who works to maintain a safe harbor for teens, a point of contact for the elderly, and a place to nurture learning for all.”

David Vinjamuir wrote in Forbes January 16, 2013, that “more than half of young adults and senior citizens living in poverty in the United States use public libraries to access the internet to find work, apply to college, security government benefits and learn about critical medical treatments…for all this public libraries cost just $42 per citizen each year to maintain.”

The need to support local libraries can come at any moment – when there are proposals to close a branch, reduce a budget or eliminate a service.

Nationally, May 8 has been designated Virtual Library Legislative Day – an opportunity for all library advocates to make their voices heard on a national level. The American Library Association and United for Libraries are leading the way, with information on current issues and opportunities to Tweet your Senator or Representative.

There are state and local Friends groups supporting libraries all over the country. My own Friends of the Library in Montgomery County, MD, sponsors regular Literary Luncheons with current authors at the Mansion at Strathmore and lets members sport “I Love My Library” frames on their license plate.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina thrives because of friends too. In the beginning, Norway gave furniture for the reading halls. A university in Mexico donated CDs. Spain gave the new library a gift of valuable historical reports written in Arabic. Shanghai, China, donated books.

And did you know there are more than three dozen International Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in countries all over the world, including chapters in California, Minnesota, Baltimore, Wisconsin, Florida, New Jersey and New York? Many of these organizations have been around since the Alexandria Library opened in 2002 and continue to donate books, funds for scholarships, software and expertise.

Minnesota Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, whose logo combines the Minnesota loon with the Egyptian lotus, is led by Egyptian scientist and inventor Aida Khalafalla. The Friends organization partners regularly with Books for Africa, an NGO dedicated to “ending the book famine in Africa,” in the belief that “literacy is quite simply the bridge from misery to hope.” Through Minnesota Friends, Books for Africa donates container shipments of books to the library in Alexandria – including one on its way to Egypt now.

Another particularly active chapter in California is led by Rosalie Amer, a former Fulbright librarian at the American University in Cairo and community college librarian and professor in California. She visited the Alexandrian construction site in 1994 and has been back almost every year since, often as a scribe for the International Friends association.

The Bibliotheca Alexandria website says “our friends raise more than money, they raise awareness of the library's value, raise their voices for peace, dialogue, and positive change, raise everyone's hope for a better tomorrow, and raise their hats for our success.” That is the mission of every friend of every library in the world. Won’t you be a library friend too?

"All you need in life is truth and beauty and you can find both at the public library." Studs Terkel

On July 1, 1731, Ben Franklin and members of Junto, a philosophical debating association, formed a library. Each invested 40 shillings the first year and 10 more shillings each year thereafter to buy additional books. Their motto? “To support the common good is divine.”

American public libraries have been supporting the common good ever since. They are unique in the world in their breadth, their free access, their resources. There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the U.S. – a total of 16,766 including branches. To those who thought libraries might fade in importance with the advent of the Internet, surprise! Almost 89 percent of public libraries now offer wireless Internet access: an unmatched equalizer of opportunity.

Librarians in the nation’s public and academic libraries answer nearly 6.6 million questions weekly. Standing single file, the line of questioners would span from Ocean City, MD to Juneau, AK.

“My mother and father were illiterate immigrants from Russia,” writes the actor Kirk Douglas. “When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn’t believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn’t believe it was free.”

Every Library, a PAC for libraries, is working to keep it that way by raising funds to support local library campaigns around the country.

David Rubenstein is also working for libraries and literacy. The co-founder of the Carlyle Group and major donor to the Library of Congress is contributing $1.5 million over five years to three new annual literacy awards. “The public library my parents urged me to investigate as a child turned into a limitless source of information and amazement,” said Rubenstein when he announced his new awards program in December 2012. “For me, it opened a door to the universe.”

Beginning in 2013, three prizes will be awarded annually:

• The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000), for a groundbreaking contribution to the sustained advancement of literacy by any individual or entity worldwide

• The American Prize ($50,000), for a project developed and implemented during the past decade with special emphasis on combating aliteracy (being able to read but uninterested in doing so).

• The International Prize ($50,000), for the work of an individual, nation or nongovernmental organization working in a specific country or region

Applications are due April 30. Application details are here. The first winners will be announced at the second annual International Summit of the Book in Singapore in August.

On a much smaller scale – but just as important to maintaining the vigor of our public libraries – three $1,000 Baker & Taylor Awards are given annually to Friends groups or Library Foundations for outstanding efforts to support their libraries. Applications are due May 1. Details are available from United for Libraries, which is also funding Citizens-Save-Libraries grants to provide training in local library advocacy.

A pinnacle of library advocacy is celebrated in Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books, which prompted this Internet comment during the Egyptian protests of 2011: “The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is more than a modern repository for books. It is a phoenix rising from its own ashes, an historical monument to timeless wisdom in the face of armed conflict and religious fanaticism. It has been destroyed four times in history, and many of its priceless manuscripts lost forever; yet it stands again in our time, a monument not only to what we are, but to what we can be. Bravo.”

What makes you say “bravo” about your own public library? Please share your comments here. Celebrate National Library Week with us!

This blog addresses an interesting aspect of Egyptian political life since the 2011 revolution - the perception of overseas Egyptians by Egyptians at home.  The article was  written by Dr. Maha Ebeid in Arabic for the Egyptian magazine,  7 Days, on March 5, 2013. It was translated and updated by Tharwat Abouraya. The lines of poetry at the end were translated by Dina Elmahdy. 

"Why did you come? Came to gloat at your country, your people and your homeland? Put your hands in cold water... do something to help your country instead of betraying it and looking for another!" Thus began my tongue-lashing without interruption. I gestured at him in anger but he returned it with a smile and said, "God bless you and good to see you too; I will tell you about the people who put their hands in cold water and then judge for yourself.” So I calmed down in shame from this uncivilized conversation… and I listened...

He’s Tharwat Abouraya, a friend of many years. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Department of Geography, 1974, and ended up like many youth trying to find a job in Alexandria, near his family, but fate took him to Cairo to work with one of the tour operators. However, he decided to emigrate to America where he married Karen Leggett, who is an American, after a wonderful love story. She is a successful woman, works as a broadcaster in Voice of America, and formerly ABC Radio in Washington, D.C., now a journalist and author of children's books, including a book about Egypt, which is available in the Alexandria Library and American University book stores - Hands Around The Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books. (www.handsaroundthelibrary.com)

Tharwat is the father of Nadia, Assistant Stage Manager, ArtStream Theatre, and Adam, who works as a web developer with the famous Apple, Inc., in Cupertino, California. Tharwat polished his credentials in addition to his experience, and became an expert and Certified Travel Industry Executive in the development of global travel and tourism. This is what brings him to Egypt, every year accepting a courtesy call to the International Organization of the eTourism Industry, IOETI, which held its Fifth World Conference in Cairo December 18 to 19, 2012. He delivered a seminar on the future of e-marketing, and also a workshop on tourism marketing, which included e-tourism and dealing with the press in time of political instability.

I sat with Tharwat Abouraya to learn what the overseas Egyptians do for Egypt, and perhaps this would erase the horror of what I said to him in the beginning, and he said,

“In early 2012 we established a coalition of American - Egyptians to help Egypt, called the American Egyptian Strategic Alliance (AESA)*, based in Washington, DC. It is a non-governmental alliance of individuals including the chairman, Kais Menoufi, who took it upon himself to set establish the lobby with his personal resources. I (Tharwat) am considered among the founding members. I learned about it by chance in one of the gatherings at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC, through a friend, Dr. Amin Mahmoud, and since this time, I try to donate my time and my experience. There is also another important founding member of the Alliance, Dr. Ibrahim Oweis, who is a retired professor of political science at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he taught for 42 years. All members who created this coalition are American-Egyptians who love their country so seriously and some are American nationals who are relatives of the American-Egyptians.

“There are about 25 other Egyptian/American organizations in the United States, but all of them do not hold a government permit which gives them the right to exercise political pressure (lobbying), so mostly they raise money or send clothes to needy Egyptians or work in the field of education, such as scholarships for Egyptian students to come to the USA. AESA is considered the first legal lobby in the United States of America that cares about the relationship between American economic interests, as well as the political and strategic policies that impact the USA and Egypt.

“The established Alliance goal is to enable AESA to make American decision-makers aware of the common interests between America and Egypt, which will in turn benefit Egypt at the end. The Alliance supports decisions which lead to mutual prosperity, contributing to our positive relations and common interests.

“There is a long-time Jewish lobby in the USA AIPAC - The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee** - which enjoys the same lobbying rights, and over the years it has become a political force to be reckoned with. As I mentioned, we have started to publicize the American Egyptian Strategic Alliance in early 2012, meaning that within such a short period we cannot yet have the same influence.

“Recently, we have made contacts with more than one member of Congress to persuade them to reverse an effort by Congresswoman Kay Granger in the House of Representatives, chair of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, to withhold Egypt's share of foreign aid - which amounts to $450 million! We followed a standard format to highlight the topic and its importance, and we have used telephone conversation talking points, faxes and emails, all with a unified message, to inform officials of the importance of reversing this plan to withhold financial assistance earmarked for Egypt.

“Also, Randa Fahmy Hadoma, Chief Legal Officer and Political Advisor for AESA, succeeded in appearing on many TV political shows and programs and having a great impact on the activities of the Alliance and its mission.

“The Alliance is still considered new and our short term goals are to increase the awareness of AESA and expand the number of active participants and members, increase the budget with financial donations, and expand the experiences and competencies of members of the Board of Directors of the Alliance.

“Our long term goals are for projects that would serve the Egyptian society, which is in need of immediate assistance, without the complications and bureaucracy of government-controlled decisions. I took a day trip to Cairo accompanied by my associate Heidi Abbass, Chief Operating Officer of the Alliance, to visit such successful independent projects, i.e. Nebny in Manshiet Nasser), and Renaissance Mahrousa -throughout Egypt).”

Before I comment on Tharwat’s conversation, I must say he objected to my beginning with a laugh, " O Maha, we love Egypt above what you could imagine, and no matter how far away we are and how we long we live abroad, we cannot forget our country. We see it in everything, and we live it in everything: even in our children names. Our loyalty to Egypt is very strong. Don’t doubt that we love Egypt!”

Of course that increased my embarrassment. I jumped to shake his hand firmly, apologizing and thanking him for explaining and making it clear to me that there are on the other side, Egyptians who still have vibrant love for Egypt. Tharwat Abouraya – Gulab Al Kahir – a rain maker. He left, but the verses I read some time ago by a person called Hussein did not leave me:

“Oh, Egypt, you dwell in my heart ... My beloved competes with my love for you.
I see you when she crosses my mind ... I see her once I see you”

*As a 501(c)(4) organization, AESA strives to assist American decision makers in defining and shaping U.S. policies towards Egypt, and encourages Egypt to further the creation and protection of a civil society based on the universal values of human dignity, democratic process, freedom of speech and individual rights.

**There is a growing diversity of opinion among the American Jewish population, including a highly publicized “AIPAC doesn’t speak for me” campaign by the Jewish Voice for Peace. 

This has been a special week for Hands Around the Library. We have been honored with two awards –

• 2013 Notable Books for Global Studies by the International Reading Association (Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group)

• 2013 Best Books for Young Children by the Children’s Africana Book Award Committee

The criteria for the Global Studies list highlight many of the messages we strive to share in this story of protestors joining together to protect their library: honoring and celebrating diversity as well as the common bonds of humanity and thought-provoking content that invites reflection, critical analysis, and response. Hands Around the Library has indeed been the springboard for discussions with children and adults about civic engagement, the importance of voting and fair elections, the value of peaceful protest and even using picture books to explain current events.

The Africana Book Awards “show that Africa is indeed a varied and multifaceted continent. CABA titles expand and enrich our perspectives of Africa beyond the stereotypical, ahistorical and exotic images that are emphasized in the West.” We are proud to be included in this group.

During a recent school presentation about Hands Around the Library in Silver Spring, Maryland, a father from Uganda expressed his appreciation for a positive story about Africa. One of my personal joys when sharing this story is the opportunity to show that Egypt is so much more than pyramids and mummies – fascinating as they are! I have been similarly pleased to see the book’s relevance beyond Egypt and even Africa. At the National Children’s Museum outside Washington, D.C. recently, a father from Albania was eager to share the book with his son because he could relate it to stories of his own country’s struggles.

It was also quite exciting for us to see Hands Around the Library highlighted at the Library of Congress when Alexandria Library Director Ismail Serageldin spoke on the “Loss and Rebirth of the Library of Alexandria” on March 8. An earlier version of Dr. Serageldin’s presentation is available on his website. He now includes Hands Around the Library in that presentation.

Librarian of Congress James Billington showed several pages of the book with the audience noting that Dr. Serageldin “joined hands with the young people, explaining to them that the library isn’t something they can have as a target. Here he is again, joining hands and there is a remarkable thing. This building was surrounded by young people joining hands who were part of that whole event. It was an amazing phenomenon.”  See video.

Dr. Billington, by the way, is only the 13th Librarian of Congress since the Library was established in 1800. He and Dr. Serageldin have a long history of collaboration, most recently on the World Digital Library, a cooperative project of the Library of Congress, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partner libraries. The Bibliotheca Alexandria is a key partner and contributor of digitized content, and Dr. Serageldin now chairs the Executive Council of the WDL. The World Digital Library brings together on a single website rare and unique documents – books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings – that tell the story of the world’s cultures. The site is intended for general users, students, teachers and scholars. The website is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The actual documents on the site are presented in their original languages.

Ismail Serageldin

We wish you a productive and enjoyable week -
and please check out our spring schedule of events so we can meet you!

Video by Tharwat Abouraya

Guest blogger Tharwat Abouraya is my Egyptian-born husband, now with dual citizenship. He recently returned from a visit to Egypt. In Alexandria, he worked with many good people at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to expand the distribution of Hands Around the Library and follow the progress of the Library's Arabic translation of Hands. In Cairo, he met with Lisa Anderson, President of the American University of Cairo, who is also helping to make Hands more widely available in Egypt. Tharwat's handwriting is on all the Arabic protest signs in our book - and now he has some protests and comments of his own.

Egyptians succeeded to topple Mubarak on January 25, 2011, because they were united Egyptians inclusive of all religions and social classes and they had a single goal. To bring Egypt to harmony again, Egyptians must focus on their shared singular goal of living together despite their differences to realize a better life now and in the future.

There is a disconnect between the current regime and the people’s demands. The rulers’ lack of awareness of the Main Street in Egypt is the core of the uprising: too many people fear being hungry. Democracy cannot thrive in a land of empty stomachs.  In addition, some are finding that their own interpretation of the Quran does not match with that of the Islamists governing Egypt, especially with regard to violence and discrimination against their own people as well as people of other faiths.  

Protest march in Alexandria, Egypt, in January 2013

Beyond physical needs, Egypt needs political stability, security and employment. There must be support for the private sector and an end to corruption. Egypt must be able to take advantage once again of its unique, God-given and created resources:

• Mediterranean & Red Sea beaches,
• energy from the sun,
• the Nile River, second longest in the world, and
• the world’s largest and first open air museum

What's different two years after the revolution? The 25 Jan 2011 Revolution lit a fire under American-Egyptians to start their first ever political lobbying organization in the U.S. – the American Egyptian Strategic Alliance, AESA. Within Egypt, more young adults and youth are becoming engaged in political discussions and following the political news.  More Egyptians vote in local and national elections, including many first time voters. Noticeably more young adults and youth are volunteering in home grown community projects, like the Nebny Foundation and Nahdet Al Mahrosha.  

More is needed. 

Egyptian students in schools and universities must learn to debate, communicate and influence others.  Volunteer opportunities should provide young people with new skills and alleviate some of Egypt’s immediate problems – improving trash collection and continuing to protect tourist sites, libraries and cultural organizations: just as they did during the revolution itself at the Cairo Museum and the Alexandria Library. 

Tharwat Abouraya and AUC President Lisa Anderson, in her Cairo office

The book will live, says Ismail Serageldin with definitive optimism, but there have been and will continue to be enormous transformations in the way books are delivered.  The Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina recently addressed the first International Summit of the Book at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.   Dr. Serageldin’s full lecture is here, with a few highlights below.

In the third millennia BCE, Egyptian papyrus became the perfect medium for writing. For thousands of years, books were written on scrolls of papyrus – hundreds of thousands of them stored at the original library of Alexandria. In fact, the Phoenician port of Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece, provided the Greek word for book (biblos).  By the fifth century CE, the codex was replacing the scroll – leaves of paper with writing on both sides, bound along the spine. Dr. Serageldin quoted Umberto Eco who called the codex, “One of those felicitous inventions that once discovered remained unchanged, like the spoon, the hammer, the scissors and the axe.” 

The book spread wildly with the invention of the printing press, of course, and it has survived radio, movies, television – all of which were supposed to signal the end of reading and books. There are more books today than at any time in history and the Internet review source Goodreads counts 12 million readers as members of its global virtual book clubs.

But Dr. Serageldin does believe “we are witnessing the last days of the absolute dominance of the codex as the primary receptacle in which the book is stored and read.” The book, however, will survive as “collections of words of unimaginable variety and power. Doubtless it will take different shapes that we cannot even imagine, but it will be suited to worlds we cannot imagine…” He trusts the youth of the world to create the books of tomorrow, and for himself – he will read virtual books in the air, “celebrating the codex as my companion and libraries as paradise.”

Follow Dr. Serageldin on Twitter

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Dr. Serageldin views original art from Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Book

From Maryland to Texas and in between, we will be sharing the story of Hands Around the Library in 2013. On March 23, I am delighted to participate in a Publishing Day panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville. On April 11, I will present Hands Around the Library at the State of Maryland International Reading Association Council (SoMIRAC) and participate in a panel with other members of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C.  Susan and I will both be presenters at the Texas Library Association Conference on April 27. 

I am also looking forward to a few conversations with young readers – in January at the Easttown Library in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and in February at Burnt Mills Elementary School in Silver Spring, MD, under the auspices of An Open Book Foundation.

There is more information about the types of visits we can arrange here. We are eager to talk with children and adults not only about the moving story of Hands Around the Library but also the power of civic engagement and peaceful resistance.

We are also pleased to be featured this month in the CLCD Newsletter, where you can find out a little more about how Susan and I came to write Hands Around the Library. Newsletter editor Emily Griffin asked the intriguing question, “If you could only save a small handful of books from your personal library, which would you choose and why?”  How would you answer the question?

Sharing books with children can be enlightening, surprising and just plain fun. 

Most recently I shared Hands Around the Library at Forest Knolls Elementary School in Silver Spring, MD.

Fifth graders Jay and Adrianna interviewed me for an in-school television news program, asking how I came to be an author and whether I had a favorite book: the secret question I never answer when creating online accounts because I fear I will never provide the same answer twice.  The book that came to my mind at that moment was Heidi – Adrianna acknowledged knowing the movie and librarian Susan Osmun said the book was indeed in the school library.  

Heidi was originally published in 1880.I have my mother’s copy of Johanna Spyri’s novel, published in 1924 in Akron, Ohio. So yes – a true classic and yet quite ahead of its time in portraying a strong girl protagonist and an inclusive, can-do attitude toward people with disabilities.   One of the many treasures the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was designed to protect, as a matter of fact.

On election day, I “Skyped” with a small class of Americans in Costa Rica. I wanted these 7 and 8 year old children to understand what made an election unfair, so we had them vote for carrots or cookies. There were only six children but the vote was seven to four in favor of carrots.

 “But we all wanted cookies,” said one little boy.

 “It’s peculiar,” said a little girl, “some of the ballots have the same handwriting.” 

The children figured out the ballot box had been unfairly stuffed with carrot votes.  Teacher Erika Dooley declared the results final – carrots had won. The kids felt cheated. They said they felt bad, weird, might not vote again.  But they learned exactly why people in Egypt protested, overturning their government but leaving the library in Alexandria intact. And of course, they are protesting again against unfairness in Egypt even now.

Earlier in the year, 4^th and 5^th graders at Burgundy Farm County Day School in Alexandria, Virginia,  Skyped with youngsters at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. I asked if they had ever felt like taking action to make something happen at their school or in their neighborhood.  One student explained that her class wanted a pajama day, so that when “you wake up in the morning, you don’t have to change your clothes because you wear your pajamas to school.” The teacher wasn’t so sure. “So we got a piece of paper and everyone who wanted a pajama day signed the paper and the teacher said we could have a pajama day.”  The goal may seem frivolous but the children learned the value of peaceful, positive protest – who knows where that little feeling of empowerment might lead someday!

On almost the same day I mentioned my love of Heidi, I learned that Hands Around the Library is available as an eBook on iTunes. It turns out Heidi is there too!  We may worry that books will become dinosaurs in our digital age, but technology - from eBooks to Skype to the Internet generally – really just enables us to share classical treasures and new ones with more and more children. And that means more opportunities to watch light bulbs go off, grins appear and daydreams percolate.

Are you a teacher, parent, librarian or friend of children? Share a moment when you've experienced the joy or wisdom of a child while sharing a book or an idea...

For tips on Skyping with an author or arranging visits by Karen Leggett Abouraya or Susan Roth, click here.

(The Un-tangled, True Stories of What's BEHIND the Pictures in Hands Around the Library, and other stories)

*The un-covered, un-pasted, un-glued(?!) secrets of my collage making.
*Techniques revealed HERE!
*The dis-solve-ment of the adhesive mysteries.
*The unadulterated truths about the tapes, recorded HERE!
*No scraps of information left uncovered.
*No shreds of truth concealed.
*The tell-all of what was found on the cutting-room floor.
*The cut cloth capers.
*The mystery of the missing scissors solved!
*The dis-spellments of the suspicions, the full exposures of the lies, just the facts, nothing but the truths and more.

1-SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS:
"Are you sure you didn't paint this?" "Aren't these PENCIL marks?" "That eyebrow looks like the line of an indelible pen to me!" "Get out of here, I know the work of a one-haired brush when I see it!"

FACTS: I DON'T PAINT! Some of my illustrations may resemble watercolors, but I achieve that look with layers and layers of gossamer papers, many of which come from Japan and other faraway places, but some of which might well come from a well-wrapped sandwich-to-go, from a carry-out joint right here in New York.

SECRET REVEALED: I NEVER use greasy food-impregnated papers from sandwiches or pastries because I do not wish to invite mice into my studio even though some of my books include their images.
About those skinny lines: I have bouquets of skinny scissors that can cut exceedingly small.

2- CLUES: If one looks carefully at the illustrations in good light, the edges of these thin, heavily-layered papers are usually discernible. Also visible, the edges of those skinny lines: they are ever-so-slightly raised.

3- ILLUSIONS: Sometimes visible are pieces of photographs that I have taken, perhaps enlarged or made smaller on my own little printer, then copied several times to be used as papers. I sometimes make visual patterns using these pieces of photos. My intention is to give the sense of the reality rather then an exact representation of the reality.

4- DELUSIONS: Sometimes when I create these abstractions the result is very obvious to me, i.e., I can still "see" that reality from which my interpretation was derived. But sometimes these visions are in my own head alone. Case in point: I abstracted the glass walls of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to a series of blue and white triangles to be used for the title page background. When my art director saw this she begged me to create something more concrete, more understandable, instead. Result: there are books on the title page.

 5- MISSING! The secret of the as-it-were-Emperor's new clothes in this book is that most of the people are only half-dressed. None of the people are wearing ANYTHING on their backsides! In fact, plenty of people are missing their body parts that don't show…IF they're anyway hidden from view. What you don't see probably is not there.

6- STUCK! The glue I use most is a household adhesive from Japan. It is not poison. Eating it will not kill you although I do not recommend swallowing the evidence. This water-soluble glue is re-positional as are almost all of my adhesives, tapes included. This means that I do change my mind at will. Never count on any part of any picture finishing where it started!

7- DISGUISES: The people, places and things that I depict might look something like what I am trying to represent, but they are not attempts at realistic renderings. Example: Dr. Serageldin told me that he has a grey tweed suit, but although his own is of a woven fabric, it is not identical to the naïf lattice-work interpretation of tweed that I created for his paper image's suit.

CLOTH VS. PAPER, VICE VERSA, AND OTHER MISCONCEPTIONS DEBUNKED: The giant flag on the Library steps is made of papers. The librarian's headscarf is made of a reduced and copied photograph. Unlike Dr. Serageldin's grey suit, the guy in the BROWN tweed is wearing genuine wool fabric suit. Conclusion: What you see may not be what it is. But then again, it may well be.

Mysteries solved? I hope NOT!

8- CONFESSIONS (finally, a few, all true): My best ever scissors, confiscated by airport security guards at the gate as I was last leaving Australia, have been replaced! In Germany this past week the identical scissors mysteriously turned up in the gift shop of the Bauhaus Museum. Learning from my hard-learned lesson, these beauties have traveled safely back to America in my shipped-through luggage and are now sitting in a place of honor on my desk. 

They do not sit alone. Also found in Germany last week: a pair of equally gorgeous tweezers, the best I have ever seen---a pointy, sharp perfection of beautifully designed stainless steel, worth every outrageous euro. And by the way, the secret of the new tools, revealed by the charming salesman in the Bauhaus shop, but only in a whisper, after the store had actually closed for the day and he was staying late just for me, is this: they're made in Switzerland!

As we were writing Hands Around the Library, the young librarian who became the narrator in our story – Shaymaa Saad – talked about why the library had become so important to young people:

Young people can “read, chat, make friends, dream about the future, think creatively, talk, and discuss all about personal, political and whatever issues are racing through their minds.”

Young People's Library - Photo by Bibliotheca Alexandrina 

Library director Ismail Serageldin is quite convinced that these opportunities helped generate not only a desire to protect the library but the enthusiasm for reform and revolution itself in Egypt. “This revolution in Egypt was a liberal revolution. People who believe in democracy and freedom of expression, in pluralism and openness,” he told NPR at the time. “And I’m proud and happy that the Library of Alexandria may have contributed in some small way to supporting the kinds of ideas that have found their expression in the young people who led this revolution.”

The current direction of the revolution in Egypt remains uncertain, but the importance of freedom of expression, pluralism, and the chance to vote freely and fairly is not.  In our own country, where voter turnout was only 62 percent even in the highly contested 2008 presidential race, it is heartening to see people crowding the polls to vote early and we can only hope that total turnout this year will grow. 

The right and opportunity to vote is an incredible privilege and responsibility.  Egyptians who had never voted in their lives until last year (because it never mattered) still talk with excitement about casting their first ballot ever. The ballot uses symbols for candidates because so many voters are illiterate – but they still voted!

Egyptian Presidential ballot showing candidates Ahmed Shafiq (top) and now-President Mohamed Morsi

Two relatively new American organizations are working to make sure young people fully understand the importance of voting and civic engagement generally. “The story of making and keeping America is the most noble of stories,” says The Dreyfuss Initiative - started by actor Richard Dreyfuss – whose mission is “to teach our kids how to run our country with common sense and realism, before it’s time for them to run the country. If we don’t, someone else will run this country and the experiment of government by, for, and of the people will have failed.” The Dreyfuss Initiative is creating a curriculum with lessons on reason, logic, clarity of thought and expression, agility of mind and ethics. 

iCivics, created in 2009 by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, is preparing young Americans to become knowledgeable, engaged 21^st century citizens. iCivics has produced educational video games and other free teaching materials, including online competitions among student-designed projects that have an impact in their communities.

Libraries in schools and communities have the resources to help foster civic engagement.  Our own website includes related activities and discussion topics. The Kirkus reviewer of Hands Around the Library coined the phrase “Freedom and libraries: an essential combination,” writing of the “palpable ebullience” of protestors who unfurled the giant Egyptian flag on the steps of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  

                                                              Photo credit Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Teachers and librarians, parents and grandparents, authors and artists, neighbors and voters – we must make it our mission, in and out of election years, to plant the seeds and cultivate this same spirit of palpable ebullience about the promise of  America.

“The most fantastic thing about modern libraries in general, and Arlington's (VA) libraries specifically, is the depth of what they offer. There are very good online research resources, tons of movies to check out for free, classes and meetings, soooooo many picture books, a limited foreign language collection, music to borrow - and helpful librarians to help you find what you need. When the weather is beastly, it's a cool place to let your kid come and play with a puzzle, read a book, and play on the computer. The summer programs with performances and movies are also fantastic.   Also, my community is there - in all its wildly varied colors, languages, socioeconomic statuses, ages. If you aren't really giving your local library a workout, you are missing out on so much!”

This library lover in Arlington, Virginia, was responding to a Washington Post poll about how people are using their libraries.  Demand is as strong as ever, according to the Washington Post article – “Whether measured by circulation size, customer visits to branches or Web sites, or participation in classes, reading programs or information inquiries, people are using their public libraries.”

This is National Friends of Libraries Week, sponsored by United for Libraries, “a national network of enthusiastic library supporters who believe in the importance of libraries as the social and intellectual centers of communities and campuses.”   Or as the Kirkus reviewer of Hands Around the Library put it: Freedom and libraries – an essential combination.  The protesters in Egypt, whose story we tell in Hands Around the Library, certainly appreciated the importance of the library as a place to learn, share knowledge, cross cultural and religious boundaries – a place where “we were free inside the library even when we were not free outside.”

Our American libraries need each of us just as much as the grand Bibliotheca Alexandrina depended on the Egyptians. In fact, United for Libraries has just created EveryLibrary.org, the first and only national organization dedicated exclusively to political action at a local level to create, renew, and protect public funding for libraries of all types. Is your library threatened by loss of funding? Shorter hours? Even closing?  EveryLibrary.org has resources and tools to help, including a list of 2012 ballot issues that need voter support.

Consider joining your local library Friends group. We will be providing signed copies of Hands Around the Library to the two Friends groups that win awards for the creativity of their library celebrations. I will be speaking at the Takoma Park Library in Maryland, a presentation sponsored by the Friends of the Takoma Park Library. Soon I will be working with the Friends of the Library Montgomery County, MD, to plan additional events.  In addition to advocating for libraries, the group has regular Literary Luncheons – including Washington Post assistant editor David Maraniss on November 15.

A library card is one of the first concrete bits of personal ownership and identification we can give our children.  Henry Ford’s grandson, Edsel B. Ford II, commented once that his own son placed “that brand new driver’s license in his wallet alongside his library card, and it occurred to me that these two documents have much in common. Both support America’s free and independent way of life. The driver’s license allows my son, and all of our sons and daughters, the individual freedom of personal mobility. The library card gives him, and all of our sons and daughters, the freedom of thought and speech so essential for members of a democratic society.”

NOTE:

Hands Around the Library is also featured this week on Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations blog and on Cindy Woodruff’s Peace Study Center blog “Bringing World Events to Children Through Picture Books.”

We entered a cocoon of curiosity, acceptance and eagerness to share at Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria, Virginia, when we celebrated the publication of Hands Around the Library last month. Fourth and fifth graders Skyped between Burgundy School and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Ryan asked about the Egyptians’ favorite food. Roksan answered from Egypt, “Pizza and hamburgers.” The similarities and shared interests kept tumbling out before we moved to more substantive issues.

When is it important to stand up for what you believe? Nine-year-old Hatem in Egypt said, “I think it’s worth standing up for what you think if someone is oppressed or being harmed.” Eliza in America says freedom means that even “if you don’t have much money, it doesn’t mean you are not allowed to vote.” In Egypt, Roksan said “Freedom means to be free to say what you want without fear of punishment. Egyptians lived for 30 years without this freedom.”

Do you feel you have that freedom now to speak?

“Yes, of course.”

You also hear one boy say he was too young to participate in the marches outside so he used Facebook to send the message that everyone in his country was looking for freedom. Egyptian children’s librarian Lobna spoke of her pride in “voting for the first time and choosing who I want to be president of my country. I can say yes or I can say no without any fear.”

There was also a discussion about libraries. The Egyptian children participate in many activities at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, from helping out as members of the Children’s Library Friends to drawing and painting, making posters and of course reading. But this is their only library, while the American children all raised their hands when asked if they had a library close to their homes. We were all reminded that our free public libraries are a treasure we too should be willing to protect. This is National Friends of Libraries Month. As comedian Paula Poundstone says in the video link from our homepage, “If you haven’t been to the library lately, you’re overdue.”

Our guest blogger is Shaymaa Saad, the young librarian who welcomed Susan Roth in the Children’s Library at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 2009. Shaymaa became “the narrator” in Hands Around the Library. She was quite pleased to receive her copy of Hands, writing to us that, “For me in particular, I thought I am living that day all over again, I could smell the revolution with all its feelings and details … the Arabic words were the first to catch my eye, since we wrote and held and waved with these very particular signs. The pictures are very expressive and it adds more and more value to the book, making it very much Egyptian.”  Now looking at recent events in Egypt, Shaymaa shares her thoughts and concerns again.

A great Egyptian scientist and philosopher, Dr. Moustafa Mahmoud, once said, “If you truly want to understand a person, watch his/her actions and behavior in a moment of free will, and then you will be completely surprised. You might find the prostitute praying, the saint committing the sin, the doctor drinking poison, and your friend back-stabbing you”

This is pretty much what Hands Around the Library is about - monitoring and recording a moment of free will for the Egyptians.

The very recent events might have brought out the worst in both sides, not just Egyptians and Americans, but the Arabs and the West, giving a misleading image of mutual hatred. The truth is clear to everyone that political motivations are behind those vicious actions, while if you try to recall the moments of free will, you will be surprised by the behavior of the individuals.

You will see how Egyptians and all Arabs were thrilled to see the Empire State Building glowing green during the Muslim feast “Eid al Fitr”, and how this book Hands Around The Library in this very critical time tries to show Egyptians at their best, when young people stood together holding hands around the great library of Alexandria to protect it from any possible damage, motivated by their sense of responsibility and loyalty to this cultural center. No one paid attention to religion, age, gender, color or sexual orientation. Other moments of free will which reflect the true nature of Egyptians came when Muslims and Christians united in Tahrir Square, protecting each other habitually at the times of prayer; again it was not an organized action – it was spontaneous.

Now what I am trying to say, is that if we try to judge other humans with different backgrounds, upon what media tell us, or upon other people’s experiences, we will then have a fake image, a rich environment for hatred, leading to more wars and destruction, but if we try to raise our children on crossing the bridge and interacting with the other, many misunderstandings will be cleared to our all benefit.

One good example of such cross cultural small projects was that one when we let children from Alexandria, Virginia, and Alexandria Egypt, Skype for about an hour – both when I led a Skype session in 2010 and again last week. The children were surprised to find that the similarities were much greater than the differences. Now imagine a generation of those children growing to lead their countries to a better world with better understanding of the “other,” again for the benefit of everyone.

Last but not least, thanks to Hands around the Library, and such decent initiatives for contributing to creating a more peaceful environment.

Shaymaa S. Abdelazim

Our first school visit for Hands Around the Library was interrupted by a fire drill.  Four flights up, four flights down, four flights back up.  But with calm determination, teacher Milton Bryant quickly brought order back to a room bursting with lively third graders in the middle of a summery afternoon. 

You could have heard Susan’s tweezers drop as she created a character by ripping and cutting paper in front of these youngsters at Ketcham Elementary School in Washington, D.C., down the road from the Anacostia Public Library.

Thanks to An Open Book Children’s Literacy Foundation, which invited us to Ketcham, every child took home a copy of Hands Around the Library. The children hovered over us, spelling their names out loud, so we could sign each copy personally.

 I asked Dara LaPorte, formerly manager of the Children and Teen Department at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, to talk about the work of the foundation that she recently started with Heidi Powell, school/community liaison manager at Politics and Prose.

“I think my favorite quote from a child has been, "Will you come again so that I can have another book?  I want to start a whole collection of them!’

“At every event, as soon as a child gets his or her book, he or she opens it and starts reading.   In line, walking out of the room, still seated on the floor.  

“I also love the awed silence and the looks on children's faces when an illustrator draws.  Then there is always a gasp when the picture becomes something they recognize.

“Several times, we have gone back to a school and seen books that we have previously given to the library in the return basket to be re-circulated.  Kids have taken them out!

“Children are reading the books we are giving them, teachers are integrating the books into their curricula, children are writing more after author's writing workshops, science teachers are going on field trips after receiving science books.

“Everyone who participates in an event with An Open Book leaves richer:  

• The children are excited to read a book that they own.  
• Teachers have new ideas and materials to use in the classroom.  
• Authors have thought about their craft and their audience in new ways, and have usually answered insightful questions that they have never before been asked.”

We are indeed richer for the experience – thank you to the children of Ketcham Elementary School – and may books inspire you to dream big!  An Open Book offers its literacy programs and author/artist visits to any Washington, D.C. area school receiving federal Title I funds.  

Blocked writers and intimidated artists often complain about the daunting white pages shining, flashing, mocking, even blinding their anxious eyes as they reluctantly lift their pens and pencils, and yes, also their scissors, to meet those pristine, unsullied surfaces. It's scary!

But when I stared onto my first white page of Hands Around the Library, it was a billion times scarier than any white page I had ever encountered before. Why? Because a blank page is one thing, but competition with more than 5,000 years of an extraordinarily creative cultural and artistic history of art, one of the most highly developed, brilliant, diverse in style and in medium, prolific, universal, amazing, exquisite, spectacular, gorgeous, highly visible in art museums all over the world, as well as in the most beautiful of fine art books and history books in every language, and taught in fair depth starting in most 2nd grade classrooms all over the world, is quite another.

You think an empty page is daunting? I'll show you daunting!

And then place this unique art historical wonder of a treasure against the backdrop of the mythical memory of the greatest and most famous library that the world has ever known, juxtaposed with what is surely the second greatest library that the world has ever known. From here in New York I could only say fageddabowdit. Just the thought is enough to make one go right back to bed. Except that…

…here, at last, was the assignment that Karen Leggett Abouraya and I had been dreaming of for more than two years. And fortunately, here was a specific story to tell, one that had just happened now. I shut my eyes and forced myself to focus on the present.

The story begins in the library, in front of books on a shelf. I remembered that library, the place where I had met the beautiful and welcoming children's librarian, Shaymaa Saad, the young woman who had greeted me there in perfect English. We had spoken several times since my return from Alexandria. She was excited about this book. "I can't wait to see what you do with this project," she encouraged me. And so I thought about Shaymaa. I put roses in her cheeks. I covered her head with a reduced photo-montage of the appliquéd tent that hangs on a wall in Karen's house - the one that's an original of the printed fabric I had bought in an open market in Alexandria. I had seen variations of this pattern repeated all over Alexandria---in curtains, tablecloths, napkins, towels and even in huge tents, like Karen's, ones that were set up for celebrations, right in the middle of the busy streets.

Following along with our story, eyes still shut, I revisited the sweeping Corniche that stretches along the Mediterranean Sea well beyond the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in both directions. I recalled the greens of the palms against the blues of the skies. I remembered the wide boulevard, full of traffic, with people walking, jogging and fishing on the beach front. I conjured up a vision of this huge open space, now filled to bursting with marching and shouting people. But what would they be doing with their hands before they held hands around their library?

They'd be waving signs, of course! Hundreds of signs! I cut out a few, requested the correct calligraphy from Karen's husband, Tharwat, incorporated the Arabic, and finally I was ready to march on with the others, through the rest of the white pages still piled up on my desk.

Facts: 1- Once one starts, continuing gets easier. 2- One page leads to the next. 3-If the page before doesn't look all that bad, the courage kicks in pretty readily for the next one. 4- As the white pages dwindle down, the excitement builds. Usually, as the book progresses to the finish, I just can't wait to see what will happen next, so that hurrying along becomes almost a wind-driven compulsion, and that makes working very much easier.

Then, even by the time the crowds reached the front wall of the library building, I couldn't wait to begin incorporating those 500 alphabets into my photo-montages.

And so, I suppose one could say that, even in the face of these past 5,012 years, the rest of my story is history.

For next time: what I cut to make it happen.

The Kirkus reviewer who gave Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books a star also coined this phrase, which elegantly captures the heart of our story. Young people in Alexandria, Egypt, in 2011 so valued the opportunities offered by their immense and glorious Library that they held hands around it during protest marches in 2011, symbolically protecting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina from anyone who might threaten either its fragile glass façade or the knowledge and freedom nurtured inside.

Library director Ismail Serageldin eloquently praised the young protesters on the Library website for demonstrating the “moral power of nonviolence.” Within days of the revolution, the Library became the place where Egyptians could gather to discuss and reflect. Within two weeks of the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt on February 11, 2011, the Library hosted 600 young people from Egypt and the Arab World at large to discuss active citizenship and the future of institutions, voting, elections, political parties and civil society. The proceedings were shared via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. “I have unlimited confidence in Egypt’s youth,” said Dr. Serageldin. “It is the dawn of a new day.”

Hands Around the Library celebrates a signature moment in the Egyptian revolution and the Arab Spring, when young and old, Muslim and Christian held hands to protect their cherished Library. “We are one hand!” they shouted.

We invite you to relive that moment in the words and art of our book. Contemplate the broad expanse of history from the days when the ancient Library (300 BCE to 400 CE) was a world center of learning to our own day, when libraries continue to advance knowledge and stimulate the imagination. “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert,” said Andrew Carnegie. The young protesters in Egypt believed that in their souls.