Photos: YouTube
The Abrhot Library in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, stands adjacent to Friendship Park and the newly built Science Museum, directly across from the Ethiopian parliament and the Grand Palace, and very close to the Ministry of Education and Addis Ababa University campuses. Its location puts the library at the center of the country’s political, social, educational and cultural life.
The Abrhot – meaning enlightenment in Amharic – seeks to shine its light on all who visit. The library, which was opened on Jan. 1, 2022, by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the mayor of Addis Ababa, Adanech Abebe, has the potential to hold 1.4 million books. But it is in need of donations. Civil strife and the global pandemic have put the project behind.
That is where the Association of University Presses and TSEHAI Publishers at Loyola Marymount University have stepped up. Together they have launched an international book drive to supply the Abrhot Library and the National Archives and Library Agency of Ethiopia with materials worthy of their location.
“We’re happy to assist Elias Wondimu and TSEHAI Publishers at Loyola Marymount University in this worthy effort, recognizing that placing books in the hands of library users in Ethiopia advances our global community’s mission of cultivating and disseminating knowledge,” said Peter Berkery, executive director of AUPresses. “Our association envisions a world that values the many ways that scholarship enriches societies, institutions, and individuals. Working with TSEHAI Publishers to support Abrhot Library and the National Archives and Library Agency of Ethiopia is another opportunity to make that vision a reality.”
The Association of University Presses is an organization of more than 150 international nonprofit scholarly publishers. Since 1937, it has advanced the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge. AUPresses members are active across many scholarly disciplines, including the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences; publish significant regional and literary work; and are innovators in the world of digital publishing. LMU has been a participant on the AUPress scene for the past seven years through TSEHAI.
“The donated books from these university presses not only bring global knowledge to Ethiopia, but also fill the gap that existed for generations by placing relevant books in the hands of readers in these libraries,” said Elias Wondimu, publisher of TSEHAI and editorial and production director for the Marymount Institute Press.
Christie Henry, board member of the AUPresses and director of Princeton University Press, wrote to her association, “We now have an opportunity to help further in that endeavor, specifically in Ethiopia, where distribution of print UP books and journals has been a universal challenge (and universal aspiration!).” The university presses are galvanized to participate in a book drive to collect literature — literary fiction, poetry, reference materials, academic books (in all disciplines), and textbooks — in physical, audiobook, and ebook formats to fill the shelves at Abrhot. Anyone can join the effort by connecting with a university press and inquiring about the Abrhot Book Drive. Henry added, “As we did with the National Library in Rio several years ago, we’d like to invite the entire UP community to consider contributing books and print journals to support Abrhot, knowing that accessibility to books is vital to global equity.”
Wondimu, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., has arranged for a container to depart the U.S. in November, and to receive UP books from October 1-31.
“With post COVID-19 and the war-ravaged national economy in Ethiopia, filling the new library shelves from reputable global publishers is simply an unattainable luxury,” said Wondimu. “In this regard, the University Presses are fulfilling their global knowledge equity mandate and standing in solidarity with the world at large.”
Henry of Princeton University Press agreed. “As a global university press, with a mission to engage readers, equitably, the world over, this partnership opportunity with Elias, the Ethiopian government, and peer university presses has inspired Princeton University Press from the very first moment of its imagination. We are continuously seeking more ways to bring the books we publish to readers across Africa, and Abhrot Library is a unique and vital way of forming a new community of readers, and to unite our shared commitments to knowledge and books.”
Source: Loyola Marymount University
