Michael McGrorty has posted this thoughtful piece at Library Dust, expressing his sadness at the events in Beslan, particularly in light of the fact that this horrendous crime happened in a school.
I think that we of the library community should devise some way of contributing to the healing of Beslan. We as much or more than any others understand the goodness, the restorative power of books and reading. We need to help Beslan’s children become children again. What better balm than a new, safe place for them to enjoy reading? The book is the furthest thing from the bomb; it is a tool of civilization and reason, the one invention we can hold up to the universe without shame, perhaps our finest gift to posterity. I think we need to build a library in Beslan. For its children and for our own, for an answer when they ask what all the dying meant.
He follows up with information about how individuals can contribute.
Ghetto Libraries for Children
There was an account about children’s libraries in the ghettos in: Shavit, David, 1997, Hunger for the printed word: books and libraries in the Jewish ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe. McFarland & Co., United Kingdom. 173 pages. ISBN: 0786402032. In this account, Shavit mentions that the books of fantasy and fairy tales were read and re-read until they were worn and falling apart, as the children desperately tried to escape, at least for a while, the horrors of the ghetto. As the years wore on, the books became more and more worn out, until the wear stopped because all the children were gone.
Setting up a library in Beslan for the children or the school is a good idea, but the address given is for general aid, which may not go specifically for books and libraries, and may go for salaries and overhead instead.