From the Jordan Times:
Issam Mahmoud, regional director of Trans-Middle East International Distribution Company, said the 15-year UN embargo on Iraq caused a lag not only in the acquisition of books, but also in the categorisation and management of volumes in the country’s libraries.
Mahmoud said the current system of categorisation in Iraqi libraries relies on traditional systems using card catalogues rather than the computer- based categorisation systems now used by most libraries around the world.
I’ll be an Iraqi librarian
I have been a nurse in any number of countries, and I have been shot at in Haiti, how could Iraq be much different. I have the metal hat and the kevlar vest.
I’d be happy to be an Iraqi librarian, my Arabic is a little rusty, but I am OK with Farsi so the characters are pretty familiar.
So if someone can figure out how to get me paid $50K/year and if someone can swing an automation system that handles Arabic then I’m game.
Truly, I would go to Iraq to be a librarian. The war is over, there are a few bombings going on but I have yet to hear of a bombed library. I’ll stay local so I won’t stand out like a sore thumb going back and forth to the green zone every day.
If they kidnap me and cut off my head … well BFD, God and I are pretty tight so maybe I could hang out with the library saints (not that they would make me a saint)
I would love a challenge in librarianship. What could be a better vocation, dropping in just after a conflict to bring information to those who had been deprived of it for years.
I think I’ll run with this, it sounds better than anything I’ve done in the library so far and it may actually pay a living wage.
So I called Issam Mahmoud…and he had no fecking idea what I was talking about. Apparently there is more than one Trans-Middle East International Distribution Company. So I’m trying again (hence the late hour of this posting).
I’ll post follow ups if I find any. Make Matt an international librarian, call on your foreign friends for support !
Re:I’ll be an Iraqi librarian
So I have called Jordan about six times and places named Al-whatever that bookstore was in Iraq three times. No one has any idea what I am talking about, or 2 just hung up after Saalam…
If the FBI isin’t camping on my front door yet they will be soon. I am using Skype.com for most of the calls and it works pretty good, some I used my mobile because it is cheaper.
I am bound and determined to bring Iraq the crappy automation systems we in the States have to deal with. If I can’t have a card catalog neither can they!
More as I find it out. The editor of the Jordan times is named Jennifer I’m told, very odd.
Re:I’ll be an Iraqi librarian
Jennifer (x 2392 or 2391) is not in. They expect her in 2 or 3 hours…my kind of schedule.
The odd thing is that the people I speak with yell in French to each other. I don’t speak French!
One conversation had a woman asking me the questions in Arabic and then French and me answering in English. Oddly we both got our point across.
Well, off to be I gotta ring Jenny in 2-3 hours.
No wonder
No wonder these people have so much trouble setting up a government… I can’t get anyone to take a phone message.
Well I emailed the editor of the paper after making several more phone calls.
Too bad I can’t find a website like floridalibraryjobs.com (perhaps iraqilibraryjobs.iq).