NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

6/16/2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- Northwestern State University and the Natchitoches Parish Library recently completed a successful "Books for Baghdad" drive collecting 3,126 books for three university libraries in Iraq.

The two-month drive collected books for Iraqi college libraries which have not
received new textbooks since 1990. Donations came from NSU students, faculty and staff, members of the Natchitoches community along with people from around Louisiana.

"We were very pleased with the response from Northwestern, Natchitoches and the state of Louisiana," said Dr. Greg Granger, coordinator of social sciences at Northwestern, who was a member of the steering committee for the book drive. "The drive gathered books from a number of disciplines including science, social science and languages. The diversity and amount of sources was gratifying."

The effort by Northwestern and the Natchitoches Parish Library was noted by the Chronicle of Higher Education and Armed Forces Radio.

"We hope our contribution will help rebuild the educational system in Iraq," said Granger. "It was gratifying to see how willing the community and state were to help students and scholars in Iraq that they will probably never meet."

A committee of campus representatives and students along with staff from the Natchitoches Parish Library began organizing the drive earlier this year after NSU president Dr. Randall J. Webb received an e-mail from Lt. Brian Hunsaker, a Northwestern alumnus who is stationed in Iraq. Hunsaker explained conditions that existed at university libraries in Iraq and the need for up to date textbooks, journals and books.

Collected books are being examined and entered in a database. Plans are to ship the books to Iraq as soon as possible.

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