Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books - by Susan L. Roth and Karen Leggett Abouraya

The ancient library of Alexandria, Egypt (Biblioteca Alexandrina) stood from 300 BCE to 400 CE. There are various legends as to what happened to this "center where great thinkers, scientists, mathematicians, and poets [came] to study and share ideas". We do know that it was burned either intentionally or by accident and today, not far from where the original library was located, a new library made of  granite and opened in 2002, stands in its place.

In early 2011 protesters in Egypt succeeded in their call for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The eighteen days of protest were violent and the new library was threatened. The director of the Library, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, closed the library and feared that it would be destroyed.

"The Library has no gates that can be locked", he called out. "The doors are all glass. There is nothing that prevents anybody from destroying this building with all its treasures, except the will of the people."

And the will of the people prevailed as crowds of students, library workers, and other demonstrators, surrounded the library and held hands to protect it from the devastation and so "the library still stands today holding all of our stories."

This children's book is beautifully illustrated with collages by co-author Susan Roth.

A perfect story for National Library Week about the breadth and depth of love a society can have for its library.

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth - by Kathryn Lasky

Q: What do you get when you cross a geographer with a librarian?
A: My beautiful and smart daughter, Paloma, whom I now believe to be Eratosthenes reincarnated.

As the title suggests, Eratosthenes was a wicked smart librarian in Alexandria, Egypt who figured out the formula for determining the circumference of the earth, over 2,000 years ago. (Why exactly do we celebrate Columbus?) What was so fascinating to me about this work was how much my job reflects what the librarians in the great library of Alexandria did so long ago. The book explains how the librarians organized and cataloged scrolls in order to help others to find what they needed; how Eratosthenes looked up pieces of information to find holes in the research (i.e. literature reviews); and how he had to do some major sucking up to King Ptolemy! I would almost point out that some things never change, except that since Eratosthenes day, when only men could be librarians, the prestige that went with the job has eroded considerably.

This is a lovely book with easy-to-understand explanations of some geometric prinicples.