Situation with Information Institutions: A Testimony from Sri Lanka
10-01-2005 (New Delhi)
As part of its assistance to Tsunami struck Asia, UNESCO is assessing the situation of libraries, archives and other information institutions in the region. UNESCO’s Susanne Ornager, based in Organization’s New Delhi Office, accompanied W.A. Abeysinghe, Chairman of the Sri Lankan National Library and Documentation Boards (NLDSB), on an inspection tour to the Tsunami affected areas. WebWorld publishes Susanne’s first impressions.
In Hikkaduwa we found an open library. The public librarian was drying books. The circulation desk had used to be at the wall – the Tsunami wave torn it from there and thrown it to the middle of the room. The librarian managed to find the list of users – in the garden, two houses away. ‘The library used to be so clean and net’, she says, ‘Look at it now’. Apart from this functioning library, most buildings, which had hold librarian collections before, were totally damaged or ruined. In Kahawa (before Hikkaduwa), where more than a thousand people died in a train, a school was destroyed. A school library initiated in 2001 under the World Bank project stood with saris and chairs on the roof. The collection has completely vanished. Galle city showed the same devastated sight. However, the public library escaped the Tsunami destruction as it was built on high grounds. Else it was the same depressing experience traveling along the cost. In all the villages and towns: Habaraduwa, Koggala, Ahangama, Wellgama, Matara, Tangalla, and Habantota (just to mention a few), the libraries were destroyed or collections damaged. We didn’t meet any more library staff, but many school principals were explaining the damages…” >> More photos for this news 
Library in Habantota, one of the most damaged towns
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