Give Your Local Librarian Some Love

 Today (April 16th) is National Librarian Day!  I think that's awesome.  But I work at a library so maybe I'm bias. 

So in honor of National Librarian Day I decided to learn about some bad-ass librarians.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer

from the book jacket)

In the 1980's, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert farmers.  His goal was to preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony in a gorgeous library.  But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction.  With bravery and patience, he organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.

This was not the adventure story the book jacket and awesome title led me to believe it would be.  The first quarter of the book is about the manuscripts: what they were about, who wrote them, how they were made, how they came to be hidden in various households and how Haidara came to be the one who collected them.  I loved hearing about the rich culture that was collected in them.  But then the librarian and the manuscripts disappear from the narrative for quite some time.  You get a very detailed history of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Mali, especially around Timbuktu, and the groups that oppose them.  It is full of dates and names of people, places and groups.  You can tell Hammer really did his research.  And if that is what you are looking for this book is very informative (if a bit dry at times).  But what this book is not, is a book about librarians.  When Haidara reenters the story with his group of helpers they feel shoehorned in.  They are mentioned in short bursts with few details.  I felt that Hammer started out to write about the librarians and the manuscripts but got caught up in the history of Al Qaeda and liked that story more.  I'm glad Haidara's story got told.  I think he deserves to be known for the dangers he risked to save his people's heritage.  I just wish Haidara and all the people who helped him were the story here.  They are not.  They are more of a side note in another story.  I learned a lot from this book and I'm glad I read it.  It just was not the story I was expecting.