| Social Work collects about 500 books to send to Iraqi university |
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| Written by Rachel Snyder, The Shorthorn staff | ||||
| Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:01 PM | ||||
  Shaina Singh, social work graduate student, left, and Provost Donald Bobbitt help start the School of Social Work’s Community Service Clinic book drive in late October. The donation boxes, located in the clinic and in departments around campus, will take books until Monday and help build The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani’s library. (The Shorthorn: Rasy Ran) The School of Social Work Community Service Clinic has collected around 500 books in a drive that ends Monday, to help build The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani’s library. The clinic started the drive in late October. The drive has no target number. For comparison, the Central Library has 1.2 million printed volumes, said Dean of Libraries Gerald Saxon. “Libraries measure themselves in different ways,” he said. “We subscribe to 30,000 journals, 250,000 electronic books, and there’s films and archival materials.” Social work graduate student Vanessa Vaughter bought textbooks to help the Iraqi university. “I was running an estate sale and there were a lot of medical textbooks,” she said. “I bought books and donated them to the book drive in the hopes that another student would get some use out of them.” Provost Donald Bobbitt also donated a textbook to help build the Iraqi university’s library. He said he gave his approval needed to initiate the drive and donated to the project because it fits very clearly in the definition of a university. He said the university extends its knowledge out and the book drive not only extends knowledge outside of the community, it will also help a country clearly in need of reform. “We do a lot in North Texas, and we’re very active in the community,” Bobbitt said. “Any time we can help those out of our immediate area we take advantage of that.” Kristine Witkowski, Community Service Clinic administrative assistant, said she’s proud of the hundreds of books the clinic has collected for the library. “It’s been cool to see who’s responded, and how we’re helping lighten other people’s loads while doing something positive,” she said. The clinic will be taking donations until Monday. Students can donate by going to the clinic or ask their departments where they have a donation box. Witkowski said the book drive is the first international project the clinic has worked on. She said she expects the clinic would do whatever it could to help if another project like the book drive comes up. “We have the materials, we would just need to organize it,” Witkowski said. “We’re in a good place — in social work — to do that.” Shaina Singh, social work graduate student and book drive coordinator, said she was excited that people were willing to donate textbooks. “My favorite part was definitely coordinating all the services,” she said. “I was excited about the end result and getting books to benefit the university.” Views: 507 | E-mail
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