Matloub books at the Tamer Institute offices, Ramallah, October 2019

Read the press release (2019) here.

Following our 2015 delegation, Librarians and Archivists with Palestine began to develop a “wish list” campaign called Matloub (Wanted) in collaboration with the Tamer Institute for Community Education. Many libraries in Palestine lack the resources to acquire new books, as do many libraries throughout the world, but also face additional and unique barriers to access caused by Israeli policies. With our wish list campaign, we hope to raise awareness globally about the issues facing libraries in Palestine and the political context in which they operate – while at the same time offering material support for collection development in Palestinian libraries. We created a website that allows people to browse a selection of books developed by participating libraries. Each title is listed with the cost of the book and the cost of shipment, and donors contribute the total cost. The books are then be delivered to the participating libraries with the assistance of the Tamer Institute.

In 2020, with the support of our global community and the hard work of the Tamer Institute, a wide selection of children’s books was acquired and sent to libraries in the West Bank and Gaza.