Afghanistan Centre at Kabul Universtiy

مرکز منبع معلومات افغانستان در‌‌و هنتون کابل

                                                  Foundation

	ACKU's vision is broad and exciting. ACKU has established the Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation in the USA. A primary Foundation goal is to ensure the sustainability of ACKU. Based out of New York, and run by a Board of Trustees in the US and a Board of Governors in Afghanistan, the Foundation will support ACKU and fund its activities. To realize its potential, however, ACKU must sustain its present services until further activities materialize. Immediate funding, therefore, is imperative if ACKU is able to realize this vision.  ABLE (ACKU Box Library Extension)
	Since 1996, The ACKU Box Library Extension (ABLE) has extended its services inside Afghanistan to all 34 provinces, distributing over 213 libraries and some 233,650 books in provincial communities and high schools. Other agencies following the ABLE model have also placed libraries in villages, district centers and provincial capitals. The aim is not only to provide instructional materials but also to spread the word that reading is fun. The ABLE libraries are updated periodically. Some of the ABLE libraries have upwards of 1,000 documents in their collections. Users include students, teachers, technicians, local government and NGO personnel, farmers, and increasing numbers of female professionals and housewives. Books for ABLE are obtained from ABLE’s Publications and purchased from the bazaar. To date, ABLE has published 124 titles (1,000 in Dari and 1,000 in Pashto of each title) on a variety of subjects. An editorial board is responsible for the production of these titles and ensures that books contain 100 – 120 pages and that the language is appropriate to new literates.  ACKU Collections
	The ACKU Collection contains books, reports, maps, newspapers, journals, periodicals, posters, pamphlets, a rare collection of the Mujahideen and Taliban press, bibliographies, videos, audiocassettes and DVDs. Many documents relate to NGO and UN agency surveys and programs compiled over the past 30 years. Specific subjects include data on Afghanistan's economy, political history and parties the refugee crisis of the 1980s and 90s, as well as analytical and descriptive writings on health, education, agriculture, veterinary sciences and animal husbandry, women, children, law, music, folklore and archaeology, history, political science, monuments, literature, language and other aspects of cultural heritage, including information on historical buildings. The ACKU archive section lists documents describing development projects and other studies undertaken in Afghanistan before 1990.   The ACKU map section currently holds some 500 different sorts of maps. These include 1:250,000, 1:100,000, 1:50,000 scale maps, satellite and land cover maps. Regional and thematic maps produced by agencies are also available. Reading Room
	ACKU's Reading Room is located on the first floor of Kabul University's Central Library, With over 1000 readers a month, The Reading Room provides readers with a congenial space for studying and accessing research material through the internet and the ACKU database. With two database search stations, readers can select documents in Dari, Pashto and English. Readers may search documents alphabetically by author, subject, organization or title. The bibliographic database is also available on CD-ROM. Orders using assigned call numbers from the database may be sent to ACKU. Separate lists of videocassettes, maps, journals and posters are also available ,Monthly Bulletins new listings are distributed electronically every month. ACKU staffs are available to assist with locating documents. Also available at the Reading Room are photocopying services for a nominal fee.