NEWS

GIRMA WOLDEGIORGIS, PRESIDENT OF THE FDRE LAYS FOUNDATION STONE FOR NEW IES LIBRARY BULIDING

The effort to construct a new building for the IES library has now moved one step ahead as the foundation stone for the new library building was laid on April 27th 2002.Presidant Girma Woldegiorgis of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia laid the foundation stone at the construction site of the new library ,on the main campus of Addis Abeba University.

What triggered the initative for the new buliding ,which is expected to cost up to USD 5 million , including equipment and computerization expenses, is the overcrowding of the present library with documents.Furthermore, the safety of the sturucture of the existing library buliding has become a couse for consern due to the load impact on the library collection for the last 40 years of existence.

The proposed site of the new building which when operational be fully computerized, will be inside the main Sidist Kilo campus of Addis Ababa University. The specific site is what used to be a stable of the former Genneta L'eul Palace of the late Emperor Haile Selassie I, adjacent to the current IES and University administration building.

During the foundation-stone laying ceremony, Professor Baye Yimam, Director of the IES, said that the existing IES building could hardly stand the weight of the heavy library collection, which is growing rapidly everyday. Thus, he said, a custom-designed library building has become necessary, which would also free up space in the existing building for the use of the Museum, which is hard-pressed for space to open up new exhibition areas for its numerous collections. For this practical reason and for the additional benefit of a better service that could accrue from the new library, Prof. Baye pointed out, the construction of the new library is an essential addition not only to the IES but also to the University as a whole.

SOFIES member and Co-Chair of the New IES Library Building Committee for the IES, Tekalign Gedamu (also Chairman of the Bank of Abyssinia) reiterated the support of the business community for the new library project. John Graham, Co-Chair of the New Library Building Committee (also, Director of Save the Children-UK in Ethiopia) has acknowledged the support from a number of businesspeople and donors, to date. Although enough funds have been raised to start the construction of the building, the final target figure of 5 million US dollars still needed to be reached, he reminded the guests invited from the diplomatic, business and the art community and hosted by the university community.

It is to be recalled that the first official fund-raising initiative to solicit support for the construction of the new library was launched in October 2001 at the Addis Ababa Hilton organized by the Society of the Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (SOFIES) and IES.

According to Professor Richard Pankhurst, President of the Society of the Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (SOFIES), and a person with an intimate knowledge of the IES collections, the new library has an international importance. He says that: the IES is a repository for many of the most irreplaceable artifacts of Ethiopian history and culture. The new library not only provides a fitting home for the vast majority of manuscripts and microfilms collected from churches across the country, it will also make these treasures much more accessible for study.

The IES, Addis Ababa University's main documentation and research institute for the humanities and the social sciences, has tens of thousands of published and unpublished documents in local as well as foreign languages.

The foundation stone reads: the university has decided, with the initiative of the IES and the support of SOFIES, to erect the new library for students of Ethiopian studies.

Canadian Minister of State Visits the IES

A Canadian delegation led by secretary of state for Latin America and Africa Francophone, Denies Paradis visited the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) of the Addis Ababa University on the 10th of April 2002.

Mr. Paradis said that his visit to the IES could be instrumental in strengthening the existing cultural cooperation between Ethiopia and Canada.

Professor Baye Yimam, Director of the IES, and other staff of the Institute welcomed Mr. Paradis upon arrival at the IES.