Every Friday, Mounira Khalifé takes her son to a public library in Beirut to attend
"story time"
, books having become a
"luxury"
that few Lebanese can afford, in the midst of an economic crisis.
Elia, 5, wanders between the shelves then sits down on a colorful sofa while waiting for the storyteller to arrive.
"Between the economic crisis and the pandemic, we ended up not being able to take him anywhere
," his mother told AFP.
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Due to galloping inflation, the majority of Lebanese can no longer meet their basic needs in a country where more than 80% of the population lives below the UN poverty line.
Buying books for his children has become all the more a luxury.
For Mounira, going to the library
"saves transport costs and the price of books which have increased, whereas he can quickly get tired of them"
.
"We spend time in a safe, comfortable place close to home where (Elia) can play, draw and borrow books
," she says.
Like her, hundreds of parents are going more and more often to one of Beirut's three municipal libraries managed by the Assabil association, which has been working since 1997 to promote reading.
That of Bachoura, in a district of the center, now has more than 3,000 registered members, with
“demand on the rise for a year”
, assures one of its librarians, Samar Choucair.
"People can no longer afford to buy books"
imported from abroad, she says.
"Especially those for children, (...) they pay in dollars or euros"
, while the local currency has lost 90% of its value since the start of the economic crisis, described by the World Bank as the one of the worst in modern history.
Explosion in book prices
In bookstores and publishing houses, the price of books has increased due to their price in dollars, which has had a negative impact on demand.
"
This has caused the price (of books) to explode at a time when the minimum wage has not changed"
, fixed monthly at 675,000 Lebanese pounds, or currently 32 dollars, regrets Lana Halabi, co-founder of the Halabi bookstore in the Beirut district by Tariq Jdideh.
As a result,
"books are no longer a priority for readers
," she sighs.
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In the Geitaoui library, located in a rare public park in the capital, the demand for novels is gradually increasing, especially in Arabic or French, explains librarian Josiane Badra.
To meet this growing demand, the library has added 300 new books to its shelves over the past two months.
From time to time, Aline Daou, a student at Saint-Joseph University, goes there to study or read.
This
“prevents me from buying novels that I like to read and which are very expensive
,” she says.
“As a literature student, I always need to read and since I save to buy essential books, I prefer to borrow novels from here.”
An
'escape for people'
If public libraries have become an
“escape for people”
, the challenges are increasing, underlines to AFP a senior official of the Assabil association, Ali Sabbagh.
"We manage these libraries in partnership with the municipality of Beirut, which previously provided around 80% of the operational budget of libraries in Lebanese books"
, explains Ali Sabbagh.
However, with the devaluation of the national currency, the municipality is now struggling to provide basic services.
“Providing free books, cultural services and internet is now a major challenge,”
he regrets, especially since
“donors in times of crisis prioritize what they consider to be basic needs.”
But for Valentina Habis, a student, libraries are also a basic need to face the current gloom.
"In the midst of a crisis, we need cultural places, places that develop thought and culture, because culture is the basis of society
," she pleads.