Somalia: Somaliland University Puts Textbooks Within Reach

Hargeisa — Fatima Mohamed, a 24-year-old medical student at Gollis University in Hargeisa, no longer needs to worry about obtaining hard copies of textbooks in her field.

College textbooks have been in short supply in Somalia since the civil war, but now Mohamed has a better chance of accessing the books though a new electronic library that opened last month at the privately-run campus.

"I am happy about this service because it will be help improve and strengthen students' knowledge ... it has made studying easier for me," she told Sabahi.

The electronic textbook library became the first of its kind to open in Somalia when Gollis University officials unveiled it at the Hargeisa campus on February 12th. Students can now sit at a computer workstation and access textbooks on the screen in front of them.

Aidaros Mohamed Abib, the university's academic dean, said the electronic library is free for the university's 3,500 students.

"At any one time, 30 students can sit there, having the ability to use books used by the different college departments -- most of which are engineering, science, medicine, management and administration books," Abib said.

Abib said he hopes the university will be able to increase the number of computers in the library to accommodate more students at a time.

In addition, next month Gollis University plans to launch an online portal, where students and non-students alike can pay a nominal fee to access textbooks from any location via the internet.

"We will establish an [online] portal accessible from anywhere, and issue memberships to anyone who is interested," said Walid Mohamed Ali, director of the university's information technology department.

Once the portal is up and running, it will provide access to 50,000 college-level textbooks as well as 10,000 video and audio lectures online, he told Sabahi. Most of the textbooks are published in English, but some will be available in Arabic.

Establishing an electronic library will help redress the critical shortage of textbooks and reference books in Somaliland, but the region still has too few public libraries and too many textbooks are published in languages other than Somali, said Khadar Abayare, a professor at the University of Hargeisa.

Hargeisa only has two libraries open to the public: the privately-run Gandhi Public Library and a centre run by the British organisation African Educational Trust, said Hodo Sultan Aden, head of the Mohamed Mogeh Association for Reading, Writing, Tradition and Culture.

"Reading is an important element that is missing now, and students are limited to the explanations given by teachers," Aden told Sabahi. "This is a challenge that inhibits the quality and learning growth of university students in Somaliland."