Young volunteers open charity library with 30,000 books in Nasiriyah

NASIRIYAH — A group of young people, government workers and local donors has opened a charity library in Nasiriyah’s Ur neighborhood, offering free study halls, reading spaces and access to around 30,000 books for students and book lovers in the city.

The Mesopotamia Charity Library, located on 30th Street, covers scientific, literary and religious subjects and includes a women’s hall, with Fridays reserved exclusively for female visitors and a separate outdoor women’s section open throughout the week.

Organizer Murtadha Abd told 964media that all books were purchased personally by the project organizers without outside support, and that all services are provided free of charge. “The aim is serving people and providing a quiet place for study and reading,” he said. The library is particularly useful for master’s and doctoral students seeking hard-to-find titles, and a specialized staff helps visitors locate books. Future plans include developing a cataloging system and launching a lending service, neither of which is currently available.

“The library contains more than 30,000 books, and the number is expected to rise to 40,000,” Abd said. The current location is temporary, with plans to move to a larger site in coming years.

The most requested titles include works by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Taha Hussein and Ahmed Amin, alongside books by Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr and Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr. Hussein Anwar, who supervises the children’s section, said it sees daily attendance and offers stories, religious and educational books as well as English-language titles, with visitor numbers rising during the summer holiday period.

Reader Barakat Nazim said social media drew him to the library. “The diversity of books between scientific, religious and cultural subjects made it a destination for college students and people interested in reading,” he told 964media.

The library is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.