Afghanistan Digital Library is an open access Library for Afghan publications from the period 1871–1930. The project’s long-term objective is to collect, catalogue, digitize and provide access to the first sixty years of Afghanistan’s published cultural heritage.

“Afghanistan’s legacy of publishing is in clear danger of disappearing. The earliest publications appearing in Afghanistan are extremely rare and, judging by their absence from library collections around the world, are to be found now almost exclusively in private collections, where public access is limited or non-existent. Decades of war in Afghanistan have further dispersed and destroyed holdings of books within the country itself.”

Phase 1 of the project started in 2005 and has drawn materials from the collections of several private collectors as well as from the holdings of New York University Library and the British Library. One year later, phase 2 of the project began. It has trained a staff at the National Archives in Kabul in conservation and digitization and has engaged in the cataloging and digitization of materials held in various public and private collections inside Afghanistan.

When Searching the Afghanistan Digital Library catalogue, it is good to know that the Search feature  is still in a pilot phase and they are working to optimize searching for the transliterated text on the site. If your search retrieved no results, browsing the collection is a better option to view what is available.

So far the library include Books, Documents and Newspapers, but eventually will include all published serials, pamphlets, and manuals.

The Afghanistan Digital Library is a project of New York University Libraries with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Reed Foundation, and the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation.

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