Timbuktu Library Project

In 1998, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute launched the Timbuktu Library Project whose purpose is the preservation and restoration of the lost Library of Timbuktu. The approximately 50,000 volumes contained in that library have been held and protected by approximately fifteen families since the late sixteenth century. Under the auspices of the Timbuktu Library Project, those manuscripts are being catalogued. As that work progresses, the Institute is seeking funding to photograph and digitize the contents of the 50,000 titles, and, in the case of especially important works, to have them translated.