I am old.

Some would say old-fashioned.

I like a book. I like it in my hands, I like to touch it, to feel it. I sometimes even like to smell it…if it is old, or newly printed.

I like to read. I like words. I love to read and I really enjoy a sentence well constructed.

At one time in my life I was an editor and I still cannot read something without paying attention to details, to words, to phrases, to grammar…  a characteristic that my students did not always appreciate or value!

What is the last book you read? What is the last book you recommended to a friend that he or she read it because it was “so good?” What you read, says a lot about you. Why you read also says a lot about you.

The last book I read was Khaled Hosseini’s A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, and this after devouring his earlier best seller THE KITE RUNNER, which is now a film. These two novels, which capture something of the history and culture of the Afghan people, were written by a man trained as a medical doctor whose family fled his native land as refugees. The two books have sold millions of copies over just the past few years and have been translated into a dozen or more languages. Talk about the power of the written word to educate, to transform, to move us into a world not our own!

What was the last book that really inspired you? That really energized you? That really moved you? That was so good you HAD to tell others about it and urge them to read it?

Of course, I also read newspapers and journals, and read things that are related to being an academic administrator of a Palestinian university.

I love visiting bookstores and libraries—although I know I do not get into our own university library nearly as often as I should.

I also often feel the same way one of my doctoral professors described his sense of wanting to “curse his finitude” when we walked into a library…knowing there was so much he desired to read and to know, but realizing in a life time there is only so much one can do.

But books are just part of the story!

Every library now provides many other means of personal enjoyment, learning, and expanding our personal, social, and academic horizons.

Two weeks ago we had a mid-year Bethlehem University graduation in the lower level of our library building. We marked the completion of a bachelor’s degree program in Occupational Therapy of a dozen students from Gaza who to this day have never set foot on this campus. They were accepted into our O.T. program five years ago, but due to travel restrictions never physically came to Bethlehem. However, due to the marvels of technology—and the dedication of many people here and in Gaza—we were able to deliver a full BA program across the land…or, as we know we are capable of doing, across the globe.

Also within the past two weeks, a group of students here at Bethlehem University who are part of a research exchange program with students at a German university have met each other, presented and critiqued each other’s papers, and have engaged in spirited discussions…all via video conferencing. In June the German delegation will come here for face-to-face meetings for a week, and our students, along with faculty, will travel to Germany in October to complete the circle.

The marvels of technology, in service of learning!

The theme of this three-day conference is “Reading and Technology at the Service of Everyone.” The gift of our libraries—schools, universities, and community libraries—is that they open up a world to us, without us ever having to leave our home! Books do this and have for hundreds of years; in relatively speaking much more recent time, television, videos, audio, CDs, DVDs, IPods, networking, surfing the net, google-ing, LCD projectors, digital media, memory sticks, Power Point, and on and on have enabled us to do things that not one of us could have imagined even two or three or decades ago!

Our own Audio-Visual Center (with Francis and George) and our Digital Media Center (with Mike and Minerva) provide extraordinary and exciting and creative ways to learn, to integrate technology into the classroom, and to engage and empower the local community through programs of outreach and service.

Perhaps more striking is the way technology has assisted those with learning disabilities or physical challenges to not be left behind. Those who might in the past been left out because of a hearing or visual impairment are now able to more fully engage in educational pursuits, just as they are more fully integrated members of their communities.

Of course, with all these advantages, there come responsibilities. I name but two: how can we ourselves, and how can we help others especially in the context of a school setting, become “information literate?” How do we distinguish good from bad, accurate from inaccurate, fact from propaganda when with the click of a mouse we can have literally 10,000 or more “sources” of information at our finger tips, and have it in seconds? Simply because we google something and find a source or a resource does not and cannot presume its legitimacy. Hence, how to help educate for information literacy?

My second concern has to do with access. Who has access and how do they gain access? If information is power, how do we empower those with no power, no access, few resources, and little opportunity to avail themselves of the world of books and technology? This is a challenge across the world, but perhaps most acute in places where poverty, weak or non-existent infrastructure, great physical distance, or political instability exist.

A quick glance at several sources puts the Palestinian literacy rate at anywhere between 70% - 92%. I find this really quite remarkable, given the history of this occupied land. At the same time, there are sometimes wide disparities between males and females, younger generations and older, and between and across social, economic, and geographic groups. This remains for us all a challenge.

While there are many things that need to be done to attain higher and more consistent literacy rates among all Palestinians, one thing I am sure of is that such will not happen without schools and without libraries, both of which exist in order to provide opportunities for “reading and technology at the service of everyone!”

Let me end by thanking our Bethlehem University library team—each of them and all of them together—and in particular the Director of our Library Dr. Mellie Brodeth. They have been working on this for months and months and I am grateful for their creativity, inspiration, and dedication in making this day, and these three days, a reality.

And, to our guests, welcome to Bethlehem University. Feel at home; we are delighted you are with us!

God bless you and God bless this conference!