An Archive of Despair

But that hasn't stopped Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen from sometimes shooting at them from the roof of the Ministry of Health, he added.

In 2005, Eskander received a death threat ordering him to stop renovating the library. He ignored it. Since then, to protect himself, his wife and his baby son, he has changed houses and neighborhoods four times.

Next to the front door of his office, a woman has set up a stall that sells snacks and candy at Eskander's request. He doesn't want his staff risking death for a meal.

"I am trying to build a restaurant here, so nobody will leave the building," said Eskander, as he passed the stall.

Sunday, 25 March

Several bullets hit the rear facade of the building. One bullet made two holes: one in the exterior window and the second in the interior window of the English collections room. Miss, S, our point of contact with the Ministry of Culture, was weeping when she entered my office. The flat that she shares with her sister's family was damaged extensively in Saturday's car bomb attack, which killed 30 people, mostly police officers. The staff decided to collect some money to help her.

* * *

In a room filled with 32 computers, where Eskander's staff is creating a digital library to preserve aging texts, the power is out. Eskander has a pained expression on his face. But he continues with his meeting. He's trying to breed a new generation of employees and weed out the remnants of the Hussein years, when political and tribal affiliation mattered most in a job.

The department once had 23 employees. Now there are 16. The violence outside forced most to quit. One never got that option. In a corner of the room, pictures of Ali Salih, 27, the former director of the Web site, hang next to a computer. Gunmen killed him in December as he approached the National Library, explained Hassan as she stood next to his empty chair, with tears in her eyes. He was her best friend, she said.

"We pay a price in different ways," said Eskander. "But I keep them busy. I make jokes. I try to make life much better than outside. A lot of them see their job here as something that distracts them from that reality."

Monday, 26 March