The Kurdish Institute maintains the largest Kurdish library in the Western world. At present it possesses 6,423 monographs on the Kurds, in 23 languages, several tens of thousands of writings, collections of periodicals and newspapers, photos, videos as well as an archive of sounds and musical recordings. This rich documentation occupies over a third of the Institute's premises as well as a major part of its warehouse, in a Paris suburb. The monographs and principal documents are referenced on a computer data base. The Institute's Library is open to the public from Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 6 pm. In addition to Kurdish, French and European students and research workers, ordinary individuals wanting information and the opportunity to read about the subject can freely use the Library. Some come from the provinces and abroad to consult its collections, while others consult it by letter.

Thus, over the years, the Institute's Library has become the indispensable resource centre on the Kurds, both for private individuals, for the network of voluntary organisations, the media and institutional bodies in France and the European Union. Photos and films from the Institute's archives are regularly used by the media. In addition to the written press, French TV stations (France 2, TF1, Arte), the Italian RAI television, Japanese, British (BBC and Channel Four), Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, German, Belgian, Luxembourgeois (RTL), Spanish and Greek television services, as well as the American ABC have used some of the documents from our archives.

This resource centre also possesses several sets of exhibitions of photos, transparencies and documentary films on various aspects of Kurdish life and culture. This material is lent to Kurdish or French associations, municipalities and other public or private bodies that are organising cultural events about the Kurds.

To the extent that there are now nearly a million Kurdish immigrants in the countries of the Union, and that their problems take up an ever increasing share of the news, the requests for information and documentation can only increase. This is why the Institute continues to enrich the Library's stock with regular fresh acquisitions and by subscribing to a number of periodicals and newspapers so as to remain in a position to answer to these requests.

In order to make all these resources available to as wide a public as possible throughout the world, the Institute is preparing to create an Internet site which should be operational in both French and English in September 1998.. This project is supported by, the International Olof Palme Foundation in Sweden, which attaches great importance to civic education by spreading knowledge through modern information technology.