ACKU's vision is broad and exciting. ACKU is working towards establishing the Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation. A primary Foundation goal is to ensure the sustainability of ACKU. Based out of New York, and run by a board of Trustees in the US and a Board of Governors in Afghanistan, the Foundation will support ACKU and fund its activities. To realize its potential, however, ACKU must sustain its present services until further activities materialize. Immediate funding, therefore, is imperative if ACKU is able to realize this vision.

Since 1996, The ACKU Box Library Extension (ABLE) has extended its services inside Afghanistan reaching 32 out of 34 provinces, distributing over 160 mobile lending libraries and some 120,000 books in provincial communities and high schools. Other agencies following the ABLE model have also placed libraries in villages, district centers and provincial capitals. The number grows steadily and there are now some 400 libraries throughout Afghanistan. The aim is not only to provide instructional materials but also to spread the word that reading is entertaining. The ABLE libraries are updated periodically. Some of the ABLE libraries have upwards of 1,000 documents in their collections. Users include students, teachers, technicians, local government and NGO officials, farmers, displaced intellectuals and increasing numbers of female professionals and housewives. Books for ABLE are obtained from ACKU's collection, NGOs and UN agencies and purchased in the bazaar. For those titles not available from these sources, ABLE Publications commissions its production. To date, ABLE has published 154 titles on a variety of subjects. An editorial board is responsible for the production of these titles and ensures that books contain no more than 100 pages and that the language is appropriate to new literates. Through the generous funding of Stichting Vluchteling, ABLE has been able to conduct these much needed activities.

ACKU's Reading Room is located on the first floor of Kabul University's Central Library, With over 900 readers a month, our Reading Room provides readers with a congenial space for studying and accessing research material through the internet and the ACKU database. With two database search stations, readers can select documents in Dari, Pashto and English. Readers may search documents alphabetically by author, subject, organization or title. The bibliographic database is also available on CD-ROM. Orders using assigned call numbers from the database may be sent to ACKU. Separate lists of videocassettes, maps, journals and posters are also available and ACKU's bulletin (need link to Bulletin) with new acquisitions is distributed electronically every month. ACKU staff are available to assist with locating documents. Also available at the Reading Room are photocopying services for a nominal fee.