Port of Beirut
Planning for a new site for the National Library began in 1999. The goal was for the library to contain everything published in Lebanon (around 2,000 books annually) and all publications about Lebanon and the Arab world. The project, which also involved the restoration of the collection, was estimated at $7 million, of which $1.5 million was donated by the European Union and the rest pledged by other governments and private donors. By 2006, more than 3,000 volumes had been restored. The collection was again threatened during the 2006 Lebanon War by Israeli bombing near its storage facilities at the Port of Beirut.