ANKARA – Muslim sanitation workers in Ankara, Turkey, worked for months to collect discarded books from the city’s trash, starting a huge library with over 6,000 discarded books.

“Before, I wished that I had a library in my house. Now we have a library here,” Serhat Baytemur, 32, one of the garbage collectors told Ilmfeed on Sunday.

In what started as a dream library for their families, garbage collectors in the Cankaya district of Ankara collected thousands of books in one library serving their community.

The library eventually opened to the public in September 2017 and locals started donating books to it.

It is located in a previously vacant brick factory at the sanitation department. Its precious content includes topics such as literature and an entire section for scientific research.

The collection grew so large the library now loans these salvaged books to schools, educational programs, and prisons.

“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” said Çankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen.