LIBE 477B Inquiry Blog #4: Libraries in Developing Nations

When reading the module outline for this week's Inquiry, I was immediately reminded of a book I read in the Fountas and Pinnel guided reading system last year with some of my students in LST. It was about the Biblioburros, in which a teacher in one of the poorest parts of Colombia decided to create a mobile library with 2 donkeys and bring books and literacy to remote villages. (It really goes to show that you never know when and where you'll read something interesting that will impact you later!). I had never heard of this before, and both myself and my students found it very interesting to learn about. I think it gave the students a little perspective on how lucky we are to live in a prosperous country like Canada and where free education and access to libraries is simply a given (although I explain later in this post that this was definitely a generalization!).

"Have books, will travel"

The man behind the Biblioburros is Luis Soriano, an elementary school teacher who decided to spend his free time travelling to Magdelan Province's most remote and poverty-stricken villages with his own collection of books to share with the isolated people there. Soriano had noticed that many of his students had trouble finishing their homework because of lack of access to books in their home villages (if they were able to make the long trek to school at all.)  He has attracted worldwide attention since he began the project in the early 1990s, with donations flooding in to help him expand the worthwhile (and often dangerous) project. I found a trailer for a PBS documentary about Luis that was made in 2011 here. (The embedding code wouldn't work!) You can also read about the project on this blog. I am in the process of trying to find access to actual documentary, as it looks awesome! This quote from the filmmaker Carlos Rendón Zipagauta appears on the PBS website:  "I thought this would be a magnificent story to tell, for what it says about human goodness and inventiveness and for what it reveals about the dignity of the Colombian people, especially the poorest among them" (2011). There is also a picture book about Luis by Jeanette Winter called Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia, published in 2010. (Adding it to my shopping list for school!)

I was still curious about the situation of Colombia's libraries in general after reading this, and found that there are several non-profit groups in the country that promote literacy. One of these is Fundalectura, whose mission is to make Colombia "a country of readers." One of their projects was to create "mini-libraries" in parks all over Colombia, especially in areas where access to books is limited. An article about the project can be found here. 

Image  courtesy of: http://www.fundalectura.org/?module=proyecto&ms=34

Libraries as society's equalizers

I am always reminded of oft-quoted statement of "the library is society's great equalizer." Just as we are trying to bridge the digital divide in our schools on a more local scale, other countries struggle to provide even simple access to books to all of their citizens. In my opinion, education plays such an important role in a country's development. As stated by Soriano in this CNN article, "For us teachers, it's an educational triumph, and for the parents [it's] a great satisfaction when a child learns how to read. That's how a community changes and the child becomes a good citizen and a useful person. Literature is how we connect them with the world" (2010).

In this article, Stuart Hamilton makes the argument that promoting and investing in public libraries is key in ensuring that a country's citizens will have access to information. Because the physical institutions are already in place, ensuring that they all have internet access is the next step in keeping people connected. According to the article only 35% of the world's population has access to the Internet! (Hamilton, 2010).

Restriction and Isolation within Abundance

Looking back at my first musings in this blog post, and how my students and I considered ourselves lucky to live in a place where access to school libraries was possible, it got me thinking more about Canada itself and how there are of course still many areas and populations within our country that could be just as isolated as a remote African village and experience the same problems with access to information and technology, such as places like the far North or some Aboriginal communities. I found an interesting article about a call for the federal government to step up and provide more funding to build libraries in Aboriginal communities. According to the National Aboriginal Public Library Organization (NAPLO),  "less than a third of the 614 First Nations bands in Canada have an on-reserve library, and most of those have only a part-time librarian and severely inadequate resources" (2013). Because funding for Aboriginal education is also less than for the rest of Canadians, Aboriginal youth in remote places get a bit of a double whammy of lack of resources and access. The full study by the National Reading Campaign on the state of libraries in Aboriginal communities can be found here. 

I suppose I deviated a little from the subject of digital devices and bridging the gap, but I got very caught up in learning about these grassroots movements to ensure access to even the most basic library technology. I think that the idea of BYOD and expanding WiFi is a great way to increase access in developing nations; cell phones are cheaper than ever before and usage is high in even the poorest of countries. According to this article, here are almost as many cell-phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people in the world! In another study, it was found that 62 % of respondents claimed increased readership because of the ability to read online on their phones (Rayman, 2014). Since cell phones are often easier to get than an actual print book (and sometimes even cheaper!) it makes sense that promoting mobile readership and making it easier to do (better and more prolific WiFi, for example) is good step in increasing literacy in developing nations as well ensuring information access. (The full study can be found here.)

Image courtesy of: http://www.technologyreview.com/article/421427/going-from-calls-to-connections/ 

Clearly, the digital divide is a global issue, not just a classroom one. Perhaps getting students involved in learning about these problems to access (especially in their own backyard) would be an effective way to encourage students to think globally and apply their critical thinking skills in creating possible solutions. Inquiry-based learning at its finest?







References:

ayokaproductions (15 September 2009). Biblioburros- The Donkey Library. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuTswmx9TQU.

Fernholz, Tim. (2014). More people around the world have cell phones than ever had land-lines. Quartz. Retrieved from http://qz.com/179897/more-people-around-the-world-have-cell-phones-than-ever-had-land-lines/

Fundalectura. (2013). General Information. Retrieved from http://www.fundalectura.org/?module=nosotros-info

Hamilton, Stuart. (2013). Stamping out poverty as well as books? How libraries can support development. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/mar/12/libraries-power-global-development

 Mishibijinima, Sheri (2013). Group Calls for Fed Financing of Libraries for Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples. Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. Retrieved from http://fopl.ca/news/group-calls-for-fed-financing-of-libraries-for-canadas-aboriginal-peoples/

National Reading Campaign. (2015). Aboriginal Peoples and Access to Reading Materials. Osweken, ON: Stonepath Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Final-Report-National-Reading-Camaign-Committee-March-Final-Report-Appendix-Free.pdf

PBS. (2011). Biblioburro: The Donkey Library. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/pov/biblioburro/

Rayman, Noah. (2014). Cell Phones Could Help Millions in Developing Countries to Read. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/74584/unesco-study-mobile-phones-book-reading-literacy/

Roth, Sammy. (2012). Colombia has 100 Tiny Libraries in Public Parks. Good. Retrieved from http://magazine.good.is/articles/colombia-has-100-tiny-libraries-in-public-parks

Ruffins, Ebonne. (2010). Teaching Kids to Read from the Back of a Burro. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/02/25/cnnheroes.soriano/ 


Unesco. (2014). Reading in the Mobile Era. Paris: Unesco. Retrieved from
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002274/227436e.pdf