03.10.07

Mobile Libraries

Posted in Africa, Americas, Colombia, Latin America, Libraries, National Libraries, Venezuela, World at 12:16 am by colombianflowers

Library work is usually perceived as being practiced only indoors, but in developing countries the promotion of education, reading and books needs to happen wherever people are. This has lead to creative approaches to the old model of book mobiles.

Some of my favorite examples include a mobile library in Kenya which aims at providing library services to some of the nomadic tribes in the country. This seems like the perfect approach given limited resources, and the communities needs. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) has also written about the subject. Their article is here.

Colombia has a “biblioburro” in the state of Magdalena. A local professor saw the need children had to access books, so he created his own mobile library, traveling the area with donkeys. Only in the land of García Márquez do donkeys and books come together so gracefully. There is actually an entire blog dedicated to a similar project in the Sierra Nevada; accesses the blog here.

Camel Mobile Library bbc
08.05.07 - The BBC recently had an article about another Biblioburro project, this one based in Venezuela. The program began with the University of Momboy, and while they started only bringing book for rural Andean communities, they are expanding to include a few laptops and projectors for the community to use as well. You can read more about it here.
Image info here.

08.16.07 - The magazine Gatopardo has another article on the donkey book mobile project in Colombia which you can find here

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3 Comments »

  1. Maleta Viajera « colombianflowers said,

    April 30, 2008 at 12:48 am

    [...] of similar projects. People truly dedicated to providing library services and promoting education. I’ve read about a Colombian who provides library services with a donkey, and a project where camel…. These stories made me want to leave the comfort of the academic library I work at, and join these [...]

  2. La Maleta Viajera at Bilingual Librarian said,

    June 20, 2008 at 8:04 pm

    [...] of similar projects. People truly dedicated to providing library services and promoting education. I’ve read about a Colombian who provides library services with a donkey, and a project where camel…. These stories made me want to leave the comfort of the academic library I work at, and join these [...]

  3. La Maleta Viajera at Bibliotecaria Bilingüe said,

    June 24, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    [...] similares, gente realmente dedicada a proveer servicios bibliotecarios y a promover la educación. Le leído sobre otro colombiano que ofrece servicios de biblioteca con la ayuda de un par de burros, y un proyecto de la biblioteca nacional de Kenya que ofrece los [...]

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