Biblioburro and Friends: Innovative and unusual bookmobiles to reach remote and underserved populations

Melanie Wilson LIS 701 01 Fall 2009 Final Paper

In Ayoka Productions video clip from their short documentary on Luis Soriano, the primary school teacher responsible for the bibliburro, we see Soriano crouch in the living room of the small home he shares with his wife and three children, book in hand, considering the piles of books stacked to the ceilings. He has to go through his books to find one that a patron of his donkey book delivery service has requested, though he is reluctant because he is tired and he suspects the book he needs is at the bottom of one of the files. Nevertheless, he tells us, it has to be done, because it is the responsibility of the library to bring the people the books that they want. This sense of dedication has been typical of mobile library services throughout the world since their inception, from books brought on horseback in the United States in the early 1800s to the modern eras state-of-the-art multimedia solar-powered bookmobiles in Australia. But while the bookmobiles most of us are familiar with are four-wheeled vehicles that travel on roads, this paper is concerned with unusual services that have been developed to bring libraries to those in the most remote or hard to reach places, where the traditional bookmobile cannot travel. According to the 2000 United States Census, Alaska has the largest area of any state in the nation, but a population that ranks 47th overall. Because such so few of people are so spread out across such a vast stretch of land, the state lacks an extensive interstate system, and because of these factors as well as extreme climatic conditions, the same truck or van that works well for other states would be impractical to meet the library needs of Alaska residents. Instead, as it does for much of its mail service, the library services in the state rely on the far more feasible method of using planes to transmit library materials to those living in communities without libraries or who live in remote areas inaccessible by roads. There are two centers, one in Juneau to serve the southern half of the state, and one in Fairbanks to serve the northern. Patrons fill out an application that includes their interests, and

librarians put together a book box for them containing books, periodicals, audiovisual materials, as well as a packet of art prints. The service is funded by the state, and patrons only need to pay return postage. The book boxes are brought by plane to town centers, airdropped, or delivered to a central location from which they are further delivered by boat, motorcycle, foot, or dog sled. Because of the terrain and weather difficulties, there are no overdue fees, but patrons are expected to replace lost or damaged materials (Ferrell 1983, 554-555). In the past patrons were able to also request specific materials from a print catalog, but today they can browse the librarys collection online, as well as requesting materials through interlibrary loan. Many patrons return letters to the librarians with their materials expressing likes and dislikes, and while the remove may lead one to believe that this service lacks the intimacy of a traditional library experience, in fact many of the patrons report that they feel the librarians know them and their interests incredibly well (Alaska Regional Services homepage, Mail Services History). Alaska also operates book boat services, for example the Kusko Book Express, serving the Lower Kuskokwim School District. Many of the students in this district go off in the summer to fishing camps where they help their families catch and clean the fish they sell for a living, and thus dont have access to libraries for summer reading programs, which leaves them in danger of falling behind the rest of their fellow students. The books are brought in plastic tubs, along with writing utensils and workbooks of fun writing activities. The program has proved to be popular among the children, and a similar program has been started for the adults, to help them provide a positive example for their children by reading newspapers and the like. Unlike a traditional library, the children do not have to return their books when they are done with them, but are instead encouraged to share them with others, allowing the children to share

their love of reading with others, and thereby keep interest levels high (Bookboat.com, Unusual Libraries Alaska). The Delta of Parana in Argentina also operates a book boat, named Bibliolancha, which brings books, a computer, and audio-visual materials to people who live on the islands and along the rivers and inlets in the area, where there are no other library services. A similar service operates in Venezuela, to serve the indigenous children along the Orinoco River and its tributaries in Amazonas State, bringing recreational books as well as materials to supplement their school lessons (Dixon 2006, 19). In such areas, because of geography, boat really is ideal mode of delivery, as along the western coast of Norway, where the edges of the country are made up of a multitude of tiny islands and massive fjords that separate many small communities from the rest of the country. Some of these communities have their own public and school libraries, but because their populations are small, their budgets are likewise small, and many lack adequate resources for the residents, particularly the schoolchildren. Many of the smallest communities have no libraries at all, and some even lack schools (Oevstegaard 2000). The people in these communities depend on outside sources for books and information, and the book boat is the best way to meet this need. The Norwegian library boat is called Epos and has been operating since 1959 as a joint service between three counties. The boat sails during the winter months of September through April, carrying about 6000 books, two or three librarians, a couple of entertainers (actors, musicians, storytellers, authors), a captain, a seaman, and a cook, visiting about 250 small communities along the coast. The culture, as the entertainers are referred to, is brought along to provide the children in the villages with some entertainment other than what they see on TV or

experience in video games. It is a very special experience for the entertainers as well, as they are performing for and interacting with a very small intimate audience. The boat itself provides the stage. This author had an email correspondence with a Norwegian librarian who was on board for six seasons, who stated It is amazing to be so intensely living in the library...When you work on board you live, eat and breathe library. According to this librarian, the people in the towns are really eager for new reading material, and there is always a crowd waiting when the boat arrives (Thomas Brevik, December 4, 2009, email message to author). Everyone is allowed to take as many books as they want to borrow. Because the size of the collection is limited by what can fit on the boat, the collection is selected very carefully, and requests from the patrons are taken into consideration. Any requested items that are not on the boat can be sent free of charge, either to the local public library or via mail directly to the individuals requesting them. To tide the residents over in between boat visits, a few hundred books are left with the local public library (if there is one), or with a contact person, so that people can exchange the books theyve finished with for new ones in between boat trips. When the boat comes back around, these stores of materials are exchanged for new material from the boat, along with the books returned by individuals directly to the boat. Like many bookmobiles, this service is repeatedly in danger of being cut by government officials, many of whom feel the service is outdated, especially in these times of the internet. However the library boat is incredibly

popular, and there is always a huge public outcry whenever the book boat service is threatened (Brevik, December 7, 2009, email to author). Sweden also has a book boat, named Gurli, that operates along its western coast, serving the largely immigrant population there with materials in foreign languages, as well as the

isolated communities along its archipelago. Like its Norwegian counterpart, this boat also brings live entertainment and has also been operating for about the past 50 years. Boats are also very useful in areas of Thailand that are prone to flooding, not only for floating libraries, but floating classrooms as well. Because of the frequent flooding, in some areas it is impractical to build freestanding library buildings to house the books and other materials. However Thailand is a country with a population that is widely dispersed across a variety of geographies, and others services have also been created to bring library materials to the isolated and remote villages that would be difficult to serve with a regular public library. Starting in 2001, the Department of Non-Formal Education has used elephants to bring book boxes and audio-visual materials, as well as satellite dishes and generators to the villages in remote hilly areas in the Northern province that are inaccessible by roads (Cheunwattana 2003, 23-24). Kenya has also used animals to bring library materials to people in places inaccessible by roads, including semi-nomadic tribes in the northeast, beginning in 1996. Because of the

migratory lifestyle of the people, a stationary library does not adequately serve their needs. The national library service has instead set up a camel library service for the people scattered throughout the region. Loaded up at fixed satellite library centers, a trio of camels is loaded up with boxes containing about 200 books, mats, and a tent (the third camel is a spare) and along with librarians they make trips of 5-10 miles from each center to bring the library materials directly to the current settlements. Not only are the camels ideal transportation for the hot, rough desert terrain the people refer to the camel as Ship of the Desert - but because the tribespeople rely on camels themselves, the animals have a cultural significance as well. The people also traditionally sit on mats for tribal meetings and the like, so the fact that the books are

spread out on mats on the ground also makes the service fit in well with the tribes culture (Kenya National Library homepage, Camel Library Services). Among these semi-nomadic tribes the percentage of the population that is illiterate is much higher than that in the rest of the country, especially among girls. Most people here view textbooks alone as reading material, so it is important to stress recreational reading for the children especially, to present reading as an enjoyable activity, especially in an area where there are so few recreational activities available. Then ideally the children can develop a lifelong habit of reading, and create a better life for themselves, especially as the semi-nomadic lifestyle becomes less and less able to support their communities. In addition to the books for children, periodicals and informative pamphlets are brought for the adults, most of whom otherwise rely on word of mouth for their information and news. Because the official language of Kenya is English, most education is conducted in English and English language materials are the bulk of what is provided. However many of the tribal peoples also enjoy reading materials in their national language Swahili. Initially there was some resistance to the camel libraries on the part of the tribal elders, as it was seen to conflict with their traditional lifestyle, but over time they have come to recognize that an education is important for their children and grandchildren, especially when the long years of drought and famine have taken their toll. As provincial librarian Wycliffe Oluouch puts it, They have lose their world, they have lost their animals. Now they have to find other ways to invest, and they are investing in their children (Vick 1999). Another library program that has been working in Kenya involves reading tents pitched out in open fields. Not only are the tents easy to move from place to place, and not only do they provide shelter from the elements while the children are reading under them, but the tents also

create a relaxed, informal atmosphere that helps show that reading can be an enjoyable leisure activity, again helping to create a desire for reading outside of what is required for school, and instilling a lifelong reading habit. Other activities take place under the tents, including

storytelling and music and sing-a-longs (Makenzi 2004, 3-5). Kenya also operates a donkey-driven library service, which serves small villages, bringing in a cart of books and solar-powered internet services for the children. There is also a donkey library service in neighboring Ethiopia, where most of the state run schools do not have libraries. This service was started by Yohannes Gebregirorigs, an expatriate Ethiopian living in the United States. Gebregirorigs was taught to read in Ethiopia by Peace Corps volunteers. After becoming an American citizen, he earned his masters degree in Library Science, and started the Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation, which also consists of a small publishing house that puts out childrens books in their native language of Amharic. This company has also just started to publish parallel texts in English, Amharic and Sidama, another regional language. Donkeys in this area are a normal form of transport, but as these animals are generally ill-treated and looked down upon, the program also attempts to teach the children respect for them, by equating the donkeys with the desirable books, and decorating the donkeys in colourful embroidered trappings usually reserved for riding horses (Blunt 2009, 26). And with the donkey, we come full circle back to the innovative program mentioned at the opening of the paper, the biblioburro, created and operated for the past ten years by Luis Soriano, a primary school teacher in La Gloria, Columbia. As a young teacher, Soriano

witnessed the powerful effect reading had on his students in the conflict-ridden area, echoing his own experiences with reading as a young boy. Most of the childrens families could not afford books of their own, and there were not any local libraries to visit. He started with his own

collection of 70 books, carried in pouches on his two donkeys Alfa and Beto, and rode them out to the children in small villages, where he would read to them and allow them to borrow books. The donkeys are an ideal form of transportation, due to the rugged terrain that is difficult for wheeled vehicles to travel, but not for the donkeys. The donkeys are cheap, reliable, dont need any fuel and can go almost anywhere (Reel, 2005), Soriano says. With donations he now has a collection of about 5000 books that he stores in his home, including novels, histories, and medical texts along with the childrens books that make up the bulk of his collection. He and his wife have been building the first permanent library building in their village, with the help of donations and extra money they earn by running a restaurant on the side, where Soriano also tries to get the customers interested in reading and talking about current events in the paper. When he started out the violence in the area was still very heavy, and he had to be careful that none of the books he carried could be misinterpreted as propaganda. People in his own community also made fun of him, and he became discouraged and quit, until shortly after when the parents in the village came to his home and asked him to come back, as their children had been begging them for more stories, and they had realized that reading was an important part of their childrens education (Ayoka Productions website, Biblioburro: behind-the-scenes). One of Sorianos beliefs about the importance of reading is the idea that by becoming more educated and aware of the world around them, including their rights and responsibilities as citizens, the children will grow up and create a better Columbia for themselves and future generations. So nearly every weekend he loads up his donkeys with books to take reading to his approximately 300 regular patrons and any new people in whom he can inspire the love of reading. Soriano states: This began as a necessity; then it became an obligation; and after that a custom. Now, it is an institution (Romero, 2008).

In all of the above-described programs, while the delivery systems vary widely, the common element among them all is the personal factor. All of them involve librarians,

professional or otherwise, organizations of people, and individuals, who are concerned about the literacy and reading habits of underserved populations and disadvantaged people, and who have taken it upon themselves to find creative means to address this need and to do the hard work required to make their programs work. In some cases, the people involved in the program are literally the delivery method. Hope Worldwide volunteers in Papua New Guinea travel on truck as far into remote jungle areas as they can, and then unload boxes of books from the trucks and carry them on their shoulders for hours to trails end to hand deliver them to small villages such as Amia, where they help the residents start up libraries and stock their schools with reading materials (Ruurs 2005, 24-25). A mobile library pilot program has started up in Nepal in which people carry reading materials in doko, or bamboo baskets, on their backs, along foot trails to areas inaccessible by roads. This program is also building regional community centers and providing other educational programs (Dahal 2004, 7). Whether the programs are funded by grants or donations, or solely using the limited financial resources of the individuals or non-profit organizations that run them, all of them work with the native geography and culture to develop best practices for bringing reading to the people who need it most and who have no other means to acquire library materials and increase literacy. All of the people behind these programs share the common goal of using reading as an enjoyable tool for education and self-improvement, both of the individual and the community. As Elsa Ramirez writes in her report to the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) on library and literacy programs in Latin America: Reading is a basic component of education and human development. Reading expands and improves knowledge, the way to see oneself and integrate to the

world, the understanding of social processes, and of the needs of a country...It is a process of intense mental activity which is cognitive, linguistic and socializing at the same time. Furthermore, it is possible to strengthen the national identity and value the ethnical, cultural and language diversity of the country. (Ramirez 2005, 18-20)

With the hard work, ingenuity, and dedication of people like those creating and operating the programs mentioned in this paper, and the people they inspire to join them in their missions both among the communities they help as well as those more advantaged people who learn about the programs from afar, reading will continue to create new possibilities for people around the world.