Who is BiblioWorks? Read our Story.

BiblioWorks is a nonprofit that promotes literacy and education. Our mission is to provide communities in need with tools and resources to develop sustainable literacy and educational programs through schools, libraries, and cultural institutions.

BiblioWorks is founded on the principle that literacy and education are critical components of sustainable communities and cultures. We believe that where knowledge, literacy, and learning exist, people have the resources to solve social issues, maintain and strengthen their cultural identities, and to grow their community economically. Since 2005, we have built and equipped libraries in rural and impoverished areas of central Bolivian. We are working on making them all self-sustaining. In rural Bolivia, the concept of public libraries is relatively new, and most children and young people do not have the vital access to books and information they need to achieve success . Our organization provides children and young people with tools so they will have new opportunities to pursue studies and vocations that will allow them to serve their communities and develop strategies to eliminate poverty. Every year our team trains hundreds of students, librarians, teachers, and other community members in the proper use of a public library. We organize annual activities to promote literacy and foster a love for reading. Our annual Reading Festival gathers more than 2,000 participants every year as we bring reading into the street and make a party of it! We are registered in the US as a 501(c)(3) and in Bolivia through the ministry of foreign Affairs.

What do we do? Check it out.

Biblioteca Municipal

Inaugurated July 2007
BiblioWorks’ 5th library
Municipal Library
5 hours from Sucre

Biblioteca San Pablo

Inaugurated April 2008
BiblioWorks’ 6th library
Municipal Library
5 hours from Sucre

Biblioteca Villa Zamora

Inaugurated April 2005
BiblioWorks’ 1st library
Community Library
2.5 hours from Sucre

Biblioteca 14 de Enero

Inaugurated January 2006
BiblioWorks’ 2nd library
Municipal Library
3 hours from Sucre

About us

Our story

Megan Sherar, a Peace Corps volunteer, in a small village in Bolivia, was asked over and over by her community to build a library. Her brother, Brendan, CEO of the Asheville-based company Biblio.com, ventured to check out Megan’s life in Bolivia and ended up falling in love with the country. They decided to implement a library in Megan’s Peace Corps site in 2005, this was the beginning of BiblioWorks.

After the first library in rural Morado K’asa, Megan received proposals from several nearby communities for new libraries. The next library to be equipped and supported was in Presto, a town close to Morado K’asa. Biblio.com became for several years the sole financer of nine library projects. From the first moment, it was decided that in order to achieve sustainability in the libraries, each of them should be opened in partnership with the local municipality.

In 2012 BiblioWorks received its first funding from another organization. Condor Trekkers, a local tourism agency that works as a social entrepreneurship, offered to fund a library in Maragua. Margua is a small community located in the heart of a crater-like formation where Condor Trekkers take most of their groups. The same year, YPFB Transportes, a division of the national gas company, offered to implement a library in two communities, Tomoroco and Pampa Aceituno. All of these libraries represent the recognition that BiblioWorks has gained among local organizations.

In 2015, at the time that the organization was celebrating 10 years of continuous work, another offer yet was made. Across the Globe Children’s Foundation, based in Connecticut, contacted BiblioWorks to offer funding for a new library. This is a milestone in our history, because it shows that BiblioWorks has earned the trust of international organizations who are willing support our efforts.