Promoting Community Libraries
Written by: Matt
BiblioWorks has been working hard this year to promote each of our libraries in the communities. All of our libraries are public; however most of the people who visit them are children, high school students and teachers. This year we have been creating strategies to attract adults to use our libraries.
One of our biggest successes promoting our libraries was in Tarabuco earlier in the year. Thanks to the help of Allison Dunlap and Ryan Crennen we organized an event in Tarabuco which attracted children and adults from the community to see the Municipal library and the services it offers.
Each Sunday the town of Tarabuco hosts one of the largest indigenous markets in Bolivia and the town is bustling with vendors, people from rural communities and tourists. BiblioWorks with the help of our volunteers organized a table with reading materials for adults, games for children and presentations about the library services. It was a great success and since we have seen the increase in users in the Tarabuco library!
Volunteer Ryan Crennen reads with some kids outside the library
Adults reading pamphlets about the importance of education
Sustainability in the Villa Serrano Library
Written by:Matt
This year BiblioWorks is focusing on making our libraries sustainable and leaving them in the capable hands of local governments and community leaders. By the end of 2011 we will leave behind the Municipal Library in Villa Serrano. BiblioWorks has worked in Villa Serrano since 2007 when the library was inaugurated. The library is a cultural center where many children, teachers and other community members go every day.
During 2011 the BiblioWorks staff has implemented a comprehensive sustainability plan which has included trainings with the librarian, teachers, high school students, forming a committee to oversee the sustainability of the library, promoting the library on the local radio and television stations and many other activities both in the library and in the community in general. This week we had a great meeting with the sustainability committee and other members of the local government to sign a sustainability agreement. During the meeting we also delivered new books mainly for the use of teachers, since there is a large teacher’s college in the town of Villa Serrano.
We are excited to be on the road to creating sustainable libraries. With your help and support we hope to make more of our libraries sustainable in 2012 so that we can build new libraries in other communities in need.
School Principals sign the sustainability agreement
Kids participate in a drawing contest in the Villa Serrano library
Adults go to the Yamparáez library
Written by:Matt
Recently BiblioWorks organized a day-long activity with parents whose kids visit the library in Yamparáez . Unfortunately we have not worked much with adults as most of the library users in all of the towns are children or high-school students. The activity involved a brief introduction to the benefits of literacy and education and then some activities to motivate the parents to read about the things they enjoy doing. It was a huge success and the parents left wanting to learn more.
The librarian has told us that since then a few of those parents have returned to the library to look for a book or just to see what their children are doing. We hope to organize more activities with parents and adults in general in all of our libraries. With more resources and staff, our libraries would be able to benefit more people and we could organize more and better activities such as this one.
Parents learn about the educational games in the library
A woman reading in the Yamparaez library
