After a very busy spring I’m on vacation with a similarly exhausted friend and we decided to take a cruise on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. I asked a couple of times if there was a library nearby with not much success. Finally we got to Bol on the island of Brac (pronounced Brash) when, immediately upon exit our small cruise boat, we see signs directly us to city sites and there is an arrow pointing to the library (in English). My friend Cher Czyzewski is also a librarian so we set off to look for it. Our tour guide was actually ahead of us and said he had already met the librarian who was off to get coffee and we should come back in an hour, which we did. 

The library was a little hard to find, around a corner and up some stairs, decorated with art work, we later found out, from children’s summer craft programs. The library is one room, bright and airy, with a full length mirror looking out on the Adriatic. Librarian Jadranka Nejasmic said the library is open to tourists who come during the summer months and she does regular programming for children, bringing in local artists and authors. It has about 60,000 books, some of them stored on an upper floor. She wants to expand the library from the one room, and has her eye on a school nearby that will be abandoned when a new school is built. Ms Nejasmic is active in her national library association and participants in continuing education, last year visiting some of the national libraries across Europe. 

What I found the most fun is the BookCrossing program. During summer months, Ms Nejasmic put a big table of books outside on the dock. All of the books have this notice on the back: “Howdy! Hola! Bonjour! Guten Tag! I’m a very special book. You see, I’m traveling around the world making new friends. I hope I’ve met another friend in you. Please go towww.BookCrossing.org and enter my BCID number(shown below). You’ll discover where I’ve been and who has read me. The READ and RELEASE me!”

So I took The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle (much fun, particularly if you like French food) and will pass it on to someone else to read.  Here are some photos of the library, of Ms Nejasmic with me, of the crafts on the stairs, and the Book Crossing information.

On my way to Greece a week ago I visited Rossi Poparkova in Goyse Delchev. Rossi directs the library in Gotche Delchev, Bulgaria. Her library was an ABLE partner with the Annette Choczyzk, first with the Arapahoe County Library and then the Delta County Library District in Colorado. When the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in Bulgaria, Rossi’s Library became a Gates Global Library. I visited the library about seven years ago. much has changed; much not. The library is part of a chithalisthe, or community center, that provides the library facilities, utilities, internet and wifi, and some funding for library materials. There is a new children’s room, but away from the main part of the library. There are now about 20 computers for people to use with classes taught by library staff. Rossi says that library use has dramatically increased because of the computers and expanded English language collection used by students learning English.

The library is still heated by wood and coal stoves and the storage room is still crammed with books for which there is no space, and Rossi still struggles to find funding. She cobbles together a budget from the chithalisthe, Gotche Delchev municipality that buys magazines, the national Ministry of Culture that pays for the small salaries, and a small book budget from readers cards which people have to buy to use the library. Since both the main library and the children’s library are up stairs, Rossi recently applied to the national ministry for social services to fund an elevator.

Photos above show Rossi and colleague Maria Krostilova in the main library, Rossi and children’s librarian Katerina Milenova in the children’s room, a very full storage area, and the Gates computers before the the library opened, hence no one using them.

There’s still time to Register for the Western Balkan Information Literacy Conference, Bihać Bosnia & Herzegovina June 11-14th 2014. This year’s programs will be centered on the theme, “Embracing Relentless Change: Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning in a Digital Age.” REGISTER ON OR BEFORE 5th JUNE 2014 . For more information and to register visit: http://conference.bibliotekabihac.com/

I’m honored to be asked by People to People and the American Library Association to lead a tour to India November 2-11, 2014.  I’ve been working with international libraries for 20 years and was Chair of the ALA International Relations Committee last year. I’m also I’m co-founder of the International Library Cultural Exchange Interest Group of the Colorado Association of Libraries.  

I’m excited to lead this tour because it combines visits to cultural sites and interacting with our librarian colleagues in India.   People to People tours always create wonderful opportunities for networking and expanding our understanding of the successes and challenges of our library colleagues around the world.

You can learn more about this trip at www.peopletopeople.com/ALA

As People to People describes it:   You can experience India firsthand with your library and information services peers from India and around the world through vibrant professional exchanges, valuable networking, and meaningful discussions tailored to your focus and interests.

Professional highlights of the trip include:  

• Local library and information science professionals from various sectors for a mini-symposium in New Delhi.

• Librarians and information technology specialists at local libraries (public, children’s, and school depending on the interests of tour participants.)

• Professionals at a local university to learn about the extent of professional development available to Indian librarians and the delivery mechanisms for professional development.

Information about the cultural sites we will visit in New Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra go to www.peopletopeople.com/ALA. You are invited to bring a guest with you who will have alternative visits while we meet with librarians.

I hope you can join me for this trip to India.

The meeting that was scheduled for this afternoon (5/12/14) has been cancelled. We will plan to meet again in June.

Submitted by Janet Lee, Chair, International Library & Cultural Exchange Interest Group, Dean, Regis University Library, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Ethiopia

Each of us has come to this interest group because we have a passion for travel and a passion for libraries.  Many of us have had the good fortune to have worked in or set up libraries abroad.  Some of these projects have been very successful.  Some have become sustainable.  Some have not.  We have seen libraries that are filled with users.  We are aware that some of these same libraries lose their appeal once we leave, books go unread and seats are empty.   Yet we return and try again, each time with measured optimism.   There are so many roadblocks in the developing world:  few books, even fewer trained staff; a lack of a reading culture; little electricity let alone Internet; no public funding; and few local language materials.  Yet when the magic happens and a child and a book come together, it is all worthwhile.

I recently picked up a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi.  I had a copy of his children’s book that I picked up at a book signing, but had not read his memoir.  William lived in rural Malawi and had a somewhat normal African childhood, until a great famine happened, the government changed, and his family could no longer afford his school fees. He and his family faced starvation and did their best to make a living through subsistence farming.  He loved taking things apart and putting them back together:  radios, bicycles, anything with parts.   He tried sneaking into school despite the fact that he had not paid his fees, but was caught and kicked out.  Rather than play games, drink or smoke, he discovered the library.

He writes:

“I started wasting time in the trading center playing bawa.  Someone also taught me a wonderful game called chess, which I started playing every day.  But chess and bawa weren’t enough to keep my mind occupied.  I needed a better hobby, something to trick my brain into being happy.  I missed school so terribly.”

“I remembered that the previous year a group called the Malawi Teacher Training Activity had opened a small library in Wimbe Primary School that was stocked with books donated by the American government.  Perhaps reading could keep my brain from getting soft while being a dropout.”

“The library was in a small room near the main office.  A woman was sitting behind a des when I walked in.  She smiled. ‘Come to borrow some books? She said. This was Mrs. Edith Sikelo, a teacher in Wimbe who taught English and social studies and also operated the library.  I nodded yes, then asked, ‘What are the rules of this place?’ I’d never used such a facility.”

“Mrs. Sikelo took me behind a curtain to a smaller room, where three floor-to ceiling shelves were filled with books.  It smelled sweet and musty, like nothing I’d ever encountered.  I took another deep breath.  Mrs. Sikelo then explained the rules for borrowing books and showed me the collection.  I’d expected to find nothing but primary readers and textbooks, boring things.  But to my surprise, I saw American textbooks on English, history, and science; secondary texts from Zambia and Zimbabwe; and novels for leisurely reading.”

“I spent the day coming through the books while Mrs. Sikelo graded papers at her desk.  Despite the variety of titles, I left that afternoon with books on geography, social studies, and basic spelling—the same textbooks my friends were studying in school.  It was the end of the term, and my hope was to get caught up before classes started again.”

Eventually, William found a physics book that together with his imagination and ability to take things apart and put them back together allowed him to build a windmill that produced electricity to light his family’s house.  His reputation spread and caught the attention of faculty and journalists and ultimately he returned to school and ultimately came to the U.S. and attended school at Dartmouth College.

Had it not been for that library, the teacher/librarian, and that physics book, William might have remained uneducated and a farmer for life.

 http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind-Electricity-ebook/dp/B002PEP4U0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398737501&sr=1-1&keywords=kamkwamba

Join us for our next ILCE-IG meeting!

Date: Monday, May 12th

Time: 2-3:30pm

Location: CLIC Offices, 7400 E. Arapahoe Rd, Centennial, CO 80112

          As a media specialist in Pueblo City Schools, I was fortunate to make a return trip to Lesotho, Africa to work with the Laptops to Lesotho project.  Laptops to Lesotho’s purpose is to raise funds and facilitate the distribution of One Laptop Per Child XO laptops to children in rural Lesotho.  My first trip in January of 2013, involved working with a team to train teachers at two elementary schools on how to use the laptops to teach the children critical thinking and problem solving skills.  The team’s most recent trip in March instructed students in grades one through seven on how to use the laptops to reinforce and improve their math skills.  Both students and teachers were enthusiastic about using the laptops, which used solar power to operate.

          Through the use of a server, in the near future, students will have access to e-books, Wikipedia, Khan Academy, and other resources students in rural Africa seldom have access to.  With few libraries available in rural Lesotho, the use of the laptop will give students greater access to literature. 

          To learn more about the mission and projects of Laptops to Lesotho visit, or to donate visit www.laptopstolesotho.org.

A new paper was just published on ILCE-IG’s ‘Papers, Publications and Presentations’ page! Nancy Bolt recently visited the Philippines as an IFLA committee member. She was also able to attend the 1st International Conference of Public Libraries, sponsored by the National Library of the Philippines, which focused on the theme of “The Role of Libraries in Serving People with Disabilities.” The speakers were wide ranging with both librarians and non-librarians sharing stories and information about library service to target groups variously called special populations, people with disabilities (PWD), or people differently- abled (PDA). Click here to read more:  The Role of Libraries in Serving Persons With Disabilities.

This slide show was prepared by Nancy Bolt and shows the damage and destruction to the public libraries in the Philippines that resulted from the earthquake on October 15th.

<div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”https://www.slideshare.net/Nancybolt16/devastation-in-the-philippines-rev-4-4-14&#8243; title=”Devastation in the philippines, rev 4 4 14″ target=”_blank”>Devastation in the philippines, rev 4 4 14</a> </strong> from <strong><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/Nancybolt16&#8243; target=”_blank”>Nancybolt16</a></strong> </div>