CHAPTER THREE – LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Library service model
3.1.6 Mobile library service models
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Kesselman and Anfenson (2008) aver that the Library Outpost model generates some benefits for wider library service delivery. Basically, the model enables librarians to: 1) Extend services and access to users; 2) Be where the users are; 3) Be moveable and flexible; 4) Be visible affordably; 5) Help users overwhelmed by libraries; and 6) Partner with the library communities in offering services suitable for their contexts. They add that from their experience in experimenting with the model, many people like the services. They also find that these outposts constitute important outreach efforts for the libraries and play a critical role in marketing the library and librarians. However, to succeed, the Library Outpost model needs to be developed in partnership with the communities.
User studies to establish the real needs and contexts of the neighbourhood as well as publicity are also critical to its success. However, they (Kesselman and Anfenson 2008) warn that the Library Outpost model employs inefficient use of staffing and therefore requires more people. The model is also not scalable to other locations. Blumenstein (2008) also points out that implementing the Library Outpost model is expensive leading some libraries to drop it midstream.
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Mobile libraries are suitable for poor underserved neighbourhoods or counties where the authorities responsible for library services cannot afford to build and operate a full library. It also works for regions where the population is too low to justify the establishment of a fully-fledged library. Mobile libraries are also suitable for users whose way of life cannot be supported by a “stationary” library.
Such users like nomads in North Eastern Province in Kenya move from one place to the other depending on weather and security conditions. In such settings operating a physical traditional library is not suitable as the potential users are constantly migrating. Conversely, they can benefit from a mobile library which follows them and delivers the information resources to them wherever they are.
Mobile libraries are also perceived to be economical; convenient to the users who do not have to travel long distances to the permanent library premises; and more affordable especially because the authorities do not have to build a complete library in all the regions. Some scholars are also of the view that mobile libraries easily attract greater support than their counterparts. This has been attributed to the fact that individuals and organizations can easily donate components of a mobile library such as unused train carriages or buses. It is also possible for interested supporters to volunteer labour. It has also been argued that it is easier to promote mobile library services than other library models (Lerdsuriyakul 2000).
The major challenges the mobile library model faces include difficulty in meeting most users‟ needs in a limited physical space; operating on strict schedules which limit their access; and difficulty in maintaining membership inventories. The libraries are also exposed to harsh weather conditions such as high temperatures, wind, dust, and rainstorms resulting in rapid wear and tear of the resources (Lerdsuriyakul 2000).
Many forms of the mobile library model are being used in various places in the world today. Some of these include:
3.1.6.1 Mobile Train Library in Thailand
This model utilizes train carriages and platforms to deliver information resources to the commuters and the communities living around the rail network. The commuter service is pleasant because travellers utilize the hours-long trips on trains to access library services. Communities who live or
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work near railway stations also receive services when the trains stop at the stations. The mobile train libraries provide opportunities for various learning activities and resources such as books, audio- visual aids, exhibitions, learning groups, and reading promotion activities. Basically, the mobile train library model is designed to extend the reach of libraries to include the often-excluded rural populations with library services and reading materials. It is also aimed at nurturing a reading culture and enhancing literacy levels in the country (Butdisuwan 2000).
These libraries are designed in different ways depending on the primary services offered. Some operate specialized carriages customized as libraries with shelves and other library facilities designed as an ordinary library van. Such carriages can be left in various stations for a day or two to serve the residents of the area before moving on to the next station. When the carriage has gone the full length of the trip, it comes back on the same route and allows the users to return or exchange materials. A similar service is being proposed to be delivered on buses and floating vessels to benefit people living around the bus-routes, rivers and other water bodies. Similar mobile libraries equipped with modern communication technologies and information materials are also in operation in China.
Other designs can include sections of carriages used as storage for reading materials that commuters can borrow and use only for the trip. These materials are collected at the end of the trip (Zhaochun and Miaohui 2005). Whatever the design, this library model has the potential of reaching many people who would otherwise not be reached effectively through the other models of library services.
3.1.6.2 Biblioburro in Colombia
This is a travelling library service using two donkeys (Alfa and Beto) to distribute books and other information materials by Luis Humberto Soriano in La Gloria, Colombia. Developed in the late 1990s with just 70 books, the Biblioburro had expanded to include at least 4,800 books by 2008. The idea came to Mr Soriano when as a young teacher he witnessed the transformative power of reading among his pupils in the conflict-prone country. He lends out the reading materials and also reads the story books to children who wait for him in groups as he travels along with Alfa and Beto. His collection mainly contains story books, dictionaries, text-books, encyclopaedia and novels (Martine 2008; Romero 2008; West 2008).
Romero (2008) explains that Soriano‟s Biblioburro is a whimsical riff on the bookmobile. It is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of
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taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve their lives and ultimately lift the economy of this impoverished country. Soriano believes that books change lives by empowering the readers to deal with the pressing issues that hinder them from maximizing their potential to a dignified livelihood. His passion is deep and he has committed his life, savings and energy to this project to build the literary capacity of the masses. Whereas many other people may be having the same intentions but are held back by bureaucracy, procrastination and the need for elaborate implementation plans, Soriano is doing what he can with what he has, now.
Mr Soriano faces many challenges including loss of his books (some borrowers do not return them;
others steal them; he has also been robbed of one title), personal risks (he has suffered in the hands of bandits who tied him to a tree and stole his books) and general security risks but he is not deterred. He believes that if he can interest just one person in reading a mundane news item – say, about the rising price of rice – then that would be a bold step forward (Romero 2008).
3.1.6.3 Llama Libraries in Peru
This was a mobile library service aimed at reaching the remote rural farming communities in the Andes of Peru. Due to lack of adequate finances to build and operate normal libraries, some of the farmers volunteered to act as librarians and also offered their houses to keep the library material in.
The houses storing the library material became known as house libraries. Each volunteer librarian was responsible for 20 books (Metcalf 1982). The farmers visited the house library in the neighbourhood to read or borrow the books. Metcalf (1982) also explains that every month, the volunteer librarian took back the 20 books to the main library in Bambamarca60 and obtained a new set. Because of the dilapidated road network in this region, the llama61 was the preferred mode of transport for the books between the house libraries and main library. In order to protect the collection from wear and tear, each book was stoutly bound, covered with cellophane and then put in a plastic bag (Metcalf 1982). The collection was mainly composed of simple reading material covering fiction, agriculture, rural crafts and general knowledge.
60 Bambamarca is the headquarters of a district by the same name in the Bolivar province of Peru (Wikipedia Contributors 2009c).
61 Llama is a pack animal used by the natives of the Andes Mountains in Peru and other places in South America (Wikipedia Contributors 2009d).
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3.1.6.4 Donkey Mobile Service in Zimbabwe
This mobile library model was initiated in 1995 by Zimbabwe‟s Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme and has recently been extended to provide the Donkey–Drawn Mobile Cart Electro-Communication Library, offering access to radio, television, telephone, facsimile, email and Internet services powered by a solar unit installed on the roof of the cart (Kabwato 2009).
The Donkey–Drawn Mobile Cart Library consists of a closed cart designed to provide proper storage facilities and hold books on shelves so that when the vehicle is parked the books can be accessed by readers. The units have solar panels on the roofs and enable the libraries to offer basic electronic services such as Internet access as well. This library model is used to provide library services to villages and city suburbs without library buildings. The donkey mobile carts can be used in all sorts of terrains and can be attached to a network system linking several towns, villages and schools. The donkey mobile libraries operate on set dates and are accessible at specific times. This could be once a month or once a term depending on road conditions or distance between target communities and the hub station. These mobile libraries generally allow users to borrow books until the next visit. Library staff could either be trained librarians or volunteers with basic library training and skills obtained on the job (Kabwato 2009; Wikipedia Contributors 2009a). This model of library service has been replicated in Kenya and Ethiopia. It has also being considered for adoption in the Eastern Cape region in South Africa. Besides its simplicity and affordability, it is also adaptable and usable on narrow roads that bigger motorized vehicles cannot pass through. Consequently, it has the potential to extend library services to rural areas that are not easily reachable by other means.
3.1.6.5 Camel Mobile Libraries in Kenya
The Camel mobile library service is one of the unique non-motorized mobile library service in use today. It was launched in 1996 and is operated by the government-owned Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) (Atuti 2002; Passchier 2002). Located in the arid, sparsely populated and least developed North Eastern province, the service is suited to meet the information needs of the nomadic pastoralists who live in the province.
Passchier (2002) explains that the Camel mobile library service was launched using three camels and had been expanded to six camels by 2001 and later on to twelve by 2007 (Majtenyi 2007). It operates from a “static” branch of the KNLS in Garissa town – the North Eastern provincial headquarters –
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from where it covers a radius of about 20 km. The service primarily targets pastoralists, schools, adult literacy programmes and refugee camps.62
The service is currently enabling pupils, students and other members of these communities access to information materials – largely books – easily. The library service operates four three-camel caravans. The camels travel to four settlements per day, four times (Mondays to Thursdays) a week.
From Fridays63 to Sundays, the camels are released to go and feed, recuperate and checked for any signs of disease and receive any necessary treatment. The patrons borrow books and return the same after two weeks (Hamilton 2005; Majtenyi 2007).
According to the KNLS64, a day starts with the loading of books and other library materials into boxes, which carry about 200 books each. The books are then taken to designated areas in a camel caravan. One caravan comprises three camels each with specified tasks as follows: one camel carries two book boxes; another carries a tent, reading mat, two chairs and a table; the third camel is used as a spare in case any of the other two has a problem. A librarian in charge, two assistants and a skilled camel herdsman lead the caravan. On arrival, the books and other items are unloaded, the tent is pitched and the books are then displayed on the mat. As it is the culture of the local people to sit on mats, a floor mat is also provided for those needing to make quick references to the materials. From this makeshift library all the basic library services are provided and at the end of the day, all the items are loaded on camels, which head back to the library in preparation for the next day‟s programme.
The service is compatible with the nomadic pastoral lifestyle because it targets the community in their natural focal points, the „Manyattas‟65 and other groups at the administrative centres. The impact of this model of delivering library services has been profound as demonstrated by an assessment commissioned by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to ascertain its viability which declared that it is effective in providing services to the residents of this seemingly neglected region (Atuti 2002; Passchier 2002).
62 This province holds thousands of refugees mainly from war-torn Somalia (which it borders), Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, among other countries.
63 This region is mainly inhabited by Muslims who worship on Fridays hence the break.
64 Information obtained from interviews with some of the KNLS officers involved in the service and from the KNLS website – http://www.knls.or.ke
65 These are temporary settlements used by nomadic groups in Kenya as they move from one place to the other in search for pasture for their animals. Sometimes, they are also forced to move due to security concerns.
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The use of camels as opposed to motorized means of transport is due to the poor road network in the area as well as insecurity given that this province borders Somalia which has been without a formal central government for almost 20 years now. The main challenge this library model faces is the harsh weather conditions which increases wear and tear on the information resources. It also lacks an adequate collection; lack of awareness of the service by the communities it seeks to serve due to their lifestyles and lack of adequate communication infrastructure in the area; it is also labour intensive; and some of the camels occasionally fall ill thus disabling delivery of the services during the period of sickness (Atuti 2002).
3.1.6.6 Cupboard Library Service in Kenya
This service model is being offered by the KNLS in Kenya‟s Laikipia66 district for institutions that have no libraries. In this model, the institution buys the cupboard and the library supplies the books, which are kept in the cupboard for use by the students. This serves as a starting point for the development of a full-fledged library in that institution. The loan period for the books is one month.