About Lubuto Library Project
About Lubuto Libraries
Celebration of the First Opening
Ngwerere Lubuto Library
Children in Need
Humphrey's Story
FAQs
Kudos
In the Media
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- What
are the children like
who will be using the libraries?
- Are
the street
kids educated? Can they read?
- How
can
libraries help those children?
- Which
kinds of
books would you like donated for the Lubuto library collections?
- Why
does the
condition or content of the books matter?
- Why
do you say
this is not like a traditional book donation program?
- How
will you
ensure that the libraries will have books that are appropriate for
young people in Africa?
- Do
you ask
publishers for books?
- What
about
language issues? Do the children know English?
- Could
you use
donations of used text books?
- Do
you want
multiple copies of the same book?
- Do
you include
DVDs and videotapes in the collections?
- Are
there
going to be computers in the Lubuto Libraries?
- What
if a
book I donate isn't selected for Lubuto library collections?
- Isn't
it too
expensive to send books to Africa?
- Don't
donations of foreign books hurt local publishers and booksellers in
Africa?
- Could
we
organize a book drive in our area to get books for the Lubuto project?
- What
kind of
buildings will house Lubuto collections?
- How
can I
help the Lubuto Library Project?
What are the
children like who will be using the library?
They may be recently orphaned or may have survived on their own, perhaps living in the streets, for several years. Of those living in homes, many live in households with only their brothers and sisters and must care for younger children or are cared for by older siblings.
Frequently a large number of orphaned siblings and cousins are living with an elderly grandmother, who is able to offer only shelter and a small amount of food. Other children have lost their home when their parents died and have resorted to living on the streets with other children, finding food and necessities wherever they can.
Many of the children have watched their parents grow sick and eventually die. They may have been separated from their siblings when their parents died and have lost their homes and possessions. They may be HIV positive themselves, and they may or may not be aware of their HIV status. They are particularly vulnerable to sexual and substance abuse, which put them in greater danger of being infected with HIV.Poor nutrition and sanitation may have taken a toll on their health and learning abilities, particularly if they have survived without family or institutional support for an extended period. The children are especially endangered when there is an outbreak of a disease such as cholera in the general society in which they live.
Are the street kids educated? Can they read?
The children may have been in school for many years or may have been unable to attend school. Because of irregular school attendance, the children we are targeting have a wide range of literacy levels, often not corresponding to their age. Trying to learn to read in a second language may compound the difficulty.
The reasons for their being excluded from school include: the lack of money for school fees and uniforms; being shunned or stigmatized because they are orphans, if their parents were known to have died of AIDS, or simply for being poorer than children in better circumstances; the need to work or beg during the day for money for themselves and for their siblings’ subsistence; and an inability to concentrate in school due to depression, hunger, sickness, or other physical or psychological trauma.
How can libraries help children who are not in school?
Lubuto libraries are envisioned as special places where children can read for themselves, look at books or have books read to them, and thus come in contact with and explore a wealth of information and experience otherwise well out of their reach given their living conditions.
By making a wide variety of books available to them, children are able to find materials suited to their level, to meet their specific needs. An older teenager may wish to read a very basic book in order to improve his or her reading, or perhaps to just begin to learn to read. Other children may be able to read well and are ready to enjoy books and learning on a more advanced level, perhaps to prepare for secondary school entrance examinations.
Library collections can offer these children enrichment on many levels. Books can provide information on practical skills or on health and safety issues vital for survival. They can provide, on various levels, information and education about the world, its history and cultures, and the philosophical and scientific understanding all children need to acquire as they prepare to take their place in the world. They can guide children to new forms of recreation or inspire new arts. Fiction and poetry can give some escape from their difficult and circumscribed conditions and inspire hope for a better life.
Which kinds of books would you like donated for the Lubuto Library collections?
We are looking for books that are new or as good as new, undamaged and clean, for boys and girls from early childhood through about age 18 whose first language is (usually) not English. Our emphasis is on hardcover, informational books with plenty of great, clear illustrations. It’s helpful to remember that readers will have access to these books only while they are actually in a Lubuto Library.
Fiction and picture books must transcend cultural differences, so it is a good rule of thumb to stick with the classics. Good nonfiction choices are illustrated books about nature, science, sports, crafts, technology, geography, history, biography, music and art.
Science and reference books in particular need to have recent publication dates, and books in sets must be complete. Paperbacks don’t age well, so any paperback books must be brand new for our collections.
We do not want: magazines, vanity titles, self-published books, catalogs, textbooks, instruction manuals, pamphlets, study guides, school readers, individual volumes from a larger work, publishers’ advance reading copies, movie and television tie-ins.
Why does the condition or content of the books matter so much? I have lots of books that my children used to read that I would like to put to a good use. Aren't our old books better than nothing?
It actually does matter -- very much -- what kinds of books are sent. One thing that makes our project special, and able to have a profound impact on the children we will serve, is that we will send excellent collections of books. We want the children we serve to know that we respect them and feel they are worthy of good, new books. Poor quality, culturally irrelevant, or simply uninteresting books will not help children develop a love of learning or reading; and books that are damaged or are not durable will not last long. We will send only excellent books, of which there are many.
Another consideration is the cost for shipping books. We will ship only high quality books so that none will be discarded in Africa. Careful selection on our end makes shipping books far more cost effective.
Why do you say this is not like traditional book donation programs?
A unique feature of the project, which sets it apart from traditional book donation programs, is that we are creating complete collections of excellent children’s books, already organized, offering out-of-school children an instant library with books covering a wide range of subjects and levels. To do this, books must be carefully selected from materials received by donation to ensure that the collection is balanced and comprised of top quality publications. We will not just be sending relevant, age-appropriate books, but truly excellent children's libraries, collections as fine as could be found anywhere.
The reason we are taking this approach, which differs from book donation programs, is because those programs usually send books to schools, in Africa and other less-developed areas. But we want to make books available to children who cannot attend schools, at least not traditional schools. Therefore, we are creating new institutions – libraries – where children can find a home.
How will you ensure that the libraries will have books that are appropriate for young people in Africa?
Volunteers creating the collections are guided by a detailed collection development policy drafted by a prominent expert in children's literature, a member of the Lubuto Library Project's board of directors. Librarians working for our project in Africa will also provide feedback on the materials sent, and local staff will be trained to maintain the libraries and offer and evaluate services. And books published in Africa will be identified and purchased for the collections when they are available. Also, we will continue to work through library associations here and in Africa to engage librarians as volunteers for the project.
As at any library, the collection guidelines will constantly evolve based on feedback and changing needs, as well as changing availability of books. Thus, just like any library, it isn’t possible to give a listing of books that are appropriate for Lubuto Library collections.
Do you ask publishers for books?
There are some publishers whose main area of specialization fits generally within our collection guidelines, and those are the publishers we will approach first. With other publishers, we will need to request specific titles, and we will be helped with that by authors and booksellers who are interested in supporting our project in that way.
What about language issues? Do the children know English?
Few of the children coming to Lubuto libraries will speak English as their first language. Their mastery of English will range from no proficiency to complete fluency. Whatever their ability to speak English is, they want and need to learn to speak and read English well in order to succeed in school and work, and become productive members of society.
Our project's board of directors has an ESL (English as a Second Language) expert who will assist us in developing collection guidelines. Children are able to develop and improve English language fluency by reading books in English. Children also need books in their mother tongue. Unfortunately, in much of sub-Saharan Africa, there are very few children's books in print in local languages. We intend to purchase all relevant local language publications that are available to add to our collections.
After our pilot libraries in Zambia, we hope to bring Lubuto libraries to other countries, including some Francophone countries. French-language book donations will be solicited from French schools in the U.S., France and Canada for those collections. Plans are also being developed to obtain Portuguese-language materials that could be sent to Mozambique.
Could you use donations of used text books?
In general we are not looking for textbooks. The curricula in most African countries are very different from ours, and there is a special curriculum developed for what are called 'community schools' in Zambia that especially accommodates out-of-school children. We would like to send funds along with our collections to purchase the materials produced for community schools, thereby also supporting the community schools program in Zambia while getting curriculum materials designed specifically to accommodate the needs of our target group.However, if you have in-scope and good-condition books that could be used by individual visitors to our libraries (rather than as classroom texts) we might have a need for such books in our collections.
Do you want multiple copies of the same book?
In most cases, we would only want a maximum of three copies of a specific title. We currently collect and assemble three library collections at a time so that they can be organized and shipped together in one container.
Do you include dvds and videotapes in the collections?
We are not seeking donations of DVDs and videotapes in the U.S. because U.S. systems are incompatible with video equipment in African countries. However, those media are very useful for learning and entertainment, and we will seek video (and equipment) donations from countries that, for example, use the PAL system that is used in Zambia, or the SECAM system common in Francophone countries.
Are there going to be computers in the Lubuto Libraries?
Not initially, but we certainly expect them to be added in the future. Our first efforts are to create accessible and welcoming reading rooms for children who are in dire straits and to give them opportunities to read and learn that are otherwise unavailable to them. Books are the simplest, most appropriate, and most sustainable medium to meet the needs of our diverse target group at present. Eventually, as our libraries are established and widely used, our staff will be able to assess readiness and appropriateness of computer resources and we will plan for making technology available to our users.
What if a book I donate isn't selected for Lubuto Library collection?
We will make every effort to ensure that all books donated to our project contribute to our efforts to make excellent and balanced collections of books available to AIDS-affected children in Africa. We will have book sales of donated books that we are unable to use in our collections, the proceeds of which will go toward the cost of shipping the collections to Africa. Many good and popular books in this country simply aren’t useful to Lubuto readers, but have value to young people here. One way or another, your donation will help a disadvantaged child.
Isn't it too expensive to send books to Africa?
We will send books by 20-foot shipping containers that will contain enough books in one shipment to stock three Lubuto Libraries. Because children's books tend to be slimmer than adult books, more titles can fit into one shipment, resulting in an estimated shipping cost of about 30¢ per book. We feel that excellent books are well worth that cost.
We will also seek in-kind donations of container and transport, or a transport agent who might make a charitable donation of reduced-cost or free shipping to our organization. The Lubuto Library Project is a tax exempt 501(c) (3) public charity and donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Don't donations of foreign books hurt local publishers and booksellers in Africa?
Our project aims to support local African publishers by providing funds for purchase of relevant materials, particularly those published in local languages. Unfortunately, the publishing industries in our targeted areas are not robust at present. By playing our part in developing a reading public we will be ultimately strengthening the publishers by expanding their markets. Without Lubuto libraries, vulnerable children are not purchasing books from any source; thus our collections of donated books do not detract from the local market for books and should ultimately enhance it.
A thorough examination of issues and experiences of book donation programs, including their impact on publishers in certain areas, was published by UNESCO in 2005. Entitled Book Donations for Development, the full text is accessible online at www.codecan.org. Our approach, creating and sending carefully chosen library collections, fits well into recommended guidelines for effective book donation.
We will also work with children to document traditional stories from their culture, in local languages, to be bound and preserved in the Lubuto libraries. This will entail the street children transcribing stories and accounts of traditions of local cultures told by elders and storytellers at events held at the libraries. If unique materials are created, preserving stories and history that are not documented elsewhere, an effort will be made to publish them locally for commercial sale at a low cost. In addition to the importance of documenting traditional culture and local history that will be lost to future generations, and the value of creating library materials of immediate interest to children removed from access to oral traditions, vulnerable children would be empowered by the role as preservers of culture, making a very valuable contribution to their society. This program is also intended to support the efforts of African publishers and librarians to produce reading material in local languages.
Could we organize a book drive in our area to get books for the Lubuto Project?
Our book drives serve a double purpose: they are designed not only to carefully target and elicit relevant donations, but also to raise awareness in this country of how HIV/AIDS is affecting young people in Africa. During our pilot phase, we are continuing to develop the messages that accompany the book drives and are also working to complete detailed guidelines about the types of books that are needed to build balanced and relevant library collections for African street kids.
We envision working with schools and organizations by bringing an entire project (e.g., conducting middle and high school book drives, and organizing high school-aged and adult volunteers to select and organize books according to our guidelines and then pack them for shipping to a specific destination, etc.), rather than by widely soliciting book donations on a piecemeal basis. The reason for this is that people donating books would like to know that they will benefit the street kids, but it is likely that fewer than 10% of books donated without careful advance communication would be ones that would be appropriate choices for our libraries.
Carrying out our program also involves major efforts in mobilizing volunteers and identifying space (with shelving, sorting tables, etc.) where books could be collected, sorted, selected, processed, and then held until being packed up and shipped. We are using space in a church basement for our pilot. And we are amassing large numbers of books that have been donated that we are not able to use for our collections, so we have identified a storage site to keep the books until students are able to have a used book sale to generate funds for the project.
We hope to have an approach to bringing our program to other areas worked out by the end of our pilot year. Meanwhile, we are working carefully to make the best professional judgments in building our libraries for Africa's disadvantaged youth. Please check back for information on bringing the program to other areas, as it becomes available.
What kinds of buildings will house Lubuto collections?
If host institutions can make available adequate existing spaces, our staff will work with them to adapt them as libraries. Otherwise, we will construct library buildings according to a prototype architectural plan developed specifically for Lubuto Libraries. This plan follows the traditional lay-out pattern of homesteads in Zambia and includes three round thatched structures: a reading room approximately 12 meters in diameter which will house the book collection, an activities room, approximately 7 meters in diameter, and a transition/entrance structure. A place for washing hands before entering the reading room will be provided in the entrance room.
The number of children that can comfortably use the library at one time is approximately 50, reading in 9 equal bays each accommodating 3 or 4 children and the central space able to host a bigger group of 10 to 15 children. Adjustments will be made in the prototype design to accommodate the particular topography, space available and layout of each location. The libraries will be constructed of burnt bricks or concrete blocks plastered on both interior and exterior surfaces, with thatched roofs. Each facility will accommodate a collection to serve at least 500 children and will be sited adjacent to its host organization's existing structures.
How can I help the Lubuto Library Project?
As we launch operations of a new and unique project, our most urgent need is for funding. Of course, tax-deductible cash donations of any size will be greatly appreciated. But other fundraising assistance, such as organizing a fundraising event or connecting us with sources of funding, is also very helpful. In-kind donations of library equipment and supplies, air freight, printing and business supplies are needed.
We will be looking for people at schools in the Washington DC area (initially) who are interested in bringing our program to their school, and could organize student volunteers, book drives, etc. Please contact us to learn how you can get involved.
For more information on how to help the Lubuto Library Project, please check the Special Libraries Association's Social Sciences Division website.
