The Mobile Library Service Project

While the project is new and unique in Malawi, it is however based on workable models from other countries in both developed and underdeveloped regions. Indeed the project is not new in the SADC Region, as a similar project, called the “Camel Library Service,” is being implemented successfully in Kenya, of which some of the objectives, lessons, strategies, and best practices will be replicated on the CRIDOC’s Mobile Library Service project.

The Kenyan “Camel Library Service” model.

Another model is the Staffordshire Mobile Library Service in the UK, which currently operates a fleet of 11 mobile libraries. Staffordshire’s mobiles deliver a library service to rural communities and urban communities that are remote from a static library, as well as providing a service to occupants of sheltered housing and residential homes. Each mobile carries on average 3500 items of stock including books, talking books, videos, local history and information. Over 350 communities and more than 1000 stops are visited by a mobile library weekly, fortnightly or 4 weekly.

The CRIDOC’s Mobile Service will however be more closely linked to the Camel Service model than the Staffordshire Mobile Service model for the simple reason that the Camel model has a wide range of features that are similar to our own situation or social, economic and cultural environment here, largely by virtue of being implemented in an equally developing country itself. The only significant disparities between the CRIDOC’s Mobile Library Service and the Camel Library Service are:

1. The Camel Service, as the name suggests, uses the camel to bring the library resources to the pastoral communities, whereas the CRIDOC’s Mobile Service intends to use a specially designed bus like those at Staffordshire. Camels have been considered as a source of livelihood among the Pastoralists in Kenya as they are useful in providing food (meat and milk); skins are used for making shoes, sleeping mats, gourds for carrying milk etc; urine is used as medicine; dung is also used as medicine, source of fuel and manure; and for transport. Therefore, unlike in Malawi, transporting books with the animals they identify with most enhances the usage of library materials there.
   
   
2. The Camel Service mainly targets pastoralists to fight illiteracy in general, whereas the CRIDOC’s Mobile Service will, in its initial stages, target communities to increase knowledge and mobilise action on various issues, particularly those affecting children/youth, such as (though not strictly limited to) child rights related issues like child labour, juvenile justice, HIV/AIDS, child prostitution, youth employment, child education, child participation, girls’ education, etcetera.
   
   
3. The CRIDOC’s Mobile Service is a forerunner of another much more advanced (bigger) project; that of establishing the “Community Tele-centres Network” in all the country’s districts by the year 2015, as part of CRIDOC’s strategic contribution towards the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by that year. The estimated huge cost for such an ambitious project has made it necessary that we first embark on the Mobile Library Service for relatively instant results/impact, as the project would not really require as much resources as that of establishing community tele-centres would (we basically talk of a specially designed bus to be run by a team of dedicated volunteers/interns; the information materials; a tent; a few shelves, plus some operational costs over the initial five-year project life-span – that’s all it takes!).

The Staffordshire Mobile Library Service model in the UK.

Objective of the Mobile Library Service

This project will be set up to fulfil the following objectives:

1. To provide access to books and other publications, video documentaries, posters, magazines, etc, to the remote communities in Malawi. There is no other meaningful means of access to information in these areas.
   
   
2. To fight illiteracy.
   
   
3. To support formal education. Based on almost every situational report on primary and secondary education produced by various stakeholders so far, the absence of books and school libraries has contributed to the escalation of the problem of poor performance in national examinations. For example, the pass rate for those students who sat for the 2004 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) was unprecedented low, and only a few of these were selected into the university.
   
   
4. To support vulnerable groups to access books, knowledge and encourage education. There is a consistent high rate of dropouts among girls as compared to boys. In most schools, there is hardly any girl child in the final class.
   
   
5. To support children with special needs to access books, knowledge and encourage education. The already few libraries that are currently available in schools are not user-friendly for children with special needs; basic tools like Braille do not exist at all.
   
   
6. To provide information to be used for leisure, knowledge and research. Most of the people in these rural communities are generally poor (over 65 percent of the country’s population live under one dollar, according to the latest UNDP Human Development Report) and may therefore not afford to buy textbooks and other information resource materials. More so, the majority of people – especially the youth/children – are idle as there are no recreational facilities and therefore many of them resort to social vices.
   
   
7. To stimulate public interest in books and promote reading for knowledge, information and enjoyment. At present, the static library facility is inadequately used in the few areas where it already exists.

Implementation Strategy

The CRIDOC Board will adopt the strategy of Community participation and involvement to encourage ownership of the project by the locals. Community involvement and participation will be enhanced through formation of Local Library Development Committees, which will incorporate village elders, community opinion leaders and other interested parties such as NGOs, the Local government administration, etc. The involvement of local people will bring in their ideas and local experiences and will greatly contribute to the success of the project.

The Mobile Library Service is targeted at village centres and settlement schemes, which are outside 5-KM radius but within 10 km radius from the regional library. The implementation process will target taking information resources to all Divisional Headquarters (Administrative level below the District level) and involve motorized mobile transport to ferry library materials to and from either the CRIDOC main information hub in Lilongwe or regional libraries being run by the National Library Service or partner institutions to target groups.

There are three main regions in Malawi; the North, Centre and South. These regions have few schools especially outside urban areas and where they exist they are ill equipped and lack important facilities like school libraries. Those with information materials have them stored in cartons and cupboards and are not accessible to the intended users. This is mainly due to lack of awareness and skills in information resource management by the teachers. Subsequently, information provision to students, teachers and others is hampered.

With the introduction of the Mobile Library Service, the current scenario will have completely changed. The school community and others will enjoy an important facility, which was hitherto lacking. Other community centres conducting Adult Literacy and Reading recovery programmes by the government will certainly have something to turn to in terms of information resources.

In the process of providing this information service, it will be necessary to involve the target communities if the programme is to be meaningful to them. Their involvement and participation will entail collective discussions and decision-making thus ensuring effective feedback and implementation of the programme. The library field-staff, volunteers and interns will carry out constant evaluations to gauge the levels of user satisfaction of the services rendered.

Strategic Partners:

For the project to be successful, CRIDOC plans to strategically work with a number of potential partners at community level. These include:

1. The National Library Service (NLS).
So far, this is the only official government funded library service already existing in Malawi, which has about ten outlets in all the three main regions of Malawi. CRIDOC could therefore take advantage of these structures to enter into a mutual agreement with the NLS whereby some of its resources in these outlets could find their way into the remotest communities through the CRIDOC’s Mobile Service.

2. The Local Government Authority:
CRIDOC recognises the concept of local government authority to empower the local communities. CRIDOC therefore plans to engage the local government authority at the policy level by selling the concept to them and soliciting support from them. When the project finally materializes into the Telecentres Network, the support could be rendered through the provision of basic resources like housing (office) infrastructure for the project, etc.

3. Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services:
Considering that the primary domain of CRIDOC is child rights, this government department may also play a very vital role in ensuring the success of the Mobile Library Service project.

4. NGOs already working the community:
a number of civil society organisations are already mobilizing communities to use available library resources to empower them to deal with different social issues. One of such NGOs is the National Initiative for Civic Education (N.I.C.E) which focuses on providing information and training, embedding core democratic values at grass-roots level in urban and rural Malawi, while facilitating various services that make people aware of their own abilities, interests and responsibilities, so that they may take part in public life.

5. Community Leaders: This project intends to create ownership by the community, as well provide it capacity/empowerment even beyond the project life span. This cannot be achievable without the strategic involvement of the community leaders.