Inquiry #4: Libraries in Developing Countries
The developing country I chose to focus on
is Timor-Leste. It is an under-developed island off Indonesia and has both
Portuguese and Indonesian influences before winning independence from these
nations in 2002. A friend of mine, who is a librarian in New Zealand, spent a
year in Timor-Leste supporting their library initiatives through VSA, a
volunteer organization.
Picture of my friend,
Aubrey
From what I can gather, all libraries
in Timor-Leste are non-government run. Here is a list of the libraries based on
type:
Public Libraries
Biblioteka Ermera- opened in 2011
Biblioteca Centro Comunidade Maliana- established in 2002
Biblioteka Ermera- opened in 2011
Biblioteca Centro Comunidade Maliana- established in 2002
Haburas
Moris Atauro Island Library-
Xanana
Gusmao Reading Room- established in 2000
Balibo
Community Learning Center- opened in 2003
(plans to include a library but currently provides some learning programs including
Information Technology classes)
Special Libraries
Alola
Foundation- founded in 2001 has an Education and
Literacy program and in 2010 started a mobile library pilot
CAVR Library- Commission for Truth and Reconciliation- library uses the online catalog (Koha) and houses a multi-media collection and documentation of Timor-Leste’s history
CAVR Library- Commission for Truth and Reconciliation- library uses the online catalog (Koha) and houses a multi-media collection and documentation of Timor-Leste’s history
University Libraries
Dili
Institute of Technology- is a
non-government, community based, not-for-profit education provider. Their
library resources are comprised of purchased items and donations.
Universidade Nacional de Timor-Leste- established in 2000, University has decided to decentralize the library and provide library services in each campus
Universidade Nacional de Timor-Leste- established in 2000, University has decided to decentralize the library and provide library services in each campus
Baucau
Teacher College- founded in 2001, library has
materials in various languages spoken in Timor-Leste, uses the Athena Library
Management System
Many of these libraries offer assistance to students, story time and book exchange, educational courses, advocacy groups, economic development activities, reading materials in various languages, outreach services, mother and baby groups, yet very little technology. There are a couple different Facebook pages for these libraries as well as some volunteer blog posts and library websites to check out for further info. Libraries for Timor-Leste Facebook page
Del Boville also volunteered in
Timor-Leste through VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad). The library management
system she installed at the Xanana Gusmao Reading Room Library is called Koha
(which is the same as New Zealand’s open source library management system). See
system here. In her blog she talks about
how the library is well utilized now by the community and is now open six days
a week showing the growth in usage over the last few years. In one of her posts
she mentions that donations to the Reading Room come in many forms,
small cash donations from individuals and organizations, books,
both used and new from local and overseas donors, second hand and new
computers, and of course volunteer labour, both local and from overseas. See
her full blog post here: Time
spent in Timor-Leste
I think donations are wonderful, especially
for developing countries. To be able to get their hands on resources (that may
not be new) but that will allow their collections to grow, is great. However,
many of the volunteers have stated that some books that are donated are
inappropriate for this country, with such titles as taxes, investments, and
overseas money markets. What they need to put in place is a criteria for
accepting donated books before they are brought over to Timor-Leste.
Essentially, a MUSTY or CREW frame of reference for weeding donated books would
hopefully help alleviate this problem.
Image
retrieved from the Xanana Gusmao Facebook page.
Xanana Gusmao Reading Room is a public library space that was opened by the wife of Timor-Leste’s first post-independence President Xanana Gusmão. It seems to be the most developed of the libraries available in the country. “The Xanana Gusmão Reading Room (XGRR) is a non-governmental organization that consists of a library, museum and general community space (all free to visit) in the heart of Dili. The facilities include free to use computers and internet, an extensive collection of books and visual/audio materials (over 4000), an online catalogue, museum exhibitions, a children's area and various bookable community areas.” For more information, visit their website here: Reading Room
A more recent update, as of January 25, 2017, is that the Reading Room now has one internet port for the public to access internet in addition to the 10 desktop computers. The Reading Room has served free internet access to the public since 2013 under cooperation between the TT Company as the free internet provider. The additional internet port will allow the public to bring their own laptops to the space.
Students at work in the library (photo courtesy of Isabel Nolasco
Photography)
In this video, a young library employee
talks about life in Timor-Leste and the challenges his generation faces.
In 2011, Timor-Leste began building a
National Library for their country. On the government website it states, “The National Library will be the Public Institute which will
be responsible for the management of the libraries at the national level. Many
of the libraries in the country are found in schools or created by international
agencies. The National library will be the headquarters to supervise and
coordinate all the libraries in the country. The aim is to
support the education system, house the
Timor-Leste archive, and be open to the public.” National Library of
Timor-Leste
As my search continued, I was able to
find an Annual Report from 2014 for the National Library. The report stated
that an oil company will be responsible for the infrastructure, including IT,
and the Government of Timor-Leste is responsible for policy development, hiring
staff, and management of library collections. A Memorandum of
Understanding with the National Library of Portugal was also created and well
as with Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. These countries will help
provide support with
the building of a library collection and training of staff. The
main Library Collection currently has little over 2000 specimens, most of which
are in Portuguese. They have been inserted in free‐of‐charge, online database, which
has been adapted and translated to one of the official languages (Tetum). Please
see the following links for further details: Annual Report and Victoria
University
However, from looking at websites and blogs
about the libraries in Timor-Leste, it seems like this National Library has not
yet been completed. My friend who volunteered there also noted that the Xanana
Gusmao Reading Room (XGRR) is the closest they have to a national or proper
central public library. While she was there they really only had a few internet
capable computers that they offered to the public. She does not recall many
other tech initiatives at the time she was there, which was in 2014. While she
was there, the volunteers implemented a link LMS (Library Management System)
that linked her library in another part of Timor-Leste with the XGRR library in
Dili. So there was an incentive to link all the libraries in the country
together as libraries do not receive government funding, nor had there been a
coordinated approach to the management and delivery of public library services
across Timor-Leste, until recently. Because Timor-Leste is a developing
country, and a newly formed country for that matter, it is hard to find a lot
of articles and recent websites to support their claim to be building a
National Library. However, it is nice to see the XGRR taking control of the LMS
and linking libraries across the country with a unified system.
In a blog post about Social
Networks in Timor-Leste by Pamela Dale (2011), she found that social
networks are geographically bound due to the limited communication technology
available. It is estimated that only 1% of people in Timor-Leste have access to
the internet. Therefore, the library would be a space to gain access to the
internet for those living in more rural areas. However, more and more
organizations are popping up to help donate and support connectivity and
information availability. An organization called With
One Planet connects schools in Australia with schools in Timor-Leste
through skype calls or student volunteer placements.
The following video shows an example of
some of the schools in Timor-Leste connecting with other schools overseas.
Yet, a more recent article by SES Networks and Timor Telecom that was posted in
2017, states that their company is broadening their service in order to deliver
enhanced connectivity and higher speed broadband services to meet the growing
demands from consumers. See Timor
Telecom for the article. I find this hard to believe as many people living
in Timor-Leste are below the poverty line but perhaps much has changed since
2014 when many of these blog posts were written. However, if consumers are
requiring more high-speed service and mobile data, then perhaps the libraries
can begin to allow for more mobile device usage for their patrons and more free
available Wifi hubs. With donations and fundraising initiatives, perhaps they
will be able to accumulate the funds necessary to allow for more free internet
portals to be available to their patrons in these non-for-profit libraries.
Also more mobile libraries are popping up around Timor-Leste in recent years and this may be the best way to support their remote and rural communities. The Alola Education program is the main supporter of this initiative. See video below.
It seems like Timor-Leste is on the right
track and has made many improvements in a short amount of time, but there are
still many things they can improve upon, such as strengthening the public
library system with government support and funding, creating more readily
available online library resources and wider public access, collection
development, and the use of mobile devices to support information access. Continued volunteerism, donations, fundraising initiatives, and educational advocacy will also
continue to help improve and move Timor-Leste’s libraries in the right direction!
Bibliography
Alola Mobile Library- Timor Leste. (Febraruy 19, 2016). Alolamedia Dili. Youtube. Retrieved from
Boville, D. (February 9, 2017). Del Bovill – library management in Timor-Leste. VSA – Connecting people, transforming lives.
Retrieved from https://www.vsa.org.nz/blog/volunteer-comings-and-goings/volunteers-returning-to-new-zealand/del-bovill/#PageComments_holder_PostCommentForm_error
Cruz, J. F. (February 27, 2014). National Library of Timor-Leste Annual Report. Retrieved from www.ndl.go.jp/en/cdnlao/meetings/pdf/AR2014_Timor_Leste.pdf
Dale, P. (June 28, 2011). Ties that Bind: Studying Social Networks in Timor-Leste. The World Bank. Retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/ties-bind-studying-social-networks-timor-leste and https://delindili.wordpress.com/
Government of Timor-Leste. (November 10, 2010). Timor-Leste Art and Culture: The Future National Library and Timor-Leste Archives. Retrieved from http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=4257&lang=en
Libraries for
Timor-Leste Facebook page. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/LibrariesforTimorLeste/
Payer, M. (September
4, 2017). Timor Telecom deploys new 4G/LTE network with SES Networks service
upgrade. SES Beyond Frontiers. Retrieved from https://www.ses.com/press-release/timor-telecom-deploys-new-4glte-network-ses-networks-service-upgrade
Victoris Univeristy. (n.d.) The VU Timor-Leste Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/community-partnerships-engagement/the-vu-timor-leste-alliance#goto---timorleste-conference-finding-pathways-in-education-13-14-july-2015=1
WithOnePlanet. (n.d.) Connecting Schools. Retrieved from http://withoneplanet.org.au/library-resources/connecting-schools/
Xanana Gusmao Reading Room. Retrieved from https://xananagusmaoreadingroom.com/
Young and Struggling in Timor-Leste
(November 18, 2016). Youtube.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=726&v=3lEJPhFIoZg
Before your post, I had not heard of Timor-Leste. The video of the youth attaining employment was touching and shows how libraries not only provide a space for people to learn employable skills, but at a basic level, provides secure employment for the library staff. The volunteers and those who are able to donate are truly compassionate people! When thinking about these spaces of learning that are not government funded, it makes me stop and be thankful for what I/we do have here in Canada.
ReplyDeleteIf it hadn't been for my friend volunteering there, I wouldn't have known about this country either. It really does make you appreciate what we have offered here in Canada in regards to learning resources and technology, and to be grateful for the accessibility of it all! :)
DeleteA few more details I found out after speaking more closely with my friend.
ReplyDeleteThe language issue is definitely tricky. Timor has two national languages: Tetun and Portuguese. There's very few books in Tetun, and most Timorese are not fluent in Portuguese and there literacy in the language is low. Most were able to read Bahasa Indonesian so the volunteers would purchase mainly from Indonesia (helps that books are pretty cheap there). Also the universities were told they were no longer allowed to teach in Bahasa Indonesian, only Tetun and Portuguese which is a struggle.
There's very few places to actually buy books in Timor, and my friend only saw two book stores and they aren't cheap for locals. Almost all young adults use their cell phones to access the internet. The students actually had a difficult time using the computers for internet as they were more used to app based interaction. The library where she was (CTID) had had another library volunteer who set it up about 5 years earlier with a cut and paste western model idea (print off library cards, insist on them bringing them, fine them for late returns, etc.) Aubrey talked with the staff that worked at the library and they decided they didn't need cards as the library was only used by about 20 students each year who all lived at the school. There were no fines as they never paid them anyway, plus the nuns hassling them for their books in their dorm was enough. and she threw away ALOT of donated books from the UN (USA textbooks and University level content). She also threw away hundreds of old readers and literacy booklets from the 70s that were just being eaten up by ants.
There is definitely the notion that you should keep all donated books because they are told it is good to have a library with lots of books. The only thing the girls that visited the library read were easy fiction, sewing and cooking books, gardening books and dictionaries.
My friend also created a letter template to be given to donor groups that outlined the languages they collected, reading level, and content the school was interested in.
But she really doubts it is used, which is unfortunate. The staff never stay longer than a couple years before they leave to start a family and the nuns were not very interested in the library at all. She is sure if she went back again there would be more ants and rats unfortunately.
The regional public libraries were similar, run very minimally on old anglo models insisting on cards, fines, and a quiet space with shelves jammed with books that would likely never interest the local if they were even in languages that they would understand.
La faek magazine would be worth looking into as they are a childrens magazine who promote literacy in Timor (and actually there's a position on VSA for a content creator with them if anyone is interested!)
What was reiterated by my friend and what I found in my research was the XGRR was the best example of a well-run library. It had more permanent staff, a welcoming environment and computers that were heavily used. It also helped that is was centrally located, received regular funding, and was started by the Australian ex-wife of the former leader Xanana Gusmao.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this post - I took a Poli Sci course in my undergrad which focussed largely on political turmoil in East Timor (as it was then called) and many of the issues it faced as a developing nation. I am not surprised to hear that many difficulties exist in nationalizing a library system, when the country itself has faced so much instability, poverty and violence under past Indonesian occupation. But, I am heartened to hear that initiatives have been made. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to establish stable systems - long-term connections with supporters and experts in nearby countries (Australia and New Zealand) are definitely an asset. It is so hard to imagine only 20 students using the library resources! It is a start and will hopefully grow with time. Beyond the weeding that the Timorese librarian needs to do, it would be ideal if preliminary weeding could take place before resources are passed on - it seems fair that developing nations take this duty on as responsible donors. My curiosity has been piqued and I will be sure to follow Timor's progress. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteWell done post! Your overview of the development of a new country, with goals for improved literacy and library support was super interesting. Your description of the efforts of your friend, as well as the others in the country working towards this goal was very well done. Good imagery, links, and discussion of the challenges and responses. I do hope that despite your update, the library is still working towards meeting the needs of its local population with resources in a local language and useful models for lending. Overall, a great exploration in this important topic.
ReplyDelete