Developing Mobile Digital Libraries across the Globe

 During my research for this inquiry topic, I have found a library project that is happening across the globe. Many charities, institutions, local and national governments, and volunteers support the project of mobile libraries. Volunteers and workers travel with loads of books and other materials to help spread literacy opportunities to children and adults in secluded areas around the world. In the past few years, these mobile libraries have been working to install mobile devices and electronic content into their services. The hope is to connect users to modern education and develop digital literacy skills that vital for the 21^st century world. This blog will examine how mobile libraries are currently using mobile devices and digital data, and what their next steps are to better support the local needs of the communities they work with. 

  There are various forms of mobile libraries that travel in different places. For example, in a news article on the website Aljazeera, Charlotte Mitchell describes various modes of transportation for mobile libraries, such as bikes, buses, shipping containers, animals, and vans. The countries that these mobile libraries appear in are Uganda, Pakistan, Columbia, Netherlands, Arctic, Nigeria, Greece, Kenya, Syria, and more. The list appears on the website by Book Aid International, which is a non-profit organization that aims to support mobile libraries with funding, materials, and volunteers. You can learn more about this organization’s stories and goals through these two links: 

 

-https://bookaid.org/stories/libraries/moving-books-to-far-places/

-https://bookaid.org/support-us/books-on-the-move/

 

  Mobile libraries exist with the goal of providing literacy to communities around the world that are affected by factors that inhibit education. Each mobile library has been developed to overcome a specific challenge or hardship belonging to a community. For example, in Pakistan, a university student named Humera Parveen drives a library van to travel to rural communities affected by war, the COVID pandemic, and geographical seclusion. The video also highlights the goals that Parveen hopes to achieve with the mobile library: 

 

 

Mobile library reaches Pakistan's children in remote village

                       

 

Mobile libraries are implemented to not only reach remote places, but to areas where education has been disrupted by catastrophic events, such as war, pandemic, natural disaster, etc. The vehicles that provide libraries to these communities are chosen to adapt to specific environmental challenges, such as narrow roads, steep cliffs, heavy snow, etc. In Parveen’s case, the challenge is to cross mountains and glaciers where landslides and avalanches sometimes occur. Mobile libraries face these challenges nonetheless to provide the resources these communities need, including lessons and workshops for children. In her news article, Mitchell states that one mobile library, iRead, in Nigeria have “host[ed] workshops to educate children on topics, such as sustainable development using songs, drama, art.” The volunteers who run these mobile libraries hope to impact local communities with positive changes. Their biggest hope is to promote reading and learning in children. 

        Photo found on Aljazeera website, “ For the Love of Books: Mobile Libraries around the World.”

   Some mobile libraries have already adopted mobile devices and digital materials their collection. For instance, in his article “Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries,” Ian Quillen focuses on a charity group from New York that works to “pilot in a Haitian school a mobile learning library….[which] it believes can help turn access to tablets, smartphones, and legacy phones into substantially improved access to content at resource-starved schools.” Already positive impacts have arisen amongst communities when they are given mobile devices and access to digital content. 

Photo found on KQED website, “ Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries”

In their article,  Matseliso ‘Mamahlape Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa provides a case study that occurred in Lesotho, Africa, when local communities were provided with mobile devices, wifi facilities, and digital literacy workshops by the mobile library, DRULETSMODIL van. After using this technology within the community for a period of time, Lesotho experienced positive outcomes, such as: 

 

·      Citizen engagement in democratic matters

·      Creation of debate, discussion platforms in local matters 

·      Community awareness

·      Library space for children 

·      Development of local newsletter that is distributed throughout community 

·      Communication with local government on the community’s needs 

 ( Moshoe-Chadzingwa, 60) 

 

Mobile libraries across the world know that mobile devices and digital access are beneficial to developing communities. 

 

  I have learned that many institutions involved with mobile libraries have future plans to equip these vehicles with modern mobile devices and transition from physical materials to digital ones. Digital materials have many advantages that could close the technological divide in developing areas around the world. Mobile devices and digital content last longer than paper books, provide access to unlimited sources of information, constantly update on modern knowledge and skills, provide platforms to communicate locally and globally, and cost less in mostly free digital content. Thus, mobile devices are sustainable tools that can be utilized in mobile libraries. 

Image found on eSchool News Website, https://www.eschoolnews.com/newsline/2020/10/23/super-duper-digital-library-is-selected-as-a-winner-by-two-prestigious-family-awards-programs/

Reading opportunities would be more connected and advanced if a digital library is developed for a community. In the article, “Factors contributing to the successful development and use of Mobile Digital Libraries: A systematic literature review,” Phumelela Khomo and the author team state, “The development and the usage of mobile DLs [digital libraries] are essential, as these libraries create a novel way to enhance connections between patrons and libraries by providing services like Online Public Library Catalogs via mobile-optimized websites, audiobooks, ebooks, audio language courses, streaming music, films, images and other multimedia that can be used on mobile devices” (354). With this technology, mobile libraries could provide services and tools that the community may not have access to. However, there are factors that may inhibit the progress of mobile device usage. Khomo and their author colleagues claim that this technology sometimes comes with “ high data costs, slow speeds and unreliable networks” (355). Factors involving the community, such as their economy and technology, should also be included in mobile device planning. Such determinants could affect how fast and how well a community can adopt a digital library: 

·      Implementation of relevant policies and strategies

·      Proper allocation of resources 

·      Legal issues

·      Collaboration and partnerships opportunities 

·      Technical expertise 

·      Institutional supporting factors (Khomo et al., 365-366). 

 

Once these factors and needs have been met, mobile libraries will be able to provide mobile devices and digital access to developing communities around the world. 

 

  This topic has reminded me how important it is for all teacher-librarians around the world to implement technology, such as mobile devices, ebooks, digital resources, etc., into our teaching and program. Through mobile devices and digital materials, children develop a passion for reading and gain skills in digital literacy that will aid them in the modern world. We can help mobile libraries in their quest to spread reading opportunities across the globe by providing free online access to information and tools through blogs, websites, downloadable documents, and databases. We can also post workshops and tutorials to the world web on how to use these tools and how to analyze online information critically. We can provide mobile devices to developing communities so they can achieve this education in digital literacy. According to Dwiyasa, “[I]n reality, smartphones can now be used as digital media to improve the digital literacy skills of elementary school students” (30). Although I believe in having paper books available in library collections is still important, I realize technology is a sustainable tool that should be available for all learners. 

                                                                           Works Cited 

 

 

Dwiyasa, Arnelia, et al. “Analysis of information Processing Capabilities and Digital Data on

          

          Digital Literacy Skills of Elementary School Students.” JURNAL PENDIDIKAN DASAR

           

          NUSANTARA, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022, pp. 28– 37, https://doi.org/10.29407/jpdn.v8i1.18278. 

Khomo, Musawenkosi Phumelela, et al. “Factors contributing to the successful development and 

           use of Mobile Digital Libraries: A systematic literature review.” Digital Library 

           Perspectives, vol. 39, no. 3, 2023, pp. 353–370, https://doi.org/10.1108/dlp-08-2022-

           0062. 

Mitchell, Charlotte. “For the Love of Books: Mobile Libraries around the World .” Aljazeera , 

           23 Apr. 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/4/23/for-the-love-of-books-

          mobile-libraries-around-the-world. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023. 

Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa, Matseliso ’Mamahlape. “Diversity, inclusivity, social responsibility 

          aspects, and outcomes of a Mobile Digital Library and Information Service Model for a 

          developing country.” The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & 

          Inclusion (IJIDI), vol. 4, no. 3/4, 2020, pp. 51–69, 

          https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v4i3/4.33554. 

Quillen, Ian. “Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries .” KQED, 18 June 

          2013, https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/29339/library-for-all-free-digital-content-for-

          developing-countries. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.