edwardndlovulibrary

Study circle by the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library

At the library there are several study circles, mostly attended by women who want s to learn something new. Like here the women learn about crops. I think this is a most wonderful idea, because these women are eager to learn something new and useful.
A lot of women in rural aeries maybe have a short time in school, and sometimes not been able to go to school at all. Now they get an opportunity to learn again. What can be better and more useful? The Staff at the library has a very good attitude to the need to go out and meet the people where they live. This is thanks to the big nice library car, that they use to transport the book boxes out to the schools in the region.

Next question must be: how can you reach the men with study circles? The subject must be attractive to a man, he must also see the immediate use of the new knowledge, time at the day or even which day in the week. And I also think that it is important to be where the men meet and try to get somebody with great influence on others interested. Sometimes it is necessary to start with something popular and easy, and then when the men have discovered how nice and useful it is, suggest the study circle that you thought of in the beginning.

Comments and discussion on this blog is very welcome. Please contact me!

Love to you all from Kersti, sitting in Hässleholm  in  the south of Sweden but the heart and mind in Gwanda Zimbabwe Matabeleland South .

The Library car used for transports of the book boxes out to the schools in the region around Gwanda. I was going with a car once, visiting the library. A young woman drove the car to very rural and far out schools. I was most impressed by the knowledge of the nature that the driver had. Suddenly she saw a stone beside the road, backed (do you say retarded the car a few meters and turned into a road you hardly could see. I had never found the way out to that school!

I am still waiting for some comments! Please let me know if you have more to tell about this library or  other library out in the world, or even in Sweden!
Love to you all from Kersti later sunday evening.

The Library Yard in Gwanda when the Central Library wasnt built yet.
When I met Jackson for the second time, it was in February 1994 when my husband Börje and my father Lars-Erik visited me in Zimbabwe, we went to Gwanda and Jahunda and looked at the Library. It was, by that time, in one of the school houses to the grammar school. Now there is a branch library to Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library.
After lunch, Jackson took us to the site in central of Gwanda where the library is situated today. Jackson talked about the design of the coming library. I could never believe that all these visions would come true. But when I came back to Gwanda a couple of years later, the first wing of the building was completed.  And 2005 a lot more of the buildings were there. And now it is time to come back and look at all the lovely buildings that are built now according to all photos Jackson sent to us which will come up in this blog later on.

This was all for this week. I hope some of you who are following this blog will write comments, or contact me with your thoughts about Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library. Photos and Memories is also welcome, to make this meeting point for the Library all round the world.

Love from Kersti

Reading the newspaper in the Library seems to be very common all over the world. This photo could as well be taken in any library anywhere! Newspapers are important to inform people what is going on. In Sweden lots of people give up there subscriptions on a daily newspaper and say they can read the news on the computer as well.
That's a possible scenery in the world where everybody has a computer and internet is working.
If it is possible to have a working internet connection in a library like Edward Ndlovu Library, people could read newspapers from all over the world and get a lot of influences and opinions from other countries and people. Isn´t that the main purpous of a library?

Of course there are other important things for a library.  

As a School Librarian I can see that my work is divided into three parts. On is to give the customers possibilities to take part of information. That could be to read a news paper, to look in an encyclopaedia or read a book about the certain question.

The other part of my library work is to give the customers a good book to read, that is suitable for how much they can read, what they like to read or what they don't know that they would like to read.

The third part of my daily work is to organize the library. To read books so I can recommend them to the customers, to buy the books, to organize them in library.  If I succeed in this three parts I think I am a good Librarian and it leaves me time to develop the three parts.

I still long for comments! Several people have told me that they read the blog but don't want to communicate by comments. And as long as people read the blog it is good. Still it would be stimulating to get comments.

Love to you all this cloudy Saturday morning, where I am sitting  here in Sweden writing, but my mind is in Gwanda!