We can sometimes get sucked in far too much into our own little world of sorrows in the UK.  Public Libraries News does cover stories from the rest of the world but I am all too aware that so much is going on that is not mentioned.  So, when veteran anthropological researcher Dawn Starin got in touch about a remarkable library in Laos, I was interested. Dawn is evangelical about what good work this library does and, after reading this piece, I can see why.  Perhaps the decision-makers in this country could benefit from reading it too.  So, over to Dawn and a trip to Laos….

“Throughout the UK – one of the world’s most developed, most literate countries – local branch libraries are being threatened with closures. Authors are holding sit-ins and read-ins and shhh-ins. Readers and writers, parents and children, librarians and trade unionists are up in arms. Protests and petitions are escalating.  Unfortunately, the harsh truth is that here library visits are down, borrowing books is down, more people are accessing information through the Internet making a trip to the local library a trip too far and over 300 libraries are currently under threat or have been closed/left council control in less than a year, being likely victims of the Government’s spending cuts.

 In contrast, half way across the globe in one of the poorest and least developed countries with a high infant and maternal mortality rate, a low life expectancy, an annual per capita income of US$ 340.00 [£215], and a low literacy rate a little library is flourishing. Landlocked, mountainous Lao People’s Democratic Republic is poor, very poor, and yet in the centre of the ancient royal town of Luang Prabang library visits are up, borrowing books is up and a trip to the local library is a trip worth taking.

 ”in the centre of the ancient royal town of Luang Prabang library visits are up, borrowing books is up and a trip to the local library is a trip worth taking”

Not far from the banks of the muddy, mighty Mekong and its tributary, the Nam Khan river, across the road from the glistening gold roof of the richly decorated Wat Nong Sikhonmeuang is a revolutionary learning experiment – @ My Library. This small NGO, occupying a little building, has big hopes and aspirations for the many students who walk through its doors every day.

On the ground floor, two young novice monks, wrapped up in orange robes, sit at computer terminals practicing English. A high school student sits at another computer terminal playing scrabble. Computer skills are highly sought after in this poor country and here the students pick up basic skills along with learning how to create a web site, reformat hard drives and reinstall windows.

“there is a range of Hmong language books which the ethnic Hmong users are amazed to find. Most of these learning materials are simply not available anywhere else in Laos.”

Up a narrow set of stairs is a room lined with bookshelves, one young man reads a science book; another reads a history book and a third is engrossed in a novel. Books on art, history and Laotian folk tales are very popular and there is a range of Hmong language books which the ethnic Hmong users are amazed to find. Most of these learning materials are simply not available anywhere else in Laos.  There are about 1,200 books, all carefully selected to be appropriate for the users in terms of reading level, subject and language. This may not be a huge library but it is one of the best libraries in Laos.

This oasis of calm and quiet supplies thirsty minds with dictionaries, novels, and non-fiction. Students, who have never owned books, are able to check books out for two weeks. At present about 1,000 books a month are being checked out for free and almost all of them are being brought back on time. Students who normally have no access to quiet corners for concentration have a place to come to; a dedicated place where they can read and learn in silence. @My Library puts a premium on learning here and the students appreciate that.

 ”On a large table in the back of a sunshine filled room a young student looks through his portfolio. Imaginative prints of elephants and Laotian faces and landscapes spill across the table.”

This is an eclectic education enterprise. It is not just computer skills and reading and writing that are encouraged. Artistic endeavours are taken very seriously. Cameras have been donated, volunteer photographers have given tuition and Lao, Hmong and K’hmu students have started snapping people and places, making a record of today’s Laos. Carol Kresge, the powerhouse behind this eclectic educational enterprise, tells me “anyone can borrow basic cameras. The more advanced cameras are used by our super stars and, as you can see, we definitely have some super stars”. On a large table in the back of a sunshine filled room a young student looks through his portfolio. Imaginative prints of elephants and Laotian faces and landscapes spill across the table.

Here, the walls have become a photo gallery. The pictures are all for sale and each time a photo is sold, the photographer gets half the money, and the library gets half. The students are learning a craft, presenting their culture through their eyes and learning about running a business and earning money. And their workmanship has travelled far. Thus far the students have had exhibitions in the US, France, India, Holland and Cambodia. This seems to be a perfect win-win situation.

 Learning here doesn’t stop with reading, writing and photography. Nor, does it stop at the end of the day. There is a music studio where budding musicians can come in and lay down tracks and after hours they come in and record Lao and Hmong music using guitars, keyboards and synthesizers

 ”@ My Library is unique. Photography, advanced computing skills, music lessons, Lao and English typing skills, five different languages, Japanese calligraphy, artwork – all of them available for the asking and all of them free”

@ My Library is unique. Photography, advanced computing skills, music lessons, Lao and English typing skills, five different languages, Japanese calligraphy, artwork – all of them available for the asking and all of them free. This drop-in centre is where young Laotians are given the encouragement and support to learn anything they want to learn – absolutely anything.

 This experiment in all-around, holistic learning was started in 1999 by Carol Kresge. Carol was originally teaching at a private school in Bangkok for privileged students and came here for what she thought would be a one-off short visit. Taking in the lack of experienced staff and educational opportunities, she was blown away by the absolute desire to learn and a complete dearth of materials. ‘I looked around me and decided there and then that my time teaching in Bangkok private schools had to end. I needed to come here and start this program.’

 ”At first this project was simply a library with a few computers. Now the students actually build their own computers”

At first this project was simply a library with a few computers. Now the students actually build their own computers, fix earphones, play scrabble, thinking games and hold public speaking contests. At first no one was able to use a computer or even control a mouse. Now, at least 25,000 computer hours are clocked up every year by users ten-finger typing in Lao, English and Hmong. One of the students, Vanh, has actually developed a computer based Lao-English talking dictionary – the first of its kind in Laos.

 Analytical learning (thinking and problem solving) is encouraged. In Laos the education system is based on learning by rote and it actually discourages intense analysis of thought, so Carol tries to encourage analytical thinking. Problem solving is encouraged. According to Carol, “this project is not just about book learning – that is already a part of the school system. Learning by rote, memorizing facts and spitting them out again is not what we do. Here it is about thinking and analysing and problem solving. Here it is about giving students self-confidence so that they can learn to question themselves, me, the greater world outside these doors.”

Everyday, almost 150 users, usually between the ages of 14 – 27, take off their shoes, check their bags and enter this door. They come from many different places: English colleges, business colleges, accounting schools, high schools, novice’s schools attached to the Buddhist temples, teacher training colleges, the Law school, the University and the Nursing college.

 ”absolutely anything is on the agenda. ‘If someone wants a specific book, we try and get it. If they want to learn a particular subject, we try and find someone to teach it”

Carol explains that absolutely anything is on the agenda. ‘If someone wants a specific book, we try and get it. If they want to learn a particular subject, we try and find someone to teach it, if they want to practice a craft, we will try and find the space. We look for gaps in the market and try to fill them. One time we had a series of classes on English for working in a restaurant. For the last class we set up a pretend restaurant with real food and we all practiced greeting and serving and eating in a restaurant. It was a real eye-opener for me and for the students. I realized that many of the students had never eaten in a restaurant and many of the students realized that a restaurant venue is not the same as one’s own home’.

 This space that is not just about books, it is a place that is supportive to the individual challenges that learners in Northern Laos face. “By encouraging creativity, curiosity, thinking and pride in an environment that is fun, we empower people to pursue their interests and realize their dreams,”  Carol explains. This is not just a building containing dried out information on paper pages and cds and DVDs. This is a place where young people come to help each other, learn about problem solving and where students realize that they too, can learn and share skills, gain professional experience and even become mentors to other students. @ my Library provides valuable midwifery services for new writers and readers and thinkers on a daily basis. This is their gateway to their future and to the outside world.

 ”I want to make this Lao-sustainable”

As I follow Carol around the light and airy library she says ‘I needed to get involved with a labour of love. I’m here for the long haul. Ultimately I want to make this Lao-sustainable and I will then take a back seat. After all eventually I am going to die one day and this project needs to live on.’ ‘I don’t think of things as failures’ she says when I ask her if she has ever had any failures. ‘I have to be positive, hopeful. I can’t wallow in sorrow and adopt a ‘woe is me’ attitude’. And anyway, every so-called failure is actually a success. We learn from our mistakes. That is one of the important lessons we have to share with the students who come in this door. It is ok to fail’

Carol and her five Laotian staff members are creating an almost non-stop culture of learning. This place is open for at least 55 hours, six days a week – a schedule that would put many western libraries and educational drop-in centres to shame. Just before I leave, Carol says to me ‘education is not just about book-learning. To be really educated it is necessary to understand yourself and others, to know your own culture and history and that of others. Hopefully we are encouraging that. We are giving access and experience and opportunities and we are setting a standard, a high standard and we are succeeding’.

“reading is seen simply as something one does to pass an exam – that is if one even goes to school”

Travelling around Laos it is immediately obvious that reading is not a common practice. Often, reading is seen simply as something one does to pass an exam – that is if one even goes to school.  On top of this, the books are prohibitively expensive, difficult – if not impossible – to obtain and often written in a language that is not the readers’ mother tongue.  And, if one could afford to buy a book or find one discarded by a tourist, the constant noise, poor – usually absent – lighting, the heat and the humidity would make it very difficult to concentrate.

It is also immediately obvious to anyone who enters the doors to @ My Library that Carol and her dedicated staff are simply trying to make reading and writing and learning and thinking common place and giving anyone who walks through this door an environment where the imagination can soar and creativity can explode.

“Perhaps, libraries are still relevant, still essential as producers, preservers, dispensers and instructors of life’s many questions.”

Perhaps there is a big lesson here from a small, poor country for western, highly developed, highly literate societies. Perhaps libraries, if they maintain convenient opening hours, welcoming environments, and appropriate services, will once again become ‘the medicine chest of the soul’ as inscribed above the door of the ancient library at Thebes. Perhaps, libraries are still relevant, still essential as producers, preservers, dispensers and instructors of life’s many questions.”

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Dawn Starin is is an honorary research associate at University College London and for decades has been writing about and conducting anthropological research. Some of her non-scientific/non-academic pieces has been published in The New Statesman, The Times of India, The Daily Telegraph, Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, New Internationalist, E/The Environmental Magazine, Natural History, and The Ecologist, amongst others.

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Further information can be found at The Language Project. Versions of this piece were published in The Epoch Times in January 2012, The Christian Science Monitor on March 23rd, 2009 and in Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice in 2011.