Baby steps

Today Ashley and I went to the library separately. I figured I'd go in the beginning, as usual, and Ashley would go later, to see the kids.

When I got there, the books weren't counted or shelved, which is odd. And the staff was all milling on the children's end of the library. Max appeared and began to give a speech of sorts. There was a lot of protest. Most of it was in Setswana, but I heard some English words: public programs, teamwork, going somewhere. I also heard the Setswana word for children, bana.

After it was over, I asked what had gone on, but no one would give me a translation or even a straight answer. The little I got: Max decided all the new books should be shelved. We would make room. And the children's books especially. Some of the protest was because everyone had been trained to leave space on the shelves to "let books breathe," but we're going to cram the shelves a bit for now. Max immediately cleared a huge space for a display of new children's books, which I happily assembled.

I then began to shift books around to make more space where needed and eliminate unnecessary gaps. Then I began to shelve! It felt great.

I also did the statistics today. It was encouraging to see that 3 of the 7 youth checkouts were new books, and 1 of the 4 adult books. They're circulating! One woman even came in to return a new book she had just checked out yesterday, trading it for another new book. There's excitement. It's great.

When Ashley came in, she convinced Max to box the old editions of encyclopedias and to de-dupe the collection, to make more space. We're making headway, for sure.

I'm worried, though, that once this flurry of work is over, we'll return to the doldrums. At least we have some trips tentatively planned: tomorrow and Thursday, Ashley and I will listen in on meetings between Max and local schools, in which he'll offer them outreach programming. And soon we'll do some field trips to what they call village reading rooms, which are teeny tiny "libraries" in rural areas. The travel and meetings should pass the time.

Max also told us that BNLS is holding a competition for branches, with three arms: public programs, reducing overdues, and teamwork. There are some kind of financial incentives. I hope it gets people moving.

Another thing that happened today and that has happened before: since the libraries are incredibly poor, even basic supplies are locked up and must be "issued." For instance, everyone has one pen and must protect it. And Ashley and I each had to sign for a roll of toilet paper.