Rural Library Initiatives in China

Forging Partnerships and Adding Value to Communities

Jo Bell Whitlatch

Evergreen Education Foundation

• Founded in 2001 by a group of Chinese and American professionals and academics.

• Purpose - enhance educational opportunities for middle and high school children in rural China.

• More information available at: http://www.evergreeneducation.org/

Mission of Evergreen

• To improve education opportunities for children and young adults in rural China by providing books, computers, relevant equipment and supplies, workshops and seminars to schools or libraries.

• To grant scholarships and/or educational loans to scholastically excellent students in rural China who are financially disadvantaged; and

• To serve as a bridge in collaborative efforts whose purpose is to enhance information literacy or other educational exchanges between China and the United States.

Broadening the Mission: Promoting Community Partnerships

• Small projects - a component of library basic service that is intended to increase reading, improve circulation, and promote the services toward the target population

• School libraries can improve the library role of assisting teaching, especially to provide a platform for enhancing education.

• Public community libraries can encourage more community members to become readers, attract more users by providing services related to livelihood, healthcare, environmental care, and cultural preservation.

Evergreen Project Initiatives

• Share common principles with micro financing

• Micro financing promotes capacity building through small loans to groups of poor people

• Evergreen project initiatives provide grants to schools and community libraries to fund projects that communities initiate

Common Principles • Focusing on what matters to local

people• Involving local people as the key

actors in the initiatives• Promoting local partnerships• Evaluating projects for sustainability

Evergreen Project Application Process

• Project title & biography of principal investigator• Name of team members and positions• Project summary• Project description, which includes– Goals and objectives– How will success of project be determined –

specific outputs and outcomes to measures related to each objective

• Project timelines and budget

Evergreen Libraries by Province – Number of Main Libraries

• Qinghai 青海(3)• Gansu 甘肃(5)• Shaanxi 陕西(3)• Jiangsu 江苏(2)• Beijing 北京(1)• Guizhou 贵州(2)• Yunnan 云南(3)• Shanxi 山西 (3)

Gansu Province, Western China

Chinese Provinces

Gansu Landscape

Evergreen Extended Projects

• Serve the same functions as small projects but a larger in scope and last several years.

• Two projects highlighted in today’s presentation are both in Gansu Province– Tongwei Oral Health Education, a component of

the Tongwei Health Education (extended project) July 2009 - July 2012

– Tianzhu ICT Training for Farmers (extended project) May 2009 - May 2012

Tongwei Oral Health Education

Oral Health Education Project Goals for Tongwei County, Gansu

• Promote healthcare awareness• Deliver basic healthcare knowledge to– the school students– the local community

• Promote knowledge and services through the Tongwei public and school library system supported by Evergreen.

Tongwei Oral Health Education Project Partners and their Roles

• Tongwei No. 1 High School– Promote health care awareness and knowledge among students

and community members– Administer student health examination

• Tongwei Public Library– Promote health care awareness and knowledge among

community members

• Colgate– Provide education materials and awards

• CERLS (China Evergreen Rural Library Services)– Provide funding and explore ways that school and community

can collaborate to promote community health care education

Oral Health Education Sample Activities

• Colgate – Donates 33,000 tooth cleaning kits for use in the

health education project– Provides training materials, including “Adventure to

the Tooth Kingdom” cartoon

• Tongwei County Public Library– includes oral healthcare in Healthcare Bimonthly

Digest– Shows cartoon and distributes tooth cleaning kits to

children

Oral Health Education Sample Activities (Continued)

• Tongwei No. 1 High School – includes oral health care in 10th grade health

education course and compiles and distributes Healthcare Brochure for High School Students and conducts oral healthcare training for 1500 10th grade students

– Trains teachers in Tongwei No. 1 High School, Wenmiao Street Elementary School, and Xiguan Elementary School, using Colgate training materials

Oral Health Education Sample Activities (Continued)

• Tongwei No. 1 High School and Tongwei Country Public Library – Conduct oral healthcare community survey– Provide two training sessions attended by 600

villagers from Zhonglin and Laowan Villages. As part of training sessions distribute Healthcare Brochure for High School Students and 1000 tooth cleaning kits.

Tianzhu ICT Training for Farmers

Farmers’ ICT Training Extended Project Goals for Tianzhu County, Gansu

• Provide training on information self-help to the local farmers

- how to acquire information needed by daily life and livelihood from the Internet

• Explore an effective model of performing ICT （ Information and Communication Technologies ） education in the rural areas

Farmers’ ICT Training Partners & their Roles

• Tianzhu No. 1 High School– Improve community service quality of Tianzhu

Library Network by improving service capacity of village school libraries

Farmers’ ICT Training Partners & their Roles (continued)

• Six Village Schools– Cooperate with Tianzhu No. 1 High School project

team for project activities, especially promotion of the project in recruiting trainees and school IT staff to serve as local volunteer trainers

– Promote information literacy skills of local farmers and help farmers acquire information needed for livelihoods and quality of daily life

– Serve as community training centers

Farmers’ ICT Training Partners & their Roles (continued)

• CERLS (China Evergreen Rural Library Services)– Organize management meetings (Skype calls) to

coordinate efforts of Tianzhu local teams and volunteer teams of academics & professionals (forum team, assessment team)

– Explore ways that school libraries in the same regional network can collaborate to expand ICT training to villages

Farmers’ ICT Training Sample Activities

• Tianzhu No. 1 High School– Design and produce teaching materials– Select, gather, and train community trainers– Instruct initial trainees who learn basic computer

and internet skills– Instruct trainees in learning how to use search

engines and agricultural portals– Teach trainees how to organize and train

community leaders

Farmers’ ICT Training Sample Activities

(Continued)• Six Village Schools– Provide training centers for community trainers to

organize local training

• CERLS (China Evergreen Rural Library Services)– Establish online Evergreen Information Forum to

provide information exchange and shared knowledge base for trainers

– Provide funding

The Future: Enhancing Present Evergreen Project Initiatives

• Online training for project management – Initiating– Planning– Implementing– Evaluating

• Outcomes evaluation – an approach focused on making a difference in community populations

Adapted Model from Institute of Museum and Library Services

http://www.shapingoutcomes.org/course/index.htm

What is Outcomes Based Planning and Evaluation?

• A systematic way to plan user-centered programs and to measure whether they have achieved their goals.

• Goes beyond documenting what you did and measures what difference you made in the life of your audience - how has your audience changed?

Self-paced Logical Planning Model

• Evergreen Shaping Outcomes Coursehttp://evergreeneducation.org/wikipub/tiki-

index.php

• Logical Planning Modelhttp://evergreeneducation.org/wikipub/tiki-

index.php?page=OBPE_logic_model

Major Sections in the Planning Model

• Project Purpose Statement• Audience Needs Assessment• Project Partners and Stakeholders• Project Elements

– Learning Objectives/ Service Outcomes– Activities– Inputs– Work Products

• Outcomes Evaluation• Budget and Division of Responsibilities Among

Partners

Evergreen Education Foundation Enhancing Educational Opportunities for Children in Rural China