Toy Theater is a great website for preschool and primary school students, free to anyone with internet access. Sadly, the site is only in English but many of the games and activities require few spoken directions. A peace corps volunteer teaching this age group who has computer/internet access, would be able to offer directions in the local language and the student would be able to perform most of the activities without knowing English. There are Math activities, memory games, Music, Art and puzzles. One of the matching games is matching butterfly wings. When a correct match is made, the butterfly flies away. Another activity teaches directions (North, South, East, West) by directing a ship to a treasure chest, without running into other ships.
This collection of early learning activities has many applications and many classroom or library uses. Toy Theater is a “theater of learning toys” limited only by the teacher or child’s imagination. Have fun with it–I did!

Espantapajaros in Spanish means scarecrow. Espantapajaros is also the name of a very useful website for peace corps volunteers working with preschoolers and literacy in Spanish speaking countries. This website, which comes from Bogota, Colombia provides:

• preschoolers with an opportunity to grow as readers,
• resources for parents to help their children discover the love of reading,
• a place for parents, teachers and librarians to reflect, study and talk about story themes and learning strategies.

This website is available only in Spanish and contains book recommendations for children’s literature along with many articles about learning and reading for preschoolers. For those who actually live in Bogota, Colombia, information about local workshops is also available.

For volunteers working in libraries with computers, this is another address to add to your list of useful library websites. Keep reading out loud to kids!

For those children’s libraries  lucky enough to have computers and internet access, here are several helpful websites.

• Story Place  is a children’s digital library with books and activities in English as well as in Spanish.
• Creative Kids at Home  provides a host of activities and craft projects. Unfortunately, the site is only in English but the craft ideas and activities could be used by volunteers and translated to the host country language.
• Colorin Colorado  is a bilingual site (English and Spanish) for English language learners. This website would also be helpful for literacy volunteers as well as for those volunteers who are teaching English.

Did you know…after reading a children’s story out loud in English, the reader often ends with “snip snap snout, this tale’s told out”.  In Spanish, the story teller would say “Colorin Colorado, este cuento se acabado”.  Hence the name for the last website.

If anyone reading this knows of other suitable websites for children’s libraries, please let me know by commenting on this blog.

Knowledge is free at the library.  Just bring your own container.  -unknown

The Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange (ICE) provides technical information to the Peace Corps community worldwide for all Peace Corps program areas and the information is available in print and electronic formats.  The Information Resource Center (IRC) at each post houses ICE materials and the IRC coordinator can order ICE materials by sending an email request to iceorders@peacecorps.gov.

Following is a sample of ICE materials useful for starting and managing libraries:

• Setting up and Running a School Library (ED204), available is print format,
• Sources of Donated Books. (RE003)  Peace Corps. 2008. 26 pp., available in print and electronic format,
• Sources of Free Periodicals and Data Bases (RE007), available in print and electronic format and
• Libraries for All!  How to start and run a Basic Library (RE035), available in print and electronic format, as well as on the UNESCO  website.   

Visit your IRC today!!!!

Books For Africa provides English book donations of all levels that could help start or enhance a PCV’s village library.  Books For Africa will ship about 22,000 English books in a 40 foot container but there are two major requirements:

• the recipient group needs to fundraise $9,500 for shipping charges.  Collaborating with other groups or volunteers to raise the shipping costs and share the books is an option that has worked well in the past.  That can be accomplished by posting the project on the Books For Africa website, then emailing the link to friends, family, civic and church groups in the U.S.  Examples of this are on the “Donate to a project” page on their website.
• an NGO who will be able receive the the container at port and transport the books.  The NGO should have financial and logistical capacity to clear the container.  Other charges occur upon receiving the shipment but an experienced NGO can keep those costs to a minimum.

Books For Africa wants to end the book famine in Africa so check out their website.  Any questions not answered on the website can be addressed to Carole Patrikakos at Carole@booksforafrica.org.

Lack of reading material, especially for children, is a serious problem in most developing countries. A great project for Peace Corps Volunteers is starting libraries in their sites. How does one go about finding resources for such a project?

• The first place to look may be the Information section (used to be call USIS) of the local US Embassy. In the Dominican Republic, The Franklin Center, a division of the US Embassy, provides several boxes of children’s books in Spanish to the Peace Corps Volunteers who are starting libraries in their sites. Check to see if the US Embassy in your country has something comparable.
• Darien Book Aid Plan Inc. is an organization in Darien, Connecticut which ships books around the world. Log on to their website and you will see they have a special category for how Peace Corps volunteers can request books. Most of their book are in English but they do have some in Spanish and French.
• Another source of books, in English and in Spanish, is WilBooks. Unfortunately, this company does not ship overseas. What some Volunteers have done in the past is have the books shipped to a US address (parents, friends etc.) and then have a friend ship the books from the US to the Volunteer. Shipping overseas can be tricky in some countries, but this is an option especially if you have someone from the states who plans to visit you; he/she can bring the books along with his/her luggage.
• Another source that has recently come to my attention is the African Library Project whose mission is to create small libraries in African schools and villages.

Hopefully this information will help start libraries. If you have any comments, questions or information about additional resources, please let me know.

“A library is the hospital of the mind.” (Anonymous)