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
• Gansu 甘肃
• Shaanxi 陕西
• Jiangsu 江苏
• Beijing 北京
• Guizhou 贵州
• Yunnan 云南
• Shanxi 山西
(3)
(5)
(3)
(2)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(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 Course
http://evergreeneducation.org/wikipub/tikiindex.php
• Logical Planning Model
http://evergreeneducation.org/wikipub/tikiindex.php?page=OBPE_logic_model
Major Sections in the Planning Model
•
•
•
•
Project Purpose Statement
Audience Needs Assessment
Project Partners and Stakeholders
Project Elements
–
–
–
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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