Ekufundeni

The Mobile Bus

The original idea for using Mobile Libraries originated from the work performed in the early 1990’s by the Methodist Education Initiative (MEI) in distributing second hand books donated by a Japanese volunteer group (The Together with Africa and Asia Association- TAAA) to township schools.
Lack of library systems, space and librarian skills meant these books remained inaccessible to school children.

A mobile library with a librarian would give about 30 schools access to the entire stock of books therefore being a most cost effective and efficient way of addressing the problem.

A bus was sourced in Japan, the 1100 donated books were catalogued and covered by volunteers and a warehouse built on the premises of Daveyton Intermediate School. The pilot library started in June 1997 serving one school.

Today the bus visits 30 schools twice a term with teachers collecting books for their classes. Each book is issued to the teacher using an effective bar code scanning system and registered against the teacher’s membership number.
We encourage teachers to create well stocked reading corners giving children a variety of books and children the opportunity to take books home to share the experience with families.

The Influence
A teacher says, “I am one of the most fortunate educators to have (access to) this library. It’s made my job easy, I realised that if learners are exposed to reading it helps them to also perform in other learning areas. Each subject needs language so it’s imperative that these learners have libraries around and be exposed to reading."

A principal said, “Learners are now beginning to appreciate and have a real interest in reading. Without reading our learners cannot understand and education without the ability to learn is useless."

Sourcing of Books
We are grateful for the network of organisations that enable us to keep our library stock updated: Rotary Book Project, St Andrews School libraries, local publishers, however we rely on additional funding for books in the 11 official languages required.

Costs
Initial capital expenditure
Warehouse (300 000)
Computer and software equipment (20 000)
Mobile Library vehicle (Donation by TAAA)

Current costs
Salaries for driver and project manager (120 000) pa
Running costs (10- 15 000) pa

The St Andrews School For Girls Ubambiswano initiative funds most of the salary costs the rest being made up by individual contributors.

Books are issued to the teachers at 30 schools in the Daveyton and Etwatwa areas at the start of each school term. The same books are collected at the end of the term. The bus leaves the warehouse at about 8:15 and spends about an hour and a half at each of the 2 – 3 schools to return between 12 and 1pm.