Establishing Public and Community Libraries in Rural Africa: A New Movement with New Challenges
Channel: SJSU School of Information
Date: 2015-03-04

Podcast Links: 
http://amazon.sjsu.edu/slisPod/colloquia/sp15/collKevaneSP15.mp3
http://amazon.sjsu.edu/slisPod/colloquia/sp15/collKevaneSP15.mp4

Abstract:
A new social movement has emerged to establish and operate public and community libraries in Africa.  Challenges abound. For example, it is unclear how rural libraries without electricity should adapt to the fast-growing possibility of e-readers. Currently, low cost e-readers have more books stored on one device than many small rural libraries have on all of their bookshelves.  In addition, much of the funds and manpower for the promotion of libraries is coming from donors and international non-profit organizations. Can a reading culture be promoted effectively “from the outside”?  How long might it take for a local reading ecosystem to secure local public funding? These are some questions addressed in the context of experiences of Friends of African Village Libraries (www.favl.org).

Biography:
Professor Michael Kevane teaches courses on the Economics of Gender in Developing Countries, African Economic Development, and International Economics. He has published articles on the performance of rural institutions and markets in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Research Letters, Review of Development Economics, World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Africa. He is the author of Women and Development in Africa: How Gender Works (2nd edition 2014), and is also co-editor (with Endre Stiansen) of a book titled, Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and Sectoral Transformation in Islamic Africa.

He currently studies how access to books, libraries, and reading programs affect student performance, and he has published in the journals World Libraries, Libri and Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France. He has co-edited (with Alain Sissao and Félix Compaoré) a book, Promotion de la Lecture au Burkina Faso: Enjeux et Défis, and also authored the book Rural Community Libraries in Africa` (with Valeda Dent and Geoff Goodman). He also writes and gives talks on
various aspects of the political economy of Sudan and Burkina Faso.  Professor Kevane is fluent in Spanish and French, and is well-versed in Sudanese colloquial Arabic.  He is the founder and director of the non-profit organization Friends of African Village Libraries.