That realization spurred Wendell into taking action. She quit her job and opened the World Library Partnership as a general support organization for people trying to start libraries around the world. From an office in her home in rural Bahama, North Carolina, where the walls display posters of African scenes and events, she oversees the various programs that have evolved since WLP's creation four years ago. First, she established a sister libraries program, similar to a sister cities program, connecting libraries worldwide through cultural exchange programs and offering new resources to poor libraries. The Carolina Friends School in Durham was paired with her library in Yikpa.
Today there are about a dozen such partnerships.
WLP provides it at cost in the United States. Two years ago, WLP launched its latest program, Inform the World, a librarian volunteer program, or, as Wendell likes to think of it, a mini-Peace Corps for librarians. Last year ten American librarians spent a month carrying out hands-on service projects at rural libraries in Zimbabwe. Before they depart, volunteers receive training in book donation, repair, cataloguing, and funding at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They're then off to Zimbabwe, where they are paired off and sent to rural areas.