The most recent development from the book fair activities in 2011 was the introduction of the new “Moving Library” tour which was an integral part of Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF) 2011. This exciting and innovative program created by Redsea-online was the flag-ship event of the year, a weeklong tour around Somaliland with a bus carrying books and representatives from 9 regional Readers Clubs of regional readers clubs (Members of these clubs work throughout the year presenting books to local communities) visited all the major cities in the country. In every city a public speaking sessions and a “darandoorri” (reading together) was held. In addition sample books and lyrics composition, specifically commissioned for the moving library tour was distributed. The readers clubs and the other youth organizations used this opportunity to promote the books, and encourage participants and local citizens to embrace reading as a hobby. There was commitment from several local authorities where the Moving Library will visit this year, to establish a public library financed by the municipality.

The main aim of the moving library tour was to bring books to towns and cities and facilitate access to literature through local reading clubs. Furthermore, we sought to visit local authorities to pledge to establish local public libraries. The idea of the moving library is to ensure hard to reach people, particularly the youth in rural towns and villages can also have an opportunity to not only see variety of books for the first time, but also to build the grassroots of a society that craves a reading culture and desire accessibility to books. We wanted to instill the importance of literature, so that the locals can demand and follow up with their local government the pledge to create public, multi-purpose reading centers for their cities. In every city/town the moving library visited, we donated “a seeding” set of books to start with, and in return, the local authority signed a memorandum of understanding, binding them to the establishment of a local public library. We strongly believe that this task will improve the reading culture of Somaliland societies not only in Hargeysa area but also other regions of the country.

For further reading, read Zahra Jibril's diaries, of one 2011 participants

Contents published on: 2012-01-19 (5631 reads)
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