Marx and Wild Pigs in Davanagere

We recently took a trip to the city of Davanagere to work on our survey project to assess the reading levels of Upper Kindergarten and grade school children. Davanagere is a place known for higher education, cotton and benne (butter) dosa. On the five and a half hour train ride there I devoured a book on Marx’s Capital written in an Indian context. It was certainly an experience reading about capitalism, imperialism, poverty and corruption in agriculture while passing through the fields of Karnataka. Thinking of political economy in the context of Marxian theory shed new light on Indian society and helped me answer the last remaining questions I had about inequality and distribution of wealth in India.

UKG Assessment

During our three days in Davanagere we were able to survey several schools. Unfortunately we were kindly turned away by many schools because March is the busiest month of the year for students and teachers because of preparations for upcoming exams. All of the school administrators were accommodating and encouraged us to complete the survey in June, which will be up to the people at Hippocampus to decide.

Wild Piglets

Davanagere is a very different place than Bangalore. Instead of the many stray dogs that live amongst the streets of Bangalore, Davanagere is full of wild pigs. Much like the dogs in Bangalore, the pigs of Davanagere are very intelligent and do not interfere with humans or get in the way of traffic. Wild pigs are more social than dogs and form family groups. At night they can often be found sleeping together in rows. I even saw some piglets that were smaller than my water bottle. India is the first place where I have seen animals like cows, dogs, goats, squirrels, birds and pigs grasp the concept of human automobile traffic, unlike pretty much every wild or domestic animal in North America or Europe. Yes, the pigs and dogs look both ways before crossing the street here.

The drivers of Danavagere are less likely to honk incessantly or drive through a crowd of people for no reason, which I greatly admired. Another oddity about Davanagere is the amount of people who are not accustomed to foreigners. Over the past three days in Davanagere I haven’t see a single other person of non-Indian descent. Groups of people would often stare and it was common to have groups of boys slow down or pretend to tie their shoelaces in close proximity to have a closer look at us. We were welcomed by a few restaurant owners and a few nice men our age asking where we were from, but overall we were viewed as an oddity in the town. I didn’t feel comfortable garnering so much attention, as I like to blend in. Walking around at night was much easier, being careful not to step on any sleeping pigs.

Literacy Levelling Test

The food in Davanagere is great and mainly consists of tiny south Indian restaurants that more resemble stalls. Eating benne dosa and puri masala every day is a treat, but I am looking forward to simpler fare such as a big bowl of salad or plate or rice. I have greatly enjoyed southern Indian cuisine and hope to find a few places that serve it in Canada. Unfortunately north Indian cuisine is over-abundant in Canada, but south Indian cuisine has very little presence. I prefer south Indian over north Indian food by far. Out of all of the Asian cuisines that are popular in Canada such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, north Indian and Thai, it’s odd that south Indian does not have a bigger footprint.

Hippocampus Davanagere

I also experienced my first time visiting a Hindu temple, which I greatly enjoyed. Jagadhish, the Hippocampus Davanagere manager, invited us to the temple to give a rupee offering, receive incense and holy water and walk around the sanctorum three times to achieve peace of mind. Ringing a bell to wake God up was also an option, but I passed on that. We also sat in on a kirtan where priests and temple goers sang religious songs.

It’s hard to believe that I only have two weeks left in India. There will be many things that I will miss such as the friendliness and hospitality of the locals, the countryside, and the great people I’ve met. No further comment on the traffic or lack of pedestrian rights.

More to come as we wrap up our time here.

Cheers,

Matt

Annual Day, Our New Project, and Taking the Bus to Rural India

Greetings from Alan in Bangalore City,

This week we continued our new marketing project, took part in an Annual Day celebration at a Hippocampus Kindergarten centre, and were invited to visit a friend’s small village.     

Our New Project

During the week, Matt and I continued to move forward with our new marketing project and have been travelling to many urban and rural schools.  In each school, we have three tasks to complete on behalf of Hippocampus: testing children’s reading and compression skills, conducting a basic educational assessment of kindergarten children, and administering a questionnaire to school librarians and administrators.  This information will help Hippocampus learn more about the state of libraries and reading in Indian schools today.  Our ultimate goal is to acquire data that will enable Hippocampus to provide better educational services and to help determine new ways to market Hippocampus to Indian schools. 

We’ve discovered this will be a challenging project.  In India, March is the time of year when students are busily preparing for state board exams.  Students are placed under pressure to do well, and some of the schools we contacted explained that they simply do not have the time for us to come in as their children need to study.  In other cases, some school administrators are unwilling to allow us to conduct the assessments because they are worried their school might acquire an unfavourable reputation if we discover the students are poor readers.  Matt and I were sitting in a school administrator’s office the other day, and we had a rough time convincing him the assessments would be kept confidential, would not be published, and would not impact his school’s reputation.  In all, it’s shaping up to be an exciting project and a fantastic opportunity to travel about India!

 

Annual Day in R.B. Halli

Last Saturday, we had the wonderful privilege to attend an Annual Day celebration at a small Hippocampus learning and kindergarten centre in rural India.  Hippocampus Learning Centre’s (HLC) is a for-profit social enterprise that operates low-cost kindergarten centres.  HLC is supported by a number of large venture capital firms.  Social enterprise is a booming field in India and the HLC was recently featured on the front page of a leading Indian newspaper: A low-cost pre-school chain offers hope to rural Karnataka families. 

Matt and I are working as interns with the Hippocampus Reading Foundation (HRF).  The HRF, which focuses on library development and children’s literacy, is a non-profit organization that is partnered with HLC.  HRF and HLC employees work together and are located in the same office.  Many of the people we work with on a daily basis are HLC employees. 

HLC operates about eighty affordable kindergarten centres in rural villages across the state.  Nearly 2000 children, many of whom are first generation learners, are enrolled.  Children learn to read and write English and Kannada (the local regional language here).  Children are also introduced to basic mathematics.  HLC promotes a holistic, engaging, and innovative teaching model that is full of fun and creative activities such as song, arts, crafts and physical activity.  Young children living in rural areas have few opportunities  to attend kindergarten.  As a result, many arrive at the first grade unprepared.  They often fall behind and drop out of the school system.  HLC aims to equip rural children for success by preparing them for first grade.  During my internship, I’ve have the opportunity to spend time in two HLC centres near Mandya.  It is clear that Hippocampus is doing great work by addressing rural education problems and is making a real difference in the lives of village children.       

Each year, every HLC centre holds a community event called Annual Day.  Annual Day is an opportunity for HLC children to share what they have learned over the past year with their local village community through dance, songs, and performances.  Annual day is also a powerful advertising technique as parents who have not yet enrolled their children are able to see what HLC children have learned and accomplished. 

We were invited to attend an Annual Day celebration in a small village, called R.B Halli, along with a group of several other Hippocampus employees.  We arrived to find a large covered stage set up in the centre of the village.  Politicians from the local village Panchayat were seated at the rear of the stage while the village’s entire population, about one hundred people, were eagerly seated in front of the stage.  We were treated like rock stars and immediately invited to sit near the stage.  Umesh, Hippocampus’s CEO and founder, was invited to sit on stage.  Children from R.B Halli’s local HLC performed for several hours late into the evening.  The children’s performances were absolutely wonderful. 

During the celebration, I wandered around the crowd and spoke with village children.  Many were eager to have their pictures taken, and many asked me, “Where is your village sir?”  I told them I was from a village in Canada half way around the world.  In the evening, the village Panchayat’s leader invited us to his house for tea and biscuits, and we had the opportunity to chat about village life and politics.  For dinner, a local teacher invited our group to her home for a delicious meal.  It was amazing to see how supportive and enthusiastic  the village was about their HLC centre. 

 

Taking the Bus to Rural India – We Survived

Mid-week our friend Venkatesh, a fellow Hippocampus employee, invited us to visit  his home village of Kaggalipura.  His village was conducting a Puja ceremony in honour of a village member that had recently passed away.  We travelled to the village by taking the city bus from Bangalore’s Banashankari bus station.  Taking the bus in India is quite the adventure, and it was a great experience to see how Indians really travel around the country.  Village roads in rural areas are in poor shape and often unpaved.  The bus bounced around like a 4×4 while speeding down narrow rural roads, but we survived, made it there alive, and both agree that the bus trip was a blast.

Village members held a delicious lunch feast with several courses of South Indian food.  I had some difficulty eating the meal with only my hands and had to ask for a spoon.  While many village members had a good laugh at me, it is surprisingly challenging to eat with your hands! 

After the lunch feast, Venkatesh introduced us to several family members, former school mates, prominent village members, and local politicians in the village Panchayat.  Everyone in the village was amazingly friendly, immediately welcoming, and delighted we were there.  We met a lot of very cool people and were even invited to a wedding later this month.  I look forward to attending.

Along with a group of his close friends, Venkatesh showed us around the village, the school, his brother’s house, and took us for a hike out into the country side.  We tried to find a wild elephant on our hike, but were unfortunately not successful. 

It was amazing to learn about village life, community, people, and politics in Kaggalipura.   As Kaggalipura is remote and far too dry for farming, there was little incentive for the state government to bring electricity, a paved road, or a daily bus to the village.  I learned that over the past ten years, village  members have successfully fought to bring these things to the village through community action, engagement, and petitions.  Kaggalipura now has electricity, a paved road, and a regularly scheduled bus.  While in the village, I was in awe of the strong community, togetherness, and connection that permeates Kaggalipura.  The village’s residents have such a passionate tie to their community.  The experience has been one of the highlights of my time in India.

   

 

Until next week. 

Cheers,

Alan Kilpatrick

Librarian Training, Frankfurt, and Kitsch Mandi

Greetings from Alan in Bangalore!

This past week, we attended an incredible two day librarian workshop, continued to develop a marketing project for Hippocampus, and had the opportunity to  visit a number of schools in Bangalore.

Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to attend a two day workshop for school librarians at the Hippocampus Children’s Library in Bangalore.  Taking place as a result of a three-way partnership between Hippocampus, the Goethe-Institut New Delhi, and the Frankfurt Public Library’s Schulbibliothekarische Arbeitsstelle Division (SBA), the workshop was hosted by two librarians from the SBA and attended by school librarians and teachers from Bangalore. 

In a fun and thought provoking environment, we learned extensively about Frankfurt’s school library system, the components required for a successful school library, the UNESCO school library manifesto, best practices for school libraries, and about a range of exciting library activities for children.  Giving Bangalore librarians the opportunity to learn about Frankfurt school libraries, Hippocampus, Goethe, and the SBA were interested in discovering whether the highly successful school library practices in Frankfurt could be adopted in Bangalore and used to improve the quality of school libraries here.

During the training, I was extremely interested in learning about the SBA.  The SBA, a division of the Frankfurt Public Library system is a central body responsible for primary school libraries in the city of Frankfurt.  The SBA employs six qualified librarians and ten administrative staff.  In all, they are responsible for about 80 school libraries in the city.  While, there are far fewer librarians than there are school libraries, the SBA has a “librarian on demand” service, where an SBA librarian will travel to a school if requested.  Bringing all school libraries in the city under the oversight of a central body, the SBA ensures the quality and success of each library.  Overall, I was impressed with the great library work SBA is doing in Frankfurt, would be excited to see a similar organization in Canada, and was encouraged to invite the SBA to come to Canada and speak about their work.  I was also excited to chat with one of the SBA librarians, Julia, who has a Graduate degree in Library and Information Science from a German university.  There are many differences between library education in Germany and Canada, and it was interesting to learn about the German LIS community.   

Creating and executing a marketing strategy for Hippocampus is the main focus for the internship.  While Hippocampus currently works with over 200 schools in Bangalore and has brought the Hippocampus library and reading program to nearly 50,000 government schools in Karnataka State through a successful partnership with the Karnataka government,  Hippocampus wants to reach out and bring its library and reading program to a greater number of schools in  village and rural areas.  However, many challenges exist which make this task difficult. 

In Indian schools, academic performance stressed.  Each year, Indian students are pressured to do well on standardized testing, which determines which post-secondary institutions they can attend and what fields they can study.  In this context, encouraging children to read for pleasure is not always valued because reading for pleasure is viewed as an unnecessary luxury that takes away from academic performance.  In rural areas, children are often the first members of their families to attend formal schooling.  As a result, parents, teachers, and school administrators in rural areas may be unable to conceptualize the importance of reading, literacy, and libraries for their children.  To them, libraries and reading for enjoyment may be foreign concepts that are unfamiliar and unconsidered.   

During an intense meeting at the end of last week, Umesh, Matt, and I posed as rural school administrators as Venkatesh attempted to sell our notional school Hippocampus’s library and reading program.  During his sales pitch, we bombarded Venkatesh with several challenging questions which forced him to justify the importance of libraries and define the academic value of reading for enjoyment.  As a result of this meeting, we have been busily preparing a comprehensive marketing presentation that can be shown to rural school administrators in order to convince them of the value of reading and Hippocampus’s services.  We aim to present it at a number of rural schools next week.

While enrollment in the Indian education system is extremely high, quality of education is cause for concern.  According to the ASER Centre, over 90% of children in Standard One are unable to read at their grade level and 60% of children aged 6 to 14 are unable to read a simple paragraph.  As a result, many children are not in a position to understand their assigned textbooks.  Poor reading and literacy skills significantly affect other subjects in school.  Unsurprisingly, arithmetic skills are declining in many major states in India.       

Through its library and reading program, Hippocampus ultimately aims to inspire children to read for enjoyment.  By encouraging children to read books that they want to read, carefully leveled and appropriate to their age and reading level, Hippocampus intends to increase language comprehension and literacy, develop a love of reading in children, and begin to bridge gaps that exist as a result of deficiencies in the education system.      

Mid-week, Ritrika, a new Hippocampus employee, and I had the opportunity to visit the AV Educational Society Public School.  AV Public School, a large private school, has a population of 1000 students in central Bangalore.  They have made a strong commitment to their students and promote a progressive education model that aims to help children grow into inquisitive, thinking, and socially responsible individuals.  We had the opportunity to meet the headmistresses, chat with the school librarian, Indira, and observe children reading in the library.  The school’s large library is a spacious, bustling, and colourful space.  It is clear the library has become an integral part of the school and a crucial part of the children’s education.  

In the library, children were busily completing a creative writing activity where they were asked to describe what they would change in the world if they had the power to change anything.  One young girl in Standard Four, very maturely, explained to the class that all she wanted to do was to be able to spread the power to change the world to other people.  From what I have observed in India’s education system, I am convinced that reading, literacy, and education are extremely influential in bringing about positive change in the world.           

We had an exciting week of social engagements as well.  Gaytri, Matt, and I were able to visit the Kitsch Mandi cultural festival in town.  Kitsch Mandi supports creative entrepreneurs and  ” aim to create a platform where art meets society in a casual yet inspiring environment.”  The poetry slam was top notch, and I am trying to get Hippocampus to agree to let me set up a Hippocampus Reading Foundation booth at the upcoming Kitsch Mandi festival in March.  

Gaytril, Shahd, and I attended  The Chamber of Laughs comedy show.  It featured three talented Bangalorian comedians who were performing in support of the One Billion Rising movement.  While I don’t totally understand the Indian sense of humor, it was a terrific show that was culturally enlightening.  Assuredly,  the comedians quickly picked me out of the crowd as I was one of the few foreigners sitting in the audience.  Free tickets to Asia’s largest air show, Aero India at Yelahanka Air force Station, gave me the pleasant opportunity to get out of Bangalore for half a day. 

I look forward to letting you know how next week goes!

Cheers,

Alan Kilpatrick

Week 3: the adventure continues!

Hello everyone!

We’ve had quite a busy week here in Bangalore, on both personal and professional levels.

Last Sunday, Amy and I took a walking tour of Bangalore’s Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Our guide, Vijay, was incredibly knowledgeable and a great storyteller. He told us tales of India’s history and Bangalore’s beginnings. He wove his stories into the garden: we learned something of South India’s economics, politics, and even its religions, all through Vijay’s knowledge of the trees of Lalbagh. It was a wonderful experience and a great way to learn about the city.

One thing we have discovered is that storytelling is big in India. Children especially love stories, and part of what we are doing here is encouraging literacy and a love of reading in young children by reading them stories. Ultimately, Amy and I are here to create and implement a read-aloud program for young children attending low-cost and government schools. Building on the work that Nariel began, we’ll create the program with the aim of teaching children some very basic English vocabulary through simple, fun activities that will accompany read-alouds.

I have to say I have never really thought of myself as a story-teller so much as a story-reader. However, I’m learning that it is a much more practical skill to be a story-teller. Story-reading requires simply reading a book. Story-telling requires making a book come alive, to surprise and delight an audience. For story-reading, one needs a book. For story-telling, one can use a book, and in our case, since we are trying to promote literacy, we will. But all one really need for story-telling is some imagination, an interesting plot, and the appropriate movements, gestures, voices, and intonations to bring it to life. And I suspect that in order to inspire these children to love reading, we’ll have to acquire the skills of storytelling. We’ll have to make reading come alive for them. I think we’re up to the challenge!

We spent last Saturday at the Hippocampus Experience Centre in Bangalore. This library, which as Jen and Nariel mentioned claims to be “more than just a library”, is, in fact, everything a children’s library should be. It’s well used. It provides kids access to things like Leap Frogs and iPads as well as computers and a multimedia room. And there are tons of activities happening all the time! In just one afternoon, while we visited, there was a Book Picnic, where an author read her book to the children; crafts; a cooking class; a science club meeting; and kids wandering (and sometimes running) through the library, picking up books, playing with toys, reading in beanbag chairs. It was great.

Although our work is primarily with the non-profit Hippocampus Reading Foundation, we have been made to feel most welcome by the staff at the Hippocampus library and are truly enjoying our time there. To my mind, the Hippocampus library is what every child in India should have access to someday; thus, in the broadest sense it’s the end goal of our work of encouraging literacy. Through literacy can come development and better opportunities. Through development and opportunities can come more amazing libraries like Hippocampus, libraries that every child in India and maybe the world can access. I know this sounds like a pipe dream, but HRF has already reached out to so many children here, it really seems possible. In their final message Jen and Nariel mentioned that libraries and librarianship in Bangalore show so much potential. Now I understand what they mean. Libraries here are bursting with possibilities, and you can see it when you look at Hippocampus.

Just today, Amy and I attended a training session with Shaifali. She is providing follow-up training for the staff at Makkala Jagriti Learning Centres in Bangalore (you can check out their website at http://www.makkalajagriti.org/learning_centers.html). The trainees are mostly paid staff and a few volunteers who run libraries as part of community centres, juvenile centres and government schools. Many of them have master’s degrees in social work. They already use most if not all aspects of the Hippocampus GROW BY Reading program in their libraries, but some staff are new and it’s been a while, so a refresher was in order. The training session was conducted in both Kannada and English, and I was surprised by how easily and how well this worked! Amy and I were able to go and observe how training for other programs is done, as we will have to provide training for our program later on in order to really bring our work here to life.

I can’t wait to see what next week will bring!

– Shawna 🙂

The End of A Chapter

The two of us in front of the queen’s summer house in Hampi

The time has come for us to leave Hippocampus, and soon, India. As such this blog post will be our attempt to summarize our experiences in the last three months as they relate to libraries in India.

Libraries in India are as multifaceted as their counterparts in North America. There are vibrant children’s libraries, dusty academic collections, small libraries hidden among community gardens, and institutional collections. We have visited public libraries, private libraries, school libraries and institutional libraries. We have spoken with librarians from all over southern India and have read documents by librarians from all over the country.

A collage of some of our literary experiences

Based on all these experiences we have noticed the following about libraries in India.

• They focus a great deal on education: Education is very important in Indian culture. It is understood to be essential for a prosperous future. Libraries, in India, often argue their value based on their use for educational purposes
• They focus a great deal on books: This does not mean that librarians are not aware of technology and do not use technology but the library is still culturally understood as a place to find books, and many libraries support this concept by having limited technological resources available.
• They vary a great deal depending on funding and management:  This of course, is similar to many other countries but still needs to be acknowledged. The mandate of the library and the resources available make a huge difference on how the library operates.
• They are often focused on English: Of all the libraries we saw, they contained mostly english language materials.  This could be due to the lack of other languages books available.
• They are places of great potential: Libraries are places that can offer so much. We have witnessed some great projects coming out of libraries and know that even more can be done. We hope that this will happen and libraries in India will play an even greater role in their communities. Currently some libraries, such as the Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom School library in Thiruvananthapuram offers online resources for the student and faculty they serve. The libraries run by Hippocampus for children are another great example of how a library can fill a gap.  These libraries offer shelves full of bright and fun picture books for children, and a wide range of activities to get children involved in reading.

These observations are, of course, not all of the things we have learned during our time in India. With time we will likely realize just how much we have seen and be able to apply our new discoveries to our understanding of library science in North America.

Thanks to all of our readers. Please be aware that we are only the first of several groups that will be working with Hippocampus from UWO. The next set of interns will also be keeping regular blog entries and we will provide a link to their page soon.

A rickshaw driving through Hampi

If you would like to stay in touch or have any questions for us, our contact details are provided below.

Jen: jennifer_k_ford@yahoo.ca / Twitter: @jenkford

Nariel: charis_clap@hotmail.com

The CIIL Library

As we’ve mentioned previously, Jen’s work has largely been focused on regional language children’s books.  She has contacted a few publishers and government departments in order to gain a better understanding of why there are so few books published in regional languages in India.  In our last post, we commented about three different libraries, one of which was the library for the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL).  Jen was very excited when she found out about this library, as the Institute seemed to be very concerned with Indian Languages.  The library is located in Mysore, so we visited the library while we were there a few weekends ago.

Some library science books at the CIIL library.

Before meeting the librarian of the library, we paid a visit to the stacks, where we found a lot of children’s books, many of which were in different languages.  They all looked a bit old and worn around the edges.  It was only until after we spoke to the librarian that we found out the purpose of these this collection.  The library does not directly serve children as part of a lending library.  Instead, these books are used to create vocabulary books for language learners.  It was a bit unfortunate to find this out, as Jen was hoping she had found a place where advocacy for regional language books was happening.  However, this helped her back her claim that there isn’t much being done about this issue.

The Institute itself seems to be more concerned with the preservation of regional languages, than with regional language publishing.  Recently the newspaper The Hindu published a story (“Just 4 People Keep a Language Alive”, July 18, 2012) about the 4 remaining speakers of an at-risk language.  The CIIL is recording this language so that it can be preserved.  This is obviously a great initiative, but it leaves us wondering why so little is being done to prevent languages from getting to this point.

– Jen & Nariel

Finding our way out of, and into, another maze

One of the crowded side street off of Commercial street.

In a previous entry  Bangalore’s Mobile Libraries and Finding Our Way in the Maze we discussed how hard it can be to find buildings and addresses. At times it seems that the streets have grown faster than the necessary organizational info-structure, such as set addresses. Perhaps it is the fact that locations in the physical world do not conform culturally to maps. Adding to this confusion are recent changes to the city. During a walking tour of the downtown area we learned that many of the streets have been renamed but nobody uses the new names. People use landmarks as a way to get around rather than a structured form of lines and grids. It seems that the online world in India is just as confusing to navigate as the physical one. However in the online world streets become ‘blocked’ or connections simply disappear.

We admit that searching the internet can be a daunting task even when you are looking for well document resources. Full text is not always searchable and useful pages are sometimes only findable through one seemingly hidden access point. However, we have found that the local websites take this to another level. Much of Jen’s work involves searching the local government websites for resources relating to the publishing industry. Some of the issues she is facing are dead links, too much information that is out of date or not properly managed, or a lack of information about various reports or departments within the Ministry.

There are many components that make a website well-designed.  Jen’s frustrations come primarily from a lack of findability and usability.  However, many websites also do not conform to accessibility standards.  The Indian Government does have some guidelines in place, which appear to be focused on accessibility.  They do briefly mention managing content and some elements of findability, however these are very brief statements.  They have a list of websites that are compliant to their guidelines, one of which is the Ministry of Human Resource Development website.  Jen has been having a lot of trouble finding things on this website. It is nice to see that the Government does have a set of guidelines, although it is unclear how far they have been implemented.

One of many broken links

“A brief survey of some 1500 of these websites revealed that barely one per cent of these meet the requirements of the above guidelines. Many of them are not up-to-date and some don’t even reveal their government identity that could actually make users think of authentication” (Chakravarthula, 17/10/2011).

One possible explanation is that people here may simply not rely on the internet as prevalently as they do physical resources. The National Survey of Youth Reading indicates that most youth in India still use print resources rather than online tools or books. This tendency has shown up in other experiences as well. We have often been directed to talk to someone in person or via phone rather than through e-mail. This does not mean that people do not know how to use e-mail but rather that work progresses more smoothly, or at a better pace when carried out through face to face, or voice to voice contact.

While technology is prevalent here and many people have smart phones and other resources, it is also nice to see that value is given to the physical interaction. However, as library students, we find ourselves longing for organized, searchable, websites.

Now back to the searching.

– Jen & Nariel

Conclusion of the Conference Period, and the Halfway Mark

It seems that we have been going through a period of conferences, and that period has, possibly, come to an end. It ended with a bang. The FIMS department held the first student run conference last weekend and we were fortunate enough to present on our time here in India. As we could not be there in person we prepared a PowerPoint presentation with embedded audio files for each slide. We sent this file to Nara Petchsy who was kind enough to moderate for us. She introduced us, ran the PowerPoint presentation, with the audio, and then helped us arrange a Skype call after the presentation so that we could answer any questions in person. The presentation went well from our end. Our internet, somehow, magically worked long enough to permit a video Skype call, and we had a variety of interesting questions and comments from the audience. Overall we have heard good reviews about the conference, and want to congratulate all involved. A big thank you to Nara for the extra effort needed to make this work. We would also like to thank Sarah Felkar and the organizing committee for putting us in the morning so that due to the time difference we were still presenting at a reasonable hour, and Jacqueline Kreller, for putting up with our multiple changes to the abstract and title. Great job, everyone.

The conference was interesting in another way. We have now attended two conferences in India. One was academic in nature, and had authors present papers on the subject of libraries. The other conference showcased different vendors with products or services to support mid-level private schools. In terms of format the FIMS conference resembled the vendor-led conference we attended. In terms of content, the FIMS conference was more like the first. Had we been presenting at the KALA conference we would have had less time to present and would have had to have a paper already written and ready for publication. This would have been a great experience but being half way around the world would not have been worth our attending, to give a 10 minute summery of a paper. What we did, was in some ways,  only logical due to the format of western conferences. Having the time we had to present, one hour, and the freedom we had with the content, was in part due to the nature of the conference, as a student run event.  It was also partly due to the culture, one in which long sessions, presenter structured content, and multiple streams at a conference are considered the norm. Upon reflection, this period of conferences has been an extremely enlightening process.

On another note we have hit the half way mark in our time here. We have five weeks left of our internship, and six weeks left in India. As such we thought it was time for a little fun reflection. Below are three of the top moments in our time here.

A street in Koramangala.

1. Our arrival, we were exhausted after our long flight, but extremely excited to be here. We could not quite believe we were half way around the world.
   

   In our first auto rickshaw.

2. Our first auto rickshaw ride. This was such a new experience, and due to warnings we had received, and the crazy traffic we were still not used to it felt a little dangerous but still safe enough to risk.

   

3. Climbing to the top of the hill at Shravanabelagola. Having mastered the hundreds of steps in bare feet, and glimpsing the beautiful view was incredible. We are still glad we chose to do this in the morning as the heat was not yet at full blast and the breaze was quite refreshing.

There are plenty of other great moments, like eating fresh Jamun, trying on sarees, watching geckos on walls, and we expect there to be plenty more.

– Jen & Nariel

Learning More about the Organization

This week we had several opportunities to learn more about NGO and literacy work within Hippocampus.

Hippocampus sign outside a Learning Centre

Last Saturday we had the chance to help man a vendor booth at a conference for school leaders. There were many questions and a lot of other interesting vendors to explore. One of the other vendors, the Teacher’s Foundation, presented a short film that highlighted a few different teaching styles. We found it extremely useful to really get a chance to see how some classrooms operate. Not only that, but it was interesting to watch how vendor relations works from the point of view of the vendor; building on past experiences, taking the time to answer all the questions a potential client might have and trying to explain the value of your product within a very short period of time.

Upon returning to the office Monday we stumbled, almost literally, across a huge mound of books in our office. We later learned that these were donated books. The organization often receives books from a variety of sources, and we spent part of Tuesday and Wednesday sorting out these books. Over half of these items were not of use.  This is an example of how organizations such as Hippocampus have to balance the good intentions of donors with the needs of their libraries.  Fortunately we are able to sell the other books and use the funds to support schools who cannot afford to buy books. Libraries in Canada face a similar problem. Not all books that are donated to a library meet the library’s mandate or collection development policy. The question is how do we accept help when it is genuinely offered and how do we turn away unneeded or unwanted help while still maintaining a good relationship with our patrons?

The third event that has taught us about how Hippocampus runs was a visit to the rural Hippocampus Learning Centres. These sites are preschools and tutoring centres that cater to lower income families. It was interesting to watch the children learn not by simple repetition but through activities, like drawing body parts to represent senses. The trip was made even more interesting by the fact that we were traveling with Mr Pankaj Jain, chairman of Education Support Organization out of Ahmedabad. Mr Jain works to help education children in the slums of Ahmedabad and he had a very pragmatic approach to structuring programs. Simply put, you do what works. We enjoyed discussing different education approaches with him and appreciated his interest in local historical sites, as it took us to some interesting monuments.

In summary, we learned a great deal this week. We saw how vendors in India, like those in Canada, work with their clients to find solutions. We saw how donations, while useful, can sometimes add layers of additional work behind the scenes. We also got to visit rural education centres and learn a bit more about different approaches to educating children and how libraries can play a part in that education.

On a side note we will be using skype this weekend to speak at the FIMS Student Conference 2012 about our experiences and research here in Bangalore. Hope to ‘see’ some of our readers there.

– Jen & Nariel

Library Conference, Take Two.

Although it has been a week since we attended the Karnataka State Library Association (KALA) conference in Shravanabelagola, we still find ourselves contemplating our experiences at the conference. In this post we will reflect on the opening ceremonies. This event was referred to as the inaugural ceremonies and was correctly identified by one of the attendees as ‘a function.’ The event was held in an outdoor auditorium so that people from the community could attend, and was a formal event, with most women wearing very nice sarees and the men wearing dress pants and shirts, or full suits.

The event began with a procession from the temple to the stage of the auditorium, which was led by the head priest of the local Jain temple. He was followed by drummers and members of the KALA executive committee.  The priest, who was instrumental in hosting the conference, and special guests, most of whom were KALA executive members, sat on the main stage and all made speeches about the event and libraries in general. After their speech each of the guests were honored with public gift giving done in ceremony.

Siteseeing in Shravanabelagola.

The conference theme was “Libraries and Development: Present and Future.”  It was interesting to see how the future of libraries in India is perceived in comparison to libraries in Canada.  The speeches often discussed the need for libraries in India to demonstrate their worth so that they can maintain funding, and, preferably, get more funding and support from the government and community.  While proving ones worth is also a popular topic in Canada the focus of how this should be done differs. The speakers often focused on how libraries serve as places to be educated.  Educating people would in turn allow them to better contribute to the economy as valued workers. The purpose of the library as a source of education is also mentioned in Canada, however, in Canada the education is often hidden within other activities. Libraries in Canada promote collections that contain fiction and escape literature, as this promotes reading and provides tools that can be used within education. Another feature often mentioned within Canadian libraries is common space. When the library acts as common space discussion occurs that may not be overtly education, but is important, as it can expand the minds of those involved. At the KALA conference there is less of a question about what is the library’s purpose. The library in India is clearly a place for education, and the idea of libraries being used for non-educational purposes was rarely mentioned throughout the entire conference.

Another idea mentioned was that libraries need to become more involved in community knowledge centres.  The emphasis was again on education in that libraries must provide important information to the community as part of a knowledge centre.  For example, libraries could provide communities with agricultural information.  In poorer communities, libraries could serve as a means to gain a “free” education through gaining knowledge from reading books.

Dance performance at end of opening ceremonies.

After all the discussion on education the conference members made sure to present awards to India librarians who had performed some great service, and the conference ended with practical announcements, all of which were in Kannada, and so they were not understood by us. We then followed the crowd to a nearby building for a tea break and then returned to the stadium for a locally performed theatrical dance performance, followed by dinner late into the evening.

As previously mentioned the conference was a great experience, more so for the features that distinguished it from our past experiences. The opening ceremonies highlighted some of these differences, and we were very glad to have been able to be take part.

– Jen & Nariel