It's a Library in Mongolia! Don't Forget to Pack a Raincoat!

For a final project, to complete the Supercross08 journey, I was to meet with The Lotus Children's Centre to learn about their organization. However, the directions I was given to meet with them, took me to an abandoned building, decorated with a 'Lotus Children's Centre' sign.

I got off the bus and it was pouring rain! It wasn't so cold and the directions I had said the building was close. So I just went for it - there wasn't really any shelter anywhere anyway. I ended up soaking wet by the time I found the abandoned "Lotus Center". I found a way around the locked gates to the property but had no luck banging on the doors of the building. OK, it was obvious that it was abandoned, but by heck, someone was expecting me - I had good email contact with them. Surely there would be someone there! Not soon after I started pounding on one of the doors, an old man emerged halfway from his yurt, behind the school, and yelled something at me. I walked over to him and asked him if he knew were Ben Rodgers was, but he didn't understand anything. I told him I was looking for 'Lotus' and pointed to the building. He motioned to me, "No." His growling dogs were getting closer so I thought I'd make a strategic exit. I left, frustrated, while his dogs followed me to the gate, barking their mad heads off! I asked a few more people in the community about 'Lotus', pointing to the building and got the same response every time, 'No. No one home.'Dripping and pissed, I made my way back to the bus stop. However, all was not lost! My host, Begzsuren, happens to be working at the Ulaanbaatar Public Library on a major project at the moment.

Begs, head of the department for information processing as well as library automation and computerization, is working on a project for the library to make it the first of it's kind in all of Mongolia. The project is to open the public library to the public! Sounds simple. Traditionally, the way the library worked was you walked up to the counter and asked the librarian for a particular book. The librarian disappeared and, if you were lucky, they returned with that book for you to check out. Not anymore.

What Begs is creating, is a more Western style library with loads of books on shelves for the public to peruse through and check out if they like. The Ulaanbaatar Public Library's slogan is "Knowledge Bank" and beyond cataloging some 80,000 books to be shelved and accessible to the public by September 1st, Begs is also trying to create an atmosphere of interest in libraries."Can you imagine," he inquired, "if a radio interviewer asked, 'Where do you read books?' Maybe no citizen answers, 'In the library.' I want to change this." And so it was that we had a brainstorming session to create public participation in the local library.

Begs has been to quite a few countries on library training programs, including the United States, where he learned different methods and designs of public libraries. He's carefully calculated what his library is capable of. Already he has designated two large rooms to be reading rooms, one separated room to be a children's reading room, and another smaller room for family reading. But still, that doesn't necessarily mean that people will come to the library.He mentioned one technique that he picked up from an American library in which each month had a theme to it. In this technique, he could, for example, promote reading about the air quality in Mongolia. Not too bad of an idea, but there's not much incentive. I suggested an addition to his idea that mimicked my Environmental Discussion Group from Bulgaria. I suggested that he promote reading topics about air quality in Mongolia and then at the end of the month, invite some kind of professional to lead a discussion or make a presentation on the topic. Perhaps the governmental official in charge of the department of air quality or the environment would enjoy a chance to meet people and share some issues he finds important.

I also pitched the idea of having a weekly poetry reading, where different folks from the community could come, once a week, and read aloud the poems they've written. It would be a way to get the community more involved with the library. It would also inspire more citizens to become active members of their community. Begs liked the idea, but there are space issues. Unfortunately, they're not space issues that the likes of Captain Kirk can solve. Begs is more thinking that there isn't enough room for something like that. I tried to imply that a well designed schedule of the smaller rooms should rectify the concern over space - kids and family rooms during the afternoon, and one room set aside for an hour a week for poems! We'll see. With their September 1st opening date, and 80,000 books to categorize, events are likely to come a bit later.The last blockbuster I had to offer was to create a comfortable reading environment for potential readers. I remembered the concept from back home that Barnes and Noble uses in cahoots with Starbucks to get folks to come in and read. I explained that maybe a cafe, offering tea, coffee, water, or juice, would be an ideal environment to invite folks from the community to come in and read!

Begs remembered that he had seen a cafeteria in the U.S. and pondered the thought a while. I think he liked the idea, but again, there's lots of work to do at the moment. And that's the thing about development - it goes in steps. Just like the traditional Mongolian games he's been teaching me, Begs has the first few steps of the opening of this library well planned out and mastered!

There are three people I've met in my life that truly inspire me to be better than I think I can be, and Begs is one of these people. I know he'll succeed, because that's what he does. If not on the first time, he'll learn from each step and eventually conquer the mountain of development.