Searching for the Biblioburro

Looking for books tends to lead to more books; that has proven true over and over again.

Maria had heard about a book about the "Biblioburro", a traveling library on burro back. Searching on that word produced four results.

The one she had heard of was probably Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia, by Jeanette Winter. It gives a basic telling of how it started, and has a note on the man who actually has the two burros, Alfa and Beto.

It was not the first one we were able to locate. That was Waiting for the Biblioburro, by Monica Brown and Jim Parra. Written from the point of view of one of the children visited by the Biblioburro, the book focuses on her desire to give back, and create her own book telling the story.

Both of those were sweet and charming stories, but there is always more to any story.

The other book was My Librarian is a Camel: How Books are Brought to Children Around the World, by Margriet Ruurs. The Biblioburro was in there - which is why it came up in search results - but also there are camels and horses and vans and wheelbarrows and all sorts of ways of making sure that books get to places where people need them and might not be able to easily get them.

That was probably the most inspiring for me. Access to books inspiring creativity is close to my heart, but seeing so much creativity based on a passionate belief in the value of access to books was amazing.

It meant even more because I had been seeing so many attacks on libraries.

They were not openly vicious attacks. The first one was clothed as an argument for greater access: instead of libraries just give every kid some portable reading device and lots of access and then you don't need physical locations!

Of course, those who argue that technology is the answer for everything are generally not paying attention to the bias built into technology (possibly intentionally). Beyond that, they are discounting the value of librarians guiding users in their choices. Finding books at the right level to increase learning instead of discouraging it has some art to it. There are so many books out there, it is easy to get lost. I am a big fan of the tactile experience of books, but I am also a fan of the human factor, and it matters.

Of course that argument was focusing only on access for students, because who cares about adults? That might relate to the next thing I started seeing, a few months later. It was a complaint about homeless people around the library, and then wondering if there was some way to get around that, like maybe instead of libraries subscription book clubs... I guess because a cost will keep out the riff raff.

It is a beautiful thing that people without homes, or maybe currently without electricity or internet access, can go and check the internet or print their resume or have their children listen to a story or any of the myriad other things libraries do, as bastions of community and democracy.

Libraries have entertained my family with music, and saved us money, and opened so much learning. I have piles of books, yes, but they would be much higher piles if I had to buy everything I wanted to read. Electronics could eliminate some of that too, but I still like the tactile.

It always baffles me at first that anyone could be against libraries, but then I remember that people are horrible.

That leads to the fourth thing.

It was not a book, but a documentary, Biblioburro: The Donkey Library.

There were Alfa and Beto, and their owner, Luis Soriano, and there he was teaching during the week, and loading up the burros and taking them around on the weekends. It started out a little slow, with him talking to the donkeys to give exposition. It quickly became gripping, though, as it became clear that this was about more than literacy.

The literacy was a real issue, and it was good to see an adult literacy class too, but much of what Luis was doing was about dealing with trauma. Many of the children had seen family members killed and lost their homes in fighting. The children were writing essays and drawing pictures of their experiences, and then he was telling them to take those sad stories and put them behind them. I did wonder whether that was the best method - can you really put those things behind you - but he was giving them a way forward in the best way he knew how, and it was good that someone was trying.

It also became clear that it was dangerous. He had burros, but there were cars, and rivers to cross that sometimes had higher water, and at least once he was threatened by hostile men. At the end of the documentary it looked like those dangers were past, with him getting a government education position, but I recently read that he had a leg amputated after an accident with one of the burros. However, it also says that he remains dedicated to his work, and I believe that. If he were the type to have been discouraged he could never have done so much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioburro

I appreciate finding a good cause and then going with it. The world needs more of that.