A Rural Community Library in Africa: A Study of its Use and Users

Abstract

The Kitengesa Community Library is a small library built from the ground up near the rural village of Kitengesa, Uganda. The library, formally opened in 2002, currently has a collection of over 1,000 books, and a small staff who work with the community and local secondary school to provide access to books and other services to roughly 50 members of the community and over 300 school students. During the summer of 2004, researchers, both librarians from the Hunter College Libraries, traveled to Kitengesa to study the use and users of this library. The research focused on who in the community uses the library, how they use the library, an analysis of the collection, and the impact the library has had on the community. The methodology included several means for gathering data, including observation of library use, focus groups, individual interviews, and home visits, as well as examination of library circulation and membership information kept in a database. The findings consist of several implications for ongoing development of the library, including the importance of the library to local teachers, and the impact of the library on classroom activities and learning; differences in the reading habits of boys and girls who use the library and some possible reasons for those differences; and how the collection of reading materials in local languages and about local situations might be key in terms of community libraries and the development of a reading culture elsewhere in Africa.